Happy Halloween!

Cool day today. My costume won me an honorable mention and a $10 Chipotle gift card, our Skindecent order arrived, and my goodies from UK Lush Retro were waiting on my doorstep when I got home.

These are why my pumpkin didn't win a prize, they're amazing:



This is mine, nice, but in no way in the same league:



And my costume:

Christmas in October

Yesterday, as I was home trying to unstick my eyelids, three packages arrived in the mail. The lovely Yisabeyya returned a book I had loaned her and sent me a soft, fuzzy jackelope (which I managed to rescue from the 'Foots before it got more than a bit slobbered on). A fellow Lushie sent me four Ice Hotel bubble bars as part of a swap, and my wonderful, amazing friend Kogi sent me a mug she made, plus 2 full bottles of BPAL perfumes (Lurid Library and Love and Pain), two of my precious discontinued Green Day bubble bars and another Ice Hotel.

Kogi used stills from "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me" to create this amazing mug:




Then today, my new insurance came through with my Copaxone. Tonight, for the first time in 9 months, I shot myself. Yup. Still hurts, still gives me a giant site reaction. Still, if it keeps my polka dots under control, I'll continue to shoot up.

Not a bad haul for mid-October. Now to plot a really amazing Christmas Box for Kogi...

Happy, happy autumn!

The last few days, I have been harvesting. My volunteer grape tomato plant has provided me with dozens upon dozens of tasty tomatoes, my lavender is ready to be cut down for the winter, and this past week I have harvested nearly half a cup of morning glory seeds.






The lavender is going in my linen closet and to co-workers, and the morning glory seeds are being divvied up into packets for next spring. I am going to plant some of them, some are going to Mallie for her new house, and the rest are available for anyone who wants some very pretty vines with dark purple, red-streaked flowers.

The cold fall air makes my evening baths much more enjoyable, and now I can use all my glorious fall scents. So far, the winner has been Julphia Soapworks' Sandalwood Vanilla, followed by Red Egyptian Musk from Skindecent. I am also very proud to announce that I was one of the forum contest winners for Isle of Eden's holiday collection. My suggestion, called Tucked In, is a pretty layered scrub, is currently one of the top ten best-sellers on the site, and I get a free jumbo scrub!

I built my very first book recently at work, and I am now responsible for three more. Even though my name doesn't appear on them anywhere, I still feel a real sense of pride in them. I'm also amazed at how much I am learning. And earning, for that matter--overtime is not only permitted, but encouraged, and so I have been bringing work home with me. I'm sure I will get tired of it, but right now, it makes me feel very grown-up to bring a book home with me and work on it. There is one annoyance that is not going to change any time soon--the software which converts data to PDFs for our books automatically adds "ISBN #" despite the teeth-grinding redundancy thereof. I get little angry quivers when I think about this, so I shall try not to think of it!

To paraphrase Berke Breathed, "L. R. Jammies, signing off and heading for the tub!"