DIY: An Herbal Holiday Kissing Ball

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• Nine 3-inch-long clusters sage stems
• ­1 roll florists’ wire, 22- or 24-gauge
• 1 wire coat hanger
• 1 firm, preferably green, unblemished, ­symmetrical apple, 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter
• Fifty to sixty 3- to 3^_1/2-inch rosemary stems (if you don’t have this much ­rosemary, substitute any combination of santo­lina, thyme, pine, and/or fir)
• 3 rubber bands
• Ten to twelve 4-inch lemon geranium stems
• Fifty to sixty 2^_1/2-inch boxwood stems
• 6 anise hyssop stems
• 12 French lavender stems
• 3 small jingle bells
• A big cluster of oregano thyme (or other upright thyme) about 6 to 8 inches long
• 2 yards ^_7/8-inch ribbon (I used Offray Wire-Edge Polyester Ombre #6347)

1. Remove any brown, discolored or bug-eaten leaves from the herbs. Cut the stems at an angle to the correct lengths (don’t bother to measure—just eyeball it), then strip the foliage off the bottom 1^_1/4 inches of stems. Keep the stems in a pile near you for quick pick-up. Make a sage bundle by removing the large outer leaves and clustering about three groups of the smaller center leaves together. Place a 5-inch piece of the florists’ wire perpendicular to the stems, close to the leaves, and wrap it a few times in both directions tightly enough to hold the stems but not so tightly that it cuts through them. Twist the two wire ends together, and trim the stems about ^_1/4 inch past the wire binding. Make eight more sage bundles.

2. Lay a wire coat hanger in front of you. With wire cutters, cut a piece that includes the entire straight bottom piece and about 1_^1/2 inches of one angled corner, which will hook into the apple. With pliers, close up the angled end a bit. Remove the apple stem. Insert the straight end of the hanger halfway into the stem end of the apple, keeping it as straight as possible. Remove the wire, then insert it into the blossom end halfway through the apple. Remove the wire, and insert it again into the stem end, pushing it all the way through so that it emerges from the blossom end – this may take more than one try. Push it in until the hook begins to embed in the apple, insert a small piece of woody stem or toothpick under the loop of wire so that the wire doesn’t go completely through the apple, then push the wire in until the toothpick or stem rests against the apple.

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