Where has the time gone?

I have been away from my blogs for oh, about the last month! It's been crazier than usual here at Mockingbird Manor and the last two weeks have been filled with sick Oompa Loompas.

Imagine if you will - the madness of not being able to go anywhere except for the grocery store (less than 2 minutes from my house), Walgreens or the elementary school.  For 2 full weeks!!

It's not as if I were able to actually get anything done either.  Being nurse, maid, mommy and daddy takes it's toll.  If it would have gone on a single day more you would have found me sitting in the middle of the road, rocking back and forth singing 'Mary Had a Little Lamb."   The experience has left me quite proficient in the 'whineeze' language though.

Anyhoo - needless to say I was reaching quite a bit for my oils.  Rose and Frankincense . Oooooh how decadent is that?  Jasmine and Clary Sage.  Deeevine. Time was also spent sitting and just sniffing different oils.  Like Gollum I pulled my special oils out, the ones I kept hidden, with eyes glazed over - whispering to the oil how much I appreciated their gorgeous scent.......opened one up and then inhaled.  Scentgasmic I tell you! Spikenard with 1 single drop of Bulgarian Rose oil given to my by Jeanne Rose in 1996.  Frankincense from the year my first child was born.  Zdravetz, Rose with Cassia, Italian and Neroli given to me by MG.  I always go on about vintage Patchouli oil and there is definitely a reason for it.

Wondering how to get your own scentgasmic vintage Patchouli?  Well, the truth is my precioussses you must invest some time into it because I am not about to give mine up!  Buy yourself a good sized bottle of Patchouli from a reputable source.  (CH-Imports is a good place to start.)  Take HALF of whatever you buy, put it in another amber or cobalt bottle, LABEL it along with the date, where you bought it from and then put it away.  Forget that you even have it! Use the other half of the oil saved for whatever you need it for.  Aromatherapy, perfumery, skin care, etc.

Every 6 months or so take a peek and sniff at it.  Right down the changes you notice and after a while of doing this you'll have something that still smells like Patchouli, but it's very different than a newly purchased bottle of Patchouli.  After years have passed you will find yourself like me.  Hoarding it, talking to it, and using it for only very special blends!

Letting certain oils age, especially perfume blends is what most people aren't willing to do.  The Pretty Poison: Belladonna perfume potion blend I have is over TEN years old!   The older it gets, the deeper, more sultry and sexy it gets.  So I've been told ;)

Essential Oil Inventory

Tonight I'll be taking an inventory of the essential oils that I have.  Right now most of them are carefully packed away so it'll be like Christmas opening everything up!

Well, hopefully tonight if those Oompa Loompas would ever fall asleep.  If I let them come down into the dungeon with me they'll be wanting to open bottles up and get their hands into everything.  I still haven't recovered from the time Oompa Loompa #1 and #2 found my hidden stash of rare and precious oils, some of them gifts from Jeanne Rose and other very special people.  The kids were how old....oh, lemme think.  #1 was probably 5 and #2 was 3.  Seems they decided that they were going to 'blend' oils just like mommy does! 

The little darlings blended Spikenard, Zdravetz, Jasmine, Bulgarian Rose, Neroli and a very special Patchouli all over their art table. Oh, the memory of it is going to give me the vapors!  Where are my smelling salts??  I can't think about it anymore or I'll end up throwing myself on the floor in a fit and have to surely be admitted to the loony bin to hang out with Baby Jane.

Thankfully I still  have an obnoxious amount of essential oils, especially since there are some oils that I hoard.  (Yes! Just as I do with my vintage art supplies!)  As my grandma and mom would say, "No tienes veruenza!  Meaning:  You have no shame!  Know what?  They're right.  I don't.  ha!

My private reserve Patchouli that is over 10 years old now.  mmmm, mmmmm!  If you don't know what aged Patchouli smells like -  don't expect it to smell like the stereotypical Patchouli scent of wet earth, smelly hippies and bad incense.  (Please, no hate mail from those over 60.  We all know that you know what I mean!)   

Aged Patchouli becomes the part of a perfume that makes you feel as if you've been kissed by an angel's wings and it's sillage keeps you looking for just one more kiss.

Of course, it would be a kiss from a fallen angel.......hehheh!  Yeah, good luck trying to get THAT oil from me.  Although I do have perfume blends that are made from it, one in particular that is quite wicked indeed.

Jeanne Rose had a mystical, magical, stunning Patchouli that was well over 30 years old.  I used to love to open the bottle and sniff/inhale it like a crack fiend who had finally lost their marbles. 

Unfortunately - something happened to it during one of Jeanne Rose's fabulous Perfume Workshops and alas!  It is no more.  Good thing I wasn't at that workshop - I'd have probably *accidently* had to push the offender out of the attic window. . . . 

Well it's now 11pm and 2 out of 3 Oompa Loompas are still awake.  I suppose the inventory will have to wait until tomorrow morning.  I'm sure there will be things to write about after that feat is accomplished!  (Maybe even some pictures.  Maybe.)