I just arranged my first MUA swap in ages. I will be getting a bottle of LUSH Karma, for free! Well, I have to send the other person a bottle of fragrance, but it's something I never wear, so it's a win-win situation.

It's kind of funny -- I have 238 swap tokens at MUA, from my heydey of 2003-2005 when I was really "into" high end and niche fragrances and was swapping, RAOKing and decanting like a madwoman. When I look back on those days, I realize I must have spent at least six hours a week just on swapping, sampling and "maintaining" my collection. For a variety of reasons, I drifted away from MUA in the summer of 2005 and haven't been as interested in (commercial) perfume ever since. It's like the obsession just burned itself out. I became interested in BPAL in 2005 and I've been "into" it ever since, but not to the strange, obsessive degree I was about perfume on MUA.

I used to not be that interested in LUSH but I've changed my mind. I got all kinds of awesome deals at their sale last week; I now have enough soap and bath bombs/bubble bars to keep me clean for the rest of the year. I've discovered their skin care is pretty nice as well; I really like Angels on Bare Skin and Skin's Shangri-La. And the Karma Komba shampoo solid is to die for. It smells great and made my (long-ish, fine and limp, color-treated) hair fluffy, shiny and soft.

Today I'm home with the kids all day; I hope to get some housework done as well and maybe place a DHC order. They're having a sale and I need to pick up a few items. My skin is starting to get that winter dullness/dryness/sensitivity and redness it always does, so it's time for some new products. I'd also like to do some reading; seems like it's been ages since I curled up with a good book, uninterrupted.

I'd like to do something fun this weekend but DH and I are still kind of on the outs. If nothing else, I want to go to dinner at my favorite restaurant and do a little shopping, and I guess I can do that by myself or with a friend if necessary. I'm not sure how the weather will hold up; I wonder if we'll have more snow on the way. A lot of people hate the wintertime in Chicago but I find it tolerable. I'll be sick of it by March, but right now the snow is enough of a novelty that it doesn't bother me much. It's certainly preferable to super-hot temperatures.