A lavender bottle sachet / La bouteille de lavande

I was browsing facebook this morning and noticed the prettiest lavender wand sachet made by Irina from Belarus (JewelryFloren). She got so many blooms this year that she was able to make 25 pretty sticks from just 2 lavender bushes.

I love this idea because all the sweet buds stay inside after the stick has dried out and it still will look pretty and ready to do its job to refresh your linen closet or dresser draw. The idea of  "La bouteille de lavande" came from France where lavender is a part of culture and history. Oh so romantic!

All you need to make 1 stick like this is about 25 to 30 lavender stems, 2 1/2 yards of narrow satin ribbon (about 1/4" wide) in your favorite color and a sewing thread.

Сlean your lavender stems from the leaves and bottom flowers. Gather them together and tie the stems tight right under the flower heads with a sewing thread. Now, bend the stems to the sides to cage the flower heads inside. Run one end of the ribbon along side the flowers to poke out of the bottom of the flower cage. Tie your pretty satin ribbon on top of sewing thread and start weaving the other loose end of the ribbon around the top of flower cage using basic under-and-over basket weaving technique. Push the sticking-out flowers back to cage with a toothpick.

Keep weaving tightly (very important since the lavender will shrink as it dries) to get a bottle shape.

Tie both ribbon ends tight around the base a few times and make a pretty bow. 

Voilà! It's ready to use, just let it dry and enjoy!

Thank you, Irina, for this great idea!

Half Sour Pickles recipe

This summer I found some really great pickling recipes to preserve our harvest in a jar. I tried so many of them and they are all very good but many of them have vinegar as an ingredient. While the vinegar is great to preserve food, I am trying to cut on acidic foods if possible, so I really like Inessa's (vintageer shop on Etsy)  half sour pickles recipes. The pickles are easy to make and ready to eat in about 3 days. I slice them and put them on a sandwich - delicious!

I don't have the black currant leaves and tarragon but pickles taste great anyway.

 

So with Inessa permission I am publishing her recipe on my blog today.

 

Ingredients:
Small pickling cucumbers (enough to fill 1 Quart jar)
Enough water to cover said cucumbers
2 Tbsp (per 4 cups of water) pickling salt (or sea salt)
4- 5 garlic cloves cut in half
3-4 stems fresh dill (with seeds and flowers)
1 tbsp black pepper corns
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp celery seeds
3-4 fresh black currant leaves (or horseradish leaf)
1 tarragon stem (optional)

Wash the cucumbers well and let them soak in a bowl of cold water for an hour. Put the cucumbers in a clean glass canning jar. Add the spices, the garlic cloves,  black currant leaves, tarragon and dill to the jar.

Dissolve the salt in the boiled water and pour into the jar over the cucumbers. Make sure the cucumbers are completely under the water.

Cover and let sit for three or four days in cool shaded space. Then move to the fridge to chill. Enjoy!