Well, as I said in my last post, I certainly love this time of year, but like many other people feel, it can also make me go bonkers. There’s just so much TO DO. Funny when it’s the winter season and all the natural cycles are telling us to hibernate, to sleep more, to do less, to withdraw from the active world…and we proceed to do the exact opposite. Anyway, this week my whole house looks like a disaster area – with herbs, oils and beeswax in chaotic piles everywhere. Or should I say to the untrained eye it looks chaotic; despite the state of things I know exactly where everything is at any given moment: where the Ylang Ylang oil is hiding or where the Elderberries have snuck away to under that pile of Nettles. This is what it’s like to be an herbalist. Plants start to take over your whole world. From the minute you walk in the door they are calling you to create with – to be put into tea blends or tinctures, or new luscious herbal creams, or infused in oil or spooned into honey. Honestly the possibilities are endless when it comes to using herbs in our daily lives, and this I love. And slightly go crazy over because there’s so much I want to make with them, so many variations, so much magic that is possible that I sometimes have a hard time not doing herbal-related projects whenever I am home. I guess this is a good, or at least interesting, problem to have. Here’s what my kitchen table looks like today:

Beautiful herbal madness. And here’s what comes out of this….

A new Damiana-infused cream I’m excited about and…

…a stockpile of my concoctions ready to go to market….

…and some newly made beeswax candles that I love. (Not exactly herbal, but I like to mix it up.)

Oh, these herbs spur me on to keep creating and experimenting…
I feel so grateful that they are my chosen medium with which to work.

“Happy is she who hath the power to gather wisdom from a flower.”

The winter season means holiday markets, and so I’ve been busily concocting away in my herbal workshop. I love this time of year, despite all the extra hectic-ness, and always feel a burst of creativity and productivity come upon me. I’ve been putting this energy to good use the past couple of weeks as I prepare for a few holiday events coming up. This Sunday, for instance, I’ll be participating in Somerville’s annual Snow Mall at the Armory. You can stop by anytime from 12 to 6 to shop local handmade items. Of course I’ll have plenty of my salves, face cleansers, floral waters, aromatherapy sprays and elixirs on hand. And I’m excited to reveal a couple of new items I’ve been working on, involving infused oils with Damiana and Ylang Ylang….a divine combination if you ask me. I’ll take a few pics while I’m there and report back later. In the meantime, it’s back to the kitchen, where herbs, bottles, beeswax and essential oils are strewn about everywhere in perfect chaos!…