The Bathing Garden - Faerie Call

Scent Description: Fresh blackberries covered in clotted cream and topped with a layer of strawberry cotton candy.

Weight Melted: 1.1 oz

Location of Warmer: Kitchen, in tealight warmer

Cold Sniff: 4/5 Creamy, tart blackberries and sweet strawberries. That tart creaminess was a bit off putting, but I was couting on it diminishing as the wax is melted.

Warm Sniff: 5/5 That tart note went away! Delicious sweet berries. You know me and my sweet scents - gotta have 'em!

Scent Strength: 2/3

Scent Throw: >3/3 This filled the entire house. Not to self: melt one cube next time.

Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 7.5 hours of scent from two cubes.

Repurchase: Definitely! This is going on my TBG must-have list, especially since I've accidentally discovered a few awesome blends with it!

One Year

One year ago today I landed in South Korea, beginning one of the most amazing and yet trying years of my life. In February, our monthly Band of Bloggers post asked us about our goals for the year. I said I wanted to move forward. In short, I think I'm succeeding splendidly. I've done so much this year - things I would have never dreamed of doing before coming here and using this place as a stepping stone to work on life!

Blogmas - December 23-26: Merry Christmas!

Friday the 23rd was one of three planned gatherings for Christmas. This particular one was a more party-esque style one, so M and I planned appropriately and took the bus to Pangyo.

Blogmas 2016 - December 17-22

There is no in between for me, is there? Either I'm having too much of a lazy day to sit at the computer, or I'm so busy that I can't find the time or energy to write out a post at the end of the day. What's that? I can un-lazify myself? No. Not an option. LOL

Candles From the Keeping Room - Juniper Berry & Cedar

Scent Description: Festive and clean. The perfect scent for spa or manly scents. Fruity and woody opening containing sparkling grapefruit, citron, and juniper berries followed by a middle note of wild ivy and finishing with a touch of warm white musk, cedar, and balsam.

Date Received: July 26, 2016

Weight Melted: 1.0 oz

Location of Warmer: Living room, in tealight warmer

Cold Sniff: 5/5 Bath and Body Works Balsam and Cedar mixed with a dash of juniper berry. Super delicious for those of you who are into pine and wood scents.

Warm Sniff: 5/5 No surprises once melted.

Scent Strength: 2.5/3

Scent Throw: >3/3 This filled the entire living room, hallway, bedroom, and part of the kitchen/dining area. Super strong throw!

Melting Power: 5/5 I got about 11 hours of scent from one tart. Whoa, nelly!

Repurchase: Definitely! Instant love! Bravo! Give me more! 

Happy Mail From Deb!

Deb from It's Always Something sent me a lovely package that arrived earlier this week. Now that the craziness has died down, I finally have a chance to share with you the amazing stuff she sent!

First off is the amazing card she made! Yes! Deb made  this with her own two hands! I'm amazed by the quality of the cards she's sent since she started her Project Life/card making adventure this year. These are seriously things I would expect to find in a specialty card store. So gorgeous!

Blogmas 2016 - December 16: Oops

Today I did quite a lot. Not as much as I wanted to, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Blogmas 2016 - December 9-15: Bad News or Good News First?

This post is a mixture of good and bad. That's life, though, ya know? Now that the week is over a lot of the bad news has bee nullified, but it still messed up my mood for the week!

First, though, some cute and happy happenings!
I cleaned the hamster homes and this time around I took two pictures. The first one you can see above. It's from Hammy scurrying around the bits of her home as they laid scattered on her desk. She even decided to jump from the desk to the floor while I had my hands full with wiping down her home. Methinks she has spent too much time taking skydiving lessons from Bunny. LOL!

Satin Suzie Scents - Rosemary Mint

Scent Description: Clean blend of fresh rosemary with refreshing mint.

Date Poured: November 1, 2016

Weight Melted: 1.3 oz

Location of Warmer: Living room, in tealight warmer

Cold Sniff: 5/5 A nice mashup of minty gum and mint scented cleaning products. I know that probably wasn't the intention, but I associate some specific mints with cleaning products and that's what I smell here.

Warm Sniff: 5/5 No surprises once melted. Just a pleasant, strong mint infusion for the home and mind. I melted this during a cleaning spree and the crisp mint kept me energized and motivated while the rosemary calmed me.

Scent Strength: 2.5/3

Scent Throw: >3/3 This filled the entire living room, bedroom, hallway, kitchen/dining area, and part of the office.

Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 7 hours of scent from two flowers.

Repurchase: Definitely! I loved this little minty blend. Next time I melt I will definitely use one flower instead of two.

Blogmas 2016 - December 6-8: Anniversary!

Okay, I'll admit. I had nothing to really write about for the past few days. I don't think you guys care for my rants about the anime we're watching, Parasyte. That show manages to reel me in and yet irk me to no end. It's turned itself into a soap opera and I'm about ready to drop it without bothering to finish the series.

Blogmas 2016 - December 5

Lame, short, textual post today. M was off today so we played some CS:GO together and I spent some time catching up on commenting, replying, and reading blogs. I also played some UO! I claimed some of my holiday rewards and started decorating my house for the holiday season.

One of M's friends was having a going away get together so M hung out with them for a while. He brought me home some food and we watched .hack//Beyond the World. We've always enjoyed the .hack series so to watch one we haven't seen before was nice.

We were supposed to go on a walk/hike today, but between some work stuff M had to take care of and his friend's goodbye party we didn't get a chance. We'll try again tomorrow. At the very least there are some errands we need to run, so I'll get to leave the house for that.

Okay, I'm off to watch another show with M. I hope your December 5th goes well (yay, timezones!) and your plans come to fruition!

Haul: Stickers from Brandys Shop!

This isn't exactly a Black Friday/Cyber Monday haul that I asked about in one of my Stop & Chats, but it arrived during that time so I'm going to rope it in with those other posts. LOL

Brandy's Shop is a sticker shop that specializes in stickers designed to correspond with the layouts of several commonly used planners such as the Erin Condren Life Planner and the Happy Planner from Me And My Big Ideas. I bought from them in late September and fell in love with their weekly kit style, so when they had a sale in early November I jumped at the chance to further stock up.

Let's get straight to it!

Blogmas 2016 - December 4: Cleaning & Decorating!

 Today I did some major cleaning as well as decorating. I never finished putting up the decorations my mom sent, so I took some time to put up some more decorations. I reached a decorating block halfway through, though, so I had to stop. Once that block happened, I redirected my efforts towards cleaning the house.

Candles From The Keeping Room - Winter Candle Apple

Don't mind the out-of-focus, blurry shot.

Scent Description: Crispy apple, pineapple, zests of orange, neroli, cinnamon, sandalwood, fresh musk, bamboo, patchouli.

Date Received: February 2016

Weight Melted: 1.0 oz

Location of Warmer: Living room, in tealight warmer.

Cold Sniff: 2/5 Musky note with a hint of generic, crappy Yankee Apple. Not any of Yankee's reformulations or better versions of Apple. Their really old, really plastic-ey apple.

Warm Sniff: 5/5 Ah, there's that delicious Winter Candle Apple we all know and love!

Scent Strength: 1.5/3

Scent Throw: 3/3 This filled the entire living room and just a little bit of the hallway.

Melting Power: 4/5 I got about 6.5 hours of scent from this tart.

Repurchase: Yes!

Blogmas 2016 - December 3: Ramblings of a Lizard

When will this sticker haul post come out? No cluuuuue! ;)

Today was a self care day. I woke up feeling like crap, even though I had a fair amount of sleep and I wasn't dehydrated. Dehydration is the most common reason for my icky wake-ups, so I'm always drinking lots of water and keep some by my bed for those nights when I wake up feeling like I haven't had a drink in years. I still don't know what caused it, but it's gone now so I guess I'll just chalk it up to a bad night.

Candles From the Keeping Room - Caramel Apple Fritters

Scent Description: No scent description available.

Date Received: July 26, 2016

Weight Melted: 1.7 oz

Location of Warmer: Kitchen, in tealight warmer.

Cold Sniff: 2/5 There was an incredibly strong butter note in this. Way way in the back, on the other side of the continent, hid some caramelized apples.

Warm Sniff: 2/5 Unfortunately, that butter note stayed strong even when melting.

Scent Strength: 3/3 It's hard not to notice when it smells like you're walking through a Butter Sauna. "Hello, would you like the sweet cream, European Style, or whipped, salted, and spreadable room?" On second thought, don't go to a Butter Sauna. Too many innuendos.

Scent Throw: >3/3 It. Was. Everywhere.

Melting Power: ?/5 I desperately held on for two hours before I had to call it quits.

Repurchase: No. All dramatic ramblings aside, this wasn't a scent I was overly fond of. If you're not a fan of strong, buttery scents, I would suggest you stay away. If that's your cup of tea, step right up and have at 'er!

Blogmas 2016 - December 2: Shipping!

Like this picture? Back in October Krispy Kreme Korea did a Pokémon themed promotion. M and I managed to pick up some of these poké-yummies a day before the promotion ended. I couldn't find an opportunity to include the picture awesomeness until now, so oogle your brain out at these long-gone goodies. LOL

Candles From the Keeping Room - Apple Peach Cobbler

Scent Description: No scent description available.

Date Received: July 26, 2016

Weight Melted: 0.9 oz

Location of Warmer: Living room, in tealight warmer

Cold Sniff: 5/5 Nice, spicy apples with a healthy side of bready peaches.

Warm Sniff: 5/5 No surprises once melted. Just delectable late fall/early winter goodness!

Scent Strength: 2.5/3

Scent Throw: 3/3 This filled the entire living room.

Melting Power: 5/5 I enjoyed 9 and a half hours of scent from one little pumpkin.

Repurchase: Yes! This was such a lovely scent. It helps that it's pretty, too. :)

Blogmas 2016 - December 1: Shopping!

The mysterious Redwood Biome. What creatures do you hide from me??

I may have done soooome shopping today. Not for myself, though I got incredibly close. I saw just a few too many sales that were still going on and my brain imploded from too many decisions.

Band of Bloggers - Vol. 12/December 2016

A full year of fragrant sharing with the Band of Bloggers rounds out 2016. Thank you for supporting the blogger community and taking the time to read and participate in our posts. We will be continuing the Band of Bloggers in 2017 but with some new writers and blogs to follow. Thank you Sunnee and Michelle for this past year of fellowship. We will miss you! 

Did you have any favorite wax moments this year? A vendor who went above and beyond? A blend that knocked your socks off? Did you have a RAOK or wax community experience that left you warm and fuzzy? Please share some of your favorite wax moments of 2016 with us.

 A well known member of the waxy community on Facebook had a life changing diagnosis earlier this year and the waxy community banded together to raise over $10,000 for her medical and life expenses! Another member lost her home in one of the devastating fires that hit North America and an auction raised money to help there. Currently, someone in is actively raising funds for another member's recent diagnosis (shh, it's still a secret!). I know the waxy world and certain waxy groups have a bad rap for drama, but I like to look at the positive aspects of what this lovely group of ladies and gentlemen can do instead. The continuous kindness and giving nature these people have continue to astound me.

I'd have to say SMT's Peggy's Blueberry Noel is the blend that comes to mind for this year's best impression. Who would have thought that wax would have such a grab-me-by-the-nose attraction to it?! 

As always, I'm ever amazed by the wonderful people this little hobby has gotten me in touch with. I love the connections and interactions I've made across the world. Here's to another year of meeting new and amazing people!

Please visit these Band of Bloggers blogs

and help support the blogger community!

Deb, at It's Always Something.

Julie, at The Redolent Mermaid.

Lauren, at Lolo Loves Scents.

Liz, at Furianne.

Michelle, at Waxing About.

Sunnee, at Fragrance Obsessed.

Thank you and have a beautiful rest of 2016!

Dessa's Homespun Scents - Cinnamon Garland

What better way to start off the last month of the year with some wax I bought a year ago?!

Scent Description: Crisp fresh bayberry infused with spicy ground cinnamon.

Weight Melted: 0.9 oz

Location of Warmer: Kitchen, in tealight warmer.

Cold Sniff: 4/5 Sweet & spicy cinnamon with a hint of a Christmas tree. At least, that's what my notes say from when I melted this. Now that I've read the scent description, I know it's bayberry!

Warm Sniff: 4/5 No surprises once melted.

Scent Strength: 2.5/3

Scent Throw: >3/3 This filled the kitchen/dining area, hallway, office, half of the living room, and the entryway.

Melting Power: 4/5 Seven solid hours of scent from this little grubby heart.

Repurchase: Definitely a yes! I can now say with confidence that Dessa's wax is still fantastic after a year and an international move!