Williams-Sonoma store scent.
 

If you have been to Williams-Sonoma, you know their store smells heavenly, but not in a cloying/overpowering way.

I found this blog pinned on pinterest and used the "recipe": http://morganmoore.typepad.com/one_m...20a9772f44970b

It smells SOOOOO good simmering on the stove, but you can only use it one, maybe two days before the lemon gets pretty yucky. So, I decided to find a way to make it keep. Instead of a whole lemon, I used lemon juice (1 cup) and lemon extract (1/2 tsp). I used dried rosemary because that's what I had on hand--about a tsp of leaves. I added about 1 tbsp of homemade vanilla extract and 1 cup of water. I brought it to a boil for 5 minutes or so and then let it simmer until it was half it's volume. Once it cooked down I let it cool and strained out the rosemary leaves. To the mixture I added the same amount of rubbing alcohol and poured it into a spray bottle. It is the perfect all natural Febreeze alternative and a smell you can't buy in the store!

What a great idea!! Thanks for sharing!

Jan in VA

Thanks, I'm going to try that!

Thanks so much - can't wait to try it.

Neat, thanks for sharing - gonna make some this weekend.

I will have to try this, this is great, thank you for sharing

I happened to have the ingredients on hand and had to try it right away. Love it! Thanks!

will give it a try thanks for sharing

How do you make homemade vanilla extract

OH MY GOODNESS!!
Homemade vanilla is not only the best tasting stuff I have ever tasted, it's easy and so much cheaper than store bought.
Get yourself some vanilla bean pods...I order from Amazon, got a great deal from this seller: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i00

Once you get some vanilla bean pods, you slice one side of the pods open and submerse them in clear alcohol. I had rum, so that's what I used. Some people use vodka with success, too. Put the jar (I used a washed pasta sauce jar) full of booze with 6 or 8 pods in a dark cabinet and resist the urge to peak at it more than once a week when you take it out and swish it around. You can use it after 8 weeks, but the longer it sets, the better. After 3 months or so, you can take the bean pods out and put them into another jar of booze and start brewing more. I don't strain out the tiny bits...that's what makes the taste.

If you do the math, it's infinitely cheaper than store bought.

So instead of the 2/3 pot of water you only used 1 cup? Just trying to get this straight so I can try it myself. Thanks

That's what I did for the room spray so that it was more concentrated and easier to further cook down. If you were to let it simmer all day, obviously you'd need the extra liquid.

Wow, can't wait to try this. Thanks for the "recipe".

Printed this one and am going to try it. Thank you!

Another thing you can do with the vanilla pods is slice them open, scrape out all the gooey innards & mix them with some sugar. Stick the sliced bean in the sugar and store for a couple of months - vanilla sugar! Very tasty in coffee and on top of cookies.

I made this air freshener today and boy is it yummy!! I put a small fan next to the stove and my whole house smells awesome! Thanks for posting the link!

Yummy, Peckish! I think I will get some sugar in the raw and give that a try, too. I once had a margarita that had vanilla sugar on the rim. It was AMAZING!

ETA: How many pods to how much sugar do you use?

I like a really strong vanilla flavor, so I use 1 cup of sugar for every pod, and the longer it sits the better it gets. I also hide it from the kids! :D