Make Your Own Delightful Hanging Pomanders

When I was little, we'd make our own Pomanders at school around the holidays. I always loved doing this because I always thought they smelled SO GREAT! When telling my husband about them this year, he thought I was crazy. I went ahead and got out the cloves and used an orange he'd brought home for me anyway and started to make one.

His curiosity got the best of him and he ended up sitting with me and helping me make one. There are a couple of different ways to make a pomander. One way is the way I'll tell you about below. The other way is to make your own "spice mix" and let the orange dry out for a few weeks in the mix. (You can find out how to do it with the mix at PioneerThinking.com - opens in a new window.) Since that way takes so long, I'll show you the quick way to make your house smell lovely! It's so easy! Of course, the more you make, the lovelier your home will smell.

What you will need:

• A few oranges
• Whole Cloves
• A skewer or sharp, pointy object about the size of the long end of a clove
• Paper towel or rag
• Fancy ribbon
• Optional masking tape

1. To start off, you can use masking tape to mark off where you will be tying your ribbon. That way, if any orange juice spills out, you can wipe it away before you put your ribbon around the orange.

2. Then, use your skewer to poke holes about a 1/2 inch apart from each other in between where you'll be putting your ribbon. If you choose not to hang your pomander, you can make any design you'd like to by spelling out words or making shapes with your cloves.

3. Insert the long ends of the cloves into the holes that you've poked. I prefer to skewer a hole and insert a clove right away and repeat. That way, I can avoid too much of a mess in case any juice starts to spill out of the holes.

4. If you used tape to mark off your ribbon locations, you can remove it and then tie your ribbon and criss-cross it at the bottom of your orange, bringing the ends back up to the top of the orange to make a loop for hanging.

I added a piece of random Christmas flair that I found in my wrapping bags to the top of my orange. This was the first time I'd made a pomander since I was a little girl. The smell brought back happy memories and I didn't have to buy anything. Chad got an orange for free from one of his customers at work and we already had everything else at home. It's nice to be able to enjoy little things like this. If you make any, I'd love to see them! Post pics of yours below!