Week in Photos: March 1, 2014

Secret project (so far) drawings.

A bit of a lean week, this week, in terms of work. I periodically go through these laggy intervals, where I think I start thinking too much, get overwhelmed by anxiety over upcoming responsibilities, and just get a little emotionally crippled and I can't force myself to do much. I've done this ever since I was a kid, and you'd think that after 33 years of living, I would have figured out how to handle it, but the remedy still eludes me. One of these days I will be able to slay this particular demon, but as of right now, I just sort of have to deal with it until I make it out the other side.

One big project that I'm working on right now (pic above) is SO cool, but I can't really say much about it yet, as it's a large project and just now beginning the germination stages. I will say a few things about it though: 1) It involves another amazing artist, 2) it's going to be a large-scale production of some small-scale things, and 3) it will be widely available, and affordable for all of my collectors. Excited!

I am absolutely the type of person to paint my nails up fancy to make myself feel better on gloomy days. Into the annals of internet manicure-photography, I submit these: Rainbow Glitter Galaxy Space Nails.

Found a great old toy xylophone. At this point it's more "objet d'art" than "xylophone", as the tines don't really ring out as much as make a slightly tonal metallic clunk when struck, but so what, look at that patina!

I ordered a sample of a perfume called "Smoke", by a woman who has the utterly genius business-model of starting an entire business to sell a few incarnations of the exact same product. I'm picky about perfume (don't get me started) so I'm always keen on trying something new and different. My initial review is that it is absolutely lovely, if a little one-dimensional. The strange things is, when I opened the envelope it came in, the scent that greeted me was exquisite - some earthy and oddly familiar blend of vetiver, patchouli, a hint of warm citrus and some gentle note of red spice, like clove or carnation. But upon applying the perfume, all that fell away immediately and I was left with just the scent of vetiver essential oil. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE vetiver, it is amazingly complex and can be worn as a perfume alone, but the difference between the initial whiff and what was left on my skin was pretty striking. I am wondering if I am getting prematurely anosmic to one or more of the other notes in the perfume, or if either my skin or my nose is not picking the scent up as the blender intended. I plan on trying a few different ways of using and wearing it. All in all, even if it is a little flat to my nose, it's still a really lovely scent and an easy "introduction" to wearing vetiver! The sample came beautifully packaged. If you're curious, and you love natural, earthy scents, by all means give Smoke a try, it's a very nice scent.