je suis un sachet de lavande

I have another issue that needs solving. Last winter we discovered my truck had a leak, which hubby promptly fixed, but alas the carpet was soaked, it smelt musty and gross. I’ve laboured with commercial strength cleaners, scrubbed and blotted away and the smell always comes back… Always a little less than before – but still there. The water has never reappeared thank goodness.

It is the carpet that is the issue, and the carpet and rubber mats… However it doesn’t matter where items are situated in the car, it seems to pick up the damp odour. Ugh. Nightmare.

Even though the car is now bone dry inside – The babies car seat smells damp, the base of the nappy bag smells damp, our clothes after being in the car smell damp. So gross… My next attack will be using my clothes steamer to try to kill anything that may be causing the smell followed by a bulk load of baking soda and vinegar… Maybe that will help.

For now I’ve resorted to making some lavender and baking soda sachet to deodorise the nappy bag and the spare baby clothes bag. They smell so good I may need to make a ton more for every room in the house, so delish.

• LAVENDER SACHET

Last year I had 4 lavender bushes growing in my garden. They each grew huge and gorgeous enticing the bees and beneficial insects into my veggie patch to assist with their progress. When the summer had grown cold and turned to winter I chopped back the bushes and hung the branches all around the house to dry. They are fully dry now and still have a potent lavender smell so they are perfect for sachet.

Today while my little one slept I whipped up the first of many batches of little lavender bags. First I reused some raw calico from a previous pattern test, by stamping a design for the bags.

Following that I chopped the lavender leaves and gave them a bit of a smash to release the lush smell and mixed them at a ratio of 1 heaped teaspoon of leaves to 2 teaspoons of baking soda. The baking soda draws out and eliminates nasty odours and the lavender masks anything left over.

I loaded the mixture into a small bit of pantyhose and tied a knot in the top to seal it. The last step involved making the outer bag by which I cut a rectangle and stitched it up into a tea bag style sachet fixing a little thread of cotton at the top.

Super delicious and amazingly simple to make. Another great and easy project for delicious smellies is making old-fashioned pomanders. I made  some last year as a test from an old Victorian recipe I found. It’s a wonderful way to get that subtle warm spicy christmas scent all year round. I love the warm smell of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg! If I could bottle the smell of christmas I would spritz myself and everything around me every second of the day just to sniff that warm glorious smell.

• POMANDER

Super easy to make these beauties, grab an orange, a box of cloves and push them into the orange. Make any design you want, using as many or as few cloves as you need. Next make up the powder, again play with the mix but be generous with the amount as you will need to be able to cover the orange entirely packing the powder into every space around the cloves. You don’t want any of the orange peel to show.

I used several cups of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and star anise powder. The recipe also calls for orris root as a preservative, I didn’t have any orris root and my pomanders turned out fine. You’ll need to pack the powder real tight around the orange and have it sitting on a layer of powder as well. This is where patience comes in….. Your delish little oranges will need to sit in the hot water cupboard in a container for at least 6-8 weeks before they are completely dried out and ready. Every couple of weeks turn them repack the powder and delight in the smell. You know when they are ready as the orange will feel much lighter and when the flesh is tapped it sounds hollow. Tie a ribbon around it and your done, years of sweet christmas spice scent.

• LAVENDER LINEN SPRITZ

Another little trick I use to keep our linen smelling sweet and refreshing is a spritz bottle of water with a few drops of lavender essential oil. I have a 500ml bottle to which I add 10 drops of oil and give it a good shake every time I use it. It’s delish on a freshly made bed with crisp clean linen, just like a posh hotel. Lavender is well-known as a calming scent and great for a relaxing sleep. If you don’t like lavender you can use any other oil. Orange blossom or vanilla works equally as well.

Another great use of Lavender essential oil is to dab a little on your skin just below your ears as a rescue remedy for calming a stressful day. A lady I met recently suggested this to me as a ‘pick me up’ trick for new, and stressed out mothers. It works great and I love lavender, as if you couldn’t tell.

 

Enjoy.