Happy New Year! Schedule of Events and Workshops for 2010

Art Walk:October
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The new year is almost here! Wishing a happy, healthy & prosperous new year to all of you.

I have put together my schedule of classes, workshops, and events for the first quarter of 2010 on my website at http://aquarianbath.com/events.html where you can also watch for events later in the year.

Hope to see those of you who are in the Daytona Beach or St. Augustine area soon.

January 16th workshop at the Sea Side Herb Society Meeting in Ormond Beach at the corner of Beach St. and Granada on using locally grown herbs for body care. 10:15 a.m. Saturday

February 5th vending in Daytona Beach 5-9 p.m. First Friday Art Walk on Beach Street

February 6th Natural Salve and Balm Making in St. Augustine at Maggie's Herb Farm Saturday February 6, 2010 10:30 AM- 2:30 PM Learn to make your infused herbal oils, salves and balms. We will gather fresh herbs for making a wound salve and learn to make a black drawing salve and lip balms. Learn about oil bases appropriate for balm and salve making and a variety of herbs that can be used in salves and infused oils. A hands on workshop Fee $35. bring a sack lunch Register at http://www.maggiesherbfarm.com

February 20th. Introduction to Herbal Aromatics Perfumery and Incense Saturday at Maggies Herb Farm in St. Augustine 10:00 AM- 2:00 PM Join us for an introduction to incense and natural perfumery. We will be making all natural cone incense with dried herbs and resins and solid perfume with pure essential oils. We will be working with a variety of dried herbs including those available at the farm including Lemon Verbena and Patchouli. Bring a sack lunch $35. Register at http://www.maggiesherbfarm.com

March 5th vending at the First Friday Art Walk on Beach Street in Daytona 5-9 p.m.

March 6th Herbal Medicine Making: Tinctures, and Syrups Saturday 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM Learn the basic methods for herbal home medicine making for your family. This is a hands on class in which you gather herbs from the farm for making tinctures and a cough syrup. We will focus on methods for making preparations, properties, of herbs used during the class including Mints, Holy Basil, Patchouli, Thyme and more. Fee $35. bring a sack lunch. A hands on workshop. Instructor Cory Trusty. Register at http://www.maggiesherbfarm.com

March 27th Vending at the Sea Side Herb Society's Herb Fair in Ormond Beach at the corner of Beach St. and Granada.

Pictures from the Mural in Progress at the Fair Share Garden

It is going to be worse than the end of okra season when we are done painting this mural. It has been such a fun process. Moira and I were out again painting with other volunteers the morning after Christmas. Way more fun than looking for post-holiday sales. Yesterday for the most part I spent some time filling in a baby blue sky back ground, and working on the tricolor rainbow, which you can see in the first photo above the vegetables.



Here is a close up of the sunflowers.



I think Michelle spent more time that she would care to remember touching up the blue water way. There was a comedy of errors with mix ups with the different blue shades of paint. Luckily we were pacified by peanut butter fudge shared by another volunteer.



It's a beautiful site. You can click on the picture below to see it enlarged. I'll be sure to update with more pictures of the finished project. We will be painting again at the garden Wednesday at 4 if anyone would like to join us.

Fresh Batch of Pumpkin Soap: Post Holiday Restocking

I got quite low on soaps over the holidays, and now I have just begun the process of making more. I plan to spend my free time in January stocking up as much soap as possible. February and March I have classes and shows planned. Also, I don't think I will find soap making terribly enjoyable when eight & nine months pregnant in April in May. I am dreaming that I can get enough soap made that I won't have to restock again until October when the humidity dies down, but that may be a bit too much wishful thinking.



Yesterday I made a new batch of my Pumpkin poppy seed soap. The pumpkins I used were from my garden like the Seminole pumpkins in the picture taken by Jason Aufdenberg at our Fair Share Garden. To make the puree for the soap I first roast it in the oven and then store what I don't use immediately in the freezer. The pumpkin puree I mix together with distilled water and lye. Here is is freshly poured into my two wooden molds. They have poppy seeds added as well as Ginger and Sweet Orange essential oils and a bit of Patchouli to help anchor the Sweet Orange.



Here it is all set up in the molds in less than 24 hours. I woke up at 2 am this morning with nothing better to do so I took the soap out of the mold and cut it.



The cut came out nicely.



The next step is to let them set out to cure for about a month. During the curing period water evaporates from the soap and they become harder and milder.



Next on the restock checklist is my Dark Stout soap made with Guinness beer, and after that more Neem oil shampoo bars.

Is there something that you don't want me to run out of in the midst of the upcoming late pregnancy/new baby era? Leave a comment and let me know! I'm scaling back on some items but plan to have more popular ones well stocked.

Mural Creation at the Fair Share Garden

We had fun day at Fair Share yesterday with the new mural in progress. It was quite cold out. Luckily we had access to the Lions club building where we also set up together with the Art Consortium and some warming beverages. Moira was so disappointed when it was finally time for her to go home with daddy, but she was truly tired. I came home to find that she had taken her tempera paint out and was mixing up a storm while I was away.

Here is Joel's daughter Hannah at the North East end of the building.


Fair share volunteer Lucy was a sunflower star!


Here is Jason who was painting from about 9 am to 6 pm. I don't think I saw him take a break. Jason also took some some great photos of the day which can be found on our meet up page.


We were not able to finish the mural yesterday. I'm looking forward to helping finish it up the next time we work on it. Join our meetup group if you would like to know when we will be working on the mural again.

Winter in Florida

It was such a nice morning I had to take some pictures in my back yard. This is the best time of year for me in Florida. It's 70 degrees today.



The leaves are finally starting to change colors and fall. Here are Fifi, Helen and Rose waiting for breakfast. Amazingly these black birds stayed in the back yard this morning. Moira or I usually have to catch them in the morning at least a couple times and put them back over the fence.

Mural Painting & Fair Trade Gift & Artisan Market this Saturday in Daytona

This is a rain or shine event! We now have access to the Lions club for the Arts & Crafts market....

We have a winner! Congratulations Momma Goddess

Thanks so much Momma Goddess for your promotional help with my holiday gift sets giveaway contest. Hope you have a great holiday, and I will look for your email with your perfume and lip balm choices!

Pictures from my Saturday Stocking Stuffers Class

I had a very fun group of students in my class Saturday at Maggies Herb Farm in St. Augustine. I'm still recovering.



We started off making rose petal and comfrey infused oil and moved on to bath teas, herbal ornaments and corsages from fresh picked herbs from the green house. And finished up with some lip balms and a winter dry skin balm made with the rose and comfrey infused oil.



Some of the herbs we used for the corsages/ornaments included blooming pinapple sage, rosemary, vicks salve plant, pepper, yarrow, lavender and oregano. The one that I made is the second from the left.



Stay tuned I will post my upcoming classes for February and March.

~Herbal Aesthetics~ Decemeber Blog Party

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. ~ Jawaharlal Nehru


Welcome to the Herbal Aesthetics Blogparty! I hope you are feeling creative, because we have many herbal activities for you to try. I'm sure you will find something fun to make. All of these wonderful posts have to do with herbs for adornment, decoration or beautifcation.

Tina Sams of the Essential Herbal made a lovely post which includes a compilation of former blog posts related to herbal aesthetics. It includes topics such as wreath making, making leaf printed t-shirts, and lavender wand making.

November's herbal blog party hostess, Kristine Brown of Field of Tansy shared a delightfully illustrated how-to for dying silk with herbs such as Elderberry and Black Walnut.

Cheryl Dolby of Healing Woman Art shared her post on Herb Stamps. This is something fun that my daughter and I love to do also. Thanks for reminding me Cheryl! Thanks also to Cheryl for sharing the Madame Thyme photograph at the beginning of this blog post.


Cindy Jones of Sagescript shared a very clever way to make enchanting holiday tree ornaments with dried herbs such as lavender and rose. Cindy also included links to her archived posts on herbs for weddings and making scented valentines.

If you would like to learn how to make fresh herbal ornaments, corsages or boutineers then scroll down to see my new Herbal how-to blog post.



What would an herbal blog party on aesthetics be with out a recipe for personal beautification? Janine of Athena's Armory shares her experience making her Rosemary Gladstar's Miracle Grains facial cleanser recipe for personal beauty care.


Many thanks to all the contributors for the sharing your lovely herbal projects.

How to Make Fresh Herbal Boutineers, Corsages and Decorations

Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs for the holidays. I have been wanting a potted Rosemary Christmas tree for a couple years, but my bushes are still too small. I'm still growing up and trimming my little Rosemary bushes. In the meantime I've been having fun making fun little Rosemary ornaments, and last night I made a boutineer. You can make these kinds of arrangements with other herbs as well. I've just been having fun with rosemary and red pepper which we have in excess in the Fair Share Garden right now.

If you would like to try making fresh herbal ornaments like these or corsages and boutineers you just need a few tools. You will need wire snips, florist tape and florist wire. You can get these from a craft store.


I choose herbs with fairly sturdy stems, but you can also use herbs with more delicate stems if you wrap them together with sturdy stemmed herbs. Strip the foliage from the bottom inch or 2 of the stem.



Poke a hole through the the green tender part of the herb stem and wrap the wire around the stem to stabilize it.




Stretch the tape and start wrapping it tightly at the base of the plant and continue down to the end of the wire.



Once you have the stems wraps you can combine them together however you wish. Finish by wrapping them all together with a new piece of florist tape. Here is a simple Rosemary and Hot Pepper boutineer.



You can also make and hanging ornament, a small wreath or corsage with additional herbs of your choice.



This blog post is a part of the herbal aesthetics blog party which I am hosting this month. Please be sure to check the next post on this blog to learn how other herbalists are using herbs for beautification.

Herbal Book Recommendation on World AIDS day

A few years ago I received a copy of the book Natural Medicine in the Tropics: IV AIDS and Natural Medicine by Hans-Martin Hirt quite by accident from Echo Books. It is not a book I would have typically ordered, but I was very impressed with it and have referred to various recipes frequently. The book includes recipes that are recommended based on modern medicine, clinical studies, and feedback from caregivers in the Tropics who have tried the recipes. The book includes many simple recipes which have herbal ingredients which are relatively easy to find, especially if you are living in tropical areas. Some of these herbs include Garlic, Lemon grass, Aloe vera, Ginger, and Neem. In addition to general immune stimulating recipes, specific recipes are also provided for AIDS related diseases. For example, there are sections for nausea and vomiting, bed sores, bronchitis, coughs and colds, Kaposi's Sarcoma, etc.

Here are a few of the many recipes included in the book:

For Fever drink 3 liters of lemon grass tea each day.

For ear ache put a few drops of neem oil into the ear.

For herpes make a garlic oil by putting squeezed garlic cloves in good vegetable oil for a few days. Put this on the sores two or three times a day.

This book is available from Echo Bookstore online.