These are oh, three of my favorite things:
The Victorian Trading Company : It’s expensive, but you can get pretty good deals every so often. Their Halloween stuff is most excellent. I get at least one thing every year. This year may well be the Apothecary Jars (with Poison labeling of course) and the Apothecary Banners. I love LOVE the clothes. I wanted This Suit for our Max Raabe trip (early part of the day, wearing a flapper dress that night) but I waited too long. I’ll need to spend a bit more time on the site. Oh the sorrow.
Another favorite place, for all my good smells and for quite a number of t-shirts: Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and Black Phoenix Trading Post. I don’t want to smell like everyone else! I do enjoy some main stream scents. I LOVE pink sugar (smells like Disneyworld, the Bean says). and I have some fruity colognes that Mr. J has picked out for me (Pacifica is one favorite). Also the occasional food scent from Demeter, but they don’t last anytime at all. If you work at reading the Black Phoenix site, check out the reviews on Bpal. org and talk with folks on LiveJournal or other places—you can find out what they really smell like and their staying power. I LOVE the scents and went a little batty early on. I’ve since cut down my purchasing to 1-3 times a year (Halloween being my favorite of course) because I have a rather large scent repertoire now. They last forever if you keep them dark and cool, are relatively easy to resell if you don’t like them (I’ve never taken a loss yet) and are very unique.
Another place I find myself quite often is the Kindle store.
I adore my kindle. I never thought I would as much as I do. I have always enjoyed the smell of books, the feel of books. The library has always been the “happiest place on earth’ (sorry Disney, I love you too, but the library is my favorite). I get a small thrill each and every time I go into a library or book store. So much to read! Well my kindle is light so light I can lean it up against Mr. J when I’m having insomnia and he doesn’t notice. The screen is incredibly readable and clear—as clear as reading a book. It’s not in color, but I would read a magazine on the Ipad, not the kindle so much. Would a touch screen be nice, well sure—but not at the expense of how light and easy to handle it is. I can pop it in my purse and ready anywhere. It works great by the pool. Best of all I can get a new book in 60 seconds! It is easy , almost too easy, to spend money on kindle books, but they are less than hardbacks or first issue paperback (or the same cost) and honestly? We just don’t have ANY more room for books in our house. There is a least one and often 3 bookcases in every room. I’ve cleared out what Bean won’t read in the next few years, I won’t reread and what wasn’t really any good. What’s left are books I love and classics. And we are STILL full. Gave away at least 100 books this summer and we’re still full. So the kindle is the solution to our problems.
