It's Cyber Monday and the second night of Hanukkah. RIP Stephen Sondheim and Virgil Abloh. Birthdays today: Louisa May Alcott, Clive Staples Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle and Chadwick Boseman. What fragrance are you wearing?
I've overslept again, and now I'm waking up slowly in Sarah Jessica Parker Stash SJP.
Reminder: on 12/3, wear a perfume with a rhubarb note, if you have one.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2021, where I'll try to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: top image is rhubarb leaf [cropped] by in hiatus at flickr; some rights reserved.
I love rhubarb in scent, but I don’t have many. I will have to look it up. Today I’m wearing Five O’Clock Au Gingembre, because it was the first thing I grabbed out of my Serge Lutens decant bag. It is one of my favorites, especially in this season.
I don’t have many either! Hoping I can find my sample of the 1st Aedes scent.
Mugler Aura has a rhubarb note that I love.
Oh, does it! The Aura body lotion, which I have some of, doesn’t smell rhubarby at all and I wouldn’t have guessed. Luckily I have another Mugler, B*Men, for the end of the week: that’s got a distinct rhubarb note up top.
Oh right!!
Don’t want to be an enabler but Love Extreme is back on the BK website. I love this version thanks to be biggest NST enabler.
Went to the gym this morning but didn’t feel the hitting the weights etc so I went home and did a 10 min ballet stretch on the back of my chair. Even though I couldn’t do many of the exercises the YouTube woman was doing (put my leg straight up and down in the air, no thanks) there was something very centering and beautiful about the routine and the music etc. that made me feel very peaceful.
Cappuccino, Italian lesson, bookstore is the plan for today.
SOTD Zen
Oh, your ballet stretch sounds relaxing! Which Youtuber was this?
Enjoy your Zen day!
I am not sure-I just did a google search and found a 10 min video that looked very relaxing and less workout-like
Zen is a beautiful scent. No regretting my FB purchase of this one. Lots to confess to Miss Donatella
Donatella will be so happy to see you, bella! Laughing at the idea of looking for a workout that doesn’t look like a workout, but also, this is a great idea, thank you-I haven’t been to the gym in nearly 2 years and I do need to do something about this soon.
When I did a google search for “ballet”(stretching) I can tell by the photo that it would be more like a “barre workout class” and less slow and mindful, which is what I was craving.
Speaking of your DolceVita name, I saw House of Gucci movie and some members of that family were living the “dolcevita”
Ooh was the film good? The trailer makes it look enjoyably trashy and I really want to see it 🙂
early morning for a conference call to Australia.
Vagabond Prince Enchanted Forest.
Robin that picture is just juicy!
Take a sniff of EP for me please! Lovely.
EF, that is.
sniffing completed!!
Aahhhhhh!
Doesn’t that look lovely? I wonder if people cook rhubarb greens, I honestly don’t know.
They generally don’t, because the leaves contain quite a bit of oxalic acid, which can kill you in high enough a dose. It would take a *lot* of the leaves to do you in, mind you, pounds of them, but people don’t usually take that chance. And in fact rhubarb leaves are used the way cigarette butts are, as an insecticide for garden plants — boil ’em, strain ’em, put the resultant liquid in a spray bottle with a bit of dish detergent to break the surface tension, and spray all over your garden.
oooh, I’ll take that as a firm NO!
Gosh, I didn’t know that! Really, the more you know about the vegetable world of poison you start to look at everything twice. The solanine in the potato skin, the bitter almonds and cassava with cyanide, the apple with the brown toxic mold spot 😳 I guess that is what popular wisdom was there for! (I didn’t know until I was educated by my savvy grandmother a few years back)
Poisons are *everywhere* in the plant world, because they’re a way for plants to keep insects from devouring them. Nicotine is a poison — it’s just a coincidence that it triggers certain pleasure receptors in our brain — and lots of plants produce cyanide under stress, not just almonds and cassava but apples, bamboo, sorghum, lima beans….
LOL — ok then, I think I’ll get my greens elsewhere
Oo, thanks for that insecticide tip! I knew not to eat the leaves but now I’ll save them to make insecticide.
I’ll admit that I glanced at the photo this morning when I was rushing to do something else and didn’t read the verbiage below it, and thought, “This week’s theme is chard??”
I’ve got no rhubarb. None at all. But I do have a little sample spray of Tonka Imperiale which is working quite nicely right now, thank you very much.
Just leaving the zoo, sitting in the parking lot warming up Moby and thinking about driving off into the mountains. In reality, I’m going to drive to a nearby shop for coffee and a bagel. Pretty boring stuff.
Had to paste this because how COOL is this?!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CW1hdksIBGK/?utm_medium=copy_link
That’s amazing. VERY cool.
Wow!
Yes, WOW!
I love that. Thanks!
You smell wonderful.
Virgil Abloh?? That news hasn’t broken here yet (at least on the radio stations I listen to, where it has been wall-to-wall Sondheim all weekend, which has been wonderful to hear but sad to reflect upon) – ach, this is sad news for such a talent. I am strict with my browsing time for the sake of my state of mind, and in an attempt to preserve what dwindling powers of concentration I have left after the last few years! Wearing my newest buy, a 30ml bottle of Rose Anonyme from the Friday sales here (tried it a few weeks ago, loved it, and glad I caught it in time as AC is no longer being stocked in my town after the current stock sells out) and I had very long Shalimar bath at the weekend!! The shower gel foams beautifully 🤩 Hope everyone’s week is off to a peaceful start.
And he was only 41! Cancer sucks.
I looked up this story afterwards- oh yes. This is just awful, awful.
And with a wife and children. And from an incredibly rare and essentially unsurvivable cancer, too. It’s so cruel and sad.
Yup. I agreed with the sentiment expressed in Vanessa Friedman’s article (I apologize for not recalling who she was quoting) — essentially, that he packed so much into his life because it was going to be short. Not, of course, that he knew that. What a loss, and what a gift.
I am planning on wearing Ananda later on today. The websites where I looked it up described it as soft and pretty, yet unassuming; I think that is the type of mood I am in today, so, good fit.
Hope it works for you
Morning all, my SOTD is Pure Turquoise by Ralph Lauren. Happy birthday to Madeline L’ Engle! I love her books.
Coffee consumed, work laptop open and ready to go. Everyone have a great day!
Going to look up your SOTD
No SOTD yet, but will need to find something energetic to psych myself up for work after a long weekend of disappointing news. Nothing major, but combined with the constant drumbeat of rain it’s just…tiring.
I’ll probably go for Saturday after my shower, and then will be CP-compliant. I suspect it’s my only rhubarb, but I’ll have to do a search to see if it’s hiding in something else I have.
THANK you, forgot Saturday had rhubarb!
Hey, that means I can play on Friday! Thanks for the info!
Hello everyone!
Having a lazy cold morning so I thought I’d check in with everyone! I’ve missed you all. I’m still wearing last night’s Une Fleur de Cassie but I’m thinking today will be a Jour d’Hermes day.
Stay safe everyone!
Nice to see you!
Hey Coumarin! Hope all is well with you.
Hi there, I was just thinking of you because I went to Kuhl-Linscomb today and remembered to sniff CdG Copper. At first I didn’t like it at all–it was not just metallic but dirty-smokey smelling. But now after an hour or so I’m liking it. It still smells a bit burned but more like a burned butter or molasses cookie, ha ha!
Hope that you are safe and have been doing all right.
Akro Dark for me, again.
Just put in my two weeks left vacation for end of year — woot! Looking forward to a break and no need to do anything fancy; happy to sleep in, read/watch stuff and do some exploring of this great city.
Oh yay!!
No better place to explore during Christmas season.
I happened to see that in a store where I went shopping just now (I was buying candles for a friend) and I sprayed it on a paper strip. Wow is it potent! That’s got some funk to it of some kind!
SOTD is Guerlain Cuir Beluga, yesterdays Advent prize! Another 10 ml bottle, they’re adorable. I love the vanilla drydown, but it’s not different enough for me to search out a FB. Todays little drawer offered up a decent sized soap, I’m not sure of the scent as it wasn’t labeled. Nice triple milled square bar embossed with a bee. It’s currently residing in my undie drawer😉
Oh, you got the Guerlain advent calendar? Lucky you! According to the website, the soaps in the calendar are 100g, about 3.5 ounces, a good size.
How lovely!!
You smell wonderful!
Wow, what a lovely December advent to look forward to!🤗 I’m also wearing Cuir Beluga.
You smell great, I love CB.
I love Cuir Beluga!
Awaiting a few samples from Tigerlily…probably going to try Nuee Bleue first.
Lived in Manhattan till I was about 7, and my parents were friends with Madeleine L’Engle and her husband Hugh Franklin (who I believe was an actor on All My Children). Still have a photo somewhere of me fake punching Hugh in the face, and his over-the-top goggle-eyed expression. Lord how time flies!
How cool is that!!
That is TOTALLY cool.
Oh, NST, this was a weekend and then some. It was mostly great fun, but the exact opposite of relaxing. There was a lot of driving involved. And a whole bunch of touring around with multiple tweens. And a lot of cooking and eating…feeling very thankful, and very exhausted. Wearing Vetiver Tonka, which feels like a warm hug.
Exhausted twins…I did no driving, but had multiple groups of family in and out since Weds, and my mom just left around noon today and we are alone and my house is a mess.
However thinking of touring around with multiple tweens, hey, I think you beat me
You guys upheld the “social compact” in the highest and best way! Those tweens will take in what you did; and a messy house after days of hospitality is the sign of doing things right, IMHO…
For the last couple of days my hands have been kind of dry — winter is setting in with a vengeance — so I’ve been massaging them all over with Nuxe Huile Prodigeuse, with its sunshiny tropical-beach smell, so wonderful. It’s so intensely scented that it’s basically an EDP in dry-oil form. (I can’t imagine using it on the face as they recommend: I couldn’t have it that close to my nose all the time. But on my hands it’s perfect.)
Isn’t it lovely? I worn just the body oil as a scent; it persists nicely especially in the heat of summer!
I love all those Nuxe oils, sunshine in a bottle indeed.
I’ve been enjoying Ann Patchett’s These Precious Days, a new collection of essays. There’s a nice essay on knitting, another on decluttering, and lots on friendship etc. A good read. Wearing Fleurs des Citronnier on this warm morning, still in bed but have fed the dogs and made coffee, and can hear the first plane of the day overhead.
Oh yes, I have her on my list.
And I’ve just added her to my list. Thanks.
So funny — is her “My three fathers” essay in there? It was in the New Yorker about a year ago, IIRC, and I made a joke to my mom about it this weekend since 3 of my father’s wives were present over the weekend, so I said we should take a picture in case I was ever up to writing a NYer piece about it. She sorta tried but mostly failed to find it amusing, ha…
Robin, you take the cake!
My immediate family on my mother’s side is mostly used to very sarcastic humor. In a million years I would not have said it to either of my stepmothers! I am not THAT bad!
My mother sort of laughed but only sort of, and then said she thought Ann Patchett did not come off well in that essay, so there you are
I think the essay has a lot of warmth and is also sharp ( intellectually and wit)
Yes it is and it’s wonderful. Also a good essay about not having children, about friends, her husband and writing. It’s really worth reading. I am reading it on my iPad but might buy it. Incidentally it was $26 on iBooks and $10 on kindle so shop around.
I loved the essay too.
I do remember thinking that in my family, once one of the dads is saying to the other that some day she will write about this, in MY family the picture ain’t happening
But I also loved it because both of my parents remarried, my dad multiple times, and everybody gets along and we do all do holidays together etc etc.
Hmm, I will track it down.
This book is on my list, too. Thanks for reminding me to seek it out.
Beautiful perfume-I got this one by accident and it’s just lovely!
I like it too and it fits the start of summer nicely. Mine was a blind buy so a good accident, not accident!
You smell lovely. Thanks for the Ann Patchett book recommendation, I love her writing.
Thanks for this book recommendation. I’ve never read Ann Patchett, and this one sounds like a good starting one!
Getting a slow start this morning, enjoying coffee and a slice of leftover pumpkin pie and wearing a smidgen of Baikal Leather Intense. If I have any rhubarb scents, they would be in sample vials to be hunted down later. I’ve been perfume-restless lately, mostly unsatisfied by the usual late-fall rotation, but post-shower I’ll see if something calls out for attention.
Pumpkin pie and coffee is a great way to ease into a morning.
If we have pie around, I often eat it for breakfast with yogurt or a whipped cream/yogurt mix (call me weird, but I love it).
Pie for breakfast, love it!
Pie for breakfast is the best way to do it.
I’ll have to investigate to see if I have perfumes with rhubarb, nothing leaps to mind, but there’s bound to be a smidgen somewhere.
Meanwhile, what did leap to mind was Caron’s Parfum Sacré.
Aura – it often gets reviewed as minty-toothpaste, but for me even the edp is rhubarb and vanilla-greeness.
Ha – I thought that pic was Swiss chard. Likely because I just bought some for dinner tonight. Ilove rhubarb and strawberry/rhubarb pie is often my birthday “cake” as my birthday is in May. I also loved Madeline L’Engle’s books. Wish she were still around.
I’m wearing Lost Cherry today which is helping with the Monday blues.
I thought that too (about the picture).
I remember first buying rhubarb in a grocery store here (a long time ago) after I had first moved down to Texas from the north. The checker stared and stared at it and clearly had no idea what it was. When I checked the receipt, I saw that she had rung it up as Chinese radishes!
Ha – she put it in the “not sure what this is, so we’ll call it good” category!
Well it is possible the picture is mislabeled!
Or maybe kale and rhubarb leaves look a LOT alike?
I think Jalapeno is right!
Good Morning.
1) RIP Virgil Abloh. Just- wow. And damn. An artist- not just a fashion designer.
1a) RIP Stephen Soundheim- I grew up with his musicals- both seeing them live and on albums.
2) In Ambery Saffron.
3) Decorating for Christmas/Solstice Holidays today- only day that will be relatively slow. The new job needed more paperwork so that is done. The hardware job promises to be busy today!
I noticed holiday decorations going up all over town yesterday! I am not done cleaning up after Thanksgiving!
Oh and meant to ask, when will new job start?
It scheduled to start next Tuesday!
Wow, so soon. Hope you love it!!
There weren’t many decorated yet in these here parts. The ones that were recycled stuff from last year although I saw some new blood decors.
We received a gift of a fresh wreath yesterday. Our friend is 97 years old and makes these every year — although I believe that recently someone else has done the greens, while she continues to hand-tie the bows (pretty astonishing, given that she is also legally blind). The wreath is beautiful and the sentiment even better.
This is quite possibly the most beautiful thing I read all day!
Started this week with Dusita Moonlight in Chiangmai.
Sounds like a good place to start! Hope it is a good week Lucasai.
Joining many of you in my post-holiday fatigue! No family drama, but I struggled with anxiety and sleep through most of last week.
I smell good, though, in Lys Mediteranee.
I think I have a few rhubarbs, but I’ll have to do some research.
Oh this is such a good lily, hoping it brings you comfort today and hope you can settle back into yourself after the past week.
You smell great. Sympathy hugs over the anxiety and insomnia, I’m right there with you.
You definitely smell good! I’m sorry to hear about your anxiety and insomnia issues, and to second cazaubon, you’re in good company.
I hope you’re feeling better, more rested, and more peaceful!
I love rhubarb in perfume, to eat–not so much. My grandma used to make rhubarb pie and it was sooo tart, despite all the sugar she used. I’m commando due to my annual endocrinologist appointment, but I think I’ll wear Amouage Tribute when I get home. I had a dream about it last night.
I like rhubarb strawberry pie! Not sure I’ve ever had plain rhubarb pie, though.
Hope the appt went well!
I like making rhubarb galettes, but I think the thinness of the fruit in a galette situation relative to a pie situation is what makes it work.
Thus far, I have found the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to be pretty lackluster. In no 5 edt right now.
I agree. I didn’t find anything I couldn’t resist.
Rakuten cash back was very decent!
Sotd Beautiful Absolu. I chose it for attending the visitation of my dear neighbor because his life was so. I was happy to find that I knew a story his family had not heard. He and I were fence line garden neighbors, and once he told me that his tomatoes were being nibbled by some critter he could not ward off. One day he saw the culprit: a big box turtle whose long neck could reach many of the low-mid hanging fruit. He told me he got a Sharpie Marker and wrote “lil turtle” on the shell, then took the turtle about a mile away to a wooded area that was contiguous and he knew was probably the edge of the turtle’s range. Some 12 or eighteen months later, that turtle was back in his garden eating tomatoes and identified because of the faded name on the shell! I have laughed about this story so many times…
Wow, that’s an amazing story! Maybe by that point, the little turtle deserved some nice tomatoes!
Yes, I think that is what my neighbor thought!
What a great story! I am sorry that you have lost a friend.
Thanks – he was a wonderful friend.
That is such a funny story. I agree, the turtle did deserve those tomatoes; your neighbour must have had the magic touch to have a return visitor! I’m sorry about your friend.
Thanks, Gail – his garden was always picture-perfect.
Glad to hear that you had the right perfume for a difficult occasion. My condolences.
That turtle was determined! Sorry you lost a neighbor.
So funny – I was happy that turtles seemed to make a comeback in our area about 5 years ago.
Hello NST!
I’m back from cold and snowy Vermont. The Thanksgiving trip I was dreading turned out to be pretty darn nice. So if anyone was sending me good vibes for that, well, they worked! Mr. Jalapeno’s nephews are wonderful young men. Everyone was vaxxed and almost everyone had their boosters, too. (I am lagging on that, and will look into getting one soon.) Plenty of delicious food.
The downside of that, is that Mount Laundry has returned with a vengeance. One load down, six more (I think) to go.
SOTD = Atelier Cologne Encens Jinhae, from the sample stash. Very close to thunking this one!
Glad you had a great time. Mount laundry will be around anyway regardless 😆.
Yeah, but it’s starting to look like something out of the Rockies rather than the Adirondacks…. 🤪
I’m glad you had a nice time this weekend!
Thanks Gail! So happy that there wasn’t a bunch of family drama. Bits and bobs, but that’s human nature.
So glad to hear your trip went well!! Mount laundry was me this weekend, all done now.
Thank you tulipani! I had Mount Laundry down to a molehill before this trip.
Happy you are home safe and that you had a good time!
Thanks lillyjo! I haven’t forgotten about the funny story… hopefully I can post it later on this week.
I’m so glad it turned out well! I think you were definitely on the receiving end of some good vibes from this gang.
Oh that’s a nice reason to wear Guerlain Imagine! It’s been sitting in its box waiting for spring- I may add something gourmand on top like Vanille Mona di Orio and smell just like a rhubarb crumble with custard.
Earlier I wore Rose Cherie from a sample that came with MVP and really enjoyed it. And now still with Guerlain- wearing both Cuir Beluga and Gourmand Coquin to bed… now I think I this must be what it means going all in down the perfume rabbit hole, when you cannot go to bed without a comfort scent.
So many fabulous scents!
SOTD = The Harmonist Royal Earth
Perfect balance of powder, earthy iris, violet, sandalwood and neroli.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CW3oa3RJMF6/?utm_medium=copy_link
I haven’t started Cyber Monday shopping yet but the night is still young. 🤑
I just found out that a friend’s husband, who is also my friend, was just diagnosed with Stage 3a lung cancer. It was uncovered when he went for a pre-surgical (for a different part of the body) chest x-ray. He will be going through chemo and immunotherapy. I don’t know much about lung cancer and the different stages but I consulted Dr. Google and the news is bad. It doesn’t have to be the end of the road for him and he is fighting it. Please pray for him to have the strength to go through this uphill battle and for the wife to have the courage to fight this with him. I don’t know much about his family history but I can tell you for sure that smoking 1 pack a day, down from 2 packs a day, has to be a strong contributing factor. I know this will sound like blaming the victim and I’m not trying to kick him while his down but I hope this serves as a wake-up call to live safely.
Oh, I am so sorry to hear about your friend’s diagnosis. Best of luck to him with chemo and other treatment. Hugs to you.
Thanks, jalapeño. It will be tough but half the battle is the will to fight it.
So sorry about your friend, may he have a successful treatment. I know three people who never smoked and died of lung cancer, it can be random, but definitely smoking doesn’t help.
Thanks, cazaubon. It’s true about the randomness. There really should be a study of smokers who live to their 80s and 90s who don’t have cancer.
That was my dad! Although he did quit in his 70s.
Very sorry about your friend, that’s dreadful.
Sorry to hear about your friend, hajusuuri. What a terrible thing to learn, especially over the holidays. Wishing him the very best!
Thanks, Deva. The wife is very supportive even in the words she used – we / our.
Sending my prayers for him and his family.
Thanks lillyjo. All prayers accepted with grateful thanks.
I’m very sorry to hear about your friend’s diagnosis. Sending hugs and prayers to you and your friends!
Thanks, tulipani.
Aw man, that’s terrible. I’m so sorry about your friend. I also have a good friend who’s a heavy smoker, and I so wish she would quit, but I don’t think she ever will. I’m sending all my good luck wishes to your friend.
1. My cat is crazy. (He just performed an 18” vertical leap, from a standstill. Little weirdo. We love him.)
2. I think the only rhubarb I have is Rhubarb Ecarlate. Today I’m in LaVanilla Pure Vanilla, again — woke up to 3” of snow after a prediction of flurries only. It seemed like a good scent for a snowy day.
3. First day of classes after Thanksgiving break: class #1 = zero students. Class #2 has everyone present and was excellent. So you just never know.
Did you have to wait out the entire class time in case anyone showed up?
My SOTD is SL Bois de Violette, got a compliment at Costco. Women always seem to compliment me on this one for some reason.
Glory hallelujah, I went to the basement this morning on a lark to dig through my two bins of backup bottles and found five vintage Guerlains I didn’t remember I had. What a thrill! Made my day.
Ooh, what an amazing find! Congratulations!
Score! That’s so awesome!
Wow! That’s one way to greatly improve a Monday!
Which ones did you find? How exciting!
Okay, when I said vintage I meant original release bottles, so they’re just older, not ancient. The ones I found were Encens Mythique d’Orient, Gourmand Coquin, Mon Precieux Nectar, Angelique Noire and Cuir Beluga. I was super thrilled, didn’t know I had these.
SOTD=VCA Bois d’Iris. Project of the day, stoke the fire. Dinner- grilled steak salad with mandarin oranges, cucumbers and romaine, and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Queued for viewing pleasure- we have started watching Columbo from the very beginning, when Peter overacts with his eyebrows and chews up the scenery as well as his cigars. The second episode featured Lee Grant. The third episode was directed by Steven Speigelberg! Tonight, episode 4. I can hardly wait to see what blast from the past we will encounter! We alternate this with Alcapulco, when we need a break from murder murder murder. Winter is upon us.
What fun! (The dinner & show, not winter, which is not fun.)
Watching Jonna Jinton videos on YouTube has convinced me that winter may, in fact, be fun, and that I, in fact, may have been laboring under the wrong attitude all these years.
Episode 4 had Robert Culp, and Episode 5 has Suzanne Pleshette and Eddie Albert. It’s like a who’s who of 1960’s actors!
Scent of the evening is Tonka Imperiale, I was wearing Clinique Beyond Rose earlier.
It’s been a very busy Monday for me, tons of work suddenly poured in this morning. I’m not understanding why things now need to be done by Christmas break. Oh well! At least it’ll be good to get the work done rather than have it linger over the holidays.
You are smelling mighty fine!
Ugh, sorry about the work woes.
I just finished dyeing my daughter’s hair blue black ( it’s mostly black) I am happy to report my tub survived! I skipped the fancy dye this time and used good old Revlon colorsilk, which cost $4.99. Everyone is happy.
Today I wore Angelique Noire and smelled beautiful all day.
LOL! No Smurfs were harmed in the coloring of your daughter’s hair this time. 😉
Lol!
Congrats on your success!
It’s the little successes that can mean the most! Lol.
You smell great! I still haven’t dyed my hair with that pirple dye, scared of the tub damage and too cheap to go to a hair dresser.
You should try it. I am sure you will be more careful than my daughter.
This time I stood in there with her to make sure she was rinsing properly.
Wandering in super late, just to report that my bottle of Slowdive arrived and that it has a sprayer that triggers an urge-to-leap-from-a-precipice-esque panic/thrill in me, in that it’s so flipping satisfying that I’m gripped with the fear that I might lose control and just spray and spray and spray until I drown in honeyed warm tobacco beeswax bliss. Also, that the rhubarb in my garden is *not* participating in the CP, having mostly succumbed to this year’s thus-far frost. I’ll dig out my original Aedes in its honor on Friday.