How to Make Holiday Potpourri

Potpourri is a great way to make your house smell warm and festive this holiday season. This particular combination of dried flowers, essential oils and spices will add the perfect touch to your house this year.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Large glass bowl or jar
• 5 parts pine, ceder, fir or whatever greenery you have, cut into small pieces
• 2 parts small red rosehips or red rose buds or petals
• 3 parts dried yarrow flowers
• 2 parts whole bay leaves
• 2 parts rosemary
• 2 parts small pine cones
• 2 parts whole spices from your kitchen, such as cinnamon, allspice, cloves or coriander
• 2 parts sage (stripped from the stalk)
• 2 parts oak moss
• 1 parts each of the "whole resins" of frankincense and myrrh, if you want
• Spoon or mortar

1. Combine the above flowers and greenery in a large bowl. In a small bowl, make a mixture of powdered spices. Make sure it is proportionate to the amount of potpourri you are using--for example, use 1 teaspoon spice mixture for 2 cups of potpourri.

2. Add 1 drop of cinnamon bark oil, 5 drops of rosemary oil and 5 drops of pine (or fir) oil to the spice mixture.

3. Add one drop of frankincense, if desired.

4. Make sure the essential oils are well mixed with the spice powder blend. Use the back of a spoon or a mortar to mash the drops of powdered oil.

Tips & Warnings

• Blending the essential oils in an alcohol base (try vodka) creates a nice refresher oil for the potpourri.