Sand + Sable by Coty
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Sand + Sable by Coty

Hi crew. Sand & Sable is a bargain Coty fragrance you can get at drug stores and online for a song. I can’t remember who first put me on to it but I’d like to thank them. It was a few years back. I was ferociously reading blogs, hitting links, searching for bargains night after night after night. On top of work, domestic duties, friends, travel and blogging daily for APJ (OK I had contributor’s doing a few days a week) and weekly for Perfume Posse. There were also guest spots on Olfactoria’s Travels and others. No, I can’t tell you how I did it all. When did I sleep?

Anyway, I had a bottle for years and a friend loved it so I gave it to them. Really, I never missed it because there’s so much other stuff here. Then it came up somewhere, maybe Perfume Posse? or NST? Suddenly I wanted it B A D! So in my next FragranceNet order I grabbed the small bottle.

Sand & Sable by Coty 1981

Sand + Sable by Coty

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Gardenia, Tuberose, Jasmine, Peach, Green Notes, Rose

Rich buttery white floral goodness. It’s so pretty and a little over the top on application. Sand & Sable is peachy, peachy and luxuriously breathy. An early adopter of the 1980s BWF that can hold it’s own against the heaviest hitters. It isn’t sophisticated but it does smell kind of arch and ageing starlet-ish. It could easily be the fictitious Summer Rain in 1939 film The Women.

Fruity white florals have long been part of the perfume oeuvre. After about an hour Sand & Sable is not terribly far from Madonna Truth or Dare and Piguet Fracas at the same point. It has decent longevity and continues on its buttery, fruity white floral way until it disappears.

Should you have it in your collection? Sure. If you love a white floral, like to have an easy spritz and go, want to smell quite different to the usual niche offering or even if you are on a budget and still want a spritz of joy. Sand & Sable is a pretty good pick me up for next to nothing.

Have you tried it?
Portia xx

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Saturday Question: What Are Your Top Five Green Perfumes?

Since I’ve been swamped recently, I don’t follow NST’s community projects any longer (not complaining – just stating the fact). So, I didn’t know this week’s topic (“True Colors: tell us your favorite color, and wear a fragrance with that color in the name, or that reminds you of that color, or that has juice in that color, or … ?”). But I got a suspicion it was related to NST and color when I saw hajusuuri’s IG post earlier today. And that was when I realized I wore four green perfumes this week. Spontaneously. In the middle of Winter. Without knowing about any projects. So, I decided why not to make it into the SQ.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #148:

What Are Your Top Five Green Perfumes?

Bonus question: Do you wear green perfumes all year round, or is there some particular season for them?

My Answer

I’ll start with answering the bonus question: as I explained in the post The Color of Spring (I used a photo from that post below even though not all of the perfumes on it made it to my Top 5 list), I associate green perfumes with Spring. But it seems this year, with its unexpected heavy rain in our area, I started craving green perfumes earlier.

My Top 5 Green Perfumes (not in particular order):

  • Chanel No 19 EdT
  • Puredistance Antonia
  • vero profumo Mito
  • Avon Deneuve
  • DSH Perfumes Vert Pour Madame

Green Perfumes

How about you?

 

What Are Your Top Five Green Perfumes?

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Saturday Question: Starting All Over Again: What 5 Perfumes Would You Buy First?

I “borrowed” the idea of this question from one of the beauty creators on YouTube a while ago, but thought it would be very fitting for the first SQ of the New Year (BTW, thank you everyone for wonderful comments last week: I will reply to each one of them, sorry for the delay). But to this week’s question. I know how hard it is for some of you to read through the exact description of what I’m trying to ask, or maybe I’m not being clear enough, which can also be the case, but I’ll try to do my best. My intent is not to cause the anxiety usually connected to the apocalypses-, fire- or a desert island-related choices. This question is not one of those! OK, maybe a little bit. But you’ll see what I mean.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #147:

Starting All Over Again: What 5 Perfumes Would You Buy First?

Imagine that you woke up in a parallel universe where absolutely everything is the same as in our universe. The only difference is that you do not have your perfume collection. Not a single sample, decant or bottle. You have money to buy any 5 perfumes that you used to have in your wardrobe as a bottle (travel bottles count). Those are “magical” money: they are not limited, but you cannot spend them on anything else but perfumes. And you cannot use that money to buy more bottles of less expensive perfumes—just 5. Later, you’ll continue to rebuild your collection, if you feel like that, or maybe you’ll return to your original universe. But since you don’t know when or if that happens, you have to decide where to start. These will not necessarily be you HG perfumes – you might decide to buy those later if they are readily available and instead go for something that you’d wear every day while saving for a “special occasion” favorite that sees your skin just a couple of times per year.

The only additional limitation is that the perfumes you choose should be possible to buy now. So, while those might be vintage perfumes, you cannot specify “vintage X in good condition” (“vintage X from eBay” would work) or wish for some long-discontinued unicorn that was last seen on eBay… never. But anything that can actually be had now is fair game.

My Answer

You would think that since I came up with that question and all those explanations above that I urged you to read, it should be easy for me to follow my own “rules.” Nope. I struggled. I considered changing the question to 10 perfumes. I thought of creative ways to group perfumes to sneak in an extra bottle or two. But I decided to be firm! So, here’s my list in alphabetical order (by brand):

  1. Amouage Dia: it is my #3 Amouage perfume. I can’t choose #1 Ubar since it looks like it has been discontinued, and I can’t find it anywhere; I would have selected Gold, but I’m still persuaded that it smells very close to my all-time favorite Climat that already made this list.
  2. Chanel No 19 EdT: I like extrait as well, but the EdT would be easier to wear every day.
  3. Guerlain Cruel Gardenia: I know that for a hardcore Guerlanophile that might sound as a sacrilege, but for me it is still my most favorite perfume from this brand, though closely followed by Chamade and Vol de Nuit – both in extrait version and both almost impossible to buy these days.
  4. Lancome Climat: Since it is still available from eBay in the La Collection reissue version, that would be my #1 purchase: even though I don’t wear it too often, I never ever want to be without it in my collection.
  5. Ormonde Jayne Ta’if: This is one more perfume that I want to have in my life no matter what. So, the first opportunity I get, I’m buying it in any universe!

 

How about you?

Starting All Over Again: What 5 Perfumes Would You Buy First?

Boudoir by Vivienne Westwood
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Boudoir by Vivienne Westwood

Hey crew, Back in 1985/6 I studied Fashion. Not the big, flash Fashion Design course at East Sydney TAFE or an Arts Fashion Degree. Nope. I went to a North Shore TAFE (Technical and Further Education) in Hornsby to do a Fashion Technology\y Certificate. We were taught the production of fashion with a very small design element. So the aim was to create someone with the ability to take a garment from drawing to product. Someone with the knowledge of procedure, pattern making, grading, fabric, fastenings, creation, sewing and the ability to interpret pictures. The fashion designers are notoriously inept at this. They have visions, we make them reality. We were perfectly trained to go into business, become a 2IC, sample machinist, pattern maker/grader, cutter or any number of jobs in the industry “FASHION” or even costume creation in the arts. At the time, with an extra short course a few of our crew went on to become important in the new computer world of laser cutting and design, just becoming reality. I was lucky enough to work as a Costume Designer for Children’s Theatre, Pattern Maker/Grader/Cutter for a menswear company and then a Machinist for a small, high end fashion and bridal store in Sydney’s uber trendy Paddington for a while. It was at this point that I realised I was generally too lazy and imperfect to ever want to make my own fashion house a reality and that working for other people was never going to make me happy or rich. Bye fashion. Hello DRAG! Still never made me as rich as I’d dreamed but the fun it has brought, the chances, friends, opportunities, unbelievable life has more than made up for it. It also presented an opportunity to make fabulous clothes without the need for perfectly straight hemstitching, the hand sewn finest zippers or any restrictions on reality. So that was an incredibly long preamble into Vivienne Westwood and Boudoir.

Yes, Vivienne Westwood died last week, most of you will already know. In the mid 1980s she was any fashion student’s obsession. We were taught that Vivienne Westwood always did it first, but she always did it worst. Her ideas would make big splashy headlines for their brilliant reconstruction of shape, size, fit, pattern and wit. Then that idea would filter to the luxurious fashion houses and be done perfectly. The 1970s Punk, chains, safety pins, hobble skirts, slashed and sloganed T Shirts. 1980s New Romantic, super platform, mini crini, tartan, and who can forget her Buffalo Girls look and McLaren’s song? By the time I got to London in 1994/5 Westwood was old guard fashion and the still functioning World’s End store on Kings Road had basically become a merch store with some fashion.

Boudoir by Vivienne Westwood 1998

Boudoir by Vivienne Westwood

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, Marigold, Hyacinth, Orange Blossom, Bergamot
Heart: Carnation, Rose, Cardamom, Coriander, Narcissus, Orris Root, Jasmine
Base: Vanilla, Tobacco Leaf, Cinnamon, Sandalwood, Patchouli

This then brings us to 1998. The name Vivienne Westwood had been in newspapers and on TV for 28 years. It was part of our psyche and much of the outrageous and rebellious past had been wallpapered over with glamour. The remnants of naughtiness even gave it a cachet for the cashed up rebels without a cause and trustafarians. What better way to celebrate her elevation into mainstream that create a perfume? One that has most of the hallmarks of a modern aldehydic floral and some funk underneath. Boudoir was not outrageous or even over the top, A gentle, sweet, hark back to the perfumery of bygone eras but cleaned up for modern sensibilities and much more importantly; SALEABLE! Boudoir became de rigueur among the fashionista party set for a while. It was so popular that many Mugler Angel aficionados made the change, or added this to their spritz list.

I only have the extrait and it still smells unbelievably good.

Boudoir Vivienne Westwood

My bottle is old. Over time Boudoir has stopped being notes to my nose. It is itself and no other. A sparkling, soapy, white/yellow floral with some sweaty greenery underpinned by a warm, rich breathy base, lightly spiced all the way through. Just a swipe with the glass stopper and the room fills with Boudoir in seconds. Happy memories. Longevity is right up there with Vivienne Westwood herself. Unless I swim or bathe this single swipe will continue through till tomorrow morning.

Vivienne Westwood

“The only way to halt Climate Change is to work with governments but that is impossible because governments are the problem” Vivienne Westwood

In honour of someone who has been instrumental in my life through music, design, fashion, and myriad other ways. Goodbye Vivienne Westwood and thank you.

Do any of you have a Westwood story you’d like to share?
Portia xx

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Saturday Question: What Went Well In 2022?

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.

Rusty and Happy New Year 2023

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).

Sedona

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.

Christmas Lights on Eucalyptus Street

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.

Rusty and Gabapentin

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

Happy New Year!

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Pickles and Vintage Shalimar

It has been a while since Pickles visited us with a story about her human, but she’s back to help us to see off this year. (Undina)

* * *

Decades ago, when my Nana was in elementary school, her best friend’s mother, knowing of her love of perfume, gifted her a flask bottle of Guerlain Shalimar EDC. For a young girl with a modest perfume wardrobe of Avon and drugstore beauties, that was a prized possession. My Nana wore it to her heart’s content, but it was never replaced as there were always other shiny jewels in the world of perfume beckoning her. However, Shalimar always reminded her of her best friend’s mom, who sadly passed away much too young from breast cancer.

Guerlain Shalimar EdC

A few years ago, one of Nana’s pals from Australian Perfume Junkies surprised her for her birthday and mailed her the same flask as a birthday gift, knowing that my Nana had a strong scent memory attached to it. My Nana still loves how it smells and is secretly amused that she had the audacity to wear this bold and sexy fragrance out in public as a young girl. Her vintage formulation is from the 1960s and is certainly not as tame as the current one.

Pickles and ShalimarPersonally, I really love the bottle and enjoy posing with it. I think it’s aesthetically pleasing to the eye and smells pretty darn good on my Nana too.

 

What are your thoughts on Shalimar? Have you ever received a treasured perfume gift from a friend?

 

Until next time, furry kisses and hugs,

Pickles Bella

Limbo Week
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Limbo Week

Hey all, I’m kind of burnt out. The Christmas celebration was 4 days and nights of stuff. It was fun but it was also a lot. We did it putposefully chill but still, so much in such a short time. It’s about 36C/97F and quite humid. Beautiful weather for short walks in the daytime and longer ones after dark with Paris.

Jin is, as always, the highlight of all adventures. I can’t even tell you how freaking adorable he is. So good with people, funny, charming and only very rarely a brat. We spent quite a bit of couch time watching The Hunger Games and other assorted movies. After he went to bed I watched the three seasons of Jack Ryan, excellent fun. Also, his Roast Pork Belly and Crackling this year were so freaking good.

Limbo Week

Now we are in that super weird Limbo Week between Xmas and NYE. Today we basically did nothing. Ate, watched TV, I have been catching up on some blogging that needs completing (like this).

My most worn fragrance over the Christmas period was Rahele by Neela Vermeire Creations. It is so beautiful. Osmanthus and leather with some bells and whistles. Bloody good shit. If you liked it, loved it but didn’t purchase, or if you have only a few ml in your current bottle I have it on very good authority that it’s on the chopping block. Yes, I bought backups.

Rahele Neela Vermeire Creations

So that’s it. Got nothing else. Enjoy the last few days of 2022. I hope your 2023 is full of the good stufff and very little of the other.

Tell me your plans, resolutions, hopes and dreams.
I love to chat with you all so much. It’s you lot that keep me blogging far past my use by date.

Hugs,
Portia xx

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Saturday Question: What Is Your Favorite Animalic Perfume?

OK, folks. Since last week many of you totally disregarded the SQ’s instructions not to talk about perfumes that would be under your Christmas Tree this year, there is no reason to ask that question (but feel free to share your perfume wardrobe newcomers if you didn’t do it yet). So, today’s question is inspired by Rusty’s birthday (a separate post is coming).

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #145:

What Is Your Favorite Animalic Perfume?

I’ll leave the interpretation to you – it might be an animal-derived ingredient (natural or artificial), animal-related name or any other characteristic that would allow you to classify that perfume as such.

My Answer

If I were to think longer, I would have found more perfumes to name (so I look forward to reading your comments). But the first perfume that came to my mind when I asked myself this question was Papillon Artisan Perfumes Bengale Rouge. I wrote the story about this perfume three years ago (Rusty played a significant role in it). For those who weren’t around back then but don’t want to read it, I’ll quote myself:

I thought I was predisposed to like this perfume. I was wrong: I loved it. Since then, I looked up the notes more than once (sandalwood, Turkish rose, honey, vanilla and sweet myrrh), and I still can’t really make them out. But does it really matter? Bengale Rouge is perfectly blended, elegant and complex perfume that purrs on my skin – maybe not as sweet as Rusty sitting on my lap but warm and comforting nevertheless.

I still have half of the decant a generous friend shared with me. But when it’s finished, I’ll want more.

 

How about you?

What Is Your Favorite Animalic Perfume?

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Undina’s Advent CaTendar 2022 – Week 3

The third week of my daily Instagram‘ posts for the Advent CaTendar – a count up to Rusty’s 14th birthday on Christmas Eve. Plus some “extras.”

These days it’s much easier to take pictures of sleeping Rusty. But I still manage to catch other aspects of his life.

Even though Rusty is a … mature cat, he still plays with sunlight reflections.

 

Come back this weekend for Rusty’s Birthday celebration, new Saturday Question and other festivities.

 

Images: my own

Christmas 2022: It’s Not All Cake and Eggnog
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Christmas 2022: It’s Not All Cake and Eggnog

Hi All, firstly, I know Christmas is full of grief and woe for many people. (Here’s a page with many worldwide HELPLINES. Please call them, they’re waiting for you.) Also, I know that many of our readers have another religion or zero religious affiliation. If you find the Christian religions to be hypocritical multinational business empire behemoths, intent only on raping the world and its people then you’re not alone. My beautiful Jin is an evangelical atheist. He sneezes, I say “God Bless You” he says, “There is no god”!

Christmas 2022 It's Not All Cake and Eggnog 1

Where I’m At

I was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. Church as an infant/toddler, Nuns in Junior School, Jesuits in Senior School. The Jesus story has been inculcated into my bones and though I know it was written long after his death, changed on multiple occasions by a committee (often of unscrupulous, evil tyrants) and used as a herding tool rather than a teaching one for the greater good, it is so deep in my marrow. Jesus himself sounds like a pretty good guy, except he forgot to address some key issues in the Old Testament, slavery, sexual equality, homosexuality and a few others I can’t think of right now. Thing is, I love the idea of there being a God. That if I’m a good person then I can have eternal salvation. Just the idea mind you, in reality I think living one life and death being a full stop is good. Then there are the questions. Why would an ever loving God give children cancer, create pedophiles, rapists and murderers (many within the canon of his churches), let global atrocities continue (starting with the Crusades and working forwards) and let us so recklessly ruin the beautiful world we have been given.
I’m not looking for answers or even help here. Just trying to explain my dilemma in the face of mounting lack of evidence. Sorry to lay this on anyone who feels attacked or undermined by my thought processes. I’m just laying bare my struggle. Hopefully some of you will find resonance.

Anyway, I still love Christmas. That we come together and mourn death, then celebrate the renewal of life. We do it by gathering people we love, family, friends, even some people we dislike. Sometimes people we hardly know in an Orphans Christmas situation. We come together and replenish our bonds and links of humanity through shared food, stories, memories and proximity. Even the drama creates new stories to be told throughout the next year and beyond. Before it was Christmas it had already been ritual for millennia, we just added glitter, reindeer and song.

If You’re Struggling

For those who feel completely alone, cut off and adrift from the rest of humanity. I’m hugging you right now. Please take time now to organise SOMETHING for this holiday. It’s relentless and can push us over the edge.
Have something nice or special to eat, doesn’t need to be expensive, something you like.
Maybe, if you have the funds or want to be involved, go have a meal out. Yes, you’ll be solo but you’ll be enveloped.

If solitude is your favourite thing then maybe a ramble around your neighbourhood? I find walking a really good way to beat off the blues, doesn’t have to be far to change my perspective and mood. The weather, the nature, the blood pounding and rhythm of my steps all combine to elevate my mood. Nearby we have a few parks, there’s nearly always some kind of life going on. People watching is nice too if you’re comfortable and sip a cuppa.

Have a plan. The best way to cope with anything is to have a plan. Make sure there are a couple of plans in case one gets derailed. Best to keep plans small and achievable, seriously, have a few.

The crushing overload of forced intimacy and aspirational Christmas spirit is a lot to handle, even for the strongest of us.

Also, say NO. If seeing your family, friends, anything is not what you want to do. Say NO. You don’t need to explain, just say no. Write an email if they are bullying you. “I will not be coming for Christmas. Hope it’s everything you want it to be. See you in the new year.”

Again: Here’s a page with many worldwide HELPLINES. Please call them, they’re waiting for you.

Christmas 2022 It's Not All Cake and Eggnog 1

Our Christmas 2022

This year is the most low key we’ve done Christmas for years.

On Christmas Eve we are having a small group for dinner. There will be Jin’s Roast Pork & Crackling, roast veggies, cold chicken, salads and some breads. I’ve bought a supermarket Christmas Pudding and some Custard for dessert but I think Kath will do a Pavlova too. A few drinks, some cognac and teas to finish. Hopefully done by 10pm, clean up and off to bed.

Christmas Day just Kath and us. Leftovers, chill, TV.
Last year on Christmas night we put up on faceBook that we were heading to Club Parramatta for dinner. We ended up with a table of about 20 friends and acquaintances. It was lovely. There was no cooking or cleaning, a few bevies and we all just hung out together chatting and laughing.

Boxing Day is traditionally held at my BFF Kath’s family home. We eat cold cuts, make some fresh salads and put it all on buns. We swim the afternoon away and then we all go home and crash.

Christmas Perfumes

Even though Christmas in Sydney is hot I’m hoping to get a few spritzes of firm favourites Caron Nuit de Noel, Liquides Imaginaires Sancti, Maria Candida Gentile Exultat, CdG Avignon andL’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme Intense. Mostly these will be cool of evening wears. I’m thinking to wear some Annick Goutals like Songes, Eau de Sud, Mandragore and Nuit Etoilee. That Lolita Lempicka Eau L’Aime, maybe L’Artisan Nuit de Tubereuse and Neela Vermeire Creations Rahele and Pichola. 

Christmas 2022 It's Not All Cake and Eggnog 11

These are the dream wears anyway. Honestly, I’ll probably get super busy doing stuff and wear easy reaches like Shalimar and Eau des Merveilles Bleue. Let’s see how it all comes out in the wash.

 

For those that celebrate. Merry Christmas.
Portia x