Winners. Losers. and The Next Avocado

Is that cryptic enough for you?  Well, here’s the thing.  There are WINNERS!  That’s you guys – specifically

 

Michelle who won Dreams of Smoke

and  Rina! who won the Amouage Sunshine sample.

you know the drill, right? drop me a line (anitaatperfumepossedawtcom)

Loser?  That would be me.   Because after 2 full days of reading forms that would make Draco spin in his grave, they’re so convoluted, I’m still all duuuh! on Prevailing Wage and I’m neck-deep in it (and the gub’mint really does expect you to get it right and I don’t even know what  luteman or a dinkey is).  So this is going to be a quickie and I’m hoping to get back to normal next week.

So here’s the down and dirty – but it’s an interesting down and dirty annnnnd if you play along I will send a lucky commenter a nice haulette from the Messy Armoire!

A few days ago, my pal Mark, from Petals  (omgosh!  THE CUTEST flower/gift shop!) posted a House Beautiful  post about DIY trends that are way past their prime.  I often wonder that about design in general.  Take subway tiles.  Design shows and magazines have gone to a lot of trouble to convince us that subway tiles are a classic design choice – and they are.  In subways, like le Metro.  And bistros.  Not in your average US house.  I grew up in that ‘average’ US house.  And my wealthier cousins lived in above-average US houses.  And my po’ folks lived…well, you get it.  US Houses.  And…to a house…the tiles were square.

So I wonder…in a decade, will we look at all these gorgeous subway tiles (and they are gorgeous) and say ‘oh, these are so 2010’?  Trellis-patterned fabric?  Stainless appliances (which a lot of people are pushing back on)?  I am watching…waiting…what will be this decade’s avocado?

I was going to ask you about what you think this decade’s perfume ‘avocado’ will be – but it’ll be more interesting to let y’all just run with it!  Choose perfume, design, fashion, books, food…I don’t care.  But I am eager to know what your opinion(s) are on The Next Avocado!

  • Tiffanie says:

    Patchouli smells great on everyone . . . except me. It is a prominent note in so many fragrances that I like or almost love. I wish it would fade away or at least fade into the background. Not likely I know, but a girl can dream.

  • Flora says:

    No need to include me in the sample offer, but thanks for the thought – I have my own “messy armoire” to deal with! 😉

    What needs to go away:

    Neck beards/beards without a matching moustache. Creepy as hell.
    Joining the chorus against heavy-looking “hoof” shoes with high heels. They look like a very stylish pair of cement overshoes from a Mafia hit.
    Echoing Kismet 429 above: LEGGINGS ARE NOT PANTS. Neither do they belong under a perfectly nice dress. Long tunics, fine, if you must.
    I would love to see the return of real color on home exteriors – and interiors too. Why must everything be the color of putty/oatmeal? Fifty shades of beige is still beige.
    Perfume: tired of skyrocketing prices for juice that’s nowhere near as good as many moderately priced brands. If it’s over $200 for 50 ml it better rock my world, change my life and make my coffee too. I wonder who they think will buy it beyond a certain point of ridiculousness, especially with all the choices out there.

  • Kismet429 says:

    Well, I am VERY late to the party as usual, but couldn’t resist a good rant. Never thought I would see the return of leggings, which are brutally unflattering to almost anyone except the tall and model-thin, especially when when worn as pants. The same goes for ultra-skinny and low-rise jeans. And now I am going to show my age–tattoos. Sorry folks, but when I see some of the more unfortunate choices and think about how they are permanent (darling, that large beer bottle on your upper arm may be charming now, but one day you will be 60……), it just makes me feel sad.

  • Elena says:

    Oh, this is giving me a complex. We just did our kitchen, and did quartz countertops, subway tile, and stainless appliances. We are kind of planning on selling in 3-4 years, and I think it will age very well, but I had no idea there was so much hatin’ on the stuff! I have to defend myself, though: if you’re selling, you want it to look new, and being on trend really helps with that. Also, kitchen trends last for a lot longer than other trends. I personally would like to see the words “gifting” and “upcycling” disappear. Gifting especially… why can’t you just say give as the verb, instead of gift? Augh.

  • Brooke says:

    I admit to having both granite and stainless appliances, and I love them. What I hated, was a stainless countertop in my old loft. Every scratch showed. Lord knows I love high heels, and even at 5 feet, I will rock gladiator-style cage shoes. Why-the-heck not. What I want to see go: women wearing yoga pants to places other than yoga, flip flops at nice restaurants, and open space work environments that are supposed to foster collaboration but only make you lose focus and learn way too much about your coworkers personal lives. What I think will be “out” in 0-5 years: overpriced craft beers, food trucks, leggings/jeggings/skinny jeans, bourbon, cc creams, nail art, and Facebook.

  • Gwenyth says:

    Late to the party, as usual. 🙂 But how apropos when I popped to share what I think are trends which must go…….
    We recently purchased a new home and were told by our Realtor “Oh, you simply MUST have granite and stainless steel”. Like a sheep or a lemming I followed along. I stuck to my guns about the granite for all the countertops in kitchen and bathrooms and chose as unobtrusive patterns and styles as possible. The home decorator gave me “the eye”, but I was adamant — no wild patterns or colors, even if it was granite. I’m really glad my countertops are more quartz-like than they are granite-like. I feel they will last and not look too kitschy for many more years.
    I caved in on the choice of stainless steel appliances….and I hate them! Fingerprints? Baah. Streaking? Arrrgh.

    Fashion which I wish would go away?
    Hiiiiiigh heels and hiiiiiigh wedges. Really? I guess broken ankles will keep podiatrists in business.
    Messy buns (now, that sounds awful). I’m tired of seeing folk who look like they’ve just finished playing vollyball. Hair screwed up in a jumbled knot on the top of their head and the big elastic band holding back the strays. If one has just finished playing vollyball, then OK….but for everyone else? Not my favorite look.

    I’m weary of perfume which costs plenty but lasts 5 minutes – regardless of how it smells.

    I sound crabby. 😉

  • einsof says:

    i hope the hands-on, community learning style of the IAO in LA either catches on or expands. i don’t think that everyone is going to go learn and actually create some thing marketable everytime (i stress ‘everytime’ because we’re also talking about a potential talent petri dish here)- but i certainly don’t think the experience would equal painting pottery or stuffing a bear.

    i think it will create a more discerning perfumisto/a/x(i see you Bond.) there is already a communication, a community within the frangrance world which could, with common vernacular and simple education, become even more interactive; creating true consumer based trends.

    then there is this Burr-esque landscape which- if one is to create something completely new– what are we up for creating? in what direction does one evolve?.

  • Laurels says:

    I’ll predict that in ten or fifteen years, Coco Mademoiselle will be “old lady” perfume, with Light Blue and its ilk right behind. (And immediately after writing this, I realized I’m probably showing my age by not realizing they already are.) As for trends I hope will die, I’ll second extreme high heels (remember when they were “fetish” shoes sold only at places like Frederick’s of Hollywood?) and low-rise everything. I want a waistband at my waist, thank you.

  • Vanie says:

    Fashionwise, I’d say those hidden-high-heeled snickers and Aladdin type pants (that make everyone who’s not 5’10” and 90 pounds look like they are wearing a potato sacks hiding a diaper! No offense to anyone…)

    In perfume, maybe naming fragrance something “noir” when it’s actually a light fruity floral?

  • Jackie b says:

    Ha, thought provoking question!
    In perfume it must be Noir anything,what does that even mean?
    In decor I see that Butternut Squash is a colour trend. It’s ORANGE folks and just as nasty as the first time around!

  • ameliaj says:

    We just redid a kitchen and felt we needed to use stainless and granite in order for it to be appealing to buyers in a year or so (has anyone seen House Hunters lately? It’s shocking how quickly folks will turn down a house over a lack of stainless). But if we planned to stay in our house longer, I think I would have used different materials; I’m certain the things we used will look dated after a few years.

    I agree with the glass tile comments above. I heard someone say recently that they thought white kitchens would be the new avocado!? Can that be possible?

  • Tena says:

    I am sincerely hoping that Oud and “Noir” versions of scents soon become avocado, along with platforms on shoes, crop tops and ombre anything.

  • I hope the shampoo-ish trend in perfume will go away, but I’m not holding my breath.

    I’ve never had stainless appliances, but I can imagine they’d be a pain to keep clean. I rented a condo once that had granite countertops (only stayed a year b/c the owner wanted to sell), and they were pretty, much better than the craptastic countertops my current apartment has. 😛 If I owned a place and could afford to renovate, I’d probably not do granite, though. I’d probably look at recycled materials.

  • ElizabethC says:

    The best advice I’ve heard is to keep your decorating based on the style of your house. We have a 1920s craftsman house and we have kept our big purchase items (couches etc.) in that design style. (I sooo covet the lighting by Rejuvenation Hardware and Arts and Crafts tiles.) We are going to have to replace our kitchen appliances soon and I’ve been looking for nice retro, non-stainless ones. Not much luck!

  • I LOOOOVE this question – in the last year and a half I got married, had a baby and redid my bathroom – and in ALL of these areas I (and my hubby) worked hard not to do anything to ‘trendy’, especially with the wedding. I’m not sure about so ‘2010’ but I think fitted sleeveless wedding gowns are so 2000-2010… and made sure to avoid one. The barnyard/farm wedding is also very 2010 imo 🙂 I also think all of the ‘aiden/ayden/brayden/kayden/jayden/etc’ names are the next avocado… for the bathroom I tried to avoid anything too ‘modern’ because I’m afraid that will age poorly (and we live in a 1911 farmhouse) so we embraced a clawfoot tub, moroccan lantern tiles and mercury glass for a modern vintage (?) look. Only time will tell how I fared in bucking the trend in all of these categories – we’ll see what I think when I look back on my blogposts about the house and wedding in 10 years or so!

  • jjlook says:

    I think the current open plan kitchen currently in every small apartment redo will go dodo. Sometimes, it’s nice to have a door you can close. 😉

  • teri says:

    I redid my kitchen a year ago and resisted both the granite countertops and the stainless steel appliances. I believe my contractor thought I wasn’t entirely sane. lol

    I think both trends will fade before long. Granite countertops don’t age particularly well if used with any regularity and as we all know, stainless steel is a pain to keep clean. I have 3 large dogs (2 of my own and 1 foster) and nose prints (and sometimes paw prints) get everywhere. I wanted appliances I could clean easily with a swipe of a damp cloth, and much the same for the countertop.

    Personally, I hope the return of mid-century modern furniture and decor brought on by the popularity of Mad Men subsides quickly. As a young bride, I furnished our first apartment with my parents’ 1950s-era cast off furniture and it was a happy day indeed when I could get something more comfortable and less minimalist.

  • Debbie R. says:

    I’d love a haulette. :o) I think stainless steel and granite will go, only because kitchen design never seems to stay the same for very long.

  • Ashley A says:

    I’m with a lot of other people here. I think that oud is going to be the 2010s perfume trend. As for everything else, I’m not really sure. Probably kale and in fashion crop tops. At least I’m hoping the crop top trend will end. They seem to be the only thing I am finding in stores these days.

  • stina says:

    The trend for 70s-style big floral wallpaper can go away as quickly as it popped up again, in my opinion. Wasn’t it awful enough the first time around?! (I speak as someone who has several rooms slathered with original 70s wallpaper… am counting the days until I can get that stuff OFF my walls.)

    And stainless steel appliances can sod off as well. My twenty-year-old fridge and stove are pale ivory color, and look great in a kitchen that has lots of copper and cherry-colored wood. I was toying with the idea of updating the appliances, but lo and behold! Kitchen appliances now only come in three colors – stainless, black, or white. All of which would look awful in a warm-toned kitchen. It’s like we’ve regressed back to the era of Henry Ford (“you can have any color you want as long as it’s black”).

    Also, I can live without the inspirational sayings that are stenciled/stuck onto walls. It’s like a cross between “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and a Victorian reform school.

    Perfume-wise, definitely oud. I suppose the ultimate trend-distillation of the past few years would be a fruity-fresh oud celebrity scent (shudder).

    OK, I think I’ve vented enough of my inner curmudgeon for today! 😉

  • tammy says:

    I cannot stand anything with grout, so I am terribly biased against the subway tile trend. Plus, it makes everything look like public restrooms. Every time I see it anywhere, I feel compelled to look for a drain in the middle of the floor. Add in stainless steel, and it looks like a morgue. (Which also have drains in the middle of the floor) Blech.

    I think glass tile already looks dated, and GOD YES, chevron.

    I will be so glad when we are over this 60s/70s revival, in all aspects of life ( fashion, home decor, etc) It was ugly then and it’s even uglier now. Why oh why couldn’t they have revived the perfumes of that era and left the platform shoes, bug eye sunglasses and the Empire waist buried in the past??

    And do not get me started on the music. (You can get off my lawn any time now)

  • Jaime says:

    What a fun topic!
    I’m too oblivious to The Trendy and am always a few steps behind.

    For example: Am starting to love rose and oud now, and I installed subway tiles in my barhroom, so I smell and look like it’s 2010!! But that’s okay…the bathroom reno was so much work, that my family is going to live and love subway tiles because I am never renoing that room ever again, lol!! 😀

  • Rincoglionita says:

    I’m too new to fragrance to speculate on overdone trends in that realm. As far as design goes, CHEVRON. Chevron, with the possible exception of Missoni, will be the avocado of the 2010s. Stainless and granite can go away, too, but they’re both a longer trend.

  • Ann says:

    Great post, sweetie! My vote for avocado in perfume is oud, seconding several others above. Although on the topic of avocado and other such ’70s colors, our first house (a resale that we moved into in ’86), had an avocado fridge and a washer and dryer in that hideous burnt sienna, reddish-brown hue, but man, those things lasted like nobody’s business. I wouldn’t be surprised if that washer and dryer were still working in that house, ha! Hope you are doing well despite the crazy. Big hugs to you …

    • Ann says:

      P.S. Any idea when that Amouage Sunshine will be available on our shores? Methinks this winter it will be much needed. 🙂

  • Beezus says:

    Stainless steel! (I despair as I wipe the sink for the fifteenth time after dinner.) Also, kale.

  • JanLast says:

    As a certified payroll specialist, I agree it could be a lot easier. If you are stuck with a problem of what wage rate (otherwise known as what trade to pay and list), you can call the prevailing wage administrator whose name is listed (usually at the bottom of your contract), or call the prime contractor and get their prevailing wage person to give you the correct trade. After 20 years of this in Colorado, I can site labor rates in my sleep, lol. While wearing Slumberhouse Grev.

  • rosarita says:

    I think net zero housing and reduced carbon footprint, energy efficiency and green technology are the big thing in building this decade, and perfumes will get bigger. I hope 🙂

  • Elia says:

    still oud, it’s making it through to more and more labels

  • poodle says:

    We’re in the early stages of planning a kitchen remodel and I agree that no one had subway tiles in their house in my lifetime so I have no idea what they are thinking saying its a classic look. The tiles were square. Beyond that, my head is still too fuzzy to think of much of anything. On another week I’d have a list a mile long for you I’m sure.

  • solanace says:

    Grey walls. Grey paint makes any room look like a police station. And red swimming pools, which are just unappealing. (Sorry, Unique Hotel.)
    Perfume wise? Fresh stuff that smell like shampoo. Here’s hope for a skanky future!

  • Undina says:

    iProducts? 😉

  • Lisa D says:

    I’m voting for granite countertops, 5 inch heels, and fruity florals to go the way of the dinosaur.

    • Julie L says:

      I’m with you! AND those hideous heels that Kim Kardashian made popular…the ones with the chunky platform toe. I mean. they’re just EVERYWHERE, right along with those revolting cage type shoes! Blech! Us 5′ girls can’t wear them anyway without looking like we’ve just been eaten whole by a shoe monster.

      Perfume?? Please bring back the old style, REAL perfumes from the 70’s and 80’s! No more fruit!!

      • Jennifer Smith says:

        Oh you mean the horse hoof platform high heel look ?
        It’s especially bad if the girl has her hair up in a “sexy”pony tail. If she also has big white chiclet teeth (to look younger)? She’s really not pulling off a “sexy” look . Neigh ! Not at all! She looks like Mr.Ed instead.

    • Laurels says:

      Ha! My father just had granite countertops put in, after helping my cousin redo her house to sell. They certainly look nicer than the old ones, but ten years from now (or five), they’ll be avocado.

  • Rina says:

    Oud… No haul for me, I’m already a lucky girl (emailed you..)! Thanks so much!