Aug
08
2008
This is a pretty unusual resource and a very exciting guide to growing your own potpourri garden.
The book highlights which herbs, bulbs, annuals, perennials, shrubs and - of course - roses, to grow for your potpourri making enjoyment. There are also chapters detailing how to plant, grow, harvest, dry, store and prepare those plants for potpourri use.
Specific kinds of potpourri recipes are provided, along with everything you need for stocking your workshop. Recipes are divided by seasonal mood - Spring mixes are different than Winter mixes. Pictures show how to decorate with the different potpourris as well.
If you’ve ever wanted to set aside some of your garden as a potpourri harvesting smörgåsbord, then this is the right book for getting started.
The Potpourri Gardener
Aug
04
2008
Ooh, I was practically smelling the nutmeg already when I got my hands on this book. I love spiced winter beers and hot buttered rum, pumpkin pies and cinnamon sticks, potpourri and new pine branch wreaths. What these all have in common are their evocative scents, traditionally associated with the Christmas season.
Adding scents to Christmas crafting seems a natural idea. This book is a marvelous fount of aromatic wisdom for decking the halls or holiday hosting. I appreciated the plethora of gift ideas that will smell good through the gift-wrapped box.
The ideas in The Scented Christmas offer the chance to express deeply buried holiday fantasies: making rosemary Yule logs, decking the halls, dipping bayberry candles and making rich, spicy Christmas pudding.
There are hundreds of crafty ideas - scented place names, cards and garlands. Spice ribbons, scented pine cones and citrus pomanders. Advent potpourri. Scented teddy bears and angel dolls.
Then there are the classier projects - scented finger bowls (use herb infusions or scented oils in warm water, topped with a sprig of herbs in a small pretty bowl at each place setting); Christmas incense (with scents of frankincense, sandalwood, rosemary, clove and lavender); potpourri of the Three Kings (you guessed it - gold, frankincense and myrrh); spiced bath oils, skin-softening body vinegars, spicy colognes and rose petal toilet waters. Scented talcum powder gifts! I feel like a kid in a candy store.
Most of these projects would be super to work on with children. Since the olfactory areas of the brain are intimately tied in with memory, you will be actively tracing your children’s future holiday scent paths home to you. 
A Scented Christmas
