Make your house smell like pine trees!

I grew up in two different Adirondack towns, and you can imagine that there were plenty of souvenir shops with all sorts of item, ranging from tshirts to tiny canoes to...balsam pillows.  I loved these and I remember one in particular.  It had printed on the front of it:  "For you I pine, for you I balsam" (Get it?  For you I "bawl" some?)  As a kid, I thought that was pretty funny.

We recently visited a tree farm whose gift shop was selling bags of balsam needles. If you have never smelled these, you are in for a treat.  They smell wonderful, like the woods, like I wish my artificial tree smelled.  Needless to say, I bought some balsam needles, and stitched up some quick pillows.

Believe me, I am no seamstress.  I can BARELY sew a straight line.  Luckily, that's just what you have to do.  I turned my fabric inside out, sewed three sides of a square, turned it outside in, filled it with balsam needles, and hand-stitched the fourth side closed.

Then I embellished with some ribbon and buttons.

Here's a closeup.  I made several sets of them, and when you squeeze them, you release the scent of balsam.  That's what Christmas and my childhood smell like.

Thanks for stopping by today!

~Sheila~