Dear friends, readers and accidental visitors, I’m so happy that I have this blog, and I can use it to say an enormous “Thank You!” to all of you for being with me this year, for providing support and giving me a reason to keep doing what I love doing (telling stories and sharing photos of Rusty) no matter how hard life outside of the safety of our Perfumeland gets.
Saying goodbye to 2022, I do not want to talk about anything negative that it brought – we all know major pain points, and I’m sure each of us had our share of personal challenges. It is essential to talk about those, share and get support whenever possible. But today, let’s think about good things that happened in our lives this year – no matter how small or insignificant those were. Try to think of as many positive moments in 2022 as possible. I challenge you! Can you think of 5? You do not have to write about all of them, some might be too personal, or you don’t want to “jinx” it by telling everybody. But try to come up with 5. And share with us anything you feel like sharing. It doesn’t have to be perfume-related, but if there is anything of that kind, please include it on your personal or public list.
And before we continue with the Saturday Question, I wish you all a Happy New Year! Let’s hope that when we meet here in a year, and I ask you the same question, your list will be longer, and it’ll be even easier for you to come up with the answer.
Saturday Question #146:
What Went Well In 2022?
One word, one sentence, a list or a Lord-of-the-Ring-type answer – anything will work. But I would love to read what went well in your life this year. If you feel up to it, tell us also “why” it went well (which, according to Old Herbaceous (Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities) from whom I borrowed this idea several years ago, “allows one to pinpoint times when acts of one’s own or others contributed to what went well.”
My Answer
1. I enjoyed our trip to Sedona. We decided to keep the plans despite everything that interfered and ended up having fun and seeing some great views (more photos were in this post if you missed it).
2. My vSO’s mother got to safety with us (and we managed not to pass Covid-19 to her when we got it!). It took a great effort on our part, help from many wonderful people and a lot of luck.
3. This holiday season, more of our neighbors decorated their houses, which created a wonderful holiday atmosphere and elevated our spirit every time we went or drove by. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence, or if my little stunt last year with leaving anonymous “Thank you” cards for each decorated house worked. I’ll be writing more notes this year (and probably adding a couple of individually and safely packed chocolates).
4. Speaking of decorations, we took my MIL to see the unique street in the neighboring town, where they do special decorations every year, and people come to see it from all other towns. She loved it! The photo below is from this year, but if you want to see more, I have a slide-show in this post.
5. After our vet managed to extract 3 teeth in the comfort of our home, Rusty feels and behaves happier. We weren’t sure what to do since the dentist wasn’t sure if Rusty would be fine with full anesthesia. And it’s every time such stress for him when we have to drive him somewhere. So, when our vet suggested doing it at home using Gabapentin and some additional shot, we agreed. Rusty was “out of it” for a couple of days (see the photo!), but got better quickly.
6. Finally, I managed to find and buy Mito Voile d’Extrait by Vero Profumo. I had to break my “no-buy” almost as soon as it started, but I was looking for it for so long, and I’m not sure if it’ll ever be re-launched. The store, Campormazio, still has some of the re-released extrait and voile d’extrait (follow the link above), but I must warn you that their delivery cost to the US is obscene (and they don’t even subtract the VAT from the prices!). But Mito was so beautiful that I couldn’t pass on it.
How about you?
What Went Well In 2022?
and
Undina's Looking Glass 
Happy new year to you Undina, and all readers and contributors to the blog!
What an excellent buy to break your no-buy. I was wearing Mito EdP yesterday and enjoyed it so much, I think the VdE is on its way…!
What went well?
1. A time in my life that I experienced as difficult is turning into a valuable and precious period, strengthening the relationships that are most important to me.
2. We have started redecorating our home, painting the interior with beautiful colours. It’s like having a holiday every day.
3. My husband has made a vegetable bed in our garden, and the flower borders have been renewed. So the garden provides both healing and produce (we’re still eating the kale we planted last summer).
4. I am really enjoying wearing perfume again, always a sign that stresses are abating. I’m wearing Any Tauer’s Golestan from a sample today, and it is gorgeous.
5. The Ukrainian family staying with my father had a baby girl. She was christened in his church, my father and his partner, the baby’s godparents (my niece and her husband), and ofcourse the parents were wearing vyshyvanka’s during the service. Dear friends and family were present. It was hopeful and moving.
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I’m so grateful to your family for the support you extend to my former compatriots! And I’m envious of your painting project: it’s way overdue at my place, but I’m not sure when we will be able to tackle it.
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Happy new year Undina and everyone else. And what a lovely post to end the old year and start the new.
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A happy, healthy & peaceful 2023 to you & your readers, Undina.
It’s difficult for me to think past the health of my husband & mother but I’m grateful for your question, it has made me do so.
I’m grateful that my eldest son & his gf are in their own home & talking babies. He has had a career change & left retail after 15 years & is enjoying his new career.
I’m grateful that my youngest son remains happy in his own home & is healthy.
I’m grateful for a quiet Christmas with my husband & that mum agreed to stay in the Care Home a little longer, which enabled my DH & I to have this stress free time together.
I’m grateful that we can heat & light our home, have enough to eat & I have perfume in my life.
I have a little plan for 2023. Yesterday I cleared out my “dump it” room & realised I have far to many samples & decants that I generally ignore. After reading OH’s advent lucky dip & Portia’s Thunk It plan, I have made myself a “Daily Lucky Dip Box”. The box it printed with a wonderful green malachite pattern, a beautiful bonus. Each day I plan to pull out a random sample & make that my SotD, ideally thunking it in a single day.
The samples & decants range from niche, high end, mastige & high street. I would like to think I’ll keep some sort of record, but I’m not putting pressure on myself to do that, I would like this to be fun not a chore.
Looking forward to reading your blog in 2023 xxx
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When I read Portia’s idea, I thought about commenting, but then I got distracted. I don’t think I agree with the concept! Most of the samples we’ve got are not worth wearing at all. And especially if we do it while neglecting our favorite perfumes, bottles or decants of which we bought. So, while I think that random draw is a fun project for a month or something like one week of each month or one day of each week, doing that for a year seems not the best approach.
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Happy New Year, Undina! Wishing you, your dear ones, and everyone here, peace, love, happiness, and success! Hugs!
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What a great list of “what went well” for you and your family, Undina! Especially the safe arrival of a loved one, leaving behind a dangerous situation. Hmm, my own “shortlist” of what went well:
1. Two of our three young adult children solidified and continued romantic relationships that started in the fall of 2021 and make them very happy. Whatever happens, they’ve had a lovely year, and I love that.
2. The third young adult child was able to move into her own small apartment, after a happy year of sharing a house with friends, and the apartment is much closer to our home, which we love. She and her sister (who also lives nearby) still have their own keys to our house and come and go quite often.
3. I had a long overdue leave from my job this fall and was able to travel to see family, especially the two trips to New Hampshire in 2022 to see my FIL, one of which included all three kids.
4. My leave this fall has shown me that yes, I’m ready to retire, which I will do later this year after the spring semester.
5. My dear husband and I also began a more structured routine for better fitness and strength, and we’re enjoying it!
Happy New Year, everyone, and let’s hope that 2023 brings more peace, health, hope, and wellbeing to as many people as possible.
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I love your “wells”!
Out of curiosity: how sure are you that you’re not going to miss your work after you retire?
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Eva use I was on leave all fall, and had plenty to do! It was kind of a trial run for retirement, including how my health could benefit. I had a couple of immediate issues to address, but part of the “prescription” was to take more time to care for my health, with exercise, healthier eating, a more regular schedule, etc. Now that I’m back and the same old chaos is trying to engulf me, I know retirement will be fine. More time for travel, perfume, and writing! Also gardening, and volunteer work. The stuff that nourishes my soul.
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Happy New Year, Undina! And Happy New Year to all the UGL readers from whom I learn so much. My five are similar to some other readers and are sort of in order:
1. A new baby is on the way in our family, the first grandchild.
2. I finally have a properly fenced, sunny spot in my own yard and I grew a vegetable garden.
3. A year of personal health and no major breakdowns of car or house.
4. Wonderful new neighbors who fixed up an older house and brought young children to our street.
5. Two nice trips that included seeing all the families on both sides.
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I start feeling slightly envious reading about other people’s gardens! Not only I don’t have a garden (we live in a townhouse with no land), but also I have such a brown thumb that I wouldn’t have succeeded growing anything even if I had a garden! ;)
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Undina, Thank you for being a gathering spot for perfume lovers, especially for those of us that were ardent bloggers for awhile, but now struggle, ahem!, to write anything. Per usual, my goal will be to get back into writing, not because anyone is waiting to read what I have to say, but I like the way it exercises my brain and stretches my descriptive powers.
I’m glad you were able to safely return your mil to your home. What an extraordinarily unprecedented events have transpired this year. May 2023 bring peace to those affected by wars.
This was an extremely busy year, as both my daughters got married, one in June and one in December. My third, their brother, has been married for some seven years now. It is a joy to see them happy, and to have added two new members to our family unit that we love and enjoy. Having happy children is the greatest gift as a parent.
Having said that, 2022 was a year when I devoted a lot of time to family, and my weary body shows the lack of care I’ve given. Starting yoga again after over a year absence is a priority. Once one passes 60, these things are not an option! I know getting fit is a boring resolution, but oh, how it adds to the quality of life if successful!
I wish all of you here a peaceful NYE, and hope the upcoming year brings us all happiness, plus one perfume that moves our soul! On that note, I found a lot of perfumes I enjoyed this year, but my favorite new line I tested was Matiere Perfumes. So many to love there, but especially Radical Rose, Parisian Musc, and Encens Suave. (Forgive me any spelling mistakes there). HNY to all!
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Please keep reminding me about the importance of physical activity! Boring or not, every year I hope to be more active. Let’s see how it goes this year :)
I haven’t tried yet anything from Matiere Perfumes, though Radical Rose name sounded appealing to me when I read one of the reviews. I will get to try it eventually.
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Happy new year! The 2.5 years from 2020 through July of 2022 were personally some of the most difficult and painful of my life, but I learned many things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise and I have come out of it wiser, although much poorer, for it. As they say, good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement.
But in July things turned around for me. I managed to sell my hated house and buy another condo in the city I love. Next Saturday I will finally be able to move into it and start getting settled again. This whole episode has shattered the feeling of security I had and much of the trust I had in myself to make good decisions. I look forward to rebuilding those.
I am tremendously grateful that my health has held up during this difficult time, and that there have been no family disasters.
My focus for 2023 is contentment.
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Dear Tara, I’m sorry you had to pay for the wisdom (though, let’s hope it’ll save you some peace of mind in the future!). And I’m glad that you are on the way up from whatever hardship you had to endure. I’m familiar too well with how ephemeral the feeling of security might be under some circumstances, so I hope you’ll regain it soon.
Good luck with your condo! (May I ask what city it is in?)
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I’m in Montréal, Canada.
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OOOH! Cool idea.
Merry everything crew. All the good wishes none of the other.
1. Jin
2. Our home
3. Our works
4. South Korea and Bali trips
5. Paris finally happily sleeping on my bed in the mornings after Jin goes to work. I was brought up to think dogs on the bed is gross, maybe it is, but I love it so much.
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Fur babies in the bed are never ever ever gross…my three fur grandbabies are cuddled up with me on the bed all day long :)
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Great list!
I’ve never lived with a large dog (those that my grandmother used to have weren’t allowed into the house), but small dogs that we had were always allowed everywhere!
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Great idea for ending the year on a positive note. Especially glad for Rusty, love seeing his face regularly!
1. Son graduated from high school, had a great first semester at Case Western, despite being somewhat lukewarm on Cleveland.
2, I got to continue building my sports photography into a small business. Learning to do portraiture as well, which has been an interesting challenge.
3. Doing ok as empty nesters, my husband and I are still getting along despite his continued working from home and the subsequent lack of personal quiet time in the house for me.
4. Picked up my flute again and hope to start playing regularly this spring.
5. Started on the long process of getting rid of stuff for the eventual (several years away) downsizing. Liberating!
Happy New Year to all!
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Gradual downsizing is a good idea, but it still scares me :) Do you mind me asking what size of a house/condo do you have in mind for the future?
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We currently have what is officially a five bedroom house with three stories plus basement. Way bigger than we really ever needed but it was in the neighborhood we wanted. Not surprisingly, we managed to fill it up anyway. I think we’d like to be in a house rather than condo, but things like office/studio space will drive our choice. We only have one child, so we don’t anticipate needing tons of space for a huge family. We’re thinking of moving further south – maybe TN or NC, but we really haven’t even started exploring areas. We’re staying here while our son is still playing football in college, at the very least.
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Happy New Year to all! I have loved reading your blog and the comments and seeing pictures of handsome Rusty.
1. I also just got back from a trip to Arizona that included Sedona. Gorgeous landscapes. Very crowded with tourists.
2. Family and friends remained safe (this is really #1).
3. My other half and I started doing planks together almost every day and continue to exercise more than in the past, which was sorely (literally!) needed.
4. My brother restarted an academic pursuit that had got away from him in the past and is fully committed to finishing it this time, for which I am very proud.
5. Contributing to some successes at work and being recognized for it.
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Yours is a very satisfying list!
I also enjoy reading your blog albeit doing it “in chunks,” not as you publish. But I hope to get better about it this year!
I’m curious: when you do planks, do you hold it as long as you can, gradually increasing the time, or do you make repetitions of the same-length hold increasing the number over time?
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I have been doing repetitions of 30 seconds, but so far only for a total of 1 minute (30 seconds up, 30 seconds rest, 30 seconds up again, done for the day!) My other half holds it for a whole 2 minutes. A friend of ours takes bootcamp classes and they are in constant motion during planks (from elbows to palms etc.) so they don’t get “bored” by having to hold it.
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I will try it tomorrow to see for how long I can hold it (probably just once :) ).
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1. My continued good health and that of my family and friends.
2. My family and friends.
3. Instead of walking out of my job got a raise instead.
4. Selling our house without any effort at all, then finding a rental that more than meets our needs while we finish our new house.
5. My sense of smell returning after two weeks due to covid. I was starting to fret!
6. (Cos I always have to cheat) Perfumeland and its inhabitants.
Thank you Undina for keeping it going through the crappiest of times. Happy and healthy year to come.
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It is amazing how much joy it brings me to read all these lists! Thank you for sharing!
Your list especially resonates with me because everything there is either what I valued the most or what I want to have/experience – and you prove to me that this is possible.
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For now I just want to say Happy New Year to everyone!
Will see if my thinking is more structured tomorrow, I know I have some good perfume-related moments I want to share. Obviously I can think of more than 5 positive things in 2022, but I cannot wait to welcome a new and hopefully better year.
Thanks to you Undina, and Victoria of Bois de Jasmin, I have understood a little more about Ukraine, and helping a few people both here in Norway and sponsoring parcels to Ukraine made me feel less helpless.
Wearing lots of sprays of Iris Rebelle, my stepmother got me a used bottle with 80 ml left for Christmas! Such an easy wear, I just love it!
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Thank you, Ingeborg!
I hope you came up with your list (for yourself, not for us). If you haven’t yet, please find time to do it: you will feel better from doing that.
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Pingback: What Went Well, 2022 Edition – Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities
All the best in the New year!
It’s wonderful that you’re focusing on the good things that happened this year.
Here are mine in no particular order:
1. Went sailing for the first time in my life and saw some amazing Croatian islands
2. Got to spend a week with Asali during summer
3. My mum got better after chemotherapy
4. Got to socialize much more
5. Decided which astro school is the one I like best and want to pursue
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Like all your “wells,” though I have no idea what “astroschool” is :)
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School for astrology ;)
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Many good things have happened this year. I was diagnosed with ADHD and now have helpful medication. I had brain scans since my husband thought my spaciness and forgetfulness was due to Alzheimers. Ha! Oh well, it was a good end result. My brain is very healthy, it turns out.
My grandchildren are happy and healthy. my husband and I are both improving our health and we are enjoying getting out more.
I’m very thankful for this group and all the lovely people here. Thank you, Undina!
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I’m very happy for you! I can only imagine how relieved both of you are! Stay healthy!
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Belatedly catching up with your blog over the last few months! Very glad that Rusty was operated on safely in the comfort of your home, and that that other operation went well, namely to extract you MIL from the war zone.
I had to think about this one, but some things sprang to mind:
I finally got a new bathroom in my house in France,and the whole downstairs decorated. For their part, the local town hall resurfaced the lane at the back, which will help keep the damp out (part of the living area being below ground).
The noisy tenants next door were finally given notice to move out.
I got Covid, so finally confronted the thing I had been so worried about catching. Which wasn’t too bad, though it cancelled Christmas.
I had a new fence in my garden here. Workmen are so hard to pin down that any progress feels like a major triumph!
I met one of my idols, Lionel Shriver.
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