Vacation Time

 

I could and probably should make some kind of review posts but haven't felt up to it. But it's time for another vacation and that means another vacation post.

Since I have taken a big vacation in July, I don't have the cash for another trip. I drained what was left of my savings account and paid some bills with that money. I didn't pay off anything, but I wanted to set myself ahead in one way or another, even if it was a little bit. I was not going to let Chase charge me a $5 monthly fee to have a savings account. In the fine print, they said if the balance for a savings is under $300, it would be a $5 fee. So I said, to hell with it, let's get a little farther with paying down some stuff with at least Afterpay.

So I do have a little fun money to do some fun things this week. On Wednesday, I am going to a Rob Zombie concert. He is performing with Marilyn Manson, The Hu and Orgy. I am not so interested in Marilyn Manson or Orgy, I will tolerate them. But after Rob Zombie, I want to see The Hu. Who would have thought that heavy metal would work so beautifully with Mongolian throat singing. But since we are coming up on Labor Day, that means my county fair will be going on. So my parents and I are going to pick a day and go to it. I just have to pick a day to go and figure out my budget. I have never been someone who bought whatever craft things that tons of people are selling, I am making a food budget. I am thinking that $25-$30 should be more than enough for way

I did find something that I am going to binge watch though. You know how Granchester ended this year? I am going to work on binge watching that. I couldn't quite get into Granchester until season 5 or 6, so I am going to watch from the very beginning. 

But before I really do anything, I have to get that pesky doctor's appointment and dentist appointment out of the way, along with a Costco run. I am thinking of adding in some video gaming in as well and wearing perfumes that I don't get to do all that often.

Pre-orders, Samples and Traveling

I did mention a while ago about the new Halo being released this summer. I kept my eyes and ears peeled for some released pictures and what day it would be released.

I found out some time in the past couple weeks that Halo Campaign Evolved was coming out July 27th or the 28th. I am not looking it up for the exact day but was looking at some of the screenshots. When I found out the release date, I had pre-ordered the game. For new video game releases, $50 is not a bad price since most game releases are around $70. I don't often order video games and when I do, they are usually not the latest release. So this was on the more unusual side for me. I know that my dad and I will be playing this quite a bit.

So I have done more perfume shopping in the passed couple weeks. I have given up on finding my travel spray of Hedonist and said screw it and ordered one from the Victoria Minya website. The travel spray arrived yesterday and I was a little less than enthused. I expected it to be shipped in a box and not an envelope. The travel spray was in a silky bag. I just expected a little more protection but the good thing was that my travel spray was undamaged and I love the aesthetic of the Victoria Minya bottles and travel sprays.

What is worrying my is in about two and a half weeks, I will be traveling to California to see my sister. I have the clothes I want to take picked out, my toiletries are already taken care of and I have my medication. The only things I have to do is pack, and pick out which perfume(s) I want to take. I will be flying out early Monday morning and coming home on Saturday. I let my sister know that I have $1,000 in my bank account and a $300 limit credit card, so I can't go hog wild. Even though she said that it was plenty, I am still worried about the financial part of it. I know things are not going to be cheap and if the subject of Disney comes up, I will probably have to give Disney a pass. I am not and never was one of those adult Disney fans.

This is the first time that I have traveled and didn't have a fist full of credit cards and working 40 plus hours a week. Even though I have 2 low credit limit credit cards, 1 of those will be left at home. Having a fist full of credit cards has led me to a whole lot of financial help that I have been trying to dig myself out of.

The perfume choices that I have made thus far for my trip to California is my almost finished bottle of vintage-ish Chanel no 19 edp and a travel spray of BDK Gris Charnel. The no 19 is the only definite one since the bottle is almost empty and I have figured that I might as well do is finish it. But the Gris Charnel could change though and I do want to stick to a travel spray. Since it will be horribly hot in California, I don't want to take the heavy hitters with me.

 

My Final Vacation of 2025

So I am on my final vacation of 2025. The only major thing I have to do is the build up for my crown but I have no real plans. Yeah, I have a Wal-Mart return that I have to do and I am hoping to get that done today so I don't have to think about it.

Thanksgiving was ok. Since we didn't have to go anywhere or have anyone coming over, it was a quiet day at home. I made a roast chicken with stuffing and have some candied yams to go with it. Instead of having pumpkin pie, we had lemon pie. It was probably not the most traditional Thanksgiving meal but I am not a fan of turkey and the hams that were on sale were much too large for three people.

I didn't to a whole lot in terms of shopping for Black Friday and I don't intend to do a whole lot of shopping today since it is Cyber Monday. There isn't a whole lot that interests me and what I want to get my dad for Christmas isn't part of the sale. The sale I am waiting for is Candle Day. In terms of Candle Day, I am interested in the price and that is the biggest thing that is truly going to dictate how many candles that I am going to get. As it stands right now, I am only planning on getting two. Probably Frozen Lake and Winter.

But since I am on vacation, I can wear what I want in terms of perfume. Like yesterday's choice was the original Coco and still in it this morning. My game plan is to wear Lyric today after my shower. I don't have every day mapped out in terms of perfume but I have a few ideas on what I want to wear for the week.

 

This Vacation Sucks

I don't exactly know what happened to this vacation but it sucks.It's been a combination of things that has made it suck.

Didn't do a whole lot Sunday or Monday. That dresser should have been moved into my room by now but it's been a little too hot to really be moving furniture. Tuesday was the day that I went to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. I haven't been there since I was a sophomore in high school and that was over 20 years ago. Truth be told, I remember that the Rock Hall seemed to have more stuff and more interesting stuff when I went over 20 years ago. I personally think that when they made the gift shop a little bigger and added a little food court, they made the thing much smaller. I know that they are in the process of making it bigger but it is such a tiny museum that costs big bucks for admission. So it's going to be quite a while before I visit again.

But yesterday was a freaking adventure though. My eldest Lab (pictured), Sydney, spent most of the night not feeling good and spitting up. So that meant that my dad and I spent a good chunk of Wednesday afternoon at the vet. With a partially wooded lot, she could have eaten anything in the yard. We have bird feeders, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels and whatever else lives in the back yard. The vet was asking a lot of questions to see what could be ruled out. Diabetes and some kind of obstruction was ruled out. After x-rays and blood work, it turns out Sydney has only 1 kidney and it's a kidney infection. The vet is just waiting for some cultures to see what other antibiotics need to be added but she has been started on one to start to get it under control or just to not make it worse. Sometime Monday we will take her to the vet and I hope that she will be a bit better. I don't want her to be alone in case something happens. We are trying to have her drink as many fluids as we can and have her on a bland diet. With tons of fluid intake means she has to go out ever hour or two so someone has to stay with her to make sure she is drinking and going to the bathroom.

Since it has been so hot and with the house being closed up, I haven't been able to burn any candles so far. With some thunderstorms coming this way, it looks like I will probably be starting a candle and this is the candle I picked out on either last Friday or Saturday. With thunderstorms, who knows if I am going to lose electricity.
 

Gearing Up For Vacation

When I leave work at 8pm on Saturday, I will be on vacation. I spent some time today creating a grocery shopping list, making sure that my medication refills are called in and a couple other annoying things that needed to be handled. I am picking up the medications and groceries tomorrow and when it hits 8pm on Saturday, I can just go home and enjoy my vacation.

I started some preparations last week but some of that stuff fell apart and had to correct that stuff yesterday. I am not a coffee drinker but a tea drinker. My preferred drink is the Tazo chai concentrate. Pour in some milk, some tea and you can drink it hot or cold. I am too lazy to spend an extra two minutes heating it up so I just drink it cold. When Walmart started to offer delivery from store, I was mainly getting it that way instead of getting the 4 packs shipped to me two or three days after I ordered. But when I made a couple orders, I wasn't able to click the link on my phone to not have the substitutions. The Yogi chai tea is horrible, it tastes like sugar water with a little bit of honey mixed in. So yesterday's project was to return all of those things and make a Target order. With the rate that Walmart seems to be goofing up by not saying that they have something out of stock, Target seems to be a lot more consistent with this stuff.

What is getting me excited right now is that some furniture Jenga happened in my room and now I have a spot where I can actually burn some candles. So that is something that is going to happen sometime next week. I would like to get through at least one candle and start on another candle. This can't happen at a better time. Bath and Body Works is rolling out their fall candles. Thus far, Sweet Whiskey and Frozen Lake have been released and I am waiting on Honeycrisp Apple to make a comeback. If Apple Weather comes out, that will be a bonus. I am down to three Honeycrisp Apple candles and this is the candle that I stock up on every year outside of the Winter candle. Honeycrisp Apple is straight up apple with no pumpkin spice or anything pumpkin mixed in.

I do hope that I will be able to try something new in terms of perfume. I do have a couple things laid out and I am hoping that I do wear them and actually review. Once you get out of the habit of reviewing stuff, it's really hard to get back into the habit of doing reviews. While I am at it, why not see if I can start reading some of those books that I have stored on my Kindle. I seriously need to get back into the habit of reading as well.
 

Moving More Things Around and Chergui

Today is the first day of my first vacation of the year. It just so happens that it is Mothers Day in the US. As the years have gone on, my mother hasn't wanted to make a big deal out of Mothers Day. Probably because her birthday is always a week or a week and a half away, depending on when Mothers Day is. It might have served a purpose when my sister and I were younger. But since my sister and I are adults and my sister is in California with her 4 kids, getting together takes a whole lot of work.

So today was spent moving even more bedroom furniture. It was mainly to get that tall dresser into my bedroom since my bedroom was freshly painted a few days ago. Just have to get that other dresser into my bedroom so I can really put my back together. This would mean that I could have things better organized. What I really want is to have more options of perfume because I don't have enough space. What is currently on the tall dresser is a TV, so there is no real space there to put anything else. I probably could but it would probably get lost. I would like to get some candles moved back into my room because I had a designated spot for a lit candle. My new nightstand has been designated to a lamp and the few bottles of perfume I managed to get to.

While I was replacing the old nightstand with the old one, I found my bottle of Chergui. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out where it went to. Chergui was one of my first Serge Lutens offerings that I did buy. The bottle I have, doesn't have the new label design. I had initially planned on Ubar today but since I have found Chergui, I am wearing that today. Chergui is probably one of the easiest Serge Lutens offerings to understand or like outside Un Bois Vanille. Un Bois Vanille is still on my to buy list but I cannot go out to buy any full bottles. I would be pretty happy if Ulta started selling some of the Serge Lutens line. The reason I wish that would happen is that I have $130 in Ulta rewards points and it would make a Serge Lutens purchase viable. I wouldn't be asking for the bell jars, that wouldn't be quite Ulta's vibe. The bell jars would be more of Sephora's vibe because Sephora is pretty expensive in general.

I am hoping that since the zoo is free on Monday (tomorrow) that we actually get a chance to go. Maybe the art museum would be a good pick for this week. I am hoping that we can do something besides sit around or home improvement projects.
 

The Final Vacation

I am on my fourth and final vacation of 2023. I don't have any big plans for it. I might go to the art museum on Tuesday or maybe the zoo tomorrow. I haven't really decided yet. I just have some limited means until payday. Which is fine by me. This time of year, there really isn't a whole lot going on. The important thing is that I did get my vacation.

Every year, my place of employment has me pick out which weeks I would like to take for my vacations. That means that I am competing with many others for the same weeks. The official story for my last week is somehow, my last week wasn't entered into the scheduling system. I am not sure on how it got missed or what the real deal was but I am happy that I caught it before there was a big problem.

All I really did today was vacuum the house, laundry and put the house in order. When you have animals, the vacuuming never seems to end. There is always some kind of dust bunny that keeps showing up. I don't have any home projects that need to be done. I don't have any plans to go Christmas shopping any time this week. I would rather not fight the crowds and end up spending more cash than I need to. I just have to get two more gifts and then I am done.

What is getting me excited is getting to wear what perfumes I want to wear. I might even get moving on trying something new. What I really want to do is to really start using my candle collection. I am currently finishing of that Bath and Body Works Luminous candle and will be finishing it tonight. I don't find the scent to be luminous, more of a generic fruity like scent. I am thinking of either Winter or Tree Farm for my next candle. I don't really have a goal for how many candles to use this week. My goal for the rest of the year is make a concerted effort to not add more candles, especially since I just purchased candles during Candle Day.
 

Vacation and Gris Charnel Extrait Review

Today is my 1st official day of vacation. I do have a couple things planned but one of them has to wait later in the week. I tried really hard to have some kind of funds to do more but with the last of the large Afterpay payments, I was left with precious little until payday. I am just happy that I am almost there with having Afterpay just about paid off.

I am hoping that I am going to have used at least 4 or more candles used up. The weather will be warm and I can have the windows open and that means that I can have more than one candle going. I have 2 candles going at the moment and I am hoping that by Tuesday, they will be finished. At this point, I think that one of them will be finished off by tomorrow.

Back when I had a perfume spree, I did receive a dabber sample of the Gris Charnel extrait. Naturally, I had to try it but in some ways, I didn't. I have the original Gris Charnel on my to buy list and my rational was that if I love the original so much, what will the extrait going to do to me? With dabbers, you don't always get the best reading of a perfume. I would have rather had a spray vial but Luckyscent isn't one to give out spray vials very often. But I am not exactly one that orders from Luckyscent too often.

I was at a wedding yesterday and had to give this a go. I didn't want to go with anything too loud and the dabber of Gris Charnel extrait fit the bill. When I am going to be in tight quarters or a subdued affair, a dabber vial can be a great thing. You know when you spray or dab that kind of perfume that really works on you? I got that with the extrait version of Gris Charnel. The clouds parted and the angels started to sing. I find the extrait to be deeper and richer than the original EDP version. Since this was from a dabber, I can't discern lasting power or how big of a fragrance cloud it creates but I loved it for the whole 5 hours that it lasted on my skin.

As much and I love the extrait in all of it's fig glory, I am having a little trouble stomaching the whole $280 price tag. I think that I will have to content myself with the Gris Charnel EDP travel spray right now.
 

Boy Smells Hinoki Fantome Review

My final vacation of 2022 is over and now it's back to reality. I only managed to use 2 candles that week and only review one perfume. The only good thing that came out of that week was the fact that I managed to finish my Christmas shopping but now I'm waiting for the last few things to arrive. I'm hoping that I won't have one of those people that I either forgot about or popped up.

With what the weather people are talking about, I am expecting some wonky weather in the next week or two. So yes, I am happy that I've stocked up on candles. I have 2 more candles from Candle Day on the way. I was a little bummed when one of my candles came with the glass cracked. Since Bath and Body Works didn't have that particular candle in stock in their warehouse, I was issued a refund. I was kind of hoping that I would have the option of either a refund or if there was another candle that I would like. I don't have too many opportunities to go to an actual Bath and Body Works store and making a trip that I didn't need to make wasn't really an option. 

I actually managed to test something new last night and that something new was Boy Smells Hinoki Fantome. It was cheap enough when I nabbed a travel spray from Sephora's fall sale. The notes looked like something that would be a CdG Kyoto dupe. All I got was a poor imitation of Chanel's Sycomore or a half assed  CdG Kyoto. Let's just say that I was not amused. It was like Hinoki Fantome was either trying to be a dupe of both or just a dupe of one. Hinoki Fantome just seems like something that has been badly made. I will admit that you don't smell a perfume that is heavy on vetiver or woody notes. You don't smell too many incense dominant perfumes and this is no reason to just screw around and hope people like this one. This is a nope for me.

Candle Day 2022 and Vacation

I did make it through the Bath and Body Works 2022 Candle Day sale. I think that this candle sale was probably set up much better. The price of the candles ($9.95) was awesome, I didn't have to wait in the online queue for too long and I managed to get most of what I wanted. Even though I had some Lavender and Linen in my shopping bag, they were sold out before I could get my hands on some. I was bummed about that but I am going to try some Leather and Brandy instead. I didn't load up on too many Winter candles because I have enough of those and I do need some lighter smelling candles that are geared for the winter weather. Now I am hoping that I will be able to snag some Lavender and Linen in the semi annual sale. Now I just have to wait until that pesky package ships.

For quite a while, I was worried about what price the candles were going to be for Candle Day. Last year, they were around $11 per candle and maybe a little less the year before that. Price always dictates how much of anything that I am going to buy. But for $9.95 per candle, I was able to get 12 candles. Could I have gone for the full 18? Yep, but I couldn't justify ordering that in a single sitting. I probably shouldn't have gotten 12 but after yesterday's 14 hour power outage, I think it was probably a good idea.

Today is the first day of my final vacation for the year of 2022. I have no plans for the week even though I have a little bit of cash until payday but I might see what kind of museums are around or any kind of low cost events that are going on. I am happy just to have a week that I don't have to be anywhere or events that I have to go to. I can just go at my own pace this week. Let's hope that I can motivate myself to do some actual perfume reviewing.
 

Queen Elizabeth II and Vacation

Thursday morning was the beginning of a post about a cosmetics cull and lipstick but as the day wore on, it wasn't going to happen. With Queen Elizabeth II passing away on Thursday, that post seemed to be a little too frivolous.

But couldn't help but think about all of the people on Twitter who decided to be idiots and be political about the queen dying. Folks, Queen Elizabeth was a figurehead, not a politician. The woman had no political power and no bearing on what laws were passed, if you are going to criticize the things that happened during her reign, look at the various governments she had. If you otherwise don't do that, you are just a fucking asshole. I shouldn't really be surprised at how many assholes there are in the world.

Right now, I am on my 3rd week of vacation this year. I have some rough plans but nothing set in stone. I don't have tons of cash but I do want to do some things. One of them is the art museum and the other is the Mansfield Reformatory but other than that, it's up in the air. I am happy to have the ability to wear any perfume that I want to wear without any kind of restrictions. On days that I have to work, I do have to be mindful about what I pick out in terms of perfume. I don't want something too heavy because I work in a bakery and it gets pretty hot there. Nor do I want to wear my favorites in case I have a hard day at work and why ruin that favorite with a bad association.

 Currently, I have 3 candles going right now and I am hoping that those will be finished by Tuesday. The other 3 that I have picked out, I hope to have finished by Saturday. If I finish more, that would be awesome. I am trying to scrap together some money to set aside for the Bath and Body Works Candle Day sale. Whatever I can save up is going to be great and whatever candles that I can use up before than would be awesome. It's funny that I am trying to finish up some candles only to get more. But with winter being on it's way and all, I still want to make sure that I do have a decent amount of candles. The Honeycrisp Apple and Apple Weather ones that I do have, my mother doesn't like and she says that they stink, so I must be a little more careful with those. I might have a decent supply of the Winter candles but I want to get more of those and maybe add some Evergreen candles.We shall see how that goes before Candle Day. And no, I don't plan on setting foot in a Bath and Body Works store on that day.

Vacation Time

It's vacation time for me right now. It's a week of pretty much lounging around and not doing a ton of stuff this week. Mostly playing Xbox, maybe going to see the new Downton Abbey movie and might go to the old Mansfield Reformatory.

For a while I had this seasonal allergy that turned into a cold and now turned into post nasal drip. With that going on, I hadn't wanted to really wear perfume. Well, I really couldn't with my asthma kicking my ass. The only perfume that I could really tolerate was no 5 edt and at points, that was a bit of struggle. If I tried to wear perfume, any perfume, there was a very real chance of an asthma attack.

I haven't been been burning my candles and I was hoping for a while that I could start up again. There is someone in my household that started to develop hives and candle burning pretty much went out the window. Said person is still getting hives and I am thinking that my candles are not the problem. The reason why I really wanted to burn some candles is just to create more space in my room at this point.

There isn't a whole lot going on in the perfume front for me. There isn't a whole lot of room in the budget for perfume at this point and I've kind of went nuts in terms of perfume this quarter. The only thing perfume wise that I've gotten was decants of Epic 56 and Honour 43. I might regret that purchase in a way. My love for Epic Woman is well known and I do have a liking for Honour Woman. But we will see how that goes.  In ways, I kind of hope that I don't fall in love with either of them due to the cost of a full bottle isn't what I want to spend and no decant places really carry decants. I was lucky enough to nab decants of them at TPC but I haven't seen any decants in other places. Spending $500 on a bottle of perfume is a little rich for my blood. I mainly stick to the discounters for Amouge perfumes. If Amouage had Lyric as an exceptional extrait, I probably would be really screwed since I adore Lyric.

End of Vacation and Bombay Bling

It's the end of my 3rd vacation and I go back to work tomorrow. I always hate the 1st day back at work after vacation. The getting back to the daily grind is what always trips me up. I really didn't do too much really. What I did manage is to use up 3 candles and I am happy with that. And before I know it, I will probably be stocking up on the Winter candles from Bath and Body Works but before that happens, I seriously need to get going on using up some of the candles that I already have. I do have a game plan set out and another vacation coming up to really use up more.

I kept meaning to review Neela Vermeire's Bombay Bling for a couple weeks now but now is the time to do it. Fruity perfumes were never quite my thing with the exception of very few (Courtesan and Theorema). I was hoping for something along the lines of Courtesan but Bombay Bling wasn't even close to Courtesan. When I wore Bombay Bling for the first time, it smelled familiar to something that I have already tried before and it took all of the 1st wearing and part of the 2nd to figure out which perfume that it reminded me of. It was Frapin's 1697 but it was probably no accident that both of them smelled so similar. Bertrand Duchafour created both. Bombay Bling is a little more stripped down version. The fruity aspect isn't a cooked smell or a fully ripened type of thing. The fruit is almost ripe but not quite there. Bombay Bling isn't booze soaked like 1697 but in so many ways Bombay Bling is like 1697. Bombay Bling sits closer to skin, closer than I am used to but that's not such a bad thing though. I found that Bombay Bling didn't exactly last too long on my skin. The longest that it seemed to last on my skin was about 5 hours.

Luckyscent has full bottles and a travel spray available and I think that I would probably go for the travel spray. Yes, I would like to add this to my stable but I seriously am done with perfume buying at the moment. My bank account can't sustain anymore perfume purchases right now and I really need to start finishing off some bottles.
 

Vacation is starting to come to an end

My vacation is starting to come to an end with going back to work on Monday. I have only managed to use up 2 candles and started another 2 today. With my candle collection the way it is, I am burning the single wick candles 2 at a time now. It's been forever and a day since I have used one of my 3 wick candles, I don't think it would be the wisest idea to burn 2 at a time. I want my candle collection to be more manageable.

Since fall is fast approaching, Bath and Body Works is starting to drop their fall stuff. The only straight up apple that they have going is the Honeycrisp Apple wallflower plug ins. I don't have a need for the wallflower refills and don't need anymore apple ones at this point. I'm not a pumpkin fan in any way, shape or form and I have a difficult time with anything spice, especially cinnamon.

I did a few fun things during the week but mainly just hung around. I've never been one of those people who needed to be constantly on the go when I am on vacation. In regards to new perfume, I decided against a massive bottle of Coco Mademoiselle. Couldn't justify that one but went with the travel spray of no 5 Eau Premiere. Travel sprays are more of my thing at the moment. A little easier on the wallet and they seem to take up less space. I will admit that Chanel does shipping right, the packages arrive on time and undamaged. Well, Chanel does pack their orders incredibly well so there won't be a huge chance that what what you ordered arrives broken. Now if Walmart could do the same in regards to packaging but Walmart doesn't package anything well and needless to say, I would be lucky to get anything undamaged let alone, on time. Thanks to Portia on the Perfume Posse, I did get that Neela Vermeire discovery set. I kept meaning to test out the line but found that decants were pretty pricey but the discovery set fit the bill better. I mostly want to try Bombay Bling. I am hoping that it smells similar to Worth Courtesan. I'm not sure if Perfume-click.com is a reputable seller in terms of perfume or not but that seems to be the only place that has it and has it for something reasonable in terms of price.

Even though I am saddened that my vacation is ending, the countdown will begin until my next vacation in September. Am I making plans for this vacation? Not at the moment but saving up some pennies for my next vacation and maybe I can do something more. Probably not a whole lot more but would like to think of one more thing to do.

Vacation Recap

 

My vacation is coming to a close and it is back to work tomorrow. Now I just have to wait until my next vacation but that is in August.

The weather was too cold and wet to really do anything. It was so much of a pain in the butt trying to find something to do that was indoors and I didn't need to make advanced reservations for. So I organized some things and cleaned up some things. 

I was hoping to get caught up on some stuff, like the books I had downloaded. I only got through two of them. I did manage to review a couple things and use up at least two candles and I was hoping to finish off at least 3 of them, if not more. Currently, I have a Rose Water and Ivy candle from Bath and Body Works going. My primary focus is really going to be on the single wick candles and not the three wick candles. I think that is where I kind of goofed up. Vanilla Bean Noel is nice but it wasn't my jam and I have two more of them to use. I am not so certain that I will enjoy the two White Gardenia ones that I have. The wallflower refill that's currently going is the rain forest gardenia. It smells like an aquatic tuberose and I have never been much of a fan of tuberose. My next candle is probably going to be a lavender cedar wood candle and after two heavy hitters, I need something less bombastic. Especially if I can't open my windows and keep them open at the moment.

Body Products and Vacation

 I have 3 full days of vacation left or 3 and a half, if I want to nit pick. Haven't really done a whole hell of a lot except hang around and do some minor cleaning and organizing. Slowly but surely, I am finishing off that Vanilla Bean Noel candle and hope that it will be finished off by tomorrow. The only sunny and warm day was Sunday and it's been cold, wet and full of rain, so there isn't much of a point of going out and doing a damned thing.

Last night, I had put on some of the Clinique Wrappings body lotion to see if I could warm up to Wrappings a little more. Turned out to be a "meh" type of thing. Sometimes, the body products can be completely different than the perfume or exactly the same. The lotion was more of a milder version of Wrappings. My skin was decently moisturized but my hands, especially my nails, didn't feel all that moisturized. So Wrappings is still a no go for me.

I finally busted out the Chanel Coco Mademoiselle body products today and enjoyed every damn minute of my shower. The lotion is what I expected since I have tried the no 5 body lotion. What I did really enjoy is the body wash and how it lathered up and didn't dry out my skin too much. I do think that the shower gel or body wash is far superior to the bar soap in terms of lather and just getting clean. I do think that the Mademoiselle bath and body products are better than the no 5 bath and body products by the simple fact that there are too many iterations of no 5 to really make the no 5 bath and body products great.

With Mother's Day coming up, my email has been really bombarded with all kinds of emails reminding my of Mother's Day. I have both a Mother's Day gift taken care of and a birthday gift just about taken care of. But Ulta in all of it's infinite wisdom, decided to let me know that they had Estee Lauder Pleasures on sale in all sizes. I was eventually going to get the family sized bottle but the eventually seemed to be today. Since perfume budget for the year has really been blown, I am okay with not getting anything for the rest of the year  in terms of perfume.

Getting Closer

 Two more days and I will be officially on vacation for the next 8 days. I have no real plans except reading about 4 books, burning 4 or 5 candles and having the ability to wear whatever perfume that I want. I do want to do one small fun thing that doesn't break the bank during that week.

I am enjoying the fact that I currently have any perfume obsessions right now. For far too long I had wanted a full bottle of Coromandel and now have a bottle. Rose Flash and Lyric were a little overboard but since when do I really get to spend any kind of cash on full bottles. Shit, I haven't even been buying decants of anything and haven't done it since, what, maybe Boxing Day last year or Black Friday. STC hasn't really sent out any kind of promos and TPC haven't sent a whole lot of them either. The only bottle that I would like now is Hedonist Cassis but that isn't really that high on the priority list at this point. But whatever is on my buy list is more of a slow burn. With trying to take care of some serious financial stuff, perfume buying is still not going to be all that high on the priority list. Ulta points are being saved up for a new bottle of perfume but that is going to have to wait for quite a while. I'm just hoping that I can actually force myself to actually review a perfume during my vacation. Or maybe review more than one. But I am going to focus on just getting through my next 2 shifts at work before I go doing things.

Time to Get Serious

 

This is the year where I have started to get serious about things and the past month, very serious about some things. A few years ago, I got stupid with some credit cards and just got stupid with money in general. Everything financially got out of control and I never really got back in control.

My resolution this year is to really get back in control in the financial area of my life and now, it's really starting to take shape. I have made progress and things have gotten a fair bit more manageable but I am still working on some kinks but I am getting through. It's a little hard to be taken seriously when on buys three perfumes this month and have bought tons of candles since January. Since there is nothing I really want right now, I think that since I have one thing payed off and two others just about payed off, I can get moving on on getting more ducks in a row.

I have a vacation coming up the first full week of May and I am making some plans for it. They might be small things but I want to get them accomplished. I seriously want to wear and review a couple perfumes and really get going on finishing a couple bottles of perfume. Two bottles might be a month long project and not a week long project. I also want to use up 5 or 6 candles between now and May 9th and it's doable. I have noticed that the single wick candles from Bath and Body Works don't last as long as their three wick candles. I can get 7 days out of the 3 wick but only 3 or 4 out of the single wicks. If I can use up more candles, then it will be a lot much better because then I will have some space.

Here's to some new beginnings!

My Last Vacation of the Year

 

I am incredibly irritated with the news. It was a long week with me being on vacation but it was nothing but the election on the news. For too many days, there was no clear cut winner with the election. But I don't know if this shit is just ramping up or is this shit going away. I am just too damn tired of it right now. Tired of how people are carrying on about the results. My mother has the news on 24/7 pertaining to the election.

Nothing much really happened on my vacation. Didn't go anywhere or do anything. I only managed to finish one book out of the 8 books loaded on my Kindle and that's pretty sad though. To have the time but no motivation to actually do it. My last vacation, I managed to finish 3 candles but this vacation; I only got through one and a half. A few days ago, Bath and Body Works had single wick candles for about $7 and broke the whole can't get anymore candles until I use some more. Right now, Bath and Body Works is having a BOGO 3 wick candle sale and I am sitting on my hands at this point. I have pretty much figured out which candles that I will be burning before Candle Day comes in about 3 and a half weeks. I am currently burning a Fresh Balsam candle and I don't think that I will be getting anymore of that scent. I have a single wick of it as well. Burn both of them and that will be the end of it.

I'm Tired

 

Today was the day that Jake was supposed to have a large fatty tumor removed but it was a no go due to something coming up in his preoperative blood work. So the anxiety shifted because he had a more in depth blood test and the vet is waiting on the results. So at this point, everything relating to Jake and his fatty tumor has to wait and I hate waiting for results.

I have a shade more than 3 days before my last vacation of the year starts and I can't wait. I have four books that I want to get through and hopefully burn 2 more candles while on vacation. It will be great to wear whatever I want perfume wise without listening to people complain and just do things more of on my own time table. I will still be broke on this vacation but I have a small windfall coming soon.

At this point, a friend and I are making plans for Candle Day and are going to go pretty early so we can get it out of the way and hopefully avoid most of the craziness. He wants to get a certain candle for his mother and I want to stock up as much as I can on 3 scents but I have about 6 weeks to scrape up more cash.

With all that is going on with Jake and all the crap going on in the world, I'm plain worn out. It will be a shit storm, no matter who wins the election and there will probably going to be a 2nd lock down. I am wondering as well how the holidays are going to work out, especially there is going to be a 2nd lock down