Lavender living...

The lavender is now blooming in the garden.

I wanted to make some lavender shortbread cookies, but having

never made shortbread with lavender before,

I made the mistake of using fresh lavender and instead of mixing it into 

the dough, I added it to the top of the cookies only.

Well...

you can't believe how the oil from the fresh lavender smoked up this kitchen!

But, my house never smelled more delicious.

For days!

The cookies were delicious!

Perfect with a bowl of ice cream.

 and speaking of bowls... 

The beautiful bowls were a birthday gift from my sweet face to face friend Sarah.

Such a pretty gift from a lovely friend!

Each bowl is a different neutral color starting with white and 

then to ivory, to cream and to a soft butter yellow.

I LOVE them!

I have been madly harvesting the lavender so I can use it in 

future projects.

I lost about nine of my plants to our cold winter this year, 

but I still had a huge harvest.

The floor of the studio is covered with cut lavender drying and that is just the first crop.

I used to bundle it and then hang it, but I just have too much now to do that with it,

so now I lay it on newspaper and let it dry.

After it dries, the hard work begins.

Taking it off the stem is a job I save for evenings while watching movies.

It's time consuming and  I do a lot of sneezing while doing it.

I have an allergy to one of my favorite plants to grow and craft with.
But I would never let a little thing like that stop me  : )

Thank goodness for Benadryl!