I wanted to make something special for an event at the store and I wanted it to be simple.
Simple = sugar cookies + lavender = Special
I tried the recipe once to make sure they would be "good enough" for the art opening and they were.
I made them again to everyone's delight including the guest of honor, our artist of the month Trish Grantham, who has turned into our featured artist for the past 2-3 months. She keeps on painting and folks keep on buying it.
Yay! Supporting local art is a deeply political and spiritual act. Investing in art is Righteous.
We also really love that when she brings in new art, she stays and moves everything around so everything is all freshy-fresh.
It's been awhile, but here's the recipe:
Lavender Sugar Cookies
I make these entirely in the food processor
1 heaping tablespoon dried lavender in food processor
with 3/4 C organic brownish sugar or regular brown sugar,
add a stick of soft butter, mix well.
add an egg, 2 tsp vanilla extract.
blend,
then add 1.5 C flour, 1/2tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda. mix, not too much.
scoop dough by the teaspoon,
roll into little balls by hand,
roll in vanilla sugar (or any sugar)
don't flatten,
I know you'll want to, but don't.
Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes.
don't let them brown.
if you don't have a food processor, blend the lavender and sugar in a mortar & pestle or a coffee grinder, then proceed how you would with any other cookie recipe.
They will be fragrant and lovely and should stay soft for days.
They are so dreamy!
enjoy.
Showing posts with label lavender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lavender. Show all posts
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Protection Tea
I had a request from a friend to help her protect herself psychically at her job. I believe she was looking for a little spiritual guidance, and that is fine, I have loads of that, but I like things to be grounded and supported by earthly things, plants in particular.
So does she.
For awhile I was anticipating the work to prepare something amazing for her and as is usual for me as soon as I started to think about it, not in a sacred space anymore than my kitchen at dinnertime can be, I began reaching for herbs and putting them together and seeing the work in my mind's eye even as vegetables sat partially prepared on the cutting board.
But really, this is how magic is for me. Right there all the time. No bells and whistles needed or wanted. I bore easily and don't have time for all the geekery of your standard magical practice.
Here are the herbs I chose, the herbs that asked to be in the blend:
Elderberries - protective, connects to old ways/ancestors, forest mother, responsibility
So does she.
For awhile I was anticipating the work to prepare something amazing for her and as is usual for me as soon as I started to think about it, not in a sacred space anymore than my kitchen at dinnertime can be, I began reaching for herbs and putting them together and seeing the work in my mind's eye even as vegetables sat partially prepared on the cutting board.
But really, this is how magic is for me. Right there all the time. No bells and whistles needed or wanted. I bore easily and don't have time for all the geekery of your standard magical practice.
Here are the herbs I chose, the herbs that asked to be in the blend:
Elderberries - protective, connects to old ways/ancestors, forest mother, responsibility
Orange Peel - radiance of the sun, courage, power, remember the skin is protecting your flesh/family/that which is under the skin, AND the skin (peels) are super magic and can symbolize your work self
Chamomile - a sweet little delicate looking flower that is a complete powerhouse. looks can be deceiving. this plant is calming and soothing like a little badass grandma
Licorice Root - just a smidge to ground the blend and to sweeten it up.
I would stay away from plants the bees especially love (lavender, mints) at work unless you want to be swarmed.
I would use this tea for anyone who would like support with boundaries and protection.
Drink it with intention or not, the plants are magic whether or not you believe in them or not.
Of course, intention is it's own kind of medicine and can be a big helper in getting you what you want and need.
Best wishes and much love
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Potion Making - Purification
The Purification Potion can be used to purify, clear and bless a space or a person in offices, clinics, cars and homes.
Magical Herbs
Rosemary - clears the mind as well as spaces, reminds one to stay present
White Sage - clears and dispels negativity
Cedar - clears while making a channel back for positivity and healing to flow back in
Lavender - gently purifies with love and peace
Bay - protective and visionary
Sea Salt - helps remove any unwanted psychic residue
Magic Stone
Clear Quartz Crystal is used to amplify the purifying qualities of the herbs in this potion, yet all on it's own it's clarifying, balancing and powerfully protective.
Elemental Magic
I burn Copal while making this Potion. Copal is amazing. Although I do add a bit of copal to the potion for its energetics, to really activate its energy fire is needed. Copal is a tree resin, alike in many ways to amber resin. It's lovely and fragrant in its softer crystalline stage before it hardens like a rock. The scent is released when burned on charcoal. It is a strongly purifying resin that has been used as such for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Particularly Recommended for:
Those in service based jobs
Massage therapists
Counselors
Teachers
Retailers
Caregivers
Parents
When to use:
When you enter your space and it feels not quite right
Before a party to equalize the energy; to make it more welcoming
After a party or gathering to bring it back to a more neutral ground
When you arrive at work and don't feel ready to be there
After someone leaves your space and you feel uncomfortable
After you have had an argument or conflict
Before you go into meetings where you want to communicate clearly
When you are unsure of what to do next
Spray in doorways to bless those who walk through, including yourself
What else?
In some ways this is the simplest Potion, with the simplest ingredients that asks the least of me.
It's like rosemary itself; it's readily available, most everyone likes it, it goes with everything and it can do no harm.
Like the plant, the potion can be used in a million ways. When I'm not sure which potion is needed, I start here. If more is needed then the Purification Potion clears the way for me to know what is needed next.
Magical Herbs
Rosemary - clears the mind as well as spaces, reminds one to stay present
White Sage - clears and dispels negativity
Cedar - clears while making a channel back for positivity and healing to flow back in
Lavender - gently purifies with love and peace
Bay - protective and visionary
Sea Salt - helps remove any unwanted psychic residue
Magic Stone
Clear Quartz Crystal is used to amplify the purifying qualities of the herbs in this potion, yet all on it's own it's clarifying, balancing and powerfully protective.
Elemental Magic
I burn Copal while making this Potion. Copal is amazing. Although I do add a bit of copal to the potion for its energetics, to really activate its energy fire is needed. Copal is a tree resin, alike in many ways to amber resin. It's lovely and fragrant in its softer crystalline stage before it hardens like a rock. The scent is released when burned on charcoal. It is a strongly purifying resin that has been used as such for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Particularly Recommended for:
Those in service based jobs
Massage therapists
Counselors
Teachers
Retailers
Caregivers
Parents
When to use:
When you enter your space and it feels not quite right
Before a party to equalize the energy; to make it more welcoming
After a party or gathering to bring it back to a more neutral ground
When you arrive at work and don't feel ready to be there
After someone leaves your space and you feel uncomfortable
After you have had an argument or conflict
Before you go into meetings where you want to communicate clearly
When you are unsure of what to do next
Spray in doorways to bless those who walk through, including yourself
What else?
In some ways this is the simplest Potion, with the simplest ingredients that asks the least of me.
It's like rosemary itself; it's readily available, most everyone likes it, it goes with everything and it can do no harm.
Like the plant, the potion can be used in a million ways. When I'm not sure which potion is needed, I start here. If more is needed then the Purification Potion clears the way for me to know what is needed next.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Potion Making - Beginnings
I began with the Purification Potion about 8 years ago. It was part of a year long project that I embarked on where I focused on one plant and one goddess for each month for a year.
Rosemary was one of the monthly herbs.
During the month, I made different tea blends, studied historical uses, burned it, made hair rinses, wreaths, face scrubs and steams and so on.
It was during this time that it seemed like wherever I went people would be smudging, which is all well and good except that it didn't seem to mesh well with the elderly, the sensitive and allergic. Generally burning herbs indoors causes people to cough and makes many uncomfortable.
I love the idea of using herbs to purify. My stand-by for my own smudging at that time was sage, rosemary & lavender.
At our house smudging is done seasonally, like deep cleaning and I always open all the doors and windows.
I wanted to come up with a way to have the benefits without the harm.
A "smokeless smudge" was what I called it.
I brewed together
Rosemary - clears the mind as well as spaces, reminds one to stay present
White Sage - clears and dispels negativity
Lavender - gently purifies with love and peace
and a few other herbs with the intention of purification, put a little alcohol in it to keep it from going funky and put in in a spray bottle and voila! it was a smokeless smudge.
I liked it so well, and it worked so well, that I added it to the line of my home based herbal business Bliss Botanicals (no relationship to current online entities) and it became very well loved by customers as well.
When the time came for me to take the next step in my business it seemed that perhaps I should make more Potions.
I sat with this idea for days, scribbling ideas into my notebook.
Should I make 3 or 5?
Should they relate to elements? Earth-Air-Fire-Water?
Should they relate to deities? Planets? Colors?
I had enough inspiration and ideas for dozens of Potions. It wasn't hard to come up with lots of ideas, the hard part was narrowing it down.
Of course, there had to be a Love Potion, but I wanted it to be different than the cliched aphrodisiac potion of bad movies and old songs.
Money spells are often desired and a money potion was a contender.
A Luck Potion?
In a way it's like naming a baby. You come up with a bunch of great names and then you narrow it down to names that fit your family and then to the one that belongs to your baby. The name that was theirs all along that you just had to discover.
The Potions made themselves known and guess what?
They fit none of the boxes that would be easy to describe them.
Earth - Grounding
Fire - Empowering - Sun
Center - Purification - Clearing
Heart - Love
Moon - Perception
They are so lovely and I am honored to do this work.
Rosemary was one of the monthly herbs.
During the month, I made different tea blends, studied historical uses, burned it, made hair rinses, wreaths, face scrubs and steams and so on.
It was during this time that it seemed like wherever I went people would be smudging, which is all well and good except that it didn't seem to mesh well with the elderly, the sensitive and allergic. Generally burning herbs indoors causes people to cough and makes many uncomfortable.
I love the idea of using herbs to purify. My stand-by for my own smudging at that time was sage, rosemary & lavender.
At our house smudging is done seasonally, like deep cleaning and I always open all the doors and windows.
I wanted to come up with a way to have the benefits without the harm.
A "smokeless smudge" was what I called it.
I brewed together
Rosemary - clears the mind as well as spaces, reminds one to stay present
White Sage - clears and dispels negativity
Lavender - gently purifies with love and peace
and a few other herbs with the intention of purification, put a little alcohol in it to keep it from going funky and put in in a spray bottle and voila! it was a smokeless smudge.
I liked it so well, and it worked so well, that I added it to the line of my home based herbal business Bliss Botanicals (no relationship to current online entities) and it became very well loved by customers as well.
When the time came for me to take the next step in my business it seemed that perhaps I should make more Potions.
I sat with this idea for days, scribbling ideas into my notebook.
Should I make 3 or 5?
Should they relate to elements? Earth-Air-Fire-Water?
Should they relate to deities? Planets? Colors?
I had enough inspiration and ideas for dozens of Potions. It wasn't hard to come up with lots of ideas, the hard part was narrowing it down.
Of course, there had to be a Love Potion, but I wanted it to be different than the cliched aphrodisiac potion of bad movies and old songs.
Money spells are often desired and a money potion was a contender.
A Luck Potion?
In a way it's like naming a baby. You come up with a bunch of great names and then you narrow it down to names that fit your family and then to the one that belongs to your baby. The name that was theirs all along that you just had to discover.
The Potions made themselves known and guess what?
They fit none of the boxes that would be easy to describe them.
Earth - Grounding
Fire - Empowering - Sun
Center - Purification - Clearing
Heart - Love
Moon - Perception
They are so lovely and I am honored to do this work.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Dream Magic
Last night I dreamt I was visiting some healers and I was to teach a class or participate somehow in a healing ritual and when I went into the bathroom there was dried lavender strewn all over the floor.
I spent a good deal of time in the dream, tripping out on the flowers, wondering if as a guest I should sweep up the herbs, or if I should strew them in the room where the class was to be held.
I came to the conclusion that it was perfect, because everyone uses the bathroom and therefore, gets the purifying and healing medicine of the plants and also when you step on them it releases essential oils and each person carries that with them through the house creating a sort of herbal, magical weaving of scent and magic.
It wasn't until I began writing this that I am reminded of the obvious connection that I too, have a room with dried lavender strewn upon the floor. Our guest room aka the room always in transition, began with a vintage dresser purchased from a divey used furniture shop that needed a little purification. I bought it in the fall when it was time to cut back the lavender and I put big bunches into each drawer.
When the time came to put clothes into these drawers, I thought I would burn the flower stems, first because they smell divine and secondly as an offering.
I try to be thoughtful and even though it seems superstitious and old fashioned, I think offerings are very real and important. No matter if you leave flowers at the graveside of your ancestors, or money in an offering tray at church, or burning sacred (they all are) plants in the fire, each of us should find a way to take a moment every now and again to give thanks for all that we have been given.
Wow that was a tangent, so in the end I decided as an intermediary step (before the burning) that I would strew them about the floor and purify and bless the entire misused room and each time I go in to get a this-or-a-that the scent is activated and it's lovely.
just a thought.
xo
I spent a good deal of time in the dream, tripping out on the flowers, wondering if as a guest I should sweep up the herbs, or if I should strew them in the room where the class was to be held.
I came to the conclusion that it was perfect, because everyone uses the bathroom and therefore, gets the purifying and healing medicine of the plants and also when you step on them it releases essential oils and each person carries that with them through the house creating a sort of herbal, magical weaving of scent and magic.
It wasn't until I began writing this that I am reminded of the obvious connection that I too, have a room with dried lavender strewn upon the floor. Our guest room aka the room always in transition, began with a vintage dresser purchased from a divey used furniture shop that needed a little purification. I bought it in the fall when it was time to cut back the lavender and I put big bunches into each drawer.
When the time came to put clothes into these drawers, I thought I would burn the flower stems, first because they smell divine and secondly as an offering.
I try to be thoughtful and even though it seems superstitious and old fashioned, I think offerings are very real and important. No matter if you leave flowers at the graveside of your ancestors, or money in an offering tray at church, or burning sacred (they all are) plants in the fire, each of us should find a way to take a moment every now and again to give thanks for all that we have been given.
Wow that was a tangent, so in the end I decided as an intermediary step (before the burning) that I would strew them about the floor and purify and bless the entire misused room and each time I go in to get a this-or-a-that the scent is activated and it's lovely.
just a thought.
xo
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
recipe exchange
I was invited to join a recipe exchange.
Really this is just a friendly, non-threatening chain letter.
But a chain letter nonetheless.
Most of the time when I receive something like this in my inbox I say a quick blessing and hit delete.
For some reason, partly because I really like the person who sent it to me and partly because it was raining and I was daydreamy, I sent a recipe.
Here is the recipe I sent:
recipe for...
the perfect bath
tuck kids into bed (if you have them)
turn off phones, tv, radio, stereo etc
boil a big pot of water & add one or more of the following but not all:
(with suggested quantities for each item)
sliced apple (one apple)
sliced quince (one quince)
sliced oranges (one orange)
ginger, fresh- good for warming-(1-2 inch piece cut up)
~~
rose petals (up to 2 lg handfuls fresh and 1 lg handful dried)
lavender flowers (handful or less)
chamomile (1/2 cup)
peppermint leaves (1/2 cup)
thyme leaves (1/8-1/4 cup)-good for stuffy nose
*the top set of suggestions should be simmered for 15-30 minutes
*the second set should be added to boiling water, heat turned off, lid on and steep for 15-20 minutes
while the herbs/fruit are steeping/simmering
gather:
robe
towels
washcloth (to dry off your hands if you have a book)
book
tea (can be the same as you are making above)
or water
candle/matches
sea salt
making sure there are no stray bits of other peoples hair (eww) fill the tub with the perfect temperature of water.
add a handful of sea salt to the running water, this will help to release any negative or stale thoughts and energy.
light your candle/s
arrange book, washcloth & tea/water on a stool or small table so you can easily reach them.
now, carefully! pour the tub tea into your bath, it's actually better to have someone do this for you. You can strain it if you like but I prefer not to.
adjust the lights to your reading or not reading needs
get undressed and step into the bathtub.
relax and know that you are taking time for something very important, time for yourself is good for everyone around you.
drink in the goodness of the experience and know that even if you are reading a trashy paperback that magic is happening and you will be transformed in small & maybe barely perceptible ways, and who knows maybe this is the thing that shifts the multiverse and we just needed a recipe exchange to make it happen.
xoxo
Really this is just a friendly, non-threatening chain letter.
But a chain letter nonetheless.
Most of the time when I receive something like this in my inbox I say a quick blessing and hit delete.
For some reason, partly because I really like the person who sent it to me and partly because it was raining and I was daydreamy, I sent a recipe.
Here is the recipe I sent:
recipe for...
the perfect bath
tuck kids into bed (if you have them)
turn off phones, tv, radio, stereo etc
boil a big pot of water & add one or more of the following but not all:
(with suggested quantities for each item)
sliced apple (one apple)
sliced quince (one quince)
sliced oranges (one orange)
ginger, fresh- good for warming-(1-2 inch piece cut up)
~~
rose petals (up to 2 lg handfuls fresh and 1 lg handful dried)
lavender flowers (handful or less)
chamomile (1/2 cup)
peppermint leaves (1/2 cup)
thyme leaves (1/8-1/4 cup)-good for stuffy nose
*the top set of suggestions should be simmered for 15-30 minutes
*the second set should be added to boiling water, heat turned off, lid on and steep for 15-20 minutes
while the herbs/fruit are steeping/simmering
gather:
robe
towels
washcloth (to dry off your hands if you have a book)
book
tea (can be the same as you are making above)
or water
candle/matches
sea salt
making sure there are no stray bits of other peoples hair (eww) fill the tub with the perfect temperature of water.
add a handful of sea salt to the running water, this will help to release any negative or stale thoughts and energy.
light your candle/s
arrange book, washcloth & tea/water on a stool or small table so you can easily reach them.
now, carefully! pour the tub tea into your bath, it's actually better to have someone do this for you. You can strain it if you like but I prefer not to.
adjust the lights to your reading or not reading needs
get undressed and step into the bathtub.
relax and know that you are taking time for something very important, time for yourself is good for everyone around you.
drink in the goodness of the experience and know that even if you are reading a trashy paperback that magic is happening and you will be transformed in small & maybe barely perceptible ways, and who knows maybe this is the thing that shifts the multiverse and we just needed a recipe exchange to make it happen.
xoxo
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