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Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Homemade Pine Car Air Freshener (But why?)

There's a new tallest-person in town putting on the star.
Oh, my loves! I was going to post recipes and latkes and cheer and who knows what all holiday else, but then there was pneumonia, and a sinus infection, and deadlines, and the twilight zone of college applications. Also, weird bouts of eggnog drinking that had me in bed by 8:30 with first Love and Trouble, then Conversations with Friends, and now Pachinko, all of which are wonderful books to curl up with should you find yourself in bed at 8:30 while someone on the crouton (i.e. the little futon) coughs and coughs from your bedroom floor and the humidifier blasts out its eucalyptus steam. Just saying.

Mostly all we do is talk in Snapper's little voice about how excited he is for Christmas. Every morning there are 30 ornaments on the floor.
So all I got is this weird last-minute craft, from my very special line of "drunk tutorials." JK! I'm 100% sober at the moment! Just really, really tired. Which is no reason for you not to make a DIY pine air freshener for your car or the car of a beloved! I have had it in my mind to make this for ages. I like that it's kind of Christmas-y, but then it won't give you that horrible off-season ennui when you see it in, like, February, because the pine air freshener is an actual non-holiday genre of object! Maybe you don't know what I'm talking about, which is also fine.


Anyhoo. Before you start, make sure you have some green felt and some spruce or pine essential oil. You can get the oil at a store like Whole Foods, or you can order it online. (I have this, and like it, but you could get this from Amazon.) Start by making your paper template. I Googled "pine tree template" and scrolled through images until I found the one I liked best, which was this:

But it would also be cute to use something more traditional, a la:


Or, of course, just freeform it like a normal person. Whatever you use, scale it to about 4 inches high. I did this by taking a screen shot of the image, and then resizing it in the Preview program on my Mac. (It's not rocket science or anything, but there's definitely always a moment when I'm sure how to do the thing I want to do on a computer, even if that thing is very very stupid and basic.) Print your template, and cut it out. 
Now stick it to some nice green felt with a piece of double tape or a pin and cut out two trees, one at a time. (I used some lovely wool craft felt that I happened to have, but you could use a shrunk sweater or even crappy acrylic felt. It doesn't matter that much, since I'm not thinking of this as a real heirloom type project, if you know what I mean.)

Now cut a piece of felt to sandwich in between the trees (one that won't extend beyond them), and saturate this piece of felt with essential oil. I mean, really go for it. Some will even bleed through the felt, and that's fine, although if you get a weird rash, don't come crying to me about it. 


Now pin the two trees together and stitch around them. I used white thread and a very basic little running stitch because I had this idea of how I wanted it to look, but you can do whatever kind of sewing you like with whatever kind of thread because the world is your holiday oyster!


Finish by tying a thread through for hanging, and voila! The world's weirdest holiday gift. 


Sending so much love to you all, now and always. xo

21 comments:

  1. Love back! and health and room to breathe and all that peaceful good stuff. My spouse and I are trying to find the xmas/yule/holiday cheer and it's a little sparse this year. But there are wonderful people in the world and beautiful moments to notice. Spruce.

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    1. Thank you, dear Nimble! Spruce to you too. xo

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  2. Anonymous8:04 AM

    I want to make these to hang on my actual Christmas tree, which always loses its scent a day after we bring it home. Do you think the scent in the felt will hold from year to year?

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    1. I don't think it will, but you could refresh it by just putting some oil right on the felt tree rather than in the stuffing. Use a nice, dark felt and it won't even show.

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  3. I started reading about baby Ben when my baby was still a baby. I'm not sure how yours got to be tallest person when I'm pretty sure mine is still a baby, or maybe an unusually angst-y toddler.

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  4. Hoohoo, Snapper has that Krazy Kat look on his face. We discovered that you can use this: put the ornaments you hate (e.g., the loathsome etched glass Tiny Tim that Aunt Somebody gave you and you feel guilty just throwing away) on the lowest branches. Snapper will pull them down and destroy them overnight (who knew? no guilt!) and you can just sweep up the rubble in the morning--done! Warm, cozy & happy holidays to all of you!

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    1. I read your comment out loud and everybody here laughed. SUCH GOOD ADVICE! xo

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  5. Happy holidays to you & your sweet family! ❤️

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  6. Happy holiday rash, friends!

    I just came here to say thanks. We celebrate Solstice (so grandma can have her way with Christmas), so we made your caramel popcorn yesterday and played our new Sushi Go. You are in our every holiday - thanks for sending happiness out to the world!

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    1. Thank you so much, dear one. xo

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  7. Oh! And I have a question. One thing I love best about Stitch Camp is that it has a gender friendly cover - my son can comfortably open this book along with his sisters. But our library has this cover, with a girl UGH!!!! Why?

    https://dur.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:749498/ada?qu=stitch+camp

    Isn't that weird?

    But! I have to share one of his favorite sewing books with you. Because if you're going to cross stitch, why not astronauts and dinosaurs?

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440309256/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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    1. Oh, how wonderful! That would be such a great gift for so many people. And yes, that was the old cover. No books have had it, but it did go out in an early press announcement. That's Birdy's very close friend Sahar! But I agree that the nongender cover is much better.

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  8. Happy holidays to you and yours, Catherine! A DIY car air freshener? That's actually brilliant, and I think I'll make it.

    Our dog is in his own war on Christmas. He prefers to not just knock the ornaments off, but then to destroy them. Ah, pets! :D

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    1. Oh god, pets! They're so enthusiastic. Happy holidays, dear Amy. xo

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  9. Wow, that sounds great!! I am going to try it. Where did you get your materials from?
    Thanks.

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  10. Oh Catherine, more book recs! A gift! Conversations with Friends I'd heard mentioned at Wordstock and was eager to read. Love and Trouble looks so good, too. I just finished New People and it was a good quick read and asked for What We Lose for Christmas. Wishing you and yours many a magical moment, togetherness, the tiny glow of the season that sneaks up.

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  11. Anonymous9:10 AM

    Oh my gosh, as someone who knows about tariff classification and what's "festive", I loved this post.

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  12. Anonymous3:18 PM

    Catherine, I hope it makes you feel better to know that my holidays are brighter and tastier from all of your recipes, cranberry centerpieces were eaten and eaten and given away, the gingerbread house went up and stayed up (yeah!) and was decorated, green dip was made four times and devoured, yeasty waffles were made and gobbled, Unbored was given and enjoyed, many other books and games you suggested were given and played, it was wonderful. Thank you for giving us your talents!

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  13. Anonymous5:10 PM

    I’ve been reading your wit and wryness (?) since you were Bringing Up Ben. You’ve become a part of our everyday life with your recipes on my table and your words repeating in my mind when I find myself becoming short with my small people. Over our holiday hummus and pita was made and destroyed, Catan was played, Unbored gifted, roasted broccoli eaten (and enjoyed) by an avowed broccoli hater, and I gifted your books to three people who have read them already and wrote to thank me for sharing the loveliness that is your writing. So I guess what I am trying to say is, thank you for sharing yourself and your family so freely with all of us.

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