Christmas Crafty

During my December month's hiatus from the blog world, I spent some time making some cross-stitched ornaments I was thinking of hanging on our Christmas tree.  (More on that in a future post.)

Another little thing I did was to make a pomander ball.  It was something I've thought about doing for several years and finally got around to it this year.

I had actually thought of making a few of them as gifts.  However, I now know and can positively say that won't be happening.  What a lot of work!  And how hard on the fingers pushing those whole cloves into the orange even after making preliminary holes through the skin with a nail.

I had truly envisioned totally covering this first experimental pomander ball with cloves but it didn't take me long to decide not to pursue that idea. The Internet shows all kinds of designs one can make with the cloves but I stuck with straight (sort of) lines from one end to the other.

One set of directions I found (after I had made mine) said that after putting cloves in the orange, you should roll it in a mixture of equal parts orris root, ground cinnamon and allspice, then wrap in tissue paper and store in a dark place for four weeks.  (Oops, guess I was a little late for that.)

After four weeks, the article said, shake off any surplus powder and tie a pretty ribbon around the orange.

Another oops.  Again, I read this after I had rolled mine in pumpkin pie spice which is a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves.  I shook off the excess ground spices, tied a ribbon around it and hung it in a doorway.  Supposedly, if you followed the directions (which I obviously failed to do), the pomander ball would emit it's nostalgic fragrance for months, even years.  Mine has a nice fragrance but only if your nose gets up close and personal with it.

Also, the pumpkin pie spice so coated the orange skin that my ball has a muddy brown color, not an attractive orange.

Here's another picture of it after hanging in the doorway for a week.  (Why does it remind me of a shrunken head?)

All in all, this experiment would have turned out much better if I had taken the time to research making a pomander ball before diving in rather blindly.

Here's my pomander ball attempt with the readjusted ribbon.  Slightly attractive or just plan ugly, I'm glad I finally took the time to give it a try.  Rest assured, I won't be giving Ms. Stewart any competition . . . or doing it again soon.