bee creative

Inspire Me Thursday - shrink

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."  Anais Nin 

I really liked this quote at this week's Inspire Me Thursday prompt.   Maybe because it's a good reminder for me. 

I also think it takes courage to toss something that you've spent hours working on into the washing machine and then to sit back and see what happens.

I started with this:

A hat that was too big and a square of wool that I had knit thinking I'd make a small bag out of it.

I ended up with this:

A basket?  The orange square didn't shrink at all.  I'll have to figure out something else for it....

Herbal lotions and potions

Been mixing up some goodies and drying herbs.  I've been interested in making my own body care products for a long time.  It's nice to find a variety of uses for things grown in the garden and I like knowing exactly what I'm putting on my skin.   

The shampoo is an herbal tisane made of rosemary, calandula, and lavender (all from the garden) blended with Dr. Bronners liquid baby soap. 

The rose and calandula oils were made by soaking the flower petals in almond oil for several weeks.  The  oils were used to make salves and cold cream. 

I used the rose oil for the oil in the cold cream recipe.  It smells divine.

The salves were made with some of the rose oil and the calandula oil.  This is the second or third time I've made salves.  They are wonderful!  I want to make more salves with herbs from the garden. 

There are a lot of sources for recipes online and at the library.  I like this one for the salve.