HERBAL BEAUTY

    We made four batches of soap yesterday.  Lavender, Lemon Fresh, Invigorater, and Honey Almond.  When I started making soap I used a spoon to measure out my raw oils, now I use a small shovel!  Here is a picture of John measuring out some coconut oil for a large batch of soap.  We are going to have so many new blends of soap at the Farmers' Market this year.  I am so excited.  It looks like there might be a lot of early produce too!
    Here is another picture of John putting on the "looptie doos" as we call them.  If the soap is at just the right consistency then we can get those really great, extra loopy looptie doos.  I don't know why we started calling them that but it stuck.  A lot of people have asked us how we do it and it's really not that exciting... we just use a spoon;)
   

 

    It has been a very early spring and it is totally throwing me off. Our rose bushes and raspberry bushes are already growing leaves, and our chives are popping up! It's very exciting.  I recently got out some dried herbs from last year and Rebecca, my three year old daughter, was helping me pull flowers and leaves off of the stems so that I can experiment with potpourri making.  Right now our yard is a complete disaster.  When we moved in over 60% of our backyard was concrete.  We just had that removed so now 60% of our back yard is mud!!  But we planted grass and hopefully it will be a yard again very soon.  I would love to plant the whole thing with herbs and flowers, but we will leave a little bit of room for grass!
    My first potpourri attempt was a batch of lemon balm leaves, lavender flowers and leaves, bachelor button flowers for color, calendula petals for color, and rose petals. I used lavender and lemon essential oils to scent with a fixative that is used in bath salts. It's not the right fixative for potpourri, it was just an experiment. It smells fresh like summer!  I'm waiting for my orris root to arrive so that I can make a real batch and use it as my fixative!