It's Tuesday (and teapot-less, despite the bajillion teapots and tea cups and tea cozies done up in Morris prints). Also, International Fragrance Day, World Vermouth Day, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, World Poetry Day and the International Day of Forests. What fragrance are you wearing?
My tea this morning is Numi Chinese Breakfast mixed with Upton Christmas Tea, and in my imagination I'm drinking it in the library at Kelmscott (below), while leafing through one of the many books Morris decorated (above). The perfect scent for such an undertaking seemed to be Paul Smith Story. Mine is no longer in great shape and I ought to toss it, but it's one of my favorite bottles. Meanwhile, I'm wearing a single spritz and I might top it off with another vetiver after a bit.
Reminder: 3/24 is William Morris' birthday. Do whatever you like with the theme: match a textile or wallpaper or La Belle Iseult, or choose any motif (wear strawberry for Strawberry Thief, for instance)? Or take inspiration from his London house or garden, now under the care of the National Trust? Links: William Morris: A Lifelong Fascination with Flowers at Dovecot, Introducing William Morris at V&A, the William Morris website.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2023, where I'll try (but obviously sometimes fail) to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: top image is Rubiyat [contrast adjusted] by UMD Special Collections and University Archives at flickr; some rights reserved. This shows an interior page from a facsimile of an 1872 edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, hand lettered and illuminated by Morris* for Georgie Burne-Jones. Read more at Painted Books: Morris as Calligrapher at The University of Maryland, and see also The Kelmscott Press at Wikipedia.
Lower image is William Morris’s study at Kelmscott, 1896 [cropped] by UMD Special Collections and University Archives at flickr; some rights reserved. More reading: William Morris’s ‘heaven on earth’ Oxfordshire home restored to former glory at The Guardian, Kelmscott Manor at The Society of Antiquaries of London.
*Morris did 4 versions, I think, of the Rubiyat. In general Morris worked in collaboration with others on nearly everything, and employed multiple artists and craftsmen at Morris & Co, so many things you see attributed to him (including textiles and wallpapers) were quite possibly designed by or with others. In this case, I think Morris did the calligraphy and illumination around figural illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones, but I am not positive.
For todays photo I am in a mix of the oud oil and orange blossom oil from Morocco. One on my neck the other on my wrist.
I finished The Sheltering Sky last night -and wow-that book really gripped me. I devoured it! I love the thrilling and also the sensual side. What’s next?
Today I made a sort of Arabic coffee- a mix of my FIL spice mix, espresso and steamed milk.
Let It Come Down, maybe, but I did not like it as well as Sheltering Sky.
Thanks Robin
His writing is really good. I am surprised I have not heard of him before
I still have to watch the film
I love travel writing in general. If you do too, I can recommend Their Heads are Green and Their Hands are Blue by Paul Bowles, The Way of the World by Nicolas Bouvier, Wind Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux.
Thank you 🙏
Children are like Diamonds by Edward Hoagland took my breath away when I was reading it.
Thanks I will see if my library has it
He also wrote a book called African Calliope which was amazing.
for some reason my library doesn’t African calliope, but the other one yes..
Actually -I can’t take out either. boo
Glad you enjoyed it, I read it in the 90’s when the movie was released, his wife was a writer too, IIRC.
Good morning. I am wearing Hermes Eau des Merveilles today and drinking a cup of vanilla fruit tea. Eau des Merveilles is such a happy scent !
I am about to head over to my daughter’s house to babysit my sweet baby granddaughter. Today is also my daughter’s birthday.
Perfect day!
Happy Birthday to her
how lovely! happy birthday to your daughter and a granddaughter to delight in.
Happy Birthday to your daughter!
Sounds wonderful. Happy birthday to your daughter!
Scent siblings, as I am in Elixer des Merveilles.
A lovely day all around!
Happy birthday to your daughter and have a great time babysitting.
Enjoy the familial celebration!
What a beautiful illustration!!
I am welcoming the spring with la chasse aux papillons.
It is worth looking at some of his other efforts at illumination.
You smell great Hera! I need to wear that soon.
Love your sotd, but it never lasted on me
Mine lasts half a day.
The EDP version La Chasse aux Papillons Extreme hangs in there longer. Of course it’s not quite the same but also delicious. I love them both. Digging out a sample now… must sniff!
I’m celebrating spring with my favorite rhubarb scent – Rhubarb & Clary Sage.
Hope it is a happy spring day PriscillaE!
It is also International Day of Fragrance. Can’t believe you missed that one Robin. Just kidding. You are wonderful at keeping us informed.
Meeting an old coworker for supper tonight and will be wearing Byredo Rose of No Man’s Land thanks to a generous NSTer. Absolutely love this scent!
It’s listed! right after the word “Also”. But don’t understand what the various Fragrance Foundations are up to, seems like they don’t do anything all that exciting given that they came up with the idea (IIRC).
How did I miss that? Probably because it wasn’t highlighted like the others. Oops. Sorry about that.
There was nothing good to link to…which is part of what I mean about the FF not doing a very good job at engaging consumers.
How is this Byredo.
Love it. A beautiful rose scent.
You smell lovely💕 Hope you have a wonderful lunch!
It is for supper, but I am wearing it all day! Thanks so much.
Hope that your dinner get together turns out great!
Wow, what a gorgeous book.
I’m pairing Byredo Flowerhead with Morris’s Garden of Delight. Not a perfect match, but looking up more prints have given me ideas for the rest of the week.
I retried one of the Daisy spawn (the intense maybe) for Robin’s strawberry idea, and it was ok, which shocked me because I often find strawberry challenging.
Work has been rough lately as we navigate the new world of academic dishonesty with ChatGPT. If anyone needs me, I’ll be alone in a room with nothing but a book and a pencil!
I’ve heard that many universities have already warned against using ChatGPT (my sister works in academia) — wondering if its easy to tell when a piece of writing has been generated?
Fwiw I am also not a fan of using AI to replace creative human work.
There are several detectors that essentially measure the randomness of the text.
Though I should also add that knowing my students’ writing has been my first clue. I try to come from a position of trust, so I don’t start investigating unless I suspect the work submitted is not authentic.
That makes a lot of sense, it is suspicious when writing styles drastically change.
My spouse also tells me that asking very specific questions helps. Let’s just say that if you ask ChatGPT specific essay questions about styles of medieval and Renaissance music, you get wrong answers. I also validated this by giving it a short-answer question from my old Intro to History class (“potato” — e.g., write about the significance of the potato in the 19th century). ChatGPT gets the basics — it became a prevalent source of nutrition — and misses the point — the famine set off waves of emigration.
And yeah, I find that the writing is very formulaic, though quite legible. It’s too fluent for ESL students and it’s not nuanced enough for a native speaker who writes well. But I imagine it’s harder to catch than plagiarism, when mediocre writing suddenly waxes rhapsodic.
Interesting! This reminds me of a fragrance youtuber who asked ChatGPT to recommend perfume. It wasn’t very good at answering the prompt and just listed generically popular scents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9OC_aTw6TU
That was funny!
I don’t envy you dealing with AI
It’s raining again, imagine that. High winds coming later. Will the power stay on? Who knows? Last week’s power outage was a mere 2.5 days. Pfft. Child’s play after 8 days without power earlier in the month.
Last night we watched ‘Mrs Harris Goes To Paris’ which was charming. I Want That Dress! In honor of the film, it’s a Dior day for me: Grand Bal seems the best match. I may not be dressed like a fancy lady, but I smell like one 🙂
it was charming!!
You smell great! Love Grand Bal. Good luck with your power!
Logged on just to see if you were still connected. Maaaaannnn this is a huge storm. Trees are coming down and there are constant sirens. So far, we still have power.
Perfume for building an ark? Ariana Grande’s Cloud Intense, of course.
Big rain here. We shall see about the power.
For fragrance day, my beloved Indochine is being worn.
Good luck!
Caron Parfum Sacre. ❤️
What a beautiful scent.
♥️
You smell wonderful, last time I wore it several said it didn’t work for them but it sure does for me, it’s a commitment though, so long-lasting.
Wearing vintage Arpege today because it smells like spring to me.
You smell amazing! I love Arpege, and the vintage is incredible. I’m in my old friend Eau de Hadrien-body oil, EDP and EDT 😉 Bit of a comfort scent to me, and so is Arpege.
My mother wore that. 🥰
Wearing Purple Suede on this very rainy day.
Could you wear it on Sunday?
Purple is the color for epilepsy and March 26th is International Epilepsy Awareness Day.🙏
I bet you smell good, too.😉
Actually I’m not liking it at all (it’s a sample). So I will choose another purple scent for Sunday!
I will try to wear a purple perfume then as well!
It’s Wood Sage & Sea Salt for me this morning. I love spring, but this year it appears we will be battling ants trying to find a place to lay eggs (so I’m loving it slightly less than usual at the moment). It’s been a few years since we’ve had such a determined bunch — they found a path from under the house up through an electrical outlet in the kitchen this time. The exterminators are coming later this morning. Grrrrrr.
Great scent!
We have ants too and they are a pain in the behind. We have used about everything and they come back every year.
UGH and ARGH on those creepy crawlers!
Wearing no 5 edt today. I called about that application and somehow it got sent to the wrong store but the manager is going to have it sent to the right store so an interview can be set up. Let’s hope for an interview. Bath and Body Works is having a 40% off deal but I am not biting. With 60 candles, I don’t need any more.
You are making me feel much better about my own candle stash, which might be under 20…
Me too! I just ordered the package of the three spring scents from Otherland to check that brand out.
I’ve been circling those Otherland candles…
Fingers crossed for an interview! It’s good you caught the mistake.
Fingers crossed for the interview.
Good luck Dawn!
Knocking on wood that you get an interview!
Lady Gaga Fame. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, there are hundreds just like it, but I still think it’s kind of great in its way.
It did have a great bottle.
Wearing LouLou today, which isn’t very William Morris but is very lush and slightly tart with a slightly bitter almondy heliotrope note.
You smell wonderful, wearing one of my top ten – Loulou has everything I want in a perfume and nothing I don’t 😀 Do you have a current version – I only know the vintage.
Mine must be the current version – I got it from the drugstore last week. You don’t often see LouLou around here so I was excited to grab it, just a wee 1 ounce bottle for $20.
Great choice, yes heliotrope, so potent.
I reunited with Moby yesterday, plugged in the key, turned the ignition, foot off the gas, and…VROOM! He started right up the first try after more than a month of sitting in a driveway. What a gentleman he is! I have some folks who are interested in so I’m hoping he is able to go to a good and loving home. Whoever gets him is getting one handsome gem of a van!
I’m in Angel’s Share because it was handy. Still haven’t given any thought to changing perfume location but eventually, when things calm down a bit I’ll put some effort into it.
Bedazzled by the sun when I pulled back the skylight shade this morning! A gorgeous day is in the works I’m sure!
Leaving a favorite poet and poem here in honor of poetry day:
The Windhover:
I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
-Gerard Manley Hopkins
You can picture the scene, eh? Great poem, thanks
😍 the poem, inspired by France I think.
That poem takes me back to my freshman year in college, warts and all.
I loved freshman year of college. Soooo much better than freshman year of HS!
Freshman year of college was a painful one for me.
Angels’ Share 🥰 You smell grrrrrrrreat!
I decided to pull out the Penhaligon’s sample set that I bought many years ago as I was starting my perfume deep dive. I haven’t worn any of these in years. Somehow Penhaligon’s seems very proper old school British, though, and Bluebell seemed like it would work with the flowers in Morris’ designs.
House twins!
Another nice, sunny spring day in the upper 50’s.
Wearing Prada Infusion de Mimosa, another spring favorite scent. I still miss L’Artisan Mimosa Pour Moi, my favorite mimosa scent, but sadly discontinued.
Having my third cup of coffee and a couple of Koloocheh (Persian stuffed cookies).
Happy Tuesday! 🪻
Pass me a cookie
Passing you some! Enjoy! 😀
I miss Mimosa Pour Moi too! How well does Infusion de Mimosa assuage the mimosa yearning?
It is pretty good and less fleeting than Mimosa Pour Moi.
You smell delightful, another good mimosa is Perris Monte Carlo Mimosa Tanneron, it’s not longest lasting either but really beautiful, maybe 4 hours or so IIRC.
Thanks for the information, Aurora. I have never tried Mimosa Tanneron. You have created a big lemming, so I am going to order a sample right away.
Oh didn’t mean to😏, yes, wise decision, try it first, I ordered blind because I trust J-C Ellena but was lucky I loved it as much as I did, also I have a mimosa oil from Grasse and the perfume smells of it, so I would say it has a lot of naturals.
I am so glad that you mentioned it. I love mimosa as note, and I am always looking for a beautiful mimosa scent. For your description and some reviews that I just read I am almost sure that I am going to love it!
Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan today — finally got my hands on a sample via a traveling sample box. Am enjoying it very much, so resinous, dark and woody, but sweet enough.
That’s the perfect description of Ambre Sultan!
https://libguides.asu.edu/kelmscott-exhibit/book-production
Like Robin, I’m going with Kelmscott and inspired by this online exhibition from Arizona University. Reading about book production, I am taken by Morris’ attention to quality and detail. He felt Victorian books were a bit cheap and nasty ( paper quality, ink colour) and so insisted on paper made from linen, clear readable typeface (designed his own) and black ( not greyish) ink…so I am matching with a perfume that also attends to detail and quality: Mitsuoko.
I finished The Sheltering sky-
Absolutely loved the story- the sensual writing..the strong sense of place. It had everything I wanted in a book- adventure, thriller/mystery, sexual tension..
Thanks so much Kanuka
I am still reading and enjoying. Will you read the Edith Wharton next?
I will try, unless you have a recommendation to something similar. I will also watch the movie 🎥
I would definitely look at the work of Moroccan /American author Laila Lalami
She has website (her name dot com)
https://www.curledup.com/hopeothr.htm
This one, Hopes and other dangerous pursuits.
Secret Son might be an even better choice
Secret Son they don’t seem to have at my library
But I will look at my used bookstore one day.
The ones they have are
The other Americans : a novel
Conditional Citizens
Hope & other..
Moors Account
YSL Cinema EDT for International Day of Fragrance. It’s perfect for our spring day – a sweet floral with a bit of amber/vanilla in the base.
You smell divine for the International Day of Fragrance and this crisp, bright spring day🌸
I have a sample of that somewhere. Must find
In Piguet Calypso for William Morris roses and an hommage to a great perfume house.
I love this scent, and very few people mention it. I really love its chic black glass bottle too!
I’m wearing Rainbow Bar by 19-69 today. My husband smelled it in me and says he wants to steal it from me. That seems extreme – I’m more than happy to share.
Extremely extreme.
How big is the bottle? 🤣🤣🤣
I’m back in an old favourite today, 31 Rue Cambon
You smell wonderful!
It’s pouring rain and I’m having a very bad hair day, but alas, all is well since I’m working from home. Phew!
I’ve spritzed on Coromandel.
You smell wonderful!
Yay for working from home on days like that!
I’m wearing Penhaligon’s Elisabethan Rose today, for William Morris’s Tudor Rose pattern. Elizabeth was a Tudor, so it fits that way, but I think the scent fits the pattern too — they are both feel traditional without being old-fashioned.
I’ll doubt I can do a better match, so I should have saved this for Friday, but today felt like a rose day.
I’m in the office today, so tea is a mix of bags of Twining’s English Breakfast and Celestial Seasoning’s Nutcracker Sweet.
Oh you smell very nice, there are two versions of ER, the first I have and love it, the second with a nutty note IIRC is supposed to be very good too.
I woke up in a funk today and needed Olympic Orchids Tropic of Capricorn for a mood boost. I’ll pair it with WM’s Acanthus wallpaper, particularly in the green colorway, since it’s a plant native to jungles and gives off dark jungle vibes.
Sorry to hear about the mood funk.
Aw, thanks. Things have improved this afternoon, thankfully. And I’ll have beautiful walking weather after work. It’s currently sunny and 56.
I’m glad your day improved and that the weather cooperated for a lovely, restorative after work walk☀️
2nd that!
Hi!
I have that I woke up too early and killed my day scent.
I got the most outrageous perfume compliment. At the grocery store checkout, the kid asked me “What is that? What smells so good? I’ve never come close to smelling anything like it.” He was bewildered. We all get noticed, but he really wouldn’t stop and had to know. That’s the hard part. It is my combo lately. Lazy Oaf and Lord of Misrule. I think I left the poor kid dizzy from the fragrances and me gushing and explaining everything about them.
I have never seen a man react like that.
How lovely to get a perfume compliment, from a future perfumista I’m sure😀
That’s impressive, getting a perfume compliment from the younguns!
Woohoo – start them young!
I love that he was bewildered!
I thought I had mentioned my sotd but must be mistaken, so I wore A*Men Pure Tonka, not sure if it’s my favorite A*Men flanker or Pure Malt, I think the latter, and tonight it’s Deep Red.
Deep Red is a lovely pick. I noticed it has some similarities to Chopard Casmir in the drydown.
Oh, interesting, I will have to compare them one day, I remember you wore Casmir several times in recent times, I like them both but wear DR more often because Casmir is at the very back of the perfume cabinet.
The top notes are different for Deep Red and Casmir, but I was thinking to myself “Hey, I have smelled something similar to this drydown and I have it!”
Hiya NST!
I’ve been fighting a headache off and on all day today, so perfume is on the quiet and well mannered side. This might be my last post from my current laptop, since a surprise (to me) new one arrived around lunchtime today. Mr. Jalapeno purchased it off Amazon, unbeknownst to yours truly.
Now I have to figure out how to move all my documents, pictures, and music from one machine to the other. Also surprised to find out that new laptops do not have CD players installed. But CD players are still around as peripherals.
SOTD = back in Dame Mate, Heliotrope & Patchouli.
We’re patchouli twins!
As to your laptop and moving files, IIRC, it depended on which laptop. For remote work, I have a Windows machine and since I did not save anything, I just started up the new one and voila. For my Mac (personal), I took a backup of my old Mac laptop and plugged it into the one. I can’t help you if you’re switching OS 🤷🏻♀️. So far, I am not missing any files that I know of.
I am going from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Since a lot of the info I want to import is local to the older computer, that’s gonna take some work…
I’m thinking you wouldn’t have to as long as you have the backup. You cannot change the files in your old computer anyway.
So sorry about the intermittent headache, hope you can lie down and snuggle with the cats, what a pleasant surprise about the laptop, hope you’ll have no problem with file transferring. I’m always curious about Dame perfumery as it doesn’t exist in the UK.
I did some cat snuggling this morning, when my headache was at its worst.
If I were ever traveling to London, I would pack my Dame samples for you in my luggage! Hopefully I could get them past Customs that way.
I hope your headache is gone!
It seems to have finally moved on this evening.
Good! And good luck getting all your stuff moved.
SOTD = Jo Malone Lupin & Patchouli Cologne
Florals and patchouli and I used 8 sprays and yes, I commuted to the office. No one ran away from me so there’s that 🤣. The illustration on the bottle has a William Morris vibe to it!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqEXQniOPWl/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Have you tried this cologne?
The owl matches the bottle perfectly!
That is an amazing owl & perfume bottle match. But yeah, “Lungs” is up there on the “Squick” scale for a name!
I’m learning all sorts of words today (Wednesday)! Earlier today, someone used the term “disambiguate” and I said “Self – is THAT a real word?” I checked and indeed it is!
“Squick” is a portmanteau word that I picked up a while back. It combines squeamish and ick and has been rather useful.
Super late. There was so much work drama today. It was just awful.
My sotd was Cuir de Lancome. I stopped at Sephora after work and tried the new Kayali Yum Pistachio Gelato. I really like it. It might end up being my first purchase from the brand.
Sorry to hear that you were up to your eyeballs in work drama!
Is that new Kayali perfume really sweet?
Ugh, sorry lillyjo!
La Baie des Anges for me today since I was travelling and wanted something cheerful
Hope it worked!