We love lemon essential oil for its wellness benefits, its bright and sugary citrus aroma, and its uplifting and energizing constituents. It’s a wonderful oil in skin and hair care formulas and for diffusing in homes and offices. We also love that this cost-effective oil makes an excellent cleaning agent and leaves our homes smelling deliciously like freshly cut lemons. It’s the 76% (=)-Lionene in lemon oil that makes it so good at polishing furniture and cutting grease and sticky residues. We’re revisiting five of our favorite lemon oil-based cleaning recipes that are easy to make, safe to use, and leave our homes smelling citrus good.

I am a four-season sandal wearer. I love allowing my feet to breathe and the feeling of being unconfined. During rain, shine, and sometimes light snow, my feet are ready to be bare at a moment’s notice. If an impromptu forest bathing opportunity or grounding session calls my name, I don’t have to worry about laces, ties, or the other constricting elements of standard shoes. My feet are free!

Spring has come on fully here in the Willamette Valley! Flowers are opening, leaves are unfurling, local wildlife is abuzz with activity, and I for one am looking forward to longer and sunnier days. Warm nights will bring ample stargazing opportunities throughout the summer, and the impending solar eclipse on April 8^th will mean that many of us will be extra-aware of the closest and most important star of all, our beloved sun. With that in mind, I looked at the season ahead and felt inspired to revisit this stargazing tea blend. 

I am a sucker for a colorful drink, and I will sheepishly admit that this bevvy was inspired by a popular coffee chain sign featuring their newest summer drink, the “Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha.” The colors and the anticipated flavors of lavender, matcha, and creamy oat milk made it irresistible. So I pulled out the gift card I had gotten months back and splurged! The verdict—it was good, but I could make it better with top-shelf organic ingredients!

Right around Spring Equinox, I start to take inventory of what is in my apothecary, what needs to be used in the next few months, and what needs to be replaced now. This timing is serendipitous because as winter comes to a close and summer’s nutritious fresh berries are still months away, I start to crave the bright flavor and nutritious zing of freshly made superfood jelly. Hence, the end of March is my annual dried berries jelly-making time. This year, I was excited to find that my dried hawthorn berries and bilberries are on the 2024 refill list. These two superfood berries, particularly in combination, are perfect for early spring jelly-making and result in one of my all-time favorite jellies. One batch carries my family happily into summer.

We live in a time when being a foodie is a celebration. As the more middle-class cousins to gourmets and gastronomes, we foodies have the same discriminating palates and passion for flavor, experimentation, and a mix of food cultures to help us build our skills and develop our cooking hobbies. We’re also very good at cooking on a budget. In the world of mixologists—a particular breed of foodie—making gin is the perfect representation of this. It’s crazy-easy, doesn’t take long, and you end up with excellent alcohol without breaking the bank.

Since I started sharing recipes for my aroma melts, people have asked me for a beeswax-free version. I was initially reluctant because the vegan wax alternatives can be a bit finicky, and I have always had great luck with beeswax. I finally decided to accept the challenge and took a retreat to my creative space to formulate a vegan wax melt recipe. After a few dozen rounds of trial and error, I discovered that carnauba wax is my preferred beeswax alternative. It has no aroma and is a much harder wax, so I don’t have to use as much of it as I would in a typical wax melt.

I recently spent a night at a hotel with an outdoor saltwater soaking pool. I didn’t see much of the hotel itself because I could not convince my body that there was even one good reason to leave the buoyant 102°F saltwater paradise. I braided my hair ahead of time with the—in hindsight ridiculous—idea that maybe I could keep it dry, but by the time I finally conceded I needed to go to bed, it was thoroughly wet. So I toweled it dry-ish, ran a brush through it, and fell into bed for a deep, restful sleep. I woke up in the morning to voluminous hair that had fabulous waves. As I stood in front of the mirror blinking in confusion, it dawned on me that I had inadvertently given my hair a sea salt treatment… which reminded me that I could do this at home for significantly less money with DIY sea salt hair spray!

If there are three things that I love, they are sweets, botanicals, and Star Trek. Did I ever think I would be party to a recipe that would marry those things together? Not really, and to be fair, the Star Trek involvement in this recipe is pretty nonexistent. (However, if any Next Generation fans are reading this, I think you will appreciate the reference.) In all seriousness, we already know that sweets and botanicals go hand in hand, and we are always trying to find creative ways to combine the two. We recently stumbled upon this classic Mountain Rose Herbs caramel sauce recipe and could not resist bringing it back. Earl Grey fans to the front of the class, please! This recipe is for you.

This year, I set out to create a natural skin care treatment for my dull and dry winter skin. So I took to my crafting space to work on a mask and scrub that was brightening and cleansing. After several iterations, I created one that I’m quite excited about, and I think you all are going to enjoy it, too.

I love a good Irish coffee. The conundrum, however, is that I generally limit my daily caffeine consumption to a morning espresso and I don’t want whiskey for breakfast, so it’s hard to figure out when to have said Irish coffee. St. Patricks Day is almost here and I'll be getting together in the afternoon with my coffee-loving friends and family, which will include traditional, festive Irish coffee. Happily, my talented mixologist of a husband recently got inspired by a tin of Mountain Rose Herbs herbal coffee. I wasn’t sure what he was up to tinkering away in the kitchen, and then he came out with this creamy glass of pure ambrosia. Although I am not generally an all-caps kind of woman, this herbal Irish coffee recipe is, OMG SO GOOD. Bonus: I can drink a glass in the evening and still get a good night’s sleep.