I love today’s countdown task of scenting your home with fresh-cut greenery. Before the days of instant room deodorizers, folks cut evergreen boughs to accomplish this.
If you haven’t access to fresh evergreens, Better Homes and Gardens suggests adding a few drops of evergreen essential oil to a terra-cotta tree ornament.
We’re planning a quick trip up into the mountains to get some evergreen cuttings and, since today is Saint Nicholas Day, our tree goes up tonight. In the meantime, I’ve been adding a few drops of peppermint essential oil to my aromatherapy burners.
Yesterday I made holiday potpourri for simmering. A bag of the dry ingredients would make a lovely holiday hostess gift, too. Just package and add a note of instruction.
I used juniper berries from a friend’s tree and fresh rosemary from my backyard to make mine—check your local herbal store for these ingredients as I've seen both in our store here.
French postcard from The Graphics Fairy. Click to make larger and print.
It all just makes me want to break out singing O Tannenbaum. Because I love you, I won’t. Instead, here’s me as a dancing elf and then you can Elf Yourself.
11 comments:
I've been playing around with my essential oils, too. The scent is so much "kinder" than the artificial ones. I've been enjoying reading your blog, and the Club Little House one, also. Cute stuff!
Thanks for the recipe of the wonderful scent :) I am going to have a Junie recipe collection !
I elfed myself too :).
Have a Happy Day :)
crystalxo
I love the smell of fresh evergreen......cloves.....citrus and sage. I think it time to put together some spices :-)
Your graphics look sweet.
And June, WERE YOU READING MY MIND?? I was exactly and precisely going to suggest the AJ's at La Encantata! I go there every single time I am in town. I wonder if noon would work for you.
This is so exciting! Like in the movies. I'll kind of know who you are but might not be sure. How will we recognize each other? Let me know if noon works. I am leaving very early Friday morning.
Love,
Saucy
Mornin' June,
Saint Nicholas day is a lovely day for putting up the tree. Ours will have to wait until the weekend when the misters are available to help choose it, which is atill a family outing around our house. The place where we buy our tree always very generously lets me bring home armloads of extra greenery for decorating with, too. I love the way the house smells then. I love citrus smells too, and think that's a nice compliment to the evergreens. I always mean to make pomanders from oranges and cloves, but rarely do.
Thank you for the recipe and the link to the graphics fairy.
I hope you have a wonderful day today!
I love the smell of evergreen ... especially because we have an artificial tree. I always clip my evergreens right out of our yard. I planted a bunch of boxwood bushes a number of years ago just so that I'll have fresh boxwood at Christmas. I love the little leaves.
Thank you for the potpourri recipe. We have a store in town that has it in a big old wooden barrel and you just scoop it out onto a scale. The store smells so good!! But, I do like the idea of making it myself. It all comes down to 'time crunch'. If I'd get off the computer I'd have time to get a lot more done.
Hugs,
Joni
The potpourri looks fabulous - thank you for the recipe!
Sounds like you have a fun day planned with your tree going up and the pretty greens you are collecting! Have fun! Don't you just love this time of the year!!
Oh JunieMoon, you are such an inspiration! I just read through your countdown postings--all such good things to think about and put into action. Smell ya later!
Grin! Karen
I have heard around blogland that Lowes and Home Depot give out green scraps too.THanks for the recipe!
Junie,
I like your pot pourri recipe! Love rosemary and I have a couple nice, hearty plants I could trim. I think I have many of the other herbs and spices in the cupboard. What a good idea for a hostess gift.
We're celebrating St. Nick's Day too with chocolate letter initials for each family member. Yum!
Jody
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