bookandbroom

This, so far, is the great shock of the '08 Halloweenies for me, for lo! It has honey, and yet does not smell of cat pee when applied to my skin! I was cautious with it, but it's a thing of beauty and grace, not too sweet nor too buttery, with the notes mostly in balance, the vanilla not going into a sugared-plastic haze, the cherry tobacco and sage providing an odd impression of coolness, somehow. I'm absolutely delighted with this one; it's warm and comforting, but also subtle and grounded. It's like drinking a pumpkin latte from an organic gourmet coffee shop after only having had those sugared monstrosities (which I admit to a weakness for) from the Seattle Coffee Empire: all of a sudden you realize there are layers and possibilities beyond your taste buds' (or nose's) wildest dreams. Now all that's left to do is cross my fingers that in a hour, the honey doesn't come out and wag her finger in my face, taunting me with I-told-you-so chants...

10/12/08 FINALLY, I have time to work on these some more. Here goes, witch! And sorry I'm so damn LATE with this!If you had to chose one BPAL scent and only ONE to have forever what would it be?Oh, lord, that's difficult. Um. I just feel like after a while, I'd get bored of anything, really. Probably, though, it'd be Pumpkin Queen. Sweet but not too sweet, rich but not too rich, spicy but not too spicy... perfect. Who here likes Betty Page?I like her well enough but I'm not a huge fan. I do think Gretchen Mol was robbed of a deserved Oscar nomination for her role in the movie, though.How about original Trek Characters?Not so much my thing.If you were my witchee, would you like a jar of home made apple butter? This is assuming it turns out good...Sure! I'm kind of weird about foodstuffs from (virtual) strangers, but canned things for some reason don't give me the same nerves...Are you interested in Tarot cards? And if so, are there particular decks you like (or don't or already have or whatever)? Not hugely, though I do have what I think of as the basic deck - the Rider-Waite. I do like the Vertigo and Buffy decks, though...What kind of tea (or coffee) puts you in a fall/Halloween mood? And where do you get it? Every so often I get a pumpkin spice latte or a caramel apple cider from the evil coffee empire.If you were my witchee, would you like dried honey crisp apple slices or other dried fruit?Sure! I do have a thing for dried cranberries, especially.Speaking of historical fiction, how does everyone feel about Sherlock Holmes?I wasn't that into him until I read Julian Barnes' Arthur and George ... now I'm vaguely curious.Favorite cartoons or animated films?Thundercats! *grin* As for animated films, I love Hayao Miyazaki and can't wait to someday get My Neighbor Totoro on DVD. I also have a weakness for the Powerpuff Girls.Villians you sympathise with, or are interested in boinking?*snort* I suppose Spike. And were James McAvoy or Lee Pace to play a villain, I'd ... be into them.Your stance on the all important peanut butter issue: crunchy? creamy? allergic? chocolate? maple? go directly to nuttella, do not pass go?Crunchy and with no added sugar! I usually buy Adams No-Stir Crunchy 'cause I hate when the top half of the bottle is all oily and the bottom all dry. (I love Nutella, too. I just eat it from the jar...)What sort of colors do you currently wear? Do you want to branch outside that? What would you like to try?Black, brown, dark reds and blues and greens, the occasional bit of white, and a smattering of pink, which I love when it's not to brassy or orangey. Powder-pink only! I do kind of want to branch out into more colors, but am usually wary... I did buy an odd shade of green shirt the other week that I love now.About incense: do you like sticks or lose incense?HATE. INCENSE.What's everyone's favorite fairytale and what are your favorite versions of it?Again, difficult question! My favorite is Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," of which there is only one version (at least to me!). I also love "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and ... well, so many I can't think of which I love best, really! I collect fairytale books, kinda, and I love retellings, too. (Like Gregory Maguire's underrated Mirror Mirror.)So how many imps/decants is officially 'you have gone overboard and your Witchee is going to expire from scent overload'?That's possible?ANYONE ELSE want a home-made cookbook?Sure!How does everyone feel about really green gifties? Fantastic! I am an avid recycler and yet I still have some un-green hangups, like that there are just some things for which I must use paper towels. I try to use canvas bags for groceries but forget too often ... there are a million other ways I could be greener.What craft (or crafts) have you been wanting to try but have no idea where to start?The more I look at the sweaters and scarves my friends make, the more I think I'd like to learn to knit. Then I could stop shopping for a Ravenclaw scarf on Etsy and just make my own! I also bought a bunch of empty wooden cigar boxes with the intent to decorate them and sell them, but I just don't know where to start. I don't have an artists' eye in that way, I guess.Would you appreciate some tunes in future packages?Sure, but this is ... a complicated category as between the boyfriend and I we have something like 3,000 CDs and I'm the music editor for a weekly paper so there are always more coming in. But there are still a million things I've never heard and I don't mind mixes with stuff I already have on 'em, so send away!Polish goodies! Who wants them? Baked goods, candies, kielbasa, pirogies, magazines, you name it?YUM. When I was in NYC last week we were staying in the very Polish Greenpoint but never managed to eat at a polish bakery, so that's fun. How do you avoid popping an item for yourself into an order you're placing for your witchie?I, um, don't.What is your favorite tea? What tea would you love to try but haven't because of price or difficulty to get?I think I answered this one in the thread: I love a good Earl Gray, and I love Stash's Mangosteen Green but can't find it anywhere. I don't drink a ton of tea but when I do it's usually at night, so I go for herbal things so I won't be up forever.BPTP Room Sprays...your thoughts?I like 'em, but sometimes they're a bit strong for me. I've had a small bottle of Queen's Croquet Ground in the bathroom for months and I'm so tired of it that I think I may have to sell off decants of the four seasons ones that I have, as I'll never get through them all! I can't stand Cathouse and am also tired, sadly, of Down the Rabbit Hole, but Dungeon, it turns out, is just subtle enough that I like it a lot. I haven't actually used the seasonal ones yet but I can't bear La Primavera ... I think L'Estate is my favorite of those. I'm really curious about the Doc Constantine one and the mystery spray some people got with their BPTP packages.Would you like to receive baked goods from your Witch? And if so, are there things you WOULDN'T like?Nah ... I'm kind of a baker myself and I always like the making - and the dough-eating - more than the finished product!How do you decide what to put in which package for your Witchee or how many packages to send?It depends on what I find and when. Right now, I'm soooo behind that I plan to make a small box, hopefully today or tomorrow, to tell my witch I've not forgotten to send anything, and then make a bigger reveal box. I usually do a couple of small packages or things sent straight from sellers, but this round has proven a little difficult to me!If you were my witchee, would you be terribly offended if I sent you a box containing project "experiments" or random miscellaneous pretty bits of brainstorming that I thought you might like/wear?Not at all! That'd be lovely.Do you often drink take away coffe in paper mugs? Far more often than I should. But my travel mugs are kinda wonky: One is cute but hard to refill, because the top pops off, which makes me want only travel mugs with screwtops, and the other is just kinda old. But it does have a screwtop!What would a perfume based on you smell like?Coffee, ginger, a hint of sweetness from my sugary-smelling shampoo, the smell of sidewalks just when it starts to rain, a hint of basil, a drop of mint and the true vanilla smell of a just-sliced-open vanilla bean.Who here likes Wizard of Oz things?I do, I do!What will you like from Singapore? Candies? Food? Asian crafts/toys?I don't know! Surprise me. Neat things you can only find in one place are always good.What is everyone's "luck" item?I'm not sure I have one, really. (I'm really in the clump of questions I answered in the thread, aren't I?) I have a denim skirt that it used to be impossible to have a bad night in, but I need to lose a few pounds to squeeze into it. But that's not really a luck item. I dunno what that is.Do you like art deco/nouveau - style prints? Yes! I had a thing for art nouveau when I was younger (a coloring book, too!) but didn't think much about it until I did the four seasons decant circle and bought Mucha postcards to send with the packages ... a couple of them I just love.What is one thing that, if you received it in the middle of all the hubbub, would make you smile and take your mind off of all you have to do for a bit? A really engrossing book, probably - though right now I have so much to read for work that might not do it. Honestly, any thoughtful SW package will do it! When VioletChaos sent me a gorgeous necklace she made herself and followed it with a lovely dress, it was so unexpected I couldn't stop gushing about it for ages. How do you feel about Hello Kitty?Pretty meh. I'm more a Badtz-Maru girl. And Totoros and such.Legwarmers? Armwarmers?Don't wear 'em, really. Could use some gloves, though!What makes everyone stand out from the Switch Witch herd? Um. I don't know how to answer this! I live in Oregon, which is weird for this group. I'm a former editorial assistant still obsessed with young adult books; I turned that experience, inexplicably, into a job as an editor and movie reviewer, which is the best possible job for me in this smallish town. But nothing in that is really special. Hrm.If you are into the original Nintendo system, what 3 games would you want that you don't have?I'm not - but I've got a SNES and N64 and GameCube. Still on the hunt for Super Mario 64 used and at a reasonable price.What is your favorite category of the GC?Ooh. Um. Probably Wanderlust, followed by Exolo and Panacea.Stance on Joss Whedon and his enterprises?Abiding love.Has anyone tried ice wine before? Do/did they enjoy it?Yes and yes. I like trying all different kinds of wine. I think, it being fall and all, I might start drinking a little more port...What other perfume companies (besides bpal) have you been curious about?I've tried quite a few but had pretty bad luck with most of them - a lot of synthetic and cheap smelling stuff with too much in common. But I like Blooddrop and the occasional Arcana (which I think is really good stuff, just not to my taste), and I have a definite weakness for CB:IHP. And I really want to try some of Moxie's Apothecary oils.Does anyone here do anything with grave rubbings?Nope!Would you enjoy art based on original Graveyard photography?Possibly! Never really thought about it.What's in your Netflix or Blockbuster queue, do you want any new Netflix/Blockbuster friends, if so how do we find you on there?Too. Much. Stuff. Lemme see what's at the top, besides Battlestar Galactica: Soldier's Girl (it's the Lee Pace thing); The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (my previous witchee's interest in the directors made me curious); Southland Tales (anything that divisive needs to be seen!); a bunch of small foreign stuff I meant to see before I did my best of 2007 list (and didn't get to); Mysterious Skin (I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt); Oldboy; Oscar and Lucinda; a TON of stuff I just never got around to, really.Do you play a musical instrument?I can read music and thus can muck about with a piano; I used to play the clarinet; I had a brief love affair with my guitar but I never play it. I kind of wish I did; lately I find myself wanting to write songs. It's weird.What do you think of Irrelevant Disturbing and Surreal Crawdad Dream? Love it? Hate it? Kicking yourself for not getting a bottle?I wanted to love it but it didn't work for me, sadly.How do you feel about trinkets? You know - tiny toys or doodads that serve no purpose than to be cute, take up space and make us smile. Love them or waste of money? I love them when they're meaningful to me; I've got all kinds of weird little things on my bookshelf. I try not to collect too many oddments, but I do have a weakness for them.Can melty things be shipped to you, or will they be in puddles by the time you open the package?Yes! It's quite chilly here now.Who likes pirates?They're alright. Especially when they look like Orlando Bloom.What are your feelings about Dia De Los Muertos?I've not thought about it much, but it's interesting.What do you think about the Nightmare Before Christmas?I have it somewhere and would like to watch it again. I'm a fan of the trio of little creatures whose names I can't remember ... and the dog!If candy is sent, would you prefer small amounts to a Halloween sized bag?I have no self-control, so small amounts of high-quality stuff is the way I tend to go!Do you like notes in your soaps or bath stuff that you don't like in your perfumes? If so which?Kind of. I tend to be more accepting of bath stuff than of perfumes; for instance, I love the sugary Cocoa Pink shampoos, but I'd never wear those scents as perfume. I tend to like bright citrus notes for the shower, though, since they wake me up a little!Do you like floral soaps or bath stuff? If so, what florals work and what don't?Not really. I don't do strong florals in any form. Though I do love honeysuckle — and clematis, which I can never find in anything...How do y'all feel about honey and maple? And different flavored honey, not just the standard kind?I don't use honey a lot but I do like it - the more varieties, the better! And maple sugar candy, yum!What is your favorite thing to do on a cool fall day?Drink coffee and read a book in a comfy chair by a fire. Or go for a long walk and kick leaves. Or bake cookies so that the house is warm and smells nice.If you have pets, is there a SPECIFIC toy they like to play with; brand and size? Is there a treat/cookie they eat? What brand and size? No treats; they apparently make the kitty barf. She loves the weirdest toy: A friend sent me a little knit? crocheted? heart that was stuffed with what I think is quilt batting; she gets it stuck on her claws and throws it around like crazy. But now the heart is missing, boo!What's your ringtone?Plain old phone sound. I need to think up something better.Just to throw a silly question out there...Munsters or Addams Family, y'all? Addams, for sure! What think you about receiving tea accessories and/or miscellany (like mugs, cups, saucers, strainers/filters, honey, natural sweeteners [like stevia])?Sure, why not? I don't need much, though. I have a good strainer and too many coffee cups...How do you feel about copies of music or dvd's that your witch might have that you might enjoy? Not just mixes, but whole copies?Slightly doubtful but open. It's not like I've never copied music/movies before.Say, witches, I have a question about birthdays. do you expect/rely on other people to plans birthday outings and activities? You mean to plan things for me? Definitely not, though I have friends who do.Tarts? Yes/no?Nope!I'm wondering if my witchee would like to try these types of things (like the caramel with sea salts or chocolates with chilis/bacon/salt etc.)?I love those things! One of the most surprisingly wonderful new things I tried lately was bacon brittle. YUM. And I love caramel with sea salt.What's your favorite animal?Otters!What one (or two, if you really must) BPAL bottles are you most longing for?Hmmmmmm. Orange! You didn't say it had to be realistic. Also Coffee Bean SN. Yeah, I'm hopeless.If you could have dinner/drinks/coffee with any 3 living people that are not your family/friends already, who would they be-? I think I could be asked this question daily and always give different answers. Today? Roger Ebert, Phillip Pullman and Ursula K. LeGuin.If you could bring back any TV show from cancellation what would it be?Veronica Mars. I'd say Buffy, but I think she's doing quite well in comic book form.I wonder if my witchee would like a blanket type thing. Would you?Sure, I guess! Not a high priority, though.What's your favorite "I know it's bad for me but I can't help myself" treat?Bacon. *grin* And really good chocolate in large quantities. I'm pretty predictable. Oh, and ice cream. Very important question: Are you planning on buying anything off your BPAL and/or other wishlists during the round?I usually do, but I keep the lists updated when I do so!Do you wear a watch? If so, what kind/style?Nope!How do you feel about having a donation made in your name to something?If you like that idea, what types of organizations/groups would you want the donation to go to?It's a lovely notion but not one I feel strongly about.What is your favorite art movement and/or style? ie impressionist, surrealist, art nouveau, etc.I'm pretty slow when it comes to art - I can't keep eras and movements and such straight. I just love a few things here and there. Elegant, realistic, fantastic, simple - oh, I don't know. I'd be more specific if I weren't such a dunce!Do you have a case for your mp3 player/digital camera? Yes on both counts.For tea drinkers, do you bag it or prefer loose?Either, but mostly bag tea.Does the weather change where you are, as in, does it get cold in the winter? Anyone need homegrown scarves, hats, mittens, etc?We have two seasons: Summer and rain. But yes, it's quite cold, and I lack both a hat and gloves!Any period of time that you love? Hrm. Kind of a fan of the 20s, but not so much that I'm a collector of 20s things, really. Another question I've never really thought about!What's your favorite part about Fall?The way the air feels on a crisp day when it's not horribly cold out yet; the leaves swirling through the air as they fall; the steam that comes off a cup of coffee in the morning. And the return of basketball season!Do you like office/school supplies? If so, what is your favorites? I like plain old ballpoint pens and stickynotes. Actually, I have a thing for office supplies, but don't use or need them that much, really!What's your favorite Halloween candy? Candy corn!Will you be participating NaNoWriMo? If so, is there anything you'd like to have for that?No, alas. I've tried before but never passed about 16K ... and these days I have enough writing to do for work to keep me too busy to try.Where does everyone like shop for witching goodness?A local store full of housewares and candles and bath things, Etsy, stationery stores, Amazon ... wherever seems relevant!What is your favorite pumpkin goodness?One of my boyfriend's sisters makes an amazing pumpkin cheesecake. Sooooo good.9/4/08: OK, it took way too long for a computer-savvy person like me to figure out how to start this damn thing! But I'm stuck sitting around waiting for a train that's currently an hour and 17 minutes late - so what better way to spend my time than by getting started on some of these questions? Here goes!Who are your forum buddies? People you know well enough online or IRL to help your Witch pick out stuff for you?Hmmm. I live in an area without a ton of BPAListas, so I don't know many people IRL except djnevermore, who lives two hours away and who is lovely. We've only met a couple of times - maybe again tomorrow, oddly enough! But on the forum, hrm, again, hard to say; I "know" former witchees and people who are regulars in my decant circles, but do they know my tastes? I'm not sure! Does your cell phone have a place to attach charms?Yes! And it currently has a catburger hanging from it. It's really more like a cat strawberry shortcake - it's a little white cat between two cakes, with strawberries on the side; I bought it in SF years ago because I have a white cat - but catburger just has a better ring to it.If you drink coffee (and make it yourself) do you use a French Press, regular filter basket coffee maker, Espresso Machine, Percolator?Mostly, we use a stovetop espressomaker - the metal kind that I never understood until I realized how simple and perfect they are. We also have a French press that rarely gets used; I don't like how it gets cold!What movie soundtracks (or scores) do you love? Oh, lord. Um. The Dark Knight and There Will Be Blood, recently; The Piano; The Fall (if there is a CD of this, I must get it!); Hot Fuzz (soundtrack); The Crow (soundtrack)... probably more I'm just not thinking of at the moment.How do you scent yourself? Do you layer soaps, moisturizers, etc. or do you go straight to slathering your bod with BPAL?I'm actually pretty reserved with scent; I like to have it waft faintly around me, but not to intrude on others. I use scented soaps and scrubs - mostly scrubs - but hardly ever use lotion (for me it's mostly something I put on my hands before bed, as they get dry so easily!). I put on a bit of BPAL most mornings, and sometimes re-up at night if I'm going out, but I rarely plan to layer. I'm not that organized!Do you/how do you scent your world? Candles, incense, diffusers, potpourri? None of the above?I don't, apart from the occasional squirt of BPTP room spray! I can't stand incense, don't do tarts, and while I love some scented candles, I'm extremely picky about them; synthetic scents make my throat itch and give me headaches. BPAL is such a scent-ual experience. What are your other tactile, aural, or olfactory pleasures?This question is kind of hard. I love the smell of wet pavement, freshly brewed coffee, baking bread - all the usual, really! I love the feel of crisp clean sheets, skirts that swing, and fluffy towels; the sound of birdsong in the morning (though not the damn starlings that live outside my window), the ocean, steady traffic (this is a city thing, I think!), splashing fountains, pages turning...How do people feel about receiving baked goods/kits to make said goods? Or other cooking items? Would you enjoy oil or vinegar flavored with herbs grown at home? Strange and exotic spices with recipes to try? Cookies made with carnation petals?I'm bigger on things to make myself than things that are made for me, as I love to bake! I'd love oils and vinegars, though, and strange things to incorporate into my cooking.What are your pet's names, and what are they named for?My cat is named Halo, because she has a black dot in the middle of her forehead and Bindi seemed too obvious. I wanted to name her Mogget, after the white not-really-a-cat in Garth Nix's Sabriel, but it's kind of an awkward name, really.Who here is a complete, over the top, Alice In Wonderland fanatic? I wouldn't say over the top, but I do like the idea of collecting various editions of the Alice books, and I love Alice things, like the dishes at Fishs Eddy, or magnets or such. I'm oddly fond of the dormouse, for some reason.Are you a Trekkie? If so, which series do you prefer? Do you have a favorite character?Nope. I don't dislike it, but I've never really gotten into it, though DS9 tempted me briefly. Becoming a BSG fan, though...Do you have phobias?I don't care for spiders, but I don't kill them, either. I'm somewhat afraid of fire; I hate when people are on fire in movies. And I'm horribly squicked by injuries involving finger and toe-nails.How do you like your mix CDs? Random? Stuff you know you'll like?NOT random! The point of a mix is that something ties it together, even if it's just the year of release! I think mostly I like stuff that I already like blended with similar things I might enjoy. But I also like all new stuff - it just takes me longer to get to those.Would you rather get food or jewellery?Probably jewelry, if it was to my taste (which I will admit is fairly picky), as I'm trying to lose those last five to ten pounds...Do you like children's toys, such as jacks, those little things you tilt around to get the ball in the right hold (wtf are those called?), the aforementioned caplet dinosaurs, cap guns, etc?Like? Yes, relatively. Want? Not so much, as I'm trying to have less unused stuff!English candy/tea/marmite or other stuff that you love and can't easily get outside of England?Oh, where to start. Most British chocolate makes me very happy. I also love Swedish candy. Really. And Fullers ESB and Caffrey's - though getting beer from the UK to Oregon might be difficult!Fanfic as a gift* - yay or nay?No, thank you! I'm not big on reading fanfic; it messes up the stories in my head.Do you like making up your SW packages around a theme, or prefer to mix it all up?I've never tried a theme, so mixing it up is my answer by default.Band-aids: do you like the fun and funky ones?I actually kind of hate band-aids. Is that weird? I only use them if I really really have to.What's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?When I was about 10, I almost choked on a LifeSaver. Stop laughing! It's true! I mean, I did choke, and the Heimlich didn't work; my uncle had to turn me upside down and shake me to get the candy out (it was two of them stuck together). That was pretty scary. How many of mah fellow witchies play video games? Platform? Do you like used games?Yes yes yes! I play GameCube and N64 games and am on the hunt for a used copy of Super Mario 64. Someday I'll get a Wii. Oh, we also have a SNES used mostly for the occasional Dr. Mario battle.What kind of music (genres, please) do you like? Indie rock. It's a phrase that's losing its meaning and has been for years, but it's still the most accurate for the guitar-based heavy-on-the-heartache stuff I like. A touch of alt-country, a little new folk/singer-songwriter stuff, some more aggro rock (Jaguar Love), some more electronically-laden stuff (TV on the Radio), lots of Death Cab and The National and Band of Horses and The Posies and, oh, some pop punk, too.Have any of you ever received a book from a Witchy and loved it so much you ended up buying a copy for a later Witchee?Not yet! Though I still have to read the book my first Witch gave me - I've been meaning to get to it! But I have given two Witchees copies of American Gods, which is one of my favorite books, and one a copy of Wicked, which is my other favorite.What kinds of eye shadows do we all like?I actually wear very little makeup. It always looks stupid on me.Do you like lip balm? If so, do you like tinted, glossy, sparkly, pearly or just plain lip balm? I do! I tend to plain, but I have some sparkly and would go for lightly tinted in a heartbeat. I like the Propaganda stuff and the Haunt stuff; My Lip Stuff has great scents but is a little too oily for me. I like it to be thicker so it doesn't rub off so quickly.What are some of the SW gifts/finds from past rounds that you are the most proud of in terms of your sleuthing skills?Ooh, tough one. I sent stellans a locally-compiled cookbook that I was proud of, as she'd said she liked that sort of thing. I managed to get my latest SW just the right yarn, which wasn't that hard but did take me off my beaten path! But I guess I'm not that exciting of a sleuth. And, secondly, what is something you've been searching for but just can't find?Hmmmm. I'm going to try to remember to come back to this one, because there ARE things, but I can't think of them right now.Do you knit/crochet? Do you need any supplies?Who here has an etsy shop?No to both. I'm sadly not very crafty.What are your two favorite etsy shops?Dirty Sanchez and the Pebble Collection (I only really love three of her earring designs, but I REALLY love those three!)Are you active on any other boards/forums? If so please specify where and your username there.Not lately. Once upon a time I was all over Delphi, but those days are long gone!What would you tell yourself 6 months in the past about 2008 so far?I would tell myself to STOP TAKING ON SUCH GIANT DECANT CIRCLES AND GET OUTTA THE HOUSE. Yes, the all-caps would be necessary.If you had one minute of fame, what would you do/say in the spotlight?Honestly? I'd probably freeze up and not be able to speak!Robots versus zombies: who wins? Robots, clearly; they'd be incredibly effective against those mindless creatures.What would zombie say?Zombies don't talk!Where are a few of your favorite places? Rockefeller Park in NYC, or any other sculpture garden with work by Tom Otterness; the courtyard of the Nunnery hostel in Melbourne, Australia; the central Oregon coast; anywhere in Sydney where I can stick my toes in the warm Pacific; Stockholm; the International Fountain in Seattle; the coffee shop where I'm sitting right now; the secret catwalks in Grand Central's windows; any NYC block where the sidewalk sparkles; a booth at the New Old Lompoc in Portland, an hour before last call; any bar where I know the bartenders; the Badlands; the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park. I could go on.Out of curiosity, all the fall babies who are celebrating their birthdays during the round - who are you, and when is your bday?I think mine's too late - it's Nov. 23.What is one (only one) object that you collect, that totally goes against your personality or beliefs?Ha! You could actually say BPAL, given my dislike for regular perfume and for people whom you can smell from across a room.Are you a soap addict? Anything you like to avoid in soaps (goat's milk, lye, dyes, etc...) or any particular scents you like or brands you want to try?Yes and no. I like the smells, but I can't stand to have a whole bar in the shower; it takes forever to use up, and I get bored! So I'd say I'm a soap slice addict; I loooove soap slices. I'm learning that Villainess is a little too drying for me, and that BPAL/Silk Road isn't scented in a way I like; I love Haunt and Dirty Sanchez and a couple of others. I'm game for slices of most anything, though.Do you like kilts and would you wear one?I find them sort of funny on people who aren't Scottish. What's your favorite book?Accidentally answered this before! Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Gregory Maguire's Wicked, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, and many, many, many more.What size socks do you wear? How about hat size?Ordinary size? I wear 8.5 shoes, so whatever that translates to! As for hats, I have a big head, but I don't know the actual size...Do you read comics? Which ones do you love and which can't you stand?Yes and no - I read trade paperbacks, but I'm too speedy a reader to have patience with single issues. I've been reading the Buffy season eight stuff as it gets collected; I love DMZ; some not-current favorites are Transmetropolitan, Planetary, The Invisibles and, of course, Sandman. I have the first Fables book and the Scheherezade collection, but I really want to read more of those. I love Scott Pilgrim and Blankets and Adrian Tomine and... all kinds of stuff, really. Been reading a lot of Batman, lately.Symbols that are meaningful to me?Hmmm. Triullims. Not a symbol, a flower, but still. I'll have to think about this one.By nature are you a morning lark or a night owl?Total night owl. Total. Would love to never have to get up before 10:30 or go to bed before 2.What's your favorite type of music to hear live, rather than recorded?Same stuff I usually listen to (says the girl on her way to a music fest!).What is your favorite autumnal-seasonal drink? Pumpkin spice lattes. And sometimes caramel apple cider. Probably some seasonal drinks at my favorite local bar, too.Crossword puzzles? Other pencil puzzles?Crosswords, yes! Though I've gotten out of the habit lately. I love the NYT crosswords, impossible as they can be.Favorite artist?Um. Hrm. Let me get back to you on that. I'm not very visual-arts oriented. I do love the Mucha postcards I bought for the Four Seasons decant circle, though. And I have a weakness for Calder, thanks to my stepfather. But there are others.Favorite poet?e.e. cummings. I'm predictable. More recently, I loved Brenda Shaughnessy's Interior With Sudden Joy.Halloween. Do you like it kooky or creepy?A bit of both, I think.Reserved or Raunchy?Totally depends on my present company!Earth, Wind, Fire or Water?I'm a fire sign with a strong water affinity. Seems sort of counterintuitive, really.Tea or Coffee in the morning?COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE *sips mocha*Fruity snacks or chocolate?Both! I've been addicted to dried cranberries lately, but I love me some choccies ... and chocolate-covered espresso beans!Would you accept art?What does that mean? Prints? Art made by Witch? The idea of art? Yes to all.Antiques or Brand New?Both, mostly vintage, though.What keywords do you use when searching for items for yourself on Etsy?bird, silver, wood box, tiny earrings, tote bag, dressAre there any of y'all who are allergic/sensitive to having natural fibers on your skin?Wool makes me itchy.What was your favorite ghost/scary/campfire story growing up?I really, really, really hate being scared, so I can't say I have a favorite exactly...Bugs? Do you like 'em or not?They're alright! So long as they aren't in my bed, anyway.i haz no imp storage. do you?I'm not bad. Could use another ammo box at some point.If you have a garden/planter box, what do you grow?I have a small and ill-tended container garden of herbs: thyme, sage, rosemary, mint.What incense scents do you prefer? None, pleaes!Do you decorate for Halloween? What sort of decorations? Dress up for Halloween?I don't decorate for anything. (What's the point in having extra crap just to have it? ) I always mean to dress up, but generally lack inspiration/money. Last time I did a decent job of it, I was Ragged Robin from the Invisibles, and absolutely no one knew who I was. Maybe this year, though..Bats, cats, skeletons, monsters, vampires, witches or what other ghoulies do you prefer?Cats and witches! Especially very simple, black-silhouetted witches. Phillip Pullman witches (ragged, elegant).Do you like horror flicks?Noooooooooooo.Who here prefers stylus and ink to ballpoint? Anyone invested time and effort into calligraphy or proper Victorian writing?I love the idea but haven't the patience.What about stationery? Need some? What styles do you like?I'm terrible about handwriting anything these days. I love notecards and pretty paper, but mostly it just sits in a box.What is one item that you've wanted forever, could have afforded, but have never gotten and why (haven't you gotten it!)?The perfect pair of black, knee-high, leather, zip-up boots. Why don't I have them? Because I am beginning to be convinced they don't exist. They must be utterly plain! And just right! and I cannot find them! Sigh.What Halloween scent are you most looking forward to?Just one? Probably Sticky Pillowcase. EDIT: Turns out my favorite is Huesos de Santo. The Pillowcase didn't work at all!Tattoos! Do you have em? Do you want em? Whatcha got or getting?None yet, and no immediate plans.Reduce - REUSE - recycle. Do others feel the same?YES. To the point that I drive my boyfriend crazy storing stuff to reuse in packing, and feel guilty about the bubble mailers for circles, since I suspect most of them just get thrown out...What is your favorite crafting supply?Dunno how to answer this as I suck at crafting.Weigh in...Are you right or left-handed? Right.

The King reminded me of Havana and Intrigue, but I have a weird nose.

Earthy, damp, murky, fiery, smoked, black, green, brown. Like a dragon's cave on the edge of a swamp. Alluring and warning at the same time. I assume dragon's blood; I smell some kind of moss, earth, maybe cinnamon, a strange floral, like some flower that blooms only at great temperatures. It smells as if I ought to be sweating when I smell it. It's thoroughly fascinating as a vivid image evoker, but I don't think I'd wear it as a perfume, though something about it reminds me of the shock of cold water on hot, dry ground — and I love that. There's a hint of aquatic as it dries, and the florals emerge a bit more; the two suggestions are twined for me, and I like them less than the scent's beginning, but it's still an interesting one.

Thank you, AEris, for the pix! Just what I needed.

Ivyandpeony, after giving Amor a try after wikkidraven made the same comparison, I totally agree about Decadence and Amor - though to me Amor is a little less spicy than Decadence. It's fantastic in its own right, though, so it's like a double-awesome bonus that it also smells like Decadence!

... anyone got pix of the new labels? I see a CTIV review, so I know boxes are landing!

At first, this is HOT. Fiery, pulsing, burning hot; it seems to emanate heat when I get my face close to my wrist to sniff. At first, I think dragon's blood, resins, pine pitch and something hotter - maybe something like juniper, as initially I'm reminded of Wildfire. There's a touch of antiseptic around the edges, but it's not the usual suspects - or it could be mint. Something reminds me of soap but is pungent at the same time, and I suspect violets. Violets and I never get along. There's something of burning herbs, singed seeds to this as it dries; herbal notes spring to the foreground and yet I can't pin down what it smells like to me. Not cinnamon, not clove, not just pepper, but something about it does tickle my nose. After that initial flare, it's starting to mellow a touch, but it feels coiled, like it could strike at any second. A creamy trickiness is spreading out over the fire, but it's still there, turning things to dust and dried petals. Scorpio is hard to pin down, for me, and harder to imagine wearing, though it's very intriguing. The cusp baby in me suspects I'd fall more on the Sagittarius side of things, scent-wise.

It's driving me CRAZY. I have no idea what I'll do with the next CD update, since I do decant circles and ... they take a lot of characters! Paypal. Bastards. *sigh*

Thanks so much, TwilightEyes! Do you have the ladies? Do they have the same circus font? Sorry, I'm a total pain in the ass. *grin*

(hijack) Oooh, I bet you could invent one! Amaretto and burgundy wine are easy enough; creme de cassis is black currant; and you could make a plum liqueur or use plum wine or some plum brandy ... the question is, would it taste as good as it smells? (end hijack) To make this relatively on topic, er, I love fruity blends. I thought it was just a citrus thing, but oh, was I wrong ...

I wonder if any of our Grindhouse ladies would be able/willing to post pix of their labels in the gallery? I'm making labels for a decant circle and am curious what the font looks like. Thanks!

On me, this smells precisely like Throat Coat tea - definitely licorice/fennel, and something that makes me think ginger. But mostly Throat Coat. I adore it.

It took me two tries to figure out that the weird, rough-edged, not-entirely-citrus scent I was getting from this was, in fact, the smell of a bowl of Froot Loops. Every so often the lemongrass/lemon verbena stage a minor coup and take over the cereal, but mostly I smell like Saturday morning and watching cartoons! Oh, skin chemistry. Such a wacky thing.

When I first smelled this in the bottle, I ... kind of wanted to drink it. It smelled like butterscotch schnapps or something — something sugary and sticky which really I would never drink in reality but still: Delicious! Sippable! Smells! Were coming out of this bottle. As it starts to dry, the immediate boozy-sweet note shifts into something precisely accurate: there's the salt, and the caramel, and the nuttiness, and even the poofy, airy, starchiness of popcorn. Melted butter and caramelized sugar? Yes. I've had bad luck with a lot of sugary notes — they turn to a plasticky funk —Â but this one is staying true. It evokes sticky shoes and damp soda cups, crumpled cardboard and wooden benches, but also the sugar overload of a carnival midway, all spinning rides, flashing signs and rigged games. But now it's drier still, and it's taking on a hint of burnt sugar, a touch crisped around the edges, like the caramel corn balls at the elementary school Halloween carnival which have an unavoidable tang of school gym stuck to their sides. But I chalk this up to the trouble my chemistry has with sugar notes. I suspect the rest of you will get deeelishus caramel corn accuracy like nobody's business. And I envy you.

A total surprise hit for me; I love the way Te Po smells, when it's dry on my skin, like tropical Fruitcake! Though a lot of the fruitiness disappears once it's really settled, which would be a bummer were it not so deeelishus anyway. Here's what I wrote while I tested and sniffed and waited for it to dry... Cherry-almond INSANITY, in the bottle. Sticky and strong! But now I'm getting a fizzy lime-cherry kick that I absolutely LOVE. Mint creeps 'round the edges, giving the sugar and fruits a grownup edge; every so often a hit of almond and booze almost burns my nose. How does it smell fizzy? I don't understand, but it's fantastic. It's getting more well-rounded as it dries, the spiced rum and a bit of citrus calming down the crazy fizzies, turning it into a playful cousin to something like Port-au-Prince — one wearing a big Carmen Miranda hat. Tiny hint of something gingerbready, too. So much variation, so much deliciousness. Loads of clove (I think) and related things coming out of the rum. I want to stick a wand cap in this and wear it ALL the TIME.

This is ... really quite strange. Not so much the scent, which, if I'm trying to pick out notes, has to my nose a hint of mint, maybe a touch of chamomile and a bucket of rose geranium, as everyone else has already, er, noted. No, what's freaking me out is the scent memory it calls up. I slathered this on in a desperate bid to rid myself of some frustrating financial troubles, and as soon as I took a deep whiff ... I was back at summer camp. YMCA horse camp, to be specific, wrapped in a sleeping bag on a cot somewhere east of Portland, reading The Riddlemaster of Hed and worrying about getting along with my cabinmates, with campfire songs going through my head. It's the scent of bugspray and nylon and a small room full of 13-year-old girls, with all their associated odors, natural and otherwise. It's so strong I can remember the sand on the path on the way to the fire, the owl in the tree behind where the counselors sat, the occasional bat in the night breeze, the grey dapples on one of the horses and the fact that I felt my first earthquake there while sitting on a pile of hay bales. Sorry, getting off target here. In short, it's a really, really evocative scent, at least for me - though not so much of stress relieving times! (Oh, middle school.) I just keep smelling it, despite the fact that I think it might, as rose geranium often does, be trying to give me a headache. If I ever want to write a novel for teens about summer camp, I've got the scented accompaniment!

And Hanami! I'd like to see all the new ones. If anyone is desperate to see Sugar Moon, someone's got a bottle on eBay. (Not me! I just noticed the cool label. )

Thank you so much, BBA! That is totally not what I expected ... good thing I didn't go down the script-romantic font path I was thinking about. It looks like the scent name is in a sort of typewritery font ... interesting! THANK YOU!

This is me begging and pleading for a pic of a Love Poems label - any of 'em! All of 'em! Whatever you've got! I'd really like to see Parentalia, too. Pretty pleeeeeease with smellies on top?

I know how to take a hint! I tried to upload it to the community gallery, but it says I've used all of my disk space... um, okay. So if anyone wants to save this and upload it to the forum, please feel free. YAY! Thank you! (I wanted to see the font so I could look for something similar for my decants. )

I think Snake Oil does still - or maybe once again - have that Carnaval Diabolique label, or at least the last two bottles I've seen from the Lab did!

Your wish is my command; I just posted the B Movies in the label gallery. Thank you! And those are awesome. *drools* Too bad I can only convince myself to get decants. You're welcome! Now if someone would just post the Lupercalias and Love Poems ...

Your wish is my command; I just posted the B Movies in the label gallery.

In the bottle, this smelled like a foodie dream, and the first thing that hit me was the buttery cake note from Crumpet Rebellion, of all things, followed by something fruity and rich that reminded me of, well, all the other popular foodie blends at once! On my wrist, it did a little dance between the notes, a decadent, sticky sweet confection with the slight dustiness of Sweet Tarts (I think this might be pear). The pink pepper crops up, reminding me of Hermia, followed by bright, sparkling citrus and - there! The ginger! To me, this starts out a babbling, sticky-fingered teenager and grows up over the course of 15 minutes into something gingery and spicy and red and warm, but still with a creamy-fruity undertone. It's simply fantastic.