A Thousand Leaves

10/01/2026

🥳 Celebrate good times, c'mon!!!

A Thousand Leaves just celebrated 5 whole years in business! A milestone that quietly passed me by but deserves some recognition because throughout the first years of this business, my family lost our home in a historic flood (right before our first farmers market season), we moved 7 different times, gardened in multiple gardens, welcomed a baby into this world, grieved multiple close family member deaths, and so much more. We have been through a lot in the last 5 years but I am so glad we are here, smiles on our faces, with loads of gratitude in my heart!

✨ 5 years ✨

I took a trip down memory lane and compiled some images of firsts, original logo & label designs, as well as other changes that have occurred over time. We are always evolving! I hope you enjoy the following short story and images 💟

A Thousand Leaves was created by the perfect synchronicity of things: my own health journey with menstrual pain/allergies/reactions/anxiety, me listening to a long time calling from the plants, a desire to be doing something different than working in a public school classroom, and a want to share all this with others along the way. My goal is, and has always been, to do good, share love, and help others.

My whole life I have been surrounded by incredible entrepreneurs that have always shown me different ways of existing and creating in this world. What an inspiration for my own business! In fact, the canopy tent I use for markets today is the same canopy tent my mom used when taking me and my siblings to her jewelry vending shows when we were younger.

This work continues to push me deeper into my experience, into my studies... more questions push their way to the surface. I'm finding alignment of how I want to move forward in the work I offer the world.

Thank you for being here with me.

09/14/2026

Check out all these great pictures from the Sustainability Festival featuring some really awesome folks doing cool things in the world ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🩷

09/14/2026

What an honor it was to be a part of the ✨first ever✨ Sustainability Festival in Red Lodge, Montana!

My focus was "Nature Has No Waste: Rethinking Plant Extracts, Essential Oils, and Sustainability", which inspired some great questions and conversations. The thing people were most surprised about? How much plant material is required to produce essential oils.

For example:

For a high yielding plant like lavender, approximately 8lbs of fresh flowers are used to make one 15mL bottle of essential oil. For a low yielding plant like rose, to produce over 1 pound of essential oil, about 10,000lbs or over 2 tons of rose petals are needed. Then you start asking questions about how the plants are grown on this industrial scale (monocropping) and how much these are being utilized in everyday products like candles & perfume (it's a 28 BILLION dollar industry and growing).

Zoom in on "final thoughts" in my photo to read my personal thoughts about whole plant extracts and essential oils. Spoiler: there's room for both. We just need to be asking better questions and building sustainability into the puzzle.

I didn't want to just show people a problem that existed and not give some sort of solutions so I hope people came out with better questions to ask about the products they are buying and what the process was to get them into their hands. I gathered dill & calendula seeds from my garden, enough to fill 20 packets, and gave them all away. I also made a "utilizing whole plant medicine in your life" handout with suggestions for using whole plants topically, internally, in cooking, and cleaning. Happy to share this if you want it, let me know 🥰

Biggest thought I'd like to impart is this: whatever we are doing today affects the future for generations to come & that is worth making better choices for. It isn't just about us right here, right now. It's about the future for our children, our grandchildren, and beyond. It's about the Earth and respect for what she provides for us. Living in harmony with all these things. Not wasting it.

Peace be with you all.
Love you ✨❤️

09/01/2026

Did you know it requires 242,000 rose petals to distill approximately a 5mL bottle of rose essential oil?

Or that worldwide, 1.5 million acres are used for growing plants for essential oils?

Or that only around 0.05%-2% of a plant is used for essential oil making and typically the remainder is discarded (it's difficult to compost due to the sludgy wetness of it)?

Come visit me at the Sustainability Festival in Red Lodge, Montana, put on by Bitterroot Botanicals to learn more about essential oils, whole plant extracts (my business focus from the very beginning), and how these relate to sustainability!

September 10th, 2026
2pm-7pm
📍Roosevelt Center in Red Lodge

I've been working hard on my presentation and I can't wait to blow your minds.

Love you 🫶🏽

06/28/2026

✨Market Day Saturday✨
June 27, 2026

Always one of my favorite days 🫶🏽 there's just something special about walking barefoot in the grass, listening to stories, hugging people, slinging herbal products, while the kids run around happy and screaming. People smiling and laughing. Band playing, folks dancing & listening.

It's all so sweet, so precious.

I have an immense gratitude for it all! ❤️

Thank you to every one of you who has supported me, my business, and ultimately my family over the years! I could not do this work without you.

May you all be blessed with an abundance of joy and love ✨

05/18/2026

✨Learned something new today!✨

Did you know ... ?

Essential oils are considered hazardous waste materials and because of their concentrated form, they are highly flammable.

SO the other day I found some expired essential oils from years ago when I used them. I don't use them anymore for multiple reasons (one of my soap boxes) BUT I needed to dispose of them appropriately and didn't know how.

I learned! & I want to share with you in case you ever need to do this!

You cannot pour essential oils down the drain because they can cause damage to plumbing and have negative environmental effects, including effects on aquatic life, due to their concentration.

I opted to pour them in a bowl of baking soda and leave it outside to evaporate. Evaporation of these substances is really important - that is how they release the concentrated and combustible vapors.

When they're done evaporating, I'll toss the baking soda in with my trash and throw it away. This is an environmentally friendly, easy, & safe way to dispose of essential oils, in case you ever need to use this information!

& I love to remind folks to use whole plant extracts (like whole plant infused oils or drinking herbal tea) instead of essential oils ❤️ whole plant extracts WORK and are a more ethical and sustainable approach to herbal creations because they require way less plant material to create. & the plants have an opportunity to work in perfect synergy with how they are created/exist, instead of parts being isolated and concentrated, which is what essential oils are. Plus EO's require SO MUCH plant material to make. Gobs. It's sickening 🫠

Okay, that's my share! 🌞

Love you 🫶🏽

03/16/2026

✨A girl just living her dreams✨

02/28/2026

✨Yarrow Herbal Oil✨

Yarrow was my first plant love, inviting me in. Making me fall head over heels onto the path of herbalism.
I am so grateful ❤️

Yarrow is heart medicine.
Strength. Courage. Wisdom. Love.

It's hard to describe in words my adoration for this plant that has entirely changed my life.

Yarrow's Latin name is Achillea millefolium.
Mille = thousand, folium = leaf

Our business name, A Thousand Leaves, is the latin translation of "millefolium", from Yarrow, Achillea millefolium. & Our business logo features both yarrow flowers and leaves.

Pictured is a yarrow herbal oil infusion! Our oil infusions are a mix of magic and love ❤️ I often say the plants and the sun do most of the work & we help them in the process. Made with Montana grown herbs, harvested and dried by our hands. Then lovingly made into lovely herbal plant offerings to support the body, mind, & spirit in endless ways 🫶🏽

Yarrow infused oil makes a great face & body oil and nourishing salves & lip balms. As a tincture, it also has wonderful benefits but that's another post for another day 😘

An excellent support for the skin, the heart, when you need courage or some armor. Among many other ways Yarrow supports 😘

Check out our website to see the current offerings and if you have questions or want to know more about our secret stash not available on the website, reach out!
We are happy to help.

www.athousandleaves.love

💚💚💚💚💚

12/15/2025

Thank you for this incredible review ✨ we love Heist! Check it out next time you're in Red Lodge ❤️ such a fun spot to find local art, jewelry, our products, kids items, and so much more.

12/14/2025