|
_
Improve the atmosphere in your home make your own potpourri with these free recipes
The Power of Potpourri When visitors drop by, one of the sweetest compliments they can give us is, “Your house always smells so good!” Pleasant aromas have the power to alter our mood, so it is not surprising that the practice of using scent imaginatively in the home is centuries old. One ancient and delicious way to do this is with potpourri. The word “potpourri” means a medley of things--exotic blends of herbs, spices, and dried flowers set out in pots or jars to scent the surroundings. The idea is still a charming one, and it’s so easy to make fragrant all-natural blends that can actually make a positive difference, improving the atmosphere in our homes on every level, relaxing us, helping us to feel more clarity and calm. Gathering the ingredients is fun for the whole family, and the results are sure to please. Here are the simple, easy recipes to creating your own delicious aromas: Country Kitchen Scented Pinecones Christmas Potpourri Spring Cottage Rose Forever Orange Spice Shoo-Fly Simmering Windowsill Refrigerator odor Odor Removers Various Potpourri Blends Experiment making your own potpourri blends. In general, mix 4-6 different flowers and leaves and 3-4 herbs and spices to make a botanical blend. You'll need about 2 cups fixative for 4 cups of dried materials. Add one or more essential oils to the fixative drop by drop to simply moisten, not saturate, the fixative. Here are just a few of the many fragrant blends you can make. Rose Blend This distinctive perfume of rose oil is mixed with a fixative of orris root, then blended into a combination of rose petals, yellow pansies, myrtle, purple statice, and red pepper-berries. Winter Blend This is a spicy and woodsy potpourri that uses calamus root as the fixative, bayberry oil, and a blend of purple delphiniums, seed pods, white gompherena, and cedar chips or shavings. Almond Blend A hint of almond is achieved when bitter almond oil is added to an oak moss fixative and blended with woodland mix of honesty pods, white gomphrena, bits of bark, and gold sprayed leaves. Strawberry Blend Orris root is the fixative for this potpourri of myrtle, white gomphrena, rose petals, and rose hips. Strawberry oil mixes with the natural scent of the roses to create a strong and pleasing summer fragrance. Spice Blend Cinnamon oil and calamus root fixative serve up the spice that makes a nicely piquant potpourri filled with a mix of textures and exotic blossoms of yellow static, cockscomb, myrtle, hibiscus, orange rind, and juniper berries. Lavender Blend The sweet, long-lasting scent of lavender makes a good base. Unless the dried lavender has a particularly strong scent, add lavender oil to an oak moss fixative to add depth to the fragrance. Then mix with lavender, myrtle, blue static, and rosebuds for a richly scented traditional potpourri. If you like my free recipes and would like to contribute, please leave a donation so you can enjoy the spirit of giving too. |