Happy Valentine’s Day: (In an anime, this is called a filler episode)

Posted on by elemonated

So over the holidays since I had and still have no money, I just made a ton of baked goods to bring to parties and treat my friends. Mr. Chokkattu’s favorite cookie is the gingersnap, small and crispy and normally purchased for like $6 from the store only to be demolished in 2 hours or less.

If your significant other is similar, you should try this cookie recipe and maybe buy yourself a heart cookie cutter.

Happy Valentine’s Day Mr. Chokkattu.

I adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, whom I’ve followed for at least 5 years now if not more, who adapted it from other recipes herself.

Mr. Chokkattu was upset when I started to pack cookies for my family and his family. He was under the impression that all of the gingersnaps I made would be going exclusively to him during the holidays.
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Ellis Brooklyn Myth Review

Posted on by elemonated

I think it’s that citrus-y and herbaceous bergamot on top of the cassis that makes this one almost scrumptious, or at least very tangible on the tongue.

Myth is “Bergamot, cassis and jasmine petals makes a first impression before lingering with patchouli, liquid musks and white cedarwood.”

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It doesn’t matter that pineapple and mango and melon aren’t listed as notes. Whatever the cassis was supposed to provide turns into a way more tropical fruity note. Like a mango or melon Hi-Chew. Myth smells like a twist on a mimosa with the brunchiest, Instagram-friendly accouterments: sunshine, lily petals strewn around the base of the glass and a few thrown in the glass itself for good measure, served on a coaster because the wood for table that was chosen doesn’t actually hold up to the function it was purchased to serve. Read More

Room 1015’s Power Ballad

Posted on by elemonated

I got Room 1015 Power Ballad through Scentbird for my October choice. Click the link for my referral if you’re interested in trying out the service.

The midterms have gotten me particularly emotional for one reason or another. I’m just a little bit closer to it this week than I have been, I guess. Shout-out to the girls I met from Alabama when I was canvassing in Washington Square Park who were not exactly hopeful but certainly were not giving up on their home state. Shout-out to the felons whose rights in Florida whose rights have been restored, and to the ones in New York and New York City whose rights have not yet been relinquished to them. Also to all of the very nice people who are not US citizens who wished me and us all luck when I bothered them anyway.

We lost a few battles but we won so many that it doesn’t feel fitting to concentrate on the losses this quarter. 

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Image from Fragrantica

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Ellis Brooklyn Fable Review

Posted on by elemonated

Neroli is the essential oil of the orange blossom drawn using steam distillation from the bitter orange tree. Orange blossom also comes from the bitter orange tree, from the same blossom, but via enfleurage, which is the application of fat solids to pull out fragrance compounds from an item. Petitgrain is from the same tree but is made from steam distillation of the twigs and leaves. (Thanks Jessica Murphy from NST and Perfume Professor for that info. Also shout-out to Brooklyn Brainery because even when I look through the list of classes in their email newsletter like “I am not free for ANY of this” I’m still like “what is shibori even though” and “maybe I should start wool-working and also make a puff representation of my dog.”)

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You’re so lame mom, please don’t.

I’m not the biggest fan of neroli. Most of the purer forms of it remind me too much of Froot Loops and I just don’t have any fun memories that would make the smell of neroli as significant to me as it is unique. During sniff-tests I’m usually standing next to neroli lovers, lovers of the Italian coastline, lovers of the Spanish coastline who are smiling and talking about their grandparents and their past trips and trips they want to take and saying absolutely nothing, smiling with them, appreciating the fragrance as objectively as I can, and swallowing down cereal jokes until that part of the conversation is over.

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Novice design analysis, queso, and Ellis Brooklyn’s Bibliotheca box set

Posted on by elemonated

I’m just going to come out and say it.

I am a huge sucker for marketing that implies that the buyer is knowledgeable and well-read or appreciates some sort of pseudo-sophisticated humor. Like it makes me actually feel dumb after the fact for falling for it over and over. Whenever I catch myself wanting something because I think it’ll make me look smart I wonder if the thrill of having knowledge others counts as a guilty pleasure. Is it if you feel like a dick doing it? Is it if you don’t feel like a dick doing it?? Is that simply nerdy, or does it cross into being elitist? Am I even snobbier than I thought I was? Will I start interjecting “um, actually” more or less after this revelation??

In my defense though I think it really just boils down to wanting to be in on all the jokes. Nerdy jokes are hands down the best.

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Atelier Cologne Cafe Tuberosa

Posted on by elemonated

After a few months of marinating in Self-Pity and Work and Responsibility, I’m really happy to finally smell something that ruminates in my mind so much that I really wanted to write about it.

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Photo from Sephora

I had this one hyped up to the heavens for me on Sniffapalooza Fall Ball Sunday in 2017. (Yeah I actually started this review last year. Whoops.) I usually hate things that are hyped up so pre-sniff. My mind was already countering every single bit of praise being heaped upon this fragrance.

Someone said it was wonderful for coffee lovers? I decided it was probably sickly sweet like a lot of coffee fragrances can be, because for some reason a lot of people really like that.

Someone said the tuberose was super balanced and didn’t take over? I decided that meant that the florals took a back seat after the initial sniff.

Someone said that I’d really like it? Uh, okay you don’t know me like that.

But as it happens they did know me like that.  Read More

things that happened today

Posted on by elemonated

i turned 24

i ate sausage gravy and biscuits for the first time (fantastic, by the way)

i was reunited with my dog after our first vacation away

i got a second-round interview type thing

i was given a one-off job on friday that will be really, really awesome

i put a ton of lotion on my body because i have neglected to buy sunscreen but then on the ride back from maine i bought sunscreen so i should be good in a little bit but until then, shoulder pain

i drove 5 hrs and 50 min from portland maine to randolph new jersey.

& lastly i did this: 

good night

humidity

Posted on by elemonated

sleepy eyes sleepy ears

soaked by thin streams

drunken gingerly, overflowing

into heavy lids heavy flesh

intonations dark and syrupy

slowly, slowly warmed hearts beat slowly

warmed breath leaves slowly

rumbles in sleepy heads

saturated air

Legs in the Mouth (Sundaze)

Posted on by elemonated

(bugs of my childhood + something i titled in sims for an author sim. the muse keeps chugging my tea. she also doesn’t fucking exist so i have to do this all myself while half asleep even as my tea disappears.)

Source: www.deviantart.com/art/She-Has-Her-Sources-113515422 but the artist seems to have abandoned her account.

 

Tender dawn opens over the sky
a curtain of gossamer as thick as gold
a silk worm’s blood

Thinkin’ bout little lightning bugs that dominated summer, the light show circus go on to find better jobs
(caged in bottles)
only the determined light the grass and the walls in the heat of a sleeping sun.
but despite their hard work there
just aren’t enough
to fight the heated lanterns.
to fight outtrick the light.

Thinkin’ bout monarch caterpillars, dark and mottled and wide
dictionary definition
of a caterpillar, harmless
nuisance
hallway intruders.
walls are warm, and sterile
so I threw them out of school so they wouldn’t die starving

Thinkin’ bout dead ladybugs and beating little wings like glittering fire on carpet and on stone and uncomfortable steps and no fear just exasperation.
innocence.
(good luck?)
why you gotta get yourself killed like that. suffocate yourselves
suffocate each other

The nine-spotted moth crashes into grass-studded rock,
bowing
antenna bent and wings spread.