A Special Christmas Fragrance: Dried Grapefruit How-To

You can't imagine how wonderful the fragrance is on those two days....

Pine needles and grapefruit linger in the air for two days each year:

Tree Weekend.

On Tree weekend, we get our tree, put it up, decorate it, have reserved family time {!!!!}, and...

We Dry Our Grapefruits.

And the Smell is Divine.

Dried Citrus Ornament, How-To:

1. Start with fresh, blemish free citrus fruits of your choice
2. Slice fruits so that you have many round disks of fruit {see photo below}. Discard the ends of fruit that do not reveal full flesh {or toss 'em in your sparkling water glass}.
3. Line cookie sheets with aluminum foil {the citrus can ruin your cookie sheets}.
4. Place citrus rounds on the cookie sheets.
5. In a low heat oven {approx 150 F. Ours will only go down to 170 F}, bake the citrus rounds for most of the day, and maybe even some the next day. Flip the fruit from time to time as you see the top side get dry. Fruit is finished when it is no longer moist to the touch.
6. Hook metal ornament hooks into the top of the rind and hang on your tree.
7. Fruits look beautiful positioned in front of your tree lights.

Imagine a small Williamburg-inspired citrus Christmas tree....

With Grapefruit, orange, lemon, and lime ornaments.

Complete with cranberry garland.

Good enough to eat! Hmm. maybe next year.

As for this year, you can check out the grapefruits on our tree, and many of our other Christmas decorations in the post below.

An Easter Project: Saving onion skins

Why am I saving onion skins?:

Why, to do this, of course: Are these not the most beautiful, and simply classy, Easter eggs?

They are dyed completely using natural material....including onion skins, turmeric, coffee, and cabbage! I think that the simple beauty of these are worth the effort. Click on this link to hop over to Martha Stewart to read all about the "How-To." This is not hard, peeps!

And start saving your onion skins!

photo credit: Martha Stewart Omnimedia

Cheap and Sweet Valentine's Treat

So, the Digi Scrapbooking fun of mine has now gone berzerk... into easy, money-saving ways to make a big impression for just a little bit of bucks! I am having so much fun with this!!!

Anyway, here is my latest. Give it a try!!!!!:

(If you are interested in this fun project, but are not sure how to digi-scrap, hop on over here for a mini-tutorial.)

Valentine Candy Wrappers!!

1. Step One: Get Supplies

You will need (not much at all, peeps!):

1. Aluminum foil
2. Regular sized Hershey Bars, or similar size candy
3. A computer, a photo-edit program, and a color printer and paper
4. A digi-scrapping kit of your Valentine's liking: (I found my gawgeous confection wrapper kit at this great site: The Shabby Shoppe)
5. scissors (I used pinking-shears for fun)
6. tape or glue

2. Step Two: Download your Digi-Kit and design away...

I used a Confection Kit, and imported pics of my kids onto the design:

3. Step Three: Print out your creation on regular paper

4. Step Four: Cut out pics with scissors or cute shears

5. Step Five: Wrap up your candy with foil:

6. Step Six: Tape (or glue) your handmade candy wrapper to the foil-wrapped bar:

Be sure that you center your picture on the front:7. Step Seven: Be sure to personalize your cute candy, and then give it away with LOVE:

Voila! A cheap and creative way to spread God's Love this Valentine season!!

If you do any digi scrapping crafts, I would love for you to send me a link, bloggettes!