Objects of Quotidian Romance
From Hangyodon to half-assed DIYs to high-end scrunchies and more.
Hey hey! Here’s a short and sweet post for all about the things I’ve recently acquired, made. or plan to acquire or make soon, from high-end scrunchies to Hangyodon. XX!
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Dali, the mastermind behind the phenomenon Puppet Parfum, assisted me in acquiring a 15mL bottle of 100% Magic, a staticky, sparkling, peppery, citrusy composition I’ve loved since I first sniffed it many moons ago. If you’re a fan of Clue’s Warm Bulb (as you know I am), this fragrance is its more daring, more fruity (take that as you will), more effervescent sibling-in-law—to be clear, neither replaces or justifies eschewing the other one, but if you are enamored with one I highly suggest you test out the other (when you can, Puppet’s drops are deadly, which thrills me—Dali deserves every single success). Imagine sticking your plastic fork into a socket at one of those birthday parties we’d have at a children’s locale where they did your hair in scalp-numbing twists and dandruff-y glitter and pretending to be electrocuted to pull focus from the mediocre magician displaying their wan array of doves. That’s 100% Magic, baby. Best fragrance purchase in months, easily.
Good Squish had a clearance sale, and let me make it quite clear to you: DO NOT BUY THEIR SCRUNCHIES FULL-PRICE. The piece, rendered in Japanese nylon, is absolutely gorgeous and features a neon green bungee toggle (not pictured) that allows for tightening and loosening since you obviously can’t loop this scrunchie around your hair more than once. I think it’s quite a fetching hair accessory, much bigger than I imagined but subdued enough in its rugged materials and dusty pink shade that I can wear it whenever I damn well please. HOWEVER, these are still not worth $70 with shipping. $30 is still extremely steep but if you think of it like a piece of jewelry or a hat, both of which it kind of is, it becomes more understandable.
When I saw this lip stuff splayed across the Great Lisa Hanawalt’s page replete with recommendations from her associates, I fell in love with its promises of the perfectly blurry, mirror-free application of a romantic tint to my lips and cheeks. Once I get a job, this will be the first and only beauty product I pursue.
Inspired by this image, I decided to create a little photo booth pic tableau with my favorite snap of myself and my guy. It was SHOCKINGLY hard to find an appropriate lace doily, but Memory Den has them aplenty if you’re in PDX (literally nowhere else I searched had them!). My biggest snafu was that the frame itself didn’t have enough room to accommodate a thick layer of fabric in between the backing and the glass, so I ended up having to go glassless and glue the lace on from the front, cutting and tucking it under the frame until it looked decent, hence the reason the image is slightly off-center, but I think that just adds to its charm. This has enthused me into the desire to complete 10000 more simple DIYs for my new place, most notably:
Foosball goalie hangers,
wire clothes hanger mail/literature holders,
and embossed tin matchbook covers. More scheming here.
I got this stuff a few weeks back and it’s the only hair product in my budget I’ve ever found genuinely “salon quality.” My scalp has been begging for a gentle but thorough cleanser for a while now and this has done me so good the three weeks I’ve used it (once a week only)—my hair is less tangled, less broken-looking, and shinier!
I wrote about my speculative Gap haul the other week and I’ve finally come into contact with a few items—this bralette is solid and feels hardy enough to stand up to many a wash. My breasts are almost too big for it, so anyone C cup or above, tread carefully.
This tank is fantastic—the perfect slinky to solid ratio, cut in mostly cotton. However, it runs a bit long in the torso in a way I didn’t quite expect, given that the models on the website all have it scrunched up the wazoo—nice for a full-coverage situation but less adhering to my summer 2026 agenda of constant slutdom.
These 100% cotton T-shirts are golden. Opaque enough to not wear a bra with no fear but sheer enough to show a colorful bra in service of the aforementioned slutdom and cut at the exact right point on the hips, the only thing I’d warn about these tees is that they run small, especially in the shoulder area. This is me in a Small, and it’s almost too small for my liking.
Same size—I love the hemline crop but the sleeves would be a little silly-looking if they were even a few millimeters shorter, IMHO.
I wanted to experiment and got this T-shirt a size up, in medium—you can see the sleeves look much roomier and more natural around my arms with nary a compromise to the perfectly-cropped hemline. These shirts are so comfortable and feel hardy enough to stand up to a summer of washes without undermining their flexibility and airiness—I’d say these give the Uniqlo tees a run for their money.
I heard that Areaware was closing, so when I had the chance, I picked up one of its night lights made in collaboration with good ol’ Dusen Dusen at a local in-person shop. Even though this color combo doesn’t make for the best lighting (I think the green light looks the coolest when lit up), it matched my dreamhouse color scheme.
This thing has saved me from so many disastrous trips and falls in the past week, I am forever in its debt. Sharp photosensor, too.
For my birthday at the beginning of the month, I ordered myself this guy. Hangyodon. He only just arrived, and I’d gotten him unstuffed because a month ago I naively believed that my life would allow for a prompt trip to Build-A-Bear to get him filled according to my firmness specifications. It is not so, but I simply can’t wait until he is fully realized and decked out, first in his cutie pajamas (pictured) and then in the pair of overalls I can’t stop obsessively imagining him in. Hangyodon is my favorite Sanrio character, and though it took me a second to get over how they anthropomorphized him more than I bargained for in this Build-A-Bear, I am now completely devoted to this doll, its dazzlingly soft pelt, and its octopus friend Sayuri.
I wrote about these the other week, and both my sister and I ended up loving them—these are the two scents I got and they’re both exquisite. Circe is an oily, salty, fermented bready delight and Deja Vu is a mellow but romantically saccharine middle school makeup concoction. Both I warm using my candle warmer instead of burning and I think they’ll last for, at minimum, a year each (and I got the small ones).
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Thanks for perusing these pieces with me! See you sooner than later.
<3 ESK
I ordered the lippy!! I shall report back on my findings!
One of these days I will finally crumble and get a candle warmer. I have curious cats so I haven't had candles in so long and I missss themmmmm