Easy homemade gifts

1. Homemade peppermint extract

Take clean, fresh mint leaves, fill a mason jar, crush with the handle of a wooden spoon to release the oils, fill to the top with a clear liquor of your choice, and put on the lid. Let it sit for a month or two (two is better). Strain into gift jars. Give to your favourite baker.

Dye, you fool!

Madder and dyer's chamomile. Dyer's chamomile smells just like chamomile tea, so my daughter didn't hate this as much as weld. Thank goodness she wasn't around for the woad.

I always used to get orange out of madder, but I've got the hang of it now. This is the madder with dyer's chamomile. The picture doesn't do the colour any justice. It's a quite nice tangerine.

More dyeing with weld

It looks like a kid scribbling a sun according to my daughter.

I think that I finally got this one down. Weld is so very easy to work with. It brings on a bright colour even with the high mineral content of the water from my tap. It's given me the confidence to try some of the other, more difficult colours...

And a very apropos colour for the spring solstice that just passed.

Onwards and upwards.