Bittersweet and the little soap company

sunshine on my shoulders

The herbal wreaths have arrived! They are stunning, to say the least and their herbal aroma is breathtaking. I'm beyond words, only to say, your door will never be the same. 
It's count down time and the glorious May day is fast approaching. Jules and I have been working super hard to get our shops in perfect May day order. New apothecary and vintage fill the century old home. 

Every now and then, occasionally I browse Etsy looking for unique jewelry pieces. I found this on a recent hunt. I love the words! 

cute, isn't it? You can browse yourself if you wish here.  The leather strap and the tag had me from the get-go! I love sharing the artist ♥...

I mentioned how busy we are at the shops, right. 

A list of must-have Bittersweets or items to make is as long as the eye can see. Well, I might be exaggerating some, however the list is long.

Lennis and I went mushroom hunting yesterday. I found one mushroom that appeared to have been nibbled by a deer. We hiked deep into the woods behind the church and cemetery that my great, great, great relatives lay to rest. As we're hiking along we could here the organ playing, What a friend we have in Jesus. I stumbled upon a boxer turtle sunning on an Eastern bank. I stopped to watch him. At first the boxer was frightened and stuck his little head inside his shell. Then he stuck it back out. I gently patted his shell and told him that I wasn't going to hurt him. It seemed we had an understanding. As we're walking through the woods, I realized how long it had been since my last spring wood hike and how much I love the Missouri woods. It's enchanting! So much going on it's hard to keep up. Simply sitting on a log and taking it in would be soothing and refreshing, I'd imagine. I will take my camera next time.

The only down side while hiking Missouri woods in the spring or summer is ticks. Ugh! I applied rose geranium to both Lennis and I before leaving the house and we still had several deer ticks on us when we arrived home. I'm guessing rose geranium is not effective in distracting ticks. Which in reflection, I will not be formulating a natural tick repellent. I consider Lyme disease a serious threat and would never want to misinform folks proclaiming that rose geranium will keep ticks at bay. I have a pet-peeve concerning such testimonies. Don't get me started. I'm brutally honest when it comes to false claims.

Let's see, what else do I feel like chatting about?

Oh yeah, I can chat about soap. The new orange marmalade is yummy!

Enjoy caring and sharing days.

With all good wishes, 

Jill 00

  

 

 

 

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some sweet things

making it

Naturally speaking...

 
This is a favorite picture of a corner of the studio. I love the lavender bundles mixed with the soap sacs and snow-berries. I believe a home dressed in lavender and snow-berries for the holidays would be beautiful. Mix in some huge Coulter pine cones and ta-da, a perfect natural Christmas. Brown paper packages tied  with assorted velvet ribbon and maybe a few dried hydrangeas. That's my style of decorating. As natural as I can get it.

Remember these stems of foliage?

 
Clipped from the crab apple tree in our back yard.

On Saturday a customer fell in love with the sugar plum berry branches. I'm going to request another tree climb to salvage more of the stems before they shrivel up and die.

A trip through the woods this time of year and you can find everything you need to embellish your home with holiday twigs and vines.

 
You may recall the huge bundle of dried wild flowers I picked from the outskirts of town a couple of seasons ago. My mother taught me to wait until the mornings became crisp and then head to the woods and pick the naturally freeze dried blooms. I added some eucalyptus sprigs to this bouquet and some pine cones from our white pines.

I still have this arrangement. The dried flowers last a very long time. Since a trip to the country with a pair of sharp scissors is all that is needed how could you resist.

 
The large mountain of dried naturals became a centerpiece at a fall show several years ago. Everyone asked about them.

So you see, you don't really need to spend a dime on your holiday decorating and packaging.

  
You may remember this picture taken a few years back of some packages embellished with dried hydrangeas I picked from my garden. Once again, no cost decorating.

 
Of course how could we leave out Bittersweet. It's that time of year when the twiggy plant is visible along country road fence rows. Watch out for the poison ivy! It's usually growing alongside Bittersweet. When you get home wipe your arms and hands with alcohol. That will get rid of any poison ivy oil left on your skin. A landscaper taught me that years ago. It's really the only thing that eliminates the poison ivy oil from you skin. Believe me I have lots of experience! 

Enjoy caring and sharing days.

Warmly,

Jill 00 (two hugs are better than one) 

taking a cue from nature

 
When I was attempting for a good picture of Cranberry Spice savon my first couple of backdrops included white pine branches and pine cones. Then,  I glanced in our back yard and spotted the crab-apple tree filled with beautiful red-pink berries! Perfect, I said to myself, perfect! 

I wish you could have witnessed me attempting  to reach the tall branches of the tree. Standing atop the rocks that form the rock garden reaching for her bent branches. Only within an inch or so of getting a good grip so that I could pull down and cut  off a large branch. Pondering thoughts of jumping off the rock towards the branch entered my mind as I was determined to reach a small stem for the picture. More thoughts of climbing the tree to get to the branches was even considered. Finally after careful crabapple picking strategy I obtained a tiny branch hanging on the other side of the tree. Eureka! The satisfaction of reaching, pun intended, a small bit of crab-apple gratification!

All kidding aside, I don't recall the crab-apple tree ever producing such large plump berries. 

When Lennis got home he cut down a large branch and I'm arranging the stems and placing them here and there through out the studio. A touch of natural autumn and I love the color palette. It's always been a challenge for me to decorate  fall. I don't have a fondness for the traditional autumn color hue of orange and red. I prefer, brown, blush and more achromatic tones.

 Bittersweet studio moves quickly into holiday mode and thoughts of autumn are short and brief.

Retail moves ever so fast! Sometimes it's hard to keep up!

Enjoy a caring and sharing day, naturally.

Jill 00 (two hugs are better than one)

flowers as seeds, stashing

 
To all appearances this wood bowl seems to be filled with dried zinnia blossoms.

They are actually next years zinnia seeds!

We experienced a hot humid summer and most of my flowering plants could not endure the extreme heat.

Every late summer I begin plucking the dead flower heads from the plants and placing them in brown marked envelopes. The seeds will be planted next spring along with other herbs and flowering plants.

I'm generally not that frugal of a person, but the green joy of conserving seeds and witnessing them bloom over and over again feels especially nice.

This is the way it was done in the olden days.

Folks did not go to the market and purchase mature flowering plants. Nope.

Each spring and as a special treat they purchased seeds and anxiously awaited their precious blooms to transform. Most of the time they knew it was a toss up on whether the seedlings would mature into blooming buds. If it was dry like our summer past, the plants generally didn't survive and never made it. 

Most rural families had to transport well water to their homestead and watering plants just wasn't considered to be a practical thing to do back then. With the hot summer and no rain, the well water would have been used only for drinking, cooking and occasionally bathing. 

Wowsa, don't you feel pretty lucky? I sure do! Now you kind of understand why I cherish those seeds.

 
Brown eye Susan's, cone flower, shasta daisy's, bee balm and giant zinnias. The beginning of my seed stash collection.

Enjoy caring and sharing days.

Warmly,

Jill 00 (two hugs are better than one)

Indian Summer

 

It has been ideal weather around here lately. A real Indian Summer  and I'm loving it! I'm also wishing and hoping it lasts awhile longer.

Our windows are open and during the night time it begins to get chilly inside and we've all dug out extra blankets to keep us warm.

Last night, early morning, I heard Mr. Owl right outside the window. There are certain bird and animal sounds that make me feel relaxed and happy. The coo of a morning dove or the late night hoo, hoo of an owl are two of my favorite sounds almost as good as rain drops hitting a tin roof!

Getting caught up on design work this week and now needing to devote my attention to Bittersweet and the little soap company.

Enjoy caring and sharing days.

Happily,

Jill 00

Two hugs are better than none.

Winter Bouquet

 
Finally had some extra time to travel to the outskirts of town and pick a winter bouquet. My Mom used to have a large bouquet like this in her bathroom. I really miss her creativity sometime, and her words of advise.

Isn't the bouquet pretty? As I sit next to it at the show, I'll be reminded of my Mom and it will make me feel happy.

Getting show ready, little last minute odds and ends around the studio. The large bouquet is the perfect trimming for Bittersweets show display. Cost  nothing,  Love that!

I used the old-fashioned pitcher and bowl my Mom made in the seventy's. Love that too!

The merchandising done for this show is not typical Bittersweet. I've taken on some twists and some change in current taste. All the colors I really like to use at Christmas time, silvers, golds, creams, browns, ecru, and that fawn green the Cranberry Spice soap is wrapped in. Love those too! This season Bittersweet is inspired by nature and our favorite holiday phrase, "less is more"!

I noticed on my walk this morning my neighbor down the street has a beautiful hemlock tree. I'm going to ask if I can get a cutting. Hemlocks  produce tiny little pine cones that are so sweet to tuck here and there.  

Bloggy in and bloggy out, updates and pictures as they present themselves.

Enjoy caring and sharing holidays.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than none)

Flower Power

 

I began picking the hydrangeas from the garden. Their colorful dried blooms have more color than I've ever seen before from years past cuttings. Shades of rich mauve, sage greens, star-flower blues, pink violets,  and creams. Those colored hydrangea blooms inspired me to choose the same colors while preparing for the upcoming show. 

 

I'm preparing my mock displays so that I can plan ahead for the shows. Since I make everything that I sell, placement planning is a must, otherwise I'll not have enough room for merchandising. I'm such a obsessive compulsive stickler when it comes to merchandising my hand-mad-es's , love doing it!  It's fun to play around with these displays.

That picture shows the new display piece my friend Kim picked up for me. Isn't it the perfect display piece? It has vintage wallpaper lining the back of the shelves.

 

I have lot's of new stuff to share, like, the table I painted and skirted with muslin and vintage trim, a couple of really cool flea market finds, and some new creations that will be making their debut at the upcoming shows.

Order shipped and it feels as though I'm catching up. Just in time for the holiday manufacturing rush and all  the deadlines!

Cookbook, almost finished, only twenty more recipes to add and then off to the publisher, just in time!

Enjoy caring and sharing days.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)

Salsifying walk..

For the past few weeks during my  morning walk I've been  noticing a small patch of strange yellowy dandelion looking plants that have popped up through the sandy sidewalk cracks. I've been admiring their  unusual bloom's thinking along it was a weed, but also thinking to myself it was a lovely weed though! 

 

Then this morning while walking I noticed the blooms transformation and I got really excited!

 

I got excited because I finally knew what the plant was, a favorite wild flower of my Mom's and a plant called Salsify or better known as "Goat's Beard."

My Mom used to pick the fuzzy goat's beard and then spray  with hair spray, then she would gather them and place in a pretty crock or vase and display them in our home. I always thought they were cool.

Funny how when you least expect a magical moment, the moment's appear, isn't it?

I couldn't wait to get home grab the camera and some scissors to snip the unusual bloom. I sprayed it with hairspray and placed it in a canning jar awaiting the next walk, hoping another will appear and I can keep snipping until I get a little bouquet.

Enjoy caring and sharing magical moment's of Spring.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)

See ya at the farm! UPDATE: NO RAIN!!

  

The Saturday Studio will be closed this Saturday to participate in the "Farm Show."

MAP

Julie and I will be in the front as you come in, don't forget to stop and say HI!

Hope to see ya there!

Enjoy caring and sharing Spring Farm Days.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)

Heart Spring

 

I know I've mentioned my love for lavender before. I've been making lot's of lavender pomanders and sachets. Pomander, that's a vintage word, love it!

The new lavender sachet prototype above is specifically made to be  placed  inside linen drawers. 

Finally, I made the Peppermint lip balm. It's the same great formulation as the other lip balms only with a fresh mint scent. Available here.

 

Catching up with some things, most orders arrived at the p.o. yesterday ready for shipping.

Oh, another update, the Vintage Wallpaper Paquets are available too. If you are interested in ordering those, you can order them here. I'm not sure how long they'll last, as I only have a small reserve of vintage papers and am taking the basket to the show next week.

  I believe that's it on the Bittersweet product updates.

The weather man/woman has predicted a beautiful warm spring day.

It's too early to plant flowers outside, as the threat of frost continues. My Mom always said to plant my flowers on Mother's Day and I usually take her advise, give or take a day or two. By the way, Mother's Day is May 10 this year.

Saturday my friend Debbie stopped by the studio and left me with some lemongrass seeds. I am planting them in peat moss containers and then transplanting them to the yard. I love the texture of lemongrass and it's scent. I want to cut the thick green stems and use the stems to fill baskets and add the fragrance to Aunt Enid's Rose Jar. Lemongrass mixes quite well with lavender, most scents do, but lemongrass and lavender is particularly nice.

Have I told you I'm highly allergic to it? Yes, as a matter of fact, it's not uncommon for people to be allergic to this herb. So handle with care.

I'm chopping at the bits to begin planting stuff. I still need to get my seed packets, nasturtiums and sweet peas. Nasturtiums are very easy to plant from seed directly in the ground once the weather warms. Last year the orange and red edible blossoms trailed down the sides of the brick steps and were stunning. I would encourage you to plant some if you've never done so. An added bonus, the blossoms are delicious in salads and make a lovely presentation if serving guests.

  

I can envision a lavender and nasturtium tea party!

Enjoy caring and sharing Spring days.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)