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!"

Ross Noble - Fairy Jasmine Story

The perfect Saturday

I woke up at 6:30, surfed the 'net a bit, checked the forum, showered and went in to work at Mom's office. After a very productive morning, I closed up the office and headed for the Beachwood Lush. I got there, and told the SA who offered her help that I was there to pick up my discons.

Apparently, Beachwood had so many discon orders that they had to leave them in their storage area elsewhere in the mall, and the SA went to get them. She came back with a Lush bag, and rang me out. In addition to my discons, I got 2 Green Days and a Pop in the Bath (blue). While I was paying, KellyGirl and Mr. KellyGirl came in. We were chattering away, and Kelly asked what I'd gotten. I told her, and looked in my bag--there were the six Flower Tubs, two Psychodelics, bottle of Chai and bottle of Slammer, but :shock: [i]no Ice Hotels[/i]!

I asked the SA if there was another bag with my name on it, because my Ice Hotels were missing. She asked how many I'd ordered, and I said "Twenty." She asked how many were in my bag and I said "None!" She went off to re-check, and was gone for quite a while. When she came back, she was carrying a box, which had my first name and my forum name written on it, and said that Chef Lush had said something to her about RedJammies' box.

Of course, I hadn't given her my forum name. :lick:

So there in the box were twenty beautiful Ice Hotels, smelling like the most perfect combination of lavender and mint. KellyGirl paid for her discons, Chief paid for his Teo, Kelly and I both got goodie bags, and we headed over to the California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. At this point, I have to say that today was a gorgeous fall day--a high of 58º F, and sunny and bright.

The service was a little slow at lunch because they were short-staffed at the restaurant, so it was about 3:45 when I went out to my car. I opened the door and the scent that met me was absolutely heavenly. I drove the 25 minutes to my parents' house in a glorious Ice Hotel fog.

When I got there, Mom rustled around getting a care package ready (3 yogurts and 2 huge homegrown tomatoes) and Dad fixed my garage door remote. Mom said three times how good I smelled, and I insisted she sniff the bubble bars in the trunk. Thank goodness she doesn't take baths, or I'd have had to share. }:-)

Two miles from my parents' house, there is a railroad crossing. As I came down the hill, I saw a train on the track, so I slowed down and stopped behind the other four cars already there. I had counted one hundred thirty-five cars, only six yet to cross, when the train came to a full stop. I waited a few minutes, then pulled out my phone and called Kogi, and we chatted for fifteen minutes, during which time the train never moved. Finally, I turned the car around and went the long way home, yakking with Kogi all the while.

So now I'm home, the 'Foots have been fed, let outside twice, are chasing each other around the living room growling and snarling, and I'm thinking about a hot dinner and a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng bath.

Guess what with? :)

Mad Scientist Sunday

Today, I accidentally made my first salt scrub.

I was trying to make a scrubby soap, but it wouldn't solidify (booo!). So I threw it in a bowl, added some more soap and some more salt, and used the hand mixer on it. It's mildly scrubby, mildy foamy, and very softening. Sadly, if you don't rinse thoroughly, it's a little sticky, but I can see getting addicted to playing with scrub formulas.

When I posted this on the Lush message board, I got lots of great comments from Lushies.

From MaryMargrt:

Yay Jammies...founder of Cockamamie Soaps and Salty Scrub Spurts?

From kogijiki:

[Mr. Kogi] has already come (lol) up (even more lol) with several ad slogans for you!!!!

MaryMargrt:

Come on Kogi (not literally)...free love...share the slogans Spew forth the essence that is Willies Salty Spurt.

From Rogue:

Jammies! I have some friends that would love the new Spunky Soaps! Let me know when you have them available!

I love my minivan Lushies!

Sometimes, I wonder what I did...

What did I do to deserve having my car rummaged through and all of my stuff touched? Actually, I know what I did to deserve that, I left the garage door open by mistake Friday night.

Less easy a mystery to solve is what I did to deserve the wonderful friends I have. Today was my training in Hyphenated Corp's proprietary XML-based system, and I did some serious brain-stretching today. At the very end of the day, when I was presented with the first book for which I am responsible, I had to spend about ten minutes discussing with The Nurturer what exactly the author was trying to do. In a section with fourteen footnotes, said author (an attorney) wants to add a new one, delete two, add three more, and tried to "help" by incorrectly re-numbering the footnotes. I think I have it figured out, but I didn't want to try it and screw something up at the end of a long day, so I will tackle it tomorrow morning.

On my way home, I stopped at the post office to pick up a parcel. The U. S. Postal Service is now requiring signatures for all deliveries from Canada. I guess someone has gotten wind of the insidious Canadian plot to take over by sending large quantities of moose poo through the mail. When I got home with my non-moose-poop-holding box, I discovered another box on the steps (apparently, UPS is unaware of any plots originating in New Jersey, other than a deep desire on the part of its citizens to get out). The Canadian parcel was from The Heather, and the NewJerseyian parcel was from MaryMargrt.

The World's Best Heather(™) sent me a Frosty Glitter bubble bar and a French Kiss bubble bar from Lush, two packets of lovely pens with different colored inks, a ten-pack of Playdoh(likewise ™), an Aspen Flower candle, two Italian soaps and six pairs of socks (one of which has frogs on it, and another of which is a lovely soft hot pink chenille--this woman gets me!).

As if that weren't enough, MaryMargrt is not only psychic, she's presciently so. Just last night, I was looking at bath fizzies from Propaganda Bath just last night, and today, I got her package, which had five of the little darlings in it--Orion, Cygnus, Diva, The Movie Star and Sadako's Snow. She also sent goodies from Isle of Eden, Fantasy Bath and a couple of yummy-smelling goodies from an unidentified company.

I don't know why I am so lucky to have such lovely friends, but tonight, I will smell almost as good as they made me feel tonight.