A Pin Test #7: Williams-Sonoma Store Scent

It's time for another A Pin Test post. Test #7, from this pin, is a do-it-yourself version of the scent you might find in the air when you wander a Williams-Sonoma store. I visit Williams-Sonoma often but off the top of my head I couldn't remember what the store smells like.

I am always happen to experiment with easy, home scents that you can quickly throw on your stove. Food smells are great while you're cooking but hours later, not so enjoyable. It's also great to have a quick solution when you get home from a trip and realize you forgot to take out the trash before you left. Pop it on the stove before guests come over and you are sure to welcome your guests to a pleasant home. Here is a family favorite of mine.

I always have lemons and vanilla on hand and I have a big rosemary plant thriving out in my balcony garden. So this is something I can easily pull together any time with no additional supplies needed. Here's the link to the original post. The author of One More Moore, Morgan Moore used to work at Williams-Sonoma so she's definitely in the know. Thanks for sharing this little behind the scenes tip Morgan.

Just washing the rosemary in the sink, rubbing the stalks together gave the kitchen the most amazing fresh scent. I cut up two small lemons and cut the rosemary stalks into smaller pieces that would fit and move easily around in my pot. Then I added the vanilla extract. I misread the recipe and added a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon but it wasn't overboard at all.

Already I knew this was going to be a successful Pin Test. The three ingredients combine to create something really delicious smelling. It's not too foody, too strong or too anything. It's a gentle, relaxing, earthy scent with just a touch of sweetness. I love that.

Before I wrap this up let me share one quick tip learned purely from previous bad experience. It's easy to put this on the stove and forget it - especially if your stove isn't in a high traffic area or your kitchen isn't a place you pass through often on your way out the door. It's really bad to leave the house with it still on. So I set a timer for about 30 minutes as a reminder to turn it off. It's a good amount of time to let the scent waft throughout your home and make sure you don't forget about it. Another option is to set a reminder on your phone for a few minutes before you know you'll be leaving the house.

I wish you could smell my home while I am writing this. I definitely give a big thumbs up to the Williams-Sonoma Scent pin. If you try it, let me know what you think.

A Spooky Harvest Tale: Thinking Too Small

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It's October, the perfect time for a scary story! The other day I was working on a marketing project. I set some parameters for myself and started working. Then I realized I should be thinking a little bigger. Then I realized that I could still think a little bigger.

It struck me that I was still thinking way too small. Way too small! I laughed at myself and at the same time felt a little twinge of fear. Not fear of thinking too big, but fear of how often I think too small. Yikes.

It was like a scene from a movie where I realized I was lost in the middle of a corn patch. The corn patch was all my too small, too narrow, too wimpy, too unimaginative thoughts holding me back from doing more and being more than I ever imagined. Like a blonde, college coed running from a horror movie ax-wielding psychopath, I wanted out of that restricting, limiting cornfield immediately. And in my mind I saw myself thrashing through the cornstalks, running at top speed to get out of that field and back into the light, fresh air, and vision of all that is possible in my life.

I actually have a little experience in cornfields. I remember trying to scare myself by getting lost in the cornfields on our farm when I was younger. Even though you could get yourself so turned around that you had no idea which direction you were facing, you could always find your way out - because cornfields are planted in rows. Follow one row and you know you are going in a straight line to the edge. You can't guarantee where you'll end up when you get out, but once you're out, you'll have a whole new perspective on where you need to go from there.

By thinking a little bigger and a then a little bigger still I am following the steps I need to take down one of those rows. I don't know where exactly it will take me, but I do know one thing, it will get me out of the cornfield of small thinking. And no matter where I end up, I know I'll have a much bigger view, perspective and opportunity to experience more, see more, do more and be more.

Have you ever found yourself in the cornfield of small thinking? How did you get yourself out? Where did it take you?