Nutmeg and Clove

I like my new apartment, but it has some serious drawbacks. You get what you pay for, and considering that I’m in a low-rent efficiency apartment right off the Interstate, I don’t expect to be living like Hayden Christensen in Jumper.

Gradually, I am turning my living space into something that resembles comfortability. I didn’t used to care about the materialistic side of one’s place to hang one’s hat, but I think after everything I’ve seen that I just may be entitled—(Gasp! Did he just use the E word?! Yes, entitled)—to a few modest amenities. Starkly minimalist practicality was fine for several years, but now I just want a quiet, relaxing atmosphere of my own design.

To me, that includes three things: lighting, scent, and sound.

The lighting. A few cozy accent lamps are great. Mood lighting to relax by. If I’m going to be reading, then I will need more light. But for the sake of my private sanctuary, yes I am at a place in my life where I want a little comfort. Fine, so that makes me weak and materialistic. A lot of other things in my lifestyle are pretty austere by most people’s standards, so I’m not going to feel too guilty about having a few frivolities, especially when the brand name is “Mainstays.” If you know what that means, then you get my drift.

So yeah. The lighting is very cozy and inviting.

The scent. This is the flip side of the lighting. I’m a big fan (borderline addict) of scented candles. Not just any scented candles, though… not lavender, sweet pea, and fresh cotton, but the coffee shop scents. Ironically, I’d rather smell a pastry than eat it. The scented candles I stock up on are things like hazelnut cream, crème brulee, butternut cream, warm vanilla, banana nut bread, blueberry muffin, cinnamon roll, pumpkin spice, mulled apple cider, s’mores, and the like. The smells accompany a cup of coffee quite well, thank you. Why not have at least one candle going at all times while I’m there? I mean, I’m hardly ever even at my own apartment, so why not increase the level of creature comforts?

My friend Amanda recently sent me a soy candle of nutmeg and clove, which I didn’t already have (and hadn’t seen that exact one before, so I was very pleased to get that surprise package). It makes me want to travel through space and time to sit down at a coffee shop in Kansas City and watch that incredibly talented Celtic band play.

Thus, the perfect segue to the third point.

The sound. I also just bought a third CD of my favorite Celtic band, Lunasa. I already had The Merry Sisters of Fate and Redwood, and I finally bought their earlier album Otherworld. You can get them all really cheap on Amazon (used).

A not-so-distant fourth aspect would be the actual furniture and decorations. I don’t actually have much furniture, but I’m trying to keep it restrained to a modern-but-rustic color/decoration scheme. Do I need a wall clock? Not really. But I have one. And it’s handsome. It works well with the rest of the place, and the overall effect of my apartment is one of comfort. I don’t have any tables, or even a bed, but I did just get a couch from a buddy who was getting rid of it. It’s scratched all to hell, and it’s kind of an eyesore, but it’s something. I’ll have to get a couch cover to hide its ugliness.

Also, I have already planned ahead for at least six paintings by my girlfriend, all oil on canvas. I picked out items for a couple of still life paintings I am going to commission her, picked photographs for a creative interpretation of a landscape (she hates working from photographs for many reasons, so this way she has at least gets some interest in it), selected two abstracts that are pretty much done already, and requested a few others. I have three tiny paintings already.

So, in a month or so, I’ll probably have a jolly good place to hang my hat. Maybe I’ve gone soft, materialistic, indulgent. Why is it such an evil to want to want to be in your own apartment? I don’t know. I’m not like Edward Norton at the beginning of Fight Club, catalog shopping for the perfect accessories that define me as a person. I am just trying to make the most of the fact that I am finally, for the first time since September 2007, free to be the architect of my own atmosphere.

You’re probably either amused or bemused as to how I can possibly sound so standoffish about something as innocuous as scented candles. Well, I am. I always thought self-denial and deprivation was the noble route, the way of discipline, but who really cares if I buy a couple of ten-dollar lamps and a wall clock? I guess I might deserve the criticism after all.

As the good Captain will tell you, I am a sucker for atmosphere.

My apartment is a work in progress. You should come over.

Hope you like the smell of nutmeg and clove.