Christmas Koi Fish Lavender Ice Cream

[candle holder]

Today I was invited to visit a friend’s glass studio in Placerville (Pamela Angelo 530-621-3688); she makes gorgeous functional art pieces such as bird baths, bowls and Candle Holders!! I purchased a very cool dual compartment serving dish with a cool retro design and she gave me a very special candle holder that I cannot wait to put to use! It actually accommodates my candle jars very well but it has inspired me to break out my pillar molds and play with some of the palm wax I’ve been sitting on for the past few years.

[serving dish]

In addition to visiting Pam’s glass studio she also lured me in with the promise of getting to harvest some of the lavender growing in her park-like garden. After the harvest, we sat down next to the most charming Koi pond filled with aquatic plants, turtles and several big fat koi fish that busily cleaned rocks of algae. It was so tranquil to sit and watch this little world go about its day while we sipped on lemonade and chatted about the ins-and-outs of selling handmade crafts.

On my way home I drove more leisurely, rolled all the windows down and listened to “La Wally”, “Nessun Dorma”, and “O Mio Babbino Caro”; the perfect soundtrack for this epic countryside!

[piping fragrance into a dram]

Back at the candle lab, I’ve been busy playing with some new fragrances for this season’s holiday collection. Last year I got a sample that smells of Christmas trees, citrus and cloves; it’s both earthy and fresh at the same time and if you’re a fan of my “No. 30 Christmas Tree” you’re going to LOVE this! I am also testing a Provence Lavender fragrance and a Lavender-Verbena fragrances that I hope will test well and can be added to the lineup. This naturally means I’ll need to make room by eliminating some slow selling fragrances, up on the chopping block are : No. 18 Apple Pie, No. 21 Anjou Pear, No. 41 Night Blooming Jasmine and No. 45 Black Berry-Sage.

Now I’m off to enjoy some of the homemade Honey-Lavender Ice Cream I made last night :-)~

[Homemade Honey-Lavender Ice Cream]

Cobbler, tomato thieves, freaky beetles & Citrus 4 ways

So sorry for the little blog sabbatical, I'm sure all 8 of you were just lost without my pointless ramblings!

Last night we went to Josh's parents for dinner, so I decided to bake a peach cobbler (recipe by Paula Dean) and I made homemade ice cream (recipe by David Lebovits). I’m not sure why I always decide to try a new untested recipe for social events !?!? The cobbler was way too sweet and the "crust" was more of a cake. The ice cream was the most decadent ice cream I've ever had! It was sooo rich and creamy and intensely sweet, I think next time I'll dilute the mixture by adding a 3 cups of milk after the custard is added. So in short, the cobbler recipe will be tossed, and the ice cream recipe will receive a few modifications and then be added to my binder of yum yum.

We came home and enjoyed a nice sunset on the deck with the buddies pretending to casually walk by the tomato plants but really trying to score some of the fruit! Sneaky dogs! And then this freaky beetle few into my face and back inside we went.

If you’ve ever been into my candle booth for an event, you may have noticed I really like the flora’s! I need to balance things out with some new citrus and fruit fragrances and lately I’ve been agonizing over these for different citrus samples on my desk. 1) Seems to have a lemony top note which makes me thing of two things, a clean house and the cleaner used to achieve said cleanliness. 2) Smells of blood orange and a hint of chocolate. 3) Has a pungent combination of lime, lemon and grapefruit and 4) smells of orange juice and mandarins. I’ve got my handy test strips so I’ll dip them into the oils and see what the dry out smells like tomorrow.