It's that time of year...

You know, when you've been running the heat for a few months, and the air is dry. The last few weeks here have been crazy, it feels like we're drinking water constantly (I drink my entire water bottle at night and wake up thirsty!), dry skin, static-y hair, you know the drill. In addition to a humidifier in one of the bedrooms (at one end of the house), I've been running my stove top potpourri from sun up 'til bedtime. Not only does it help get water into the air, but it smells lovely too (even Anthony says so!). Unfortunately it doesn't exactly photograph well, but that's okay. It's pretty flexible, I've listed the whole "recipe", but I've been known to skip the apples, use orange essential oils, and lemon juice. ;)

Stove Top Potpourri

Into a 2qt. sauce pan place, one sliced lemon (or generous splash of lemon juice), peals of about two oranges (or about 8 drops of essential oil), and either apple peals and cores or you can use up those "dead" (but not rotten or moldy) apples, just chunk up- core and all- and toss in (Granny Smith looks especially pretty), then you want to add some cloves, some cinnamon, and I like to add some nutmeg and allspice too, but that's up to what you like. Whole cloves or ground are fine (check your local bulk food store for these, since they tend to be way WAY cheaper there), and you can use ground cinnamon, or cinnamon sticks that have been broken up. Fill pan to about 3/4" from the top with water once everything is in the pan and put onto a back burner at about a "4", or just onto the low side of medium. Once it starts boiling keep an eye on it, and add water throughout the day. You will need to refresh the spices every 24 hours or so, but you can just add to what you've got for about a week at a time. Just continue to add fruit peals or whatever as you notice the scents weakening. Just don't forget to watch it, you don't want to loose a pan! I find I have to add to mine every hour and a half or so. I have added a note to my front door to remind myself to turn it off before we leave, since it's so easy to just get used to it when you have it going for days. Tinker with it, make it smell like you would like, and enjoy!

ETA~ I have all sorts of knitting to show you, but I haven't had the chance to get any pictures yet; hopefully today! So I think you'll be getting to see some FO's (finished objects, as opposed to UFO's, which would be un-finished objects) for WIP Wednesday!