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.

Comments

  1. I love lavendar too :-) I will have to try this recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Okay, my bags are packed...when are we leaving for France?! Oh how I would love to do that! Thanks for the recipe, a lavender foot bath sounds divine.

    Have a fabulous weekend!

    Hugs,
    Karyn

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glorious Lavender...
    Such a relaxing scent~
    Lovely weekend to you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. love the lavender flavored cupcake, even though you gotta be very careful with quantities as lavender can be quite overpowering

    Jackie at PhamFatale.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh! I have the same DREAM! (except Brad Pitt is in it and he trips and falls on me!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. The lavender foot bath sounds divine - can't wait to try it. Leigh

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've loved lavender since I was a girl and would buy the little cone shaped wicker lavender sachets at local fairs and festivals. The foot bath sounds great.

    Another recipe I'd like to try is lavender shortbread - it would be lovely with tea.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, that lavender shortbread sounds yummy. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please note that if you don't see your comment immediately, it isn't lost. I have turned off the terrible word verification process, but to cut down on spam, I now have to approve all the comments.