Stretching my perfume

Have you ever had a bottle of perfume that you liked, but came off way too strong when applied?

I have this lovely tiny bottle of perfume (real perfume, oil-based stuff) that friends gave to me for my birthday.

I do like this perfume, but the fragrance is a bit heavy. Well, I came up with a solution that works for me, and allows me to still wear this perfume, without asphyxiating an elevator full of people. In fact, I have this theory on how much perfume one should wear. If you can smell it a foot away from me, then I have too much on. Only someone whose nose is pressed against my neck should be able to smell it.

My solution -- I put 1 drop of perfume into a small glass dish, then added about 1/4 teaspoon of vegetable oil (yep, ordinary vegetable oil). I stir this up with a toothpick. I apply 1 dab, and that's it. I'm putting on a fraction of the perfume that I would have used, had I just used the cap as an applicator. The fragrance wanes after about 6 hours, so I can add another dab then, if I want.

This seems to be working really well for me. A small dish of my oil and perfume mix lasts for about a week. At this rate, my tiny bottle of perfume will still be in use for the next few years.

Finding the free stuff

My rosemary plants died on me this past season. Sigh. I've now started a couple of new plants from seed, but they won't be near ready for harvest for a year or two.

In the meantime, I've been wanting some rosemary for both flavored vinegar and for drying to use in cooking.

This past Saturday, at the event I worked at our church, we picked a bunch of fresh herbs from the kitchen garden, just outside the church's kitchen door. The ladies have planted this really lovely herb garden with thyme, rosemary, mint, chives, lavender and parsley. Those of us who work in the kitchen regularly, come and go through this back door. I always run my fingers through the rosemary, to sniff it's wonderful aroma.

Well, there were more herbs clipped than actually needed on Saturday. No one else there had any interest in claiming these wonderfully fragrant stems. But I sure did!

I stuffed a bunch of the rosemary into my bottle of thyme vinegar, and have the other stems drying on the kitchen counter, to grind and use this winter.

And, I now know where I can find free rosemary while I wait for my new plants to grow!