My friends and family know I’m pretty picky about smells.  We’ve always joked that I could go live in Paris and become a “nose” at a parfumerie because I’m so sensitive to scents.  If I lived alone, I’d have gloriously scented candles on every table and shelf in the house because nothing beats the glimmer of candlelight and the yummy scent of a warm candle. HOWEVER, open flames and kids do not mix, as you are aware.   I’ve come up with a couple of solutions, though.

My go-to home scent is my Lemon Vanilla Rosemary concoction.   It’s so fresh and clean.  And I’ve recently started putting it into a small slow cooker instead of simmering it on the stove.  It works great, and I don’t have to worry about it running out of water.

For Christmas, I like to switch it up a little.   I make a simmer with orange peels, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and allspice.  It smells heavenly.  But even buying the whole spices in the Hispanic section of my grocery store, it’s still pretty expensive.  So I started thinking, I wonder if I could do the same thing with ground spices?

Guess what? Yes! Yes, you can use ground spices to give your home that warm, Christmastime smell for a fraction of the cost of the whole spices.   Now I’ll warn you, it’s not a pretty mixture.  The cinnamon sticks and orange are nice looking and are so pretty on the stove.  The brown mixture in the small slow cooker is not.  At all. But it’s the same effect for cheap.  As a matter of fact, I’d say the ground spices smell better.  I’m a convert!   I encourage you to give it a try!

Speaking of Christmas, home and garden expert P. Allen Smith sent me this BEAUTIFUL mantle piece from his Holiday Collection available at Home Depot.  A fresh wreath, garland, or mantle piece would be such a great gift to ship to a friend!  You can order it on HomeDepot.com and ship it directly to your friend.

The greenery comes in a handsome box, and wrapped in tissue paper.  Excellent presentation, but what else would you expect from Allen?

It looks great on my mantle. I love it!