Winter 2011-12 Top Fragrances & Other Stuff

Who, at the first sign of frost, doesn't long to be wrapped in an oversized cashmere throw, sit by the fire, grab a good book, and sip something spiked and fragrant while the snowflakes outside are dancing the polka? January's chilly winds and all too brief days call for heavier knits, formal furs to banish the cold and an inferno of fragrance to get through it all; and cold it has been, unusually so this year for this corner of Europe!

Seeking warmth in your perfume can be a subtle reassurance in cold weather, but it can also be fun to try to match, getting the fragrance notes to smell painstakingly pure as if emerging out of a snow bath Venus-like off the waves. There is indeed a two-pronged approach to choosing personal fragrance for winter wearing:
One is to go for traditional oriental elements, warm resins and balsams, rich florals and amber blends; creating contrast and invoking via perfume-magic mellower lands where the night is always warm and bodies radiate the heat of blood rushing to the skin's surface. Another, more unusual one, is akin to homeopathy: inject a bit of cool silkiness to the routine, letting the outside cold enhance the silvery, metallic qualities of the perfume. Therefore throw in a mix of irises, artemisia, wormwood, angelica and gentian essences, cool celebral notes, and sour frankincense smoke that trails behind like the ashes off an extinguished censer...
It's also just the time for precious vintages (do a search on PerfumeShrine for plenty of ideas on those) and for parfums fourrure, since putting these perfumes on is as enveloping as donning my fur jacket and you wouldn't don a fur jacket in August, would you?

Monica Belluci and Alain Delon forAnnabella

Here are some of the fragrances and other stuff in my rotation this winter to stir the senses and banish (or embrace, if you like!) the cold.

Guerlain Tonka Impériale 
Wearing it on winter sweaters and scarfs (where it clings for days, radiating seductively) is akin to getting caressed by a honey mink étole, smelling fine cigars in a salon de thé serving the most delicious almond pralines on panacotta.

Caron Poivre
As warm as a fur coat, as arresting as pepper spray, a pas de deux on clove and carnation blossoms; or the scent of Cruella de Vil. I bring out the sable and pretend I'm wicked!

Armani Prive Bois d'Encens 
A clean smoky incense that wafts from the forests on the cool wintery air, gloomy cedars silently silhouetted in the distance.
 

Editions des Parfums F.Malle Angéliques sous la Pluie 
Rained upon angelicas, a celestial gin & tonic on the rocks, refreshingly bitter with the cool edge of seeing snowcapped stone fences just across the road.

La Myrrhe by Serge Lutens
Myrrh gum is part of ecclesiastical incense alongside frankincense for millenia. You would expect an oriental, full of resinous mystery, going by the name, right? Lutens goes one better and infuses the bitter ambience of myrrh with candied mandarin rind and citrusy aldehydes which bring this on the upper plane of an airy aldehydic. Somehow it wears lightly but solemnly too and it resembles nothing else on the market. Cool days bring La Myrrhe's attibutes to the fore and it remains amongst my most precious possessions.

And of course, Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum 
If you yearn for the sweetly pungent and at the same time totally "fabricated" smell of a good, old-school leather fragrance...then the fragrance release introduced by the Bottega Veneta brand (the apex of leather luxury) is set to stir your heart with unbridled longing. And deservedly so: Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum is unquestionably "mighty fine"; it made it both to my Top 2011 Best Fragrances list and my Autumn Sensuous Discoveries list. Now it's on my Top Winter things list too. Figures...

I'm also crazy about discovering Nostalgie by Sonoma Scent Studio. There's a sheen sans pareil about wearing a graceful floral aldehydic smack in the middle of winter, everything just seems to sparkle brighter under the tentative sun! In that vein, expect a review of the graceful L'Ame Soeur by Divine and an update on its slightly re-orchestrated reissue shortly on these pages!

my personal shot of Guerlain Tonka Imperiale

Winter is also the time to indulge in some body pampering. Heavy oils and unctuous creams suddenly seem welcome, decadent, like a deserved small luxury.This winter I have seriously lost myself into the scentscape of vanilla pods, almonds & toasted cereals of Cacharel's Gloria Bath & Body Oil. I also regularly turn to L'Occitane Creme Ultra Riche, crammed full with shea butter, for all topical dry skin emergencies.

Food-wise, winter weekends is the time to make time-consuming, elaborate dishes like Armenian "manti", called Tatar Böregi in Turkey (recipe to follow on subsequent post), full of the warming aroma of all spice, cinnamon, cumin and clove. I also love to prepare home-made halwa with semolina, raisins and roasted pine nuts. Yum!

pic via mantrakina.blogspot.com

Intellectually I have been stimulated through work mainly this season. But off-work hasn't been totally idle.
I took an interest to John A. Hall’s “Ernest Gellner: An Intellectual Biography", recounting the exiling of intellectuals of Eastern Europe because of communism and Nazism. The relaxed pace of an evening by the fire also perfectly fits reading poems by Emily Dickinson and Kostas Karyotakis thanks to their slow pace and melancholy. I also caught The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo in cinemas this winter: It's atmospheric and suprisingly loyal to the original Swedish version, so if you need a rec, go watch it!

Please visit the other fine participating blogs in this project for more ideas:
All I am a Redhead, I smell therefore I am, Katie Puckrik Smells, The Non Blonde, Under the Cupola, Waft...what a fragrance fanatic thinks.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine:

Poll: Readers Suggest Fragrances to Warm You in the Cold ,

Sunny Fragrances to Beat the Winter Cold

The clip comes from the 2004 film "Weeping Meadow" (Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει) by Greek film director Theo Aggelopoulos, who died last Tuesday. Music by Eleni Karaindrou.

original photo on top Winter Leaves by Eric Begin/Flickr, some rights reserved

The Mystery of Musk: Revolutionary Joint Project in Animalic Notes

Do you miss a little skank in your life? Do you often wonder how does real musk smell or would like to find beautiful alternative fragrances to your cheap or oil favourites? It is my honour to announce to our readers that under the kind invitation of the Natural Perfumers' Guild I am organising an exciting and truly pioneering new project, called The Mystery of Musk. The project took the form of inviting several worthy perfumers who dabble in naturals on occasion of the 4th anniversary of the Guild to come up with that most elusive element of them all: a real-smelling animalic musk base for perfumery! Musk is possibly the number one subject of interest among those who love all kinds of perfume, both natural and synthetic. Musk fascinates! Many perfumistas realize that natural perfumers don’t use synthetic musks and civets and such, but that they search for alternatives that give the same effect. The Yahoo Natural Perfumery Group, the Basenotes forum contributors and a pleiad of prominent bloggers will be evaluating the fragrances thus produced in a few weeks. Best of all, each and every one of these musk perfumes will be optioned for a bottle giveaway through the participating venues, just for you! (one bottle giveaway for each blogger, one for Basenotes and one for the Yahoo Natural Perfumery Group, so you will have several opportunities to enter to win). Considering these are very costly creations to begin with due to the high prices of the essential oils, absolutes and essences used, I know you will appreciate this unique chance. The giveaways and reviews will roll out at the beginning of July. And in preparation of that, the Musk Series on The Perfume Shrine will be enriched with more musk reviews and relevant commentary for your enjoyment!


So without further ado, may I present you the participating perfumers.

Participating Perfumers for The Mystery of Musk project:

Adam Gottschalk – Lord’s Jester

Alexandra Balahoutis – Strange Invisible Perfumes

Alfredo Dupetit – BioScent by dupetit

Ambrosia Jones – Perfume by Nature

Anya McCoy – Anya’s Garden Perfumes

Charna Ethier – Providence Perfumes

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz – DSH Perfumes

Elise Pearlstine – Tambela Perfumes

Jane Cate – A Wing and a Prayer Perfumes

JoAnne Bassette – JoAnne Bassett Perfumes

Lisa Fong – Artemisia Perfume

Nicholas Jennings – Sharini Parfums Naturels

The evaluators members at the Yahoo Natural Perfumery Group as well as those from the Basenotes forum are announced on the respective venues. The president of the Natural Perfumers' Guild, Anya McCoy, will keep you abreast of the details.
The participating blogs will be: Bittergrace Notes, Ca Fleure Bon, First Nerve, Grain de Musc, Indie Perfumes, I Smell Therefore I Am, the Non Blonde, Olfactarama, Olfactory Rescue Service, and of course the Perfume Shrine.

Stay tuned for all the exciting new features!
Related reading on Perfume Shrine: The Musk Series


Pic copyrighted by the Natural Perfumers' Guild, reproduced with permission.

The Perfumista Challenge: A Project to Spread to those you Know

Sometimes one needs to shout in order to be heard. Sometimes one needs to kick people in the shin to get their attention. Sometimes one just needs to grab a public venue and challenge people in their perceptions in a much more civilised way. Which is what I am going to do today and I am calling every one of you who has been fed up to the brim with all the trashola that has been circulating under glossy names of TV personae and celebritoids from Sillyville and Trollopburg.
Namely today I am proposing and inviting you to the ultimate strikeback: Let's produce some fragrant juice ourselves!

No, I am not delirious. What are the chances that some amateur perfumista back in the wings has actually created a blend that is better than the bleh stuff in pretty (and not so pretty) bottles? Pretty high, I'd wager. After all, perfumistas do know a thing or two about what takes to put a nice sniff-fest together and hey, wait, didn't artisanal perfumers start with the proviso that they're blending things to suit their own taste? I am sure some of you have several oils which you mix for private enjoyment, some have a frustrated perfumer's soul, some even have chemistry kits and know a thing or two about reactions, emulsifiers and grape vs. grains alcohol; but the beauty of it all is you needn't really worry, this is not a race who is better, it's more for the fun of the thing and to prove to ourselves we can do it. (In the words of Dominique Dubrana, who's lauded by dr. Luca Turin, the biggest perfumery secret is that it's "rather easy to create something nice". There, you have insider's encouragement). Who knows, maybe someone's creation might be as good as to actually see the light of day in a wider circle and become our shared secret! Imagine the possibilities: Sillage de la Perfumista, Aqua sniffaholica, Εαρινή δρόσος φιλάρεσκων δεσποινίδων, et al... Not to mention the thrill of feeling of creating your own Galateia...

The idea was shaped by Liisa Wennervirta, following a discussion on Perfume Shrine about D-celebrities (or even DD-celebrities in some cases) constantly issuing utterly forgettable "products", who is in turn organising the whole thing. She's one hell of a witty lass with the quirk to bring this into fruition -she's been dabbling in blends herself- and you can be sent to her by me without reservations. [One doesn't need to be part of the clique to be perfectly legit ;-) ]

So here is how she wants this to be: "There'll be a simple swap round. Every participant will submit their address and they'll get another one where they'll send their creation. I wouldn't oblige the recipients to write a review or comment but it would be more fun if they did. To join the bunch of swappers, mail me at rosa (dot) pendulina (at) yahoo (dot) se. Closing date for participation submissions is December 31st."
If you'd like to take the info on your own blog or on a forum you participate, feel free to do so (and we would be grateful to you): the more participation we have, the more chances we can discover a raw talent in the dirt and the more fun we will all have in the process.

Now spread this to everyone you know times 10 or your precious rare Guerlain Baccarats will crumble in thin dust and your Chanels will turn into fermented beer on a hellishly hot day. Spread it! Participate! I have spoken...

Pic of Peter Cushing via umad.com, shot from Fritz Lang's Metropolis via dvdtimes.co.uk

Hidden Gems: Little Pleasures from Two Sides of the Globe

Some wonderful things in this life are well-known: Veuve Cliquot champagne, the Nutcracker suite, Mercedes Benz S-class and Gregory Peck. The again there are those little things that while not essentially secretive they float with little collective wow as much as they trully deserve it.

The Non Blonde (from New York) and yours truly decided to sit down and reveal some of the "secret" things that makes us tick. Things of a local but also international colour to take you away from your everyday existence into the cosmos of a friend city-trekker and which we hope will inspire you to seek them out this autumn.

Foodstuff and aromatic delights:
Mastic or lentisque, the natural resin of the mastic tree, is one of the local products which I feel few people outside the Mediterranean know about and that's such a shame. Because mastic is medicinally beneficial to so many ailments (soothes the stomach, strengthens the gums, whitens the teeth, refreshes the breath, helps with catarahh), it is also an excellent... aphrodisiac but most importantly its aroma is delicious, unusual and very pliable to so many uses in food, drink and fragrance (Infusion d'Iris by Prada is said to borrow its aromatic note).
Mastiha Shop is the brandname of Mediterra SA company founded by the Chios (the Greek island) Mastic Growers Association. Whenever a foreigner comes to my city I always take them to the Mastiha Shops: a paradise for everything around mastic! The Mastiha site is excellent and you can spend lots of time seeing the products, the shops and reading about how they are collaborating with other Eastern Mediterranean companies such as Al Doucan, Junan Natural Lebanais, Senteurs d'Orient Sarl and Haki Bekir SA. The best part is probably the Recollections section on which there are dots on the map of the whole Mediterranean with customs around mastic for every one on the map (on the Folklore sub-section), tales about travelers and historical references aplenty. Get their gum with rose essence if you can: yum!

Books and films
Jeux interdits (forbidden games), is a novel by François Boyer. The synopsis has a girl of 5 orphaned in an air raid while fleeing a French city with her parents during WWII. She is befriended by a 10 year old peasant boy when cut off from the other refugees and is taken in for a few weeks by his family. The children quickly become friends in the purest and most tender love story of them all in their attempt to assimilate the deaths they both face and the religious rituals surrounding those deaths through the construction of a cemetery for all sorts of animals. However child-like and adult activity often are at cross-purposes till the climactic finale.
The novel got adapted into a 1952 French language film directed by René Clément starring Georges Poujouly, Brigitte Fossey, and Amédée. For once a film respected the book and became according to filmsdefrance.com: "almost unquestionably the most compelling and intensely poignant drama featuring young children ever filmed" . If you have small children or have not forgotten the sensitivity of your childhood, it is highly, highly recommended. Take a box of Kleenex with you too, you will need them. Available through the Criterion Collection. Watch this little montage.

And if you're embracing your cynical, adult side, don't forget the Italian spaghetti western classic from one of my favourite directors of all time, maestro Sergio Leone.
Here is Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach in one of the most poignant treatises on war & the individual and the best showdown ever (click to watch): Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) from 1966 set to music by Ennio Morricone. "There are two kinds of people in this world, my friend: those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig!" A masterpiece.

Homage to a tortured soul:
Guillame Depardieu, son of France's greatest living acting legend, died on Monday out of complications of pneumonia according to Google. Gifted in acting himself, with the ill fate of growing up feeling side-tracked by his father's fame, and having to go through the loss of a leg due to a motorcycle accident a few years ago, he had a rough life that ended unjustly. He was 37.
He will always remain in mind fair, young and passionate as he was when he appeared alongside his father in Tous Les Matins du Monde (all the mornings of the world), a 1991 French film by Alain Corneau about the baroque music of Sainte Colombe and Jean Baptiste Lully which I had referenced when talking about O de Lancome and a big-fat-shinning gem of its very own. This is for you, Guillame. Godspeed...

Jewellery:
Another passion of mine, I'm afraid. There are so many things to appreciate in a well-crafted jewel beyond its monetary aspect: the craftmanship, the cultural inspirations behind it, innovative designers making portable art. It makes my day to look at beautiful and inspired jewels and my collection is growing thanks to careful selection and generous gifts.
I tend to prefer vintage pieces with rose-cut diamonds (those grey irregularly-cut stones that resemble hazelnut shreds). Fanourakis is a Greek goldsmith fronted by an admirable woman, Lina Fanourakis, who designs the most ecclectic mix of portable sculpture: small flies become dainty earrings, a corset is shaped into a bracelet, drops of liquid fall off the length of a brooch. Take a look here and if you pass through Ermou St (Hermes street) in Athens, turn on the left before Kapnikarea church so as not to miss their boutique.

Then again there is Rinaldo Gavello: an Italian designer married to a Greek woman and almost a Greek himself now...With boutiques in the glamorous Athens center, Thessaloniki and in always popular Mykonos, he designs the rock-chic pieces with skulls out of the tiniest diamonds and bright enamel that delight my Metallica-loving soul. Take a look at the new Josephine collier, inspired by black gazelle Josephine Baker and prepare to be awed! (click the link to see pic)

Perfume:
One of the fragrances that I have never heard anyone in the perfume communities know is an Italian Eau de Toilette by the French-sounding Jean Louis Gady brandname, christened Musk Oil (it's anyone's guess why they called it thus when it's in fact a spray alcoholic fragrance!) It's my favourite "extra" to include in international packages: there is no one I have sent this to who hasn't spontaneously commented that it is very pleasant and wearable. Warm, sweet but not intensely so, with hints of rose and vanilla, unisex and a proper "perfumey" fragrance rather than a clean musk, it garners compliments from everyone. It's a mystery why it's not widely available.

Another little-sung hero is Sonia Rykiel Woman, not for Men! from one of the more chic and favourite designers: musky, leathery, powdery and with an abstract touch of cosy warmth it's a wonderful, wonderful perfume that is unique, never nauseatingly sweet or heavy and a subtle come-hither. Nota bene, however: all this describes the Eau de Parfum in the bottle with the bronze studs on the cap and the purple accent lettering, not the pink one with the silver studs (the Eau de toilette, which is yet another trite fruity floral).

Demeter's Rain is not exactly what one would call "perfume" and indeed I am not advocating you wear it as a personal fragrance. It's more of a mind-altering mood in a bottle: it is exactly the smell of those baby humidifiers-ionisers which shoot negative ions in the atmosphere to boost energy levels and clear the air. It smells as fresh as the first raindrops from a blue cloud in the autumn sky.

Body indulgences:
The shower gel which I most enjoy during the late summer and autumn months is none other than Felce Azzura (means "blue fern" in Italian) by Paglieri. There is some pungent aromatic and slightly bitter essence like crushed dried herbs gathered on a Greek hill along with a lingering powdery quality about it that never stops having me swooning (a dangerous thing in the shower!). Refreshingly cool in late summer's humidity and unlike any usual citrusy or minty bath product it has an autumnal feel that is a perfect fit for the current season in particular. It also comes as a body powder with the same heavenly smell. And it's relatively inexpensive, making it the perfect everyday indulgence. Once upon a time, as attested by the ad designed by Moltrasio in the 1950's which is clearly inspired by my look-alike, there was also a hair brilliantine. Kill me now!

Hair guilty secret:
I am über-loyal to Elnette hairspray for dry hair ever since I remember using something to hold my stray strands, ever since it was non cool and not fronted by Penelope Cruz and Claudia Shiffer in those nifty ads. Seeing my mother and grandmother using it obvsiouly had a deep and contradictory impact: I wanted to break out of the mold and try "younger" hair stuff, quirky, punky, whatnot. After hundreds of flings with lesser mortals I always return to this one: it brushes off in an instant, does the job well without sticking the hair into barbed-wire and has a nostalgic faint smell that doesn't bother my perfume wearing.

Makeup unsung hero:
Guerlain has my hard-earned Euros on many things; one of the constants however, apart from perfume, is mysteriously enough a highlighter-cum-concealer: Issima Precious Light. A click-pen with a little brush at the edge that delivers the creamiest, most becoming little shot of light for under the eyes, over the brows, at the edges of nose and lips, to give a gentle luminosity to the face to lift it through the darker days of the cooler season. More creamy than the Yves Saint Laurent analogous product and less sticky or thick than the comparable Dior, it is the perfect consistency to blend without tugging. I use Beige Naturel 020 and it doesn't need anything else on top (the sales assistant who insisted my light skin needed the Beige Clair 010 hadn't realised that too white-ish gains a grey-ish pallor over any trace of blue under the eyes...)

Actors to watch now:
This guy has been steadily gaining a small but dedicated fan club, mainly thanks to his inclusion in the Tudors. I fist spotted him in The Count of Monte Cristo. I don't know why they don't employ him in almost everything!
Opposite physionomy to the virile one above, fabulous acting chops, this one is another gem not to miss: I don't know why they don't employ him in almost everything either! Best thing of all: you never hear about their private lives: wise boys...

Music to listen to this autumn:
Manos Hadjidakis is no unknown in Greek music. He shares demi-God status. Yet not many people abroad who only know Greek music from Zorba the Greek instantly recognise him as immediately as the latter's composer (equally talented Mikis Theodorakis). Here is a clip from Gioconda's Smile, his 1965 instrumental album inspired by his stay in...New York City. Available at Amazon.



I'd love to hear from you about your favorite hidden gems (regional or of a wider scope). Share them in the comments and please don't forget to check out The Non Blonde's for another take.

Art photo on top by Charettevia. Felce Azzura ad via trocadero.com. Jeux Interdits poster via Wikimedia. Clint Eastwood pic from the Clint Eastwood Archive.
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Top 25 of current fragrances we can still enjoy!

So often we perfumephiles come together online and discuss how things were different back then and how older perfumes were somehow deeper, richer, better. I always thought this makes us an anachronism! Most of us have not even lived that far back! Of course there is solid argument that the way ingredients' restrictions, mercenary cheapening of the formula, old names pastered onto completely different things and all around derivative creations are cropping up, the future of perfumery isn't too bright. So many fragrances have been discontinued as well, not to mention the crazy fashion of limited editions which leave the loyal fan seriously crestfallen when they finish the bottle with no hope of easy replenishing.
But in this joint project ~inspired by Perfume Posse's call to readers and my friend Denyse~ which we undertook with the Non Blonde, the Smelly Blog and Savvy Thinker, we tried to focus on what is out there still available, still in good form, still gist for our mills. We tried to celebrate the little gems that are awaiting our litte paws to gingerly open and apply!

Compiling lists can be both exciting and frustrating, though. There are just so many things one wants to include, but obviously some form of elimination should take place. I had to eliminate beautiful creations which were limited editions, such as the sublime Fleur de Narcisse by L'artisan. Some older classics which are still around and I loved dearly have changed dramatically with questionable results: Cabochard and Ma Griffe, for starters. Then there are those which are on precarious soil: Alpona is perhaps destined to discontinuation due to the heavy restrictions on oakmoss? The jury is still out. And some like Pontevecchio W by Nobile 1942, although I loved them, just couldn't fit into the alloted limit no matter how hard I tried to cram them.

So without further ado, here is an aplhabetical list of 25 fragrances I really love! By no means comprehensive and not highlighting their historical importance in perfumery (you can take a peak at my take on what marked scented history here). Just what has me always sighing with pleasure, my psyche elated and my mind appreciating, every time I open the bottles. Some are mainstream, some are niche, some are feminine, some are masculine, some are shared.
{Those which are highlighted have been reviewed on Perfume Shrine, the rest will get their share soon!}


1. Angélique Encens, Creed (nose: Henry Creed)
2. Avignon, Comme des Garcons Incense Series (nose: Bernand Duchaufour)
3. Bandit, Robert Piguet, in edp (nose: Germaine Cellier)
4. Carnal Flower, Frédéric Malle (nose: Dominique Ropion)
5. Chant d’arômes, Guerlain (nose: Jean Paul Guerlain)
6. Cruel Gardénia, Guerlain (nose: Randa Hammami)
7. Cuir de Russie, Chanel in extrait (nose: Ernest Beaux)
8. Déclaration, Cartier (nose: Jean Claude Ellena)
9. Diorella, Christian Dior (nose: Edmond Roudnitska)
10.Diorling, Christian Dior (nose: Paul Vacher)
11.Fifi, Fifi Chachnil (nose: Jean Guichard)
12.Film Noir, Ayla Moriel (nose: Ayala Moriel)
13.Fleurs d’oranger, Serge Lutens (nose: Chris Sheldrake)
14.Grand Amour, Annick Goutal (nose: Isabelle Doyen)
15.Iris Poudre, Frédéric Malle (nose: Pierre Bourdon)
16.Jasmin de Nuit, The Different Company (nose: Céline Ellena)
17.L’air de Rien, Miller Harris (nose: Lynn Harris)
18.L’air du desert Marocain, Tauer Perfumes (nose: Andy Tauer)
19.La Myrrhe, Serge Lutens (nose: Chris Sheldrake)
20.Mitsouko, Guerlain in extrait and edt (nose: Jacques Guerlain)
21.Narciso Rodriguez For her, edt and extrait (nose: Francis Kurkdjian)
22.Onda, Vero Profumo (nose: Vero Kern)
23.Opium, Yves Saint Laurent, in edt (nose: Jean Louis Sieuzac)
24.Vetiver Tonka, Hermessences (nose: Jean Claude Ellena)
25.Vol de Nuit, Guerlain, in extrait (nose: Jacques Guerlain)

Which fragrances comprise your top 25 list?

Please don't forget to check out the lists on The Non Blonde, Smelly Blog and Savvy Thinker as well.

Pic courtesy of jilly1964/photobucket and manipulated by me