(Tiptoeing in) Hi!

Boo!  Been busy, hermitting!

Perfume this fall has been spectacular. Yes, it is all ridiculously priced, but there are some gorgeous things out that are so fall/winter.  I’ve pretty much exited my critic phase of life and ignore everything I hate or don’t care about and go wild over things that just make me happy. That new Guerlain Tobacco Honey, the Tom Ford Myrrhe Mystere.  Weird variation in pricing on that, I found out that it is almost the normal overpriced at Harrod’s in London instead of the obscenely overpriced it is in the U.S.  No matter, I dab some on every day, it is really great on me, despite the price.

The two seasonal Jo Malones have been out in the past – Ginger Biscuit and Orange Bitter. Love them both, they are just homey comfort. I’ve decided that biscuits and hay are notes that I love in everything. No, neither has hay, that’s just another note I glom onto.  Fleeting, sure, but I spray on the back of my shoulders/clothes pretty heavily, and hazily waft all day long.

The new Frederic Malle, Heaven Can Wait is totally fine.  I like it, not love, but it’s very wearable.  I was surprised at how much I like Byredo Animalique.  I’ve been pretty underwhelmed by many of their recent releases – they are meh to fine –but this one is pretty great. Inside of your leather purse sorta great.

My other new obsessions have been “tribute” handbags (superfakes) and The Row and Toteme and other upscale “tribute” clothes from Aliexpress and DHGate, as well as other sellers you deal with directly and they secure the “bag” from the factories.

Here’s a few of the bags I’ve gotten.

Not all of them, of course, but a few – Polene, Chanel Boy Bag, Double Flap, Miss Dior, Chanel trash bag and that amazing The Row bucket that I adore.

Shoes are my new rabbit hole like the black, gold and white LV Archlight weird soled sneakers. I thought I’d probably hate them, but not so much!  Kind of love them.  The sizing can be tricky for us bigger foot girls, so I just ordered the largest size and then used my stretchers to make them fit perfectly.

Finding the good tribute pieces is a little bit science and a huge amount of luck and a lot
pof researching on the Reddit group that has a ton of expertise.  But snagging a “good to great” tribute of that MaxMara Teddy Bear alpaca coat for $200 vs. thousands (a price I would never pay even if I had that kind of money!) or a “good enough” tribute The Row leather Tote or tribute Chanel shoes is like going out and reeling in a record-breaking size Marlin for a fisherman.  I do NOT throw my catches back.  I don’t need them to be perfect, just look good.

Talking about sourcing is tricky,  but I’ll try and figure out how to do it in a separate blog post if anyone is interested.

The interest in new clothes and things is driven by my weight loss. Finally have gotten to a size again where clothes are so cute, and a new wardrobes is very spendy.  Good “tribute” clothes let me try out some styles that I would never spend that much money on when I still have like another 20-30 to lose and a lot more Pilates to do to get everything as tightened up as I can.

And that brings me to the Pilates machine. I’m 63, and I used to think Pilates reformers were boring.  Must be my age, but it completely works for me now.  Went to a couple of classes, gasped at the price tag that’s gone up a lot in the ten years since I last took a reformer class, calculated out that two-three classes per week, plus the monthly membership would run the same price in ten months  as my very own state of the art Cadillac reformer. So of course I bought the reformer.  It arrived this week, clocking in on the freight delivery at 500 pounds!  I’ve always been a Yoga girl, and the last year I’ve done a lot of biking and strength training and running, and now I need this thing, this thing that works so deep and is pulling things together I didn’t realize had come undone.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. How about you guys? New hobbies, loves, perfume or otherwise?