Winging it with Vanilla Jasmine Herbally Medicated Moisturizing Hand Lotion
Hand Lotion
This stuff smells amazing! Vanilla and Jasmine, strike the most beautiful note in this medicated moisturizing hand lotion that I make by winging it on the homestead. I mix a bit of this and a bit of that, on dreary days like today, in the kitchen to create something that smells good but more importantly truly nourishes and nurtures skin. I don’t look for the cheapest additives and then over charge for them. I look for and am studying through cornell so I can create things that truly help and are highly beneficial and medicinal. Skin is important. I tend to use this stuff on my hands but it can be used just about anywhere though perhaps the face is not the best place for it. There are better things for the skin of the face. Seems I have 1 extra jar of this lovely creation that smells incredible and is full of things like jojoba, shea, moringa, vitamin E, rose, frankincense, aloe, and a few other interesting herbs… I have no idea what to do with my extra jar… It would be sad for it to sit lonely and unused on a shelf… But that may be it’s fate for some time.
Some time ago, I rescued some blue plastic containers from a friend who was going to throw them out. I hate seeing plastic go to waste. Today, they live with me, and I fill them with my self made herbally medicated lotion. Then I leave them by every sink in the house beside my handmade soap in the same fragrance and also herbally medicated, to create a wonderful hand washing experience. My blue containers are getting old though and are beginning to look rather beat up. But I don’t mind. It is better than putting them in a waste dump where they will do none of us any favors. The way I use them they will sill serve a purpose for as long as they are functioning. I take great pride in this fact. Not only am I healing my skin, I am in some small way healing the earth with my choice of packaging for my home. And even for my excess, as I package most everything in glass. Plastic is the rarity.
Refilling my blue plastic containers.
They talk about recycling plastic. People do their best. Companies say they will. But then the reality is very little actually gets broken down and reused. It is a huge racket. Well, here at Wildflower, we prefer our lives quiet and racket free. So this is how we roll instead. I know… Not interesting. But I tell you about this dearest reader, because you too CAN make this choice. To reuse plastics. To package in glass. To try to be part of the solution. My hope is you will.
Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm
Tags: B&B, body lotion DIY, DIY herbal skin care, farm, farm blog, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, hand cream, hand creme, hand lotion, handmade body cream, herbal, Herbalism, herbally medicated, herbally medicated skin care, herbally medicated skin lotion, herbs, homemade skin care, homestead, homestead blog, homestead farm, homestead skin care, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, homesteading New England, housewife, housewife blog, inn keeper's blog, inn keeping, moisturizer, natural skin care, New England homesteader, new england homesteading, simple life, simple living, simpler way of life, skin care, stay home wife, stay home wife blog, travel
Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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