summer's end harvest...

 

 

...a lot of you are probably enjoying your garden's yummy bounty right now, eating salads with the most heavenly tomatoes ever, snacking on impossibly sweet carrots and coming up with new ways to bake with zucchini... I am very envious and I wish I had such fresh veggie abundance to contend with but, alas, a fenced-in garden plot to ward off the deer has to happen at our place by the lake before I can even start thinking about growing tasty vegetables. However, all is not lost because our sunny and rocky lake property offers perfect growing conditions for all sorts of herbs; we've had such scrumptious grilled meats all summer long because I've been making marinades with freshly-picked rosemary, sage (I must have a record-breaking sized sage bush!), oregano and thyme which are all thriving in my lake garden.

 

 

Another herb that is very happy on our lake property is a hands-down favourite of mine, beautiful lavender. I have grown it in the past in my city gardens but never with much success because it was always too shady for it to really take off. At the lake however, my lavender relishes the abundant sun, well-drained soil, and general exposed nature of the garden and has matured into such lovely fragrant clumps; I have thrown lavender seeds here and there and am amazed to see it even popping up in our big rock wall which borders our drive up to the house! Seeing how happily lavender grows in my garden, I've been adding more plants all over the garden every year, pretty much assured that I won't be disappointed with the results!

 

 

Now, with all this lavender growing all around me this summer, I thought that I should probably dry some of it and make something with it. So, I hung some off my umbrella in the garden which in itself was lovely, as mixed in with all the other delicious fragrances coming from the garden (such as the sweet heady scent of all my butterfly bushes which drenched the air all day long!), there was always a hint of lavender in the air which was rather nice when sitting under the umbrella!

 

 

So, what to make with dried lavender?... Well, when I was hanging all my lavender, it was the last bit of August and I was thinking a lot about my oldest daughter, Stefania, who would be shortly moving away from home for the first time and going off to university. She is our first to leave the nest, so these last few weeks have been a bit of a bittersweet passage for our family in many different ways! With all these thoughts of her impending departure, it dawned on me that it might be comforting for her to have a bit of "home" with her at university, and perhaps a sachet filled with lavender from our lake property might help sooth her moments of homesickness...

 

 

So, set on making lavender sachets, I decided on heart-shaped ones and drew up a heart template which I then used to cut hearts out of fabric remnants I had at the lake, many of them vintage (Yum!)...

 

 

Nico, my 12-year-old daughter, and I then collected the dried lavender flower heads by stripping them off their stems; this was probably the best part of making the sachets because it left our hands infused with the sweet scent of lavender!

 

 

In fact, I think I was almost able to feel lavender oil on my hands just from handing all these freshly dried flowers... (Mmm, very nice!)

 

 

We then sewed up each heart with an opening through which we stuffed the lavender and then handstitched the opening; next, we sewed a loop made of ribbon onto the heart (so that it could be hung if so desired) with some fine cotton yarn which we finished in a bow... and, voilà, our heart sachets all made up:

 

 

As you can see, we used different fabric for the back and the front of the heart which made it that much more fun to make!

 

 

I'm back in Vancouver now and as I look at these photos, I'm thinking that I'd love to make more sachets and gift them to family and friends at Christmastime... I hope to go back to the lake in a week or so, and hopefully there will be more lavender to harvest which I could use to make sachets, perhaps in different shapes such as little birds or houses, what do you think?...

 

 

Or, perhaps I could make something different with the dried flower heads; I recently saw a recipe for a lavender bath scrub using dried lavender which I think might be fun to try... Do you have any favourite lavender recipes?

 

 

Being back in Vancouver, I'm slowly getting back into my old routine albeit with some changes with my eldest away at university and the rest of the crew not being back at school due to an ongoing teacher's strike (which might not be resolved any time soon!)... Nevertheless, after a trip away this coming weekend to visit my daughter at university (luckily she is only a couple of hours or so away from us!), I should be back posting next week and hopefully more regularly again, tying up some of the loose ends I left when I went away for the summer such as my little bedding collection... Thanks for visiting and I do hope you come by again!...

 

 

 

Comments

[Amy at love made my home]

Your hearts are so lovely!! xx

[leanne]

I keep adding lavender to my gardens too....for sure one of my favourites. Hung a couple big fat bundles in the Muskoka room this summer! The hearts are adorable. xo

[mrs robinson]

Such a beautiful thought to send your daughter off to university with a special memory of home... Hope she is having fun and you are not missing her too much!

[Becca Smith]

Your heart shaped lavender sachets are just lovely! I live in the Seattle area and after visiting the lavender farms this summer, I made sachets too! I just made them square with little crochet on the edges. They're on my latest post if you'd like to take a peek. I always love the scent of lavender! Happy weekend to you!

[Tuna Lures]

lovely hearts.......

[Angela-Southern USA]

What a wonderful touch of home for your daughter. Hopefully you all will settle into the new phase soon. Sometimes it's so hard being a mom. Best wishes!x

[Malia]

I loooove dipping french bread or water crackers in lavender mixed with cream cheese! My figure doesn't care too much for it, but my tastebuds are in heaven!

[lee]

ahh, beautiful hearts! I recently made some hearts with lavender too (based on attic 24's hanging heart tutorial), but wish that I could say that the lavender was home-grown. not yet.. :)

[vintage grey]

Beautiful hearts and I am sure they smell lovely! Lavender is a favorite!! xo Heather