SOTD Sunday 20th July

Après L'ondée - Guerlain

Good morning! I am wearing Pleasures Delight and thinking it is quite different from my usual scents but yes I like it so far.

Wore Pampelune in the early afternoon. Now pondering a SotE again, while munching on freshly baked choc chip cookies (lots of choc chips too - I doubled the amount ). Making the most of the last few uni-free hours... by baking

Feeling piratical (yo ho ho) and had such success with this combo last time that I am using up the last of my samples of Nelly Rodi Ginger and Rum!!

Off to sit The World's Most Adorable Grandbaby - see y'all later!!

Giving Vero Profumo Kiki sample a full test wearing.

Overcast and humid weather. Wet soil and not a trace of summer. But this fragrance seems to be made for it:

Djedi

Beautiful and fitting a contemplative mood.

Great choice for today, R.

I'm going with the warmth of UNGARO II

Good morning! Chanel 28 La Pausa is perfect for Sunday morning before it gets hot as Hades outside. Like usual. No work today, will probably make it an ice-cream in front of TV day.

You too, make the most of it ladies!

After mixing up a few fragrance oils I'm starting to feel a bit nose fatigued, so I'm sticking with something familiar and overly sweet. Tonight I'm wearing Fantasy.

Don't you smell GORGEOUS, this am !

[Therese of NYC- how nice to read that we wore the same, yesterday- that VS really holds up in the schvitz, doesn't it ?]

What a heinous, exhausting day yesterday was-
The good news: we didn't subject our children to it !
The bad news: I felt like a vulture; my mother alternately did not recognize me, then abused me, then repeated the sequence ad nauseam; I can't go on, really.
Out of descriptors for this long, harrowing ordeal. FEH !

Some WONDERFUL soul sent me a package from Schweinfurt- so, I spritzed Lann Ael's Lost'March on, and was 'deeply comforted' before sleep.
It smelled like childhood in a vial- [ without the beating, of course!]

Can you tell that I'm just a weeny bit blue , LOL?
Actually, not that bad- just SO tired.
I want to curl up with Jacob, and 'spoon' him, under my furry blankie.
Eat Gummy Colas.

Wordie- they fed him VERY well- lts of salads, vegetables- and PORK.
Bless my little Jewboy- he's a grand sport!
[Besides- although I could easily be vegetarian- AGAIN !- I can't believe that any Divinity would chastise someone for being polite to people who are trying to be hospitable...there are so many worse sins in this world !]
Tarte flambee- he could eat until it comes out of his ears.
A real nascher, that one.

Ah, me.

Counting the days until Friday, when I get to meet SMM !
[Honey, you tell me what perfume woulg give you pleasure, what kind of clothing...
And I'll do it !]

I''m going out to find some canines to snoogle.
and try another Lann Ael from Nina's samples.

Love you all !

Chaya - thanks for taking the time to post about your daily life; it´s like a mini diary, so nice to read!

Sorry about your Mom, hope she isn´t suffering too much, and that you won´t let yourself be upset. My late mother survived a major stroke when she was in her sixties, but her personality changed totally, and not for the better, so verbal abuse is too familiar for me.

Today I´m sampling Shocking (new). Thanks Q!

fleur de bulgarie for today's working/loathing of the people going diving/hoping the compressors work.

Humid and rain today. Actually, it's been raining a lot so far this summer -- our grass is very green, when it should be turning brown.

Celebrating the weather in L'Artisan's Voleur des Roses, on this lazy Sunday.

Thankfully, my mom (who's been gone for almost 2 years now) was good mentally...3 of my 4 grandparents had severe alzheimers, and now my dad. It's a difficult challenge, because those behaviors play games with your mind, and emotions - in the most unkind ways. Chaya (& musse), I sincerely hope your memories will be of comfort to you...

Today it's supposed to storm here, but as of right now it's sunny and mild!!! Hope it stays that way because we (husband, daughter & son) have tickets to see the Chicago White Sox baseball game at 1:00.

I'll be dabbing on some Angel (extrait)! Have an enjoyable Sunday all!!!

Heading out to an outdoor play where my 7-year old granddaughter will perform at church, so it will be hot and humid. Did not want to wear something that would overpower in the heat so I chose AL The Blanc as my SOTD. It's a beautiful scent with the tea scent just subtle enough to mix with just the subtlest floral that I can't identify.

Frederic Malle  L'Eau d'Hiver

Nina Ricci  Deci DelÃ*

Neil Morris Gotham.
Yesterday I organized all 90 of my sample vials by putting their names in the owned section of my wardrobe and taping labels on the new samples ( again, dimps!). Felt like reacquainting myself with NMG.

I'm counting my blessings for having gentle parents who aged in comparative grace, even if I lived with constant anxiety over their well-being for 30 years. I feel for you, chaya.

Sampling Nina (the new one) today. Hmmmmmm. Haven't made up my mind about this one yet. I wish the fruity opening lasted longer; it goes to soft vanilla ice cream covered in toffee sauce pretty quickly from there.

Hmmmmmm. Husband likes it

I'm wearing Il Profumo Musc Bleu today.

Chaya - Thank you for sharing your exprience with us. I know that my time is coming with my parents. I only hope I can move through the experience with the same level of grace.

Ubuandibeme - have a great time at the ball game. I went to see the White Sox the last time I was in Chicago - May 2006. Rain, sun, snow flurries, howling wind. But I had a great time and have a nice knit hat for a souvenir. (Would have been better if they were playing the Os, but I digress)......

Hanae Mori Butterfly today - a more sophisticated, slightly woodier Pink Sugar. Managed to get this as a sample from the friendly (and bored) SAs in the Sephora in Georgetown (Washington, DC) Will be an excellent nighttime scent.

Oh Chaya I'm going to try and make you laugh on Friday and forget about all of this for a little while.
As for what to wear fragrance wise, I am intrigued to sniff either of your Neil Morris namesakes or Venus Sands .
As for your clothing it is the person inside I am looking so forward to meeting on Friday so wear whatever makes you feel like having fun.
Since you and Chaya 2 were so intrigued by Yohji Homme on me that was what I was planning on wearing unless you have other ideas.

Today we are going to picnic and it looks like dodge raindrops so I'm going to wear:

Frederic Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire

Which makes me House Brother to Agent Provocateur

I brought comforting scents with me on this trip for my in-laws and have gotten compliments from my MIL on how good I smell so I guess the distraction is working.

Chaya, Musse; I truly understand. My mother, always unpredictable, was verbally abusive most of her life. Dementia made her kind! But I was unable to let go of a lifetime of unkindness. It is challenging to negotiate a relationship in which you can protect your core self and also not feel guilty about. Ultimately we do the best we can. For those of us with less-than-loving mothers, the most important thing to know is that we are not alone.

Quarry: I am wearing Nan Green today, trying to stay cool.

I stopped by the mall yesterday and got some samples at Sephora. So SotD today is:

Kenzo Peace

It is definitely recognizable as a relative to Amour. It is light, and starts sweet and fruity with what I think is a white musk base. After about 30 minutes, there is a hint of spicyness. I think the NowSmellThis review of this one was sort of mediocre. I'd agree that it is not outstanding, but it is a very wearable scent, and is different than the typical clean white musk offering due to its creamyness.

I have a job: I am my parents' keeper. It prevents me from taking much other work, because in their old age they want companionship and a third party to relate to and the ability to feel protected in case one should die and leave the other without symbiosis. There is also Alzheimer's creeping in, and the non-Alzheimer's parent drinks and threatens to move to Europe for a year--the last escape, the final refuge--and throws hedge trimmers across the lawn.

Hardly a day goes by without speculative discussion: When things change...I am moving to London. But they might not change, and that's why I need you here, to take care of her (the dwindled fortune a wind in the closet and beans in the larder, plenty of them).

How does one handle such ruminations with ease? You don't. You are too young, your mother says, to appreciate it. My father hangs up on the burial insurance telemarketers who prey on retired snowbirds: I'll bury YOU! he shouts into the phone.

So, Chaya, I can empathize. But you do what you have to do and move forward nonetheless, an inch at a time, like learning to walk again but with stones in your shoes that cannot be removed because they are part of your foot.

I am wearing Theorema in the blistering heat; the right scent on the wrong day.

No. 5 EDP

L'Artisan Dzongkha as SotE.

It's like burying my face into and inhaling deeply the decades of incense and beeswax candle smoke saturating a cathedral's woven wall hanging.

Positive energy flowing toward all you care givers - the Universe recognizes and absorbs your lovingkindness. (And I do too.)

Orion - under what name do you publish!!! And where can we buy it??!!

Tinks - that smiley is too much!!

And KBE - I get that affect from Avignon, too.

Thanks to Carlita's thread on sea/salty summer scents http://community.basenotes.net/showthread.php?t=212818- I'm on a hunt. Discovered I've got a sample of Profumum Aqua di Sale - started out a bit flowery (must be the myrtle) but is settling nicely into a sort of suntanlotion-y remembrance. Not getting much of the dank seaweed 'n' salt effect I was hoping for. Not bad. Not to die for.

My father has Alzheimer's. For the first twenty years of my life, he was a verbally abusive, extremely arrrogant man. He made life anxiety-ridden and depressing for my mother, my two brothers and me. Now, years later with the disease presenting, and insidiously progressing, my father is mostly gentle. Oh he has his angry moments, with outbursts as he did all my life before. But he is now incapable of arrogance, the trait that defined him all those years. He has been humbled in Alzheimer's wake, and can finally admit that he appreciates people. I sometimes feel guilty that I enjoy being with my father now in his deteriorating state, where I never could when he was healthy. Aint life ironic!!

I feel for you Chaya and Musse. Although your situations may be different, I know it must be hard.

Getting back to topic...My SotD was Hermes - Caleche Fleurs de Mediterranee and my SotE is mugler - Alien.

It's been very Hot and humid....I went with Jaguar Pour Homme Extreme.....Which is a very lite and fruity scent.
Gary

Mousie-
I am sorry for you, in your situation !
So very painful to be abused, in any way.
It is clear that you treat your own children very differently !


Orion- you write very evocatively and eloquently, from your own experience. I can feel the weight you carry.You are absolutely right about the stones in your shoe...I wish you only the best and kindest of true friends, who will help you in your life as fellow caryatid.
[I'm not going anywhere, if you ever need to talk...]

Pomander: Odd as it seems, your father's transformation is a perverse gift , making now possible a level of comfort that never existed before this. Don't feel guilty !
You didn't create the scenario- and if it enables healing, it's a blessing indeed, however strange.
Life is rife with irony, isn't it ?

Therese:
I'm sad about your own mother; it was bizarre that dementia rendered her more gentle; I'm only sorry that it was too late for you both, at that time.
Has it gotten any better, lately ?
My loving thoughts are with you.

Since everyone posted, we had to empty the trunk of our car.
Unbeknownst to me [ and him], my DH had included some writings my mother had saved, from elementary school years.
Undeniable, irrefutable proof of cruelty, written by a 9 year old, as school compositions.
Chilled me, thoroughly.

It's not about forgiveness- I did that, long ago.
But to see proof that it always existed, that you didn't exaggerate,or 'enhance' it in any way...
And that it was apparent for all to see-
It just chills me.

I am a witness to the suffering of others-
In private, in public, by profession, by avocation.
At home, on the street, in the subway, at the hospital.
Life has prepared me well-
But it's one hell of a weird karma...

SOTE: Liu edp.
I found unopened vials of 'goodies' I'd decanted and sent, untouched.

Bless you, dear folks.
No one's life is pristine, eh ?

Chaya -Thank you for your caring words. I'm guessing you must be an angel on Earth.

I totally get what you said about reading your writings from when you were nine, and that although you were chilled, you found valdation in the words you had written. You've obviously refused to let the past take you down and have made good of your hard knocks by helping others with an advantage of empathy.

Orion, Therese, Musse and anyone else who has experienced an abusive parent and/or one with Alzhiemers, I'm sending supporting thoughts to you. We all have our crosses to bear, eh?

Even though I'm very late in posting, I just wanted to give hugs to all,

I'm no late for this Sunday SotD because I was out at a friend's 21st! My boyfriend came down to visit me and go to the party, and we also watched The Dark Knight - fantastic! I couldn't have wished for a more beautiful fragrance than SL Un Bois Vanille, to wear with my sexy black knit dress.

La Chasse Aux Papillons by LArtisan

Just returned from seeing the best Batman movie yet. Scent twins with sakecat in Hanae Mori Butterfly today.

((((((((Hugs)))))))) to Chaya and all of you who have lived with abusive parents. I had a similar upbringing so I know it's a hard and painful road.

Shared the house with Tavorna - Serge Lutens Datura Noir.

Even though it's now Monday, I wanted to chime in after reading all the moving posts by so many of you, Chaya, Orion, Therese, Musse. My heart goes out to all of you. I too am the caretaker for my mother who will be 92 on Saturday. In our case, thank God, her mind is as sharp as tacks and sometimes remembers more than I do. Her body is frail but gets around pretty well, she had dual hip replacement at 87 years old! The burden comes in in that all of a sudden, when your kids have grown and you are free to go and do as you please, you can't because you cannot leave this peson alone. It's not easy for my husband and I who are very socially active to be tied down. I have 3 brothers, two live here and one lives in another state. One of the ones here, along with his wife, do take her for weekends on a regular basis to give us a break. The other one limits himself to visiting once a week for a couple of hours and never takes her to his house or anywhere else for that matter. Our biggest challenge is making arrangements when we want to travel. I'm not complaining, though, after reading these posts. Warm hugs and energy to all!

On another note, I decided to try AvaLuxe Shisha as my SOTE. Guess what, I found it stifling and way too strong on me. I ended up having to wash my arms before bed... First of her fragrances tested so far that I don't enjoy.

Sa majeste la rose for today