I Dedicate This Year to CREATE (Plus a couple of essential oil projects)

Creativity is intelligence having fun. 

 ~Albert Einstein 

Hello, thank you so much for joining today!   I have a couple of recipes to share using essential oils that were in the Homegrown Collective box I received this week.  But first I want to share why I choose to make things like these myself.  There are many reasons: I want to control ingredients or I want to save money but the real reason is that it feeds my need to CREATE! 

As a child, I was always drawing or writing or reading or creating something - in fact, I taught myself to crochet before I was a teenager and knitting followed pretty closely behind that. I learned to sew at 4-H and I spent the whole summer between my junior and senior year of high school working on a huge embroidery piece. 

Then life happened:  parenting, working, schooling, and various other "have to's" took up more and more of my time.  I drifted away from my need to create and missed it so.  I even pretty regularly added to my craft "stash" for *someday* when I have time.  For years, that time rarely happened.  

So this year, I'm pledging to do something CREATIVE every day. It might be as small as knitting a dish cloth or as big as starting to paint again but I will do something every single day.  Writing this blog is one of my projects to keep me in the CREATIVE spirit.  

Has it made a difference?  It truly has.  I am hopeful for the future and not completely overwhelmed with work projects because I know that, at sometime during the day, I will put my hands, my heart and my brain to something solely for the act of creating. When was the last time you spent some time nurturing your CREATIVE spirit?  

 I received a wonderful gift from a Farmgirl friend in the mail today:  a magazine called Daphne's Diary.  It is an exquisitely beautiful publication and I'm putting it on my gift wish list (that's a hint my dear husband, daughters and sons!)  Every page is a delight for the eyes and sparks the creative fires even more.  I hope you get a chance to see it for yourself sometime.  

Anyway, back to what I made today. These are two useful items to keep in your cabinet for days when you have a cold, body aches or sore muscles.  

DIY Vapor Rub

(inspired by Homegrown Collective)

Ingredients:  

1/4 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

2 heaping tablespoons of beeswax pastilles or  soy wax

20 drops of mint or menthol essential oil

10 drops of star anise essential oil 

1/4 of a cinnamon stick, finely grated 

Instructions:  

• place olive oil and wax in a double boiler and heat just until the wax melts
• add essential oils and cinnamon and stir to combine
• pour into a small jar and let cool 

The salve is helpful for congestion when rubbed on the chest and some people like to use it on the soles of the feet too.  

DIY Sore Muscle Oil

(inspired by Homegrown Collective) 

Ingredients:  

1/8  cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil 30 drops of mint or menthol essential oil 

20 drops of star anise essential oil 

20 drops of lavender essential oil 

Instructions: 

• add all ingredients to a tinted glass jar with a dropper, close lid tightly.  Do not overfill.   
• Percuss vigorously on your palm about 40 times to emulsify the mixture.   

Use as a massage oil for sore muscles. 

That's about all I have for today.  I'm so glad you were able to visit!  Thank you so much.  

Tomorrow is our day with MaryJanesFarm and the merit badges. My post will be on milk paint - how to make it and how to use it.  It is the paint I will be using when I remodel the little house on our property which will become our Farm School.  I'm so excited about this project and the classes I will be offering. 

I hope to see you tomorrow! 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

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