Sharing some Love with Lavender

Hi Friends!  Since it's almost Valentines day I thought I'd share a little LOVE with you today and tell you about a few of my favorite Lavender things.   Do you like lavender?  Of course you do and I sure do too!   I love almost anything to do with Lavender.  I absolutely love everything about it!  I love the color, the aroma, the oil, the plant, the blooms, the seeds, and the texture to name just a few.   All of those previously mentioned qualities contribute to the whole calming and relaxing enjoyment I get from lavender.  Just the word alone sets my spirit right.

Somehow at some point in time I also began to associate Valentines with lavender. Maybe because when I was young I remember seeing Valentines cards with lavender on them.  Here's one I found today that is so cute!

source: Stylepinner.com

Besides being in love with the color, I really love, love, love the plant itself.  Growing Lavender here in the SC red clay that I have at my house is challenging to say the least.

 Some how I have managed to get one lone plant to survive and thrive.  This plant and another one I had in some pots on the deck for a few years before I put them in the ground.  This one loved the transfer and has thrived very well doubling in it's size.  The other one not so much.  I have tried two more additional plantings with no luck again.   I'm not giving up yet though, I'll just have to keep amending the soil until I get it right.

 I love the way Lavender looks and feels.  I especially love that you can smell the Lavender on your hands after you touch it and run your fingers though the leaves of the plant.  I have Rosemary that is the same way and smells so good on your hands.

I'm sorry I don't have any blooms to share with you today but its not quite the right season for that yet.  I can tell you if this beauty blooms like it did last year it will be stunning.    I promise to come back and share this plants beautiful purple flowers when it  does bloom.

Now if you really want to fall in love with lavender, and surely you must, because your here reading this and because I really want you too, okay?  OK!  You absolutely must try what I wanted to share most with you today.  Here's my secret for indulging in lavender.

You absolutely positively must try these lavender bath salts.  These are by far the best ever hands down!   I received these as a gift one year from my son and his girlfriend and I have been spoiled ever since.  In fact there is only one store nearby that carries it and I have to drive a little further to get this.  This brand is the only one I buy!  Aura Cacia has the best lavender aroma ever combined in a mineral salt that will sooth your spirit as well as your muscles. I've shared this brand on my blog once before in a previous post about my bathroom retreat here.   I love that it is not a bubble bath and I can turn on my jacuzzi tub without worry about bubbles overflowing everywhere.  It truly is a whirlpool of aromatherapy and a spa like indulgence right at home. 

This year I added a little something to my lavender indulgence.  I must have spent a whole afternoon searching for just the right scent of lavender soap to add to a Christmas present for my groomer.  She of course got the bath salt and some hand lotion but I also wanted her to have some soap.  I did find several wonderful homemade and organic type soaps but they were quite expensive and usually sold by the single bar only.  I kept searching and when I was at TJ Maxx I hit the mother-load of Lavender soaps.   I'm not kidding when I say I literally sat down on the floor and smelled almost every brand there was until I found what smelled like authentic lavender to me. I even had another customer who also sat down and started smelling soaps with me.  Too funny! I knew I found what I was looking for when I came across these in a beautiful box of 6.  The brand is Fiorentino, and is made in Italy. What I liked about these other then the smell was that you get more then one bar and they are just the right size.  Not too big and not too small.   I love that I can use these in the guest bath for company or in my master bath without some great big honking bar of soap that sits there forever and looses it's smell.  It feels very clean and much like a milled soap to me.  I love the cute little embossed fleur-de-lis on it.  It's so enjoyable when I go into our half bath to wash my hands that I feel like I've just given myself a little treat.  Try it, it's that good!

This morning I added more lovely lavender to the half bath with a newly embroidered hand towel.  I found this cute design online at Emblibrary and knew instantly where I would use it.  This is the last of the inexpensive hand towels I picked up to practice on from Walmart.  I think this turned out beautifully!  I do believe I am now ready to search for a few nice quality hand towels to embroider on.  I may have to make another one and do a set for in here though.  Now that I look at the picture, it looks a little lonely on that bar by itself, don't you think?

Well if I haven't convinced you yet of all the virtues of indulging in authentic lavender I've got one more small pleasure you could try.  Maybe you don't think you have a green thumb or are like me in an area where lavender is a real challenge to grow.  No problem, you could go faux!  

Last year I shared a post about this pretty little faux Lavender plant that I purchased at Michaels.  I shared it with you when I was showing what was the very beginning of my foyer makeover in a post titled Frenchy Foyer (click here to see).  These had just the right gathered look of fresh lavender.   I also picked up a few more different faux styles to scatter around the house.  I would love to find some dried Lavender that is not too expensive and made well to stay in tact. I have sometimes seen that the dried Lavender blooms tend to fall off easily if not handled carefully.  If you are good at being careful (which obviously I'm not) you may want to search for a dried version of lavender in a wreath or pretty bouquet.  I promise you won't regret it. There is something so enchanting and so old worldly about looking at lavender you can't help but fall under it's spell.

Thank you so much for popping by today and I hope you all are having a very cozy and relaxing weekend.  I would love to hear about your love for lavender or anything about it you'd like to share.    Wishing you all a very happy Valentines day!

Hugs and Waves!