Design: Appreciating the Organic Shape

Ever since I read Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future and his chapter on design, I have been having the joy of appreciating the world in a new fun way. While grocery shopping this last week I had the task of buying myself a new shampoo and conditioner. The duo I bought was Dove's Intense Damage Therapy Shampoo and Conditioner, part of this buying process came from my respect of Dove over the last few years deciding to go with an advertising campaign that celebrated the diversity of beauty in women (young, old, freckles, light, dark, thin, shapely) and also that they totally have won in the design catagory. I was immidiately drawn to the beautiful dark blue bottles with their organic shape. They won out even further with the fact the conditioner's opening was designed to rest at the bottom of the bottle (because who hasn't found themselves trying to get the last bit of conditioner in the most ridiculous ways), adding to the design is that on both bottles under the Dove heading is an extra subtle indentation to help squeeze out the shampoo and conditioner. Looking at the bottles I was reminded of another organically shaped product:

Donna Karan's Black Cashmere

Dove image provided by http://www.viewpoints.com/Dove-Intense-Damage-Therapy-Shampoo-for-Accumulated-Damage-review-cfbd4

Black Cashmere image provided by http://www.donnakaranbeauty.com/templates/products/sp.tmpl?ngextredir=1&CATEGORY_ID=CATEGORY13628&PRODUCT_ID=PROD11463

I've Been Tagged!

Well it finally happened I got tagged, by the wonderful Helg at http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/(ack blogger is acting weird and won't allow me to link this in a prettier way). So let us begin, first the rules and regulations :-):
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write six random things about yourself
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So six things about me:
1. I don't like mushrooms because of the texture, I enjoy the flavor though, but the texture wigs me out. The exception woodear mushrooms.
2. I know how to make a mean fire. I grew up on a ranch and we used a wood burning stove to heat the house, I still have this awesome skill after so many years.
3. My first pet was a rat, I named it Peaches and Cream, turned out it was a boy rat.
4. The first perfume I was given was on my eleventh birthday and it was Vanilla Fields.
5. I am fairly good at belly dancing for someone who has never taken classes.
6. The first words my Aunt heard me say as a toddler were "Fuck duck." Leading to the lesson of always be aware of what you say in front of your kids; although I suspect my father got a hoot out of it.

Blogs I enjoy and love:
Pepper over at http://frugalcuisine.blogspot.com/ (a great cooking blog with wonderful glimpses into Chinese street food)
Rose over at http://arosebeyondthethames.blogspot.com/ (always offering a lovely perspective on beautiful things and keeping me jealous of the fact she lives in London)
The Daily Connoisseur http://dailyconnoisseur.blogspot.com/ (a great blog about appreciating everyday pleasures and not everyday pleasures)
Scentscelf at http://scelfleah.blogspot.com/ aka Notes From The Ledge (I love mixture of nature, perfume, and music. Always a unique perspective)
Divina at http://fragrancebouquet.blogspot.com/ (Great fragrance reviews and a warm soul)
TMH256 at http://fortheloveofperfume.blogspot.com/ (Lovely fragrance reviews)

image provided by artnet.com
image: Hi Jinx by Jessica Snow 2006

If there ever was a woman who should play Aphrodite/Venus...

She is it! I adore her. Now the question what scent did she wear?

image provided by http://www.examiner.com/x-508-SF-Fashion-Examiner~y2008m9d21-2008-Emmy-Awards-Red-Carpet-Christina-Hendricks

What Smells Good?

So over the last few years as I have delved more and more into the world of smell specifically through fragrance and I have become to realize what I consider to smell "good" changes, at the beginning I was gourmand lover in the sense of only loving sweet candied bakery scents. Yet as time has passed I still remain a gourmand lover but I have gone beyond sweet to love neutral food scents specifically tea and rice. Although, I will admit of late I have come to love the varieties of scent found in rice from the lovely nutty basmati rice to the floral beauty of jasmine rice and simple perfume of store bought indistinct long grain white rice. A wonderful way to enjoy the scent of rice is the Thai dessert Sticky Rice with Mango, the chewy delicate grains of rice mixed with coconut milk and then served with slices of musky astringent sweet mango sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds or as I had it the other day toasted rice kernals, makes for a lovely sweet and slightly savory dish. If you love the scent as i do I highly recommend you get a bar of the Bath and Blooms Mango Rice soap bar http://www.bathandbloom.com/bath-shower/mango-rice-soap.html which sadly I cannot find a distributor for, I got mine originally at Pier 1 Imports.
And for some lovely music that combines sweet and savory in a way, with wonderful nature sounds and incredible symphonic qualities, Bjork's Isobel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQP4UE241_0

Just Had To Share What My Comforter Looks Like For My New Bed

I love it! I got at Target yesterday. It is by the Dwell Studio collection.

Starting the birthday list early....

Okay so while I'm at my birthday is getting close in about a month that is so I figured I might start my list in my mind so that well when people ask me what I want I'm not going "uhm..." so here it is:
Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess
Nigella Lawson's Feast
Lost Season 2 DVD Set
Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything
And because I can dream: My very own Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer.

It might be a bit rickety here for awhile

Well spring is finally here in the Livermore Valley and in reality it is quickly becoming summer, in fact I am going to go into rant right now and say mother nature screwed me over and I didn't actually get a spring but rather it jumped from winter to summer. I like that nice middle area in spring where it is the 70's and the change in the light of day that is gradual. Where as the change in light was stormy darkness at 4 in the afternoon to it's bright and sunny at 6 in the evening. But off the rant because I really am happy to see my old enemy/friend the sun (I'm rather on the pale side and skin cancer runs in the family so I have a love/hate relationship with sun).

So what is on the creative menu coming up:

Minted Earl Grey Sorbet

My attempt at Saffron Ice Cream

Reviews of Tea