Seed Saving and Printable Seed Packet

All of ye know I like to recall the olde lore and use it in my life today. Much of the lore I know pertains to plants and planting.

I like to gather seeds and save them for next year. Keep seeds dry and safe in a gnaw-proof container in a dark, cool place during the winter months, unless you are growing a seed that likes to remain dormant, such as Texas Mountain Laurel. If you have such seeds, I suggest placing them on an old washcloth or pie plate with some leaves in it, and letting them ride out the winter on your porch or patio, or next to the trunk of an evergreen. 

In the spring, always plant during a waxing moon, unless you are growing something that develops underground, such as peanuts, beets, radishes, or carrots. Plant those during the waning phase.  

Because of hybridizing and cross-pollination, sometimes the seeds you gather won't be true to the parent plant. If you save zinnia seeds, you'll grow zinnias, but it might not be the same size, shade, or petal shape as the original. Some plants easily pollinate with other like kinds but some don't. In my Texas Mountain Laurel example, with no other laurels around usually, you are going to get seeds that are true to the parent, having been fertilized by another Mountain Laurel. But corn, many flowers, and many vegetables will not be true. It can be fun to see what comes up, however! And, it can be a huge disappointment.

Here are two links, one to a generic printable seed envelope, and another one just for pumpkins, since many a pumpkin is destined to be a Jack o'Lantern soon. Insofar as the pumpkins go, you may end up with the seed being "true," especially if the farmer who grew your Jack O'Lantern had only one type of pumpkin and there were no others pumpkins or squash being grown within half a mile or so, or you might end up with an interesting cross -- or in the case of undesirable results, a double-cross, so to speak.

Click the LINKS to save. Google reduces the size of images in blogs, and if you simply save the image, it will not print correctly.

Pumpkin Printable Seed Packet  

Plain Printable Seed Packet

Tomorrow, the news about whether it will be a hard or a mild winter, according to the signs and the signs this year are very strange. Of course: It's 2020.

    Kind regards,

    Olde Dame Holly Rose

Fall Fun

 This week marked the beginning of fall. Unusually for this area of the Southwestern desert, cooler temps arrived, too. It's time to realize that Hallowe'en is on the horizon! Are you getting ready? Will your locale allow trick-or-treat during these strange COVID-19 times?

I've already started decorating. I have two wonderful 4-foot-high "Pumpkin Men" in the front courtyard, standing sentinel on either side of the gate. I need to dig the candy corn and purple lights out soon. Inside, the mantel is ready and the pie safe and freestanding primitive cabinets and china cabinets are decorated. This year, less is more for me. I had to downsize dramatically during the last year, moving from Texas to New Mexico. I could bring very little, but it is enough.

To help YOU get ready for a prim and rustic fall, I'm posting this free printable banner that reads "AUTUMN." It takes only two pieces of cardstock to make. I hope you enjoy it. Remember, even if you have no printer at home, you can put the file on a thumb drive and take to an office supply store for printing, or even have it printed off remotely at most Walmarts.

Click HERE (A-U-T) and HERE (U-M-N) for the two sheets. DON'T just click and save the images, because Google reduces them and they will not print correctly.

 

    Kind regards,

    Olde Dame Holly Rose

Rustic Printable Tags Just in Time for Fall

Here just in time for fall is a sheet of prim and simple hangtags with autumny motifs. I hope you enjoy them.

Use the LINK HERE to download your own copy for your own use. Print out, cut out, grubby them or scent them if you like, and decorate with them, or sell them after printing and prepping. Do not sell the digital file.

Don't click and save the image. Google makes it too small and it won't print correctly. It's just so you can see the tags. Use the link above!

I love autumn. It's my absolutely favorite time of the year!

Free Witch's Boot Pattern

Halloo Prim Friends. Today we have a free "Witch's Boot" design I created many and many a moon ago. It can be used as a pattern for sewing, or for painting on a rustic sign, perhaps. I used to make these from muslin, stuff them very hard with cotton, and then paint with acrylics, sand, and grubby them up. Sometimes I would leave the top open, and stick drieds and artificial bittersweet down into the boot, like a vase.

 

Click HERE to get the pattern.

Crafts are seeing quite a resurgence due to COVID-19. And I think that can only be a good thing! 

This design should print out on a piece of letter-sized paper. You can always drop by an Office Depot or Staples and get them to print it off there, too, especially if you want to enlarge or reduce it. Just put it on a thumb drive and take it with you to the store. I do believe you can do it all online now, too! Even have it printed off at Walmart!

Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you enjoy!

Remember, click the LINK above to download. The image is just for reference -- it will not print out correctly.

    Kind regards,

    Olde Dame Hollyhock

 

Welcome! And Some Free Printable Primitive Pantry Tags

Many years back, I ran a popular blog that featured chit-chat, old-time lore, homespun crafts, obscure recipes, and most of all, graphic designs, both for printing and for decorating blogs, which were very popular at that time, before the rise of Facebook.

Downsized by COVID, I am restarting a blog. Oh, I don't mind if blogs are relics of the past; I love the past. I don't see the past through rose-colored glasses, but I find it enchanting, interesting, terrifying, and worthy of attention. While I don't spend all my time noodling about "things that were and are no longer," I do try to draw ideas from "then," to incorporate into the "now."

I picked up my needle again after almost 40 years, and am enjoying rustic cross stitching and old-time freehand embroidery. I just start stitching away to make my designs, and will be offering my cross stitch designs in the future. For me, it has to be fun to stitch, or it starts to be tiresome. I think that's why I love rustic, primitive designs: There's something very wild, free, and vital about primitive work!

I hope to post each weekday, as I did before, and I hope you'll join me here. Each week I post a free printable. I enjoy making them, and I hope you will enjoy them, too. And to be totally transparent, I hope you will stop by my Etsy Shoppe "MerryNeedle" or my selling page and see if anything strikes your fancy. I miss many things about work; I enjoyed working, but most of all, I miss that it allowed me to contribute to animal rescues (my passion). I hope to earn enough from my little venture to be able to donate to the rescues who do so much for our animal companions.

To SAVE a printable, CLICK on the LINK below. This free printable is provided in PNG format.

Here's this week's printable, some general pantry tags.

Don't save the image below. It's just a small version to show you what the tags look like. Use the links or your tags won't print correctly.

 

    Kind regards,

    Olde Dame Hollyhock

 

Click HERE for PNG version of the free Pantry Printable Tags

 

Drop by my Etsy shoppe, MerryNeedle, for kits, patterns, and printables!