Homemade Overnight Hand Cream Tutorial

Just a quick video I made on how I make my overnight hand cream

Super Simple Homemade Deodorant Tutorial

I've been making Youtube videos again, I'm finding it can be a lot easier to explain a technique by speaking than typing and a lot of pictures at time.

This time it's how I make my super simple homemade deodorant.

Women's Daily Herbal Tea Recipe and Video Tutorial

I was needing to make up a fresh batch of  my everyday tea this week so thought I would quickly set up the camera and film a demo video, nothing polished but it shows just how easy creating your own blend can be.

This is my usual daily health mix with no added extras for any symptoms or illnesses I may be having, so hope you enjoy and find useful :)

           

Four Winds Herbal Tea Video Tutorial

Today I am sharing a video I created to show to make a herbal tea called Four Winds Tea which is great for trapped wind and bloatedness.

 It comes From a book by James Wong and can be found here: http://goo.gl/ltXpfo on amazon. I hope you enjoy the video and the Tea.

        

My Witchy Temple Room Tour Video

I decided last week to do a wee tour video of my witch 'craft' room and altar space and giving more detail than a written blogpost or instagram photo could do. I hope you enjoy the tour :)

How to Easily Make Comfrey Ointment

With the Comfrey plants almost reaching tree like proportions, it is well past time for me to be harvesting it. Usually before now I have been harvesting the first cut for making comfrey infusion for the greenhouse but I have been a little lax this year so now I have a huge first harvest instead.

Most of the leaves harvested will be used to make comfrey infusion, which basically involved steeping the leaves in a huge bucket of water to make a horrid smelly liquid which the tomatoes love. But comfrey ointment for this years stock will be made with some of the leaves first.

Comfrey has long been used traditionally as a healing plant, and scientific studies show that the plant contains a small molecule called 'allantion' which repairs cells and decreases inflammation making it excellent for skin wounds.

Making comfrey ointment is really easy and one of the quickest I find to make.

How to Make Comfrey Ointment

Ingredients:

Fresh picked comfrey leaves

Either.... Olive oil (or another preferred oil such as almond/sunflower etc) and Beeswax

OR …... Coconut oil

Labelled jars or pots to store

* Roughly chop comfrey leaves and place in a saucepan

* Cover with oil (if you are using coconut oil you may need to melt it first)

* Heat very very gently just so that you are getting the oil not quite hot, you do not want to Fry your comfrey (although I have been know to accidentally do this myself).

* Turn off the heat and allow to comfrey to infuse in the warm oil for around an hour in a warm place.

* Strain your oil through a sieve into a measuring jug squeezing the leaves with the back of a spoon to keep as much of the oil as you can, then allow to stand for another hour in a warm place.

* If you are using coconut you are now finished and can carefully pour your ointment into jars or pots leaving any sediment behind in the jug and store in a cool place.

* If you are using beeswax you need to measure how much oil you have before carefully pouring back into your wiped out comfrey pan leaving the sediment behind in the jug.

* Add beeswax to your pan using roughly 10grams (½ oz) of beeswax for every 100ml (3 ½ fl oz) of oil,  heat gently to melt and mix, then pour into pots or jars.

And that's it, easy done in a morning.

Top Tips for Harvesting Dandelion Flowers

I've been harvesting dandelion flowers for various uses for several years now, and there are a few tricks I have learnt along the way, so whether you are collecting them for remedies, dying yarn, brewing wine or just to add to a salad, here are a few tips for you :)

Before You Pick Your Flower Petals

• Picking dandelions will stain your finger tips and nails and although this will be removed from your skin within a couple of washes, the nails can take a bit longer. One way of reducing this is to dig your nails into a bar of soap and wipe off the excess before going to harvest your dandelions.

• If you intend to use your dandelions for food, remedies, brewing etc avoid harvesting them from the roadside where they will have absorbed excess amounts of heavy metals from car fumes. Also avoid the main parts of your lawn unless you know they haven't been trampled on or peed on by pet dogs, and from the corners of garden walls where they may have been sprayed on by the local tom cat.

• If you are using your dandelions to dye yarn, fleece etc the above point is not important so use the possibly contaminated ones for this purpose.

• Choose a dry sunny day to harvest your flowers, the sun will encourage more flowers to open, and being dry before harvesting means less chance of spoiling your recipe, especially if infusing in oil for remedies. Also it is best to finish harvesting before mid afternoon as the flowers will begin to close up for the day making them harder to pick.

Harvesting Your Dandelion Flowers

It used to take me ages to harvest enough petals for a batch of wine, as I would pull a load of flower heads off before sitting down in the sun and one by one pick all the green backs off the petals to go in the compost, it took twice as long as the way I do it now, plus my hands would be a mess for days.

• First grab your dandelion flower head by the green part at the back tightly, pinch together all of the petals in the fingers in the other hand, then firmly pull out the yellow petals, if a few bits of green sneak in it wont matter. When you have done this a couple of times you can work really quickly filling your measuring jug.

• If there is any little bugs or flies on the flower head, just gently bend over the stalk and tap them out.

• When measuring your flower petals for a recipe, firmly press them down in your jug, but not so hard that the are tightly rammed in.

I hope you find these tips helpful :) 

So tell me what is your favorite use is for the humble dandelion?

The Great Dandelion Harvest of 2013

With a final break in the weather on Sundays it was time for the great dandelion harvest of 2013. 

I had already set away two demijons of dandelion wine last week as I do annually, but decided i couldnt let such a huge crop go to waste. Although I still have dandelion stain under my nails I was able to pick enough blossoms to create infused oil, dandilion tincture and some liqueur, before john went mad with the mower.

I haven't yet decided whether to turn the oil in to ointment or leave as a liquid when it is ready, but I will add it to my marigold tincture and comfrey ointment in the home remedies kit.

Making herbal remedies is one of the things I love doing, I am not sure why I haven't done many since moving here, time mostly I think, but I am now back on form.

An Apothecary at Home

I'm having a bit of a blitz in the cottage right now and as it is only half finished, we are quite limited on storage space. One of the ways I have found around this is by finding fab ways to display stuff, thereby freeing up valuable space in cupboards. Recently I was finding it difficult to find things in my witchy cupboard, when I saw a piccy on Pinterest and a light bulb went ding!.

Another lady had created an apothecary shelf, and I thought this was a fab idea for my remedy/incense herbs. So off I went raiding John's wood stash and using his power tools whipped up this  !!  I am so pleased with it, been ages since I have done any sort of woodwork, and looks good if I do say so myself.

I painted all the lids black on the jars they were already in, got some labels from a store on Etsy, hung it up and stood back. Now please ignore the fact it is slightly wonky on the wall but what do you think?

Actually I have been on a bit of a pinterest crafty streak, making bits I have been meaning to for ages, just need to find time to photograph them.

Right must get on and start making dinner, squash and chickpea stew tonight, yumm, and make some meatball calzones to freeze for when the boys are up. If I am not back before, see you at the party on Saturday :)

A recipe for Dubbin

Dubbin : leather food for boots etc, and DRUMS !!! :)

One of the disadvantages of living out in the sticks is that when and idea or urge pops into your head and you need to purchase something to complete it, you need to be patient.

I have learnt well since coming to Orkney, the art of patience, whether that be waiting upon a delivery from the mainland from an Internet order, or waiting for a trip to town.
It's not that it is far to town, only about 17 miles I think, it's getting there. Although we do have a car, I am reluctant for us to pop in at the weekend just for a few bits. Often I will go in during the week, but as I don't drive I need to rely on our buses which are not exactly frequent, and a quick trip to town can be a full day wasted.
So whats this got to do with dubbin? Well a little while ago some of us started a little drumming evening, and although I have got a small hand drum, it sounds crap. A friend suggested using dubbin on it, which is used on leather, fab.


Well the problem is, I didn't go to town last week, I am not going this week, which means waiting till next week. toooo loooong!

I had a bit of a browse on tinternet to find out if you could make it. turns out it is made from tallow, beeswax and fish or mink oil. Found a website where they make their own and got the recipe, tweaked it a bit and Bob's your uncle, got it made, Go Mel !!
so here is the recipe:

Dubbin
30g lard
15g beeswax
5g fish oil (eg cod liver oil capsules, squeezed into mix)

gently melt together lard and beeswax
add fish oil, I used 10 large cod liver oil capsules as I was guessing.
melt this into the mix too. pour into a jar and done :)

Homemade Natural Sugaring Recipe (or Cough Sweets)

I have finally got around to making some more sugaring solution, no more hairy winter legs!
I've made this a few times now, and this is how:
You will need:
1 cup white sugar,
juice of half a lemon,
and 1/4 cup of honey.
Give it a mix and heat gently till sugar is all melted and it bubbles a little. you should end up with a syrup, not toffee.
When it is warm spread on legs and rip off with fabric strips !
Don't despair if you over heat it and it turns to toffee, simply wait till it cools, smash it with a toffee hammer and you have cough sweets !!
The recipe originally came from this brilliant website: http://www.pioneerthinking.com/

After spending months I have finally finished the window dressing in the front room (i.e.my craft/relax/pagan/book room). I spent hours scouring the internet for the right fabric, till mum suggested plain calico, which looks great.

Also got some funky tie-back hooks to go with them from ebay, very me :)

Calendula hand cream

This weekend I have finally got round to making some handcream, which I've been meaning to do for a few weeks now.The skin on my hands has got terribly dry this winter, a combination of cold weather and washing in cold water, I will be very glad when we have hot running water.

I've made some calendula cream and i am very pleased with it, it certainly seems to be working as well and if not better than the cream bought form the shop a few weeks ago, so here is the recipe:

place 50ml of oil (I used olive) in an enammel pan or pyrex bowl, with a good pinch of dried marigold petals. Sit this to steep somewhere warm such as the airing cupboard or on to of the range (warm plate only). Allow to steep for a couple of hours, or overnight.

When oil is ready strain and add appox 1 tbsp of gratted beeswax and melt into the oil.Place another good pinch of marigold into a jug and pour on 50ml hot water, allow this to steep for about half an hour. strain and put back in jug and reheat.

Making sure both oil and water are hot (but not boiling) very slowly with a balloon whisk, whisk the water into the oil only adding a tiny amount at a time (like making mayo), if you do it too quick it will split.

Spoon into a jar and hey presto.

Also finally the snow drops are out in full flower in the garden, took them long enough.