Starting Over Again For the 30,762nd Time

On a new computer -- again. Thank the computer wizards for suggesting to me years and years ago to buy an external hard drive. What a life saver that thing has been. The previous computer to this newer, rebuilt one, was killed, murdered, actually, by some dumbass downloading onto the computer poker games of all sorts. After the computer crashed and burned, and my newest camera, along with its charger, "disappeared", and the common denominator to these two minor tragedies also disappeared for a few days, I decided to take charge of the chaos. I kicked the common denominator out on his ass. He wasn't a relative but a formerly trusted family friend, but hey, you don't bite the hand that feeds you, right? And I don't have time for this kind of silly crap. I'm shaking it off, learning a valuable lesson, and not buying another damned camera for a long, long time. And not taking in any more strays.

I am still working on the studio, since what? Last year? Yes. I have one wall painted, the lovely light violet wall, managed to pick up some merchandise quality shelving from a big department store that went out of business for way less than -- well, there's a funny strange, not funny ha ha story there -- I picked out three shelves that were selling for $5 a foot (this is quality, heavy-duty stuff here, mind you), but when the floor manager for the fixtures wrote the slip, he wrote it for $3 a foot. Cool, eh? When I got up to the counter to pay for them, the floor manager walked up behind me and said, "The price has changed." My heart sank. I'm thinking he's changed his mind and wants to raise the price back up to $5 a foot. Then he says, "Three dollars a shelf." Score! Okay, back to the studio; I have drawn up the theme and layout of the studio -- I just haven't gotten much further than that, though. I've been hitting up the discount stores like Marshall's and Ross for pretty crystal storage bottles. I found, by sheer luck, three glass corked jars at the Goodwill, which totaled $5. They'd never been used, judging by their condition. They're now holding violet flowers, orris root and ambrette seeds. And all of this stuff, including my collection of perfume minis and antique perfumery materials, are sitting around on fold-out tables and in the ugly portable cabinet. The studio is bursting at the seams and looks more like a garage sale than a perfumery. And my book collection is getting out of control. I need a real bookshelf in here. Freecycle is ridiculous. I post a want ad for a bookshelf and get nothing, then three days later, some schmuck posts an offer for a flippin' bookshelf, but by the time I get the message and reply, the stupid thing is already spoken for!

It's been too hot to do much of anything but read and fiddle around in the studio, so all these ideas and concepts have been brewing. Oh! And I have a project that I can't really tell you about right now, but it's turning out to be fun and educational and inspiring and a little bit scary. I'll let you know more about in November.

I just had to show you this. Wouldn't it be cool to have in your little perfume shop/museum? I'm finding these kinds of perfume paraphernalia fascinating. I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's the other night, alone, while munching on cold grapes, and had epiphany after epiphany about fashion, perfume, beauty. When Holly pulled perfume out of her mail box, the first thought that crossed my mind was, "What perfume is that?", and the second thought was, "Somebody's going to steal it." Just a sign of the times, and my recent experience talking there. I was also struck by how gorgeous Audrey Hepburn was. Anyway, that whole era of perfume dispensers at the restaurant table reminds me of BaT's and Audrey, the early 1960's. Nostalgic.