Holiday OCD

OCD is a very serious affliction. My friend Wikipedia says, “OCD is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions”.

I say that is a run on sentence. I also say, when it comes to a number of unimportant things, I have OCD. Case and point, the holiday season. My sister yelled at me on the phone the other day, for simply asking her what her plans were with Christmas gifts for our mom, and if she wanted to share in a big gift from the both of us. She called me a psychopath, and reminded me that Christmas was weeks and weeks away and that she didn’t want me to even mention it. She says I, “rush the seasons, you know – like those assholes at Pottery Barn”.

I hung up the phone feeling deflated and a little hungry. Deflated from my loud-mouth banshee of a sister, and hungry because it was lunch time and the ice cream I ate for breakfast did little to curb my appetite. A short time later, while inhaling a spicy tuna roll, my mind wandered back to getting my Christmas gifts under way. I love making gifts for people, and incorporating my plant agenda any chance I get. And food (or things related to food) is always good. So I figured that some good home-made gifts would include herbs… the legal kind.

Here’s what I came up with:

dried herb bottles for stocking stuffers... lavender, thyme, oregano, tarragon

i used metal plant labels as tags... adorbies!

let the herb smushing begin!

mortar and pestle

thyme stems after smushing

dried thyme, not weed.

Most everyone has at least one or two herbs growing in their gardens… this week do a little harvesting and set some bundles out to dry in a cool, some what dark place.

No herbs? No garden?

Steal some from a friend or neighbor or stranger’s house. You’ll be amazed with how much dried herbs you will get from a fresh bunch. Select a few that you know everyone loves (oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage) and bottle them. It will cure any impending holiday OCD that is creeping up on you.

bottles…. herbs…. plant tags…. mortar & pestle…

Friday, October 21st, 2011 at 4:35 pm | Gardening | RSS

7 Responses to “Holiday OCD”

  1. Curbstone Valley Farm says:
    October 22, 2011 at 9:10 am

    I love the little herb bottles with the lavender. What a great idea! I actually planted lavender ‘provence’ this year, in part so I could use it in soaps in candle making. However, I lack the beeswax this year (and the goats for goat milk soap). I didn’t think of just harvesting the lavender and bottling it.

  2. noel says:
    October 22, 2011 at 10:34 am

    aloha jenn,

    great ideas…i always think about doing these projects but get distracted by….what else life???

    loved seeing your chicken palace in the previous posts…its amazing

    have a nice weekend :)

  3. jackpot 247 says:
    October 23, 2011 at 4:02 am

    great post, I adore my garden

  4. jenn says:
    October 24, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    hey noel –

    glad you liked the coop… i love seeing people’s different and creative coop’s. hope you had a great weekend…

  5. jenn says:
    October 24, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    your lavender would be fantastic dried and gifted in bottles… you can also find good DIY laundry detergent recipes that you could incorporate lav into. they would be adorable to package in bottles and give as home-made gifts.

  6. Evelyn says:
    October 24, 2011 at 10:21 pm

    Fab idea. Now I need to steal some from next door :)

  7. Rebecca Sweet says:
    October 30, 2011 at 8:40 am

    Ohmygod – you are so funny. Love the herbs in a bottle, too. I would be SO happy to get those for Christmas!