Like a House

Before the House – let me tell you a few things:

1. Thank you, Patty, for the Birthday Happy !  And thank you, my darling Posse, for all the wonderful birthday wishes.  I hope you all know how much you mean to me (indeed, to all of us, I think – but this is about ME!  So ‘me’).  Writing into the void can be scary and knowing the words mean something to you really makes it worthwhile.
2. I haz WINNERS!  My apologies for the delay – I’d like to have some really exotic excuse but the truth is:  I plumb forgot!  Pre-holiday is always a bit of a work-jam and the past 10 days were no exception.  I mostly just worked. and worked. and worked.  But since I need to work in order to get paid, it’s a-okay by me!
3.  So. Winners (which, can you believe? after writing #2 I was fully prepared to wribble on to the next thing – which is NOT WINNERS.  Obvs I need to Get. A. Grip.

Arielle Shoshana’s Saturday:  maggiecat

Lubin Gin Fizz (also from Arielle):  calrayo

gmail me (evilauntieanitaAT), gimme your addy details & remind me what you’ve won and I’ll get it started.  reminder:  maggiecat, your sample will come from Arielle, so I’ll be sending her your info.

Okay: let’s get in the House !  we’re talking House Scents here.  It’s that time of year when the Northern Hem is turning inward (even my LA friends are getting their faux logs set up in the fireplace – we’re heading into the rainy season there and it can get…dank).   I’m not quite prepared to plunge into Christmas scents yet but the Autumnal scents I like can be a bit intense.  So I’ve come up with some ways to have them in the space without choking me out.  Trapp’s Tabac & Leather room spray is stunning – but I’m not a fan of having my entire house smell like a fabulous smoking lounge (and it can easily become the 800-lb gorilla).  But I do love it, so!….I came up with the scathingly brilliant (if I do say so myself) idea of spraying it (layered with Trapp Burmese Wood) on my seasonal door decor!   I’m in and out of that door 20x a day?  and it’s sheltered by the glass storm door – so every time I open the door I’m greeted with that amazing scent!  As the door swings inward, the scent wafts into the area but doesn’t overwhelm it.  Instead of being choked out (as I was when I was spraying it directly) I find myself looking forward to that passing encounter.  I spray the Burmese Wood, a la Diaghliev, on my front room curtains.  When the GFA comes on, the slight breeze from the floor vent wafts a bit of scent into the room.  Delicious.

1. 

   smells AMAZING!

   2.  Near-Christmas smells.  As I said I’m not quiiiite ready to go full-on Fraser fir… not yet.  But I love the smell of Christmas-adjacent… and cedars and cypress are perfect for that!  Again with the Trapp (sorry – Bob Trapp is a home scent genius, ’nuff said)… and his Golden Cypress wax melts give a hint of the seasonal shift to come.

A few years ago March picked me up at the airport…and getting into her little car was a sensory delight!  Turns out she keeps a little bottle of Cedar Mountain Mist from her beloved New Mexico (Land of Black Widows in the Bathtub)…. I’ve only been to NM once but I totallyTOTALLY get why this is such a beloved scent – everything about this has that New Mexico vibe that whispers ‘ it’s okay.  relax’.  It’s a wonderful scent for spritzing in my office – instant chill.  Alas, they no longer have a website and it looks as if they finally packed it in (they were on the bubble the last time I got some *Update:  apparently I . Wuz. Wrong.  Clear Light carries the same scent and now that I think back on it, I remember my confusion surrounding the transition.  You can find it here.  and here (which is how I first found it and I dunno… the site is kinda cool so I thought I’d link to it. ).  I do have other lovely cedars – but nothing is quite like this.  What I love is it is a perfect ‘gateway’ scent – I am, to put it mildly, disinclined to overexpose myself to colder weather…but this cedar mist helps bridge that psychic gap between abject terror…. and even greater abject terror.  okay, wait.  that just sounds ridiculous.  Here’s the thing:  that spray gives me permission to go outside (In 40F, ffsakes.  I really am a goober)… it’s a covered porch with a fireplace, it might be getting dark (maybe – to be honest, that’s kinda pushing it but we’ll roll with it).  and I don’t need to have all the curtains drawn…not yet (okay – I’m just making stuff up now.  Those curtains have been drawn since 3:45).  That’s pretty heavy lifting for a room spray!  But it holds its own – until the first snowfall.  Then we’re into the heavier hitters – but that is for another time.  I have a couple of cedar incenses but I have to be careful with those beauties, as my sinuses can flip all the way out at the first indication of smoke.  I can more easily do diffusers – and nothing is easier than Aera –  I have a lovely collection of their cold-weather scents and am currently wafting ‘Kith and Kin’ which is part of the Hygge scent collection they put out a few years ago –  I don’t get a huge ‘throw’ from Aera diffusers – and that’s great!  My house is small and somewhat open, so a big throw would dominate – I put the Aera in the dining room (it’s a modified shotgun shack, with the walkway from the front door through the tiny dining area into the kitchen, if that helps) – so it just gently wafts as you walk through that area – and I can kinda smell it in my office (which is off the kitchen).  Of course, I could increase the throw  (it goes from 1-5? 6?) but that would mean DOMINATION!   So I keep it on 2.

Do you have any Bridge Home Scents ?  Or do you just go full-on Evergreen at the first dip in temps?  Or do you say ‘feck it’ and stick with the florals (I admit I’ve been tempted to do that 😉