Lavender Essential Oil
Whether your March has come in like a lion or a lamb, I suggest some lavender to ease the transition to spring. Lavender holds the energy of summer sun, but the blue color is cooling and creates a sense of equanimity. Click on the image to the left for information on how to buy a bottle of essential oil with a 24% discount.
Lavender for Eating
Thanks to Elaine’s Lavender Page for the delicious lavender cookies recipe:
RECIPE FOR LAVENDER COOKIES.
Ingredients
2/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 deg. Grease two baking sheets.
Cream the butter and the sugar together,
then stir in the beaten egg.
Mix in flowers and the flour.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheets.
Bake about 15-20 minutes, until the cookies are golden.
Makes about 30 cookies.
If you are looking for culinary quality dried lavender flowers, I recommend Mountain Rose Herbs. I order online and have been really happy with this company and the quality of the products.
Lavender is an aromatic perennial evergreen shrub. Its woody stems bear lavender or purple flowers from late spring to early autumn, although there are varieties with 
blossoms of white or pink. Lavender is native to the Mediterranean, but now cultivated in cool-winter, dry-summer areas in Europe and the Western United States. The use of Lavender goes back thousands of years, with the first recorded uses by the Egyptians during the mummification process. Both the Greeks and the Romans had many uses for it, the most popular being for bathing, cooking, as an ingredient in perfume, healing wounds, and as an insect repellant. Lavender was used as an after-bath perfume by the Romans, who gave the herb its name from the Latin lavare, to wash. During the Great Plague of 1665, grave robbers would wash their hands in a concoction called Four Thieves Vinegar, which contained lavender, wormwood, rue, sage, mint, and rosemary, and vinegar; they rarely became infected. English folklore tells that a mixture of lavender, mugwort, chamomile, and rose petals will attract sprites, fairies, brownies, and elves. (SOURCE)
Lavender for a Soothing Spring Bath
Take a soothing spring bath with a few scoops of Epsom Salts (not actually salts, but the magnesium helps with muscle relaxation and headaches) or Sea Salt and put 6-8 
drops of lavender essential oil into the bath. Just sit back, breathe in the steam and the aroma and relax. If you would like, use the very simple meditation suggested by Lama Surya Das:
Breathing In—-Just this, here now.
Breathing Out—Just this, here now.
Just make sure that you don’t relax TOO much and fall asleep in the bath and be aware that oils and salts can make the bathtub and tile floors a little bit slippery.
Lavender Crafts
How about these heart-shaped lavender sachets designed by Martha Stewart?
These little lavender soaps are so cute!
Make a lavender eye pillow.
This post written by Sharon Fennimore, MA, E-RYT, RPYT, a yoga and meditation instructor based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and working with women all over the world on creativity, insight and joy. Find out more about Sharon. Join Sharon’s online community MAKE ROOM for just $8 a month and clear all your physical and emotional clutter.
