Suzy, To make a spritzer, the easiest thing to do is buy a small bottle of 'pure lavender essential oil'; (EO) from your health food store. Just make sure the label says that exactly. Some "fragrance oils" are actually carrier oils like canola or almond oil that has had a few drops of pure essential oil of lavender added to it - you can do that yourself with pure EO and much more. Plus carrier oils are oily to the touch, pure EOs are not oily to the touch, they absorb quickly into the skin. That's another way to tell but best bet is to look for proper label wording and read the ingredient list -- there should be only one ingredient: pure essential oil of lavender. With pure EO you can just put 10 drops in a 4oz spritzer with some distilled water, shake well and spritz your skin. Lavender is great for the face, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. I use this to set my pure minteral make up powders. Plus you'll have a whole bottle left for other things like: *Swirl 20 drops on top of your bath water before you step into the tub -- for relaxing and stress relief, lavender can help you sleep and the warm water helps it get further into your skin. *A few drops on a piece of cotton, tuck that into an old cotton sock and put that into your pillowcase for scent to sleep by, again helps w/relaxation *A few drops of the pure oil on a burn, immediately - yes it works to take the sting out and prevent blistering. This is an essential natural first aid in the kitchen and will NOT hurt the burn -- this oil absorbs almost immediately into your skin penentrating at the cellular level to heal. It is not like butter which Drs. wisely advise against as it seals in heat. Google Rene Gatefosse for the full story on lavender oil and burns... *A few drops on cotton balls stashed in pots and other out of the way spots in rooms you'd like to scent naturally *Mix about 4-6 drops per oz of unscented natural body lotion to make your own lavender lotion. I like Trader Joe's brand - just make sure there is no mineral oil or petrolatum/petroleum products in the lotion. *Mix about 4-6 drops per oz of pure canola oil to use as a massage oil. Great for sore feet. Add some pure EO of peppermint to make it really refreshing. *Mix a few drops into a mister filled with rose water or orange blossom water which you can purchase from a middle eastern grocery for a two note fragrance spritz instead of using distilled water. Obviously if you buy another EO that you like the fragrance of, you can mix some of that in too for a light spritzer of 3 notes. Mandarin and graprefruit are wonderful light oils for summer. Be careful, I ended up with over 40 EOs because I got hooked on mixing fragrance! Kept cool and in dark bottles/away from sun, they last forever though... On your questaions: Yes you can pull fragrance from plant materials using alcohol but don't use rubbing alcohol - it smells bad, just take a whiff and you'll see what I mean, very harsh. Vodka has no scent - it's the closet alcoholic's favorite for this reason - that's why it's used but the highest proof will be most effective. Yes you have need to strain out the plant materials and after you are finished with your extraction process you can add some distilled water (non-distilled might let bacteria grow). You will also need to add copious amounts of plant materials to the soaking jar (I'd use a mason with lid), crushing the flowers down into a small amount of liquid over a period of weeks to get some fragrance into the vodka. Placing on a warm windowsill will probably help speed the process. Rose is probably a better choice as you can gather a lot of petals if you grow a few bushes in your yard. With lavender, the scent comes from the flowers and you'll need a lot of them. I think it takes about 2000 lbs of lavender blossoms to steam distill out just a pound of pure essential oil. Obviously leaching the oils out in alcohol is not quite the same and will result in a much weaker fragrance than steam distillation done professionally. Go get some lavender essential oil and maybe a few others and begin playing!

We had that problem with a condo we owned and rented out. The tenant was a heavy smoker and it simply reeked. We wanted to put it on the market but the agent said not to list it til the smell was GONE. We replaced the carpet too. This is what worked: Kilz (as recommended above) on the walls. Then we set bowls of vinegar all over the room, along the walls so we didnâÂÂt trip over them. On top of the vinegar I put a few drops of an essential oil. I bought food grade pure oil at Whole Foods, as it has to be âÂÂrealâ essential oil, not just an oily perfume. The vinegar volatilizes and makes the oil evaporate into the air. It took about a month. I went over there at least once a week to refresh the bowls, adding more vinegar and oil. I could tell the odor was a bit better every time I went in. ItâÂÂs probably the vinegar rather than then the oil, but this is what I was told to do when I posted MY question on the forum, so I did it that way.

We have had roof rats off and on in our attic. The key is to find out how they are getting in your home. I've been told by vector control that if your thumb can fit through a hole in you home, so can a rat. Look closely at the base of your home and where the roof meets the exterior walls. Also trim back any trees that hang over your home or ivy that climbs up the walls. Roof rats love to climb and can jump well too. To give you some idea of the damage they can do to your home, we had a rat jump off the top of a kitchen cabinet (there was a small hole where the cabinet and ceiling met). Before we knew he was even loose in the house, he nibbled through our washing machine hoses and dishwasher hoses. We immediately set a trap and caught the little guy. Several days later my son asked why water was dripping from the downstairs ceiling. I looked up and saw water stains covering the entire ceiling. The kitchen is right above this lower room but the dishwasher leak had been caught immediately. I ran upstairs, pulled the refrigerator away from the cabinets and sure enough there were several punctures in the ice maker line, spraying a steady mist into the drywall behind. To make a long story short, our hardwood floor and cabinets in the kitchen had to be removed and two rooms downstairs were entirely gutted. Fortunately for insurance we are having some fresh paint and new flooring put in. Our kitchen is still torn up as we decide how to best remodel it.

The dark circle looks like a water stain.......and oxalic acid will remove that. And if you have other water black marks it will help with them too. Any mineral spirits should evaporate with time. I have had good luck removing grease stains on suede by rubbing with corn starch, then brushing it off....repeat and repeat. I spilled chicken fat on a pair of suede pants ( not sure why I was messing in the kitchen wearing suede pants, but that's another story!) Perhaps cornstarch would absorb the grease in your table.