Crazy for lavender

Eye glass bag with ribbon rose
Maybe we got a LITTLE carried away with all the lavender colored crafts!
This is lavender in my yard in full bloom.
Last summer my daughter and I put together all sorts of lavender crafts to sell. We used the dried lavender from my 15 plants in the yard. Our booth had sachets, pillows, bags, baskets, soaps, boxes, lavender art, and even buckets full of fresh lavender. The bees loved it!

Not Everything is Pink!!!

These are my chenille lavender pillows I made with ribbon roses. Each pillow has a sachet of dried lavender inside. I have about 15 lavender plants in my yard, so during the summer things are very aromatic around here. I use an electric hand-held clipper to cut bundles of lavender off the plants for drying. Lavender plants need to be harvested, and the reward is a second bloom period during the summer. Bundles can be dried by securing them with a rubber band, then putting them in a paper bag for a few weeks. If you don't need to keep them for a special arrangement, (and just want the dried buds), toss a whole pile of lavender stems into the bag. In a few weeks they will be dry and ready to be removed from the stems. To remove the buds from the stems just bundle the stems in an old towel, roll the towel like a rolling pin on a table, and when you unwrap the towel you will find most of the lavender buds off of the stems. Magic!