Diptyque

When it comes to fragrances I am very picky, most fragrances give me an aching head and so I tend to stay away from the lot of them. I stick to the fragrances that I know I can handle, cedar wood, light vanilla scents, light lavender scents and any scent that is considered light and woody are the type of scents I tend to be drawn to. Anything too floral and too strong smelling are definite nos.

Recently a new store opened up in town, a store called Diptyque, a fancy french store that sells fancy scented candles, diffusers, perfume and de toilettes. A small candle costs about $28 while a large candle costs $60. So when I say "fancy" I mean "faaaaancy". I get my usual diffuser at a beauty store for $20, the diffuser lasts for quite a while, well over 6 months has been my experience- and so while $20 is, for me, quite expensive for keeping my bathroom smelling nice it is still worth the price when considering how long it lasts. So having spent $20 on diffusers in the past I decided to get a small candle ($28) to simply try it out. The selling point that worked on me? Scents such as "fireplace" and "fig", that's right, a candle that smells like you've got the fireplace going in your home, or the "fig" scent that smells like my fig tree in the backyard during fig season. The small candles probably will not last even close to 6 months but maybe the scent will turn me on to regularly spending $28 or $60, I suppose we'll see in not too long if Diptyque candles will make the cut, as for now... Here's to trying something new.

Check out Diptyque on-line

The Simple Wine Rack

I've begun drinking wine again and am growing quite a little collection, currently the bottles are lined up on my built-in wall buffet. I've decided that investing in some type of wine rack might be good for the integrity of the look of my home. There are so many types of wine racks to choose from and so far I've managed to narrow down the style I want: simple.

The above pictured wine rack is really quite ideal, except for the fact that I never at any given moment have that much wine; I suppose I drink it much faster than I can save it. So while I love this straight forward timeless wine rack it is much too big.

The line of metal circles that shelves the wine rack is cute, modern, unique, clean looking and simple. But the placement of the wine rack is too final as it seems to be attached to the wall and one-by-one at that. I can only imagine the time it would take to move the wine rack should you want to.

Here is the simple wine rack I am looking to get for my home. Housing about 8 bottles it is the perfect size and should I need more space I can simple buy (or make) more. This style of wine rack is simple enough to make (DIY style) which is another added bonus, I will most likely forego the wine glass holder on the bottom for simplicity's sake. Imagining a row or column of two or three wine racks of this style on my gray dining room walls makes me feel that I have found the perfect wine rack- I'll take that as a big hint that I can now stop looking.

I Stand Behind: The heavy duty moving blanket

Recently our (my husband's and I) home went through some minor construction that required our furniture to be piled into the center of the rooms, furniture that included our massive bed and our piano, to name a couple of the more heavier objects we found quite unforgivable on our backs in recent times. Very well knowing what kind of struggle we were dealing with we made time to visit our local Home Depot and purchased a couple of moving blankets, at $30 each these ugly but sturdy blankets are not cheap but are very well worth the price when you realize how much easier it is to move that piano, to move that massive bed.

I was quite pessimistic on whether this moving blanket could make that much difference. When my piano moved in to our new home, three very burly men with muscles on top of muscles came teetering in with it, my husband alone could not pick up one end of it an inch off the ground, could a moving blanket really do magical things? Apparently, yes, it can. Something about leverage that I don't clearly understand, especially when talking about this blanket, just makes it work. Needless to say, my husband and I were able, with the help of two moving blankets, to move the piano, our massive bed with the mattress on it, a book shelf with all the books on it and so on.

I love these moving blankets, couldn't do it without you guys! But just to get my money's worth (even more so) they will be doubling as picnic blankets and will be going down on the floors for extra padding when I go camping.