Jump to content
Post-Update: Forum Issues Read more... ×
BPAL Madness!

Blogs

Featured Entries

  • Silvertree

    Mod post: No wishlist posts in blogs

    By Silvertree

    Please be aware that we do not permit swap-related content on profiles or in blogs. Please post this content only in the For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted forums, or in the Wishlists topic. ~from Swapping 101  Thanks!
    • 5 comments
    • 6,603 views
 

Rather Like Rather Much...

I Have and rather like (but still potentially swappable...) Holiday Moon (decant) :A Little Lunacy: This oil was only available for purchase for roughly 24 hours, begining 12/15/2005. Bamboo pulp and oude with green and white tea. Antony the green hills and grasses of the battlefields, the resinous incense from the prayers to his Gods, and a touch of the musky leather of his armor. Ambergris and frankincense with sage, and basil. Lurid Oberon orchid, white musk, bergamot, juniper berries, patchouli Nefertiti Egyptian iris and olibanum with red and white sandalwood, soft myrrh and a breath of North African herbs Desire Bliss the serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate EDEN fig, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandlewood. THE HANGING GARDENS This perfume is an interpretation of the Hanging Gardens by night, based on further accounts of its fruit and flora: date palm, ebony, fir, pomegranate, plum, two pears, quince, fig, and grapevine with plumeria, three gardenias and dry rose. MACHU PICCHU Sweet tropical fruits burst through deep, wet rainforest boughs, enormous steamy blossoms, over thin mountaintop breezes, mingled with the soft, rich golden scent of Peruvian amber. NAMASTE A Sanskrit blessing and word of greeting that bears a powerful symbolism. It represents the Oneness of all of existence, the union of matter and spirit, perfect wholeness. It is accompanied by a gesture: Anjali -- hands pressed together, fingertips heavenward, pressed together over the heart's chakra. This oil blend is a serene, soothing Indian blend, created to bring calm and joy to the heart and peace to the spirit. Sandalwood, jasmine, rose, patchouli, cedarwood and lemongrass.   COYOTE The Native American Creator / Trickster God of Chaos and Change. The warmth of doeskin, dry plains grasses and soft, dusty woods warmed by amber and a downy, gentle coat of deep musk. Gaueko Blackened sandalwood and misty lavender, with curling wisps of smoky tobacco, nag champa, and labdanum.

wendymehndi

wendymehndi

 

Need to decide

I Have and need to try, or to still decide... Umbra-East African black patchouli, cedarwood, vetiver and a dribble of cinnamon. Ulalume Red Devil Danse Macabre Dragon's Milk Eden fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood. Suspiro Ylang ylang with white plum, white orchid, jasmine, calla lily and lily of the valley. Freak Show (decant) fig, pomegranate and cocoa bean with lemon, bergamot, vanilla, mellow honey musk, calamus and tonka. Oberon Thanatos myrrh, Moroccan rose, mastic, tomb moss and a thin whiff of Greek incense. Machu Picchu Sweet tropical fruits burst through deep, wet rainforest boughs, enormous steamy blossoms, over thin mountaintop breezes, mingled with the soft, rich golden scent of Peruvian amber. Black Lotus Melpomene Kathmandu Marquise de Merteuil La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente Soft, lush myrtle and dry, sweet melilot with wild rose, pomegranate juice and peach blossom against a background of deep aquatic notes and a twirl of melancholy autumn breezes. Arcana Frankincense, rosemary, lavender, neroli, and verbena. Tintagel Spicy mulled wine flowing through the musky heat, warm leather and bright clash of armor, the damp branches of Cornish hawthorn, blackthorn, juniper, English elm and bayberry, and the magical tingle of dragon's blood resin.

wendymehndi

wendymehndi

 

Nope - no way - not for me!

Impies I Have, but they don't work for me So if ya see something ya like, let's swap! Make an offer...   Muse A light, invigorating floral and citrus blend. Tuberose, lotus and jasmine with a hint of lime. Medicine Show (decant) tobacco, balsam, ginger, elemi and rosewood, with a touch of opium to fuddle your senses. Czernobog A combination of three musks, with splashes of dark myrrh, vetiver and mullein. LE SERPENT QUI DANSE Violet entwined with vanilla and gardenia. Satyr Unleash the bawdy, unrestrained passion of the satyr! A ferociously masculine scent: sexual, vigorous, and truly wild.

wendymehndi

wendymehndi

 

Randomly naughty shots of tequila

When you're out shopping for the lingerie with your man-thing or woman-thing or another girlfriend or a gay guy-friend, here's something to get a good laugh, or at the very least, a stunned look:   So you pick up the item -- the bustier, the panties, the bra, the frou-frou nightie, whatever floats your boat, and you hold it up in front of you and say: "Gee, I wonder how this will look?" The person you're with is going to mumble some sort of response. Then you take the garment and rather insouciantly toss it somewhere. I know the staff at most places might get a little fussy if you toss it on the floor, so toss it on a lower display rack or a countertop. Then you lean over, look down at it and say: "Oh, it's going to look divine laying on the floor!"   I know, I know, a lot of the underthingies that I buy are very functional and I want them to fit well to hold the girls in line and avoid VPL on the bottom, but it's a fun thing to do with an unsuspecting companion.   Speaking of underthings, I was at Victoria's Secret the other day and saw, on the sale rack, a bustier with a pin-up girl design on it. It was a size small, and there's no way that I'm a small. I have the shoulders and ribcage of a Soviet bloc swimmer. Well, maybe not quite that wide, but wide enough. I'm broad from the front, but narrow from the side. I know a woman who's built like me, but she's a bit thicker from the side. Not fat, she just has more volume than me. And her boobs aren't as big as mine, but she looks like she has two missiles jutting from her chest. They remind me of a horizontal version of the Grand Teton mountain range. She causes car wrecks.   I was at a party last night, end of the legislature. OK kids, I'm on the dark side of my 40's, but I'm well-preserved. I can pass for about 10 years younger than my chronological age. So one of my coworkers bought me a shot of tequila, because that's what I wanted. I decided a bit later to get some water, and went back to the bar. A really young guy who works down the hall from me came up and started giving me crap for getting water. I told him that I'd had a shot and I needed water. He thought it was so fucking cool that I'd had a shot, that he got a shot for himself and a shot for me. Somehow he made reference to younger men-older women. I told him to call me Mrs. Robinson. I asked him if he'd seen "The Graduate" and he told me that he hadn't, but he'd probably rent it on his way home.   So you know what my take is on this guy? He's probably gay. I mean, there are boatloads of gorgeous young women in their 20's in this building. As a guy in my office says, they're just smokin' hot. What is this guy doing, saying that crap to me when there's eye candy all around? And it's not like he's a total zero -- in fact, he's outgoing and kind of cute, but he's always pinged my gay-dar and now I'm even more convinced.   But he bought me a shot of tequila, so who am I to bitch??

valentina

valentina

 

Divided, We Fall

Snarky's feeling very torn today.   The house inspection was mostly good, with a few somewhat glaring Need-to-Fix-Before-Moving-In issues (leaky faucets, bad wiring).   She and The Mister have been left to marinate in the juices of an extremely thorough inspection report and whatever else that $1000 got them until Thursday evening, when they will meet with their agent to discuss any addendums to their offer.   Since another offer for $20,000 more is waiting in the wings, odds are the sellers will simply back out of the deal and move on to the next fish. Snarky is working hard to be OK with this, even though she's spent the last week mentally placing furniture and having Special Moments in every nook and cranny of this house.   She took over seventy pictures of the place during the inspection, for goodness sakes.   On the upside, her boobies have been deemed perfectly healthy (if maybe just a wee bit lopsided) and she is fairly confident that her lovely "modesty mole"'s (by which she used to determine the level of raciness of various necklines) biopsy will also come back clean.   Snarky was going to extoll the benefits of an anxiety based weight loss plan... but she just succumbed to the siren call of chocolate chip cookies, so apparently that point is not only moot, but revoked.

darkitysnark

darkitysnark

 

Quickie job bitch'n'moan

I've had a spate of aggressive sales-type people call for all manner of things: pitching a payroll service, hiring them as a salesperson or a Director, etc. I try to be pleasant but firm, and it's in one ear and out the other. I especially like when they try to get people's phone numbers and I guess I'm supposed to be all, "Oh, here's everyone's personal numbers, just because you asked for it."   I'm especially impressed with the lady today who seemed to be eating during the entire call. I don't know how she managed to interrogate me, write everything I say down and eat what sounded like a burrito. Really endearing.   My biggest fear is that I'll lose my temper and they'll end up being hired, and forevermore see me as that rude girl in HR who's nasty on the phone. Heh.

dawndie

dawndie

 

lots of stuff

Today was such a nice day... it's 8:30 p.m. and it's still 68 degrees outside! At work today, I actually got to spend most of my shift outside. The restaurant I work at is having "half price coney" day, which means lots and lots of customers, so the manager has been on a huge cleaning spree. I got to rake the picnic area outside, and it was so nice to be outside!   I did get annoyed with myself today... I had to listen to my crush and another coworker talk all about a third girl who my crush has a crush on. I felt myself getting jealous, which is totally unjustified. He's not mine... why should I feel jealous he likes another girl? Yet I did/do.   But, I'm stressed about tomorrow, too. Well not stressed, just not looking forward to it. We're going to be slammed, and my general manager will be a pain in the ass.     I do have a fun evening to look forward to, though! I'm going to see Slave to the System. It's been so long since I've been to a live show, I can't wait!!!   And I'm excited, I just ordered my first t-shirt from the Trading Post, the beautiful new Dragon Moon tee!!

littletingoddess

littletingoddess

 

My favorite Dorothy Parker quotes

My signature line is a favorite Dorothy Parker quote, one of the finest declarations regarding lingerie that I've ever read. Dorothy was a writer, and of course an amazing wit with an acid tongue. Suicidal and alcoholic too, but also funny and smart and ahead of her time. Here's more Dorothy Parker quotes:   There's a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.   He and I had an office so tiny that an inch smaller and it would have been adultery.   I require only three things of a man. He must be handsome, ruthless and stupid.   His voice was intimate as the rustle of sheets.   Take care of luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.   It serves me right for keeping all my eggs in one bastard.   All I need is room enough to lay a hat and a few friends.   You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.   I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.   She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.   I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three I'm under the table, after four I'm under my host.   (In answer to what she'd like for breakfast) Just something light and easy to fix. How about a dear little whiskey sour?  

valentina

valentina

 

Snake Charmer

Oh, crap, the regret hits bad. I can't believe I'm saying this but I will probably make a second order before the end of the Dragon Moon Update even through I promised I wouldn't... Snake Charmer: Arabian Musk. Benzoin. Egyptian Amber. Coconut and Plum be damned, I do think I must have a bottle.   I will be extremely broke for so long.
 

Dragon Moon Order Assessment

My Dragon Moon Order   Bottles:   Dragon Moon I was hoping for something of a darker, more serpentine feel in notes (not watery in feel as what I would describe as watery tends to have mixed results on me) but I am excited by the prospect of the combination of tea leaf/dragon's blood resin/sandalwood, so I'll just wait and see how this turns out on my dastardly skin chemistry.   Pluto I've been waiting to buy this for a long time. Not only do I have an unusual fondness for this planet in particular, but I'm also excited by the (very) widely ranged reviews on this one. I am a fan of 'metallic' notes, through many reviews on Pluto have also made this out to be semi-aquatic in feel. I have my fingers crossed...   Gypsy Queen I was debating on whether to pick up Gypsy Queen or Snake Charmer and I chose Gypsy Queen. My skin chemistry has not had good results with black plum and coconut so I was iffy on Snake Charmer for this, but then again, many of the reviews for Gypsy Queen describe her as being heavily or primarily 'floral' (which my skin chemistry also has mixed results with) so there were possible cons here as well. But then again, Snake Charmer also had benzoin, arabian musk, and Egyptian amber, all of which I love, so I must admit that the choice to take Gypsy Queen over Snake Charmer into the shopping cart was more difficult than I'd originally anticipated. However, I am an incense fan, so the mention of incense in Gypsy Queen's description (and in the reviews) was ultimately the tipping point on the scale for me.   The Tell-Tale Heart I have a decanted imp of this and love it, despite my initial weariness of the cocoa note in the description (the cocoa barely shows up at all, and what does show up is not a 'foody' cocoa note, if that makes sense). I purchased this with my Dragon Moon order to make sure I didn't forget to do so before the Maelstrom section goes down May 1st (yes, I'm so absent-minded as to actually do that ).   --------   Imps:   Initially, I did plan to include a six-pack of catalogue imps with this order, but found I hadn't quite calculated Gypsy Queen into the scheme of things money-wise, so the poor, little imps just didn't make it into the shopping cart this time around.
 

a bit bolder... and I was wearing "Lust"!

This afternoon, because it's sooo beautiful outside, my daughter and I went to the park to take silly pictures. On the way home, she asks if we can stop by the gas station we're passing to get something to drink. But, what's this? The party store that Brad has a second job at? Hmm... let's stop there! And since I had the camera with me... I made a joke about taking his picture, he laughed and posed, and voila! I don't plan on making it into poster size, or using it to make a shrine to him or anything... but it's nice to have that file hidden away on my computer now, nonetheless.   Hmmm... wonder if the Lust empowered me? LOL

littletingoddess

littletingoddess

 

update purchase!

Yes, I'm becoming more and more addicted to BPAL.. this is the second update/limited edition purchase I've made. A couple weeks ago, it was the panty monster. Today, I purchased Midway and Medicine Show. I can't wait to get all of these wonderful smellies!! And I need to get sellin' on Ebay, because the balance on my Paypal account is dwindling!

littletingoddess

littletingoddess

 

Early BPAL update

What a surprise to get the update today instead of Thursday! This morning as I'm hopping in the shower I'm thinking, "3 more days until the update, then I'll place my next order. What'll it be?" Pretty exciting thoughts for the shower, hmm?   I'm so pleased to see the grapefruit scents back! Thanks to the lovely MichelleM at the last Meet-n-Sniff I got to test Baobhan Sith, which was very peppy and went on my Big Bottle list, but since it was DC I wasn't expecting to ever find it. I barely got to test Cheshire Cat last year, as I took a new imp to work and then dropped and broke it, but what I tried smelled nice. And all those Mad Tea Party additions! That's one of my favorite sections; King of Hearts, Mouse's Tale, Tweedledee and Tweedledum all sound great and I'll be keeping an eye out for reviews.   On top of that, the planets aligned and I received last month's order today. I love seeing that little red, white & blue box on the porch. I received Monster Bait: Closet (a creamy yummy blackberry), The Masque and Montresor (which I had sniffed before, thanks to the lovely jj_j at our last Meet-n-Sniff, and knew I wanted bottles before they disappeared). Plus frimps, all from the A's and B's, 4 of which I've never tried. I love that aspect too, to be able to receive random scents that you wouldn't pick out on your own.   What is it about these little glass bottles of smellies that is so fascinating? Sure, I place orders with lots of companies online, but nothing compares to the excitement of seeing an update, deciding on orders, and anticipating these oils.   I placed my monthly order, but it was for the Seamus statue with Hellion. The LEs on this update weren't tempting enough; Dragon Moon sounded OK, but dragon's blood goes quite floral and strong on me and tends to overwhelm. I haven't gotten into the Celestials. And I tried everything I wanted to in the Carnaval Noir series and have bottles of my favorites: Midway, Snake Charmer and Gypsy Queen. So what better time to invite an imp into my home, holding a 10ml no less?

dawndie

dawndie

 

Brad Pitt's mental health

And I'd almost (hear me? almost) bet a bottle of Monster in my Panties that you're thinking I'm going to go off on a rant about Brad dumping poor Jen for naughty-pants Angelina.   But I'm not.   Jen projects such a damn normal image that I have to wonder if she isn't a seething cauldron of weirdness, and Angelina is so out there with her weirdness that she may have less frightening shit lurking beneath the surface. I don't know; you have to live with 'em to really know.   But what I'm talking about is Brad's tendency to make himself look like his sweetie-pie of the moment. When he was dating Gwyneth and she cut her hair, he ended up with this blond floppy side-part haircut. I'm rather surprised he didn't sport wee little barettes in his hair, as did La Gwyneth.   When he was with Jen, he had to go through that suntanned and highlighted and immacuately-groomed stage. Jen should have seen trouble brewing when he stopped giving a shit if he looked like her.   Now with Angelina, he's kinda pale, dyed his hair really dark and looks like the earnest crusader for UNICEF efforts that his jeans, t-shirts and backwards ball caps.   I want to say: "You're Brad fucking Pitt! Why do you need to make yourself look like someone else?" It just boggles the mind.

valentina

valentina

 

THANK YOU!

ETA: This was from April 10.   I can't find the appropriate thread right now so I'm putting this here.   Holy fricking crap. This has been one of the best days I've had in a long time. I'm thinking it ranks right up there with the day we brought our puppy Prudence home.   I had so many packages delivered today that the mailman left one of those plastic mail bins outside my front door. And this is what was in it:   My March update order with 5mLs of Peony Moon, the two Monster Baits, Saturn, and Uranus. And 3 imp packs with imps of all but two of the March GC updates, plus 13 frimps. YAY!   I also got packages from herbhealer (Thunderbird!!) and sheila (with tons of stuff off my wishlist that I bought from her, including a 5mL of Beatrice, which is now my spring scent!).   In addition to that, I got my "mystery box" from eBay, which had in it decants of Peony Moon and the Monster Baits! Plus tons of other stuff too, including 7 BPAL imps!   I also got my fabulous order from Arcana, with soaps and perfume oils, and they frimped me a couple of oils plus a free big bar of Dia de los Muertos soap!   And here is where I'm saving the best for last. I got a total of 13 decants that I bought from lorajc, including these: Snowblind, Skadi, Queen of Spades , and FORMULA 54.   This has been my BEST BPAL DAY EVER!!!!   Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who sent me these great packages!!!

filigree_shadow

filigree_shadow

 

Order placed~ 4/10/06

Dragon's Moon Enraged Bunny Musk Pluto Neptune Imp pack #1: Eat Me, King of Hearts, Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, The Pool of Tears, Tweedledum, Tweedledee Imp pack #2: Baobhan Sith, Cheshire Cat, Phobos, Shattered, Hurricane, Undertow

Alannah

Alannah

 

Home, for good this time.

I got home from Atlanta yesterday.   I was there for a weeklong exam-prep seminar. I've mentioned on the forum that I am an actuary, midway through the 9 exam process of becoming fully credentialed as a Fellow of the Casualty Actuary Society.   So, this exam covers a number of topics: Loss Modeling
Survival Models
Credibility Theory
Simulation
Interpolation and fitting
It took 4.5 full days to take a sprint through all of the material, including problem solving techniques. I would guess that the material covered would take about 3 full semester college classes. Unfortunately, outside of a handful of colleges with actuarial science programs (which generally only prepare people for the first 4 exams, anyway), the whole actuarial exam thing is all self-study. I've been studying for two months now, and the seminar I went to was basically an opportunity to fine tune which topics need more study, and to learn useful clues to look for in the wording of problems to simplify solving.   I have 5 weeks left before the exam. I have scheduled for myself 32 hours a week outside of work for studying: 4 hours per day - Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri
Tursday nights off for dance class and sanity
8 Hours per day Saturday and Sunday
Ooof. This is going to be a rough 5 weeks. To get in at least *some* excercise, I am planning morning yoga a couple of mornings a week. I'm home for lunch today, and doing laundry. I will have to fit chores in at odd times, and will be needing all of my boyfriend's support. He's a sweetie though, and very understanding.   I was talking to a number of actuarial students this past week whose spouses/partners didn't get it. Like, "Come on honey, you've been studying for like 2 hours. I'm sure you'll be fine. Put it down and spend time with me!" That's the nasty part, most study guides say that it takes 300-500 hours of study time to pass each of these exams. That takes a lot more than 2 hours each saturday morning. I had a boyfriend like that, and my abject misery at failing exams over and over didn't help the relationship any.   Anyway, I have to go move the laundry to the dryer and head back to work. Oof.

antimony

antimony

 

A Full Dance Card

Some of her distractions are also things from which she wanted to be distracted in the first place, though they tend to fall solidly on the "stess" side of the stress/eustress delineation.   Still, she feels better knowing that her days are filled with deadlines and potential outcomes.   Thanks to the forum, she's got Spring Switch Witch, Year-Long Deco books, and a brewing craft-for-smellies swappathon to distract her from the ongoing house saga (a frothy mix of one part stress to one part eustress mixed together with the swizzle stick of sticker shock) and upcoming followup mammogram.   Mister Snark has been wondefully calm and supportive on both all-consuming, thought and time-stealing topics. She's a bit frightened to find that she is losing her memory of a time without him. Her vaunted (and often cursed) independence harumphs and settles down on the sidelines.   She's layered LUSH's Skinny Dip buttercreme with Faustus to give herself a violet-tinged boost of assertiveness. They will get that house. And she will be healthy, whole, uncorrupted.

darkitysnark

darkitysnark

 

Switch Witch and randomness

Yay Switch witch is starting. I got an email from my witch. It was cute and brightened my day.   My person has such a cool list....I almost don't know where to start. She is kinda young so I hope I don't send her old fogie stuff...LOL     As for the update...oh my acheing wallet.   I should know better than to have a list. I almost never stick to it.   I got Dragon Moon Snake chamer (x2) Gypsy Queen Belaine Shattered Blood pearl   and the imp pack my hubby wanted.   I am so bad. LOL I think I am covered this month..I have talked about doing another order on the 20th..but I think 6 scents are e nough for one month. I need to clean out my bpal box anyway...I got a few that just don't do anything for me   Carnavle Torture King Moon Rose Red Pheomix Gamorrah   Just don't do anything for me. It is sad because I really wanted to like Gamorrah. I live in the bible belt and was just dying to wear it out so someone could ask me what I am wearing.   Oh well....I so need to write a few more reviews....

poisonapple

poisonapple

 

Colds are TehSux

So I woke up this morning feeling as though I had been run over by a bus. Blegh. Thought maybe I had just not slept very well but it turns out I have a cold. Headache, sore throat, sniffles, body aches...the whole shebang. I've been drinking lots of EmergenC and TheBoy made some tasty soup for me for dinner, with lots of garlic. He's a nice Boy.   Spent a lot of the day on the couch, perusing the forum and the Spectra.net forum that I just joined. Mmmmm...MAC makeup goodness.   I hope I feel better tomorrow. I hate being sick. I'm one of those people who feels guilty relaxing and resting even when I'm supposed to, like when I'm sick. It makes me restless.   PS: The rain can stop anytime now...I'd like to put in a vote for some nice sunshiny springtime weather...if any of the weather gods/goddess are listening.

LunaDragonGirl

LunaDragonGirl

 

Make it magnificent

My super-favorite purchase of the moment: Blondie greatest hits with videos! I had a couple CDs already but couldn't resist getting a DVD of old videos. They're so much fun -- it looks like they woke up and said, "Let's make a video!" And Blondie dresses up in a Hefty trash bag and a bathing suit and some electrical tape and tube socks and Candies and they make a video. So great! Can I be Blondie? No? Damn.

dawndie

dawndie

 

DISCOUNTANIMEDVD.COM

http://www.discountanimedvd.com/   ....Damn, I just made an order from here a few days ago, and now the final dvd of the anime series Melody of Oblivion has just arrived in stock...early! The sixth volume was not supposed to be released until 4/25...*headdesk*   And here I just spent all of my anime budget money (yes, I factor this into my budget monthly ) on discountanimedvd's graphic novel sale...! *Hits head to desk again*
×