The new year has begun, and what better time to evaluate the things I do (or don’t do) and why? Last year around this time I resolved to start running, and i did. My resolutions for 2012 are smaller; those little goals are the ones that are easy to sweep under the rug– but not this year!
Blogging resolutions
- Test all of the un-tested samples in my perfume cabinet (this will keep me busy for at least six months!)
- Write reviews of the perfumes from resolution #1, even for perfumes that don’t inspire (thank goodness for the “things I hate” category!)
- And the big one— Research and write a new category: “beauty in Austin”. Perfume shopping, salons, acupuncturists, manicurists… And more. A city-guide to looking, feeling, and smelling good in Austin, Texas. It’s my civic duty!
Perfume resolutions
- Buy the perfumes on my Full-bottle list, in the order they reside on the list. No more line-skipping! That means, no matter how good Nostalgie is (and by golly, it’s good), I will not purchase it until I’ve got Opus IV in my paws.
- Remove remaining albatrosses from the collection. It’s been pared down significantly, yet there remain a few. These ones will be hard, because they’re perfumes I really, really like, but just don’t find the time to wear. And I need to make space in the cabinet for perfumes I love AND wear. A fine example: Parfums Del Rae Coup de Foudre. Beautiful! Too bad I’ve worn it fewer than five times in the last year!
Resolutions as a reader of blogs
- Comment when I read. I do a lot of reading, yet very little commenting. I resolve to let the blog owner know that I am reading (without forcing them to dig through their site-meter stats for my URL) by commenting on every post, even if it just means scrawling my name at the bottom of the comments field. It’s important to show support of my fellow bloggers, and saying “I’m here and I’m reading!” is important.
- Be generous with my fellow bloggers. Most of us aren’t independently wealthy, and many of the reviews we write come from care packages from one another (and not perfume companies). It’s important to keep this tradition going, because it keeps us truly independent. It’s been too long since I sent a fellow blogger a care package, and I aim to amend that. On a regular basis!
Personal resolutions
- Practice mindfulness in eating. For a thin person, I have some terrible eating habits which I justify by saying, “it’s okay, I run.” well, running isn’t the cure-all for bad habits, and I need to treat my body like the aging temple it is. More carrots, less cake. My skin and my thighs will thank me, no doubt.
- Clean out my closet. If my clothes were perfume bottles, they’d have been though many more culling periods than they have. I’ve got a closet full of stuff I’ve had for years, yet never wear. A red and black wool skirt with velvet trim? Two sizes too big, and in a color scheme that’s appropriate only in the days leading up to Christmas. I’ve been schlepping it around for years, and it needs to go. Along with all it’s closet-crowding pals.
Want to read more New Year’s Resolutions? Check out the Monday Question at Olfactoria’s Travels.
beauty on the outside 
It’s lovely to have you posting so often dee and I’m glad that’s going to continue into 2012 with more reviews. Plus I love “Things I Hate”! Glad also that Opus IV won’t be looked over anymore 🙂
You’re doing so well with the running, I do admire you. All the best with the healhier eating although I really doubt your diet is that bad. I often read about the delicious things you are cooking on FB and if you’re not living off pre-packaged food – like I do – you’re doing great. As for the clothes, I love having a good clear-out (once I get round to it) and you are going to feel so good once it’s done.
Looking forward to learning more about Austin. A nice side-effect of reading perfume blogs is getting to know people’s home towns a little and you have a very cool home town.
Here’s to a wonderful year for you and BoTO!
Tara, it is really good to be posting regularly again. Our little community means so much to me, and I’ve really been missing it! But you especially 😉
Sometimes I’m amazed at what my body can do, even after years of neglect. It really is a gift, and I’m trying to be as good to it as it is to me… if that makes any sense at all! I hope to maintain good health to 100 and beyond, and keep getting better along the way. That’s a lofty goal, but why not?? Food is a funny thing; I eat food made from scratch, but I have a sugar addiction, so I sabotage my healthy habits with candy. A little treat now and then is good for the soul, but substituting meals with candy isn’t a good idea… one step at a time!
Austin is a great city, and I hope to uncover some of it’s gems. And to promote small beauty-industry small businesses! Admittedly, I snagged the idea from Natalie, with her side-bar featurettes on Another Perfume Blog…
Cheers to you Tara! xxooxxoo
I admire your physical activity too! You did so well this year, I really hope to take a page out of your book.
Line-skipping on the wish-list is really an insidious thing. Happens to me all the time as well, and you are so right, it shouldn’t.
Thank you Bee! Two-years ago I never would have believed I’d look and feel the way I do now; yes, the wrinkles are coming, and things that used to be bouncy are moving south… lol, but I feel good 🙂
Line-skipping is the WORST! It is truly insidious, like a mould in the perfumista community! Together, we can take a stand against it 😉
Excellent resolutions! Especially for me with the closet. I will not buy another piece of clothing until I clean out my closet. It’s almost selfish to have items in there that someone else could gratefully be using. I resolve to comment more as well. Thanks! Great post!
So true Julie! No doubt there is someone out there who would be delighted to have my wool skirt; when you put it that way, it’s like I’m keeping it from it’s rightful owner! Said cleaning of closet will commence first thing tomorrow morning! 🙂
Dee, I am with you on the unsniffed samples! Want to have a mutual support group? I want to do the same. Clear out some unsniffed samples and even — horrors! — backed up sample circles!!! Good people cannot smell stuff because they are in my box and I cannot get to them, yikes!
Olga, I will count on you to be the president of the support group! No more sitting on un-sniffed samples! 😉
That is an excellent set of resolutions and I could do with adopting them, though I fear I am not as resolute / full of resolve? as you! I use to run years ago – up to 8 miles at my peak – but am woefully unfit these days. And oh dear me, the unsniffed sample baskets are breeding on the shelf above my desk! And I do that line-skipping too (great word for it) in terms of FB purchases, sample sniffing and blog post ordering. Why, I visited a perfume bottle museum **back in July** and where is the post about that I’d like to know? It is only January of the following year…
You make an interesting point about commenting rather than just reading people’s blogs. This Christmas in Christmas cards and FB messages various (non-perfumista) friends and relatives came through and told me that they either enjoy my blog or my FB updates, but I had no clue they were reading, so yes, I think it is nice to have that interaction, I guess I maybe comment on a good two thirds of the blogs I read, and feel a bit naughty where I just read and click off again. Usually this is because I can’t think of anything to add to what has been said, or it is a perfume I can’t relate to in some way.
Surely you can be forgiven not running, what with all the globe-trotting you do! I’d be hard-pressed to find time to run with your relentless schedule…
They breed! I swear it’s true! I’m glad that I’m not the only one suffering from rabbit-syndrome in my sample box, lol.
Like you, Vanessa, I often don’t comment because I feel like I don’t have anything to add– not because I don’t feel like my voice would be unwelcome in any way, but I come, read and enjoy, then pop back out again. Like a bee gathering honey… but really, that’s not fair. I should practice commenting as a small form of paying the blogger back for an entertaining post! 🙂
(I am particularly guilty of doing this on your blog!)
Great resolutions, Dee!
I’m going to knock back my full bottle list this year, too. Last year, I was spreading money around on samples and decants. This year, I will be buying and savoring my favorites and getting decant supplies to spread the love.
xoxo
jen
Decanting gives so much pleasure! I genuinely love being able to share something with someone who I think will enjoy it– something I need to get back in the habit of doing.
Thank you for reading!!!
xoxo to you 🙂
Great ones. I can identify with the perfume ones and the blog reader ones especially.
Thank you Joan! It’s good that we have some common goals– we can help each other to achieve them! 🙂
I agree that it’s nice you are posting so often! And I can relate to some of your resolutions as well, particularly about commenting on blogs. I always want to comment, but then sometimes I don’t feel I have anything to add, so I don’t, or I say something inane. But I guess something inane is better than nothing at all (or so I hope!).
Hahah! Well, I hope that something inane will be sufficient, because you’ll probably be getting plenty of that variety from me in the future. You, and my other favorite bloggers, deserve better– but hopefully I’ll get better at commenting as I practice the habit 😉
Great resolutions dee- I keep falling off the fitness band wagon too- both eating and exercise (I manage to focus on only one at a time- when I am eating healthy home cooked food, my exercise takes a back seat and vice versa..I had sort of gotten to the point where I was focussing on both so need to get back to it).
Love your perfume resolutions too. Your idea of going down the list and assigning priorities to each bottle makes a lot of sense.
Lavanya, I think that completing a PhD probably takes a lot of your attention! No doubt when that’s done (almost there, right??) it will be a lot easier to find balance in all other areas!
That list is important— if I can stick to it, I won’t waste money on impulses, and will probably be more satisfied overall with my collection. That’s my theory , anyway! 😉
Great resolutions, Dee! I hope you’ll be able to stick to them.
I need to do something about my closet as well. I do not have a problem “nothing to wear” but I want it organized better. And there are some things to retire… two-three years ago.
My first perfume-related NY resolution should be: for the next, 2013 year, prepare and publish my NY resolutions within the first couple of days of the year 😉 (I’m still working on my and not sure when I can post them!)
About comments: I always wanted some standardized smiley or icon to post instead of a comment if I have nothing to add but want to let an author know that I’ve read her/his post and am greatful for the entertainment it provided (“Like” button isn’t adequate for that purpose, in my mind. Though it’s better than nothing).
Having a well-organized cabinet is truly a thing of beauty in the life of the perfumista… 😉
Ha! Yes, it does take a while to figure out what those resolutions are. I wasn’t going to post any until I realized that I needed to make some, and it made sense to share them with my accountability team (hello, team member Julia!).
I would love to post an image of myself giving a thumbs-up. I should resolve to figure out how to do this… I hear you on the “like” button. It doesn’t quite convey what I’d like to do, either.
I only just started keeping a wish list… it isn’t very organized at the moment, but I think it’s going to be very helpful in organizing my buying habits, which have been very scattered.
I need to do some thinning of my collection too. Most of the things I’ve paid for, I want to keep, but I got SO many free bottles of perfume from vendors while I worked in perfume retail that I will probably never wear. I appreciate the freebies, for sure, but they need to be with someone who’d really enjoy them.
I’m most excited about your resolution to cover Austin beauty stuff, though! Woo hoo!
Don’t know if we discussed this or not yet, but the new-ish store in the Domain, Atelier 1105, is carrying Caron now…
Oh, all those free bottles you can swap for good stuff! Think of it as getting them to their rightful homes 😉
Having s priority list is really helpful, especially when your sampling a lot of different scents. I just need to trust myself, and remember that there is a reason I put something at the top of the “to buy”!
I’m excited about the Austin beauty posts too! My first one is going to be s local nail artist, who is doing some really cool, unexpected stuff 🙂
WHAT? No, I most certainly did not know about the new boutique! This calls for an emergency Domain expedition…
Yes, the Atelier 1105 place is pretty new – the first time I went there they had Tokyo Milk, and the Santa Maria Novella line which I’d never tested before. This was right around the time Bottega Veneta came out b/c we specifically went to the Domain to test BV at Neiman’s… so early fall-ish?
Then we went back there the weekend before Christmas and they had the Carons. The owner (I think) explained that they had just gotten the line in November and had a launch party and the Caron people from Paris came out, etc.
They have a few other perfume-y things, too, I’m just blanking on what at the moment. The Santa Maria Novellas and the Carons are the biggest draws for me.
If you head up to the Domain, shoot me an email or something because I basically live across the street.
Sweet! I will definitely do that; I too am drawn by the Caron’s— I’m guessing they must have the urn fragrances??? Oh, so exciting! 🙂
They only have two of the urns, Tabac Blond and… I’m blanking. I need to start taking notes!
aaaaaaaaaaaand I just saw this on basenotes (SERGE LUTENS IN DOWNTOWN AUSTIN!):
http://www.basenotes.net/threads/212440-Austin-TX?p=2403727&viewfull=1#post2403727
Austin seems to be really rapidly coming along with niche fragrance.