Herb Harvest

This year's garden has unfortunately been pretty paltry, mainly because of our resident woodchuck who took it upon himself to eat all of our salad greens, squash, beans, and many other things. I'm honestly pretty ticked off at Mr. Woodchuck. I mean, earlier in the year he hung around our yard a lot and we were cool with each other. As soon as we planted our garden and started seeing things come up, we noticed his little bite marks all over everything. He must have been thinking we had planted all those goodies especially for him!

Anyway, returning from my tangent...the only plants that actually did reasonably well this year was our lavender, basil, and sage (I guess Mr. Woodchuck doesn't fancy those delicacies). While I'm disappointed that we didn't have a more abundant garden, I'm happy that at least those three seemed to make it, especially because those were the three I had planted for the specific purpose of incorporating into my candles.

The lavender won't flower too much this year, but I'm expecting them to look nice and full next year:

The sage and basil did exceptionally well and I'm really excited to pick and dry those:

(The sage is to the left and the basil is in the far right corner.)

I'll do another post after I've dried the sage and basil and let you know how it goes, since this will be the first time I'm incorporating dried herbs into my candles.

Did anyone else do a garden this year? Did you have better luck than I did? Also, if anyone has any natural (and humane) tips for keeping away animals, please share!

Anyone Else Love Bath & Beauty Products?

While I typically get excited about MANY things on Etsy, I seem to have a particular penchant for bath and beauty products. Specifically, I was looking for a great body scrub that would complement my Brazil Nut body butter from The Body Shop.

Luckily, I came across DressGreen's shop where I found this great cocoa bean body scrub:

I was so eager to get my package and try it out, and let me tell you, I was not disappointed! I love that it's made of natural and organic ingredients and, best of all, it made my skin silky smooth--I didn't even have to follow-up with any kind of moisturizer after my shower.

An added bonus was that the owner of DressGreen, Lauren, was super nice and attentive. She even included a free sample of her Lemon Sugar Soap, which was also fabulous:

I think my next treat will be her Chamomile and Calendula shampoo bar. I've never used a shampoo bar before and I'm really curious about this one. Plus, I love anything with chamomile!

If you love bath products as much as I do, or if you're just looking for natural, handmade alternatives to store-bought, you owe it to yourself to check out DressGreen first!

Dedication for a Tree

Yes, you read that correctly...one of my newer creations is actually in memory of a tree. There's this huge, gorgeous tree in our front yard that my boyfriend and I just love. When we first moved here the tree was full and in perfect condition. Unfortunately, a string of major snow storms this past winter caused the tree to lose some of its major branches and even a chunk of its trunk (hey, I rhymed!).

We were both so sad the day the tree was mutilated, it was like watching a beloved pet get injured or something.  I wanted to do something to remember the tree by, so I ventured into making hurricane candles and embedded some of its leaves so they would glow through the wax. I then took it a step further and made what I call a "twig candle-holder" out of some of the smaller branches that had fallen from the tree. The final result was exactly what I had wanted:

I even used some suede lace to hold the branches together, which was REALLY tricky to do:

Doesn't it look so warm and inviting with a tealight inside? I love how the leaves shine through, too:

Tomorrow this hurricane candle (and its twin) will be going to a new home. I'm actually pretty sad to see them go, but at the same time it makes me happy to know that a little part of our favorite tree will become a part of someone else's home.

Hopefully there will be many more hurricane candle projects in my future, but next time without the tragedy of an injured tree.

Born in the USA...

Like many people out there, I like to know what things are made of and where they were made before I buy them. Which is why I like working with Ecosoya® soy wax. They guarantee that their soy wax is 100% natural and that their soy beans are grown in the U.S.

Here's a nifty little clip on that topic, from Dan Cap at Nature's Gifts International (the company that makes Ecosoya®), in case anyone is interested: http://vimeo.com/13277252

New Look

I made some new adjustments to the design of my blog because I was feeling that the background image was a bit distracting and I really wanted to create something that reflects my company's look as well.

I've spent plenty of time adjusting and readjusting, and now I'm eager for everyone's opinions. Please let me know what you think, I love any and all constructive criticism  ;)

New Seasonal Scents

The weather up here has been kind of wacky lately. It will be summery and warm one day and then brisk and fall-like the next. The poor trees are getting confused and are already starting to drop their leaves!

While I am sad that summer is coming to an end, autumn is my favorite time of year so I'm super excited for the leaves to start changing. The cool weather has made me think I should start working on some new scents to reflect the coming autumn weather.

I just tried out one scent that I'm calling "Apple Orchard". It smells just like fresh apples, I love it! I also found a scent called "Pumpkin Souffle" but it smells more like pumpkin pie to me, so I'm calling it "Pumpkin Harvest Spice".

I'm so happy with both of the new scents and picking out the fragrances and the colors really put me in the mood for autumn. Here's to a hearty welcome to the chilled fall air, comfy sweaters, and an excuse to wear my boots again:

Which of These Does Not Belong?

I spent a good part of last night trying out different wicks for my tapers. After a few hours of repetitive dipping I finally ended up with two really nice pairs of tapers. So tonight, after they've had plenty of time to cool and solidify, I tested them out to see which wick would burn better.

Normally this process isn't very noteworthy, but you'll see what I mean when I say that the end result cracked me up.

Here are the candles burning after about 40 minutes...so far, so good:

And...here they are about another 30 minutes later:

Any guesses as to which one didn't pass the test? haha. Needless to say, I won't be using the wick that causes the wax to run away from the candlestick. Although it's good for a nice laugh, right?

Ah, the joys of experimentation  ;)