Monday, May 12, 2008

Did You Know? ~ Neighborhood RR ~ New Floss

Did you know that coffee grounds are great for the garden??? As an avid coffee drinker, I discard pounds of these grounds, almost daily. :D After learning that they can be recycled in the garden I will start sprinkling them on my plants to see if there is a noticeable difference. While at my local Border Books today, I noticed that the Seattle Café was offering free bags of their used coffee grounds.


Here is a bit of information that I found at a website called Sustainable Enterprise:


Coffee and Gardening


Every day across America, Asia and Europe, millions of pots of coffee and tea are brewed, and the millions of pounds of wet grounds, filters and bags thrown in the trash. This is both wasteful and foolish.

Coffee by-products can be used in the garden and farm as follows:


  • Sprinkle used grounds around plants before rain or watering, for a slow-release nitrogen.
  • Add to compost piles to increase nitrogen balance. Coffee filters and tea bags break down rapidly during composting.
  • Dilute with water for a gentle, fast-acting liquid fertilizer. Use about a half-pound can of wet grounds in a five-gallon bucket of water; let sit outdoors to achieve ambient temperature.
  • Mix into soil for houseplants or new vegetable beds.
  • Encircle the base of the plant with a coffee and eggshell barrier to repel pests.
  • If you are into vermi-posting, feed a little bit to your worms.

Now for some stitching news....

I completed my block for Carol's Neighborhood Round Robin. I always seem to struggle to capture a good picture of the items that I stitch, this is the best that I could get. Maybe I should take a class in photography, then again maybe I should try reading the camera manual (oh, how I hate reading manuals!).



My addition to Carol's neighborhood


Carol's Neighborhood Round Robin



While reading Wanda's blog I learned of an online eBay store called Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe, which offers a great selection of hand-dyed floss. Each skein is a generous 20 yards and sells for $2.00. When you purchase four skeins, she includes a FREE skein to cover shipping it cannot get better than that! Well, I placed my order and within a few short days I received this:


Victorian Motto Hand-Dyed Floss


I am looking forward to using this floss, the colors are wonderful and the service was excellent! Last night I purchased even more, I can't wait until it arrives. Wanda learned of this store from Staci's blog so thanks to both of you for the post!

I guess it is time now to end this post so that I can Sit and Stitch for a while, I signed up for a few more exchanges so I must get a move on. Thanks for visiting and I do hope that you have a wonderful week.

Until next time...


14 comments:

Andrea said...

A lovely block to add to Carols RR.

mainely stitching said...

My Dad's sworn by coffee grounds for plants since I was a kid. :)

I'll be very curious to hear how you like stitching with these flosses. The colors are certainly lovely.

And that's a GREAT block on Carol's lovely NRR!

Michele said...

Wow, Carol's NRR is looking great! I love your square :)

hmmmm, I'm curious how you'll like the new threads too .. I haven't ordered any .. yet! lol

I sooo bad about recycling my coffee grounds .. and I've know about it for a long time! lol .. Starbucks also gives away their used grounds for free .. I need to be better :)

Paula C. said...

Your posts are always so informative! I am going to start using my coffee grounds in the garden. That's a beautiful round robin, too! Going to have to check out that floss... Now I have a list of things to do today, lol!

Nicki said...

Oh yes! My coffee grounds (and eggshells) go on the garden to try to keep off the slugs! The teabags go in the wormery for composting. Nothing gets wasted here :)

Love that block on the RR :)

Sharon said...

What a beautiful addition to Carol's neighborhood!

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

Your addition to Carol's Neighborhood is super!

Hurray for the coffee grounds ...I think I'll go brew a cuppa to try it out this evening!

Lovely threads...here I got to Ebay!

Carol said...

Thanks Marie! Your work on my neighborhood is stunning!

staci said...

You've stitched a really lovely block on Carol's RR.

Love your threads...I've really got to order some more ;)

Michelle said...

Your block is just beautiful!

We use coffee grounds for our roses and they LOVE IT!

Michelle

P.S. Guess what animal we have?? No, not deer, but mamma and baby raccoon!

Jennifer said...

My aunt swore coffee grounds and egg shells were the best thing for her lilac bush, and my grandmother always had a hole in her garden for coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable peelings, etc.

Julie said...

Oh My! I just saw your spring exchange piece and its beautiful! Lovely finish!

Liz said...

After seeing this post about the overdyed threads, I couldn't resist and bought some last week. I got it in 3 days too (from IL to CA)!

I bought some more this weekend after getting my hands on the first batch :^)

Liz

Einschies blog said...

Marie, have you already tried your new floss??? I like them, I already ordered several times and wow, paying more money for postage I always get more floss extra*smile*

Gaby