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Let's Vacation, You Can Be My Parasol
posted March 11, 2009 at Essais

So you know that you live in a modern age (and have fully accepted this fact) when you not only check your bank statement online, but then do a Google Maps search and look at the street view to make sure you recognize a strange business name on your statement.

I had, by the way. I didn't know that the vegan bakery by the market was actually owned by Cinnamon Works, but that's what appears on my card at least. Those cookies -- vegan and wonderfully huge cookies -- were well worth the momentary freak out of the unrecognizable card charge.

We spent this past weekend like we do most weekends, actually. We like being toursits in our own city. Since both of us are technically outsiders, we haven't gotten tired of it yet I guess.

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I was hoping to spend today of my Detroit trip actually in Ann Arbor, meeting up with helenahandbag, one of my long-time online partners-in-crime and fellow Etsyian that I had yet to meet in person. That was, most unfortunately, a busted plan. So for most of the evening, I have been perusing perfumery websites and listening to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in the other room (y'know...Alec Guinness, Patrick Stewart, BBC spy series...?) and occasionally picking up my shiny new Nintendo DS when the mood strikes.

One genius thing I discovered today during my moping was The Perfumed Court's brilliant usage of categorizing their perfumes by Guide ratings. My standard transit book as of late, Luca Turin's Perfumes: The Guide, has kept me pretty well occupied on the bus, at the airport, and during dayjob lunch breaks. If you haven't picked it up, it's fascinating at what it does. And what does it do? It reviews just about every major perfumery release you could ever dream of, categorizes them, and then rates them on a five-star system.

Other than listening to Wilco all morning (and all last night, and the night before, and so on...), I've been perusing a lot of fashion blogs this weekend. Particularly, Some Girls Wander and The Cherry Blossom Girl. And while perfume isn't quite so vivid a piece of fashion as you might associate with clothing & accessories, it's still memorable, powerful, and worth more than just a passing mention or a site update. In short: this blog needs to be more.

The Challenge
I've challenged myself with a rather impossible New Year's resolution to review one perfume a week (if not more than that) in 2009. I'm jumpstarting it today, since I'll be in Detroit tomorrow to spend NYE with my boy and his friends. I'll be adding tags to the blog so you can browse the reviews easily. (It makes more sense than setting up a separate review blog.)

I'll be structuring them so they'll be easy to browse, read, and follow along. I probably won't tag by notes, but I will try to tag by category.

At any rate, I think it'll be a fun way to channel my inner Luca Turin. Hope you all agree! Watch for my first review tonight!

Why yes, it's 12:45 am. Thanks for asking. I do remember a time when I didn't sit up all night worrying about oil formula, ingredient lists, and the general, overall conditions of my lab. And not that I'm complaining, so please don't think that. Just that I never envisioned myself in such a position that I would be home for a so-called vacation (really, to surprise my father for his 60th birthday - and yes, a good time was had by all) to find myself at 12:45 am worrying about when a certain ingredient would be back in stock or how I might be able to make do in the meantime.

That being said, I apologize to say that the following perfumes are currently offline:

• Ayn
  
• Brianne
  
• Emily
  
• Maureen

I hope that the new ones added upon my return to Seattle will tide you over. There are some other catalog changes afoot, so please continue reading to see how this might affect you.

Hey folks, this is short notice but I'm going to take the catalog down during Thanksgiving week to work on filling the slew of pre-Holiday orders that are piling up. Absolutely everything is completely sold out, but if you would like to reserve your place in line for the next round of "pick 4" collections, you are more than welcome to contact me and I will invoice you. Collections will be $7.50 for four perfume samples of your choice (this includes shipping).

I want to say a major thank you to Design*Sponge for recommending my perfumes; it's been an exciting morning on my end and I will try to get everything out in the next couple of weeks (perfume solid freebies included).

I've been trying to find a way to say thank you to everyone who has helped make this year possible. It's been a really long 8 months. Sure, Sweet Anthem has been online since mid-2007, but business has not been booming (read: I've not been as involved as I'd have liked to be) until May of this year. Things are picking up, though. I'm dreaming, and scheming, and creating all the time. And I'd like to share some new things with you.

Now through December 15, every order will receive one of my new perfume solids for free. If you'd like to simply receive the companion solid to the perfume you ordered, you can leave the notes portion of your Paypal transaction blank. But if you're hankering to try new scents, please feel free to request anything you'd like.

Continue Reading »

• Buy a voter's pack (you get Emily, Eleanor, Angel, and Maureen samples for $4 — Sweet Anthem's top sellers in 2008), and decide on your favorite


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hermintage

hermintage

1. Manually crosspost from here to Essais, and vice versa.
   
2. Abandon hermintage altogether and just post to Essais. Force friends to subscribe to Essais if they want to keep up.
   
3. Continue posting to both, but disregard crossposting. Let friends subscribe to Essais if they want to.

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hermintage

( High. )

1. Beck—Leave me on the Moon
   
2. Mos Def—Climb
   
3. Cut Chemist (Featuring Hymnal)—What's the Altitude?
   
4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience—Up From the Skies
   
5. Bitter:Sweet—Heaven
   
6. Duston Cole with the Specialist—To Fall*
   
7. Cibo Matto—Clouds
   
8. The Jesus & Mary Chain—Man on the Moon
   
9. M. Ward—Half Moon
   
10. Six Organs of Admittance—Saint Cloud
    
11. Laura Veirs—Where Gravity is Dead
    
12. Ohbijou—Lamppost
    
13. The Hush Sound—You Are the Moon

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