Today, as I sat in my kitchen with the Belle Aroma Crème Brûlée No-Mess Fragrance Tarts diffusing their warm, inviting notes of vanilla, toasted coconut, and maple, I couldn’t help but think back to those cozy winter days in my mom’s kitchen. The scent even reminded me of the last time I made a batch of cinnamon rolls. Inspired by the maple notes in the fragrance, I added a touch of maple flavoring to the cream cheese icing. Oh my! The depth it brought to an already over-the-top roll was incredible.

Speaking of holiday scents, have you ever thought about mixing wax melts or tarts to create custom scents? It’s an easy and creative way to personalize your home fragrance throughout the year. For example, Belle Aroma’s No-Mess Fragrance Tarts are perfect for experimenting with mixing fragrances.

Those memories are etched in my mind, tied irrevocably to the scents of the season. As the days grow shorter and the holidays blend together, I find myself chasing those memories—through the crisp smell of autumn leaves, the spice of cider, or the comforting aroma of Thanksgiving dinner.

My parents were big coffee drinkers. They drank their morning pot over breakfast, then another pot mid-morning. If the family was out together Mom and Dad would always want to stop for coffee. My brother and I knew it wouldn’t do any good to protest. They’d get their coffee, and we’d get soda. Slurp!! Our sodas would be gone in minutes, and they’d still be working on their first cup! Coffee refills were still free in those days. Argh!! Thus, I developed a prejudice against coffee and determined never to drink it myself.

I pointed to my tabletop scent diffuser which was filling the room with a blend of pumpkin and fall scents. He said, “Oh, that’s cool,” and then, “Do you think I would be able to get some more candy for my brother who couldn’t trick or treat this year?”

An active cider mill and orchard is an amazing place to spend a fall afternoon. I spent many youthful hours deep in the countryside at a mill lovingly named Old McDonald’s Apple Orchard and Cider Mill.

Once a month, I meet with my Bunco* group. We have a meal – usually accompanied by a drink or two - followed by a mindless game of dice with the tantalizing possibility of prizes.

*For those not yet in the know, Bunco is a social game where players take turns rolling three dice in rounds to score points.

The biggest takeaway from this monthly gathering, however, is how much I learn from this group of smart and fun-loving women.

You just never know what is going to stick in your memory.

Many years ago, while listening to a sommelier, or wine expert, speak about the nuances of wine making and explain the term “veraison”, the tipping point in a grapevine's annual lifecycle, I suddenly found myself thinking of my Uncle’s grapevines.

Off to the “Mount Rushmore” state, to see the eerie stillness of the eroding caverns of the Badlands, the untouched landscape of the Black Hills, and the grandiose mountain drives, where human engineers and mother nature made one-way passages so curvy you can see yourself coming and going.

I didn’t know it then. I just know all these years later that I remember the smell. The smell of rain hitting dirt and hot pavement. The feel of the air just before it rains. How the temperature can drop 20 degrees within a few minutes or make for a steamy bath.

Members of my family were coming to visit for a special holiday. I decided to fill the house with one of my favorite scents, Belle Aroma® Balsam Peru, by diffusing it in my Esprit de Fleur™ Essential Oil Nebulizer. When they walked in, I would watch to see if anyone noticed and how they reacted.

Entering the ocean is an initiation into the world of nature’s forces, and it comes with an unforgettable smell of freshness and revival. Some say the ocean really doesn’t have a smell, but I beg to differ.

As I tried to calm my resistant child, my mind recalled that lavender has calming and relaxing qualities thanks to the presence of linalool, the component that gives it a distinct smell and anxiety-reducing effects. Our wind-down routine, I decided, would need to include a fragrance diffuser loaded with a bottle of lavender essential oil.

It arrived in the mail: a birthday package of Belle Aroma® Cherry Noir No-Mess Fragrance Tarts® sent as a teasing reminder of my first crush…a story this friend knows all too well.

My backyard was full of apple and cherry trees. I still remember the fragrance of them: green early apples, and, later in summer, the red Winesaps appeared. If we could beat the birds, bees, and worms to them, they made for some juicy offerings, and yes, some bellyaches for us greedier pickers. I was living the life of Jack and Jill as was shown in my first-grade reader.

This year, however, I am going to be trying some more natural concoctions and see if we can get away from so many processed things that could be detrimental to our skin and health. For mosquitoes around the picnic tables, I am going to be trying something I saw on Instagram posted by @inspiredlifeandhome. I am going to make her natural luminary, but I am going to add Belle Aroma® Lemongrass Essential Oil to the mixture.

Since I had to come inside, I’m choosing to duplicate the memory today by using my Bamboo Rain No-Mess Fragrance Tarts® in my Belle Aroma® Plugables® Mosaic Vase. Bamboo Rain fragrance top notes are Sandalwood (my favorite scent) and Musk. The base is Bamboo and Ozone. These No-Mess Fragrance Tarts are good for any low-temp scent warmers including the Belle Aroma ScenTrio® Petite Wax Warmer.

I’m sitting in my recliner today with Tosh on my lap on what is my first real day “off” since semi-retiring a couple of weeks ago. That’s OK, though, because the things I filled my days with were enjoyable and things I needed to do. But today is the first day at home to catch up on some things around here. I’m in my recliner because it is storming outside, and thunder always makes Tosh very anxious. In fact, she usually runs to her papa, David, at the first crack of thunder. But since he’s gone, I’m the next best thing in a storm.

When my husband and I first moved to Missouri back in 1980 we were pretty poor. If we had a nickel, it would be lonely. Imagine how excited we were to have found a farmhouse to rent. It was owned by an older couple who basically just wanted someone in it so it wouldn’t get destroyed by vandals. It had been the woman’s homestead that she inherited from her parents. They offered it to us for $25 a month during the winter months if we would count their cows and feed them some hay. During the summer when they didn’t need to be fed, we were to pay $50, but they took pity on us and never changed it from $25!

I don’t know about you, but the later we get into spring the more my mind goes to summer vacations! A few years ago, the phrase “staycation” was coined. While I love the idea of a few days at home where nobody makes any demands on you and you can stay in your pj’s all day if you want, I am talking about a real vacation. I have been to all but 4 states and have hopes of vacationing in 3 of them by Fall. But until then, I’ll be content reminiscing about some of my vacations from younger years.