All Posts By

Nicole

Zebra by Popcornopolis® Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: Please note, I received products for review from Popcornopolis. All opinions expressed are my own.

 

Zebra by Popcornopolis®

With the holidays right around the corner, most of us are on the lookout for affordable gifts to give to friends, family, teachers, and neighbors. or snacks to take to work parties. For those on your list that you’re not sure what to give, consider Zebra by Popcornopolis!

Popcornopolis, a gourmet popcorn company, has recently launched a delicious new product line called Zebra by Popcornopolis®, which includes five indulgent, gourmet popcorn snacks made with organic popcorn, premium chocolate, and hand-selected ingredients. All without artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives!

Zebra by Popcornopolis®

Zebra by Popcornopolis®

Each flavor in this line was developed by Popcornopolis’ Cordon Bleu-trained chefs, and feature varieties inspired by the brand’s popular Zebra® Popcorn including:

  • Chocolate Stripe: Dark and White Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Corn
  • Chocolate Peanut Butter: Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Drizzled Caramel Corn
  • White Chocolate Macadamia: White Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Corn with Macadamia Nuts

And holiday editions:

  • Chocolate Candy Cane: Dark Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Corn with Crushed Peppermint
  • White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice: White Chocolate Drizzled with Caramel & Pumpkin Spice

This is gourmet popcorn at its finest. You just can’t go wrong with any of these delicious flavors! Though I could easily eat each and every bag all by myself, I’ll refrain. It’s better to share popcorn this tasty with friends and family. Afterall, Santa’s list hasn’t been made public quite yet!

Zebra by Popcornopolis®

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of sharing the Zebra® Popcorn with my family and neighbors. Each flavor was well received and everyone asked for seconds!

I also loved each variety, but would have to say that White Chocolate Macadamia, full of white chocolate drizzled clusters was by far my favorite and will be my new go-to indulgence after blogging this coming season!

I also love that Zebra® Popcorn line, including their holiday products, are gluten-free, non-GMO, and made in the USA with USDA certified organically sourced popcorn. This line is even popped to perfection in certified organic coconut oil!

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t miss the star of the show, the Zebra® Popcorn’s chocolate drizzle. A topping created from pure organic cane sugar is free from artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives!

Zebra by Popcornopolis®

You can find the NEW Zebra by Popcornopolis® at the following retailers:

  • Bristol Farms – LA
  • Gelson’s – LA
  • Stater Brothers – LA
  • Safeway – Seattle and Portland
  • Von’s – Southern California
  • Albertsons – Southern California
  • Publix – National
  • Walmart – National

If that wasn’t awesome enough, you can now enter to win Zebra® Popcorn yourself! Enter for your chance to win your own Zebra® Popcorn set! One lucky reader will win the Zebra by Popcornopolis popcorn collection; one bag of each flavor.

To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter giveaway form below. Please note, this giveaway will be open to US residents over the age of 18. All entries will be verified. All duplicate ISP addresses and multiple sweepers addresses will be disqualified. The winner will receive their giveaway Zebra® Popcorn set directly from Popcornopolis® and TheLadyPrefers2Save.com is not responsible for delayed or missed shipments. This giveaway will end on 11/22/17 at 11:59 pm CST. Good luck, everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friends, I am certain that you will love that Zebra® Popcorn line as much as I have. Be sure to pick up a few bags for all your holiday get-togethers this coming season.

Now I have to ask, what flavor of the new Popcornopolis Zebra® Popcorn line are you most excited to try? I’d love to hear about it below!

 

Zebra by Popcornopolis®

Don’t Miss The Star In Theaters Starting 11/17!

Disclosure: Please note, I was given the opportunity to promote the upcoming movie, The Star, to my readers by Sony Pictures. All opinions expressed and based on movie previews are my own.

 

Don't Miss The Star In Theaters Starting 11/17!

Christmas. It’s just around the corner! While we have all likely heard the story of the first Christmas, this holiday season you can treat your family to a new and unique retelling of the very first Christmas told by a new set of fun-loving eyes. From the makers of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Heaven is for RealThe Star features a hilarious take on the story of Christmas from the perspective of the unlikeliest of characters. The animals of the manger! 

Don't Miss The Star In Theaters Starting 11/17!

Our story centers on, Bo, an advantageous donkey yearning for a life beyond the stables walls of the village mall. When Bo breaks free of his village, he seeks adventure with Ruth, a lovable sheep who lost her flock, and Dave, a dove with hilarious dreams and aspirations.

Along with three slap-stick humored camels and several amazingly precious, though eccentric stable animals, Bo, and his new friends follow the Star of Bethlehem and on the way become the unlikeliest of heroes in the greatest story ever told – the story of the nativity.

Each year at the holiday’s my family always make a point of reading aloud the story of Christ’s birth, and while I have heard the story interpreted many times over the years the Star’s unique perspective on the classical story is fun and exciting. And who doesn’t love talking animals, am I right? 

Preorder your tickets for The Star Movie! 

The Star Movie Comes Out 11/7 #ad

After viewing the trailer for The Star and behind the scene footage, I am so excited to go watch The Star movie with my family this coming weekend. Not only does it look like a movie that will be great for the whole family, but it looks sure to be hilarious too! I appreciate movies during the holiday season that teach a story, give great moral lessons, and frankly, don’t bore me to tears in the process! The Star movie is sure to please everyone in the family. Mine included!

Don't Miss The Star In Theaters Starting 11/17!

The Star movie will be out in theaters Friday, November 17th, so be sure to go online and pre-buy your The Star tickets to help you beat the lines this weekend. In the meantime, the makers of The Star have several awesome printable coloring sheets available on their site here. For churches, click here for movie resources to share with your ministry groups as well!

Be sure to check those out to get you and your kiddos ready for the holiday spirit for the opening night! Now, friends, I have to ask, why are you most excited to see The Star? I’d love to hear about it below!

Give the gift of love with CreateMyCookbook.com

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post brought to you on behalf of CreateMyCookBook.com. All opinions expressed are my own. My blog’s full disclosure policy can be found here. Thank you.

 

CreateMyCookbook.com

Recipes. The eternal love songs to our soul. More than simple lists of ingredients, recipes share with the world cultural perspectives, economic stances, and often embrace the true essence of modern globalization. Afterall, where would humanity be without the basics of the recipe?

Which is why I love cookbooks. And I own an awful lot of them. Dozens of them. I always have. I’ve been enamored with cookbooks since childhood and spent many happy childhood afternoons perusing my grandmother’s endless selections of decades-old cooking relics.

My love for all things culinary runs deep. So deep, in fact, that for my fifth birthday I remember asking my grandmother for a copy of Julia Child’s The Art of French Cooking. If you’ve ever seen re-runs of Child’s famed PBS series The French Chef, you know why this present was one for the ages!

Over the years I’ve loved how cookbooks have provided me with an academic view of cooking. An anthropological view of gastronomy, if you will. Turn their pages and you’ll often see waxing and waning fashion trends, gender norms through the ages, evolutions within the home, and even the tiny cultural nuances that bring whole communities to life.

Now you may think, why would a minimalist own so many cookbooks when many recipes are instead available online?

For me, nothing replaces the ability to hold a recipe in your hand while cooking. I enjoy the ability to thumb through recipes, to look at ingredients, and read the clever anecdotes that only chefs can provide. To be a foodie is to love cookbooks.

CreateMyCookbook.com

One of my favorite reasons to read cookbooks? They provide foodies like me with proven systems of organization. Every home chef worth their salt in the kitchen has a system for saving their tried and true recipes.

Some use recipe cards. Some stick their clippings in those old-school photo albums with magnetic pages. Some a three-ring binder with plastic sleeves. Others turn to social media, like Pinterest boards.

For me, I like a more personalized means to save my recipes. Especially those listed on my blog. Which is why I have been over the moon with the CreateMyCookbook digital cookbooks.

CreateMyCookbook offers bloggers, foodies, and anyone who wants to create, gift, or fundraise using cookbooks the ability to easily create professional-quality printed cookbooks using the easy of a web-based book designer.

The process of making cookbooks on CreateMyCookbook is very simple:

CreateMyCookbook.com

You start by selecting a binding style. All of their books are constructed to provide you with a vast selection of personalization options that make your cookbook uniquely yours! You can select from a hardback casing, spiral bound books, or hardcover binder-style casings.

CreateMyCookbook prices start at only $19.95 and up for 100-page durable coiling spiral bound cookbooks, $34.95 for 100-page hardback bound cookbooks and $42.95 for 100-page hardback binder books.

With bulk discounts available for each styling and no minimum number of cookbooks required for each purchase, there’s something for everyone and every budget with CreateMyCookbook!

Tweet: Into paper-free digital cookbook design? @cre8mycookbook has you covered with the ability to create zero-waste, minimalist digital cookbook creation options at home this holiday season!

CreateMyCookbook.com

Once you’ve selected your binding style, you simply start creating your cookbook by designing your cover page. Then inscribe an optional dedication page. Next, add your own recipes and photos.

You’ll also be given the option of selecting a horizontal or vertical style layout for each recipe where you can also add your own tips for creating the best version of each dish right on each recipe page.

CreateMyCookbook.com

As you add your recipes to your customized books, the CreateMyCookbook software automatically populates each recipe into a table of contents page, located at the end of each book. This will help you to easily access your recipes and make any organizational or categorial changes that might be needed to your draft.

CreateMyCookbook.com

Once you’ve populated your recipes, you’ll be guided through a final review process. The CreateMyCookbook editing features help you to ensure that each photo has the correct look your after and necessary pixelations and sizing, that your spelling is correct for each recipe and that your page layouts are what you want in your final cookbook.

You can even play around and view your cookbook as a final layout This ensures that your cookbook is the cookbook you want to not only create for others but for yourself as well!

Satisfied with your CreateMyCookbook order? You’ll then be promoted to the sites easy-to-follow payment screen and will also be asked, of course, to supply your shipping information.

Once your order is complete you’ll be emailed an order confirmation as well as a digital pdf-version of your cookbook too!

Something else worth mentioning is CreateMyCookbook’s return policy. Should there be any defects in workmanship, printing errors or damage to your cookbook, they’ll gladly provide you with a replacement cookbook or refund your purchase price. And for future orders, you will be able to find your cookbooks both stores on your site dashboard as well as a handy ordering site reminder on the back page of each cookbook.

CreateMyCookbook.com

Now for those looking to give the experience of creating a cookbook this season and not actually making your own, CreateMyCookbook gift certificate is available as well. For fast and easy cookbook creating this holiday season, CreateMyCookbook is your best bet.

If you’re anything like me, then there have been dozens of times when you’ve said to yourself, “I need to get all these family recipes into a book.” Now’s the time to get your family recipes in print and preserve your family’s culinary hertiage before another season passes you by!

Now, say you’re a foodie like me, especially a blogging foodie, consider chronicling your own online culinary adventures with a CreateMyCookbook of your own!

This past month I used CreateMyCookbook to turn many of my blog’s recipes into a fun, fabulous family spiralbound cookbook. My book’s recipient? My husband Daniel.

CreateMyCookbook.com

CreateMyCookbook.com

CreateMyCookbook.com

Why have him search my blog or cookbook library when I can just give him the recipes I know he enjoys eating from week-to-week and season-to-season in a bound, preserved, and ready-to-use format?

When he is craving one of my best meals he can now go to his CreateMyCookbook cookbook and whip up any number of dishes to his heart’s content! As you can see, each recipe page is brightly printed and cleanly designed, perfect for fast, minimalist referencing. Making it the perfect husband-ready present this holiday season!

CreateMyCookbook.com

CreateMyCookbook.com

I was also impressed to see that my order came minimally packaged. While sturdy, my cookbook’s shipper ready for recycling nor contained excess plastic contents, and was protected with inner cardboard sheets which ensured my cookbook stayed pristine before gifting.

Better still? During checkout, I was given the option of gifting my cookbook in a gift sack, bow drawstring, and gift tag. Options available while checking out on their site.

Now don’t stop at simply ordering online alone! Spread the culinary love this holiday season by using CreateMyCookbook to theme your next girls-night-in, or make it a truly zero-waste event by taking the party digital and hosting a long-distance collaborative project for you and your besties this season. You’re just an e-vite, laptop, and a Google Hangout Group chat away from creating cookbooks like a pro!

Create My Cookbook is the perfect gift solution for foodie husband’s, family member gift exchanges, and even gifting for the hard-to-shop-for on your holiday list. Which is why I think you should check out the CreateMyCookbook site this season!

CreateMyCookbook.com

Now, if that isn’t enough to make you head on over to CreateMyCookbook and check things out, I may be able to persuade you with cookies. I have several recipes on my blog that I used in my new CreateMyCookbook that may inspire you to create your own cookbook, too!

Friends, have you tried your hand at creating online cookbooks in the past or do you have a favorite way to organize your family or blog recipes at home? I’d love to hear about them below!

 

Connect with CreateMyCookBook.com:

Pinterest | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Linked’in

 

CreateMyCookbook.com

Welcome to Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #196!


 
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we are here to help you prepare to make your holiday memorable for both you and your family!

 
Check out this week’s featured posts!
 

My favorite fall beverage BY FAR is apple cider, so when I saw Cooking with Carlee’s recipe for Caramel Apple Punch I had to feature it!

 
My MOST FAVORITE soda drink is cherry coke, but how about a
Cherry Coke Poke Cake from Hillary of Embellishments.  My mouth is watering!
 
 
I love the idea of having an interactive aspect at my Thanksgiving table – check out this great idea for this Easy Thanksgiving Centerpiece Idea – Interactive “Thankful” Pumpkin from Burlap & Blue.
 
 
For my fourth feature, my Thanksgiving side I chose comes from Strength + Sunshine – Rustic Rosemary Thyme Mashed Potatoes.  I adore the smell of rosemary, so this could be the perfect starch at my Thanksgiving meal!
 
Check out this post from Sparkle Living Blog on a Classy Black Christmas Tree, what a fun and chic idea to do something different!
 
 

To check out any of the Happiness Is Homemade hostess’ blogs, simply click on our picture below to be taken directly to our personal blogs!

 
The Happiness Is Homemade Hostesses
 

Image Map

Follow our Pinterest board! All of the features are pinned on the Happiness is Homemade Board!

The rules are really simple! Make sure you visit a few other blogs and make some new friends along the way. Feel free to link up your favorite recipes, crafts or your latest DIY project. We want you to share it all! As always, please make sure to follow your hosts and co-hosts!! Link up your posts, make some friends, and earn the chance to be featured at Happiness Is Homemade Link Party! We will feature the favorite posts each week!

Disclaimer: Adding your link to this link party gives permission to all 12 Hosts, along with any co-hosts, guest hosts, and participants of Happiness Is Homemade, to share your posts and pictures via social media and as features, roundups, etc. with an explicit link back to your original source. Therefore, linking up you agree to allow us to use your images on each of our blogs in features relating to Happiness is Homemade Link Party.


Creation Crate Subscription Review

Creation Crate Review

If you’ve had the opportunity to scout out many STEM-based subscription boxes online you will have noticed one glaring similarity. Most of these subscriptions are geared towards younger children. But what about STEM-focused activities for tweens and teens? The market until recently has been pretty abysmal. Which was why I was excited to be asked to review a subscriptions box from Creation Crate, a STEM-based service geared towards kids aged 12 and up! 

What’s the service all about:

Creation Crate is geared towards bringing experiential learning to tech-education methods for students and educators alike, in a learning curriculum geared towards helping students learn the basics of engineering, robotics, and computer programing strategies. 

Creation Crate Review

Creation Crate Review

Creation Crate includes monthly boxed crates that contain both the hardware of electronics and the programming for each specific project. Like with many other services, because of the programming required, you will also need a computer or laptop to download and use the Arduino software, the software that runs each programming grid. Projects are sent on a relatively simple start and as time goes on students will receive harder boxes as their subscriptions continue. 

Each box included an instruction pamphlet to help guide you through the initial hardware setup, programming instruction, common errors suggestions, and exercises to utilize your finished programming project. You’re also given the URL to their online project support page, extra parts for your kit (something nonpresent in a lot of other kits), and diagrams and instructions for downloading the software for each kit. 

Creation Crate Review

The Creation Crate that we received was the Mood Lamp project-in-a-box. A fun choice for both my family and my husband’s middle school classes. As a family, we took turns assembling the kit and my husband programmed the kit for us. 

Creation Crate Review

Creation Crate Review

It was my husband’s first time using the Arduino system but after two hours of trial and error, an hour of re-study of the setup diagrams, a quick rewiring of two cables, and we were back in business!

The finished lamp, with it’s with ever-changing red, blue, and green LEDs was fun to watch. It was neat to see the colors gradually and independently change brightness which gave us the perfect opportunity to discuss the process by which we used specific attachments to the circuit board to the battery caused this homespun light show to commence! 

Our Experience:

Creation Crate Review

Creation Crate Review

Though the kits say that no experience is required, we did not find this to be the case. My husband’s knowledge as a STEM, Robotics, ICT I & ICT II, and Project Lead the Way Educator, his previous knowledge for conceptualizing this build, is what eventually saved this project for us as a family. As well, the instruction pamphlet that comes with the box is pretty small, as are the diagrams, and in my opinion, neither delves deep enough into the detail needed to help beginners know how breadboards are designed using the Arduino system. Another nice touch would be telling users to program their kits before building. 

It’s also worth noting that my initial shipper box did come somewhat stained and partially opened. Though this is not a reflection of the Creation crate service, packaging still plays into the initial impression of a service and it is worth noting in this review. 

The Creation Crate subscription box is a wonderful gift or project for an older child or student wanting to learn more about electrical engineering and electronics. More sophisticated than something like Snap Circuits and Vex kits, learning with these kits will help lay a foundation for future study. If you have a budding Arduino or electronics master in your house, try Creation Crate to encourage your kids’ interests. If your kiddo is a beginner, come back to this service once they have a new other vex kits under their belt first! 

With a cost ranging from $30.00 each month to teaching kits starting at $200.00 for numerous projects, there’s an affordable price point for everyone on your list! So be sure to check this service out as with Creation Crate projects, you’re putting together a real project – not theory, but an actual working lamp! And I think that’s pretty great! 

Friends, I encourage you to check this service out for yourselves and to consider the gift of discovery for your budding engineer at home this holiday season! To find out more about this service, click here, and if you’re interested in our other home engineering projects to take a look at our education page here! Now I have to ask, do you have a favorite engineering or robotics kit at home? I’d love to hear about it below! 

 

Connect with Creation Crate:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Pinterest | Google + |

 

Creation Crate Review

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

Disclosure: I received a complimentary gift card to try the Loop & Tie Service. All opinions expressed are my own. 

 

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

With so many sites vying for our attention each holiday season, it can be hard to know exactly what to get our loved ones at home. Which is why I love Loop & Tie, an online gift-giving service that lets you send a collection of gifts to each recipient on your list and the recipient choose their favorite item based on their own tastes.

What I love about the service:

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

While traditional gift cards can appear to recipients as a half-hearted, last-minute means to gifting. Gifts that typically go unused and forgotten, but with Loop & Tie, collections of curated goods and gifts, allow those near and dear to you to find something that they truly love because you were able to give them the ultimate gift, the gift of choice!

What I like best about Loop & Tie is that the service takes the guesswork out of gift-giving for people in your life. Whether you’re buying household goods of luxury items, they offer something for everyone on your list this time of year!

Take a look at the service video below:

How Loop & Tie works:

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

To begin, you’ll start at the Loop & Tie’s main site. From there you can either start a gift card buying order or redeem a gift card purchase for yourself. 

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

When you’re ready to purchase a gift card, you simply select a gift from one of four different price collections. Select a price point. You can select from a gift ranging in price from $25, $50, $75, $100, $150, $250, or $500.

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

Next, you’ll add your email address to your recipient.

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

Next, design your gift card! You’ll be given the option of using one of many fun, funky, and fabulous pre-made card designs, use a giphy or upload your own image. The options are endless and all selections are true zero-waste gift cards! You can also upload spreadsheets for saving time in sending bulk gifts as well! 

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

You are then taken to the payment screen. You simply create or log into your Loop & tie account where you’ll be prompted to input your card information, review your recipient information, preview your gift card, and you’re done! 

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

The gift card is then sent to your recipient via email within minutes and when the recipient receives their gift via they’ll never the exact price paid by the giver! Recipients, in turn, are given the option of choosing their favorite item from one of the several collections. They can choose between collections that range from fanciful to stylish, modern home accessories.

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

And for a recipient with a charitable nature, the service also allows users to reverse gift their cards and to opt for the optional charity donation, a fair trade gift, or eco-friendly options and selections which are generously curated and offered within each price tier instead of receiving a gift. A gift that truly gives forward!

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

After you purchase your gift cards, all your information and purchasing order is logged into your customized dashboard. You’ll be able to see past orders, gift card information, as well as to use the site’s online function to send thank you notes to those who have sent you Loop & Tie gifts this holiday season! You’re also provided quick links to your gifts, gift cards, and thank you cards too! An all-in-all neatly formatted buying experience! 

My Experience with Loop & Tie:

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

I was recently given the opportunity to review this service and I chose to send a gift card to my husband. Who in turn, sent a gift back to me, a set of vintage-themed flour sack towels from Knownwood Lane. A lovely gift, if I do say so myself! Within a week of ordering my towels, my order arrived via USPS shipping. I was provided a working tracking number within 2 business days of ordering my towels.

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

I loved that my hand towels, like all of the others items from Loop & Tie, have all been hand-selected by the Loop & Tie staff. Making each gift you give from the service, even last-minute gifts, receive the same quality and attention to detail as you would expect from expensive gift buying services online for friends and family as well as corporate gifts for employees, colleagues, retirment gifts, and much more!

Friends, I encourage you to check out this service online for your upcoming holiday gift-giving purchase this season. Looking for even more money-saving holiday gift ideas for those in your life? Check out my holiday section on the blog for more recipes, gift-giving ideas, and more! Now I have to ask, have you tried Loop & Tie? If you have, I’d love to hear about your experiences with the service was!

Loop & Tie Gift-Giving Service Review

DIY Holiday Scented Pine Cones

diy holiday scented pine cones

Scented pine cones. You know the ones. Cones that come bagged, highly fragranced, and line the endcaps of craft stores the nation over during the winter holiday season. And while scented pine cones might seem like a non-essential during the holiday season. That is unless you’re really craving that spicy cinnamon holiday aroma at home. In which case, nothing else will quite do or feel as cozy during the holiday season.

While you could purchase pre-scented pine cones at your local craft store or mass market chain in the ballpark of $5.00-$7.00 a bag or you could make your own customized scented holiday pine cones for little more than the cost of a few drops of essential oil. This not only allows you to literally make each batch of scented pine cones for pennies on the dollar, you also help to create a more minimal, zero-waste product this holiday season.

An item that could even be used for hostess gifts, teacher appreciation gifts, You’ve Been Jingled baskets, and Girl Scout projects later this season. Plus, you’ll get the pleasure of having taken a quaint little walk through nature as you gather up pine cones this fall season!

And the best part? This project takes so little time to pull together. Here’s how to make it:

Supplies:

  • 24 Pine cones (per batch)
  • Essential oils (cinnamon, clove, frankincense, citrus, spearmint—whatever you like best!)
  • 1 Gallon Plastic Storage Bag or covered bucket (such as a cleaned out cat litter or laundry soap pail)
  • Cookie Cooling Rack
  • Cookie Sheet
  • Convection Oven or Standard Oven
  • Dinner Plate or Fermenting Stone
  • Tin Foil

How to Scent Your Pine Cones at Home:

DIY Holiday Scented Pine Cones

Take a walk: Take a walk in nature and procure at least 2 dozen pine cones. You’re ideally looking for pine cones that will look pretty on a wreath, bowled, or used as holiday decor or ornaments. 

DIY Holiday Scented Pine Cones

Soak your pine cones: After your lovely walk foraging through the woods for pine cones (or in my case an adventurous trip to my front yard), you’ll need to remove any debris or critters that might be hiding inside. The easiest way to do this is to fill up the sink and soak your pine cones.

As pine cones float, so you’ll need to place a plate or something weighted over the pine cones so they’ll sink back beneath the water. Such a clean dinner plate or fermenting stone. Soak your pine cones for 2-3 hours.

DIY Holiday Scented Pine Cones

Bake them: After your cones have soaked, remove them from their water bath and let them drip dry on a towel. Then lay the pine cones out on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 150º oven for 30 minutes. This will help the cones open up and will kill off any gross stuff that may have made it through the bathing process. Such as small insects.

After your pine cones have finished baking, transfer them to a cookie cooling rack. Be sure to cool your pine cones for 1 hour on a wire cooling rack. Once the pine cones have cooled completely, transfer them to a gallon zip lock bag.

DIY Holiday Scented Pine Cones

Add essential oils: Now, the fun part— adding the essential oils! you’ll need to create a blend of essential oils that is most fitting to your home. Keep in mind, you will need a combination of 60 drops of essential oil, no matter which blends you use.

I used 20 drops each cinnamon oil, frankincense oil, and clove oil for a very festive scent. Once you’ve made your scent mix, pour the blend over your bagged pine cones, then seal up your bag and give it a good shake.

Make sure all of your pine cones are covered equally. Place your bag somewhere in your home where it won’t be disturbed for 1 week so that the pine cones can soak up all that essential oil goodness. Keep in mind, the longer you let the pine cones sit, the stronger the smell, so if you can wait 2 weeks—even better!

DIY Holiday Scented Pine Cones

So, that’s it! How simple was that? I like to keep several bowls full of pine cones throughout my home each holiday season for a rustic, minimalist flair. I especially love placing bowls of pine cones in my kitchen, on my pie safe as they fill the whole room with a fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon scent!

But don’t stop there…

Consider making Pumpkin Spice Scented Pine Cones with:

  • 15 drops organic cinnamon essential oil.
  • 15 drops organic ginger essential oil.
  • 15 drops organic nutmeg essential oil.
  • 10 drops organic clove bud essential oil.
  • 5 drops organic cardamom essential oil.

Sweater Weather Scented Pine Cones with:

  • 30 drops eucalyptus essential oil
  • 20 drops juniper berry essential oil
  • 10 drops sage essential oil

Or Flannel Scented Pine Cones with: 

  • 30 drops cardamom essential oil
  • 10  drops cinnamon bark essential oil
  • 10 drops orange essential oil
  • 10 drops clove essential oil

Try different varieties! And remember, you’ll need to again add new fragrance your cones every 60 days or so. To do so, just add additional essential oil to your cones, bag them up, wait, and voila new comes! Used pine cones can also be composted, used to decorate garden beds over the winter months, or used as fire pit starters as well! The possibilities are limitless!

14996363_10100388296463081_885437090_n

Friends, this is a super simple project this holiday season and I hope you all will give them a try this season! Now, tell me, have you already made holiday scented pine cones at home or do you have a really great DIY project or tutorial that you want to share with others? I’d love to hear about it below!

 

DIY Holiday Scented Pine Cones