{"id":1213,"date":"2009-02-01T01:10:26","date_gmt":"2009-02-01T06:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=1191"},"modified":"2009-01-26T18:15:23","modified_gmt":"2009-01-26T23:15:23","slug":"herbal-creations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2009\/02\/01\/herbal-creations\/","title":{"rendered":"Herbal Creations"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had this fantastic idea this month to post a great craft, something really intense to get some interest going in this new column; however life and its strangeness sort of bit me.\u00a0 I have a very emotional and sensitive four year old son.\u00a0 Over the past week or so, he\u2019s been having horrid nightmares (night-terrors his doctor called them) but this diagnosis carried with it no solution.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t the first time this has happened to him, and I suspect it won\u2019t be the last.\u00a0 Being the crafty Hedgewitch type I am, I wanted to find a creative solution that he could help to make.\u00a0 I decided to help him make a dream pillow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dream pillows<\/strong> can be as intricate or simple as you want them to be, but with him being only 4, I will go through the way I\u2019ve done it with him.\u00a0 (I tend to try to be as environmentally conscious as I can, as well, so we\u2019re using recycled fabric on this pillow).<\/span><\/p>\n

First things first, we need to grab all the things we need.\u00a0 I opted to use a pair of pants that he\u2019s worn out. I am only doing a simple one layer pillow, since it\u2019s too much for him to be involved too long and the fabric is thick for an inner and outer layer (The inner pocket I normally use is muslin or something similar, its simply filled with the herbs and sewn on all 4 sides).\u00a0 My adult dream pillows tend to be a bit larger, but he\u2019s only got a small head so for this project his size pants leg works great and even better, I don\u2019t have to hand sew 4 sides of fabric (my new sewing machine hasn\u2019t arrived yet, and the old one, well its as useless as it gets). <\/span><\/p>\n

For a child\u2019s pillow I try to keep the shape and size simple, for this project I want a 4 inch by 4 inch square.\u00a0 For adults I\u2019d tend to go 6-8 inches by 4-5 inches (rectangle not square).\u00a0 I do adult pillows in an envelope style, this one will be a plain square (mostly because I often change the herbs in my own to suit my particular needs at any given time, but I am honestly making an excuse to have another craft to do with him in the months to come \ud83d\ude09 )<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that the fabric is chosen lets grab our herbs).\u00a0 Lavender for him is an obvious first choice as he loves the smell and it calms him, as it does for most people.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t work for you or you\u2019d like additional herbs; you can try Cedar as it helps to rid you of bad dreams, Anise does the same, Bay Laurel (the bay leaf you cook with) rids you of negativity, St John\u2019s Wort is thought to banish spirits (I personally haven\u2019t tried this).<\/span><\/p>\n

Ok, now you need your needle and thread or sewing machine, whichever you prefer. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sew 3 sides of the fabric all the way, and the 4th<\/sup> side part of the way down, with the wrong side of the fabric facing out.\u00a0 Flip the fabric so the seams are inside.\u00a0 Now we\u2019ll add our herbs.\u00a0 I am using about \u00be of a cup of lavender for this pillow, you can use as much or as little as you want, but remember if the pillow is too thick it will make sleep uncomfortable.\u00a0 Once you have added your herbs, sew the open edge closed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019ve finished your dream pillow, slide it inside your pillowcase and enjoy an herb filled restful nights sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Help Me Sleep Tisane <\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Tisane is an herbal tea style drink.\u00a0 The difference between tisane and herbal tea, is that there are no tea leaves in tisane.\u00a0 So we\u2019re creating an all natural herb based hot drink.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll need the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

1 cup chamomile (the herb, chamomile tea will not work for this)<\/span><\/p>\n

3 tablespoons lavender flowers<\/span><\/p>\n

Mix together and store in a sealed container.\u00a0 Use what fills your brewing method of choice (a tea ball for instance) pour boiling water over, and steep like normal tea for 3-6 minutes (the longer you steep, the stronger the flavor) add a bit of honey to sweeten and you\u2019re all set. Enjoy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had this fantastic idea this month to post a great craft, something really intense to get some interest going in this new column; however life and its strangeness sort of bit me.\u00a0 I have a very emotional and sensitive four year old son.\u00a0 Over the past week or so, he\u2019s been having horrid nightmares (night-terrors his doctor called them) but this diagnosis carried with it no solution.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t the first time this has happened to him, and I suspect it won\u2019t be the last.\u00a0 Being the crafty Hedgewitch type I am, I wanted to find a creative solution that he could help to make.\u00a0 I decided to help him make a dream pillow. Dream pillows can be as intricate or simple as you want them to be, but with him being only 4, I will go through the way I\u2019ve done it with him.\u00a0 (I tend to try to be as environmentally conscious as I can, as well, so we\u2019re using recycled fabric on this pillow). First things first, we need to grab all the things we need.\u00a0 I opted to use a pair of pants that he\u2019s worn out. I am only doing a simple one layer pillow, since it\u2019s too much for him to be involved too long and the fabric is thick for an inner and outer layer (The inner pocket I normally use is muslin or something similar, its simply filled with the herbs and sewn on all 4 sides).\u00a0 My adult dream pillows tend to be a bit larger, but he\u2019s only got a small head so for this project his size pants leg works great and even better, I don\u2019t have to hand sew 4 sides of fabric (my new sewing machine hasn\u2019t arrived yet, and the old one, well its as useless as it gets). For a child\u2019s pillow I try to keep the shape and size simple, for this project I want a 4 inch by 4 inch square.\u00a0 For adults I\u2019d tend to go 6-8 inches by 4-5 inches (rectangle not square).\u00a0 I do adult pillows in an envelope style, this one will be a plain square (mostly because I often change the herbs in my own to suit my particular needs at any given time, but I am honestly making an excuse to have another craft to do with him in the months to come \ud83d\ude09 ) Now that the fabric is chosen lets grab our herbs).\u00a0 Lavender for him is an obvious first choice as he loves the smell and it calms him, as it does for most people.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t work for you or you\u2019d like additional herbs; you can try Cedar as it helps to rid you of bad dreams, Anise does the same, Bay Laurel (the bay leaf you cook with) rids you of negativity, St John\u2019s Wort is thought to banish spirits (I personally haven\u2019t tried this). Ok, now you need your needle and thread or sewing machine, whichever you prefer. Sew 3 sides of the fabric all the way, and the 4th side part of the way down, with the wrong side of the fabric facing out.\u00a0 Flip the fabric so the seams are inside.\u00a0 Now we\u2019ll add our herbs.\u00a0 I am using about \u00be of a cup of lavender for this pillow, you can use as much or as little as you want, but remember if the pillow is too thick it will make sleep uncomfortable.\u00a0 Once you have added your herbs, sew the open edge closed. Now that you\u2019ve finished your dream pillow, slide it inside your pillowcase and enjoy an herb filled restful nights sleep. Help Me Sleep Tisane Tisane is an herbal tea style drink.\u00a0 The difference between tisane and herbal tea, is that there are no tea leaves in tisane.\u00a0 So we\u2019re creating an all natural herb based hot drink. You\u2019ll need the following: 1 cup chamomile (the herb, chamomile tea will not work for this) 3 tablespoons lavender flowers Mix together and store in a sealed container.\u00a0 Use what fills your brewing method of choice (a tea ball for instance) pour boiling water over, and steep like normal tea for 3-6 minutes (the longer you steep, the stronger the flavor) add a bit of honey to sweeten and you\u2019re all set. Enjoy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1213"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1236,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}