dawndie

I'm a little late to the discussion, but I swear when I was reading your post I was thinking, "Dang, she has more things happen to her in one day than I do all week!" It does sound like a Linklater movie! I'm sure you project a strong energy which attracts people who don't have that energy -- and no, you're not expected to be Miss Ray of Fucking Sunshine every minute. Like in "Poltergeist" when the lost souls are attracted to Carol Anne's life force: "It's very strong, it gives off its own illumination." Yes, I can quote that entire movie.

First off, the update last week! I was so surprised to see the Black Moon bottles appear. Nothing like a couple of unexpected LEs to totally throw me off! I went back and forth and decided to get just the Schwarzer Mond with all the smoky resins. And Halloween! My favorite time of year, and my favorite bunch of BPALs. I already have bottles of Samhain, Dia, Sugar Skull and tried/swapped away Devil's Night. But I'm totally blown away by all the new blends! I'll wait for the next Lunacy to order and am interested in: --All Souls-- I love the incense blends like Midnight Mass and Pit and the Pendulum, as long as they aren't too woody. Incense + currant sugar cakes sound great --Creepy-- all the ingredients are favorites: butterscotch, caramel, apples, and coconut rum. This will be the first bottle ordered --Pumpkin Queen--I liked 3 of the 5 Pumpkin Patch bottles (cider, cocoa and pomegranate) and will want to check out the mandarin/orange peel/ginger version --Punkie Night--I love cranberries and these don't pop up very often I fell over and died when I started reading the Order of the Dragon scents. While the original Bram Stoker novel was OK, Coppola's Dracula film is one of my all-time favorites. Swoon! I want to try: --Brides of Dracula--this sounds like another Smut-O-Rama with the skin musk and honey and Eastern spices --Dr. John Seward--[tangent] don't even get me started on how great Richard E. Grant was in this role. My favorite scene is when he's dictating the latest diagnosis of Renfield while "self-medicating" and thinking of Lucy *sigh* [end tangent] Ahem. Anyway, another "poppy smoke" blend that sounds dark and brooding and great --Quincey Morris--hello? Texas guy! This sounds more masculine with the tobacco and leather, but if I end up buying a bottle I can hopefully persuade DH to give it a try And of course the Arkham bottles becoming GC! How great is that? I want to try: --Al Azif--another dark incense that many people raved about --High Priest Not to Be Described--yet another incense, but maybe too masculine with the leather. Great name, though! --Night Gaunt--lots of fruit with that elusive "snow" quality that's so popular --Shoggoth--this may be too much floral, but I want to test "green coconut meat"

Oopsie! Not to say that every BPAL foody blend is the same -- Beaver Moon and Monster Bait: Closet are definitely on the foody-cakey side and ones I rarely wear.

Yeah, I understand the quasi-anti-foody stance. That's why I don't buy pure foody products like Philosophy -- those are way too realistic-smelling and would only leave me craving sweets after the shower. But the BPAL blends are more ... mature? Sophisticated? Drunken boozy? They don't end up like food on me. For example, Sugar Skull sounded way too sweet, but I love it, it's like alcoholic hard candy.

Ugh, I know how it is with finances. Even if I could order all these bottles now, I would feel so guilty and dread the inevitable credit card statement, the ulcer wouldn't be worth it. Hopefully there will be bottles and decants floating around for the ones we can't buy right now.

Congrats on the new job! If you're doing something you love, hopefully the money will follow. It sounds like you know what-all you have on your plate financially.

The past couple of weekends have been great. Last Sunday was a little cottage with a bunch of cowboy art and memorabilia. I got a signed Roy Rogers and Dale Evans postcard -- I talked to the woman running it (her dad's place? not sure) and she got it in a lot from an autograph dealer friend, so as far as she's concerned it's legit. I love it and want a cool cowboy frame for it. I also got 10 Siesta Ware mugs for $15 -- glass mugs with wooden handles, 1960s and real Western-looking. I've always liked them and would see them pop up in TV shows and on eBay but never bought a set. Now I have 10 in all different colors, and one has a Longhorn steer on it! I also got some free mini-souvenir plates (maybe 3" across instead of 10") for a few places like DC and Chicago. The entire lot was $40. Score! Yesterday was crazy, we ended up spending at least an hour at one woman's place. She had TONS of stuff crammed into this teeny house, and we met her on the porch (she hired estate sellers to handle the process). Among the huge stacks of books and weird kitchen gadgets, she had hundreds of souvenir plates! They were stacked everywhere. We ended up with 10 for $38.50: California, Hollywood (Grauman's! Movie studios!), New Orleans, Ohio, New Mexico, NYC, Wyoming (where DH's dad is from), Winchester Mystery House, Victoria BC and the kicker: DISNEYLAND! I found one for Walt Disney World and DH ended up finding a Disneyland one in a stack on the floor. That one is my favorite! So I'm motivated to display them like the Snarks are doing, maybe in the dining area! They'd look fab.

How funny, that we were just talking about souvenir plates, and then we walked into this lady's house and they were EVERYWHERE! DH was suggesting hanging them above the kitchen cupboards, and I said, "but, but, I can't see them way up there!" I think I may have swayed him into doing a collage on the wall like you're doing. I'm thinking Michaels for the plate hangers, and I'll see if they have teeny hangers. But super glue might work -- you could get a little metal bracket (like a ">") and glue it onto the back, big enough for a nail head.

I should have posted this earlier, but Cincinnati (where DH grew up) now has Cornhole Tournaments! Get yer cornhole on! http://archive.cinweekly.com/content/2004/...nholetourny.asp

Hee! She's adorable. I would be dressing her up all the time

I read all your blog postings, but with a title like that, I had to read this one! Just the partial sentence, "Ella was tending to Mugzy's cornhole when he audibly pooted one" made my evening. Ha! I don't know about where you are, but where DH is from they have a weird local phenomenon called "Cornhole" -- it's a yard game you play with boards with holes cut out, and you have to stand pretty far away (15-20 feet?) and chuck beanbags into the holes (except the bags are normally filled with unpopped popcorn, hence the name). If you get a bag in the hole you yell "CORN!" It's hysterical.

One thing that always amused me while working in the legal field was the potential for argument everywhere -- you could have 2 sides arguing one fact, and one side sees white while the other sees black. I don't think you can put 2 people together most of the time and get them to agree the sky is blue and the grass is green. So when someone has a differing opinion, you have to take it with a huge grain of salt -- they're coming from a completely different headspace and see things in a completely different light. But how can someone justify the continuing use of names and images when they've been asked by the creator and owner of the property to stop? They've been asked nicely, in fact, instead of via a cease-and-desist letter or a lawsuit. I picture a child tantruming: "You're not the boss of me! I'll do what I want! You don't own the universe!" This kind of deals with what I posted previously about the pursuit of the LEs: some people think LE = rare = BPAL at its finest, when there are plenty of great catalog blends that don't have the cache associated with a "Limited Edition OMG I NEED THIS LOL!!!" For me personally, I banninated myself from eBay because of the bidding wars and excitement and the focus on "winning" the auction. I haven't "won" anything, I'm paying cash money for it! I simply wanted to pay more than others were willing to. Anyway, I'm babbling at this point, but maybe if people weren't so focused on the LEs they wouldn't be concerned about the "professional" resellers who want to make a profit off someone else's hard work.

You sound really diligent with your bottle sales by checking out the potential buyers. But ultimately, what can you do? Can you refuse to sell to someone if you're afraid they'll imp-out-and-resell? Plus I like your justification: if someone buys, the money goes back to the Lab, plus more money for your "normal" orders, so it's like the Lab gets twice as much!

I'm sorry you and The Mister have to go through this Been there, done that, with both sides of the family. No matter how much "advance notice" there is, it's still hard to deal with and you'll be a welcome, stable support to those who need it Back East. On a lighter note, please post any wacky recipes from Grandma! My sis put together a recipe book after Grandma passed away and there are some hilarious ones, including Bologna Cake. Yes, you layer bologna like a cake with mayonnaise, and cover with crushed potato chips. People sure ate weird in the '50s

Antimony and darkitysnark have motivated me to post pictures of my favorite plants around the homestead. I take no credit for these, this is all DH's hard work. Here's the front of the house with a couple of Silverado Sage bushes. This big picture is from last summer; unfortunately we've had a very hot and dry one this year and our grass in front is brown. These bushes are popular here because they're very drought-tolerant: They seem to love the heat, in fact! This week has been over 100 every day and they're blooming these cute purple flowers like crazy: My other favorite plant is in the back next to the driveway: a pomegranate tree! It must like the heat too because it has a bunch of small pomegranates: Here's another good one, it's huge:

Thanks for the comments! I hope everyone liked the pics. It's been hotter than Hades here, so I'm not enjoying the outdoors much, but I'm trying to think of October and how nice it will be then *sigh*

I was like you with Snake Oil at first -- that was one of the first imps I ordered, and it was almost *too much* (musk & spice) so I put it in my imps-to-keep pile. It's still there, and after a year and a half it's the consistency of maple syrup in the imp. I guess that's the "aging." But I've been thinking about Snake Oil lately, after getting bottles of Hellion and Morocco and really digging those. I should get a bottle to fully appreciate.

--We've continued to go to estate sales every weekend, but I haven't bought much. Last weekend I bought a couple of vintage bandanas for $1, and when we got in the car and I rolled one up and put it on my head, DH made a face and said he was never a fan of the bandana. Yes, they're pretty frumpy-looking, especially because I'm no expert putting them on, but I like the retro-cowgirl-housewife look so I wore one to work last week anyway. Yeehaw! --We went to a few sales yesterday and DH got a boss pair of binoculars for $15 -- they were in the original '60s or '70s case and he can use them the next time he gets nosebleed Mavericks tickets. The houses were cool though; another was an updated bungalow which was rehabbed and for sale (not a technical Estate Sale, she was a flipper) but she wanted way too much for it, considering it was next to a couple of skeevy-looking duplexes and apartment buildings. --I went to a BPAL Meet-n-Sniff on Saturday, which was a blast. I posted already in another thread, but it's so great to be able to talk about notes and scents and just how crazy this hobby/obsession can be. I know DH just rolls his eyes at times when I'm babbling about LEs and evil carnivals and monthly orders, but everyone at a Meet-n-Sniff gets all that. It was 4 of us: one gal brought a whole box of Villainess soaps so she could slice off samples, I brought a bag of frimps I was saving for everyone to paw through and take new things to try, and everyone had new GCs and LEs to sniff and test. This was the 3rd one I've attended and I hope everyone had a good time.

Maybe that's the magic of the BPAL: that one day you'll try something and it'll be "yuck" or "ew" or "meh," but the next day it'll be "ooh!" or "yum!" or "hmm." That sentence needed more quotation marks The longing for the image in the song lyrics reminds me of a scene in "Bull Durham," when Susan Sarandon's trying to seduce Tim Robbins and is dressed all fabulous and asks, "Don't I look nice?" He says she looks "cute" and she gets indignant: "Cute?!? Baby ducks are cute! I want to be exotic and mysterious!" We all want to be exotic and mysterious too.

How about a "bandana hammock"?

Hee! I wondered if I was spelling "bandana" correctly -- is it "bandanna"? It's not banndana, that looks funky Maybe it's just "handkerchief you wear on your head."

I agree! Pretty pretty nails!

Ooh! The moonflower looks beeyootiful. And is that a French manicure? It looks great! I thought about taking pictures of a few plants yesterday because of your blog! It's been so hot and dry, but we have a couple of silverado sage bushes in front (very popular here) and they'll independently decide to bloom every couple of months with these really cute teeny purple flowers. Anyway, the big bush was blooming yesterday, but then they're gone and I'm sad.

I got the bottle in a swap with Copia. Thanks babe! In bottle: pretty vague wood, like walking through Home Depot On skin: the incensey resins appear full-force. I'm bad at reviewing, because instead of conjuring pretty images on their own, I compare scents to other BPALs I've tried, which may or may not be helpful Hey, it's helpful to me! This reminds me a lot of how Cathedral starts, lots of woody resins. Half-hour later: still lots of resins, almost sticky on my wrist. Cathedral ended up more pencil-shaving "woody" on me, and P&P stays pretty true. This is very much like Midnight Mass with resins instead of "church incense." In conclusion: a nice counter-balance to Midnight Mass. Not quite the "Ecclesiastical Doom!!" that the description promises, but I like it!

This is my favorite Moon label so far, it's so unusual and beautiful! In bottle: perfumey apple On skin: lots of dry herbs. I definitely get the sage (which I recognize from Corazon, it's very distinctive) and what must be the "dusty wheat." I do smell apple sweetness in the background. Half-hour later: this hasn't morphed much, lots of dust and herbs and apples In conclusion: this blend really blew me away with how evocative it was of "autumn." I'm glad it didn't morph on me because it's beautiful as it is! A definite keeper :heart: