Suzy, To make a spritzer, the easiest thing to do is buy a small bottle of 'pure lavender essential oil'; (EO) from your health food store. Just make sure the label says that exactly. Some "fragrance oils" are actually carrier oils like canola or almond oil that has had a few drops of pure essential oil of lavender added to it - you can do that yourself with pure EO and much more. Plus carrier oils are oily to the touch, pure EOs are not oily to the touch, they absorb quickly into the skin. That's another way to tell but best bet is to look for proper label wording and read the ingredient list -- there should be only one ingredient: pure essential oil of lavender. With pure EO you can just put 10 drops in a 4oz spritzer with some distilled water, shake well and spritz your skin. Lavender is great for the face, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. I use this to set my pure minteral make up powders. Plus you'll have a whole bottle left for other things like: *Swirl 20 drops on top of your bath water before you step into the tub -- for relaxing and stress relief, lavender can help you sleep and the warm water helps it get further into your skin. *A few drops on a piece of cotton, tuck that into an old cotton sock and put that into your pillowcase for scent to sleep by, again helps w/relaxation *A few drops of the pure oil on a burn, immediately - yes it works to take the sting out and prevent blistering. This is an essential natural first aid in the kitchen and will NOT hurt the burn -- this oil absorbs almost immediately into your skin penentrating at the cellular level to heal. It is not like butter which Drs. wisely advise against as it seals in heat. Google Rene Gatefosse for the full story on lavender oil and burns... *A few drops on cotton balls stashed in pots and other out of the way spots in rooms you'd like to scent naturally *Mix about 4-6 drops per oz of unscented natural body lotion to make your own lavender lotion. I like Trader Joe's brand - just make sure there is no mineral oil or petrolatum/petroleum products in the lotion. *Mix about 4-6 drops per oz of pure canola oil to use as a massage oil. Great for sore feet. Add some pure EO of peppermint to make it really refreshing. *Mix a few drops into a mister filled with rose water or orange blossom water which you can purchase from a middle eastern grocery for a two note fragrance spritz instead of using distilled water. Obviously if you buy another EO that you like the fragrance of, you can mix some of that in too for a light spritzer of 3 notes. Mandarin and graprefruit are wonderful light oils for summer. Be careful, I ended up with over 40 EOs because I got hooked on mixing fragrance! Kept cool and in dark bottles/away from sun, they last forever though... On your questaions: Yes you can pull fragrance from plant materials using alcohol but don't use rubbing alcohol - it smells bad, just take a whiff and you'll see what I mean, very harsh. Vodka has no scent - it's the closet alcoholic's favorite for this reason - that's why it's used but the highest proof will be most effective. Yes you have need to strain out the plant materials and after you are finished with your extraction process you can add some distilled water (non-distilled might let bacteria grow). You will also need to add copious amounts of plant materials to the soaking jar (I'd use a mason with lid), crushing the flowers down into a small amount of liquid over a period of weeks to get some fragrance into the vodka. Placing on a warm windowsill will probably help speed the process. Rose is probably a better choice as you can gather a lot of petals if you grow a few bushes in your yard. With lavender, the scent comes from the flowers and you'll need a lot of them. I think it takes about 2000 lbs of lavender blossoms to steam distill out just a pound of pure essential oil. Obviously leaching the oils out in alcohol is not quite the same and will result in a much weaker fragrance than steam distillation done professionally. Go get some lavender essential oil and maybe a few others and begin playing!

This is too little, too late. Retail stores are closing left and right because of the North Carolina lowball pricing, and other 'internet' sellers, plus the invasion of cheap imports. What's happening to the furniture industry is the same thing that happened to the wallpaper business in the 90's. The discounters ran the retailers out of business, and then soon the consumer had no where to shop the papers (and then call the 800 line discounter). The entire domestic wallpaper market collapsed. North Carolina discounters can sell for less mainly because commercial property is cheap in North Carolina, and they freight from the plants with their own trucks. Their overhead is lower, so they can sell lower - counting on the consumer to use their local neighborhood stores to make their selections. Some will say that's fair competition, and they would be right. However, your local guy can't stay in business if he's used as showroom just so folks to shop in North Carolina Remember that your local guy pays a lot of taxes in your community, supports your schools, and spends HIS money in your area. When you lose a retailer, it affects your community more that you might think. Just yesterday I spent 2 hours with a customer on a bedding set. She decides what she wants, then goes home and gets on the internet. Calls me up later and tells me I have a very good price but there's a place in North Carolina that will do it for the same price but she doesn't have to pay sales tax from them. So either I eat another 5%, or she buys from them. Well, I can't cheat on sales tax, so I have to agree to do that to keep the sale. One more margin in the toilet. I personally am fed up with the furniture business. Seems the pressure on price from the customer is greater now than it has ever been, yet my county and state taxes increase every year, as does my rent and insurance. Trying to raise a family and put two kids through school is very, very hard on what one can make in this business. Last year I cut my prices to the bone to try to meet discounter's and wound up with so little profit that I can make a higher wage driving a UPS truck. I'm all for Minimum Selling Prices. That at least allows us in the business to maintain an average standard of living in a very tight, very competitive market.

Liljunkr is right. Knock-offs are illegal but you did ask about cheaper versions of the same style shirts. Terilyn gave some goo places to shop -especially Kohls seems to carry lot of that style type. Tommy Bahama does not make unique looking items and you are sure to find something that passes for the Tommy Bahama 'look'. The link below show the current TB styles. Except for the ones with the actual Tommy Bahama logo you can easily find similar styles in any department store. Remember the quality of other brands may not be up to par. Don't forget places like TJ Max and Marshals where you just might find an actual TB shirt at steep discount. Here is a link that might be useful: Tommy Bahama Shirts

Littlebug, I have the tops in the style of this dress in several colors. I order them in the medium weight linen. Sooo, comfortable! I’m ordering this dress next, I just need to check if it’s the med weight linen. The v is not deep. It looks it in the picture but it’s not in real life. The cut skims across any lumps. Easy to dress up a bit or down. Easy to iron and not see-thru. They get nice and soft after a few washings. Also nice and breathable in high temps. Custom to your measurements. https://www.etsy.com/listing/177691137/custom-linen-origami-flare-seam-dress?ga_search_query=Dress&ref=shop_items_search_40&frs=1