Crafty Things

GENERAL POTPOURRI BASE

First, here's a general "potpourri base". I collect this stuff year round, and make sure it's dried. I used to dry it in the oven, but 2 weeks ago the old range just died after 15-odd years, and the new range doesn't have a pilot light. So now I dry things on a cookie rack, with a paper towel over it, and set onto a cookie sheet. This allows for circulation -- but you do have to watch out for curious cats.

• Dried berries (BUT, don't use pokeweed or bittersweet berries because they are toxic. Instead use honeysuckle, juniper, even blackberries and tiny strawberries.)
• Flowers or flower petals (any kind!)
• Little pieces of wood or wood chips, or shavings from a wood plane
• Cellulose "easter grass", also called basket stuffing
• Tiny scraps of pretty coloured paper, even shiny origami foil
• Tiny pieces of ribbon (you know how at the end of a ribbon roll, there's always like, 3 inches left? well, use it!)
• Nicely shaped small leaves
• Dried Burdock heads
• Acorn caps
• Teensy fir-cones or pine-cones

Now, be sure you've dried these things really well before you start. You don't want them to mold, and you don't want their own scents to take over what you're making.



PROSPERITY MIX

Take an odd number of the following kitchen herbs, and mix them together in a glass or ceramic bowl. (Don't use stainless or aluminum; sometimes those react with the volatile oils of various herbs, and they may change your scent.) These herbs are associated in some religions, and in folklore, with prosperity, wealth, and success.

• Allspice
• Anise
• Basil
• Bay
• Cinnamon
• Clove
• Dandelion flower
• Dill
• Ginger
• Juniper Berry
• Marjoram
• Mint
• Nutmeg
• Pine or Cedar needles (okay, that's not a kitchen herb, but hey!)
• Rose petals
• Sage

Don't grind them up, just bruise them a bit between your palms, and then drop them into your bowl of "base" items.

Now, take about two tablespoons of the coarsest salt you have in your kitchen (kosher salt, crystal salt, sea salt, it doesn't matter) and sprinkle that over your bowl of scent herbs and base items.

With your fingers, mix the base, scent herbs, and salt all around. You'll probably bruise things a bit more, and the sharp bits of the salt will also help break the cell walls of the plant matter, which further releases the scent, and in turn makes it cling to the ribbony bits and the little pieces of torn up paper.

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DOOR SNAKES

First, measure across the bottoms of the doors these will be used on.

Now, go through your scrap material, old clothes, whatever, and find some fabric. You will need a piece of fabric that is 10" x (the width of the door) + 8". You can use 1 piece of fabric, or you can sew a lot of little scraps together to get this size.

You need 18" of ribbon, cute string, or whatever else tickles your fancy, to tie the ends of your snakes.

You need old grocery bags, batting, old stuffing, or cut up fabric scraps for stuffings.

Now, lay out your piece of fabric, right sides together, in a long rectangle. Sew down the long side, and then turn and sew back. Turn it right side out.

Now you have a tube. Stuff it with your stuffins! Pack the stuffing fairly tight, from each end, until it's as wide as the door. Remember to leave about 4" free on each end.

*If you are completely NOT into sewing, then you take a piece of cloth that is 20" wide instead. You put your stuffings on it toward one long edge. Then you roll it up like a burrito or a sushi roll, and tie the ends as below*

Take your ribbon or string and gather the end of the snake tube. Wrap the ribbon twice round the tube, and pull tight, then tie a hard knot, then a bow. Repeat on the other side.

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