Fall Fun Series: Bakery Bliss

Ah, now here’s a series prompt I can get behind – Fall bakery wax blends.  And that’s because bakery-type scented wax (that would be any sort of wax that smells like cake or cookies or some other delicious, baked sweet) makes up about 98 percent of my wax collection.  I like (the smell of) cookies, yes, I do!  I like (the smell of) cookies, and so should you!  Or at least you probably will after I show you some of the delectable – but always non-edible; not sure why I always feel the need to add that caution – treats I’ve been scenting my home with these past couple of weeks.

Harvest Bake Sale Noel, Rosegirls.  Well, this was an unexpected surprise!  What I initially thought was going to be a pretty straightforward craft-store-in-the-Fall kind of scent morphed into a really love figgy pudding-type fragrance once warmed.  Raisins!  That’s what I smelled – raisins.  Warm cake studded with tart raisins and dripping with buttery, vanilla bean-laced caramel.  Actually, Harvest Bake Sale Noel really reminded me of a delicious raisin scone scent Pier 1 used to sell.  A really nice, authentic Fall fragrance.

Macintosh Madness, Bear Claws and Marshmallow Smoothie, Rosegirls.  Ever so slightly less authentic, but you have to know that when mac apple, glazed bear claws and marshmallow are your scent notes.  Hoo doggy, this one was SWEET!  Maybe a touch too sweet for my scent palette – like my cakes, onions and ogres, I like my fragrances to have layers.  Actually, do you know what would be fabulous in this blend?  Remove the mac apple and replace it with coffee – NOW we’re talking!

Creamy Cranberry Jam Bread, K’s Kreations.  A delicious, spicy-sweet cranberry blended with creamy zucchini bread.  I loved this one so much, I purchased an entire bag of K’s rainbow brittle in this scent alone. Scent preference being the personal thing that it is, I won’t tell any of you zucchini bread-phobes that it absolutely does not smell like corn chips (a somewhat common complaint about quick bread blends) – if you want to smell corn chips, that’s what you’ll smell.  But it absolutely does not smell like corn chips.  It smells like a muffin studded with sweet-tart cranberries.  A favourite.

Pumpkin Blueberry Cobbler, Rosegirls.  Another favourite, although the cobbler part seems to be ever so missing from the equation – I mainly get sweet blueberries blended with creamy, slightly spicy pumpkin pie filling.  Despite its scent profile (squash/fruit/bakery) this is a “clean” scent, with each of the scent notes (save that missing cobbler) blending nicely, while remaining separately identifiable.

Also, now that I’ve stopped and thought about what exactly would constitute a pumpkin blueberry cobbler and how it would taste, I’m pretty grossed out!  Thank goodness the wax version smells so delicious.

Apple Puff Pumpkin Pie, Rosegirls.  Now, here’s one I WOULD eat!  The description of this scent invokes memories of this dessert I used to love from a restaurant called The Brigadoon in Oxford Mills, Ontario.  The perfect Fall creation, it featured layers of buttery crisp puff pastry stacked between heaps of creme brulee filling, candied pecans, cinnamon-spiced apples and whipped cream.  Holy lord, it was fabulous!  I see they have something similar on their menu (now involving flambeed bananas) although the apple version seems to be no more.  Shame; I suppose it was simply too delicious to live.

But back to the wax!  Apple Puff Pumpkin Pie is one that has grown on me considerably in the last little while. At first I was simply overwhelmed by the scent of Apple Jack and Peel (a SUPER potent spiced apple and citrus fragrance), but once warmed, that gave way to a yummy, almost crunchy sort of vanilla note that reminded me so much of The Brigadoon’s delicious dessert.

And so there we have it, a few selections from the mostly Rosegirls Bakery, with a special appearance by K’s Kreations.  If you’re interested in checking out either vendor, be sure to join Rosegirls’ Facebook group for information on the most recent pre-orders and openings. And you can purchase K’s creations through their open-nearly-all-the-time website here.

Party Bunting (31DC2016)

Every year ’round about day 28 of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, my motivation seriously begins to wane.  You know how it goes – the finish line is right there, directly in your sights, but you can’t be arsed to finish because day 28’s theme is always flags, and flags make for the most uninspired prompt ever, and you can’t think of three years’ worth of cool flag manicures, and who comes up with these things anyways?!  Or something like that (and just in case you’re curious, no one really knows the origin story of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge; it doesn’t seem to have one single creator anyone can point to.)

Anyhow, it seems this is a pattern with me – shame, could have used it for my pattern nails yesterday – because last year I also whiffed day 28’s theme and painted my nails with bunting, which I suppose IS a type of flag.  A party flag, run up the flagpole when the end-of-day disco work whistle sounds. 😉

The Impression That I Get (31DC2016)

Day 27’s always-daunting theme in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge was artwork, and so I thought I’d simply whip up these very Impressionistic nails – you know, just dash off my interpretation of one of the Masters hard at work (in this case Monet.)  Nuthin’ to it!

But actually, aside from a bit of a time and a lot of patience in wrangling about 15 different bottles of nail polish, these nails were not that difficult.  Best of all, I think they’re full-on Monets – all right at a distance, but a big old mess up close.  And considering the source on that bit of wisdom (Cher Horowitz of Clueless) I’m feeling quite positive about my first attempt at art forgery. 😉

Everybody Polka! (31DC2016)

Patterns recently came up to bat as day 26’s theme in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.  I always have a bit of trouble with this prompt, as can’t anything be a pattern if you repeat it enough times?  So how does that make it any different than any of the other floral, striped, dotted and dashed designs I do every other day?  Am I overthinking this?  Pretty sure I’m overthinking this.

At first I thought about attempting a repeating pattern type of design, programmer-styles. You know, a pick-the-red-pill-pick-the-blue-pill-and-hop-on-in-to-the-Matrix sort of thing.  Then I thought about the aneurysm my husband would laugh himself into once he saw whatever horrendous code I had cobbled together on my nails, and I thought maybe I’d just do some polka dots instead (tightly packed polka dots, no less, and my index and pinkie fingers both beginning and ending with a holographic pink polish, so very nearly a repeating pattern!)

Actually, I’m not giving Mr. Finger Candy enough credit.  He’d undoubtedly be completely amused by my efforts, but also quite supportive – if I suddenly decided I wanted to start screwing around with his Raspberry Pi bidness, he’d be…seriously so turned on, probably! And if I could find a way to work some pigtails into there…but I’ve already said too much. 😉

Designer Unknown (31DC2016)

Day 25’s theme in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge was fashion, and the outfit I chose as inspiration was a dress recently worn by singer Rita Ora to a taping of America’s Next Top Model (I thought that show ended a few years ago.  I…guess not?)  I saw the striped, diaphanous dress on Ora in this Go Fug Yourself article, and I was immediately smitten – it’s very 1970s, updated with a more modern colour palette in shades of shimmering black, silver, turquoise and purple.  Very groovy, baby.

Except I have no bloody clue who designed this dress.  Neither does Go Fug Yourself.  And the Internet seems just as oblivious, if my half hour of unsuccessful keyword searches are any indication.  I have no idea what gives; why all the mystery?  This is a beautiful dress, and whoever designed it should be celebrated!  So if you happen to know who’s responsible for this very pretty gown, please do let me know.  For now, though, I’ll have to be content with this inspired-by manicure.  I think I can manage that. 😉

Poinsettia Pig (31DC2016)

Books were day 24’s theme in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, which had me casting back to one of my childhood favourites, Poinsettia and Her Family.  Written and illustrated by Felicia Bond, the 1981 children’s book, coloured nearly entirely in shades of pink, black and grey, tells the story of Poinsettia Pig, a temperamental little piglet with family issues – as in there’s too freaking many of them!

One of seven piglet siblings, Poinsettia attempts to find a secluded spot in her too-cramped house in which to curl up with a great book – really, any one of the buttery warm window seat, the cool Pachysandra, the bliss-inducing tub or the sun-warmed rock in the front yard will suffice.  But everywhere increasingly-pissy Poinsettia goes, she finds one of her lazy siblings loafing about instead, and after she explodes at her parents about their critical lack of personal space, she’s sent to bed early for general misbehaviour (pinching her brothers figures prominently.)

Poinsettia’s parents do concede, however, that the family has outgrown its much-loved home, and when they haul their possessions out of there the very next morning (pig-powered moves are apparently bonkers efficient!), Poinsettia opts to just…stay behind. Stay behind and finally enjoy the house the way it was meant to be enjoyed – by her and her alone!

But after a delightful afternoon spent lounging in the window seat, splayed out on the sun-warmed rock, hiding in the cool shade of the bushes and floating in the tub, lonely Poinsettia realizes that a home is no such thing without a family to fill it, even if sometimes you really, really, really want to pinch them.  Then her family returns, and they decide to stay, cramped quarters and all.  It’s basically Home Alone with pigs, nine years before Home Alone was released.

Here I’ve got sassy Poinsettia blissfully soaking away in her claw-footed bathtub, joyously pinkening her skin and enjoying some tubby time for one. 🙂

Fall Fun Series: Kidnap the Sandy Claws

Owing to some technomalogical difficulties that kept me off the computer for the majority of the weekend, I’m now playing catch-up on two different challenge fronts. Today’s post in the Fall Fun Series was supposed to be about performing a random act of kindness, but I figure I’ve got that one sorted – not ripping the Wifi installer’s head clean off his shoulders with my searing hot rhetoric when we had entered day two of no service was absolutely an act of kindness on my part.

So as it pertains to the Fall Fun Series, I’m back on Friday’s prompt of my favourite Fall thing, which in my case is both a favoured seasonal item, and an all-the-time cherished possession, my Nightmare Before Christmas musical snow globe.

The globe, which depicts Santa being hauled off to Oogie Boogie by some of the residents of Halloween Town, was a wedding gift from dear friends, and as Julie Andrews herself might trill, it really is one of my very favourite things.  Despite weighing about 60 skull-crushing pounds (it’s a decorative murder weapon!) and being as delicate as the wings of a fruit fly (the first – and only – time we moved it, slim, spindly Jack broke clean in two right at his waist) the globe sits out all the time on the second shelf of the diningroom sideboard. Then, depending on whether my table has been overtaken by MY Halloween Town or not, I’ll move it over as a fabulous, dust-collecting musical centrepiece for the Fall (it plays a cute, jangly version of This is Halloween, and I wasn’t kidding about the dust either – it took me an hour yesterday with cotton swabs, glass cleaner, a soft toothbrush and two cans of compressed air to blow the dust out of Jack and Sally’s nooks and crannies – oh my!)

Okay, so the globe is a heavy, dusty, sneeze-on-it-and-you’ll-destroy-it possible murder weapon.  No matter, I love it.  Oh, how I love it!  And not just because it’s gorgeous and conjures up all sorts of warm and fuzzy memories about my Halloween wedding, but because it reminds me of the kindness of our friends, who cared enough about us to seek out such a unique and thoughtful gift.  It makes me happy every time I look at it (which is often, given its prime real estate in my apartment), and that’s the definition of a favourite thing, no matter the season. 🙂

Beetlejuice! (31DC2016)

My favourite movie, and a fun little exercise in lettering for day 23’s theme of a movie in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.  Tooting my own horn here – and if you don’t toot your own, who will? – but I think this manicure turned out beautifully.  Come to think of it, I always take extra special care to make sure my Beetlejuice manicures are spickety span – it’s the difference watching a movie approximately 500 times will do to a person’s work. 😉

Groove is in the Heart (31DC2016)

Yeah, I’d best be getting my groove on seeing as I’m now three days behind on the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, owing to what should have been some totally foreseeable technical difficulties (the installation of higher speed Internet to my apartment, and when does that ever go smoothly?  Never, which is why I was without a connection for a day and a half, which in Internet time is equivalent to 73 very long years.)

All blogging dramatics aside, these nails are my entry towards day 22’s theme of a song in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.  Groove is in the Heart, by early ’90s club band Deee-Lite, is one of those musical ear worms you either love or hate.  I fall into the latter category; it’s fun, but so gimmicky, and despite my husband’s protestations – he LOVES them like he loves the B-52s, another band with a similar retro vibe – it’s the very essence of a one hit wonder, and all those slide whistles start making me feel super twitchy after a bit.  But it has inspired some pretty cool nail art, so we shall call this one a win. 🙂

Stranger Barb (31DC2016)

It’s been at least a few days since I’ve done a Stranger Things manicure, and what better time to bust out the big Barb guns – Queen Barb of the Upside Down, destroyer of fun, patron saint of orange – than for day 21’s theme of a colour in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.  And orange is completely the colour I associate with Buzzkill Barb – hair, stiff, high-necked plaid blouses, gunk coming out of her mouth when she’s first snatched by the Demogorgon and abducted to the Upside Down (per one of the innumerable pieces I’ve read about Stranger Things, that gunk was a mixture of oil, baby food and marmalade – literally more oranges for poor Barb, who might have lived had she not been the only person in history to nearly cut off her hand trying to shotgun a beer.  And also if she had just told her horny loser friends to kiss the very widest part of her mom jeans-covered ass and gone home to cry in her bedroom alone.  I vote for the latter, and I think in hindsight Barb probably would, too!)