Lusting For... Lavender

Has anyone read The Wildwater Walking Club? It's a book I read over summer about three women who walk and get to know each other as they begin to bond over different areas in their lives. One of those areas just happens to be lavender and it got me quite obsessed for a couple of weeks. Every couple of chapters there's a little recipe posted of ways to use lavender: in foods, in "dream pillows", in air fresheners... pretty much anything!  I love lavender, even the color.

Today, at the Last Hurrah sale on Modcloth, I fell in love with this Lavender Mist Dress, but it was sold out! It was so perfect in terms of what I was looking for in a dress; 3/4 sleeves, float-y sheer material, and muted color with a contrasting collar. I have no idea if it'll be restocked, but you can bet I'm crossing my fingers in hope!

I never used to like the smell of lavender until recently since I found it to be too strong. However, Yardley English Lavender powder smells like a dream! I'm not joking. It's brilliant, and every time I use it I feel very refreshed and clean. Random thing to throw on a list, I know, but this powder is amazing.

And now for some lavender-related things I really want to try...

Lavender honey. My sister's tried a flavored honey before and told me it barely tastes like honey and mainly tastes like the flavor, so I'm curious to see what lavender tastes like.

Lavender fudge from SpoonFudge or any kind of chocolate, mainly because I am a true chocoholic. Doesn't that look delicious? I'm thinking it's like Nutella but with a lavender kick. SpoonFudge also makes a bunch of other flavors that I'm curious to try!

Lavender syrup! Here's a great recipe to make some, but there's also a bottled form you can buy. It's great for adding to drinks, making things sweeter, or even putting in recipes as a replacement for sugar.

And lastly, before you suffer from lavender overload, check out this lavender essential oil! Lovely. It may not look that amazing, but while Googling I found out some really interesting things about lavender oil:

• It can be used for lots of skin conditions, like burns, hair loss, cold sores, acne, sunburns, cuts, eczema, and stretch-marks. Stretch-marks!
• It can be used as aromatherapy to calm you, but can also be used for stress, headaches, depression, and PMS.
• It can help sooth the stomach by relieving nausea and improving digestion.
• It can even be useful for simple coughs, colds, sinus, throat infections, and asthma!
• Even more uses can be found here. It seems to be popular for most things, like cinnamon and honey.

Natural remedies, folks. That's the way to go. Hope you don't mind my lavender craziness. I blame it on the book.

<3 Linda