Herbs and Spice and Everything Nice

So today I went to the store, and started buying spices for my ornaments(thank you Food Lion Latin Foods section for your 99 cent spices)Each packet of cloves is enough to do one ornament...AND...they had whole allspice and star anise, which is wicked hard to find around here. So now I need to think up a few ornaments to make with those, too. Wow, my tree is gonna be FRAGRANT! and I'm going to make cranberry garlands, too, I think. Add a few "quilt balls", and I think it'll be a pretty cute tree.

I got my inspiration for Christmas tree ornaments from a few different places. Of course, I have to say that my Mopsie had various ornaments made of cloves that I loved as a kid. they always smelled so nice. If you look on the internet, you can find a number of different ideas for making ornaments out of raw spices. It takes some digging, but they're in there. These cute little balls from Grey House Samplers caught my eye immediately. Just what I was looking for. With a few bits of ribbon or raffia, something like this would be perfect for my Christmas tree.
A few other things I saw were here on the right-pomanders made of oranges
and cloves, which are, of course, the origin of these types of ornaments. This
one with ribbon is similar in concept with what I want to do with my clove
balls, although I will probably use raffia or strips of flannel or a more rustic ribbon. It's still cute. I may possibly make a few of the orange pomanders
to set in a bowl on my kitchen counter or dining room table. I like the one without the ribbon, too. Those are made with styrofoam balls, so they'll last longer. I am fairly sure I could do the same thing by hot gluing whole allspice
to a styrofoam ball for a different "pattern". With some matching paint on the styrofoam, I could make some of star anise, too, both for the tree and for the table.
I think they will look and smell extra fabulous. Best part: unlike pretty glass ornaments, my cat won't break them. I LOVE my Stinky Pete. He's the sweetest and most personable cat I've ever met. But he will be murder on my tree. I know. I'd prefer not to have to kill my sweet kitty if at all possible, so it seems to me like unbreakable things are the way to go. When Momma's happy, everybody's happy, dontcha know? Besides, these ornaments will be awesome!

Here is another cute idea I think I'm going to try also. This one has a number of different pinecones on the ball, with just hints of spice from the cinnamon sticks. But they're so pretty and rustic looking, I can't pass them by. And I like the punch of color from the berries. I was thinking that for myself, I'll go gather pinecones from the trees behind my house...they're small enough, and there are tons of them laying around. I also think that instead of the red berries, I might try and use pyrocantha berries, since we also have a LOT of pyrocantha growing wild around Tarawa Terrace for some reason. The orange berries will add an interesting bit of color to the tree. I like that!
I wave been wondering what I could do with magnolia leaves...we have so many magnolias around here, too, it just seemed natural to want to make some beautiful ornaments out of them to add to the tree. I know they'd make a pretty garland, but I don't have the time or patience to wire them together. I'll have to get on the internet and have a look see for some ideas.
These are pretty neat, too. I had already said I was going to make some cinnamon stick bundles, but when I saw these, I thought they were absolutely perfect! Although, I'm not sure where I would get whole nutmeg, I think I could substitute allspice for the nutmeg...maybe. I don't know. I'll let you know the results.

At any rate, I just thought I would share with you a few of the ideas and inspirations I found for my "Home Spice" Christmas tree this year. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them!
What would you put on my Christmas tree?