It’s the weekend, and we’re repeating a poll we’ve done for the past few years around this time. As always, answer as few or as many as you like, or just talk about something else.
1. What fragrance are you wearing today?
2. What’s your favorite holiday (any holiday) food, OR, what’s the best thing you cooked in 2022? (Feel free to share or link to a recipe!)
3. Did you make any perfume-related resolutions for 2022, and if so, did you stick to them?
4. Possibly related to #3, what’s the next fragrance you are itching to buy?
5. Share something wonderful with us! It can be anything — something delicious you ate, a great movie you saw recently, the last good book you read, any fabulous news you recently received — really, anything…
Note: top image is Pomegranates at farmers market [cropped] by Ella Olsson at flickr; some rights reserved.
1. Le Labo Santal 33, which was also my SotD yesterday. According to fragrantica it has leather, so I did participate in the cp, just got too busy to comment.
2. My favorite holiday food is Swedish meatballs! I use my granny’s meatball recipe and my mom’s sauce/gravy recipe and it turns out delicious every time. Much to my delight, my kids love it too.
3. I don’t know if I made any real resolutions but I did try to stick to a low buy and thin out the sample and decant herd. I did pretty good. Between thunks and giveaways, I’ve gotten my sample collection down to about 2 dozen, and probably about the same for decants. I would like to get to the point of very few of each and more full bottles of things I love. I don’t want a huge collection; quality over quantity.
4. Hmm. I have a birthday coming up next month and would like to add a bottle of something….maybe a little Le Labo. I do like those personalized labels.
5. My daughter graduates from college a week from tomorrow!🤩😍🥳 I can hardly believe it. I had a feeling this semester would go fast, and it really did. Especially for me since I was not the one studying.😆 One of her gifts arrived this week and I am so pleased with how it turned out. It is a small wooden keepsake/jewelry box I had engraved. On the top it has the Thoreau quote “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined,” inside it has her name, degree, university and graduation date. It’s about the size of my palm and I hope it’s something she will always have.🥹 As a bonus, it was made right here in wisconsin!
Congratulations to your daughter, and you! The keepsake box sounds like the perfect gift.
Thanks ringthing! I hope she likes it. My teenager helped me pick it out, which is good because they have similar taste.
Congratulations on your daughter
Thanks ltsg!
Aww.. what a thoughtful gift! I’m sure she will love it.
And there’s something so moving to hear a parent talk about their kid’s school semesters as if they’re their own. Although you’re not doing the work, your heart & soul is “all in” with your child as you care and encourage and believe great things for this person you love so much.
Congrats!
😭 Thank you floragal! So eloquently said, you have brought me to tears. I’m just so proud of her.
Aww.. your gift is perfect!
I am so excited for her!
Thanks lillyjo! Me too!🤩
What a great gift!
BTW-I love Swedish meatballs too along with several other Scandinavian dishes.
Thanks Kris!
Go madtowngraduate, that’s wonderful! And the box sounds just perfect, I hope she loves it.
Thanks Robin! I hope so too.☺️
Congratulations and the gift sounds wonderful!
Thanks cazaubon!😀
Congratulations on your daughter’s upcoming graduation!
Thanks hajusuuri!😀
Congratulations on this milestone for your daughter (and for you)! The gift sounds perfect!!
Thanks tulipani!😀
Please share where you got it!! I have a son coming home in 6 days!!
melissa3boys, it is this box:
https://mikutowskiwoodworking.com/collections/small-jewelry-boxes/products/possibility-box
There are many others on the website. The service was fast, I ordered on a Sunday and it was delivered that Thursday.👍
Congratulations to madtowncollege girl on her graduation!
Thanks Jalapeño!😀
Congratulations to you and your daughter! The box sounds like a real treasure.
1. Wearing OJ Royal Elixir watching Morocco vs Portugal.
2. Egg Nog ( I use the Almond milk version) Ice, stoli Vanilla vodka, cinnamon and nutmeg ground on top. Sip and forget the stress of the holidays.
3. I don’t understand this question..
4. Jo Malone body cream
5. I am looking to ski in the Poconos, PA. Has anyone skied there? Can give me some recommendations? Lodging? Easy slopes for the kids. We want to stop and ski on our drive to Toronto, if this helps.
You asked me the other day what scent JM body cream I have. Some wonderful NSTer had a Jo Malone giftset in Lime and Cedar as a freebie meet item a couple of years ago and that’s the scent of the body cream. I will use it post shower today, it goes with lots of my perfumes and the fragrance doesn’t last a long time. I want Red Roses scent next.
Edited to add that for the $ I would rather have Chanel Coco body cream.
I love Chanel body creams!
So do I. I just bought Chanel No 5 body cream yesterday and I have Coco Noir as well. Yesterday when I was at Macy’s buying my cream the salesperson showed me a large gift set from Chanel. She said, “You know Chanel never gives anything away for free so we are giving this small hair mist.” The bottle was maybe 3 ounces. Anyway, I asked her how much the gift set was and I think she said around $350. Then she just laughed as if to say no one is going to buy this. I thought, boy she doesn’t know the people on here. LOL.
I have never heard of lime and cedar as a body in Jo Malone. I wonder if that was just a one-time deal or do they still have it. I have not come across it.
I just looked, it’s actually Sweet Lime and Cedar. Congratulations on the Chanel acquisitions! That’s funny about the gift set 😄
I will put that on my list
That must been a limited time offer. I looked on the Jo Malone website and there was no creme available in that scent.
Your #2 — I’m on it! Deliciousness + stress reliever = no-brainer
Joining the party 🙂
Anything that takes the edge off.
Most people are very happy during the holidays -I tend to be balancing between happiness and dread. My cocktail helps.
1. Lush Lord of Misrule, which in its solid form is basically blackberry cola and nothing at all like its description on the website (black pepper, vanilla, patchouli). It’s so far off from the description that I thought it must have been mislabelled, but the colour is correct. I like it regardless.
2. Candy corn at Hallowe’en. I can cook most anything any time I like but candy corn is only available at that one time of year and I really look forward to it. Sorry, but there it is.
3. I expect I resolved to buy nothing, and I definitely failed at that, but I wasn’t too much of a spendthrift. Let’s see how 2023 goes.
4. Not really anything that comes to mind, thank goodness.
5. We bought a sewing machine a few months ago so we could do our own alterations — it’s getting harder and harder to find places that will hem a pair of trousers — and eventually I realized that I could use it to make things, so I made some masks, which is tremendous fun, and then I somehow got it into my head that I needed to make a quilt. All the piecing is done (it’s interlocking plus signs in about 12 colours) and I began the quilting phase a few days ago. It’s *much* harder to sew long straight lines with a regular old sewing machine than you would think, but I persevere, because as someone said, “A finished quilt is better than a perfect quilt.” Despite the general wonkiness of the lines, I’m really happy with the way it’s going so far, and god help me I already have two more in the planning stages (which is to say I bought quite a lot of fabric, because a new hobby is mostly an excuse to buy stuff and you will never convince me otherwise).
Your #5 is impressive! A friend gave me her old sewing machine years ago, and I promptly broke it. It’s still sitting broken in our closet. I’m simply not a crafty person – no interest, no desire. But I marvel at those that make quilts and clothes and other amazing things.
Oh, floragal, I can relate! I am a non-crafty person in a crafty family, where generations of women have made beautiful things by hand. I almost hyperventilate threading a needle lol.
Yay for sewing machines! One of world’s great inventions 🙂
The things you make don’t have to be perfect, their value is in the pleasure of making them yourself.
Huge congrats on the quilt, that’s marvelous.
Way to go on the quilt! I have never tried quilting. I love the combinations of color, pattern, and stitches that quilters come up with!
Okay, now I really want to smell that Lord of Misrule solid perfume. And I am with you on new hobbies being shopping opportunities. 🙂
1) Initio Side Effect from a split a while back. Still loving it!
2) Favorite Holidays are all the ones that take place in fall. Personally, I’m a Festivus Fan!
3) I’m not a resolution maker, so no harm, no foul. But this coming year will be a no buy. I have finally obtained My Precious, and want for nothing. Unless another Shalimar flanker comes out, then all bets are off…🤭
4) If I start itching, I will take some Benadryl.
5) Fabulous news (in a round about fashion) is that this crazy place tried to send me to pediatrics last night! Long story which I won’t go into because no one really cares…But, I said a big Hell NO to that and there was some fall out..🫣 These hospitals get more and more shady every day. Top 50 my arse! The really FABULOUS part is I only have 3 shifts left! Woot woot! Wishing I had some time off to decompress, but in the spring, I’ll do some exploration at my leisure.
Hope everyone is enjoying this lead up to the holidays! Santa will be sending me coal, I’m quite sure!
Lol about your #4! I will join you with the Benadryl if the itching gets overwhelming!
I love your #4 and couldn’t agree more.
Nursing worldwide is in such a bad state.I’m on the fence regarding the NHS strike in the UK,but when is enough enough?(If this is out of line please delete Robin).
Hope your last few shifts are a breeze!I personally cannot wait for our surgeons to just bugger off on their respective holidays….lol
XO’s
HA, I am so ill informed I don’t even know if it’s out of line, so let’s just leave it at that, shall we?
Psychically commiserating with you!
I’m with you on #3 and #4. Yay for only 3 more shifts!
Well, I totally misread #2! Homemade sticky buns! Made them every Christmas for years. Christmas morning my mom would be on the phone asking, “what’s taking so long?” I’d assemble them at home and then cart them to my parents for baking. When I say people fell on them, that is the absolute truth. My father was very moderate about his intake of sweets, but he went for the gusto on Christmas morning. Miss those times so much. 🥲
Now those sound really good!
It’s a gray dreary day here, the kind we have as the norm this time of year. I’m marinating in vintage Shalimar for a rare day home alone.
2. After spending August in Louisiana, where we ate pounds and pounds of boudin, we have figured out the recipe and are making our own. I’m hoping we can begin selling it in 2023. It’s a unique and delicious spicy rice and pork sausage.
3. No resolutions.
4. Not itching to buy anything except replacing a couple of bottles and I want to sample Zoologist Cardinal.
5. I found the most gorgeous antique turquoise and sterling pin/pendant and gave it to my mother this week. It was unexpected and the look on her face was worth the world to me 😊
Love your #5! Just beautiful.
Rain rain and more rain here, too. Is the sausage something you would sell locally at specialty shops, or are you planning a wider distribution? Sounds very interesting!
We live in a small town that has a street festival the first Friday of every month. We want to hand out samples and have some for sale by the pound.
I love boudin! Haven’t had it for ages.
Happy Saturday! Work has been a bear hence my MIA, but I do check in from time to time and read the comments 🙂
Such a lovely community of peeps!
Today I’m sampling a number of Killian scents gifted to me by a non-fragrance friend — feels good when people really know you to give gifts they may not understand but know you will love. First up: I’m traveling to a tropical island in Asia wearing Moonlight in Heaven.
Too many holiday food delights to pick! However, one food item I missed out on last year and will be purchasing today while over on the east side of town is Eli Zabar’s fruit cake. It’s dense and delicious, with fruit and nuts galore! Pricey, but worth it.
No resolutions and itching to buy Synthetic Jungle.
Something wonderful? I’m healthy and employed again, blessed with a wonderful marriage, friends and family. An embarrassment of riches, really.
Wonderful #2 — Go watch A Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sims, the 1951 version. He is brilliant in it, as are all the cast, and so many thought-provoking lines. Watch it every year and it never gets old.
In case you are interested Synthetic Jungle is 32% off at Jomashop.
Sounds like everything is wonderful at you house!
Thank you! Will give Santa a heads up 😉
1. Wearing a spritz of Donna Karan Black Cashmere.
2. My favorite food for the holidays are the desserts. Traditional ones in our family are: Passion Fruit Mousse, Coffee Panna Cotta, Spanish Flan, Panettone.
3. I didn’t make any perfume resolutions this year because I never stick to them. My purchases were very few in 2022, and I feel very good about it. I have been enjoying my collection a lot. No resolutions of any kind for me anymore.
4. I am not itching to buy anything right now, but I would like try at some point Hermes Violette Volynka.
5. Nothing wonderful or exciting happening lately. We are just looking forward to a very peaceful holiday season surrounding my mother with joy and love.
Happy weekend, everyone! ❤️
You smell fabulous! One of my very favorites.
Thank you, Ringthing! Black Cashmere is also one of my favorite perfumes! Love it!
I was kind of wondering about your #4 as well.
I am always eager to try anything from Hermes. VV sounds like a very nice scent.
I hope this holiday is the best ever for you and your family. ❤️
Thank you, Deva! 🌻
#5… you know what’s wonderful?
You!🌞🌻🌷
Thank you, Lillyjo. Your words are very touching! 🌹
Enjoy the holidays with your Mom and the rest of your family! Hugs.
1. SOTD is Zoologist Bee
2. Lefse-It’s a Norwegian and Midwest thing.
3. No resolutions
4. I guess I am not itching to buy anything because I already did and it is coming on Monday. I bought O, Unknown! by Imaginary Authors.
5. I am going to start volunteering at the Alzheimer’s Association doing presentations for various groups. As a retired geriatric nurse, I educated staff members on Alzheimer’s disease. Also, my mother died last year from the disease. I have a passion for educating families, caregivers and clients on understanding dementia. As a recovering alcoholic I also volunteer at a local treatment center as well. I love to see new people get into recovery. I figure just because I retire doesn’t mean I shouldn’t still contribute to society where I may be most needed.
Reading your #5, you’re my hero. Both of my in-laws and a sister-in-law died of Alzheimer’s, I keep an eye on my husband.
I keep an eye on myself too as my mom and grandma both had it. Unfortunately, it is a very ugly disease to watch. I love working on the education side, but a whole different story when watching a loved one go through it.
I love the volunteer work you are doing!
Alzheimers is such a terrible disease.I’ve recently become fascinated with the San Filippo syndrome which is described as Alzheimers in kids.It’s a really interesting but heartbreaking subject!
And good for you regarding sobriety.
XO’s
Thanks JB. I am not familiar with that disease. I need to look it up. It sounds terrible.
I looked up that disease in children. That is very sad.
Yum, I love lefse too! And O Unknown. Bless you for your service.
Thanks.
Well, you are an Angel! I wish I had your energy and emotional strength. I hate to see the distress of Alzheimer’s patients. I think it’s worse than witnessing people in physical distress and pain, because we can, to a certain extent, alleviate that type of pain. Psychic pain is an absolute monster, no matter the form or diagnosis, it’s a beast to witness and/or experience. I’m sorry your mom suffered so.
Thanks Deva. My mother was pretty good until the last 6 months or so. It is just really hard to watch someone with it. I am an only child too and she was my only nuclear family member left so it was a difficult time.
Happy Saturday! We’re in the middle of a big storm. Last wind gust was 54 mph. The power’s still on (hope I didn’t just jinx us). I’m over covid now but stuck on World Cup soccer. Bought an Xmas tree yesterday but the poor thing is still naked, I have not had time to decorate it between World Cup matches 🙂
1. No scent yet. World Cup.
2. My favorite new (to me) cookbook this year has been Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. I particularly like everything in the Buerre & Sel collection. Once I get past the World Cup I’ll start the holiday baking…
3. I didn’t make any perfume resolutions this year yet somehow in the second half of the year I’ve been keeping last year’s resolution of a low-buy. Perhaps it just took time for last year’s resolutions to kick in. I’m still waiting for the diet resolution to kick in, however.
4. Not particularly itchy, but might buy Pineward’s Boreal. Curious to sniff the new Providence Perfume Co’s Lapsang scent. And wishing I could get a sniff of Edward Bess Kiss the Sky without buying a ‘large sample’.
5. Heyyy, did you know that Apoteker Tepe is back? Yassss! Acquired and re-launched by the guy who does Pineward Perfumes. Read the ‘About’ page on the website for a smile. I have ordered the sample set, will report back.
Coming up soon: more World Cup. lol
Allez les Bleus! And Apoteker Tepe The Holy Mountain is amazing!
World Cup has been so exciting, I can’t recall the last time there were so many upsets and PKs!
I’m wearing Arcadia today. I had tried it in a sample and felt love at first sniff. A bottle came shortly thereafter.
My best recipe this year might have been a beef goulash. I made it into a project: made a 12 hour homemade beef broth, then hunted down authentic Hungarian paprika. A very long braise and just a few days after starting had the most beautiful rich stew. Yum.
I had no resolutions, but thought I was frugal until I counted what I’d bought over the year and it turned out to be quite a lot, 6 new bottles and 3 spendy sample sets. Whoops!
I don’t have anything specific lined up. I’d like to smell Baccarat 540 just to know, and maybe if there continues to be a lot of overtime at work, Coromandel extrait!
My favourite movie of the year was Everything Everywhere All at Once. It blew my mind, and haven’t been so excited about a movie in a long time. I was dying to talk about it with someone but all my friends and family I excitedly recommended it to either didn’t watch it or didn’t get it at all. Then the other day my guy was out when he heard a woman at the next table talking about a movie that changed her life and it was EEAAO. I wish I was there! I know we would have been instant friends
I think everyone should sample Baccarat 540. I tried it probably a month or two ago. I really did like it, but it was pretty sweet to me. I got my sample at Luckyscent when I purchased a few others.
Baccarat 540 is really beautiful.If not so many people here were drenched in it already I would wear it way more often!The masses have ruined Portrait of a Lady and Baccarat Rouge 540 for me!(LOL)
I will check that movie out – always looking for movies.
I’m in CdG Kyoto at the moment, for a hair appointment this morning, but I’m hoping it will fade by the time I get home because I have a sample of Pretty Machine to try this afternoon! The bottle of Broken Theories arrived as well, and I was surprised to discover that it’s cube-shaped. Not sure why I always imagined it to be a flat square, like the shape of the Fzotic or Pierre Guillaume bottles. Kerosene doesn’t box its fragrances either (and good for them, I say) — the bottle came with a velvet drawstring bag instead. Will make wrapping it for Christmas a little difficult, but I’ll find a way … even though the completely exposed and available bottle is a huge temptation.
Well, that answers poll items 1 and 4. No resolutions other than the standing one to not buy anything unsniffed, ever. I’m not really allowed to cook — Mr. G is the household chef — but I do make a decent batch of roasted red potatoes from time to time, and they do go nicely with a good filet mignon which is my favorite special-occasion food. There isn’t anything especially wonderful going on Chez G, but I am thankful to have my mom in town for a bit, plus my stepson arrived safely in Africa to visit his besties for almost a month and my brand-new grand-nephew gets cuter with every new photo. He will be a week old tomorrow and I look forward to meeting him in person sometime soon.
Long time no see!
Hallooo NST!Hope everyone is well!
We’ve been crazy busy at work,even had an OR eye surgery list today,on this holy Saturday!
1.SOTD!
CdG Copper.This is very nice.
2.Favorite Holdiday food…hmmm…J’m not a huge fan of any holidays these days,so I have favorites like Milk tart,roast beef and honeyed sago pudding any day of the year.
3.I think I made a resolution to use more and buy less perfume,and I pretty much stuck to it through the year.A LOT was thunked this year.
4.Ignoring my answer on nr 3 above,I’m splurging on a bottle of Ganymede next week.It’s been forever since a perfume really wowed me and Ganymede has that “something”!
5.Well,I guess I can report that I’m feeling much better mentally than a couple of weeks back.Being so busy at work there is hardly time to sit and procrastinate or get caught up in my feelings.Lol.
Happy weekend!
XO’s🌹✌🏻🤗
This was supposed to be a seperate post,but here we are…NST format has been weird on my android phone for a while.Anyhuuuu….✌🏻
So happy to hear you are feeling better mentally😊
JB, glad to hear you are feeling better. Sometimes you just have to get out of your head for a while. Work can do that. And reading, exercise, hobbies, volunteering, etc. Cooking also does that for me! You smell wonderful, as always.
Nice to see you JB.
Glad you are feeling better!
Welcome back! Glad to hear you’ve been kept busy with work stuff and are still enjoying scented treats.
Hey there Good Lookin!
Nice to see you.
What time is it?! Lol.🌞
Very pleased to hear that you are feeling better!
Broken Theories–exciting! All your things to be thankful for are pretty great.
They are indeed. I’m going to have to get it wrapped up soon or my resolve to leave it unspritzed until Christmas will crumble!
A Kerosene bottle, nice!
It’s beautiful, and hefty. I could defend myself with it!
The heavy bottles are so satisfying.
SOTD is Dusita Splendiris.
Favorite holiday food is my husband’s French onion soup, which he only makes on Christmas Eve.
I sort of resolved to focus more on acquiring bottles of things I love instead of getting distracted by new things or cheap thrills, and I think I’ve succeeded!
I’m not itching for anything in particular; I think I’ll just continue to keep my eye out for good deals on scents on my buy list.
Something wonderful has been my 6-yr-old’s joy this holiday season. He asks to talk about Christmas before bed each night, and he schemes about leaving cookies for Santa, playing games with his grandparents, and surprising his father with a secret present. I want to bottle this time and save it forever!
I miss being a six year old!
Haha!
My Mom and Grandparents made Christmas really special and spectacular,but we were always aware of the really important religious part of it.I would love to attend the Christmas church service this year,my soul needs it.
You should go!
Definitely go to Midnight Mass, so uplifting!
Midnight Mass, all the way! ⛪️
If you can make it, go for it!
Love your scent. I almost wore it too.
Love your scent. I almost wore it too.
It’s so lovely, isn’t it? Special but not too fussy for everyday wear.
Yes, it is. One of my favorites from the iris family.
Starting with something wonderful, yesterday turned into a nice day after a dull wet morning. I went for a walk in a summer dress and sandals. Summer might finally be on it’s way.
When I went for the walk, I checked out a new perfume range called The Virtue, made here in New Zealand. I’d tried a couple before and they didn’t make a lasting impression, but I’ve tried some more that definitely warrant deeper sniffing. There are more local brands now than just a couple of years ago, which is great.
My list of things to try is very long, and I keep adding more and more for when I travel in April. My buy list is quite short right now, but it might grow fast once I start sniffing 🙂
So glad you got a nice summer day! I am already itching for our February vacation so I need to relax and lean into the bad weather meanwhile…
1. In no 5 edp today.
2. I am looking forward to having standing rib roast for Christmas.
3. I have given up on making any kind of resolutions for the new year.
4. I still want that bottle of Gris Charnel but that’s not in the cards and won’t be for a while. A lot of things are going on and getting Gris Charnel isn’t a wise idea right now.
Your #1 is always good and #2 sounds delicious 😋
1. I’m wearing Santal Carmin today.
2. My favorite Christmas food is Buche de Noel, but my favorite anytime food is shrimp, prepared any way, I’m not picky.
3. I never make resolutions. Stuff happens, or it doesn’t.
4. I have nothing definite in mind, but I liked Wolfsbane when I tried it at Fumerie. I might need a sample.
5. Share something wonderful with us! I read the crazy wonderful “Light From Uncommon Stars” by Ryka Aoki. There was a runaway trans violin prodigy, a violin teacher who has sold her soul to the devil, and extraterrestrials running a donut shop. Somehow it all hung together beautifully and I enjoyed every second.
You smell fantastic! I love SC.
You smell lovely! I ordered samples of Luce and Wolfsbane because of you, both lovely.
That book sounds fascinating! Chaotic but engrossing might be exactly what I need.
Happy Saturday, all. (Unless it’s Sunday where you are, then happy Sunday!)
1) wearing SJP Covet today
2) I love most holiday foods, but a particularly special one is to make stollen from my dad’s recipe around Christmas. I love thinking of him when I make it. Besides that, one of the best things I made this year was the NYT’s Roasted Cabbage with Parmesan, Walnuts and Anchovies. Yes, I included the anchovies and they just melted in and added umami. It is soooo good. I got rave reviews and have made it several times. Who knew I’d fall in love with cabbage?!
3) I give myself a budget every year. And no, I did not stick to it, unfortunately.
4) I have a short list of fragrances to buy at some point, but not now. Eris Mx., Fzotic Ummagumma, MFK Aqua Universalis.
5) My most special news: I’m going to be a grandmother! About mid-May. My birthday is also in May and that will be the best present ever.
I love roasted cabbage and just downloaded that recipe. Thanks!
Yay, enjoy!
Congratulations on#5!
Congratulations!!!
Congratulations!
Wonderful, springpansy! Congratulations
Congratulations, springpansy, that’s wonderful news!
What wonderful news, springpansy. Congratulations!! And that cabbage dish sounds very yummy indeed.
Thanks, everyone!
Congratulations!
Congratulations! Being a grandma is so much fun. Unfortunately, our grandchildren are about 1300 miles away so we don’t see them very often.
That’s too far! But anything can happen, never know where my children will end up living. Close for the moment so I’ll appreciate that while I have it.
Awwwwwwwwwwww, congratulations! Grandmas are very special people.
Thanks!
You have done the impossible and made me crave cabbage. Will have to get my husband to look that up since the high school where he teaches has NYT subscription. Congrats on impending grandmother-hood!
1. Miral, a floral Oud that is actually floral after 5 or 6 hours of Smokey oud.. 2. Real mincemeat pie with chopped lamb and lots of spices and dates and apples and apple brandy. I will stir up a batch next weekend and let it Mellow in the frig for a week and bake it up on New Years Eve.
3. I keep trying to edit my collection, but it grows. Recently I have become more sensitive to cedar, the really dry cedar, you know, and I am afraid some of my FB’s are going to go to the next swap meet.
4. What I want: Casablanca, Snowy Owl, vintage Mitsouko Extrait. Things I want to try: A’Tessa(Iris), V V (the Violet people keep taking about but since it is so long lasting, I am nervous about chemical chemicals), and anything Chypre. I am sort of on a Chypre kick at the moment.
5. Since I announced my retirement, I have had several very kind personal communications from people I would have not expected, thanking me for being helpful. It is quite touching, since so much of my job is telling highly trained people they did something wrong. My retirement is like the best ending to 2022 ever. iI am having trouble focusing on finishing up loose ends. I have already moved on…I hope everyone here has something wonderful to look forward to in 2023.
Congrats on your retirement!
Thanks!
Enjoy your well-deserved retirement life!
Oh I plan to! Need to focus on not over-scheduling myself – my sister is so busy she complains, and I tell her, Call people and tell them your blood pressure is up so you can’t come! I am practicing saying No now!
Congratulations on your upcoming retirement. I’m still figuring out all the things I want to do. Nice to get personal notes from people!
There are so many things I have wanted to do for so long, not quite sure what to do first! Lol! Such a problem.
Congrats on your well deserved retirement. I hope it gives you the time to really dive into the things you love but haven’t had time for as a full time worker. I’m sure you will be very missed by everyone you’ve helped along the way.
Thanks, Deva! I expect I will stay in touch with the people who I have things in common with. But it is a larger organization and there is churn. I know I am going to do some rehab on our house, and spend more time with the horses, and get the garden and grounds tidied up and more productive. And knit. And catch up on my reading. Etc, etc, etc.
I loved reading about your upcoming retirement. Congratulations!
Thanks! I am getting more and more excited.
Whoo hoo for that upcoming retirement!
Yess, woo hoo! I am afraid them first thing I will really do is sleep for a week.
Do it!
Encouragement appreciated!
I am wearing Guerlain Parfum Initial Eau.
My favourite holiday is Christmas, love the social part of it mostly, to be with friends and family, gifting , unfortunately I don’t love the cooking part.
I added some perfumes to my collection this year which I am not proud of.
I am itching to get Violet Volynka.
I am excited for 2023 because I am organizing lots of interesting cultural events, one of which I wanted to do for a very long time ( literary salons) .
Ooh, the literary salons sound fascinating!
Oooh, literary salons!
1. I am in Aromatics Elixir today, probably the most complicated and changeable perfume I own. Today is one of its “beautiful” days, which seem to happen when I mist a small amount of it into the air and walk through it. When I spray it directly on my skin, I more usually end up on the unpleasant end of the AE Spectrum.
2. Cookies. All the cookies. I usually bake them myself, so I get to make the things I like best.
3. I probably did, and probably did not stick to them. But I have purchased only two full bottles this year, and one travel spray. I think that’s pretty good restraint, even though the second full bottle was a splurge!
4. If I buy anything in 2023, it will probably be a back up of TDC Bois d’Iris, if I can find it. But I am saving up for a non-fragrance-related major purchase. (I know it’s shocking, but sometimes these things happen)
5. Twinning springpansy today, in the best possible way: I’m going to be a grandma, too, in February.
Yay, congrats to you also on #5!
Congratulations on the new baby!
Congratulations!
With you on #4 but for good or ill, I did spend money on perfume that should have been funneled into the “major purchase” account. The bottles I bought were either LE or had disappeared all together until a recent revival, the “precious” being Onda VdE, which I passed on years ago due to cost. I don’t regret it buying it at all. It makes me so happy to have her snug as a bug in my collection. However, I need to show more discretion in 2023…
Onda!?! Trotting off to Google perfumesI had forgotten about!
Congratulations on #5!
Yay, congrats on soon becoming a grandma! Grandmas are the best!
Congratulations!
Congratulations to you as well. You will love it!
Big congrats on your impending Grandma status!
1. SOTD = Olfactive Studio Violet Shot
So wonderful – violets. For Day20, I matched the O in orange with Olfactive Studio.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmANT8IO_mY/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
2. I’m not much of a cook but I’ve found shortcuts to making things. Coleslaw – I only use corn kernels (the frozen ones) and purple slaw. NB: I tried it with mixing the regular cut up slaw plus the purple slaw and I had the equivalent of scrubbing it off 🤮. For the dressing, I used mayo, brown mustard and honey – just based on eyeballing how much is needed. For air frying squid tentacles, I season with sumac, dredge with brown rice flour, egg, pour off the excess egg, then cover with Panko bread crumbs; I used to follow the steps to use one ingredient per bowl – nope, not going to do that anymore.
3. Nope
4. None at the moment
5. Upcoming time off! I also got a subscription to Netflix and will see how it goes. I will keep it as long as I watch at least 10 hours a month worth of shows.
By the way, I dropped off all the freebie packages and so far, I haven’t seen tracking yet. I will email tomorrow regardless of tracking status.
Dang, you sound like a regular chef to me! “Dredging” and “Panko breadcrumbs” sound very chefy to me! 👩🍳
You smell wonderful!
Cooking shortcuts for the win!
“The equivalent of scrubbing it off” made me laugh!
I looked up your scent and it sounds very nice.
Sometimes a cooking shortcut works so well it doesn’t make sense to do it the “regular” way.
I’m wearing wood pudding, i.e. Dries Van Noten, layered over the delicious B&BW White Pumpkin Chai lotion. I smell delicious.
Not a good cook, but a passable baker. Husband loves pecan pie and butter tarts so that’s what I make, but want to make some cookies for myself.
As for resolutions, well we all know how that turns out. I’ve nonetheless made a resolution to buy new perfumes on a one in, one out principle, so the number doesn’t keep getting bigger. I just sold a dozen backup bottles too (pats self on back).
Right now the only thing on the horizon is the new Guerlain Jasmin Bonheur being launched in January, plus I’d like to sniff Zoologist Cardinal.
Current good news was getting an unexpected windfall check for a nice amount of money. Woot! And of course the constant gratitude for health, family, friends, and the love of a good dog.
Yay for your good news! You deserve it!
Thank you! It was very helpful with all the expenses I’ve had and am still having related to the move.
I’m inspired by your perfume selling and have been trying to do the same (one bottle in/one bottle out). Do you have a favorite place to sell? I think you’ve mentioned FFF Marketplace?
Yes, I’m selling on FFF Marketplace and Eau My Swap.
Thank you😊
I love reading everyone’s #5 today!
1. SOTD is La Fille de Berlin
2. Best thing we (husband and I) cooked this year was the “biggest” thing we cooked, prime rib for Thanksgiving. I think I rank it best because I was so relieved it turned out well, we had never cooked prime rib before and it was very stressful making it for the first time with guests coming over! I’m over hosting Thanksgiving. 😝
3. Every year I give myself a very wide berth – spend less than the year before. And yes, I succeeded this year by spending 30% less! Year’s not over, but I think I’m quite safe. I’ll probably aim for the same in 2024
4. Chypre palatin is still at the top of my list, if I decide to treat myself.
5. I did so well with my garage last night! In a fit of energy, I moved everything back into my storage nook, including a shelf taller than me. Probably not the wisest move but my husband is still out of town and I was honestly too lazy to goad my son into helping. Things are NOT organized, but at least there’s enough room to have both cars back in the garage now, just in time for all day of rain today. I feel very accomplished.
Good job on your #5!
Plus you smell great!
Love your #1 and #2.
I like your #3, very good goal.
Huzzah for surviving your Thanksgiving hosting experience!
my first reply ever 🙂
1. What fragrance are you wearing today?
diana vreeland full gallop.
2. What’s your favorite holiday (any holiday) food, OR, what’s the best thing you cooked in 2022? (Feel free to share or link to a recipe!) halloween. i am not much of a cook, but i try.
3. Did you make any perfume-related resolutions for 2022, and if so, did you stick to them? no, not really.
4. Possibly related to #3, what’s the next fragrance you are itching to buy? honestly just numerous samples to try. i love trying a wide array of things.
5. Share something wonderful with us! It can be anything — something delicious you ate, a great movie you saw recently, the last good book you read, any fabulous news you recently received — really, anything…
in order to improve my health i’ve started eating healthy again (after a year hiatus due to a traumatic life-changing experience…) and getting back to my daily walks. i love walking everywhere but there is a beautiful cemetery in my neighborhood with early 1900s architecture/tombs. it’s gorgeous in general but i’ve found during the fall with the colorful trees it’s extra enchanting, so i take as many walks there as i can and take a lot of photos.
Hi! I have several DV fragrances, must pull them out again. I’m working on healthier habits too. My diet has been pretty healthy but I need to exercise more, and more often, so I’ve started taking fitness classes at our local Y. They’re fun!
what’s your favorite DV fragrance(s)? i’ve only tried this one but some of the others sound intriguing to me. glad you are having fun at your fitness classes. i took dance as a child and someday i want to get back into that, hopefully.
Maybe I am weird but I love walking through cemeteries. Very peaceful. I like to look at the names and gravestones and try to imagine the lives people might have had. I am from New England and the small cemetery in the center of my hometown dates so far back that it has a few Revolutionary war soldiers buried there. Some of the writing is in old English. Also notable that some of the oldest headstones are still legible while some newer ones are not.
Not weird at all…it is my favorite thing to do when I visit a new city.
i love walking through cemeteries too. they are peaceful, beautiful places. i live on the west coast but once went to salem MA, and saw the very old cemetery there-it was amazing!
Welcome, anaistwin!
thank you!
Welcome!
thanks!
Hello there and welcome!
Welcome! I love #5. Arlington Cemetery is one of my favorite places when we visit our son in D.C.
Hello fragrant friends!
1. My sotd was Over the Musk and my sotn is Coco edp.
2. My favorite holiday food is always other people’s cooking!
3. I honestly don’t remember making any resolutions.
4. I am always looking for older perfumes to bring into my collection.
5. I just got back from a Christmas dinner with my 88 year old aunt. I cherish these times. Plus she gave me a ham to cook for Christmas! Lol.
Ham for Christmas is the way to go. So easy! Free ham is even better 😉
Love this post! So nice you had a Christmas dinner with your aunt!
Free ham, score!
Your Aunt sounds like an awesome lady!
1. SOTD is yet to be decided. Thinking about Coco parfum as a Sunday treat.
2. Oh, I like to switch it up. There is a tradition of eating goose in Germany during Nov&Dec and I enjoy having that at least once every xmas period – but that is for sure something others cook!
3. I make resolutions outside of the new year, and try to make them small and manageable. Small steps seem so much easier than big steps. And if the small steps work, then sometimes they lead to bigger steps…
4. Cuir de Russie parfum and Amouage Epic 56 are both very high on the wish list. Good thing my tastes aren’t expensive or anything.
5. The Tao Te Ching in the version by Ursula K Leguin – funny, thought provoking and inspiring. (You do have to go down the rabbit hole to understand what is meant by some more obscure references like “straw dogs” and “uncut wood” but it’s a worthwhile journey. And luckily, Ursula is there to point you in the right direction at the end of the book).
Huh, I have never cooked a goose and not sure I will start now…actually don’t even know where you can buy a goose here!
Oh duh, probably you have to hunt to get one?
You could hunt them. But they are actually farmed. Goose eggs are also nice. No, suppose you wouldn’t start now, but if you are ever in Germany over the Xmas period, and not completely averse to the idea (or vegetarian), I highly recommend 😁
Thanks. Maybe they are farmed here too and I just don’t know it.
1. SOTD will be one of my Guerlain samples, as I’m wearing those every other day to comment on for my “Scented Advent” blog posts. I haven’t picked one out of the bag yet!
2. My favorite holiday is Easter, though I do love Christmas. I have several “favorite” holiday foods, hard to pick one or even two! I always make a red wine stifado for Christmas Eve, it makes the whole house smell wonderful. I make it with lamb, though it’s also really good with beef. Recipe is here: https://scentsandsensibilities.co/2020/12/28/fragrant-feasts-lamb-stifado/
3. No resolutions, just good intentions, lol!
4. Wishlist: Jicky eau de toilette from Guerlain’s Les Legendaires collection. I love the one I have in the bee bottle.
5. My niece is having a baby in April! We’re all very excited as this will be the first baby among the cousins (my children and my sisters’ children). I plan to make something for the baby but I haven’t decided what yet, so I’ll have some happy holiday time browsing through my various sewing and cross-stitch patterns. Meanwhile, I got my old but excellent sewing machine “tuned up” last month, after years of disuse, so I’m ready!
That lamb looks delicious!
It really is! And easy to make, though the prep takes up some time. Our whole family is addicted to it.
P.S. The Guerlain sample today was Angélique Noire. Lovely!
1. SOTD is Liis Floating sample.
2. I don’t have any traditional holiday food. Last year, someone gifted me an absolutely terrible red wine and I decided to use for a beef roast recipe. The roast was so spectacular, I am thinking I am going to try that again when my son gets her to visit. The wine is still in the fridge, since no one will drink it.
3. No resolutions for 2022. I few years ago, I resolved to buy no more than 2 full bottles a year and I have stuck to that. I try lots of samples, however.
4. Perfumes I want: I plan to get MFK Gentle Fluidity Silver for 2023. I love the juniper note but that it is not a super-strong all-out green. I have liked a few of samples I bought in 2022 but this one was the best.
5. I eventually want to remodel our master bath and my dream is to have a built in illuminated shallow shelf unit for my perfumes. One plus of collecting perfumes is that the bottles are so pretty and catch the light. But we never seem to get around to renovating and the bottles are taking up a lot of real estate on my sink console. So I bought a small metal shelf unit with 2 shelves so I should be able to place a lot of the bottles on that. It has a plug in LED light so it can double as night light. Now I have to get hubby to install it.
Good for you for sticking to 2 bottles a year…years ago, many years ago, I limited myself to 2 per month, ha. I should have gone to 2 a year much sooner.
I’m wearing Matière Prémière Encens Suave on this lovely rainy day.
1. Sotd is L’Eau No 5
2. My favorite holiday food is Swedish Xmas Cookies (aka Snowballs, Mexican Wedding Cakes, etc.) and Rum Balls
3. No particular resolutions but I’m hoping to start running again following a knee procedure
4. I’m trying to hold off buying much before a trip to Paris this summer when all bets are off. Though Persolaise’s Winter 2022 list did remind me how much I like FM Une Fleur de Cassie and that it might not be around forever😬
5. I’m making a big change in my practice starting January 1st and I’m hoping it means that I can work less and take better care of my body, etc.
Knee procedure! Best of luck. And yay for #4 Paris and #5. Work less, sniff more!
My new motto!
Ack! The mere mention of knee surgery gives me the willies. Always has.
1) I was sampling DSH Bois Etincelants today and then later I went to a Sephora and tried Dirty Coconut and Dirty Hinoki
2) I think my favorite thing I cooked this year was the Boston Cream Pie I made last weekend. It’s from the 1978 Hershey Cocoa cookbooklet. It’s one of my all-time favorite recipes and this was the first time I’ve made it since moving to Colorado
3)My perfume resolution is the same as it’s been for the past few years– to try more samples than I acquire. Sometime in my lifetime, I will no longer have a backlog
4) Bleu Ambree from DSH is my next acquisition given that I ordered it a few days ago but it’s not here yet
5) My husband’s daughter is apparently over her year long adolescent snit of not wanting to interact with my husband so we’ll see her at my in-laws’ in Texas for Christmas
Can you tell us more about DSH Bois Etincelants and/or Bleu Ambree?
And yay for #5!
SOTD = MAC Velvet Teddy
Day 11 – matching the triangle (nose) of the boy with the T in Velvet Teddy!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmCr3kOOHa5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
The dinner meet up last night was fantastic – good food, good eats and the best part was I was able to park across the street at the parking garage.
On another good news front, my younger sister, BIL and one of the nieces will be cel eating Christmas with us! Wahoo!
Yay for the Xmas family get together!
Posting late tonight!
Poll answers:
1. Still in Bottega Veneta. Have been all weekend. I might be on one of my perfume monogamy streaks.
2. Favorite holiday food? At this point, it is anything that I don’t have to cook! Back in the day, it was my Mom’s sage, giblet, and onion stuffing. She put a lot of work and love into it.
3. Yes, I made perfume resolutions. I choked. I will try for another Low to No Buy in 2023. Things might have changed enough to make it stick.
4. Nope, not pining for any new perfumes.
5. Something wonderful? I was able to watch a livestream of the Artemis splashdown this afternoon. I have only vague memories of Apollo 17 from childhood.
I likewise vote for anything I don’t have to cook!