Fragrant Homemade Fire Sticks!

Fall here is alive and well and soon enough were going to have LOTS of snow as usual. To me this conjures up warm and fuzzy feelings. I love fall, its colors and scents but I really love the first big snowfall! Its so white and beautiful and always brings a smile to my face 🙂 Plus, I LOVE enjoying cozy fires with a good book and a cup of hot cocoa. Ahhh, can’t wait!  Anywho, this year after trimming my lavender plants in preparation for winter I kept thinking “theres got to be something I can do with the trimmings instead of just throwing them out” wouldn’t you agree? So here it is….fire-sticks! These awesome little bundles smell amazing and will also help in starting a wood burning fire.

French lavender at the end of season is very dense and woody but still very fragrant, perfect for fire-sticks!

Up close of the dried spent lavender blooms.

What you should do first is clip as many of the blooms as well as the foliage you desire. One average sized plant will render about 2 dozen fire-sticks.

After you’ve gathered all your clippings, you can wash them and leave them out to dry (optional).

Next, the supplies you will need are:

-Your clippings

-Scissors

-Twine

-Newspaper or another type of paper

-Any other additional herbs you’d like to add (Sage, thyme, marjoram, rosemary or chamomile are great options!) I decided to add some cinnamon sticks to the mix 🙂

Just a few of the supplies needed.

And it’s always nice to have a helper! In this case….my cat Feliks insisted he be present for this project! Ha.

Feliks the “helper”.

After you’ve gathered all your supplies cut your paper into squares and cut two twine pieces for each square. To add a little extra “fun” you could used scalloped scissors on the corners of each paper square to create an interesting look.

Then place your herb bundle towards the edge of one corner.

Squared paper with scalloped edges with herb bundle.

Close up….just for fun 🙂

Now start rolling the paper into a long tube like shape.

Rolling the lavender bundle.

If your paper is thicker you can secure its closure with a little piece of tape.

Next, if you’re using thicker paper like I did you’ll have to cut into each end so that when the twine is tied the ends don’t get completely smashed in. If you don’t really care, you can skip this step.

Cutting into each end of the bundle.

Now tie each end of the bundle off with some twine…..and there you have it, you’re done!

Finished lavender cinnamon fire-stick!

Next step…..toss with some kindling, start a fire and enjoy 🙂