New Year's Resolutions

 It's New Year's Eve today and I got to thinking about some resolutions. I didn't decide to do the same old lose weight or quit smoking. I always fail at those, probably because I am not ready to do those things yet.

My first resolution is to limit myself to only buy 2 full bottles of perfume. The restriction is no back up bottles, it has to be something new. The two perfumes that I did pick out is the Gris Charnel extrait and the Viktoria Miny Eau de Hongrie bottles. The other part of that resolution is to use up what I can with full bottles and decants of what I have.

My second resolution is to seriously start using up the candles that I already have and make an effort to not buy more. Or at least buy as little as possible with the candles. I keep making that resolution and keep failing at it. I can never seem to keep that one. As soon as I start to make some serious progress, Bath and Body Works seems to either release old favorites or have a really good deal. And I can never refuse a good single wick candle sale. For right now, I am only allowing myself 2 candles every 6 months.

I guess the main part  of this whole post is just to make an effort to spend less money. I am thinking the whole idea of saving some cash is to maybe do a short trip somewhere. With one of my vacations, I would like to do a 3 day trip to Gettysburg and maybe around October, I can do a ghost hunt at the Mansfield Reformatory. I don't think that I will have to try all that hard to convince a friend of mine to go. It just comes down to if the cost would be reasonable for him. Well, tax season is right around the corner so it might be a whole lot doable then.

Does anyone else have some resolutions?

Christmas is Over

Christmas is finally over but the holiday season isn't quite New Year's. Since I work in retail, I can't exactly relax yet. I just have to make it one more week before everything calms down.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day had some drama in it. The skilled nursing place that my grandmother is at, isn't really doing what they really need to be doing. She has dementia and a busted leg that can't put any kind of weight on her leg. God above, I know it's the holidays, could someone really try to keep a better eye on her? To keep reminding her to call for help if she needs it and making sure that she isn't getting up on her own. Bringing a dish to Christmas dinner is always filled with drama. I wanted to just make the mashed potatoes with caramelized onions the night before but that led to when I make mashed potatoes, it's too lumpy. At the end of the day, Christmas was nice enough. But I am tired between work, wrapping presents, having to travel places.

I didn't get any perfume presents per se but got money towards it. Got a $15 Sephora gift card and had a $10 reward and turned that into the By Killian sample set. I have an Ulta gift card and there is a Clinique Happy sale, so I will nab that when I get a chance some time soon.This is pretty much been the closest that I have come to being gifted an actual bottle of perfume in years.

I have said that Clinique Happy doesn't have the longest shelf life when it comes to perfume. I have vintage bottles of Mitsouko that smell fabulous but for some reason Clinique Happy has a shelf life of about 5 years if you don't wear it to often. If Happy is your signature, you don't need to worry so much about shelf life.

It seems like the Bath and Body Works semi annual sale is pretty lackluster this year. I do remember last year's semi annual sale having more of a selection online. I narrowly missed out on nabbing more of the Sweet Whiskey candles but did manage to nab more Leather and Brandy single wicks. I was hoping for a little more selection for this sale. The good news is that the Pink Lavender  and Espresso candles are back in stock and what makes it really awesome is that they are in single wick form. But more candle buying has to wait until I use some more candles up and the next really good candle sale comes along.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Losing Shit and Christmas

 I knew that I shouldn't have worn that pendant to work instead of my normal one. Yesterday was my first day back at work today and some how, I lost the pendant but the chain didn't come loose or break. It was that little loop thing that the chain goes through. When I noticed that it was missing, I initially didn't panic. It wouldn't have been the first time that a pendant had fallen in my bra and this one had before. I work in a grocery store and this thing could be anywhere in the store. I couldn't exactly go back tracking looking for this thing. I hadn't worn the thing in forever and thought it would be fine. I got it at Colonial Williamsburg a few years ago. I will replace it in the spring next year. I am just kicking myself right now. I have lost earrings but never a pendant. Fun stuff is pretty much going to have to wait until after the new year, preferably after taxes are filed.

I pretty much accomplished nothing during my vacation. I finished my Christmas shopping that week and went to the art museum. The only things that I have to do is wrap my gifts and wait to see what I need to bring for Christmas dinner. I am hoping that nobody calls last minute and asks me to bring rolls. Last time that it happened, there was only one package to be found and that was a huge argument and I think that my family probably wised up to actually ordering things ahead of time or letting me know days ahead of time. With any luck, I am hoping for gift cards this Christmas season. I have some rollerballs that I have my eye on.

If Someone Handed You

All day, the fantasy of someone handing me their credit card and telling me to go on a shopping spree has been floating around my head. I have no clue on why that has been floating around but the fantasy is there.

If someone handed me their credit card for my birthday or Christmas and said to buy whatever I wanted but the catch would have to be is that I only have a half an hour to do it, Would I be able to it? I do believe that I would be able to it. Like quite a few perfume collector's, I have a list of what I would like full bottles of. The debate is the ones that I want the most. In this fantasy it's go big or go home.

I would probably kick it off with Epic 56 and the Epic woman extraits along with some Jubilation 25 and Lyric extraits. Since the Gris Charnel extrait is next year's full bottle purchase, I am leaving that one out. I would most likely get a bottle of Diaghilev and snap up one of those massive bottles of Chanel no 5 extrait bottles. Or maybe even a bottle of the Coco Mademoiselle extraits.Since I don't know anyone who would even do something like that, it's going to have to stay as it is. Nothing but a pipe dream but sometimes a pipe dream can be fun or pretty interesting.

My vacation is slowly coming to a close and outside of the art museum and celebrating my grandmother's 93rd birthday, I have pretty much done nothing. All the gifts that needed to be bought and shipped have been taken care of. I will probably be finishing up some odds and ends on Thursday or if I am off Sunday. I am hoping to finish things up fairly soon. I would just have to get something for my dogs and then call it a day.
 

Art Museum

I did actually manage to go up to the art museum today. There were a few exhibits that I actually got to see today. 

For some reason, I never could quite manage to see every exhibit. The main part of the art museum is free but if there is a special exhibit, you have to pay. I wasn't so interested in the current special exhibit, probably because I am not into the whole Impressionist art thing. I mostly wanted to see the Chinese collection and the Faberge collection. I can't believe out of all the times that I have been to the art museum, I walked past the Faberge collection. I think that it's in a little corner that's kind of out of the way. The notable Faberge egg that we have is the Imperial Red Cross egg. It might not be the most extravagant or flashy egg that was created but it's still impressive. The amount of skill that was needed to make it makes it impressive. Every time I go to the museum, the egg is never open to reveal the inside paintings. Right across the Faberge collection, was the armor. The armor always fascinated me when I was younger for some odd reason but I didn't spend so much time with the armor. U think that I was a little too hot and remembered that I had a pretty long trek to the car.

For the longest time, I had a hard time with which perfume to wear. I really wanted to wear Coromandel extrait but also wanted to wear Gris Charnel. I did have to think long and hard about that one. My mother loathes Coromandel and my dad isn't a huge fan of it. That left Gris Charnel for the art museum. Coromandel is pretty strong even in the tiniest dose. Since I am not going anywhere tomorrow and family will be at a party tomorrow, I will wear Coromandel. I will be home alone and I can enjoy every bit of it.

 

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.
 

Perfume Spillage and Shalimar

Once in a great while, I do have some very unfortunate perfume accidents. There were instances of spilling some of my perfumes. Cuir de Russie, vintage Bal a Versailles and a bottle of vintage Mitsouko fell victim to being spilled. I did manage to save most of the actual perfume but what was spilled was soaked up by my carpet. Eventually, by weekly vacuuming and the periodic steam clean, you can't smell that now. But there was an unfortunate accident of a broken decant. I was in my bathroom about to take a shower and my decant of Rose de Nuit got knocked over and shattered all over. There was no saving anything. Even with mopping the floor, my bathroom smells like a slutty rose. It was my only decant of Rose de Nuit and decants of it are a little pricey and a bell jar is out of my reach. I am hoping that a tax refund will get me a bottle. But that's a ways away and if something else doesn't grab my attention.

There seems to have been quite a few Shalimar flanker releases. It seems like it has been so rapid fire that I can't keep up with it. I try to kind of ignore the Shalimar flankers for a reason. When I first discovered Shalimar, the Ode a la Vanille flankers were limited editions and production on those had stopped. I spent way too much time trying to procure a bottle or two. The only Ode a la Vanille that I could find were the Mexique ones and if I did find the Madagascar, it was way out of my price range. I will be honest, I think that the Madagascar was the better of the two. The Madagascar seemed to be in more of the spirit of Shalimar.

I do have a decent amount of Shalimar. The edp version, vintage edt, vintage parfum and the Odes. With a bottle of my dresser, I have no idea on why I don't reach for Shalimar that often. It's gentle, plush but not too plush leather, the civet of ambergris lends a sensual element. But let's not forget the vanilla. It's not an edible smelling vanilla, nor does it smell like something a tween/teen or early twenty something would wear. I think that I am going to have to make a habit of wearing Shalimar more often, even though my mother says that Shalimar is dated. And this is a woman who's go to perfume is Light Blue or anything Dolche Gabbanna. So I will keep wearing Shalimar anyway.
 

Candle Day 2023 Recap

You know how in my last post that I would only get 4 candles at most? That didn't happen, I bought 6. I didn't stick with my tried and true candle scents. Well, the only one I stuck with was Vanilla Bean Noel. The rest was Paris Cafe, Pure Wonder, Champagne Toast and Sweet Whiskey. If I don't like any of the new candles, then it is no huge loss.

I didn't go to the brick and mortar Bath and Body Works. I wasn't willing to deal with other people at 6 in the morning on Friday or even today. I kept to the commitment of doing my candle shopping online. 

When I woke up at about 7 on Friday morning, I hopped online to order my candles. I knew that I was probably going to have to wait in a virtual line. The question with that how long was I going to have to wait. I only had to wait about 5 minutes. I was fully expecting to wait at least a half an hour to an hour. I was tempted to get more after I bought those 6. I really had to stop myself by the fact that I still have Christmas gifts that I still have to get and I still have a ton of candles already.

I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that the limit that anyone could get in a single transaction. The limit this year was 24. I remember the 2020 candle sale and what a fiasco that was. Where everything was sold out online and when I went to a brick and mortar store, all the holiday candles were gone. So many people, myself included, were livid. I don't know what it was with all the scalpers that year. The scalpers seemed to buy up most of the supply and then turn around and sell them for 3 times the original price. I know that 2020 made people a little crazy but that was just a crappy thing to do. It was the same thing with the Xbox x/s console. And the scalpers wonder why they get the hate they get. But the 2020 Candle Day was badly planned and executed. I think 2021 to this year, Bath and Body Works did plan and execute Candle Day in a better fashion.