Hair in the Soup

Spent the better part of the day yesterday grinding, mixing, and kneading a new incense. Another smallish batch because I often don't trust my instincts, though they've rarely let me down, and I wasn't prepared to ruin all those gorgeous materials. I didn't. The incense, big, tall, elegant cones, turned out beautifully. Yes, I know! I don't make combustibles! But I've been getting A LOT of requests for incense with billowing sacred smoke, so . . . And thankfully, for those clients who don't like the smoke, the cones can be shoved in a bag and whacked with a hammer, and made into chunks or powder for smoldering on an electric heater. These cones have loads of lovely materials in them that I've been holding onto for something special. There is beautiful sandalwood, real sandalwood (Santalum album), orris root, aloeswood, musk root, Siam benzoin, joss, balsam of Peru seed pods, spearmint, halmaddi, nutmeg, red champa, and white champa leaf. They smell incredible. Sweet and floral and powdery. They won't be ready for a few days. I have to make sure they dry completely, and that they burn! If they don't burn, then they are a combustible failure, but still workable for warming. 

I had to remove two photos, two really nicely done photos, from my Ebers Kyphi listing because of a hair! I didn't see it when I was editing the photos prior to putting them up in the shop, but when I pulled the photo up to edit the listing ever so slightly, I noticed it -- like, it was right there, snaking around the entire scene! It wasn't IN the Kyphi incense, it was most likely on my hand when I set up the lightbox and got left there when I took the shot. None of the other photos have the hair. It's embarrassing. Other than the squirrely hair, the photo was perfect. Right now I can't even reshoot the photo because my phone does this thing where the front-facing camera takes a vacay for about five days and then returns as if nothing ever happened. Oh, and the hair was mine. My hair is down almost to my bum. I keep it in a braid about 95% of the time, but that 5% unbound lets the crazy Kraken hair loose to jump into photos and occasionally my soup. 

As a result of yesterday's powdery work with incense, and the fact that the field behind our house was being plowed, and the wind had kicked up, my hayfever went absolutely bonkers. I haven't had too many issues with allergies these past few years, just a day or two of sniffles and an occasional sneeze, but yesterday, after finishing off the incense, I was honking and sneezing and sweating and wanted nothing more than to close my eyes and wake up in a different life. Allergy medication gives me headaches and makes me extremely impatient and maybe even slightly homicidal -- hehehe, so I avoid them unless absolutely necessary. 

Prosperity Meditation Incense Cones wet