I don’t have a need for a desktop telescope, who does?  Actually, if you know someone that does, I’d like to be introduced; now that has to be an interesting individual, right?  This was on One Kings Lane today for a hair under $50.  I considered buying it even though I don’t usually succumb to trivial purchases, but it’s darling.  I love anything presented as a ridiculously smaller version of its original incarnation. I have no idea why this is, but that’s who I am, I am owning my peccadillo. 

I sent my lovely friend Jules these candles the other day as part of her birthday gift, they are test candles for the upcoming launch of the Besotted Brand apothecary offerings. I made a batch for a charity sale I committed to a few weeks back. When I agreed to participate I was under the delusional impression that I would be able to launch a new business, get married and create an entire line of apothecary offerings in 8 weeks. Unfortunately, math has never been my strong suit. I wasn’t ready for the sale, or as ready as my perfectionist self would have preferred, after all it took me three years to launch a business that I thought I would launch, uh, three years ago, I wanted everything to be perfect when I launched when I know (perfectly) well that nothing is perfect. I have been playing with variations on the packaging, I sourced the best glass it’s thick, really thick (completely recycled), I am sure the mailman thought I was sending Jules an anvil or something. So you have this heavy glass with over half a pound of the finest hand-poured natural wax in each container and you have something that is going to cost you a gold eye-tooth if you want it sent internationally.  There’s also over an ounce of essential oil and parfum grade fragrance oil in each pound of wax, so that makes them too expensive to sell retail. Sigh.  The concept for the first offerings of the apothecary are nature identical scents, I have worked tirelessly for years (yes, years) to create some of these offerings.  I am pretty convinced that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between my tuberose fragrance and a cut tuberose if you were blindfolded and walked into a tuberose sniff test. My gardenia needs work, but it’s not too bad as far as scents go, it needs to be creamier but it’s this close. One of the candles I made was Meyer lemon, it’s really fresh and doesn’t have that synthetic note of cleaning solution that you often get when trying to work with lemon. I am coo coo for Clementines, that smell to me is the equivalent of happy, it’s one of the only essential oils that I work with that actually smells like the source it came from. Rose is eluding me, one day I shall conquer it and make something bright and fresh and in one fell swoop dispel the ‘old lady’ reputation that rose parfum has. It’s a process my friends, Rome wasn’t built in a day and if I was in control of that project, well Rome would still be just a twinkle in Italy’s eye.

I can’t find the perfect (read almost free) industrial lamp for my studio space so I Googled ‘cheap industrial lamps’ and this awesome DIY popped up. I have always abhorred naked bulbs, that is until the Edison bulbs came on the scene (or should I write came back on the scene), those I can get behind, bare  bulb and all. I think these would look great in a cluster as a mock chandelier.  I took the liberty to track down some resources for all of you industrial light enthusiasts. Let me know if you make one (or twelve,) I would love to see!

Some people don’t like squirrels, I was once part of that minority. Well, let me clarify, I didn’t dislike them, I was scared of them. I went to a school that had a squirrel problem, no one addressed it.  It made me feel a bit like a loon, I would think, am I the only individual on this campus that notices that we have a squirrel to human ratio disadvantage? These squirrels were bold, I was always afraid that one of them would one day decide my ankles looked delicious. They walked with the flow of traffic right by your side, not in a friendly I am cute way, but in a ‘I know you have a sandwich in your backpack’ way. It took me a long time to get over my fear. I rarely see squirrels in Los Angeles it seems they prefer to live by the ocean, psk, who doesn’t? Squirrels are smart. I saw this photograph by Allison Trentleman and first thing I thought was ‘cute’. I even did a search for cute animals and this photograph came up, so it validated my initial thought. 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and this week proves to be awesome.

This gorgeous Merchant & Mills retailer display was my design inspiration for my studio makeover. I wanted to take photos of the new space but I have a rather annoying light fixture that I need to tackle, the current one is way too mod (its a white chandelier-ish thing that came with the space). We are moving soon so I don’t want to invest in anything too permanent, but I can’t take photographs with this albatross in the center of my space either now can I? I have been eyeing an overhead fixture at Ikea but its been sold out at the one near me, I would like something like this. I’ll spill the beans and let you know I painted one wall with magnetic paint (total waste of time and money, doesn’t work) and over the useless magnetic paint a beautiful chalkboard paint. The paint is a winner in my book.  I originally bought the Benjamin Moore chalkboard paint which is more a dark gray than a deep black. It could of been cool if that’s what I was looking for but I wasn’t so I went back to the paint store and picked up the Rustoleum version (fabulous). Okay, I should note here that the color is rich and inky, but I don’t know how it performs as a chalkboard because I love it in it’s pristine state and don’t want to ruin it with my dusty little fingers. I will one day, but for today I love it clean and perfect. I was going to order one of Shauna Murray’s decals but trying to decide which one I wanted proved to be more decision power than I have in me at this current moment. Has anyone ordered a decal from her? If so which one?