Apple & Clove Pomander from Ashley at She Makes a Home {Guest Post}

Today we have an awesome guest post for you! We are kicking off Apple month and diving right in with this sweet tutorial from Ashley from She Makes a Home!

--------------------------

Hello Citrus and Cream readers! I'm Ashley, the writer behind She Makes a Home. She Makes a Home is where I share my daily journey of working from home while I care for my children. We are first-time homeowners, and I am slowly (but surely!) making it ours. As a lifestyle site, I share a combination of house projects; recipes; DIY crafts;  handmade finds; and indie business inspiration to help those who want to work from home as well. Please stop by some time, and let me know you're visiting from Citrus and Cream!
-------------------------- Were you a fan of the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder as a kid? Growing up, I was obsessed with all things Little House. Now that my daughter is almost five years old, we started reading the series together. In Little House in the Big Woods, Laura's aunt gives Ma an apple studded with cloves as a Christmas present. Being apple season now, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to give this DIY a try!

The cloves are supposed to preserve the apple, keeping its smell sweet and spiced for months - maybe even years. Many people hang these fragrant fruits in their closets, but I plan to keep mine by our front door.

What you'll need:

• 
  
• an apple, clean fresh, and free of bruises, holes, or gashes
• a handful or two of whole cloves
• a bamboo skewer, or some sort of small poking device
• a napkin or towel
• string, twine, or ribbon - optional

Directions

Start by placing a napkin or towel on your table - this will help a lot with clean-up.

Next, take your clean apple, and begin by poking a ring of small holes around the top with your skewer. The length of time you want to keep your pomander determines how close together you want to poke your holes. You can make designs or patterns on your apple with the cloves, but the pomander might only last a week or two. Placing your cloves very close together, all the way around your apple, will maximize the life of the pomander.

After poking a ring of holes around the apple, I poke whole cloves into those holes.

Repeat, making rings and filling them with cloves all the way down the apple.

After the entire apple is full of cloves, I gave it another look over, placing more cloves in any "bald patches" on the apple.

In retrospect, I might have placed those cloves even closer together than I did - but that's okay, I can just keep filling it in.

Finally, if you plan on hanging your apple pomander, you'll need string or twine to tie to the stem, re-enforcing the tie with hot or super glue. Alternatively, you can tie ribbon around at least four side of the apple, leaving enough at the top to hang the pomander with. Personally, I'm just placing my pomander in a basket by the front door.

The entire process took me less than an hour. It was really quite nice - I just worked on the apple while listening to an audiobook. You might enjoy listening to a TV show, music, or just have some quiet time to yourself.

You don't have to keep these all to yourself, either; these would make great additions to homemade Christmas gifts or stockings. In fact, I made some cute little printable tags to put on your apple & clove pomanders if you wish to use them for gift-giving. You can find them here!

Many people also use oranges or other kinds of citrus fruit. Have you ever made a fruity pomander like this? What kind of fruit did you use?

A big thank you to Stephanie and Candace for having me on Citrus and Cream, and thank you for reading! Ashley

--------------------------

Thanks, Ashley!  What an awesome way to kick off apple month! Head over to She Makes a Home and check out Ashley and her beautiful blog!