July 31 - Another Small Fall Wax Haul

 

I picked up more apple scents the past two weeks to help build my stash for fall.  As mentioned in my previous haul post, I'm a very seasonal melter.  Fall doesn't technically start until late September but any fall lover will tell you they start easing into the fall season somewhere in August.  I like to start melting apple scents in August, and start easing more spiced scents into the mix in September.  I try to hold off on pumpkin scents until October.

So it's the apple scents I've been picking up for now, to get ready for August.  Let me show you my most recent grabs.

Fresh Orchard Apples - 'Apple, pear blossom, lemon, sugar & vanilla.'

This is a really nice, simple apple scent.  No spice here.  This will be nice for early in the month.

 

Feelin' Cozy - 'Warm woods & crisp apple.'

I wasn't going to get this because the 'warm woods' is stronger than the apple but then thought 'Hey, why not?'  I'll save it for later in the month.

 

Crisp Fall Leaves - 'Apple, leaves, balsam, berry, vanilla, spice & ambered woods.'

This is a classic fall scent from Better Homes & Gardens.  I see it every year and will go through one pack out of tradition.  If you can get past the sort of cologne notes, there IS some apple scent deep within.

Caramel Apple Spice - 'Sweet brown sugar and vanilla bean caramel drizzled over cinnamon and clove spiced harvest apples.'

I grabbed this larger sized value pack because I didn't see any of the regular sized packs, but that's okay because I know I'll go through a bunch of this scent during the fall melting season. I don't see simple caramel apple scents as often as I used to, so I was so glad when this came out a year or two ago. I'll save this for late August or probably even wait till September.

I also picked up another pack of the Sliced Apple Cinnamon that I showed in my earlier haul.

That's all I've picked up the past two weeks. My Walmart still hasn't gotten any of their fall things out yet, and I haven't seen last year's leftover fall wax scents showing up in the big bins yet either. My store has really struggled with inventory through the pandemic. It's become very depressing when I see on YouTube and Instagram that people elsewhere are finding all these amazing things and my store seems to be digging through the dusty corners of the warehouse just to put something on the shelves.

But, things could be worse, I know!

Are you excited for fall?

What fall scents will you be melting first?

Melted - Sugared Kiwi Melon (Better Homes and Gardens)

 

Sugared Melon Kiwi - 'Kiwi, apple, watermelon, cantaloupes, honeydew & casaba scent notes.'

Continuing with  fruity scents for summer, this one is not new and I'm sure I've had it before.  Sometimes I'm a little iffy with strong melon scents.  I think the apple and kiwi are stronger in this, keeping the melon notes somewhat subdued.  This does not come across as an apple scent though, not the type I'd melt in early fall.  The name says 'sugared melon,' but the description does not mention sugar.  I do get a get a sugary note though.  Overall, it's a bright and happy, fruity scent, not a huge favorite but something I'd buy again is pickings were slim.

I melted two cubes (about 0.8 oz worth) in my tea light warmer and had *light-medium scent and throw.

Have you tried this scent?

What has been a favorite scent of yours this summer?

* It seems I don't get very good throw during summer.  We don't have central air in our house, so with nothing to stir up the air, and with the windows open, it seems the scent either just hovers around the warmer or drifts out the windows.  lol

Melted - Watermelon Sugar (Scentsationals)

 

Watermelon Sugar - 'The refreshing essence of juicy, aquatic watermelon sprinkled with sweet touches of candied vanilla bean and tantalizing sugarcane.'

 

Another favorite of mine this summer has been this Watermelon Sugar scent.  Watermelon IS summer to me.  For you too?  Just smelling this makes me want to eat some.  It's a delicious, sweet, juicy watermelon scent sort of bulked up a bit by the sugar and vanilla.  Watermelon is the dominant note, for sure, but the other notes keep it from being too watery.  It's delish!

 

I melted two cubes (about 0.8 oz worth) in my tealight warmer and had *light-medium throw.

I have really enjoyed this scent this summer and have gone through more than one pack.  I won't hesitate to buy it again next summer if it's still around.  I wish it was a slightly stronger scent though.

What scents do you find yourself reaching for during the summer?

* It seems I don't get very good throw during summer.  We don't have central air in our house, so with nothing to stir up the air, and with the windows open, it seems the scent either just hovers around the warmer or drifts out the windows.  lol

Melted - Tropical Pina Coloda (Better Homes & Gardens)

Tropical Pina Colada - 'Pineapple, cream, coconut, sugared vanilla bean, and cherry.'

Summer is usually when I sort of phase out of melting wax for a while.  We don't have central air in our house, so it seems like I don't get strong flow in the warmer months because the windows are open.  I'm also not a huge fruity scent fan.  I've been enjoying summer scent this year though, for whatever reason.

This Tropical Pina Colada scent reminds me a bit of the Serendipity scent that was all the rage in indie wax many years ago.  It's been a long time since I've actually had Serendipity, so my memory could be way off, but seeing the scent notes, I do think it's probably similar.  This one is a touch warmer.  Serendipity was a sweet beast that some people couldn't tolerate!

Anyway, this is a really summery scent, full of tropical vibes.  The pineapple is strong, but the vanilla and coconut rush to warm and soften it.  The cherry notes dance around the edges of the blend.  It's not a juicy fruit type, but slightly more 'dry,' more like a big bowl of fruit salad and not a tall juicy drink.

I melted two cubes (about 0.8 oz worth) in my tea light warmer and had medium scent and throw. (See note above about my summer throw problems.)

I've really enjoyed this scent this summer, and have gone through at least two packs of it.  I would definitely buy this again.

 

Are you a summer scent fan?

What are your summer scent favorites?

And do you remember Serendipity??

July 27 - Still Not Working

 

Hi, all.  I'm still not back at this like I had hoped to be by now.  The Blogger platform is frustrating me so much!  I always loved it in my previous 10+ years of blogging because it was so easy to use.  Now it's like I can't get the simplest things to work.  The whole comment section is a completely unpredictable mess.  It won't notify me when someone leaves a comment.  Sometimes it won't let me respond to a comment.  And now I've noticed it's not even showing some comments when I manually come back to scroll through each post to check.  What the heck, Blogger?!

 

I have, more then once, asked my friend Google for ideas on how to fix all this.  I've followed the suggestions that I've been able to find relevant to my situations.  Things still don't work.  So this morning I went back into my settings yet again and changed a bunch of things to see if it will sort of kickstart things into working.  So for now, comment moderation is on and a separate box for comments will pop up.  This is not my preferred setup but we'll see what happens.

 

Also, and this is minor, in my little Blogs I Enjoy sidebar widget, I prefer to have it set so whichever one posted something new recently is on top but of course that's not working.  So I've switched it to just an alphabetical list for now.

 

I don't even know yet what else might not be working.  I've been too frustrated to even venture into the deeper workings, like analytics and SEO.

 

Yes, things have definitely changed in the blogosphere since I started way back when.

July 19 - Treasures in the Attic

 

My maternal grandma passed away in 1992.  My mother ended up with a lot of her smaller things.  When my mother moved many years ago, some of her (and therefore my grandma's) stuff came here to my house for storage.  In more recent years I've been meaning to purge and declutter, and the attic is one area that really needs it.  My health scare last fall and hubby's mother's passing in December really opened my eyes and shifted my mindset.  Getting things decluttered, reduced, organized is really pressing on my mind now.

 

This past Sunday I finally took a small step towards that goal, and brought one box and one large bag of things down from the attic.  The bag of stuff is one of the things that came from my mom/grandma.  Hubby and I looked through it and were quite wowed by some of the things.  So when I went to my mom's as I do each week, I took the whole bagful along to see if she had any memories or stories about the items.

 

 

These old utensils were in there.  There is probably nothing of true value here but I'm a very sentimental person and I have a real curiosity for 'the old days.'  My mom had no recollections about these things, only shrugging them off as "just stuff she used to have."

This fork really intrigued me though.  It looks so old, and so well worn!  My mom said, "Oh yeah, I remember her using this a lot."  (My mom is 86 years old, by the way, so how old is this fork??)

 

In a little cloth bag were these three spoons.  They appear to be silver, and I pretty quickly recognized them as baby spoons, but was quite tickled  when I looked more closely and saw . . . 

One is mine!  If you look closely (or click to enlarge the photo) you can see it says my name, and month/year of my birth.  Awesome!  One of the other two has the name of one of my brothers, and the curved handled one is blank but I'm assuming it is for another of my brothers, the one who is closest in age to us.  My mom didn't remember anything in particular about the spoons.  She'd like to have them cleaned up.  I kinda like the tarnished look showing their age.  (I'm 55 years old.  Did Grandma get this done near the time I was born, or some random year later?  This thing could be over 50 years old.)

 

There were several really old and worn, small boxes containing jewelry.  This one in particular interested me and caught my mom's attention most out anything in that bag.

There were three rings in the little heart container that was in the worn white box.  My mom gasped in happy surprise as she took each one out.  At the ring on the left, she exclaimed, "I remember this!  Oh, she used to let me wear this!  Hey . . . " and she tried it on, but it's too big now.  She also remembers the one on the right, and she thinks the simple silver band in the center might have been her mom's wedding ring.  She tried all three on, but they were all too big.

The thing I was was most wowed about was this.  When hubby and I looked through the bag the other night and came to this we were both like, "What the heck is that?"  Then it dawned on me and I ran to grab an old photo of my grandma that I keep here on my desk.

This is my grandparents on their wedding day in 1934.  Look at her headband.

This was her headband from her wedding outfit!  I was very close to my grandmother and although I do have other things of hers, this just floors me.  I need to find a better way to store it.  It's just been folded and curled up in a tin with other trinkets all these years.  My mom was pretty casual about it.  Maybe she was used to seeing it while growing up?  I don't know, but I think it's pretty darn special.  And I think this might be more interesting to me than her possible wedding ring because of the picture that clearly shows her wearing it.

There were other things in the bag too.  Things like my great-uncle's military dog tags from WWII, some really old pennies (one from 1890-something!), some other jewelry.  If you'd like to see pics of some of those other things, let me know.

But how cool is all this stuff?  Are you a treasure hunter?  A sentimental soul?  Have you found old fun things in your attic or closets?  Let me know in the comments.

Have a great day!

July 16 - Let's Do This, and a Tiny Haul

 

I'm getting frustrated with myself for not diving in and blogging again like I said I would.  I keep putting it off for this or that reason, but at the same time there are so many days when I'm just dying to write and post again, regardless what those other things are I've been meaning to take care of first.  So let's just do this!

 

It's Saturday afternoon right now.  I did my regular weekly grocery shopping this morning.  Now that we're helping hubby's dad by also getting groceries for him, hubby takes what I buy over to him after I get home.  He spends a good part of the day over there, doing what chores need to be done, and playing cribbage for a while.  Boychild1 is often here Saturday mornings to do his laundry, so I'll chitchat with him while he's here, and once he leaves I'll putter around doing whatever until hubby gets back from his dad's.  Sometimes he works in his shop for a while, sometimes he just come in the house and relaxes for the rest of the day.  Today he's relaxing.  I was itching to post though, so here I am instead of watching TV with him.

I bought a few fun little things while shopping this morning.  Money is tight for a lot of people these days but it's gotten even tighter for us with all my extra expenses from diabetes, and now hubby's having some health issues too.  I stopped buying a lot of fun extra things three years ago when I quit working, to help save money.  But sometimes I just feel like I need a little pick me up, as long as it's cheap.  lol

When it hit me the other day that we're halfway through July already (what the?!) and that fall is really creeping up now, I decided I needed to start grabbing fall scents in wax to get stocked up for the season.  I had quit ordering wax from indie vendors after I quit working, and had almost completely phased out of melting wax altogether for a while.  I'm getting back into it now though.  And of course with all the supply issues and shortages since the pandemic began, my Walmart really struggles.  The past two years they never really did get the fall or winter variety of scents.  It looked more like they were just stocking the shelves with leftovers they found in the warehouse.  So when I decided to go back to my favorite indie vendor for my old seasonal must-have scents, I found she was no longer in business.  Doh!  So being aware of all this this year, I've decided I'll pick up a pack or two each week leading up to fall so I have a stash ready to go, and will continue to grab a pack or two as I see them throughout fall and winter.

So yeah, I grabbed my first few packs this morning.  Yay!  Fun!

Walmart has a much larger variety of brands and styles in wax now but I still mainly stick with the tried and true favorites, Scentsationals and Better Homes & Gardens (BHG).  I like them because I've bought them for years and because they are still on the cheap end of things.  I'll get the store brand, Mainstays, every now and then too because they are even cheaper.

So with building up a fall scent stash in mind, this week I picked up Sweet Apple and Warm Apple Pie from Mainstays, and Sliced Apple Cinnamon from BHG.  I'll do more in depth scent reviews once I melt these but for this post I'll do quickie cold sniff descriptions.

Sweet Apple is simple apple scent.  I'm a very seasonal melter and like to start lighter apple scents towards the end of August and throughout September.  This is nice because it's just juicy apple, bright and happy, but reminding you that fall is starting.

Warm Apple Pie is a scent I like a little later into September.  It's a little heavier, with some spice to warm it up.  I prefer the Scentsationals or BHG version but I did not seem those in my store today.

Apple-cinnamon is a must have for me.  Between Scentsationals and BHG versions, I know I preferred one over the other but all my old notes and posts are long gone and I don't remember which.  This Sliced Apple & Cinnamon was the only one I saw today so I got it to have it, not because I prefer it.  This is not quite as syrupy and warm as the Warm Apple Pie.  It's more just the apples and cinnamon, a little brighter.  It's definitely a classic fall scent.

I also picked up a garden flag from the clearance aisle.  I'd looked at it last week and decided not to get it, but then during the week I was kicking myself about it.  Good thing I waited, because last week it was $2.50 and today it was down to $1.00.  Woot!  It was part of the 4th of July clearance and although it is indeed red, white, and blue, the design is nothing that screams 4th of July.  I've been sprucing up our porch area and could really use more flags so yeah, I'm glad to add this to the collection.

Have you bought and fun little things recently?  Are you looking forward to fall?  I saw one YouTuber already post her 'Fall Decorate With Me' video and I was like 'Nooooo way, lady.  TOO. EARLY.'

Melted - Ice Cream Shop (Scentsationals)

 

Ice Cream Shop - 'Sweet vanilla and berry cupcakes baked to golden brown perfection and topped with a rich, creamy raspberry buttercream frosting.'

Seems like an odd description of something called Ice Cream Shop, huh?  I really liked this scent.  It's creamy with a hint of warmth, and just a touch of a fruit note.  I thought it was strawberry but the description mentions raspberry.  I had not read that description before melting this, and it did smell like a delicious, thick, creamy vanilla ice cream to me.  Or maybe even cake batter. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.  That hint of what seemed like strawberry sort of danced lightly around the edges of the overall scent.  Seeing that scent description now as I'm writing this post, I can see how it might be a little more bakery than just ice cream.  It's definitely more creamy and warm when melted than on cold sniff.

 I melted two cubes (approx. 0.8 oz worth) in my tea light warmer and had medium-strong scent in a large area.

I would absolutely buy this scent again.

Oh, and since I mentioned my tea light warmer can I just ask if any of you other tea light warmer users are having a hard time finding tea light candles lately?  I know the shortages and supply chain issues are wreaking havoc on all things but dang, my Walmart has been out of tea lights for months now!  I finally had to get some at Dollar Tree!