By request

Lush has a message board, and one of the subforums is "Lush P*o*r*n," wherein members post pictures of their Lush stashes. I decided to do something a bit different for my stash thread, and Sherri requested that I share it here so she doesn't have to join the Lush board.

A Lush Fairy Tale


Cast of Characters (in order of appearance):

Peasants: Tisty Tosty
King Frank: Blue Skies
Queen Cosi: The Comforter
Princess Herbaceous: French Kiss
Visiting Princes: Ceridwen, Avobath, Wish Upon A Star
Prince Sonny: Sunny Side
Guards: Wiccy
Ladies in Waiting: Holiday(s)
Gentlemen of the Court: Christmas Kisses(es)
Blob Monster Supervisors: Old Blue Skies
Blob Monsters: Christingly(s)
Mysterious Wise Old Wizard: Amandapondo
Magistrate: Think Pink

Once upon a time, there was a small kingdom named Bathtopia. The peasants were happy in their hovels.



King Frank and Queen Cosi doted upon their beautiful adopted daughter, Princess Herbaceous, who everyone just called “Herbi.”



The Princess was very picky (and more than a little spoiled), and no matter how many eligible young men visited the castle, she turned up her nose at them.





One day, Princess Herbi was out riding her pet dragon.



She met a mysterious young man.



He said he was Prince Sonny, from a neighboring kingdom. Because he hadn’t been paraded in front of her as a possible husband, she liked him, and he seemed to like her too. They started meeting every day on their rides, and soon they fell in love.



When Princess Herbi took Prince Sonny to meet her parents, they were shocked and appalled!



“NO!” said the King and Queen. “You may NOT marry him! Your children will smell disgusting! And they’ll be glittery!”

They sent Prince Sonny away and locked Princess Herbi up with her ladies-in-waiting. Princess Herbi wept and screamed and laid on the floor holding her breath until she turned purple, but the King and the Queen were adamant.



That night, she tried to sneak out of the castle, so her parents sent her away to a remote location guarded by blob monsters.



When Prince Sonny arrived at the castle the next day, the King and the Queen gloated that Princess Herbi was out of reach and had their guard throw him out. He went home and consulted his childhood mentor, the Wise Old Wizard.



The Wise Old Wizard consulted his charts, did a spell, and said he could find Princess Herbi, but Prince Sonny should bring all his friends to fight the blob monsters.

After a long and arduous ride, Prince Sonny, his friends and the Wise Old Wizard arrived at the secret castle where Princess Herbi was held prisoner.





They battled the blob monsters.





There was carnage on both sides.



It was ugly.



But they were victorious!



Princess Herbi flew from the castle into Prince Sonny’s arms.



“Oh, my love, you rescued me!”

“Yes, my precious, and we shall never be separated again!”

Prince Sonny had even brought a magistrate to marry them on the spot.



They returned to Bathtopia, and told the King and the Queen what had happened.

The Queen fainted.

The King yelled.

But eventually, they threw a grand ball to celebrate.





They all lived happily ever after.

Even if Princess Herbi and Prince Sonny did in fact have stinky, glittery children.

Ms. CraftyButt

The fruits of several nights' labor, all laid out and ready to wrap & pack:











The pale yellow is raspberry lemonade, the purple bath salts are lavender, the light purple soaps & fizzies are pearberry, the deep red is carnation/rose, the dark purple soaps are cherry, the yellow/green soaps are lemongrass, the pale orange is spiced citrus, the bright blue is peppermint and the dark red/cream/orange are various combos of clove, cinnamon, orange and vanilla.

Off to pack all this stuff for shipping! :-)

O Torturous Torment!

No, I am not talking about the aches in my gluteus maximus and my right calf from two hours of mulching on Sunday.

Nor am I talking about trying to explain to a collections representative that a guardianship is more powerful than a mere power of attorney.

I'm certainly not talking about anything to do with Mr. Potato Dick.

I'm not even talking about the soul-searing anguish of discovering that I've put a hole in the heel of my neon-kitty socks.

No, I'm talking about the tortures of the damned. I have to sit here at work for another gross of minutes (yes, exactly 144 minutes) while at home, on my doorstop, is my LUSH order. It's sitting on my doorstep, lonely and waiting for me to come home, open it, sniff everything, sort all of my new stuff into the appropriate hidey-holes around the house, sigh longingly over the items I'm giving as gifts, and then, finally, take a bath with it!

This day will NEVER be over and I will NEVER get home to my Lush. *sob*















Okay, I managed to kill 4 minutes by blogging. I still want my Lush.

Embracing my inner whatever

Over the weekend, it was my inner drama queen, as I dealt with episodes of dizziness and was just positive it was the MS returning. Then I found out I've got an ear infection. *blush*

Earlier today, I embraced my inner cheapskate, as I whined about $210 worth of dog shots. Yes, it was time for the Annual Torturing of the Hounds. Dr. Bob said Bigfoot was a complete gentleman from start to finish, and Littlefoot behaved himself until it was time for the blood draw to test for heartworm, Lymes disease and erlichiosis. He decided Dr. Bob was going to use the needle to amputate his foot and he wasn't going to let it happen. Apparently, even though he was muzzled (at my insistence, the staff at the vet hospital have blanket permission to muzzle either of my dogs--they're too big to take chances with), he howled, thrashed, snarled and heaved his body all over the exam room. Brat.

Of my two former co-workers with MS-like symptoms, one apparently had some abnormalities in her spinal MRI and the other has no lesions whatsoever but disturbing symptoms. Both have follow-up appointments at the Cleveland Clinic, and hopefully will get some answers. I've had nothing but stellar care at the Mellen Center there (especially with Nurse Tardy retired *grin*). I wish them all the best and the amazing luck I have had.

Right now, I am embracing my inner raisin, after a long soak in the tub. It was, of course, a Lush bath, specifically one-fourth of a Blue Skies bubble bar. This one is pretty old--the nice blue color has faded, and there weren't many bubbles, but it still smelled great, and now so do I. And uh-oh, Lush has all kinds of new stuff out...good thing I don't have real credit cards, or I'd be embracing my inner bankrupt in about 20 minutes!

Bulbs, baths and burnt boobs

Saturday was a beautiful fall day in Ohio. I woke up early, got a month's worth of grocery shopping done, then came home and planted my last sixty-two bulbs and seven perennials. After I'd thrown away my old tennis shoes (one of which actually fell off my right foot while I was gardening!), it was only noon and I decided I'd earned a very special bath.

I still had half a Ceridwen's Cauldron from Lush and my entire "crop" of lavender for this year (six sprigs). I opened up the muslin, added my lavender, and dropped the whole thing into the bath. It was just wonderful! Not only did I get all the moisturizing bath oil benefits, but I got to enjoy knowing a big part of the luscious scent came from my efforts in my garden. And since I planted two more lavender bushes (shrubs?), next year I'll have even more to play with.

The only problem with the whole day was when I bent over to pick something up off the bathroom floor and my right breast smacked onto the heated towel rack. It's not hot enough to burn if I brush my hand against the bare metal, but in this case, the body part hitting it was both more thin-skinned and pressed down from its own weight. Thankfully, a friend to whom I whined reminded me that there's a reason I keep that aloe plant which is about the size of a small warthog (not that I have measured a lot of warthogs, it's just an eyeball estimate). Repeated applications have made the burn a lot less uncomfortable than it could have been (it's a flattish oval about 2" long).

I sincerely hope that was the end of "Stupid Week" and not the beginning of new and more stupid things!

*contented purry noises*

Almost all of my stuff from Amazon is here, and I'm absolutely enjoying myself. Years ago, I read Sorcery and Cecelia and loved it. It's a wonderful book, written in the style of letters from one cousin to another. I was thrilled to find out that it had been re-released, and a sequel, The Grand Tour written. I ordered the latter, and have discovered that Kate and Cecy are still wonderful people to spend an evening with, even if they do lead rather exhausting lives! I absolutely want both Shang and Mallie to read these books. Unfortunately, poor Shang never gets time to read, and not only is Mallie about 60 books behind, but she's going to Toronto this weekend to buy books, and I've already gotten her three more for Christmas!

I'm also excited because my Herbie Hancock CD, Possibilities, and I'm enjoying it. I bought the CD for the duet with John Mayer, "Stitched Up," but the other stuff is pretty good too. It does have the unfortunate side effect of winding me up a bit, which is not a good idea before bedtime. *bounce*

That difficulty could be cured with a hot bath--not only did the sweet and charming S-Des get me a goodie basket of Lush stuff, including a Green Day bubble bar, a Comforter bubble bar and an All That Jasmine bath bomb, but Amy got me two giant tubes full of bath bombs from a shop in Florida. I've got oodles of yummy smelling bath stuff, and ONE MORE WEEK before I can use it. Next Wednesday, I swear I am coming home, stripping, and getting straight into the tub!

Soothing stuff

Taking these pics helped almost as much as talking to Snick:





And I took the Heather's advice and had a Lush bath with a Happy Pill. I can't say that I'm particularly happy, but at least I'm relaxed and rested and I have pretty things to look at.