Lavender Wand

My beautiful lavender bushes are ready to be harvested

It's so pretty and smells divine as you walk up my sidewalk

So I wanted to try my hand at making a lavender wand. Lavender wands are a way of preserving the wonderful smell. They are a traditional English craft from around the Victorian days. You can put the wands in a drawer or a vase to add fragrance.

Here's how I did it:

Start with fresh lavender stems, when there are a few flowers on the stem but still a lot of buds is the best time. Cut 15 stems, you can use more just make sure it's an odd number. Remove any leaves so you have a smooth stem.

Start by tying a ribbon very tightly around the stems as close as possible to the flowers.

I wrapped the ribbon around the stems a few times to give extra strength. Then begin to flip the stems over the flowers/ buds. Be gentle! Using the ribbon weave under and over the stems. The beginning may be a bit difficult but you'll get the hang of it! Over and under, and soon it will begin to look like this:

Just keep weaving until you get the wand as long as you want it. The one pictured measures about seven inches top to bottom. At the end of the wand I wrapped the ribbon around several times and knotted it. Trim the ribbon and the lavender and viola'!