Unboxing the Tranquility Gift Set from Concrete Poppy Design

Concrete Poppy Design was founded by Elaina Keegan in 2020 with a commitment to sustainability. Their non-toxic candles are poured by hand. 

I opened the box on a dark and freezing December evening. (Winters in the Midwest can be rough.) Opening the box made the room I was in immediately smell amazing. It was definitely a mood booster. 

A few spritzes of the room spray last about a week. The candle has lasted longer so far than other candles I've had. 

I like how their scents are really blended. Some candles and sprays out there smell really cloying with one overly aggressive artificial-smelling element. The Concrete Poppy scents have a mellow balance to them. To me, their scents smell very polished. 

I am obsessed with the wildflower seeds. I couldn't stop taking photos. There are so many sad things happening in the world right now. So much injustice. Looking at the wildflower seeds makes me feel hopeful.

New Writing, Books I'm Excited About, Etc.

I have new poems published by Little Old Lady Comedy. One piece came out in September, which you can read here, and another piece came out in July, which you can read here. 

Little Old Lady Comedy has new editors and a new website. There was some overlap between the previous editors and the new editors. The gist of it is that you can read my most recent pieces published by Little Old Lady Comedy here, and you can read my Little Old Lady Comedy pieces published before this summer here. 

One of my favorite books that I read this summer is This American Ex-Wife by Lyz Lenz. 

I really enjoyed this book, especially as someone who has never been married and doesn't have kids. (I am, however, an exhausted auntie.) The book made me think about this and this. Then I started thinking about a Lyz Lenz and Julia Fox Venn diagram, with their similarities and differences. I feel like this Lenz-Fox Venn diagram should actually exist, but I don't have time to make it. I've also always felt that a mashup video of Elaine's awkward dancing on Seinfeld and Drake's awkward dancing in the "Hotline Bling" video should exist. Sometimes I think of this when I hear Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us." Anyway...

Two books I'm excited to read are Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn and A Complicated Passion by Carrie Rickey.

I enjoyed reading Exalted by Anna Dorn this past winter, so I'm looking forward to reading Perfume & Pain, which is being adapted as a series. I thought I read earlier this year that Exalted was optioned for film, but I can't remember the details.

A Complicated Passion is a biography of Agnès Varda by the film and art critic Carrie Rickey. I recently saw Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) and I loved it. I'm excited to watch it again. It is one of those movies that you want to watch multiple times, like Stage Door (1937) and All About Eve (1950). When I think of more recent movies I've seen several times, I think of movies from the aughts like Best in Show (2000) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Obviously, there are a lot of movies that I've liked since the aughts, but I can't think of any that I felt I had to watch more than once. So, I'm looking forward to rewatching Cléo from 5 to 7, seeing more of Agnès Varda's films, and learning more about her by reading this biography.

Herbalogic also sent me a box of their products which was nice of them. (How did they read my mind about the PMS?)

This song is stuck in my head. I hope I'm remembering everything I wanted to post today. I still feel tired from the latest covid vaccine I got last week. 

Charleston Shoe Co.

Charleston Shoe Co. is a woman-owned business that has donated thousands of shoes to women in developing countries and to U.S. healthcare workers. The owner, Neely Woodson Powell, was inspired by a shoemaker she met in Mexico in 1996 and studied shoe design at Savannah College of Art and Design.

Neely sent me some of Charleston Shoe Co.'s bestselling shoes. The company aims to spread what Neely calls "Shoe Joy" with shoes for women that are both cute and comfortable.

The first four photos are of the Cannon in Linen. The last four photos are of the Sumatra in Black. 

Obviously, their shoes are really cute! I'm not sure why, but I tend to pick out shoes that either have high heels or are flats. So these designs with a small heel definitely fill a gap in my wardrobe. I love how versatile they are. They go well with a lot of different outfits. 

I'm impressed with how comfortable the shoes are. They feel really supportive. I started dancing at a young age, and I was a professional dancer in my early and mid-twenties, so I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have pain in my feet off and on. Later on, I had a severe case of axonal Guillain-Barré syndrome. I recovered, but I was left with residual nerve pain, which flares up the most in my feet and hands. So I definitely appreciate well-made shoes! I will be wearing both pairs of shoes a lot until it gets cold again in the Midwest.