Lavender sleep sprays DIY

Years back I bought a bedtime spray from Avon and I used to spray it in my bedroom and on my pillow every night before went to sleep. It was lavender and I used it religiously until I could no longer buy it. What do we do when we can't buy something anymore? We make it!

Lavender is well known for its aromatherapy properties. Many people use it to help calm down, or even to go to sleep. One of the great things about using a particular item to help you go to sleep is that you get so used to it happening before you go to sleep, that it becomes a trigger that tells your body to go to sleep.

It's why all the experts recommend bedtime routines for children who can't fall asleep well or even for adults who have trouble falling asleep at bedtime. For me, a spritz of my Lavender Lay Down Spray tells my mind to calm down and get ready to sleep.

Thankfully this sleep spray is one of the easiest and cheapest recipes I make... Because I use it every night, so I go through quite a bit!

You're only going to need three things for each of these recipes. Well, four if you count the spray bottle. Distilled water, witch hazel or micellar water and lavender essential oils.

How to use Arnica

Earlier this year I had surgery. I was lucky to get a doctor that believes in supporting modern medicine with natural methods. She prescribed arnica and pineapple as ways to support my body as it was healing. I have used arnica for years, but had never thought to use it after a major medical event like this.

Mostly I use arnica for bruising. I have a cream made with arnica and I have some homeopathic tablets and I would use one or both to help myself heal from bruising or muscle strain. 

My stepdad had a really bad injury on his arm a few years ago and I decided to get him some arnica cream to help it clear up more quickly, so I looked online and I found that there is a whole line of arnica products and these are now sold in every major grocery store! 

I find that absolutely amazing because the last time I had to buy it, I had to go to a specialty herbal shop because I couldn't find it anywhere else.

How to make a corn heat bag

Today I'm going to put together a simple tutorial on how to make a corn heat bag. I have several of these in different sizes and they are amazing used hot or cold for basically any injury you might have. I've had my original one for over 20 years and other than the fabric getting kinda dingy, it still works great!

I've made several more since that original one and I keep a smaller one in the freezer and the larger ones just in the cupboard to warm up when needed. Depending where you're at in an injury, you could use hot or cold, so I like to have a few ready.

I swear I get hurt more living on a farm than any other time of my life! But I digress...

Let's talk heat packs!

How to make Ginger infused honey

Recently I got the *virus that shall remain nameless* and less than a month later, I caught a common cold. I haven't been ill at all in over 2 years so I guess I was due. Some of my symptoms were barely there and others were horrible! 

During one of these illnesses, winter storm Izzy decided to dump like a foot of snow on us and I live on a farm so that compounded things!

Trekking over 2 acres back and forth from the house, feed storage and various barns and coops in a foot of snow (twice a day) while sick is not fun at all, plus it will make you super sore!

I'm a big believer in natural remedies and giving your body the support it needs to heal itself. I talked about this in 10 ways to shorten a cold naturally. 

After the cold/snow combination I needed some help recovering so I turned to some of my favorite home remedies.

I am not a doctor nor am I any other type of medical professional. This information is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

Dry Brushing and Why Everyone Should Do it

For the last few months I have been doing something called dry brushing every day before I get into the shower. It's exactly what it sounds like! You brush your skin without using any oil, lotion or water.

I know it sounds uncomfortable and well, 'scratchy' but it's really not!

Dry brushing is a technique that can help improve your skin along with your immune and lymphatic systems. To promote healthy skin, you must exfoliate it as much as you moisturize it.

Everyone should consider including this method in their regular skin care routine. It is simple to use, inexpensive, and something you can do in just about 5 extra minutes.

While most people will do their dry brushing technique before getting in the shower, don’t feel like that is the only time you can try it.

Beauty (and health) benefits of Hibiscus

It never ceases to amaze me how many foods and herbs have healing properties. Take the hibiscus flower for example. This beautiful, bright bloom is completely edible and for years it has been used for several different ailments...yet most people only know it as the flowering shrub.

My mother recently said to me "I need to get some Hibiscus tea, it's supposed to help with weight loss."

She had read that regular consumption of hibiscus tea can increase your body's metabolism, helping you to lose excess weight. It has so many more health properties too!

Related reading: How to get started with herbal teas.

Getting started with gemstones. The first 13 healing crystals to buy.

Have you ever used healing crystals? They are one of my favorite things ever! Crystal stones...aka, natural gemstones all have different properties and many people use them for natural health and wellness. I use them often.

There are a lot of different stones which all have different properties, so I have a wide assortment throughout my home and jewelry box. I've been collecting them for years!

My oldest stones have been in my collection for at least 15 years. I wear them as jewelry and have larger stones sitting around my house as decorations.

I only started using them for healing maybe 10 years ago. Before that they were just pretty decorations. Turns out, they are so much more!

If you have an interest in natural health, it is good to incorporate a lot of different forms of healing, like herbs or essential oils. So why not try using healing crystals?

The term 'crystal' is slightly confusing though. You're probably picturing sparkling clear glass, but it's essentially just a raw form of gemstone.

It's like how diamonds come out of the earth looking a lot less fancy than they do in a jewelers case.

Natural stones are the same. In fact you'll likely recognize a lot of the more common gemstone names like amethyst, onyx, topaz and rose quartz but don’t realize many of these have healing properties.

These are the exact same amethyst, citrine or topaz you see in fancy jewelry stores!

Essential Oils That Can Reduce Stress

If there is one thing we're all dealing with lately...it's stress! Over the past year or so I've turned to more natural methods of dealing with that stress and the anxiety it can bring.

One of my favorite natural remedies is essential oils and since aromatherapy is know to impact mood, there are many essential oils that are great for dealing with stress. 

Smell is intensely linked to both memory and emotion, perhaps more than any other sense. The perfume industry is practically based on this fact...not to mention the whole scented candle and air freshener industry! 

For instance, the majority of people have a positive reaction to the smell of vanilla and associate it with pleasant childhood memories.

If you ask them, they can't exactly put a name to what they're feeling, but it's definitely a positive feeling.

How to use Lemon Balm (3 recipes!)

Lemon balm is one of the easiest herbs to grow in the garden, and that's a good thing because it is super useful! I have been using lemon balm as tea for many years now and just love the light lemony flavor. It's also used in many lip balm recipes because it is great for fighting cold sores. Today I want to talk about how to use the herb lemon balm.

I have been growing lemon balm for about 11 years now. I've had the same plant the whole time, although now it's more like 3 big plants and a dozen or so small ones!

Luckily I use lemon balm in both both foods and medicine, because I certainly have enough of it. I tried to get ahead of it this year by completely harvesting the 2 plants that planted themselves in spring, but it wasn't very effective.

I mean I certainly harvested and dried a lot of lemon balm! I used this method to dry it all in my truck, which is perfect if you're harvesting mass quantities...like 2, two foot high plants!

This plant grows fairly quickly though, especially as summer hits. Even though I cut them down to the ground, they were full size again in just a few months!

What is Lemon Balm?

Lemon Balm (Melissa Officinalis) is a herbaceous upright perennial that will grow for many years with very little care. It isn't picky about it's soil or watering conditions.

It also has a tendency to spread and take over the garden as I discussed in 9 Herbs that want to take over your garden. The main reason it's so good at taking over is the sheer volume of seeds each plant produces.

If you allow it to go to seed, it will spread. There's literally no way you will harvest all the seeds before some fall to the ground. I try to yank the tiny plants in spring, but they just keep sprouting! lol

What I should do is just plant my lemon balm in the woods instead of in my garden and just let it spread as much as it wants! I wonder if deer would eat lemon balm?

Lemon balm, basil and catnip are all from the family Lamiaceae (mint family). Members of the mint family and all are pretty well known for their medicinal qualities and this one is no exception.

Lemon Balm is a natural anti-inflammatory, has antiviral properties and is very high in antioxidants. It can be used to soothe the stomach, ease anxiety and stress, reduce the length and severity of a cold sore outbreak and even help with insomnia.

It's one of the ingredients in my Herbal Sleep Tea recipe.

Have you heard of Earthing? Why you need to try it.

Have you ever noticed how you just feel better after you spend some time in nature? Whether it be a day at the beach or a picnic in the park, spending some time outside seems to renew you spirit. There's good reason for this. It turns out that when you create a physical connection with the earth (being barefoot in the grass, or playing in the sand) you're actually connecting your bodies energy with that of the earth.

Have you ever heard of Earthing? That's the word used for walking barefoot on the earth and absorbing it's energy through that contact. 

It's also known as grounding and many believe that contact with the earths electrons can have a positive impact on your health and well being.

Is this a little too new age woo-woo for you? I thought that the first time I heard about it too! 

Then I found where Healthline said: Grounding or earthing is a therapeutic technique that focuses on realigning your electrical energy by reconnecting to the earth. There’s little research behind grounding but smaller studies have reported benefits for inflammation, pain, mood, and more.

If nothing else, the time in nature has a calming or renewing effect on many people. Anyone who struggles with issues like anxiety, stress, or depression knows how difficult it is to manage. 

Many people find that grounding themselves through earthing helps to manage these conditions.

Homemade hand sanitizer

When my daughter was little she was obsessed with glitter gel. I wouldn't let her have it because it was so full of chemicals. Then I came up with the idea of adding glitter to aloe vera gel. Aloe vera is completely skin safe and can be made without extra chemicals. Well from all my research about aloe vera I know that it is antibacterial and antiviral. So basically aloe has almost everything you need to make your own hand sanitizer. Plus it's skin safe.

Of course it's antibacterial and antiviral properties are mild compared to alcohol which damages the bacteria or viruses thus killing them. So after my daughters obsession with glitter gel wore off I started using the leftover product that we had made as hand sanitizer.

I'm way into essential oils and one of my favorite essential oils is tea tree oil. Tea tree or melaleuca oil, is known for its antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties. Combine this essential oil with rubbing alcohol and aloe gel and you have the perfect recipe for homemade hand sanitizer. 

Natural Remedies For Bad Breath

Recently I woke up in the morning and I had the worst taste in my mouth. Seriously horrible! Since I couldn't motivate myself to get up I lay there and wondered what in the world caused my mouth to be so gross today? I mean, if I could taste it then my breath must be horribly stinky!

So what causes bad breath and is there any way to actually 'cure' it for good? Better yet...what kind of natural remedies for bad breath are out there? 

Obviously good oral hygiene goes a long way towards keeping bad breath at bay. Still, as many as 1 in 10 people currently suffer from bad breath.

There are only a few things more socially awkward than having to keep a lid on your mouth (literally) all the time, for fear of being repulsive.

Bad breath can interfere with your personal and professional relationships if you're constantly talking away from people or not getting close for fear they can smell it. 

That kinda stinks...no pun intended.

2 ingredient natural bug bite remedy

Summer is here and with it comes a ton of bugs that love to bite us! Of course those bites itch and we want to stop that itch so we use a bug bite spray or ointment.

Unfortunately most of them are loaded with a bunch of chemicals that we just don't need to be applying to our skin. Natural bug bite remedies are a better choice but many of them require a bunch of different ingredients that you may not have on hand.

That is why I created a 2 ingredient bug bite salve using things you already have!

Because how are you going to buy a bunch of ingredients to try to save money, by making something homemade? The fact is though, that there are several herbs that can help take away the itch and sting of a bug bite.

If you have them all, then go for it, but only one herb is really necessary!

I actually grow several herbs that are great for this purpose and I'll link down below to some more complex recipes. Today though I wanted to go super simple with 2 ingredients you probably already have.

Medicinal uses for mint

My herb garden has a tendency to take over the rest of my garden! I blame myself of course. It seems like I plant a lot of herbs that sort of run wild and spread, especially the catnip, lemon balm and Valerian!

The one herb that I managed to plant correctly though is mint. That's actually a rather unfortunate situation though because while my mint has remained perfectly contained in it's planter, I would actually love for it to spread a bit!

I have been growing mint for about 8 years now. I've had the same plant the whole time. It's been so long that I can't actually remember what variety of mint I planted, but it does work very well in both foods and medicine. 

Mint is a perennial and will last for many years with very little care. It also has a tendency to spread and take over the garden as I discussed in 9 Herbs that want to take over your garden.

Though mint is mostly known for its use in candy and dental care products, it's oldest reference has to do with it being used like currency because of it's high value. In ancient Athens mint was used to perfume the arms.

Mentha (also known as mint, from Greek míntha, is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae (mint family). It is estimated that 13 to 18 species exist, and the exact distinction between species is still unclear.

Basil, catnip and lemon balm are also members of the mint family and all are pretty well known for their medicinal qualities. 

Mint is a natural anti-inflammatory, has antimicrobial properties and is very high in antioxidants.

It can be used to soothe the stomach, ease the pain of a headache, reduce oil production on skin or take the pinch out of a bug bite. 

11 Herbs That Help With Digestion

Having problems with digestion can really make you uncomfortable! Nobody likes to deal with heartburn, excess burping or flatulence. People have been dealing with digestion issues since time began though which is actually a good thing! There are a lot of tried and true natural remedies to help you out when things aren't moving along like they should!

When you have difficulty digesting food, a multitude of problems can occur. A pain in the stomach or intestines is the least dangerous part of digestion issues, but it could be a signal from your body that something is going wrong.

However, there are a number of ways to improve digestion, and help you to feel better quickly. Many of these herbs are readily available.

As times change I often find that I can buy an herb at Walmart or the grocery store that I needed a specialty store for 10 years back! Thankfully brands like Traditional Medicinals bring dozens of herb teas to all but the smallest grocery stores. 

Of course, I always prefer the grow your own method. Even though many of these herbs can be grown indoors, it's not always possible...and teas make it easy to stock up for when digestive problems hit!

Natural pain relievers: using common herbs and spices

Unfortunately living on a farm in the woods can be quite painful! There's a lot of manual labor and I often end up with aches and pains, especially when I have to chop wood or shovel snow in the winter. Ugh!

Luckily I have a bunch of herbal remedies to turn to help alleviate pain. 

However, there does come a time...often in the dead of winter...when I run out of last summer's dried medicinal herbs from the garden.

At that point I often turn to the herbs and spices in my kitchen cabinet instead of OTC or prescription remedies for natural pain relief. 

I also use these 11 herbs to help with digestion since many of the herbs can be grown indoors in winter. I know I'm not the only one who prefers to use natural remedies!

A large number of pain sufferers are turning to a more natural approach by using the methods of the past to treat the ailments of the present...and some of these herbs have been used for centuries!

Many common spices like cloves or ginger have been used for years to alleviate pain. Others like capsaicin are available widely in drug store pain relievers right now! 

Here's the list of 7 common herbs and spices that I use for pain relief that should all be available in your grocery store (if you don't already have them in your spice rack!)

Easy sew sinus headache pillow

I 'may have' mentioned a time or two that I get headaches. I have tried lots of different methods to get rid of them and it seems like anything that works, doesn't work all the time. 

I have had great results using essential oils for headaches and often take turmeric or drink basil tea to help alleviate the pain. The headaches I had last week though were a real doozy!

During this last bout of headaches, I reasoned that due to an accompanying stuffy nose they were most likely sinus headaches. 

Thankfully I have a lavender eye mask. It's a silk pillow filled with flaxseed and lavender. Simply heat it up in the microwave and lay across the eye/forehead area for about 10 minutes. Instant relief!

Except, as soon as the headache started to subside I needed to warm it back up. Not a big deal during the day, but when awakened by head pain at night I didn't want to run back and forth to the kitchen a bunch of times. 

I wanted to heat it once, place it on my head and fall back to sleep as it worked. 

Clearly I needed a different eye mask. I remembered the hand warmers I made a few years back and decided to use them instead. Next time the headache hit, I warmed them up and popped them on my eyes. The heat lasted at least twice as long! 

17 Home remedies for muscle soreness (to help you feel better quickly!)

The older I get the harder it is to bounce back after any kind of hard work. Whether it be gardening, chopping wood, cleaning chicken coops, taking a long walk through the woods or going to the gym, I now get sore easier and it lasts longer.

Muscle pain can really put a cramp in your day (pun intended) and since I'm not a fan of over the counter or prescription medications, I often turn to home remedies to help with muscle pain and inflammation.

Speaking of the gym, I have a serious love hate relationship with the gym. I love to be in the gym, but I hate to go there. So when ends up happening is that I never go and when I finally do, I way over do it.

That is not a recipe for a great feeling body! In fact, that is my #1 way to make myself sore for 3 days.

It's inevitable that I'll have sore muscles for time to time. The question is how to get rid of the soreness naturally? I have a few different methods I use from muscle rubs and essential oils to herbs and stretches.

17 Home remedies for muscle soreness

Epsom salts:
Epsom salts are actually magnesium sulfate from an area called Epsom which is in England. It hasn't actually been proven that these can soak into your body through your skin...but a soak in a warm bath with Epsom salts sure does help me feel better!

Yoga:
The gentle stretches of yoga can help relieve muscle pain. Be careful not to overdo it! Simple poses like the child's pose, sphinx pose or standing forward bend can help ease muscle soreness.

11 Medicinal plants that grow well indoors

Fall is officially here and that means that gardening is coming to a halt for the year. I've been spending a lot of time preserving my fresh veggies and herbs for the winter. I use herbs in so many different things that I just can't be without them! I've dehydrated and stored almost all of my herbs from the garden, except for a few.

While I'm really glad I can dehydrate herbs to store them, I would much prefer to use fresh herbs. I use herbs in medicinal teas for basically anything that ails me. From headaches to sleeplessness, I turn to herbs before store bought medicines so it's important I have them on hand.

Luckily there are some herbs that do really well indoors in pots. As an added bonus they Help To Clean The Air Inside Your House! I don't have very sunny windows and even I can get most of these to flourish indoors in winter! These medicinal herbs are easy to grow, even for beginners. 

How to use Red Clover herb

Red clover is one of my favorite herbs to use. Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is often thought to be a weed since it has the tendency to show up in unkempt areas like roadsides and empty lots. Since it tends to grow wild, it's easy for me to find on my foraging walks. It is a perennial plant and is a member of the legume family. It's often used as a cover crop or grazing crop and helps to improve the soil.
Truth is, red clover has a ton of wonderful health uses! 

Red clover is high in many vitamins and minerals and it has a long history of uses in herbal healthcare. Also, the flowers are edible and make a lovely garnish for desserts.

Red clover is one of the first herbs I tried when I started using herbs back in the early 90s. I had read in a little booklet called Historical Uses of Herbs that it was good for strengthening the ovaries and for stress. I had both of these problems so I started drinking red clover tea daily and the problems sorted themselves out in about a month.

After that I was hooked! I read everything that little booklet said and tried every herb I thought I needed. Over the years I've used many herbs but my love affair with red clover has never waned.