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We just got home today after evacuating the fires a bit over a week ago. I’m very thankful that our homes are fine and very grateful that my brother and SIL were able to take us all in (it was nice to spend time with family). It’s been a stressful week worrying about our houses, but it ended well for us.

My heart aches for all the people who were not so lucky. It’s going to take a lot of time for people and the community to recover. Air quality was horrible outside when we got here this afternoon (we needed our breathing masks), but the smoke cleared out later and the air is good tonight. I think the smoke will vary depending on the winds, and masks will just be part of life for a while when going outside. Tomorrow night’s predicted light rain might help a lot.

SSS will remain closed for a bit. I still want to try to release at least one of the two new scents before year’s end. I lost 12 days of work to the fire crisis, so that will delay the reopening. That is minor compared to potential loss of life or home though.

I’m just so very thankful to be back tonight and find everything in good shape. Thanks again so much for keeping us in your thoughts. ❤

Sonoma Fire Update: Evacuation

Photo of a large fire just 1 mile from our house (Shiloh/Faught). Photo posted by the Windsor Police Dept. Several other fires were also quite close to us.

SSS is closed for now. I am at my brother’s house south of SF. We had to evacuate the Sonoma fires, but we are safe. We are worried about our houses because the fire is very close and winds can spread it quickly. Firefighters are there though, doing great work. Hoping for the best and will update when I can. Thanks so much for your concern; it means a lot to me. ❤

Fall Update

I’m nearly done with the new floral scent and am scaling up the formula. I’ll post more about it here on the blog, along with a link to the webpage for the scent. Some of the main notes are mimosa, orange blossom, jasmine, lilac, and beeswax/honey.

I’m also hoping to finish the chocolate gourmand in time for the holidays, but we’ll see.  I’ve taken the shopping cart down in order to have more time to work on scaling up these two formulas.

It sure feels like fall! We have a little family of deer living nearby; they graze on acorns under our oaks (we have a huge acorn crop this fall), and they reach what they can of my roses over the garden fence. The family includes a buck, a doe, and a fawn. Very cute.  We also have a skunk living nearby; we’ve not seen him, but we can sure smell him!

Here is the doe, deciding if she should ignore me and keep eating, or flee. Photo quality is poor because it is a screen shot from a little movie clip that I took with my phone.

The doe, going back to munching on my rose from outside the garden fence (I was deemed to be non-threatening). 🙂

Goldenrod in the late afternoon light. I love the warm afternoon light in fall.

Light through the oak trees.

2017 TasteTV Artisan Fragrance Awards

I’m happy to learn that Pacific Forest received the Top Judges Selection Award and placed top in four of the five  judging categories in this year’s TasteTV Artisan Fragrance Awards.  Tabac Aurea and Nostalgie also placed well.  Each brand can enter three perfumes per year in the contest; Pacific Forest is over 99% natural and is the second most recent SSS release.  Congrats to all the winners, and many thanks to TasteTV for spreading the love of artisan fragrance!