Loving lavender...

Image from Limbo Poet via flickr

Image from peteinterpol via flickr

Lavender just may be the perfect plant - beautiful, fragrant, useful. One of my dreams is to run through a field of lavender on a French hillside - and then lay down and take a nap after a lunch of good bread, cheese and a glass of wine. Doesn't that sound like a beautiful way to spend an afternoon?

I love the scent of lavender - it is very calming to me. Good candles, lavender-filled sachets and quality lavender soap/bath products are wonderful ways to get the healing benefits of this herb - not to mention they are wonderful little indulgences. :)

My current crop of lavender indulgences.

I thought I'd share a favorite recipe of mine - for a foot soak. Soak your tootsies in this and they'll thank you. This makes a great gift, too. Just put it in a pretty little bottle, tie a ribbon around it, add a soft little towel and poof! - a beautiful little present.

Lavender Foot Bath

Makes two, 1-pint bottles

3 to 5 fragrant fresh roses

10 fresh rosemary sprigs

10 fresh lavender sprigs

10 to 15 drops lavender essential oil

2 pounds Epsom salts

Carefully remove the rose petals from their stems, and the rosemary leaves and lavender blossoms from their sprigs. Place Epsom salts in nonmetallic bowl. Top with rose petals, rosemary and lavender. Drip oil over the rose petals, salts and herbs. Using a spoon (not wooden - it will absorb the oil), carefully mix together ingredients until well blended. Pour salts into glass bottles and seal with

tight-fitting lid or stopper.

You can vary the ingredients if you like - you can omit the rosemary and add more lavender, or vice versa. This also works great with mint and peppermint essential oil, if that's more to your liking. If you're wondering, I found this recipe about 10 years ago in Homemade Treats, one of those fabulous card collections you could buy through the mail. I have adapted the recipe many times to whatever I felt like that moment or had on hand, and it always came out great. Just stick to the basic amounts of herbs, salts and oil and you'll be good.

In addition to bringing a little added serenity to the world, did you know lavender is edible, too? There are quite a few lavender recipes out there. I've never tried one, but the cupcake below is tempting me. Hmmm... maybe something for the weekend?

Have a lovely one, all!

Image from norwichnuts via flickr. To get the recipe, click on the name of the photographer.