Etsy!

Click HERE to visit my shop, or the thumbnails below for each item.

Sundrop Lava Lite Trios: (foof series)

Electric Watermelon Glimmer Strips:

Dark Arts: (foof series)

True Turquoise Mirror Dot Mod Pods:

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It might be prudent to let you know: there won’t be any Etsy listings for a while because I’ll be working on a Superstars sale! Hooray! I’ve given Etsy enough of my money this month. Superstars are scheduled to land some time in February. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, if you have a hankering, my Made To Order schedule is wiiide open. I swear I’ll get that 2014 gallery finished very soon and until that happens, you can request things from my sold listings on Etsy. I’ve been putting this off because something about Photoshop has been giving me vertigo lately. I think they changed the speed and dash size of the rectangular marquee and now it is causing major eye strain. This doesn’t happen when I’m doing other things on the computer, so I’m sure it’s Photoshop. I’d tell them, but I don’t think they’d give a rodent’s hiney. Or an Owl Orphanage, for that matter.

Thanks for looking! I’ve already eaten, and the kitchen floor needs mopping. Like, really really. And maybe after that, I’ll pack up some beads, wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

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New this week

Mr. Sarah and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary last weekend. What did we do? We ate italian food and went to the outlet mall and an army surplus store. Woop-te-doo! It was fun though. He has grown quite interested in perfume…  his level of interest doesn’t match mine, but for a man who has never really shown much interest in that sort of thing before, he has a surprisingly good nose for it. He found a 3-part BBC documentary about perfume and excitedly watched it with me. They covered the development of Tommy Hilfiger’s “LOUD” in part 1, and he has been determined to find some to test ever since. He has even sprayed some of the girly stuff onto himself to see the difference between how it smells on him and how it smells on me. You couldn’t even pay some guys to do that. I repeatedly wave my arm under his nose and ask him what he thinks, and he doesn’t get annoyed. Luckily, we have very similar tastes in perfume and cologne – like me, he enjoys the avant-garde, dark, spicy, patchoulied scents. One evening, before I could stop him, he sprayed something called Crown Stephanotis onto himself and we both regretted it. Particularly because he did that AFTER a shower and right before he went to sleep. The name alone should have been a huge deterrent, but no. Silly man.

Anyway, I must not have been exactly clear about why I wanted to go to the outlet mall after our anniversary dinner – I only wanted to visit the two perfume shops there, Spritz and Perfumania, and be done. He didn’t seem terribly excited about going to the outlet mall (can’t blame him) and when we got there, I was trying to make sense of the complicated directory. I said “can you figure out where they are?” He said “what are you looking for?” I said “the perfume shops, duh?”  His entire demeanor changed right then, and he was visibly relieved. “In THAT case…” he said. I guess he thought I was going to drag him into every shop in there. I never do that, why would I start now? I was sure I had mentioned that the entire purpose of this trip was to see what they had at the perfume shops… but I guess if you’ve been married for 15 years you’re surely quite adept at mind reading. And also at hanging on to and remembering every word the other utters.

old addict – mmm, look at that dark juice! and the glass of the bottle is a dead ringer for the highly coveted CIM Mediterranean!

The main thing I was on the hunt for was an old/original bottle of Dior Addict. Unfortunately, Addict was nowhere to be found at the outlet mall. One sales person even said that Addict has been discontinued, that Dior has ceased production of it –  which I’m 99% sure is a bag of horsefeathers because Dior just released ANOTHER reformulation/packaging change in 2014. (The previous major change happened in 2012.) Maybe she meant that the original Addict was gone, and that certainly is true. My theory is that the 2012 version isn’t quite old enough to have made it to the outlet shops and that eventually they’ll restock with that newer version of Addict.

It was not all for naught – we did find some other interesting things at both Perfumania and Spritz. The most noteworthy men’s cologne during our visit was Aramis. My dad wore Aramis and I didn’t remember what it smelled like until we sprayed it – wow! Mom wears Cabochard and totally rocks it (on me it smells like burned onions that nobody bothered to add butter to) and I’d say Aramis is like Cabochard for men. Extremely smoky, oakmossy patchouli, no sweetness at all… combine this with cigarette smoke and expensive wood, and you have my dad in a bottle. Love it.

So, later on that evening, I went to the mall to see if they had the newest incarnation of Dior Addict. Much to my delight, Dillards had a tester of the OLD Addict, along with the 2012 version. I was hoping to test the 2014 version, but it still wasn’t out for testing. (I found out later that the 2014 version is what they are selling, though.) I sprayed both original and 2012 onto different cards. The old Addict imparted a light orange stain onto the paper – the natural vanilla darkens to this color over time – and the new Addict left no color. This was when I figured out that the sample I got from Sephora last year was for sure the old Addict. I sprayed both onto my skin – the old Addict smelled much more natural, like vanilla pudding and freshly cut grass and flowers. The new Addict was somewhat less of a strong vanilla, perhaps less foody, a bit less flowery and rather flat. At first, I liked this about new Addict. But I only wear Addict with Madini’s Agarwood, so when I got home I applied the agarwood oil to the new Addict. Blech. That did NOT work like it does with the old Addict. So, as I usually do, I turned to ebay to hunt down a small “vintage” bottle of original Addict. By some magic, a small bottle of original Addict was listed for sale later that night and I got it for less than $40… I do live a charmed life.

Meanwhile, I’m tempted to scramble my ebay password so I can’t get in there and buy more perfume. I just might do that… after this weekend’s perfume auctions are over. Ha.

Enough blah-blah about Addict. I guess I’m in a Dior kinda mood… this week, I’m featuring Dior’s Dune and Midnight Poison in the Foof series. Here is a peek at what’s up for grabs on Etsy later this evening:

week of january 26th

I’d better get on with taking photos… keep an eye out later this evening for the new goods!

 

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Etsy!

It’s Friday night in the big city… and I’m at home with my Etsy listings. The only consolation is that you might be home too, and in the mood to look at some beads!

Click HERE to visit my Etsy shop, or the thumbnails below for each new item.

!RED! Super Stripey Triple Toggles:

Olive Rain Glimmer Strips:

Tea Stained Sea Glass:

Autumn Glow Ball Buttons:

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That’s that, kids. I hope you enjoy the beads… meanwhile, I’m gonna go eat something and soak in the tub a while and think about beads some more. Big ol’ Friday night woo-hoo!
Thanks for reading!

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CHICKEN!!! And…..

Fred

Mr. Sarah got a whole chicken at the grocery store. He brought it home and let it sit in the fridge for a few days. The cats must have been smelling that thing in there that whole time because they got a little antsy. Then he got it OUT of the fridge and unwrapped it, and that was it. Mo got her chicken face on (this looks a little bit like a concerned chihuahua) and began to scream with delight. Nelson started peeping and going in circles on the kitchen floor. Fred just stayed where he was, but he did lift his head up and say “murf?” and when he closed his mouth, his one-fang situation caused a goofy sneer. Mo sat on the edge of the bed where she had a direct view of the boiling chicken, and occasionally came into the other room to yell at us about it. She was purring so hard her patchy ears were trembling, and she was literally on the edge of her seat.

Mo

The reason they feel so entitled to the chicken is because we buy it mostly for them. They are SO SPOILED. Sometimes Mo will not eat her regular food because she thinks she should be getting chicken. She seems to have a fussy belly, and the chicken helps her appetite, and not just for the chicken. They get the funky bits and we get the pretty white bits, and sometimes we have mercy on them and give them some of the pretty white bits when the funky bits are all gone. This is about all I can stand to know about the parts of the chicken – the more I think about meat, the more appealing vegetarianism is. (I’ve tried that a couple of times, and I always felt like I was about to pass out.) Luckily Mr. Sarah is in charge of manicuring the chicken, and just about any other formerly living thing we eat. However, I’m in charge of chopping vegetables because I can cut an onion like nobody’s business. If it were left up to me, we’d probably eat a lot of processed crap and salads because I’m not going elbows deep into a boiled chicken. Nelson, on the other hand, would be much obliged to go all the way into a boiled chicken and he’d probably eat the bowl while he was at it.

Nelson!

 

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Anyway, enough about that. I’ve been working on more beads this week and they’re quite spectacular! This new project, the Foof series, has breathed new life into my desire to work. It has encouraged me to approach things very differently than I’ve been accustomed to.

I got bored with the Pantone color report and trying to find inspiration in fashion. Maybe it was too easy. Fragrance is invisible. It’s a challenge to translate a scent story to a tangible, colorful item. Of course, I do consider the packaging and ad campaigns and ingredients, and honestly, if I had to do it blind, I’m not sure I’d be so confident. At first I was apprehensive about doing this with fragrances I was unfamiliar with. I have life experience with many of the fragrances I’ve featured so far, and can associate them with colors I wore, people I knew, special moments in time, et cetera. But I’ve found it to be just as easy to get acquainted with a new fragrance and quickly get an idea for what I should be doing with the glass.

So here is what’s coming up on Etsy later this evening, and all of them are installments in the Foof series:

Nice, huh?

I’m gonna go try and get some sleep and I’ll get right on that this evening. See you later!

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Etsy!

Click HERE to visit my shop, or on the thumbnails below for each item.

Scarabesque Mega Woozballs:

Fire: (The FIRE set was reworked! I felt it was missing something to lend a more fluid transition from the barrels to the cones, so I added two more foil beads where they were needed and the price stayed the same.)

Prissy von Fussbudget:

Rainbow Flames Glitter Pills:

World Class Beige:

Glitter Scarab:

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There they are! I hope you like.

OMG, I almost forgot to tell you! Mom reminded me the other day about her Jazzercise routine in the 90’s. She’d go on her lunch hour a few times a week (maybe she went every day, I can’t remember) and she said she lost several inches in just a couple of months. I think she quit going because she changed jobs. It’s been too cold to walk outside, and my usual pilates style workout has grown stale so I searched the internet for “jazzercise”, mainly out of curiousity, and found this. (WARNING: you’re gonna laugh your ass off. The 80’s all purpose music will burn itself permanently into your psyche, so if you’re not in the mood for an earworm save this for another day.)

 

Judi Sheppard Missett (the founder/CEO of Jazzercise and the instructor on the video) has got to be the lankiest, dorkiest badass ever. This video is not only hilarious, but I could barely move the next day. My vague exercise routine was even more vague than I thought. My groin hurt, my armpits hurt – hell to the YES! Here’s a fantastic montage of Judi’s best (dorkiest) moments:

 

You’re welcome!

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New this week…

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

booty from the bead show last weekend

We had fun for a few hours at the bead show last Friday. I finally got my mitts on a strand of faceted ruby in fuschite, second strand from the top (not to be confused with the slightly less exciting and colorful ruby in zoisite). I’ve only seen it offered by Intrinsic Trading, and I was hoping they would be there this time so I could get a strand (last time I had already blown my budget before I discovered it.) I also found strands of oblong faceted agate (top and bottom), some dyed jade drops, oddly dyed grape colored chalcedony, what I’m guessing is chrysocolla, and a strand of watermelon quartz. Oh, and that little jumble of brilliant purple – I’m not sure what that is, I think they’re calling it hematite.

I’ve been exploring drugstore scents lately. Tabu, Ciara, Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion… as you can see here, I have bottles of Tabu in both vintage (80’s or 90’s) and new… Ciara in both vintage (I’m guessing 80’s or pre 80’s because hydrochlorofluorocarbon 22 is on the list of ingredients) and new. And way over there on the left is a vintage bottle of Avon Timeless. I’ve never been too big on Avon scents, but Timeless was one of my personal favorites on Grandma Wood’s vanity. It’s a little loud on the aldehydes and opopanax, but it fades to a nice powdery patchouli.

Ciara was new to me, I didn’t know about it until recently. Once I tried it I found I was completely unfamiliar with it as a fragrance, but it smells like the front bedroom closet in my house, a perfumed mustiness. Ciara is a powdery opopanax bomb, and when there’s that much powder I can’t find the incense that is allegedly there. I think I’m just not a fan of heavy opopanax. Ciara is a strange mixture of raspberry beer, raw cinnamon roll dough, Wildberry Copal incense (discontinued, unfortunately) and Comet bathroom cleaner. I’m still on the fence about Ciara. As usual, I think it could be repaired with a zing of patchouli.

Out of all of these, Tabu and Passion are my favorites. My bottle of Passion is also from the 90’s, and it is seriously beautiful. I see Passion at Ross/Marshalls/TJ Maxx all the time and never gave it a second thought, but I was at Walgreens to test Ciara and Tabu and figured I might as well try Passion. I was pleasantly surprised! It’s ladylike without being overly flowery or powdery, and applying with a light hand is preferable. It has incense and civet and a few white flowers, and a touch of honey and sandalwood. This will be in the top perfume drawer for the foreseeable future.

You should know that the new Passion is just as divine, although it doesn’t quite have the strength the vintage Passion does. Like most modern formulas, it gets right to the point – the scent of the first spray is practically identical to the far end of the fade. The older formulas go through several phases, with some phases being prettier than others, admittedly – and their staying power is better. I’m no scientist so I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that individual body chemistry was a bigger factor before the introduction of synthetic EVERYTHING into perfumery – it’s like the older formulas had more natural ingredients, therefore giving your skin oils more to play with, if you will.  Nowadays, most mainstream perfumes are wearable for most people and either they can’t soak into your skin due to their structure, or they simply don’t hang around long enough to. I don’t know. I do know that it’s not about making a beautiful fragrance anymore, it’s more about pleasing a certain demographic and selling as many bottles as possible.

I also LOVE Tabu, it’s right up my alley, what with all those cloves and spices and patchouli – and civet, of course. It’s delightfully eccentric. Like me. (Well actually, I’m definitely eccentric but the jury’s still out on my delightfulness.) I’m thinking Tabu might have been another one on Grandma’s vanity, although I don’t remember seeing it there. Maybe it smells like something that should have been there. My oldest sister drank a bottle of Tabu when she was a toddler. I was wearing it the other night when I went to her house and she grinned and asked “WHAT are you wearing!?” She must really like Tabu.

coming up on etsy

These are the beads I’ve been working on all week. I’ll be working on these listings all evening, probably until the wee hours… so I’m thinking it might be best to list them on Etsy early tomorrow (Saturday) evening so that you guys aren’t staying up way past your bedtimes tonight waiting for my nightcrawler ass to get it together. I probably would have been able to do it all this evening, but my sister is coming into town unexpectedly and I want to have a visit with her.

Thanks for letting me prattle on about perfume, and I’ll post here again tomorrow evening once everything is live on Etsy.

 

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ETSY!

Whew! Trying to make all of this extra special (with the bare minimum of sleep) took longer than anticipated. Sorry about that. I might as well have had a Superstars sale… but no matter, one of those will be coming up soon enough.

Here they are! Click HERE for my shop, or the thumbnails below for each item:

Red Sea Glitter Pills:

Poisonous Pickle Living Dangerously:

Fleurs du Jour in Dayglo:

Fire:

Bubblechunks:

Spice Rack Glimmer Strips:

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Okay! I hope you like and you aren’t too annoyed at my tardiness. I think maybe I ought to go crash… Mom and I have a local bead show tomorrow. We’re gonna try not to spend any money there, ha, wish us luck. Thanks so much for checking in and having a look at the beads!

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My new series: Foof

Throughout my lifetime, I’ve had a deep admiration for perfume and the bottles containing it. Mom tells me that she figured out she wasn’t a child abuser when I clumsily grabbed and crushed her 100 year old Lalique perfume bottle the moment I learned how to walk. One of my earliest memories is a perfume practically dripping with oakmoss and patchouli, trailing behind a very nice and interesting woman who was practically dripping with jewelry and wearing all black. As a teenager, I’d spend most of my mall time at the perfume counters, coveting the mainstream Chanels and Versaces and begging sample vials from tolerant sales associates. My older sisters were always wearing something new and interesting, and I’d often sneak into their rooms and admire and sniff the bottles of the juice they had sprayed onto themselves moments before leaving.

Dad called perfume “foo-foo” and Mom called it “foof” for short. Even as a youngster, I felt slightly offended by that, as I felt that perfume ought to be taken more seriously. It’s artful, controversial, alluring, assaulting – sometimes life changing. Why perfume has had such an influencing presence in my life is a mystery to me; I’m hopelessly hooked and I can’t reason my way out of my obsession with scent. (I take some comfort in the fact that plenty of people feel the same way about perfume as I do.) These many experiences and associations with perfume formed my proclivities to such a degree that it’s only natural that I pay homage to my favorite fragrances through my own art. And that’s what the Foof Series is about.

With each first edition of every installment in this series, I will include a 2.5ml spray decant of the inspiring fragrance with your bead purchase. (However, if you are not interested in the decant for any reason, please leave a note where Etsy prompts when purchasing and it will not be included.) The decants won’t be made until the beads are purchased, so you will have the freshest decant possible.

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Later this evening, I’ll be listing a decent number of sets, most of which are part of this (exciting? strange? silly?) new series. I can hardly wait… I hope you’re as excited as I am. Now, I must get some sleep so that I may wake up while the sun’s still out and get good photos.

Meanwhile, if you feel like sharing, I’d love to hear about your favorite fragrance(s). Feel free to leave me a comment!

See you later this evening!

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Happy New Year!

2014 didn’t offer any major weather disasters, divorces or death in my immediate bubble – it was the first pleasantly uneventful year since about 2010. Also, I talked Mr. Sarah into getting us Framboise beer instead of cheap sparkling (headache inducing) wine for the obligatory New Year’s Eve imbibement. He keeps pointing out that I’m sick every New Year’s Eve, but *I* pointed out that maybe it’s because he has insisted on buying that awful Andre swill every year. One little glass makes me ill. I ask him every year if we really NEED the adult beverages, but he insists that we do because it’s tradition. (Or superstition.) I’d make a terrible alcoholic – you’d hardly be able to get me to drink much of anything, especially the cheap stuff.

Our first gift of 2015 is a very special one: freezing rain and broken power lines are coming this weekend. We have wall and floor furnaces, which can be a little nerve wracking at times, but when the power goes out, the heat stays on. Unless I learn how to play poker or rummy or read a book, we’re gonna be BORED. We ate black-eyed peas, so maybe we’re good to go. Today is the only day of the year my husband insists on eating black-eyed peas, and the other 364 days he makes a face if I even go near them at the grocery store. I’m starting to think he’s moderately (if not highly, secretly) superstitious… though he’d never admit to it.

In bead related news, I’ve been working on a very special project – for me, it’s a huge thrill. As for you, you’ll either think I’m a genius or a total dork. Either way, it’s about the beads, so it’s a safe guess that if you like my beads you’ll find this somewhat interesting, at the very least. I’ll roll this out next week, probably. I’m stalking the mailbox for an important component of this project. Let’s hope that the thick layers of ice and ensuing mayhem doesn’t prohibit its timely delivery.

can you guess what I might be working on?

Yes, perfumistas! That IS a vintage bottle of Opium! From 1999! My hunny bought it for me right after we moved in together. So young and dumb then – I didn’t keep the box! I know better now. I also know now that I should’a had him buy me the KL instead. We could sell KL on ebay today for a small fortune.
Luvzya!

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