A Week of Pinterest Wins and Fails: Day 3

This was a big ah-ha! moment for me. But it's probably going to be a well duh! moment for most of you.

I recently discovered a quick, cheap and easy way to make my house smell delicious. And it doesn't come in a spray can or plug in, both of which usually smell way too perfume-y for my taste.

I was browsing through the homesteading tags on Pinterest and found recipes for make-ahead jars of natural fragrance. Which lead me to my next discovery for:

Day 3: Stovetop Potpourri (say what?!)

I can tell by your stunned silence that this is not exactly news to you. But I truly did just discover it in a slap-my-forehead kind of moment.

Seriously, it's so easy and smells so much better than anything you can buy in a store. And naturally Pinterest is filled with different concoctions. I chose whatever I had lying around or in my cupboards, so here was my recipe:

2 dying cutie oranges leftover from my Xmas stocking
1 soft lemon
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon cinnamon extract
small handful of whole cloves

I sliced the lemon and oranges, threw everything in a pot, added enough water to cover the citrus and turned the burner onto simmer.

I let it simmer for a few hours and the house smelled so lovely! You may need to add water every so often as it burns off.

At night, I turned off the stove and left the pot. The next day, I added more water and let it simmer again. After a few days, I finally added it to the compost pile.

My next batch was sliced apples with cinnamon sticks, that was lovely!

Here's the downside and possibly where you don't truly save money - leaving the stove on simmer for hours. I'm not sure how much electricity it actually uses, so it may not be the best scenario. If you have a gas stove, you can always add the mixture to a crockpot and leave on low.

But it was still fun to try. And with all of the different variations you could experiment with, I'd say it's a Win!

Tomorrow, watch me try my hand at weaving. Oh boy!