*sniff test*

One of my treats to myself every now and then is artissan perfume. My best friend loves Black Pheonix Alchemy Lab perfume, and whenever I used to visit she'd drag out her huge collection of perfume bottles and let me try some on.

Unfortunately living in England BPAL perfumes are an expensive treat, as the shipping alone is pricey. So I started looking around for an artissan perfume seller closer to home and found a few which I tried out. Over the years I've found some I loved, and some I was utterly unimpressed by. But I think I have now finally found THE ONE!

The seller is Common Brimstone on Etsy, and lives in the UK so postage is cheap (thankfully) and she seems to share my taste in scents.  I decided to buy one or two bottles, but struggled to pick just one. So I decided to buy a sample pack of 10, and still struggled to get my choices down to 10!

But eventually I did, placed my order and sat down to wait... Yesterday my perfumes arrived up, and my do they smell nice.  To be honest, normally with a sample selection there's a couple that, when they arrive, you just don't like after all, or they don't seem 'you'. This time that isn't a problem, the problem is I like all of them!

After a lot of sniffing yesterday I finally separated out my Top 5: Oshun, Black Wood Sugar, Cinnamon Bird, Caramel Chai & Pumpkin Nuit

Middle 3: Cherry Kiss, Kitchen Witch & Constance

& the bottom two: Honey Badger & Bastet

But honestly its a very close thing, now I need to try out each scent and see what I think.

Today is the first scent, and one of my top 5. I had planned to save this one till later, but after an awful nights sleep last night I needed a pick me up!

The scent is called Oshun, which is apparently named for an Oshiri (goddess?) of love,  beauty of diplomacy.  An interesting mix, as is the scent, which apparently contains warm clove, amber, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey and pumpkin.

I really do love this one. Its warm, deep and comforting, without being too sweet or cloying. I want to wrap myself in it and snuggle in front of a fire with a good book.

9/10 (Honestly I'd give it full marks, but that seems daft on the first day!)

Oh and to keep it knitting related,  today Im trying out the socks I finished for the first time, they didnt need a sniff test though! ;)

The good, the bad, and the squishy!

A bit of a mixed bag last week.

I'm always a believer in starting with the bad news, which last week involved the news that my local favourite yarn shop (purl city yarns) is closing. Boooo.... :(

But this horrid news had an upside, which was that they had a huge sale on to clear their stock before they shut forever.

This meant I was able to do my Christmas Yarn order for a bargin price (well as bargin as you get for lovely yarn, which admitedly isn't really ever a bargin, but who cares, it's lovely!)

So on Saturday morning the postman delivered my lovely order full of pretty yarn.

Oh so pretty, and soooo squishy!

So I know have 6 skeins of  worsted llama wool (in 2 colours) I've never used llama wool before, but my goodness its soft.

I also have 2 skeins of lace weight mohair yarn, which is both gorgeous and squishy.

And finally a lovely self striping dk yarn.

*Sigh* yarn heaven!

Planning for Christmas

I know, I know, I said the 'C' word. Sorry.

But still, it's time to start planning what I need to knit for Christmas presents.

At the moment I'm finishing off the socks I started last month.

I've got one done, and the other is almost finished. Above is sock number one. The pattern is mermaidia, which is a really pretty pattern based on a mermaids fins. I wanted something either wintery or aquatic, as the wool give me the feel of either deep dark winter or deep dark water, and I couldn't find a snowfall pattern I liked enough.

Anyway I should have the socks finished by the end of this week, beginning of next at the latest, so what then...?

My Grandmother has requested some leg warmers for when she is out walking, and suggested some finger-less gloves for my Granddad similar to the ones I made for her last year.

I was planning on making a cape for the boy with the remainder of the red wool from my shawl, however I can't find a single 'superhero cape' pattern. I can find lots of 'little red riding hood capes' but no superman like ones! Bah!

What has everyone else got on the books for Christmas knits this year?

Shawltastic!

After having said that I lost my knitting oomph, I finally found it again!

I made two lovely shawls in time for Nine Worlds...

The first one was the Firefly inspired saffron a shawl for leaving the maiden house

Not perfect, I made a few mistakes along the way, but still, it looks good on. And, as a first attempt I'm happy with it, and I'm not the only one...

The Boy loves it. So much so that I'm think I need to make him a cape, just so I can get my shawl back! 

The second one was the Time Turner Shawl which was inspired by Hermione's time turner in Harry Potter. Although, because I used a self striping shawl, you can't actually see the pattern, which is a bit of a shame. But then again, it does look really pretty anyway, so I don't really mind!

So, I think I have now cracked shawls. Now, onto socks!!!

Knitting Lethargy...

I seem to have totally misplaced my knitting oomph.

I can't make myself pick up my knitting needles at the moment for love nor money.
We've got Nine Worlds coming up, with a whole track on knitting that I'm really looking forward to, but at the same point my urge to knit has gone.

My lovely Owl cardie sits unfinished in the bag, and I had really wanted to make myself a shawl in the colours of House Martell, but.... Ugh. I got nothing.

Little things are the cutest

Just finished a baby cardigan for a friend of mine last week.
It's just rather cute, its so tiny and bitty and adorable.
It's in a lovely pale green (as we didn't know what flavour bump would be)

If you fancy making it yourself you can find the pattern here... http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/puerperium-cardigan

Game of Thrones - Here be Dragons, and SPOILERS (Books vs TV)

So Im lying here, trying yo go to sleep, and tonights Season 4 finale of GoT's is circling around in my head. (Please excuse the poor grammer/ spelling, I really should have been asleep a while ago!) And yes I know this isn't knitting related, but I was knitting as I watched it, so that TOTALLY counts! 

I know at this point they're making a lot of changes between the books and the TV show, and in order to stay sane and still enjoy both I should treat them as two srperate entities, but Im rubbish at compartmentalising.

So here's my thoughts, from a book readers perspective...

1) Other than the wisdom of riding your cavalry through the woods, I loved Stanis turning up at the wall. It looked amazing.  Properly breath taking.  No issues here at all (Ok, except Davos being there, which is fine 'cos I loves him,  and seriously did Stanis hace his wife and daughter in amongst his cavalry men as they got there pretty damn quick? Oh and no Val, Dala, baby etc... but again, understandable)

2) Brienne/ Arya / The Hound
Ok, I could quibble about this, but Im not going to. It was brutal. Properly gory. And finger bitting to watch. They've made us love Brienne and The Hound, so there was no winning here, which I loved. And the scene with Arya and The Hound... Perfection.

3) Daenarys. I want her gown. I had the feels when she locked the dragons away. It was done brilliantly. (Although, as an aside, isnt Viseryon white in the books?)

Then I run into trouble.. and if you havent read the books, skip this bit.

4) The Mountain & Qyburn - Because theyve introduced Qyburn to Kings Landing early, you have him trying to save The Mountain. In the books its Pycelle trying to save the Mountain and failing. We believe in the books the mountain dies, his head gets sent to Dorne (we believe) its only later we begin to doubt this. So they're changing things around here, and Im curioys to see how that will go. Not a complaint.  I can live with the changes, and I understand them. But it does raise questions.

5) Beyond the Wall - No coldhands?! Killing Jojen?! And was it just me who felt the reveal of the three eyed raven was rushed?! Plus, he was not nearly gross or horrific enough! The fight with the skellingtons was cool, but it just felt too rushed for me. Also Bran in the show is pretty much fully caught up with book Brsn so what now?

6) Tyrion - Now for me this felt really rushed, and my biggest complaint.  No mention at all of Tysha, which I get (cut charachters/ save time)  but Tyrion & Jaime parted as friends. This means Tyrion still believes he gas Jaime in his corner. No coversation about "Where Whores Go", all in all it just didnt feel tragic enough. Plus, Varys, you suck at disguise! Like no one will mention to Cerci that they saw you boarding a boat with a big box!!

7) The missing charachter.  Well I'd kind of forgotten we were expecting her, and I frankly dont care as it means other storylines can continue for a while. She'll turn up when she's ready!

And thats it. Im done. Maybe I can sleep now.