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Showing posts with label reusing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reusing. Show all posts

Friday, May 1, 2020

Homemade Perfume from Flowers and Herbs from my Garden


Have you ever wanted to create your own perfumes or stylized scents?



 I have. And I've always loved the aromas of flowers cut fresh from my garden.  Hyacinths in the spring are hard to beat. With their sweet and spicy scents that are overpoweringly pungent - you'll have to love or hate them.



And the wild hyacinths grow like weeds around here. I just love the pretty blue bells. But lilacs are my favorite with their sweet floral notes and soft hints of vanilla. So of course, I have  them all in my garden. And, I thought why not make my own liquid floral scents?

Here's how to do it:

  1.  Picking blossoms for perfume is just like picking grapes for wine or berries for jam, pick them early in the morning when the oils, flavors and juices are at their peak of perfection. Blooms just getting ready to open hold  the richest most powerful fragrance. Blossoms that have already bloomed are already losing their aroma.
  2. Pick the petals from the flowers and put them in a zip-lock storage bag then lightly tamp the petals with a rubber mallet to stimulate the petals, which will make them release their oils.
  3.  Put the petals in a mason  jar and cover with oil. You can use any oil (including olive) but you might prefer the sweet nutty aroma of almond oil mixing with the floral scents. Shake the jar to mix the oil around.
  4.  Put the jar in a sunny spot to give the petals plenty of time to soak in the oil--24 hours is best. Then shake  the contents gently and strain the petals with cheesecloth. Toss the old petals, unless you want to let them dryout in a cool, dark location.
  5. Pick  new petals and follow the  procedures above--only cover the petals with the previously used oil. Repeat  this procedure for 3-5 days or until you've achieved the fragrance you enjoy.
  6. Keep your mason jar filled with  oil in a  cool, dry location. Feel free to use your freshly created fragrance as a perfume.

And, if you make  some perfume of your own, please tell me about it. I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading.  Kim

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Recycling, reusing and repurposing

Lars is willing to go dumpster diving . . . if it's for old wood that someone has thrown away. Yes, he'll knock on their door and ask if they mind if he hauls away their wood. And since they have to be by the weight of the dumpster, they are always willing to let him have it.

Then my hubby brings home the wood and cuts it up to repurpose it into something beautiful.

He took this old wood and glued it together to make Christmas presents.

Then he put a clear Varathane on them and let them dry. This wasn't a stain, the wood was what made the coasters so beautiful. Then he had to make coaster stands.



And he measured, cut and glued them together.
And we wrapped them up and gave them with a bag of coffee and a mug or two.

It was a perfect way to reuse old wood.