blooming herbs

Grey mornings and blue evenings spent on the porch by the flowering and fragrant herb garden.

taking shape

It's really starting to look like the real thing. We spent hours yesterday planting warm season crops and there are still some to go. This year, our first, we decided to just go wild. Everything that has been in is looking very healthy and growing great. The soil may not be pretty or easy to work with, but there is lots of life in it. The garden has already let us know that we're not shaping it, it's shaping us.

fulfill

As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 
 You will go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
    will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
    will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
    and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
    for an everlasting sign,
    that will endure forever.”

ISAIAH 55: 10 - 13

3 ingredient cocoa butter lotion bars

I love making as many of my own hygiene and skin products as possible. It cuts down on waste, cost and is truly the most nourishing and healthiest choice for your body. For these bars I used madeleine tins as the mold.

3 ingredient cocoa butter lotion bars:
1 part beeswax
1 part cocoa butter
1 part oil (oils from fruit seeds are my favorite
such as apricot kernel, grapeseed and sunflower)

I used about 3 ounces of each.

double boiler
cup with pouring spout
mold
spoon
scale

I weighed my ingredients out on a digital scale and put the beeswax in a double boiler to melt first since it takes the longest. Also cocoa butter can become grainy if heated too high. When the beeswax was almost all liquid I added in the butter and oil (I used sunflower seed oil that I infused with calendula and Roman chamomile from my garden.) Once it is all melted and combined I test the texture by taking a spoon, getting some liquid in it and putting it the freezer to harden. I'll add a little more of this or that and continue testing (keeping the temperature on the stove on low) until it's good or maybe I'll add nothing at all because it's already perfect (ha!)

I then filled my mold (9 ounces of liquid made six bars) and put it in the freezer. A little trick I use is to have a cup with a pouring spout sitting with boiling water in it, when it's time to transfer the liquid I pour out the water and pour the liquid into the warmed cup, this helps to keep it from hardening then pour it into the molds. I wait until it's quite frozen because it's easier to take out the bars that way (same with candles.)

Let me know if you try this recipe out and how you liked it. I'm finding them very indulgent. And that chocolate smell is nearly as satisfying as having a bite!

tillandsia organic hanging pouch

I bought a small air plant a few months ago. It's been wondering around my room without a permanent spot since then.

Until last Sunday when I knit up one of these pouches out my stash of organic cotton yarn. I went to the nursery this week and bought two more tillandsia's and made two more hanging pouches to share with you in Hey Freddie. I am thrilled with them! Each pouch is specifically made for each individual plant, for fit and to highlight it's unique structure.

A simple way to add fresh green life to your rooms in minimalistic and handmade style. Air plants are well suited for indoor life because they don't need direct sunlight and even do well I've heard under fluorescent lighting.

1 & 2

a pair of orange socks

fairie bells

I made sure to get a fairy bell before I left. The wind chimes my Aunt Suzi makes are exactly like the fairies I constructed houses for with twigs, leaves and rocks in elementary school. She makes me feel rooted. Affinities between my family, childhood and using my hands arise through this work of art.

Aunt Suzi (who most call Mary) just opened an Etsy shop after years of selling in markets.

an evening at Aunt Suzi's

a morning at Aunt Suzi's

"from the complications of loving you
i think there is no end or return.
no answer, no coming out of it"

Mary Oliver