Infusing Lavender.

Well, I'm back from a fun weekend. This morning I went out to water our struggling peas and went out to check on my lavender. I have two types of lavender, but I don't know what either type is, really.
But this is the kind that is blooming. I have one bush of this type and three bushes of the other. I've got plenty of lavender through the summer. I usually just trim the bushes back and use the trimmings for kindling. This year, a big windstorm blew all of my kindling lavender around the yard. It's still everywhere. Just useless.

This year, I'm going to be infusing the essential oils!

First, I picked the blooms and put them in a bag. Next, I took a stone and sort of hammered the bag gently to release the natural oils. Then I put them in this cute mason jar.

I used avocado oil as my carrier oil. So the lavender blossoms will soak in the oil for 24 hours. Then tomorrow I will strain the oil and add more fresh lavender blossoms. I'll do this for 3 or 4 days. Then, I'll have lavender oil! Hooray!

I made my spa soap this morning. No pictures yet. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to scent the soap. So it'll be an unscented spa experience. Meh.

Ah! But I was also poking around the yard to see what other flowers might be good to infuse and I found tons of wild roses. They smell heavenly and they're cute.

Every single one of the petals was a perfect heart. Enjoy! - H

I swear I'll stop taking pictures of these now.

Lavender - These guys are pretty. The swirl is good and goes all the way through.

I know I've been doting on these two bars this week, but I've had a setback. So they've been getting all of the love. I tried to make a CPOP batch and failed.

CPOP is when you make the soap as usual, then put it in the oven for... er... I thought 2 hours. But now I'm not sure. I ruined it and now it's in my trash bin. Along with all of my hopes and dreams of shortening my cure time. *sigh*

So this morning I got back on my horse and made a batch of cocoa... and a batch of what I'm calling "Mr. Bumble's Oatmeal Soap." Mrs. Bumble (me) forgot to put milk and honey in... so instead of being Oatmeal, milk and honey... it's just oatmeal. It will still be good though. My mind must be somewhere else today.

The Morning After...

I took the the freezer paper off of the lavender this morning. It looks great. Now I put the molds somewhere *where I won't touch them* because I poke & prod until I'm fully dissatisfied. So they're hiding in a safe place.

Fun with scraps!

Happy Saturday!

At the the moment I have two sizes of soap. The round one here is about 3 oz and the square ones you've seen are between 5-6 oz.

Lavender - Yes. I cut a hole in this and hung it from a tree. It is so pretty and scented with Lavender Essential Oil. Made with all vegetable oils including Almond, Apricot Kernel, Avocado, Coconut and Olive Oils. Soap is pretty cool in that soap scraps, like what's left from the hole of that lady lavender there, can be used for other purposes. Nutty people like me can find the humor in soap. Like maybe... special talents... like, being able to balance soap on your chin.

I tell ya, those Yoga people can do some pretty impressive things. No? Not funny? Hm.


Scraps like these can be used. I can give bigger ones away as samples. Of course, I use them myself too. So "scraps" translates into "mine! mine!" sometimes. Other scraps like the cool pink ribboney ones in the photo can be put in soap bars. Pictures to come of results of that in a future blog, I'm sure.Some us though, just like to stick our faces in a cup of soap scraps and just take a big whiff.

Time to mow. See ya! - H