Lavender Dreams

I'm smack dab in the middle of making a bazillion lavender sachets.

Here's what certified aromatherapist, Debra Mauldin has to say about the use of lavender:

"Essential Oil of Lavender is one of the safest and most widely used oils in aromatherapy. Lavendula officinalis is a wonderful oil for depression. It has a steadying influence on the psyche. Lavender’s balancing effect calms uncontrolled emotions, removes indecisiveness and emotional conflict, and helps to bring the feelings under conscious control. It brings a sense of rationality to the conscious mind.

Lavender Essential Oil works to calm a variety of nervous disorders including excitability, nervous tension, panic, and hysteria. It emanates a mellow peacefulness and induces sleep.

If you suffer from ‘winter blues’, surrounding yourself with Lavender, can help. Use Lavender Incense around your home. Place Lavender candles in every room. Lavender Sachets can be placed in drawers, closets, etc… Essential Oil of Lavender can be used in Light Rings, Diffusers, Aroma Lamps, or Potpourri throughout the home or office. Other ways to strategically incorporate the scent of Lavender into your home include: Put a couple of drops of oil onto a cotton ball and place in your vacuum cleaner bag, place a couple of drops of oil onto a cotton ball and swab the light bulbs in your home or office, sprinkle a couple of drops of Lavender oil onto your pillows.

Simply inhaling Lavender Essential Oil releases various neurochemicals in the brain and you will experience a physiological change in body, mind, and spirit. When Lavender is inhaled, serotonin is released from the raphe nucleus of the brain, producing a calming influence in the body."

So it's magical stuff, and something one cannot possibly live without. My lavender sachets have been tremendously popular, and the cloud of lavender that wafts from my tent during summer shows and markets draws people in from a block away.

Just one itsy bitsy, teeny tiny little problem. In huge quantities it makes me a little woozy and headachy, and while making the sachets, the lavender dust gets in my nose and throat, making me cough and hack and sneeze and stuffs up my head. So yesterday was perfect -- I could open the windows and doors and take little breaks on the patio for fresh air while scooping pounds and pounds of lavender buds into little sacks and tying up little bundles of ribbons and hankies. So I'm all stocked up. April shows will have mounds of lavender sachets, and little vials of lavender essential oil too. Just doing my part to keep the world happy and healthy . . .