Hi, Posse! It’s Musings Time, I’ve got winners, I’mo do a Giveaway! Can you tell it’s SPRING?!
So. I. Haz. Questions.
- I work out. Daily. Strength Training. Flex Training. All the Training. Yet… One day in the garden and I feel like I just got off 6 months bed rest! It’s fascinating – and exhausting. It’s the same bending, lifting, twisting, etc that I do on the mat, daily – but MAYNE! sho’ feels different. n.b. we’re now 10 days into the gardening cleanup and it feels Not Quite As Bad. Eh. I’m lyin’. Still hurts.
- Cool Spring. For someone who hates the cold and loves extreme heat as much as I do, I have a deep affection for a Cool Spring. As much as Winter makes me hivey, there’s a lot to be said for Seasons – and this is the season for those Cool Spring flowers like narcissus, tulips, lilac, dwarf iris that simply cannot survive a heat wave. And it’s also the season for those Cool Spring perfumes. This is the only time of year I can successfully wear Iris, for example. So I’m wearing ALL the iris, from Xerjoff’s stunning Irisss and Iris 39 (probably the rootiest of the irises) to the more floral, like Acqua di Parma’s Iris Nobile, which is what I hope they will embalm me in, when I’ve shuffled off my mortal coil. And…(and this is how you know you have too much perfume, dammit!!)… I just found a bottle of Iris perfume from the fabbo store (now closed) in San Francisco … you know… the guy who was always mercurial when it came to customers. I found him fascinating. Hang on….. ha! left it on the counter AGAIN (though, to be fair, there was a jar of almonds calling my name)! hang on… this one:
it is redolent of (mostly) iris flower with a touch of orris (root) to keep it grounded. I always forget how much I love this one, with its old-fashioned vibe. Another old-fashioned iris that I forget is Penhaligon’s Iris Prima, but to be honest, I forget about it because I simply cannot equate the notion of iris with red velvet – and Penhaligon’s wrapped that bottle in a red velvet bow and used red lettering, which always makes me think of roses. Or poinsettias. Neither of which are iris. Nice perfume, though. - Ever notice that when you develop a crush on someone you imbue them with qualities they probably don’t have irl? Not that they’re horrible people irl – they’re just…. people. Not just a romantic crush, either. Sometimes it happens after the crush is over, sometimes it happens smack-dab in the middle of it, which is bizarre (especially if the crush continues) This is just a musing. ymmv. Does ymv? Curious. Asking for a friend. Yadayadayada.
- Winner! Ha! Like you thought I’d forget. I really didn’t. Honest. The winner of the Barbara Sturm Lifting Serum (my apologies – it’s DOCTOR Barbara Sturm!) and a couple of other little samples is kathleen! Gmail your evilauntieanita and send me your details. I’ll get the little samples out to you.
- Watching ‘Making the Cut’ and wondering. Why did I never learn how to sew? But … some weirdness (c’mon! it’s Heidi! You know there’s gonna be some weirdness. Gorgeous. But weirdness). So… this was shot during lockdown/lockdown-lite. Yet the Fashion Shows were designed as if there were still huge crowds attending, as in Season 1. I was okay with several of them (the wedding venue was lovely)…until they got to the Carnival. Cue every slasher/zombie/suspense movie EVAH! Do you know how creepy it is to have a working carnival….and nobody there? SpookyAF. Just sayin’. SPOOKY. And, yeah, watching this I still want to drop one more dress size. Just one. I promise. And it makes me want to pull out all my outrageous (for here, at least) clothes. AND WEAR THEM HERE! I can’t wear a ballgown to a construction site (OSHA , don’tchaknow)…. but I could wear it to walk M. Jacques down to pay the water bill. And why not? #allthesparklysh!t. ALL OF IT.
- Last Musing: Autocorrect. When did it become so unintuitive? I remember when you could type ‘uou’ in a sentence and the correction would be ‘you’. Not uno. Or unoriginal. Or ‘usury’ (sweatergawd. not making that up) … or anything other than ‘you’ – especially in a sentence that would intuit the word ‘you’. And I can’t even be all ‘get off my lawn’ here – Skynet is supposed to get better/more intuitive – not dumber. I mean, really. If you’re going to be our overlords and all…
- Giveaway! Just tell me a story. Are you gardening? Are you in love? You haven’t murdered anybody, have you? (folks always worry about that with me – dunno why)… what’s going on in your life? I have some fun samples – and my foster puppy, M. Jacques will poke a GIANT pawnail (this dog is so freakin’ HUGE!!)
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I’m bigger than ALL of you!
It’s been a cold spring in Minnesota — it freaking snowed on Monday! melted right away, but still… So I haven’t been able to do much gardening. One wonderfully unseasonably warm Saturday a few weeks ago I managed to cut back ornamental grasses, trim hydrangeas and climbing vines, and clear out dead matter, so that whenever spring decides to actually show up, things’ll be primed. And yes — my body was all NOPE afterwards!
I already told you but Google has just decided to say “the temperature … today … in … Santa Fe … New Mexico … United States … right now … is …” and will be that way until I die or Skynet resets it. It used to say the temp. and nothing else.
I’ve said it before…Skynet is already here, playing dumb but (imo) fully self-aware.
xoxoxo
First off, Yes, so much Yes, about Autocorrect! It drives me nuts! I spend way too much time correcting autocorrect’s idiotic assumptions! I love the scents of early spring: green florals are my year-round jam. And iris is one of my two favorite notes. Love those iris scents you mentioned except for Xerjoff which I’ve never tried because it’s silly expensive. It would have made more sense for Iris Prima to have ballet slipper pink ribbons and typeface since it smells like the leather of ballet slippers + iris. Your foster pup looks like a gorgeous beast! Our weather decided to loop back around to winter. Yesterday we had some sleet! All the dogwoods are blooming and pollen levels are high nonetheless. Good reaons to stay indoors and keep warm.
P.s. forgot the sewing stuff: Both my grandmothers were professional seamstresses at one time in their lives. My mom sewed lots of my clothes growing up. I started sewing after college. I sewed clothes, curtains, duvet covers, costumes. Nowadays I don’t sew much because it’s very costly and frustrating to me. I do repairs. My daughter sews a ton — she’s a professional cosplay artist.
I KNOW, right? on the Iris Prima. What a bizarre and counterintuitive color choice. And it’s why I always tend to skate past it. I just can’t with the red. And your description is gorgeous!!
WOW on the sewing skills! Just…wow. I was watching the designers on MtCut and Andrea made this leather holster/halter (in hot pink) in the time it took me to type this (even with editing, she couldn’t have had much time since she was also finishing the rest of her looks). I couldn’t even figure out how the thing went together, much less SEW it!
xoxoxo
I’ve always enjoyed shows like Project Runway and Making the Cut, but I’m the sewing nerd that wishes they’d show more more actual sewing details and less contestants bickering with each other. I totally cringe when they hot glue gun stuff together when they run out of time. Love Tim Gunn — bought and read one of his books.
No matter how much I work out (and I do work out! a lot, in my opinion!), jars in the kitchen seem hell-bent on proving to me exactly how weak I am. Also, I still ask my husband to tote around bagfuls of dirt when I am gardening. I’ve got my summer veggie gardening all set up, and because I live in CA, the flowering annuals I planted last year are all coming back 🙂
Also, M. Jacques is quite the cutie. How long will you have him? How much does he weigh?
You work out – but you ain’t stupid! LOL! Those garden soil bags are unwieldy!!
I love CA weather for gardening, though not super South (San Diego is fabulous but it’s tough to successfully grow narcissus (daffodils, not paperwhites) there. Alas.
xoxoxo
M. Jacques is here for a few weeks (6-8) for eval. He weighs a ton – 130-140, which seems 3x that what with the 4 legs, low center of gravity and the whole PUPPY thing. But he is adorbs.
We still have much snow on the ground where I live and more forecast for this weekend. Today our very thoughtful coworker brought blooming tulip/hyacinth/daffodil planters for everyone in our group. Sniffing mine (like a fiend!) this morning physically tugged my heart, they were so beautiful. And the tulips were even slightly fragrant, which I have never noticed before in all my years of growing tulips, mostly fresh green but ever such a tiny sliver floral, nothing unique but still exuding their happiness.
VLuvvr – there are several varieties of tulips that are fragrant. I grow ‘Verona’ (which I adore – big fan of yellow and white in the garden) and ‘Apricot Beauty’, which I tend to force in pots because it’s an odd color in my yellow/white Spring garden. Both have a lovely scent.
And what a delightful & thoughtful gesture from your coworker!! I thought you were going to say ‘cookies’, which are great – but tulips are better!
xoxoxo
Hi Musette!
I’ve been gardening–a little, between rainstorms and gusting winds. I know the pain of garden cleanup and I am the only one doing it, for now. Okay, I don’t exercise much or work out but I do Yoga quite a bit. Still, the body complains. I do like a cool Spring but it is a little too blustery to garden today.
I have a large tub of silk saris that I’ve collected over time. Maybe I will take one or two out and sew something. Silk is darn ornery to work with.
I love the iris in Heure Exquise. My newest and most intense fragrance love is Blue Lotus oil, putting it in my skincare routine and in my hair sometimes.
ooh! sari material is gorgeous. I have two coats made of sari material and they are glorious!!!
I always forget about Heure Exquise! Need to revisit.
xoxo to you and your garden
Addressing autocorrect: have you tried SwiftKey? It’s the most intuitive keyboard I have found. Highly recommend.
I am trying to be more positive in my life but the snow of the last couple of days is disheartening. I’m with you on the long cool spring days but the S word is just too much for this late in April.
This is not a story, just a whine. Better days ahead!
A – that snow was …shocking. But not really. You’ve lived here FOREVER! You know it happens. Luckily for me the only things actually up and blooming are my narcissus and they’re designed for Crappy Spring Weather. They just dropped their heads and waited it out. To be honest, I’d rather get snow than the 80s-90s we’ve gotten in past years. But mine is gone – you’re in the snow belt. How much did you get?
Funniest part was watching M. Jacques navigate the snow. He’s a foster from the ATL and probably hasn’t seen snow – ever. It was hysterical, watching him try to figure out what he was stepping in.
Hang in there – it’ll be Good Weather soon!
xoxoxo
Hey Musette,
I love iris too but it rarely gets a spritz unless it’s Equistrius. All the other irises get pretty much ignored. Here’s the funny thing though, you give me a good iris to smell in a store and I’ll buy it over almost everything else.
Isn’t that weird?
Portia xx
Hey, babysnakes!
Not as weird as you might think. Iris is an extremely complex note to parse. It’s captivating (and done right can be transportive) but I think it requires a level of concentration(mental) that gets it pushed back to the back of the cabinet. Also, at least for me? It requires very, very specific temps in order to work (AdP Iris Nobile is an exception but I think it’s because they did away with nearly all the root, leaving the bloom fragrance, which lends itself to a wider range of temps). Iris 39 in 90F can bring up your lunch!!!
In short, most Iris perfumes are sly divas.
xoxoxo
That is a big pupper! Sort of finished gardening. Will put in two giant sunflowers in a few days. Now just waiting to see what the self-seeded things do flower-wise (ie, which colours). Why do you want to drop a dress-size? Yoga-ing and walking, plus walking with the dog. And continuing my current grump about what to do about work. [Don’t enter me in giveaway 🙂 ]
He’s enormous, cinnamon! Lovely – but enormous. And YOUNG. Which makes that enormousness even more enormous! LOL!
I am 5’8″ tall (probably 5’7.5 now, due to getting older – even with yoga there’s a bit of spinal compression going on, it seems)…and my standard dress size is 8(US). The El O Era, with the absurd levels of stress, brought about cortisol weight. It was more about size than weight, since I’m very muscular and weigh more than Floyd. But I ballooned to a size 12 and was ogling a size 14. I’d like to get back to my regular dress size and am almost there. Not interested in going below it.
xoxoxo
Ah, on dress size and feh indeed on stress hormone weight. I’m a UK 10 (no clue what that is in US any more) and short. That’s sort of where I am and that’s ok. When those get tight though I know I need to take myself in hand.
M Jacques is beeooouuuutttiifffuuulll! Is he a Great Dane?
The gardening pain? Could be cos you’re doing the exercising plus weights, out of order & with extra effort.
I used to love digging the garden but think organic no dig is the way to go!
Talking of murders, before DH tiered the garden into 3 flatter sections I had just dug four beds for veggies into the lawn. Hilarious, when I looked at our house on Google Earth & saw what appeared to be four perfect graves staring back at me! I expected a knock at the door & a SWAT Team on the cul-de-sac!
OMG! that is hysterical! I doubt anyone would come knocking here – they know I wouldn’t bury a body on my own property!
M. Jacques is a Corso mix – am awaiting a DNA kit so we can figure out persackly what else he is. Possibly Dane, possibly boxer (though he’s kinda big for a boxer), possibly Boerbel.
I only dig to move things or pull out invasives. I’ve found a Cobra weeder works wonders! I love that thing.
xoxoxo
Ah Parfums Jaqueline- I was in there only a few times but the man (Andre) was very nice to me and the first time I went took the time to show me a bunch of stuff. I still wish I had some serious money to have dumped in there. But, yeah, how did he hump the rent? He must have been a bookie. Or a spy. Maybe that’s the story to be woven: testy old man runs storefront in a large metropolitan city selling perfumes (or candies or whatever) while secretly an international spy, and must be conscripted to one last job to save the world from an Elon Musk-like crazed CEO trying to take over the world with self-driving cars, social media, brain implants and his fleet of rockets..
Oh and I do (or did) know how to sew. My mother taught us all the basics of sewing, cooking, and cleaning since she said that there was no guarantee that we would always have someone to do it for us. I took it further and taught myself how to really do it- even unto making entire garments such as suits, with interfacing, linings et al. I wanted to be the next Adrian, but didn’t really have the talent. But it came in handy- I was able to completely recut a couple of my dad’s old suits that he had made in Hon Kong to fit my (then) much slimmer body, Wish I still had them. Wish I still could wedge myself into them,
Does that count as a story?
I showed an apartment on Easter to a young gay couple who wanted to see it, then drenched myself in MKK and went for a drive with the top down. Just to charge up the battery, mind you. Not to ogle the crossing guards at Bel Air Presbyterian who dress up like Motorcycle cops. Nuh-uh.Then got some oranges and sushi at the Beverly Hills Market and home to watch movies. Quite a nice day all in all..
Honey! I would’ve been camped out on the curb like it was the St Patrick’s Day Parade!
March and I talk a lot about sewing – she’s more adept (and patient) than I am – we do only little things like hems …and what the hell am I lying for? I will sew on a button or mend a small rip… but for anything further, I haz a local seamstress who is amazing!!
Your day sounds delightful!
xoxoxo
He was a piece of work, wasn’t he? It was as if he couldn’t have cared less about making a sale… so your hypothesis holds some serious weight…
xoxoxo
Even though it is still close to freezing at night and pouring rain, I’ve been out gardening a bit. All the narcissus bulbs I planted last fall came up – yay! Lilac bush is budding out. I planted a bunch of hydrangeas and lupins, the geraniums are waiting patiently for the overnight lows to go up a bit. Oh, and a few daffodils. Next project is whipping the lawn into shape, it is filled with moss and weeds. Plus have three gnarly old rhododendron stumps to dig out. But, the rain. So I wait impatiently for sunnier days.
sounds lovely! Is this your San Diego place (it’s rainy season there, yes?) or Great White North? I’m awash in narcissus right now, from the ubiquitous ‘King Alfred’ type and ‘Ice Follies’ (both of which naturalize like lima beans) to a n. cyclameneus that has outstripped them in naturalizing – and I couldn’t be happier!
we’ve had freezing night temps here – it rained, then snowed… then froze the rainwater in the (unused) fire bowl. M. Jacques had a field day trying to figure that out! LOL!
xoxoxo
A story. Hmmm. Well, my mother and I stopped speaking on Feb. 28. She is the only family I have. So, I made all our traditional foods and planned to eat them alone on Easter. Then the woman who owns one of the barns where I work with her horses invited me to their house. More than four hours later and the best time it was amazing. Her husband is dying of Stage 4 colon cancer and is full of grace. The most loving, peaceful, kind people ever. No tension. No arguments. So much kindness. I felt so loved. It was an amazing day that I expected to be very sad. And I wore my two fave Easter perfumes: Penhaligon’s Ostara layered with Yosh Stargazer.
Gina T! So sorry to hear about the riff with your mother …
…but your Easter time with your friends sounds lovely!!!! It is always good to feel loved.
Yosh Stargazer is gorgeous!
xoxoxo
Was Jacqueline the store in SF?
Not much excitement for me, as almost everyone I know is quite sick or has broken bones.
I’m the transportation, dinner delivery, and occasional cleaning helper & laundress for those friends ill with things other than the big bad virus. I can’t cut hair decently though so that takes a trip out with a wheelchair to Supercuts.
Yes! Jacqueline! Thank you. I used to visit the store often – they always had interesting offerings. But M. Jacqueline (I cannot remember his name… oooh! Andre!) was always charming to me, perhaps because… I dunno. His brusqueness with other patrons was always fascinating – I couldn’t figure out how he decided who was worthy and who was not. I also wondered (not aloud, of course) how on earth they could afford the rent there!
xoxoxo
ps. you are a lovely and excellent friend, to be of such support!