Monday, July 14, 2008

SCENT-sational

PROLOGUE - Several weeks ago my friend Holly was watching my kids for me while I was doing something or other, I forget what. When I got there to pick them up, Katrina didn't want to leave. They never do, but this time she gave a unique reason. "Holly's house smells gooder than ours."

STORY - hhhmmmm - guess I'd better be doing something about that eh? I figure it's not totally my fault, we currently have a dog, a cat, a fire-bellied toad, and fish - plus 6 humans, one of which wears diapers that get thrown into trash can, one who still wears pull ups at night and floods the bed on a fairly regular basis. He seems to have an aversion to throwing the wet pull ups into the trash can, so you can generally count on finding it lying on the floor somewhere and at least once a day you'll hear the loving cadence of "Aaron, get this wet pull up off the floor and put in the trash!!!" Throw into the mix a two year old who on occasion get up to go potty during the night (hooray!) but then he gets confused or tangled in his jammies, so he just stand there and pees on the floor.... I do my best, but the odds are definitely working against me here.

Long ago, I tried candles, but I just feel think they are such a safety (fire) hazard, plus the soot and chemicals released the burning... I've tried the plug in air fresheners, and Tim recently bought me some oil diffusers - the cute glass containers that you stick bamboo sticks in and it is supposed to diffuse the scent into the air. They look nice, and they smell good briefly when you flip the sticks over, but they just weren't doing it for me. (lest you think I am just trying to cover up the icky smells with fragrances, I really do my best to clean the house too. Another thing I did over the scout camp week was rent a carpet cleaner and scrub all the carpets. (Actually, I rented the cleaner then paid a friend to scrub while I took the kids to chuck-e-cheese to get then out of the house and off the carpets.)

A while ago I went to a "blogger babes" luncheon at Karlene's and we had a Urban Botanics party. One of the products they sell is a "home collection" - an oil warmer, and the oils to scent your home. I didn't buy it at the time, but drastic times call for drastic measures - so I called Karlene and bought one. I got the "Homemade Gourmet Collection" which has the warmer, and the following oils: Cinnamon, Maple Spice, Peach Blossom, Vanilla, Green Apple, Pomegranate.
I've been having a great time mixing oils. Today is Maple Spice with a hint of Green Apple.


EPILOGUE - Bring it on you animals and people. I am armed and dangerous! Give me you worst - my house will smell scent-sational!!! The kids will still love to go to Holly's and they still won't want to come home when it is time, but it will be because they love Holly, not because her house smells "GOODER" than ours!

7 comments:

LaChelle said...

Ooo, I'll have to try this. I'm always paranoid about any smells visitors might encounter when they come into my home.

Karlene said...

Thanks for blogging about UB. I love the home scents.

Shellie said...

I have that warmer and combo on my wish list too, so I hope we start having a gooder smelling house sometime soon!

Sandra said...

Jeri, what color warmer did you get? I just love them.

Jeri said...

I got the white one. I had one comment from a neighbor that stopped in, plus my kids have commented a couple times that it smells good. Yesterday was a maple spice and cinnamon day, and last night I needed a "Peach blossom" lift. I'm loving this little thing!

Stop and smell the Daisies said...

My mother used some type of oil to get rid of odors in my brother's room (stinky feet odors! YUCK!). She took me in so I could smell the room before, then she dropped a few drops of oil in various places around the room and a few minutes later we went back in and the odor was GONE! I was AMAZED! There was no fragrence to this oil (that I recall), just bad odor gone! I will have to ask her what it was and where she got it. Of course, I wouldn't use it at the same time as a fragrance...it would probably get rid of good smells, too.

Kristi said...

I love nice smelley things. My son use to throw his wet pull up into his closet, or random places. I would go in his room and it would just stink, and I'd have to dig through the closet to find the culprit. Nothin like the smell of urine to liven things up. yuck!