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A fast, indulgent listen, packed with steaming concrete nouns and adjectives that you normally don’t find printed next to each other in a line, The Perfect Scent also contains a healthy dose of celebrity gossip.  After listening to Chandler Burr, former perfume critic for the New York Times, and curator of the Department of Olfactory Art at the Museum of Arts and Design, write about smells and the decisions involved in putting together two big-name commercial perfumes, you feel full – like you’ve consumed a huge olfactory meal, flipped through a bunch of women’s fashion magazines, and rubbed your forearm across every adhesive perfume advertisement while you were at it.

I was listening to most of this while printing some etchings, and as it progressed, the entire studio seemed to become more and more saturated – with not just smell, but color, and texture, as well.  It will remind you to notice the everyday materials of life, and at the same time, replenish your stock of oddball scientific facts that can be excellent conversation-starters.  For example, if you didn’t already know what it was, just look up ambergris…

The only thing I regretted while listening, was not being able to actually smell the molecules he was describing – especially the two perfumes that the story followed from concept to completion.  So, for sharing this dessert-like read with others, I would recommend The Perfect Scent boxed set (which you can make yourself with an empty box, some elastic, and a trip to The Perfumed Court online, where you will find sample sets of perfume in 1 mL vials with titles like, “Fig: A Beginners Guide of 7 sample fragrances).  The story features Sarah Jessica Parker’s Lovely, and Un Jardin Sur le Nil by Hermès, but the site also sells sample packs divided by the “nose” behind the manufacturers’ fragrances, in which case, you would want the Jean Claude Ellena sampler (the nose behind Hermès).  This would be an excellent book to read while camping out on industrial carpet next to a duty-free shop during a six-hour layover in an international airport.  Or if you’re at home, you might just want to take a field trip to Sephora…

Lately, when I run into friends, they ask me (with a bit of caution), “So, how is the empty nesting going?” I thought my answer would be, “It’s so very sad. I sob every time I hear Miley Cirus singing Butterfly Fly Away.” I had imagined that our lives without our precious children all around might look something like this:

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Since we began our new empty nesting phase, these are the new sentences we have actually found popping into our conversations:

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Earlier this week, our last little gal, who is now in college, (the one who made the nest officially empty) sent us a link to this video in an email that read, “Here are you and Dad as empty nesters.” Well, most of you have probably seen this video, as I read that it has been viewed by 7.3 million viewers, so far. But I just have to share it again, because this adorable couple will bring a smile to your day. If this is where empty nesting takes you, then we are very excited to be on our way!

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Here’s another quick and fun little project for all of the tiny scraps of Emma quilting cotton that will be left over after you finish the pinwheel quilt.  Don’t they look a little bit like coated almonds, or maybe Easter m&ms?  I’m a candy hound, so anything that even resembles candy is on my yes list.  The Lily Blossom print in particular was really useful in this project because each flower’s interior is different and makes a different button.

Quick caveat: if you ever plan on making more than about ten covered buttons, I would recommend getting the kind that pop in by means of a little rubber cylinder.  You can find them here.  Unfortunately, my first ten buttons were made with the press-the-fabric-into-the-metal-teeth-that-bite-your-thumbs style.  But of course, if you experience those first and then upgrade to the pop-in kind, you will be extra pleased – like I was!

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Now, if only I could wash these things in laundry detergent that smelled like chocolate…or marshmallows…or sugar…