Lavender Herbal Doll

The lavender has been dried; now it is time to do the tedious job of getting all the dried blooms off the stalk. We have to do this outside because it is so potent; even outdoors it causes a lot of sneezes! The Little Ladies worked hard on this; (sigh) but only for about 30 minutes.

Fauna took the lavender experience to a whole new level and made this lovely lavender doll with peppermint hair. She wanted it to be all natural, but found that rubberbands worked the best to hold the doll together. Needless to say, we still have a lot of lavender blossoms to pull from their stems!

By the way, I'm very busy working on the new, improved and soon to be organized 5 Orange Potatoes at Wordpress. Just remember that it is still under construction. ;) And, following Wordpress sites are easy; just copy the WP address, go to your Blogger dashboard, click "ADD", and paste address into the URL. Don't follow me yet at WP or you will have a FULL dashboard of 5 Orange Potatoes while I transfer the posts. I will continue to post here until the WP site is complete. Thanks again for all the support you have all given me. Even those of you that haven't commented, I can't believe how much traffic has gone to Faunarain. Thank you!

Lisa :)

Miss Green Bean Jeans

Araina's way to collect her green bean harvest!

Beans, Beans, Beans

Baked beans, Butter beans,

Big fat lima beans,

Long thin string beans-

Those are just a few.

Green beans, Black beans,

Big fat kidney beans,

Red hot chili beans,

Jumping beans too.

Pea beans, Pinto beans,

Don't forget shelly beans.

Last of all, Best of all,

I like jelly beans!

-author unknown

Araina's Heavy Harvest

Araina wanted to do all the harvesting in the garden this morning. She harvested: Peppers and

Cucumbers, Araina was fascinated with the "Little White Pokies" on their skin.

Quite the Heavy Harvest for someone that is 6 and only 36 pounds!

Araina's Harvest:

2 Cucumbers

2 Squash
1 Artist's Pumpkin

8 Peppers

A couple snips of Stevia

A couple handfuls of Chamomile Flowers

1 Monarch Caterpillar and 5 fresh Milkweed Leaves for it to munch

Now the Little Ladies are in the kitchen enjoying the bounty with their daddy! More on the Monarch Caterpillar in a future post.

A Perfect Summer's Day Is:

Finding a sleepy bumblebee and giving her a gentle touch.

Harvesting a basketful of herbs: lavender, sage, red clover, beebalm, catnip, and calendula.

Gardening in the vegetable patch and spotting a friendly toad.

Dandelion Octopus- Dandelion Virtues

We love dandelions in the perfect little vase on the windowsill; so sunny and happy yellow, a little sign of spring. However, we also love dandelion stems in a little vase on the windowsill, so curly and spirally!

This is so fun to do. Pick a dandelion, the long thick stemmed ones are the best, then pop its top. You will now have a hollow stem which you can see through. Start gently pulling down the "octopus legs." Try different widths, some thick and some thin.

Place the stems in water. Some will curl right before your eyes, some need more time (the longer they are in the water the curlier they will become). Watch them coil and spiral.....

Make ringlets...........

And go this way and that..........

Put them together to make a little spirally bouquet.

The girls also like to curl the bottoms of the popped tops, they call this little creature a dandelion octopus.

Visit Save the Dandelion for some more dandelion activities.

Organic Gardens and A Fountain Shop

We went to our local organic farm today. They had tables and tables full of organic herbs, vegetables and flowers. It was very hard to stick with our garden budget for the day. I can't help myself when it comes to herbs....I always want 2 or 3 of each kind!

The Ohio weather provided us with 80 degree temps today, so it was really warm in the greenhouse. The little ladies found the cool breezy spots!

My sister Katrina found a curly plant that matched her natural curls.

We went to quench our thirst at an old fashioned fountain shop. We settled for curly fries and cherry sodas.

We also met Robin's new friend Eric. This is their first picture together...aahhhhh! Poor Eric spent the day with 6 women! When you get my sisters, my mom, my girls and myself together there are 6 females.....he seemed to survive OK.

New herbs, new vegetables, a new friend and spending time with my family makes a perfect day! I have some dandelion and violet posts in the works, but those are for another day.

Raindrop Hike

We went outside looking for raindrops this morning and loved how these little droplets of water hung to some of the plants. Our favorite was the Lady's Mantle, a single raindrop hung to each and every little notch of the leaf's edge. We were rhyming as we hunted for raindrops and came up with this silly little ditty.


Raindrops on the Lady's Mantle,

Raindrops on the Pine,

Raindrops on the Apple Blossoms doing just fine,

Raindrops on the Lamb's Ear,

Raindrops on the Seeds,

Raindrops on the Lilies,

But not on Me!

Candied Edible Flowers

Today was a very wet and chilly day. We really needed a pick-up and needed to do something springy. We went outside for a little fresh air and noticed our wild violets were in bloom. We picked some to candy.

We also picked Johnny Jump Ups, pansies and geraniums.

To candy your petals you need egg whites (the freshest you can get), fine sugar, edible flowers, parchment paper and paint brushes.

Dip the paint brush in the egg white and coat the flowers.

Dip the flowers in the sugar until they are evenly coated.

Place the flowers on a sheet of parchment paper until they are dry (about an hour). Place the flowers in a container and put in the refrigerator until ready for use.


Fauna likes the candied geraniums the best.

Araina likes the violets.

Make sure you have positively identified the flowers before eating them, many flowers are not meant to be consumed. Also, just because a flower petal is edible, the leaves or roots may not be. For a great resource and list of edible flowers visit What's Cooking America.