Lavender Dreams

As mosquitoes haven’t been out much with the snow hitting Calgary this week, I have not been testing the spritzers so much for mosquito repellent this week. Instead, I tried them as pillow sprays to help us sleep, and as body sprays as a light perfume.

I decided to try making a mix of lavender and vanilla for the spritzers, which smelled absolutely delicious. We sprayed my daughter’s pillow with it before her nap, and she fell asleep rather quickly. Pleased with this apparent success, we sprayed all of the pillows before bedtime. Big mistake. It started with our daughter. By 11:00, she had been up about 5 times, and at 2:00 am, my husband brought her back to our bed. But she wasn’t the only one having problems sleeping. My husband and I were also up tossing and turning all night. The next day, I read somewhere that lavender essential oils, when blended with other essential oils, enhance any effects of the oils they’re blended with. My conclusion? Vanilla does not help you sleep, and the lavender enhanced that.

Anxious to sleep well the following night, I used the pure lavender Spritzer. The result was heavenly. I did not hear a peep out of my little angel all night long, and she slept in an hour later than usual. Since she’s been potty trained, she hasn’t slept much later than 6:00am. With the lavender scent on her pillow, she slept until 7:00. Thinking it may have been a fluke, I used it again the next night (last night), and the same thing. It’s 6:30 as I write this, and I still haven’t heard a sound from her room. As far as I’m concerned, they are a success for helping with sleep. (I had some on my pillow last night, and I slept much better as well.)

Now if only I can find a way to make it stop snowing, so I can use it as a mosquito repellent!

New Natural Mosquito Repellents

Don’t get me wrong. I love our lavender dryer sachets. I think they’re wonderful for a natural mosquito repellent. But there’s something about having an independent 2 year old who insists on wearing the same outfit for a week that makes it less effective by day 3 or 4 for warding off the mosquitoes. And hanging my delicates to dry on the line posed an additional problem.

So when someone suggested making spritzers, I was intrigued. I found some bottles with spritzer tops and made a concoction of orange and lavender essential oils and created a spray. I added the orange, just for something a little different. I’ve sprayed it on myself and my daughter each time we’ve gone out, and even down by the river, it seemed to keep the mosquitoes at bay, and it’s a light spray, more of a mist, so it doesn’t feel heavy or oily when I sprayed it on.

The spritzers can be used as room sprays, pillow sprays, body spritzers, as well as for the mosquito repellent, but that’s where I began to question the orange mixed with the lavender. It smelled wonderful, but as a pillow spray, citrus is a stimulant, whereas lavender is a relaxant, also citrus can cause some sun sensitivity (although in those small amounts, it should be unlikely.)

However, with my husband, the landscaper, wearing a new outfit that hadn’t been put through the dryer with our lavender sachets, he was swarmed by mosquitoes, so I am making up some new spritzers for him and other volunteers to test them out before adding them to our line.

Check back next week to see our results!

Going even Greener!

I’m back, and we’re going greener!

Well, I admit I have taken a bit of a sabbatical from my blog (my apologies!) while I was in school over the last year, but I’m back this summer with ideas on creating a greener product.

This year, I was awarded a grant from the Alberta government – a technopreneurship – to help my little company. When I say I was awarded a grant, I should say that I was informed that I had been awarded the grant. I’m still fighting through the red tape to actually receive it, but it is helping achieve our plans to go greener.

So I would like to let you know some of the exciting changes we have planned for this coming year.

Our first green plan is to switch our flax. Currently we have been using regular flax, which I’m sure comes through several hands before we purchased it. We have discovered an organic flax farm just south of Calgary. We will be able to switch to organic flax, and also decrease our carbon footprint on this product.

Our second change we are looking forward to is changing to organic bamboo material. We have found a carrier of bamboo material that has organic cotton/bamboo fleece blend which we are hoping to use for our heating pads and snuggle buddies, as well as bamboo silk for our lavender silk eye pillows. We are also looking at the soy/bamboo material as well as the hemp/bamboo blends to see if those might be something that would work in the future.

Our third change that we are hoping to do is to travel to France and find a lavender farm that will send us the lavender and lavender essential oils directly. This way we will be able to make sure that it is the highest quality organic lavender and lavender essential oils as well as cutting down on our carbon footprint. It will also give us a chance to visit the lavender festivals to come up with ideas for new products. It will also allow us to see the farms up close to ensure the best possible product for our customers.

We’re looking forward to the red tape being fought through to make these switches and bring you an even more environmentally friendly product!

Bath Bombs and Bath Salts

I have begun trying my hand at bath bombs and bath salts. Lavender is a natural relaxant, so it seemed a natural addition to a luxury in our fast paced society- a soothing bath.

While visiting the Calgary Stampede, I picked up a booklet on “Crafts in the kitchen with kids”, with bath bombs as one of the activities.
I followed the recipe, making the mini bath bombs, and ended up with 3 ping pong sized balls (makes 2-3, the recipe said). After allowing them to dry, I took a bath, dropping in the bath bomb. To say the recipe “bombed”, would be putting it lightly. The ball sank to the bottom of the tub, and sort of melted there. The bath water was okay, but it didn’t react as a bath bomb should. There was nothing explosive about it.

My next attempt, I decided, needed a little more research. So I went to my search engine and did some homework. After discovering other people’s mistakes, I found enough information to make a second attempt. At fizzing lavender bath salts, this time.

The recipe I had discovered suggested putting the salts into organza bags to keep the lavender from plugging up the tub. So after mixing together the fine ingredients, I poured them into an organza sack. The powder sifted right through. I found a tighter weave of organza and tried it. Again, it sifted right through. I found the tightest weave of organza I had. Again, it sifted through. Frustrated, I made a small cotton sachet and filled it.

Success!

The salts stayed in the bag. I sewed up the top. Looking over, I saw my muslin material. I wonder… I thought to myself. I poured in the bath salt mixture. A little leaked through, but mostly it stayed in place. Satisfied, I sewed up the top of the bag.

A couple days later, I decided it was time to test them out. Unable to find someone to watch my little girl so that I could have a long, luxurious bath, it was decided she would join me. She loves baths, and I figured it couldn’t hurt, as all the ingredients are natural and safe.

I noticed the salts had hardened in their sachets, but as I dropped them in, both the cotton and muslin sachets began to bubble and fill with air, floating around the tub. My daughter thought it was great fun to play with the little sacks. They were strangely cool to the touch, and floated on top of the water. Also, as promised, the lavender stayed in the sachets instead of going down my drain.

The cotton sack released the air much more slowly, but both bubbled quite satisfyingly. As for the lavender added to the bath, it was definitely the most relaxing bath I have ever taken with an active 20-month-old.

I tried out another test sample after a day with 2 long bike rides, and the combination of hot water and lavender did wonders for my sore muscles, even relaxing a pulled muscle in my neck better than the lotions and massages had managed to. It’s not completely better, but it’s a lot better.

So it’s still a trial in motion. I am waiting on some specialty salts to try a new recipe, and I’m going to try moulding my fizzing bath salts into bath bombs.

Next week, our blog will feature something special – our new heating pads and an encounter with Mike Holmes!

Barley vs. flax heating pads

This week, I decided to do a somewhat more scientific experiment. And every good scientist needs a hot assistant, and I had mine. My husband’s more scientific and unbiased approach to things made him the perfect assistant. I remember doing science experiments in junior high, and used the same approach.

Question: Which filling is better for a heating pad, flax or barley? Which will retain its heat longer and which is more comfortable?

Hypothesis: The barley should retain its heat longer, since each piece of barley is larger than each piece of flax. The flax will be more supple, and therefore more comfortable.

Method: Two identical heating pads were made for this experiment, each filled with exactly 1 ½ cups of filling, and sewn shut.

Variable: 1 heating pad was filled with a lavender/flax mixture (1 part: 3 parts), 1 heating pad was filled with a lavender/barley mixture (1 part: 3 parts).

Test one: Each heating pad was heated for 1 minute in the microwave. This proved to be too long, as each heating pad was too hot to touch. As they cooled slightly, I put each one on the bare skin of my legs and sat to wait for them to cool. I felt them occasionally with my hands as well, and asked my assistant to test them as well. Although the flax heated up more, they lost their heat at about the same rate. There was no noticeable difference in the rate of heat loss.

Test two: I determined to heat each heating pad to approximately the same temperature to test which stayed warm for the longest. I heated the barley heating pad for 45 seconds and the flax heating pad for 30 seconds. I again put each one on the bare skin of my legs and sat to wait for them to cool. My assistant and I both concurred that there was little difference between the two, with the barley staying minutely warmer than the flax.

Test three: The cuddle test. Which one was more comfortable? The feel of the flax was far softer to the feel than the barley. The barley felt a little bit prickly, whereas there were no hard edges to the flax to be prickly or uncomfortable.

Conclusion: Although the barley retained its heat a little bit longer, the difference was not significant enough to switch to barley, as the feel of the flax is so much nicer that the heat retention difference was deemed insignificant by comparison.

Note: Spritzing the heating pads with water, or heating them with a glass of water in the microwave will prolong the life of the heating pad.

Join us next week as we tackle bath bombs and bath salts. A special thank you to my lab assistant!

Lavender Dreams

Lavender has long been used as a sleep aid. Some people claim it works as well as sleeping pills, but without any of the side effects. This week I decided to test this claim on the most restless sleeper in our house - my husband.

My husband, as I may have mentioned before, is something of a skeptic. He's also quite stubborn, and when he makes up his mind about something, there is no changing it. So, I didn't see the need to inform him of my latest experiment I would be testing on him.

I merely took one of my French Organic Lavender Pillow and Drawer Liners and slipped it into his pillowcase while he was at work, landscaping.

"You know," he said, as we climbed into bed for the night, "the whole house is starting to smell like lavender."

I just smiled. "I know," I said. "Isn't it wonderful?"

The next morning, I awoke from a wonderful lavender induced sleep. I felt wonderful. I turned to my husband. "How did you sleep last night?" I asked.

He looked at me slightly confused. "It's weird," he said, "I had one of the best sleeps ever last night." For him, this is rather significant, as he doesn't usually sleep well. He tosses and turns a lot, and wakes up several times a night.

I reached into his pillow, and pulled out the pillow liner. "Think this might have had something to do with it?"

He shrugged. "All I know is I slept really well, and whatever it was, I'd use it again." So the lavender liner has a new home under my husband's pillow. I don't complain, since it helps me sleep as well.

After a couple of night, my husband mentioned that his dreams were especially vivid with the lavender, and I noticed this as well, although I often have vivid dreams, so I cannot necessarily connect that to the lavender.

A friend of mine who has the large satin lavender eye pillow says that she uses that to help her fall back to sleep after nursing at night time, and she finds that helps her to go back to sleep more easily.

It looks like this is another successful experiment! Lavender can help with a good night of sleep, and lavender triumphs over the skeptic again!

Join us next week as we compare flax heating pads to barley heating pads, comparing which is the most comfortable and which one retains heat the best.

Lavender heating pads

My husband has been complaining of knee pains for a long time. X-rays have shown that his problems are a combination of torn ACL and arthritis. This is, of course, problematic for a landscaper, and so I started my experiment.

Lavender is claimed to be an "adaptogen", which means that it adapts to what your body needs and starts the healing process. The lavender added to the heat on soar muscles is wonderful. I love it. It works wonders for menstrual cramps and aching muscles. But would my skeptic husband be convinced?

He has been using a brace on his knee all year, and complaining terribly of the pain. So every night, as he sat on the couch to relax, I heated up one of our lavender heating pads for him, and put it on his knee.

There are a combination of things that he thinks perhaps helped soothe his knee. Putting his knee up to rest probably helped. The heat helped, and he says that, although he wouldn’t say that his knee was healed after using the lavender heating pad, it definitely was very soothing, and helped ease the pain. Of course, few things that severe are cured over a week, so we will keep using it.

So the skeptic, although not completely won over on this subject, is starting to be swayed on the benefits of heat and lavender combined.

Stay tuned next week as we see how our lavender skeptic sleeps when we put lavender under his pillow!