Happy International Fragrance Day!

This time last year feels like an eon ago. I was on a work trip doing very important work things. Recently, I was thinking back over the last few years and could almost recall certain time periods by my creative outputs—a stretch of dabbling in perfume-making, a stint of wire work, bursts of effort on dog portraits… but my mind drew a blank on last year. I couldn’t think of what I did. It took several moments for me to remember that I spent the vast majority of my time working, as last year was the busiest I’d had for a while.

My interpretation of this slightly unsettling internal experience was that no matter how proud I was of what I accomplished at work, it ultimately wasn’t the most important in the totality of who I am.

My other half had a different take (as he often does), which was that the creative endeavors were an individual effort (“I made this!”), while work achievements are usually made as part of a team, so they feel less personal. That makes sense to me as well.

Today I’m enjoying a normal Saturday at home, wearing Ted Baker Ag, which smells mostly of spicy violets to my nose right now. The blurb for this eau de toilette calls it part of a collection of “Travel Tonics,” a concept I can get behind. Starting New Year’s Day this year, I have been going through the exercise of wearing a different perfume I own each day (with the exception of unopened bottles and blends I made), and the easiest way to do this systematically was by location. I’m now on the last section of the room where I keep all my perfumes, and this just happened to be there. I’ve got about a week left to go and, frankly, it will be a relief to wear whatever I want after this project! (I did wear samples and/or repeat fragrances for a little over two weeks in total, mostly due to travel.)

I’ve also pushed my diffuser past its limits over the years, and one of the electronic terminals had rusted to the point of disintegration. Luckily, I was able to buy a replacement part, which arrived today, and I’m debuting it by diffusing ho wood (Cinnamomum camphora) essential oil. Ho wood is sometimes used as a replacement for rosewood, as it’s high in linalool.

Hope you all have a fragrant weekend.