Middle age and some bpal....

Okay home from work now, wearing my cheetah print leggings and my husband's shirt. Shhhhhh, don't tell him! He get's mad! He says I stain them.... like he doesn't! bah!



TODAY'S MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD'S 50TH BIRTHDAY!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

SHE MADE IT-SHE MADE IT!  Hahahahaha!!

And I can't get a hold of her, she's out at the casino!! Bwahahahahhahahaha!!  Everyone should have a best friend like mine. I love her more than I love some of my family members. lol

How much you want to bet she will get home, see I called, call me and say, "Why don't you come on up!!" (she lives up the hill 4 blocks away) and here I am --no bra- no underwear- cheetah leggings from when I weighed 140 (I'm now 195), and my husband's 4x shirt with stains all over it. Snort. I can tell you don't want to picture that....   Can't say I blame ya. ;)



Blind pick from the bpal bullet case (ammo box, what have ya)....

Must be a decant because it's a nicely written handmade label. It says on one side:

In Brightness and In Joy


and on the other it says: The Little match Girl Yule 2011. So I think that's the series and the oil is the In Brightness name.

Light yelow in color.
In the vial it's super pretty, know I love it already. Another floral....what is it with me getting all these florals lately?? Well, I guess that last one wasn't really a floral but it sure seemed like one to me.
Wet on the back of my hand: This is very feminine. Truly BEAUTIFUL. And....I have NO idea what's in this. All of it blends so well together, makes it hard to decipher. It's bright and happy. Almost a citrus but not quite there. I already know I want a big bottle (may be hard to locate), so that tells ya something. well, actually it doesn't, since I like 95% of the bpals I smell. ROFL  (wagging finger) but not ALL are big bottle winners, so there. This is so utterly feminine it's just crazy. Like what the girl next door would smell like. Kate Hudson or even Katy Perry (who is the girl next door with an edge). Did you know Katy Perry's real name is Kate Hudson? Yep....and I swear I didn't have this planned. She had to find another name because she didn't want to have the same name as Kate Hudson. I forget how she got her name. There was an hour biography on a cable channel about 8 months ago that I watched. I think she's the bomb. I fell in love with her with this interview on Ellen.

Then when she sang Fireworks on Ellen, I was hooked. I'm sad about her and Russell, I think he's the bomb too.

Yes, In Brightness And In Joy really lives up to it's name. Beautiful, bright and joyful. What's in this?

Divine mercy: sweet winter berry, orange blossom, frankincense, golden sandalwood, angel’s trumpet, and red rose.

FRANK!!

By demand from Sisi!! A post! :)

Blind pick.


The Apothecary

Why does that remind me of the old frontier cowboy and indians days??  Also for some reason I was thinking it was a wooden box but it's not. According to Wiki it's :
 is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist (or a chemist or dispensing chemist) and some caregivers.

Did you know that Nostradamus was one?? Woooooooo. Well, you can learn that and more on Wikipedia!! Ha!

Okay back to the oil.
Golden in color.

(if this smells like an old dead man I'm gonna vomit)

Whew--I got lucky. This is a floral babay! And a gorgeous one at that. Smells all floral too, I am not getting any pine or metal or resin from it. Now I get to guess what kind of flower. G.r.e.a.t! You know I am SOOOOOO good at that!!   ;)   They need some little emoticon's on this here blogger....

It's pretty strong so my first guess is jasmine. Then comes lavendar. Not sure though. It's pretty. It does seem to have a bit of mint coming out now. Maybe it's ambergris? I love that whale vomit. Yep, I do think there's some pine here. Isn't that freaky what I said at first, especially if there IS pine in this. heehee   I have to look:
Tea leaf with three mosses, green grass, a medley of herbal notes, and a drop of ginger and fig.

Bwahahahaha. No flowers. bwahahahaha! God I suck. LOL

I don't think I'd ever wear this. It's a little too green for me and I like green fragrances too. Ever smelled Grass by The Gap? The original Grass. Ironic because how I got into BPAL was buying that bottle of Grass off ebay, having never smelled it. The seller just described it so wonderfully I knew I had to have it. Then when I knew I wanted that, I decided to look at her other fragrances she had for sale and some were bpals and just the way she described them I knew I wanted to try them too, so I bid on a lot of bpals from her. I'd never even heard of bpal before then. Even being the fragrance ho that I am! No crap! It's all her fault. I blame her. Her name was Annie. She should get the Top Enabler Prize from BPAL. LOL

I will give this some time to mellow out and hopefully check back in later to say it's gorgeous blah blah blah....and to see if I have any more comments!! Yay!!

2 hrs later:
Nope, Apothecary didn't turn nice. Turned kind of lemony actually, and not a nice lemon.

Off to the giveaway pile.

Paella!!

My husband is off doing a show in Ft Dodge Iowa, so I get most of the day to myself. Yay! Isn't that terrible to say yay??!! LOL But I get to watch what I want, do what I want, sleep when I want and eat what I want. Woooohoooo!
Today I plan to make paella. He likes it but it's not a first choice for him, especially if I use smoked paprika in it. His palate is super strong and sensitive and he doesn't care for that or any type of heavily pungent scents...like indian herbs and seasonings etc. So usually I make it (if for dinner for both) without the smoked paprika.

Lori's Paella For One

1 to 2 chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces, salted and peppered
1/4 cup smoked paprika
1 1/2 tbls oregano
1 tbls olive oil
3 to 4 inch piece sausage, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes (any type of sausage-I've used andouille, chorizo, and italian hot-it's all good)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 large carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 cup paella rice like Arroz Calasparra
3 cups chicken broth
2 shrimps-in the shell
10 mussels- in the shell, if I have them
1 tomato, chopped, if I have it

I use an authentic paella pan but any skillet would work. Use non-stick if it's available since the rice will not be stirred through the cooking process.
Combine the paprika with the oregano. Then roll the chicken in it to coat.
 Add 1 tbls oil to pan and add the sausage. Medium heat. Cook sausage until it's almost crispy and all the fat's rendered out. Leave the oil that's in the pan--so use a slotted spoon to get the sausage out. Put the sausage onto a paper toweled plate.
Add the chicken to the pan. Medium heat. Cook the chicken until browned and remove with slotted spoon to the plate with the sausage.
Now add the onions, celery and carrots to the pan. Medium low heat. Cook until the onions are opaque, then add the garlic. Saute another two minues. Make sure the garlic doesn't burn.
Add the rice to the veggies. Medium heat. Cook it until the rice is covered with the oil then keep stirring it for another 2 minutes.
Now add the chicken and sausage, stir 1 minute. Add 2 cups of the broth.
Now let it sit on low heat. Do not stir! Keep testing the rice in small bites to see if there is enough broth to get the rice soft. I add little spills of broth throughout the process if it needs it. Halfway through this cooktime I add the tomato on top.  It can be added when the broth goes in but I find it disappears because it gets cooked too long. When there's just a little bit of liquid left I then bury the shrimps and mussels into the rice and let it cook until the shrimp are done and the mussels open.
Sometimes I pop some frozen peas on top when I add the shrimp.
Enjoy!

Man I love sleeping until 11 am!!!

Sisi rocks!!

Welcome Sisi!! I'm so glad you found me!

Oh! I didn't know I could title a post!! bah!

Blind pick from my bottles. I have about 20 new bottles that I've never smelled. I received them in a lot on ebay.



White Phoenix


I don't know what color the oil is since it's in an amber bottle.

First smell from the bottle: Gorgeous! Light and fresh. It's a floral.

Wet on ths skin. This is sublime. What is this flower? This is very feminine. Violets is what it reminds me of, but I'm sure it's white flowers because of the name. It's also very expensive smelling. Like a woman that has a lot of money would wear. Classic. There's other aspects in this that I can't even begin to guess. I will need another bottle of this.

What's in it, the suspense is killing me. White, for acting in good conscience and doing our best to give back to the community.
Frangipani, magnolia, cotton flower, osmanthus, crystal musk, ambrette, white orchid, sugar cane, davana, white sandalwood, petitgrain, lavender, and lotus root.

Hmmm, I think it's the frangipani and the cotton flower that I'm getting. Also the sandalwood.

I love this. In a way it's also a bit creamy and orangey to me too.
I'm going to huffing this all night.

Every day we give our dawgs fresh beef bones that have the marrow in them. They've actually come to expect these bones everyday. Last night my husband Jeff says, "I don't think we have any bones for tomorrow."
 I say, "Ahh, we probably do. I'll look for some tomorrow."
I say we probably do because we have a fridge in our kitchen, a fridge in one of the spare bedrooms (impossible to get it into the basement-all of my appliances were black and having a white fridge was bothering me to no end about 3 yrs ago, so even though the side by side was only 5 years old, I bought a black fridge.....and didn't want to give up the side by side, hence 2 fridges on the main floor), and a deep freeze in the basement. So out of all of those we probably have some packages of bones buried somewhere. Right?
Nope.
As I was sitting here paging through other blogs to find some interesting ones to follow, I hear this ooomphing and ummpphhing coming from Ava, our 6 year old female GSD. Yep the begging has begun! G-R-E-A-T! Stark was already outside in the backyard enjoying the nice day.
So off I went in search of bones. Nada. I did find some smoked sliced ham shanks, but I don't like giving them pork bones because they splinter.
So I apologized to Ava that we didn't have any and went back to looking for blogs.

Umph, umph, oomph, oooo, oooo ughhhhh. She does it really low voiced, like a cow mooing.

OMG

So I go grab the shanks and there's three in the package. They are sliced about 2 inches thick and are round with a little round bone in the middle. Two of them are frozen together, so I place the stuck ones in her mouth. She starts heading to go out the back door. They like to do that, take their bones out back so they can enjoy them in the yard. Our backyard looks like a dinosaur dig with all the old bones strewn about. LOL

So I follow her to the door with Stark's one measly bone that he gets. She goes out the door and down the stoop and there's Stark seeing that she has something and I can see his nose just going wild smelling to see what she has. I'm still in the house peering around the door corner because I wanted to see what he would do when he realized she had something. Know what he did? he came up the stoop, peered into the screen door window and looks right at me, like, where's mine? bwahahahahahaha


These dawgs are too freaking smart for me.


Ava's fave way to sleep. Please don't look at her naughty bits. ;)

I am reading The Prince of Tides. I remember the movie way back when with Streisand and Nolte. I don't remember much of the movie but I do remember I wasn't too enthralled with it.
The book is excellent! Almost a 'can't put down' type.


Blind pick.


London


Bpal has a whole category of oils that are based on cities and places all over the world. They call it Wanderlust. This is from that series. I have several of the oils from that series: New Orleans, Prague, Kathmandu, Tintagel.....to name a few.
I haven't smelled London yet.

The oil is clear in color.

ROSES! That's all I am getting too. At this point anyway, wet on my hand. It reminds me a lot of Rose Red by bpal. I had to log back onto my bpal forum name to get the name of it from my thread and I just reviewed it a few days ago! Me bad.

BPAL has some of the most authentic rose smelling perfumes I have ever smelled. I mean, they smell EXACTLY like the real thing, as if you were holding the flower in your hand. The petals, the stems and the leaves are all present in some of their oils. It's just amazing how they can create that layered affect.

Yep, this is all roses to me, so of course I love it. I know to some rose smells are not liked within their bpals. Reminds them of old people and wearing it is a thing of the past.
My great grandmother had rose shaped soaps in her bathroom. So yes, to me this brings back memories of an old lady. She was 94 when she died. I just started falling in love with rose scents about 5 years ago when there was only one bottle of my bubble bath left at Walmart and it was rose. I was out completely (you will find as you read this blog I am a big time bath ho) out of any bubble bath and disgustingly tossed it in my cart. But I tell ya, that first bath.....I was in love. And it's been that way ever since.


Let's see what's in this: Venerable Victorian Tea Rose… twisted, blackened and emboldened with wickedness.

Well, it's about frickin time I got one guess completely correct!!! Woohooo! Been trying to achieve that for a year!! LOL

This is a keeper. Not a big bottle winner only because I have a full bottle of Peacock Queen (bpals greatest rose of all time!) and some other imps that are roses too. Yeah, you CAN have too much rose!! LOL!!

I hope if you are reading this, I hope you'll stop and say hi. I made it possible that you don't have to be signed up with blogger to posts comments. :)

I miss you all. I think I've cried heavily 4 times in the last two days. But eh. Tis life I suppose. It tis what it tis.

I took a Lush bath. Check them out at Lush.com.

So now I can do another review!!

I didn't do a blind pick for this one. I always say BAH!, so when I got an imp of

Humbug.....


I've been itching to try it! It also says bah humbug on the label. LOL I think that's adorable.

Anyway it's a little dark in color and I can also tell there's a thicker oil within it it because it's darker and separate from the rest of the oil....like it's heavier. I love that!! Usually means it's a musk or patchouli in there!!!!!!!!!  HA!


In the vial it smells a little like a cola or rootbeer.
Wet on my wrist it smells kind of candyish. Still smells rootbeery too. Maybe a twang from ginger in here? It's not at all like I expected---deep and incensey. I think there is just a smidgeon of musk in it though.
To me it like mixing a can of Coke and a can of rootbeer together then adding a pinch of musk and maybe some greenery.

What's in it? The description says: Vanilla licorice.

Yes!! That's it! Rootbeer sucked up through a black licorice vine!

Not sure it's something I'd reach to wear outside the home, so not a big bottle winner. (Big bottle winners are the oils that I need to buy the full size 5ml bottle.)
I have approximately 68 full size bottles and around 400-500 different imps. More than half of those imps I have never smelled. That's why I'm here. To try them ouot and describe them.

I had a thread on bpal's forum in the introductions called 'Hi everyone!' So if you want to see the last year's bpals that I have reviewed, go there. My forum name is also Cattastroficka. You'll see my thread had 5577 views as of yesterday anyway. It's the BIG one! You'll also read stories about my two german shepherds and four cats. But I'll be posting all that crap here now, so I hope you come back!

Oh, and this Humbug? It's not too bad, quite different. I like it but don't love it. I'll keep the imp of it.

I'm hoping I can be unwieldy here. ;)


Blind pick from an ammo case. Oh, these are imps that I pull from the ammo cases. In case you don't know what an imp is it's bpal's term for a little 1ml vial of their perfume oils.  Possets (another great perfume oil company) calls them poppets. I like Possets oils too so you will also see reviews of those oils from time to time, along with other etailers like Nocturne Alchemy, Good Judy, Violette Market etc.


Strawberry Moon (2005)


I'm not much into strawberry scents so let's see if I like this. I can smell it already and I haven't even opened the vial! It's also kind of dark in color like coffee. OH, it does have a red tinge.

Just as I thought. Strawberry, and a cheap smelling one at that. Reminds me too much of the oils from the 70's. Remember those? I think they are still made too. LOL

I don't care for this. What's in it?    Strawberry Moon is a blending of strawberries and cream with light, dry lotus and soft ylang ylang and a touch of green tea and sage to bring it closer to Earth.


I thought it was kind of boozy smelling too.

Meh. Off to the give away pile.

Obviously I failed at attaching the video. In actuality I forgot I was going to. I was on Youtube when I posted and exited out of Blogger. On accident.
I just said, Fuck! to myself. But softly. Like I really couldn't believe I did that....when I did that. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.....

I'm really going to try to concentrate and get this done this time but i can't make any promises. Just warning ya in case you get all worked up for it. I can hear some of you bpal huffers.

What all do you want to hear??? Bluegrass? AC/DC? How about The Who.

This one.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APgC6XYcmSY


Did that work??

Wow! It's like I was whisked away from my home by a tornado and deposited here! I'm not sure if I'm a witch or ...wait a minute! That was Kansas, not Iowa! What the hell was I thinking?


This blog will be my continuation of my bpal reviews and some personal crap that you either don't care about or wish I'd shut up about....or....even be one of those few that ...actually like what I write.
Make no mistake, I figure I have 4 people that actually follow me.

So welcome my precious four, I love you and idolize you.

And if there's 6, well I pass all my love along to all of ya.

If there's 15, you know I love ya!

22? Yeah, I have enuf to go around.....?????.......

37? WTF! I think I have enuf to go around!!!

45?  I'm dizzy.

88? Okay you sumbitches some of you are going to have to back out! That's right....scoot. Wait your turn! I have enough love for a lot of ya, but not all of ya!

<said like Eddie Murphy> Jusssssssssssst kidding'!

Think I'm weird, dontcha? Yeah. I know.

When I review a bpal I don't know what's in it. Well, 99.8% of the time anyway. I guess. I'm not too bad, probably 50/50. LOL Worse? You think I do worse than that, my precious four?? BAH!

Let's do a BPAL review.

BPAL is Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and they have some pretty awesome oils. They are the most complex and truly invented by geniuses. Every bpal oil is a discovery waiting to happen for all of those that smell them. They can make you remember childhood memories, the smell of your mother when you were a child, sheets drying on a clothes line, buried leaves set afire, florals light, bright, deep, fizzy, smokey, new car smell, Ophelia , and Cordelia...you that know, know what I mean. If you don't know it, find it.

Okay back to the review. This will be a blind pick from the bullet cases I have full of bpals. Okay.....I don't think any of them are 'full', But it's just a stupid term used by people. lol

I have some really nice decants that I won recently.

I close my eyes, and wave my hand over the imps of bpals in the cases. When it 'feels' right I stop and grab an unseen imp. That's a blind pick!!
Freaking exciting aint it?? I knew you'd be impressed.


Here we go!  <famous words that people said before their roller coaster car went off the tracks. Remember. DO NOT ride any mechanical rides in the month of the witches, October!!


My BFF is a witch. Yep born right on Oct 31st. My dad's a dick too. Yep he was named Richard way back when and way back when they called men Dick. Not Rick...there were a few Rich's but not many.
You all can stop yelling at me. I'll GET to the review!

Fuck.

I can say that here!!!! YAY!!!!!! I'm fuckin relieved for some reason. Like a weight lifted.


TULZCHA

Almost as clear as you can get but with a tinge of yellow---in color. MINTY! And a REALLY nice mint too!! Truly the kind that soothe and awaken, not the ones that irritate and gives you a headache.


There's a musk or patch in here, or something smokey. Mint cigarettes. This freaking peppermint lotion is great................I just heard that on a commercial. LOL But it actually pertains to what I am smelling right now. Missy_killer would love this scent. I hope she finds me. I am sending out telepathic messages!! Johanna!!!
Bah! I am going to have to figure out how to post pics here. And youtube videos. I'm addicted to adding some freaking crap for you to enjoy. hehe 

ELIN!!! JOHANNA!!! SISI!!! I KNOW I have to have a 4th supporter out there~ !!!????

Tulzcha is just about the most beautiful mint perfume I have ever smelled in my life..and Missy can tell you, she likes them and I don't. ;) 
I'd have to arm wrestle you for this one Johanna. ( I figure I have people's heads spinning using both Johanna and Missy as the same person.) Which she is. Don't any of you think  any differently. Missy and Johanna ARE one entity. MISSY!!!   ELIN!!

This oil is still freaking awesome. Almost candyish and bubblegummy. I love it! For those waiting for it: A crystalline, cold green fire: six mints with white pepper and cucumber.
After reading that. I love it even more. Isn't reading those ingredients image making?

Gonna try to attach a youtube video. Cross your fingers and wish me luck.