Lavender Love Giveaway Winners

 Thank you so much to every one who entered the giveaway!

Let me show you what you what our winners will be getting...

 This is a really pretty gift collection 

of some of my favorite things

 Softly scented organic soap, a natural wood soap ladder

 and a little ramie scrubby

 A jar of Citrus Rose bath salts....just a few tablespoons makes the bath feel so silky and smells wonderful

 A bag of Ojai Rose Potpourri and a Lavender sachet for your 

drawer or to tuck under your pillow

 now who won?

chedeb5353

and....

Itsa from Texas

 Congrats to you both!!!!

woo hoo

clapping.....and cheering

Please send me your address ASAP 

email:  kelleymotsch@gmail.com

Your packages are packed and ready to go

Again....thank you to everybody for entering...I love doing these....!

You can find this gift bag on the Polished Pebble Shop 

here

Have a wonderful weekend

Kelley

Provence Inspired Holiday Mantle

 This year I decided to try something a little different

 on our big wooden mantle

 I ordered 2 dozen packages of lavender, 

that came wrapped in little kraft paper bundles 

and some dried vines with faux bittersweet berries

 I just sort of started working with the vines and then decided a base of some sort would look interesting too, so I added 3 vintage French bread baskets

 I was thinking of using glass balls which would have looked great too but I had a big basket of these old rag balls and guess what....?

 They looked really interesting 

and were really easy to tuck into little niches 

and spots all along the vines

 Using the lavender already wrapped like this actually saves a ton of time and mess.

I pretty much had the thing done and realized I was missing something...hummm

 Hey why not stick a few bread boards in behind the vines!

 The biggest challege was getting the balance right...but this arrangement is so free form that you can keep playing with it until you like how it looks

 I have to admit I started thinking of all sorts of things to add to this display but then thought it might start to look like a French flea market!

 It is kind of a messy project and there were little orange BB's of styrafoam everywhere not to mention lavender...but it smells wonderful!

 I really like those bread boards on the mantle...

those might just stay there after the Holidays

 I can't beleive there are just a few weeks

 left in  2011...where did this year go?

happy decorating!

xo

kelley

Mother Nature and A New Garden

 Mother Nature was in a very bad mood this last weekend

and she dropped over 6" of rain and hit us with some crazy winds.

 We lost one of the older Lemon trees.

It was really top heavy with fruit 

and a bit diseased.

 We lost a huge low hanging branch on one of the old Oaks too.

 Guess we will have some fire wood for next Winter, right?

 There is debris everywhere and lots of power out all over Ojai.  

All I have heard all day is the buzzing of chain saws.

 A few neighbors lost some really huge Oaks, so we feel pretty lucky.

 Today the sun finally came out 

and the little seasonal creek was so pretty full of water.

 How wonderful would it be if it was always like this?

After all of the rain if you want to dig a new bed, now is the time.

 The soil is heavy but can be worked fairly easily...well not really easily,

 but at least you can get a shovel into it.

 This new bed will be a lavender garden.

I like Lavendula "Grosso", 

which I have used in many other spots, 

but this garden will consist of about 100 plants grouped together. 

 Grosso is the "go to" Lavender for crafts 

and drying because of the smell and the vibrant blue flowers.

I have been wanting to do this project for a while, 

but knew that I would have to dig this when the soil was really saturated.

 I start these beds using a pitch fork.

  This works great because the fork doesn't get hung up on rocks,

large and small...which are everywhere. 

 I swear the rocks are having babies like bunnies!

 After the pitch fork process,

 I throw in a bag or two of this stuff...

I also use this in the veggie garden!

 Then we get to fire up my fave little garden toy... 

the  Honda tiller or "Tilley" as I like to call her.

She is a girl of course...she's really cute.

I love my Tilley

...she may even need a bow or some lipstick!

 The Lavender garden will be next to the raised veggie beds and adjacent to the English roses

 This took about 4 hours and I will finish the other side tomorrow...weather permitting.

 We rarely sit here, 

so I would rather see a beautiful bed of Lavender, 

instead of empty chairs.

I'm hoping to get the beds finished and planted next week 

and we are also still working on the Master Bathroom

...UGH!

Stay Tuned  

&

Happy Spring 

xo

kelley

The Best Giveaway Yet!!!!!

So here it is...

Time for a great giveaway!!

Just a few of my favorite things from the locals here in the Ojai Valley and my way of saying

 "thankyou" 

to everyone who follows along and have become my "blogging family"

From the Ojai Valley Food Company, their organic ginger citrus grill sauce.

Absolutely the best on chicken and fish, but you can use it on sweet corn and even fruit!

From Westridge market:  Tomato, apple and raisin cheese topper!

Pour this over brie or buratta and serve with crackers and apple slices...so yummy.

Locally pressed olive oil with lemon.

Really smooth and fragrant, pairs with balsamic vinegar and french bread perfectly.

The Ranch House Restaurant herb salt.  

A favorite of locals, this spice can be used for anything.  I actually thought this had parmesan in it at first but it doesn't.  

It is really a great all around seasoned salt, really nice and herby....is that a word?

Westridge market Jamaican jerk seasoning.

Westridge grills tritips and chicken over mesquite in their parking lot on the weekends and they use this spice rub!  

 Amazing.

And finally, I will include some fresh lavender from my garden, as fresh as it gets and so fragrant it will knock your socks off!

So here we go

Leave a comment on this post 

I will choose a winner using a random number counter

Entries will be included up until 12:00 noon on  Sunday, August 8th 

with the winner announced at 1:00 PM

Good luck....can't wait to pick a winner

~kelley~

Lavender

This coming Saturday, June 26th is the Ojai Lavender Festival.  If you want to know, see, smell, taste and enjoy everything lavender this is the spot for you!

In my garden I have 3 varieties of lavender growing, which all bloom at various times throughout the summer.  

The Lavendua Stoechas "spanish lavender" is the first to pop up and I love it in arrangements.  It really isn't all that fragrant but it is a stunner in the perennial beds.

My favorite for drying is the Lavandula Intermedia "grosso" and Lavandula Angustifolia "hidcote".  Both have long spiky flower stems and really pretty traditional lavender flowers.  Grosso is the most widely used for oils and apothecary purposes and it dries beautifully.  

I have this stuff hanging all over the place...  on the front porch, in the garage and on the garden gate.  

It dries really quickly and then I trim up the stems and wrap each little bundle in raffia.  I like to put it in the linen closet and in drawers.  It is such a fun little gift to give a friend and so easy to do!

The Ojai Valley Inn and Spa has beautiful lavender beds below.  This is a wonderful place to stay for a weekend if you are in the area.  With over 220 acres it has a substantial impact on the area and a really interesting history, more about that later!

Our local Farmers market has a great Lavender provider, Rivendell Aromatics.  They have acres of lavenders and also sell haas avocados and other interesting fruit.

This farm is up the road from us on the way to Santa Barbara.  She sells lotions, soap, oils and dried lavenders that are just wonderful.  She will be at the festival this weekend and they are featuring lavender lemonade

Or better yet, how about  a lavender margarita?

Yum

Here's to the start of summer...cheers!

~kelley~