Smells of the Season - Naturally

I love the smells of Christmas and love to have my house smell like cinnamon and spice or fresh cut Christmas trees, but what I don't like is the idea of using petroleum based candles w/ artificial scents or some kind of diffuser that throws synthetic scents (made w/ petroleum products) into the air. Actually I don't have much of a choice even if I didn't care about the origin of my household scents because my husband is very sensitive to scents and has even had an asthma episode triggered by a scented lotion I was wearing. My solution has been to find and use scents that are made from essential oils or natural elements. Below are a few of the recipes and concoctions I've come up with.

Stove Top Mix

In a small sauce pan mix 1 cup orange or pineapple juice,1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, lemon or orange peels, 4 or 5 cinnamon sticks, 3 or 4 cloves, 1 teaspoon ground ginger. Allow this to stimmer for a great scent. This can be kept for quite awhile (the sugar acts as a preservative) as long as you keep adding water. Simmer any time you like or place on burners that have just been used and are still hot. If by chance you have a wood stove this is a wonderful thing to keep going on your stove all day - just remember to keep adding plenty of water.

Essential Oil Spritzer

Use a sprayer that will spray a fine mist. Mix water and essential oils of your choice (a few drops will do it). Spray into the air when ever you want scent. This can also be used to spritz pillows or spray it on yourself for light scent. Some suggestions for essential oil combinations are; orange oil w/ rosemary, rose w/ vanilla, lavender and rose, cinnamon and juniper.

Reusing Old Potpourri

I rarely ever throw out old potpourri because it is easy to refresh its scent it and reuse it. I place it in a baggie and store it using appropriately colored potpourri for each season. When it's time to use it I pick out which essential oils I'd like to use and drop a few drops into the bag. Shake well and then pour into container. If scent becomes too faint just add a few more drops of essential oil.

There are other tricks like keeping a bit of bread or cookie dough in you freezer and baking to fill the house w/ fresh baked scent (I had a Realtor suggest this to me once). Candles effect air quality by producing soot and the higher the scent the higher the amount of soot produced according to the FDA so we burn candles only minimally.