The Secret Life of a Candlemaker...

So dirty; so good...

2012-02-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago I received a costly chunk of Tuberose wax, this wax is a byproduct that occurs during the process of extracting theessential oil from the waxy flower. The wax has a beautiful goldenrod coloringthat looks as if were a giant piece of bee pollen and is intenselyfragrant. This bold earthy aroma reminds me of damp earth, smoky wood, stargazer, jasmine andvetiver; a combination that might only be fully appreciated by truedown and dirty aromaphiles. By blending this dense wax with other natural vegetable waxes Iplan to us it for a special edition Tuberose candle that will be available inthe Whitehall Essentials line. Stay tuned for more!

It is said that King Solomon...

2012-01-31T16:22:00.000-08:00

declared opoponax to be the noblest of fragrant resins. About three weeks ago I ordered Opoponax essential oil froma terrific supplier located in the Pacific Northwest. Opoponax, also known asSweet Myrrh is a gum-resin that comes from a small plant that grows in various countries’that surround the Mediterranean & Black Seas as well as the Indian Oceanand has been used for its fragrant and healing qualities for thousands ofyears. Early on it was mostly used as incense; however it has become a stapleused in fine perfumes over the past hundred or so years and more recently it iseven found its way into high-end candles. The particular sample I received isfrom Kenya and has a very earthy-sweet slightly medicinal smell which I couldbest describe as a combination of an anasic lavender, isopropyl alcohol andbalsam. In its pure form, it may seem harsh and unpleasant to some so it isalmost always blended when used for personal and home fragrance. I have chosento mix it with a bourbon vanilla and bergamot and the ending aroma is a bothregal and exotic. Now that I’ve given the blend of oils a week to marinade in mytest tube, I will blend a larger portion and use it in a candle; which ifsuccessful will join the Whitehall Essentials Line.

Whitehall Essentials

2012-01-27T18:47:00.000-08:00

Well January is here again and that means its time for me to start thinking about what new things I’ll be doing for the year. While I had a great holiday season as far as sales went; things were slower than usual this last year, partly because I missed 3 important events and moved 2.5 hours east making my trips to the WC Market rather limited. So frustratingly this means a number of my “branding improvement projects” will continue to sit on the back burner, so no custom canvas totes or gift wrap stickers this year and the launch of my new line “Monarch” will continue to sit on the back burner.

But do not despair, I will be introducing (finally) No.21 Lemon-Verbena and No. 23 Lavender-Verbena to the Signature Collection which I’m quite sure will be very popular with you fine folks.

Also I launched, albeit rather late in the year; the new Whitehall Essentials line last December for all the diehard purists out there. Just like my Signature Collection, these candles will also be made with pure organic soy wax and cotton wicks but scented with fine Essential Oils only. I wanted to use a type of “brown Kraft” box that is made from 100% recycled paper and has lovely horizontal lines embossed onto the box. And wanting to keep with the more natural “organic” look, I sketched out a design onto paper, sent it to my graphic designer and asked her to make up an image that could be made into a rubber stamp. After a few revisions to the artwork, I sent the design to Berkeley Rubber Stamp Co for them to create the rubber stamp; and wouldn’t you know it turned out better than I could have expected! I just love raw look of the stamp impression on the box and it also helps to emphasize that it’s a product lovely made by hand, one at a time. At the moment I have French Lavender and Lemongrass-Sage available in the Essentials line with more exotic fragrances on the way.

Christmas Koi Fish Lavender Ice Cream

2011-08-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

[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

2011-08-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Hibernating samples Oktoberfest

2010-08-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

Hibernation

Oh my, September is just a few days away and it’s time for this candle maker to come out of hibernation. Actually I seemed to have forgotten to set my alarm clock and over slept a whole month. Usually the plan is to spend June & July goofing off, working on diy projects around the house and come August start planning for the upcoming fall season. One of these years this plan will actually work out for me… one of these years.

Fall Preview

Tomorrow I’ll have to sequester myself into the workshop and not come out until I’ve packed up the samples for the fall preview and ship them out to my (new) wholesale accounts. I have managed to schedule a few dates for my return to my beloved Walnut Creek Farmers Market. My first day back for my 2010-2011 season will be Sunday September 12^th and I also plan to be there Sunday the 19^th & 26^th.

Oktoberfest

At the moment I’m still waiting to hear back from the folks at the Benicia Chamber of Commerce for the status of my application for the Fine Arts & Crafts Fair on the 18^th. So far I am confirmed for Clayton’s Oktoberfest October 2^nd & 3^rd which will be my second year attending this event and as always, any event in downtown Clayton is a blast! I hope to one day be able to attend not as a vender but as an attendee, maybe even bring the buddies (my two dogs Johann & Ludwig) as Clayton is a very dog friendly city. The city even has a fountain in the park for visiting dogs to have a refreshing drink of water; how great is that?

Photo: Clayton Oktoberfest 2009 by Shawn M. Cox

1601 North Main Street

2010-04-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

Today I met a fellow business owner in the checkout aisle at the grocery store. We’ve never formally met before, but we knew of one another. And, as always, the conversation led to the closure of my store last April. It made me realize that I’ve never really addressed this subject publically, and quite frankly I’ve felt like a broken record repeating the same story on a P2P basis this past year. Clearly the economy played a part in this whole thing, but the true reason might surprise you.

Simply put, I didn’t like it. I’ve always had this little daydream of having a shop to sell my candles; getting up early every morning, ordering a hot coffee from the cafe next door, waving hello to my fellow shopkeepers as I made my way to my own little shop. It’s a very romantic notion, yes? Yet somewhere along the way, and I believe it was in the days before my grand opening, something had occurred to me: “Now what?” And what I was asking myself was, “what am I to do the next 5+ years - play shop keep in this 600s/f space?” I remember the sinking feeling of that realization, but quickly ignored it, and busied myself with the tasks at hand.

Most people, (well probably everyone) cringed when they saw the “Coming Soon!” signs posted on the windows, and placed their bets on how long until I folded. What most people saw as a bad business move, I saw as an opportunity. Here was a chance for a very small sole proprietorship, with practically no capital, and I got my foot in the door of the highly sought after retail space of downtown Walnut Creek. I figured if I found a space that was small enough and not outrageously priced, I might be able to pull it off.

At the 6-month point I began discussions with my partner on whether or not I should keep the shop at the end of my 1 year lease or give it up. Sales were good, and I was making enough to cover the costs of doing business. My partner’s argument for keeping the business was that people would think I failed, and I? Well frankly, I really didn’t care what anyone thought.

What I ended up learning was that it takes an insurmountable amount of energy to run a business, a retail store and manufacture your own product all by yourself. I was the store employee, the store manager, the janitor, the sales rep, marketing manager, accountant, research & development department, store merchandiser, product buyer, web designer etc. etc. etc.

And let’s not forget the core of the whole business, after I spent the whole day doing the above at the shop, I would come home to my “studio” and spend countless hours working late into the night, hand pouring and packaging each and every candle one at a time. In addition, Sundays were spent selling my candles at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market, and between the months of September and May, I was often running a booth at major art and wine festivals in the Bay Area. Also, I had no time to spend with my partner and my beloved “buddies (our two dogs)” and the house was falling apart.

Yes, had the economy been better, I could have hired someone to sit in the shop while I busied myself with candle making and procuring new business contacts. Having to do all of this on my own took the fun out of it, and the joy I used to take in the methodical candle making process became extra grueling work I had to do at home. I also found I had no time to spend refining my product or coming up with new combinations. All my resources, financially, emotionally and physically were soaked up by 1601 North Main Street.

So in the end, the decision was simple: keep the resource consuming shop and become stagnant and irrelevant, or close the shop and pour 100% of my focus back into what I love doing: and that is making fabulous candles and wrapping them in a recognizable and well respected brand that is Whitehall Candle Company.

Make it a double…

2010-03-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Last April I had been on the hunt for a new style of glass container for my soy candles. While the double old fashioned glasses I was using at the time were great, my supplier folded so I was more or less forced to find a new source. So after much snooping on the web looking for suppliers and manufacturers, I contacted a distributor for The Libby Company and discovered the wonderful world of square glass jars! There’s something great about the square. I’ve always loved the shape: it’s predictable, fits easily into most spaces, etc, etc, etc.

Before I knew it, I had a whole mess of jar samples arriving at my door, which meant many hours of testing ahead of me. Initially, the jar I chose was a massive 12oz. square jar, but its sheer size and weight made the shipping expense more than the cost of the jar alone! But it was “The 9oz. Rock” that won me over in the end, with its sophisticated styling and versatility.

One of the more interesting things I learned about this jar is that Libby had originally manufactured this jar as bar wear. Yes, this jar was actually meant to be a modern twist on the double old fashioned drinking glass! And what Libby soon learned was that Candle makers also fancied the glass jars as containers for their candles.

Nearly a year later I had all but forgotten about this fact until the March 2010 issue of Esquire Magazine made its way in my mailbox boasting a very iconic, debonair looking Leo DiCaprio holding a cigar and tossing his beverage at the photographer. What immediately caught my attention was not those famous bright blue eyes or his handsome, suave look; rather, it was the glass he was drinking out of… the Libby 9oz Rock.

And as many of you out there know I’m always encouraging you, my loyal customers, to find useful ways to reuse their jars rather than just toss them into the bin. So for all you fans of Whitehall Candle Company out there, “Burn up, then drink up” and before long, you’ll have collected a whole set of stylish drink wear!
Cheers!

Incredible Eggs

2010-02-17T13:47:00.001-08:00

Sunday was a slow day at market but the weather was so gorgeous out I didn’t seem to mind one bit. Maybe people were out of town for the long weekend, I can think of one person who snuck away from market and was surly frolicking in fields of daffodils with his camera. Lucky for me my dear friend came to hang out with me at market and help with the selling and eventually the packing up of my wears. I took advantage of her woman-power to go stroll through and pick up some fresh fruit, veg and the most incredible eggs I’ve ever seen! These massive free range organically fed chicken eggs (though they look more like something a turkey would dispense) earned a prized spot in my fancy-pants egg holder from Dean & Deluca.

Uninspired hearts, trotting canopies and magical photographers

2010-01-23T17:30:00.001-08:00

OKAY I tired… really I did but that holiday; you know the one with all the hearts and cherubs and sappy sonnets? Now don’t get me wrong I’m all for love and am happy to report that I am still very much in love with my partner; and I’m not afraid to express it. So I tried to embrace it so please forgive me for my lack of inspiration for my Valentines candles this year. As always I will make the heart palm wax candles which are very impressive in their size. The double heart in lavender blue scented with French Lavender and the hulking 4 pound pink heart in wild cherry fragrance.

Last Friday I met with Farmers Market Manager Keith Farley whom also happens to be a very talented photographer. We met at his studio to take some valentines photos and lucky for me he was able to turn my lack on inspiration into a collection of excellent shots! One of my favorite candles this time of year is No. 32 Enchantment. An exotic combination of Casablanca Lily and Amber that's so warm, it wraps around you like a soft cashmere blanket. It’s the perfect way to bewitch someone ;-)

Last Sunday (17^th) at market was a rather unfortunate day; yes it’s not always fluffy clouds and rainbows. The morning started out great, the rain had stopped and I got to see my good friend Gena. It was completely dead so I greatly enjoyed the distraction that my friend provided as I hadn’t had a single interested party stop by my booth. A little after 10:30; my friend had departed and the rain started to fall with freakish and random straight winds causing the market canopies to trot around on the street like nervous wild horses.

Unfortunately for me my wild horse (market canopy) got away from me and toppled over. In the process of blowing over it took out one of my large tables sending candles, 40lb tubs and broken glass flying everywhere. It was absolutely awful and the strength of that wind was so incredible had I been holding on with both hands it would have looked like a scene from Mary Poppins. The good news was that my canopy toppled over into a vacant spot and no one’s person or property was injured. Further evidence that one’s complacency can lead to catastrophe; a much needed wakeup call.

Posted via web from whitehallcandleco's posterous

Three slaps and 28 dresses

2010-01-11T01:24:00.001-08:00

Yeah, so the totes of Christmas decorations are still stacked up waiting to be shoved into the attic but today was the first time in a while I felt I could relax. After a so/so market I slid into an incredibly hot, yet satisfying bath and read for an hour. After I was properly pruned up, I relocated to the loft where I promptly passed out for an hour, okay two… ah yes, so three hours later I finally rolled off the couch where I dismally failed to do anything productive.

With the day being spent, I consigned myself to bed and put on the first thing that I found “on demand” which turned out to be 27 Dresses (If you’ve seen the movie, it’s really about 28 dresses). It’s a charming romantic comedy about a girl who is hopelessly in love with a guy, who naturally hasn’t a clue, with a few good slaps thrown in here and there. While I’m not a violent person nor do I condone it, there is just something so amusing about witnessing full frontal smacking! This made me laugh out loud and yes that’s laugh out loud not “LOL”, why reduce something as perfect as a laugh to a clinical acronym.

It felt good to be back at market: see all the loyal supporters out buying their fruit & veg, and to see my fellow vendors & friends. My set-up for Market today was the typical minimal January single table with just the most popular fragrances offered. Simple and easy to break down and pack up at the end of the day. I had a few new additions that made their debut, but it was difficult to gauge the response to them since it was such a slow day, but there’s always the promise of next week.

Posted via web from whitehallcandleco's posterous

Posterous

2010-01-07T23:43:00.001-08:00

I've just discovered something fun and new to play with. Look out WWW!

Posted via web from whitehallcandleco's posterous

Dogs that wear Christmas Sweaters

2009-12-09T20:04:00.000-08:00

Yes yes yes, I know its Wednesday and I’m a few day’s late in writing this. As you can imagine this is the time of year for candles so I’ve been feverishly pouring trying to keep up! The past two Sunday’s @Market have been exceptional as well as the steady stream of web orders. At the moment I’m enjoying a nice break sitting downstairs in front of the blazing fire place with the dogs and playing on Facebook.

If you haven’t had a chance to smell my Christmas Tree & Spiced Cranberry candles, you should really have a smell. The Christmas Tree candle was a new addition last year and has a nice blend of evergreen, cedar and notes of earth; it’s like walking through a forest! It took me several years to find a Christmas Tree scent that didn’t smell like pine sol. The Spiced Cranberry is new this year (it replaced a non-spiced version of cranberry) and that one is also incredibly festive with its tart notes of cranberries and warm spice.

I was pleasantly surprised when both of those fragrances sold out within half an hour last Sunday at Market! So I’ll be busy making more of those tonight. I’ll also be pouring the last of the Egg Nog candles for the season (about 25) so I’ll be sad when those are gone as they smell so yummy.

This coming weekend I’ll be at the Napa Expo for the “Santa’s helper craft faire” with my good friend Deb. I’m very excited because we’ll be right next to each other so we’ll be able to keep each other company during the lulls and help keep an eye on each other’s booths for restroom breaks and food runs. I’ve never participated at this event before so it will be interesting to see how it pans out, hopefully it will be full of customers shopping for our quality handmade gifts! This however means that I will not be at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market on Sunday, I’ll miss you!

Well it’s 8:00pm and I’ve been goofing off on this computer for way too long. There is just something so mesmerizing and comforting about sitting by a fire and being hypnotized by it’s dancing flames. And a warm smile crosses my face when Johann, in his Christmas sweater stands up on the hearth to enjoy the warmth of the fire.

Buddha's Hand

2009-11-30T15:57:00.000-08:00

Wow it's "Cyber Monday" already and it seems like just yesterday I was worried how I will keep the candles from melting during the warm summer months. I know I should be feverishly clicking Christmas gifts into my shopping cart, but even shopping from the comfort of my home seems daunting! I'm sure the nasty bug I woke up with this morning is affecting my concentration a bit, in fact it took me half an hour to write this paragraph.

I've been glued to the couch all day and have just finished a bowl of udon noodles and that cheered me up. Yesterday (Sunday) was a great day at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market! While the morning started out unusually quiet, by late morning things were really hopping. It was such a relief to have a good market as the last two months have been rather discouraging to say the least.

What made things even better was that I got to be next to my buddy Carla and I even had an extra 6' of space on each side of my booth. I took advantage of this and set up my booth in such a way that customers could shop the perimeter of my booth rather then coming inside the canopy making it less cramp. This type of set up works very well as customers can move freely and people are not bumping into each other. A lot of people are very shy too so they don't want to come into the booth as they feel they are invading your space.

Things seemed to taper off after noon so I took a quick jaunt through the market to pick up some provisions. Tamales, bread, honey and I got this rather interesting citrus fruit called Buddha's Hand. It's a variety of the lemon and is traditionally used by the Chinese & Japanese for perfuming rooms or clothing. Here in the west it's used primarily in cooking; the fruit has very little "meat" and the rind is not as bitter as other lemons.

I was planning to do some holiday baking this week with this very fragrant and flavorful fruit, it's also good to note it's great used in savory dishes too such as fish. I'll have to wait till this cold breaks as I do not want to be preparing holiday treats while sick. So for now I'll remain on the couch with my favorite blanket, a cup of hot tea, two snoring dogs and the laptop all while looking up interesting recipes worthy of my precious Buddha's Hand.

Light up the Egg Nog!

2009-11-23T14:11:00.000-08:00

Wow it’s Monday already and I’m pooped from a very long weekend. While I missed seeing my dear friends and customers Sunday at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market, I did get to reconnect with family and fellow vendors at the Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn. The event run’s three days, Friday, Saturday & Sunday so it makes for a long weekend!

My plan was to drive up Thursday afternoon, Get my booth set up and head over to the in-laws. Naturally there was a wrench thrown in my plans that kept me from keeping my schedule. Our clothes washer stopped working so I had to wait till the service guy got to our house and fixed the machine and I really needed to do my laundry! Then my super fantastic label printer decided to have a meltdown and it took me two hours to get that sorted out.

I didn’t get on the road until 9:oo PM Thursday and it’s about a two and a half hour drive, the nice thing though is there was no traffic to fight my way through. Always got to focus on the positive things right?

Friday, opening day at the Mandarin Festival was quiet as usual as most people are still at work so it’s mostly just the retired folks taking advantage of the smaller crowds and us vendors visiting with each other and shopping/trading for goods at each other’s booths! That’s fun; I scored a few more holiday gifts for family and friends!

This year I was in a different building then I normally am and it’s all the way at the other end of the fairgrounds. So I was worried that I my regular customers whom come to see me would think I wasn't there this year. I was very relieved Saturday when I had four customers find me in my new location and tell me how glad they were to see me! There are these two wonderful customers who come to see me every year and they just crack me up. They had their Absolute Mandarin drinks in hand and they loaded up on their favorite candles! They told me how they set aside some “candle money” each year to make their purchase at my booth!

The other fun thing about the new location of my booth is that I had some really cool neighbors; they were lots of fun and made the weakened fly by. It’s even nicer when you really connect with people and have made a friendship that will last! One of the challenging things about doing these events is county fire officials will not allow you to have open flames in your booth. And they are especially strict on this if you’re indoors. Typically the fire marshal makes their rounds before the show opens and reminds me not to light candles (yes, yes I know I won’t Mr./Miss fire marshal). I found out that due to budget cuts the fire marshal would not be there to impose these regulations. So I light up the Egg Nog candle and that really helped sales!

Christmas Lights, Holiday Cards and Mandarins, Oh My!

2009-11-16T14:12:00.001-08:00

I had such a great weekend! Friday I started to think about the coming holidays and started installing the Christmas lights on the house (I won’t turn them on until after Thanksgiving). Things always get crazy after Thanksgiving and I end up not even putting up the tree! I also got to hang out with my best friend Kathy at her place in Benicia, we even went to get mani-pedi’s so my fingers and toes are happy! I had also ordered holiday cards with the photo of the Egg Nog candle on the front, they turned out pretty good. I’m determined to be on top of it this year, last year Christmas just fell the wayside as I was overwhelmed with the shop, production, market and the special events I partake in.

Tuesday of last week was such an interesting day for me; I was interviewed by a local columnist for the Contra Costa Times. About three years ago my good friend Deb from Lively Linens & Lavender gave her one of my candles as a gift; well she became one of my biggest fans and has dropped my name in the paper a few times already. This however was the first time an article would touch on my personal life and what inspires me. The article ran in this past Sunday’s Times (11/15) am just so flattered, by the end of Sunday my face hurt from smiling so much!
Here’s the link: http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_13782762?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

Last week was also filled with some great wholesale orders that totaled 128 candles that kept me pretty busy. One of the orders was from a posh day Spa in Des Moines East Village. The down side about wholesale orders is that you do the same amount of work for half the pay, however having your product out there and gaining more exposure is well worth the effort. I really need to find a rep to land me new wholesale accounts as I’m not a very good salesman.

This weekend is going to be a lot of fun; it’s the Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn. It’s nice because my in-laws live near there and they have become like second parents to me. It’s always so comforting to be at their home and to visit over a nice glass of Pinot, and I sleep like a baby too. I have a lot of vender friends up there so it will be nice to see them as we only see each other once a year. The Mandarin Festival is a fantastic event and it was even covered in the fall 2007 issue of Sunset Magazine. There is a lot of crafts, nifty gadgets, and cooking demo’s with recipe ideas and more fresh mandarin’s then you can shake a stick at.

If you lack any plans this weekend you should check it out, it’s such a lovely drive up there. The event runs three days, Friday 12-5, Saturday 9-5 & Sunday 9-4. The event is located at the Gold Country Fair Grounds at 1273 High Street, Auburn CA 95604. Here’s the web site: http://www.mountainmandarinfestival.com/

Well I must get back to work, I have to finish my chores around the house, finish installing the Christmas lights and install a new toilet as our old one cracked when I tightened the screws down a little too tight… OOPS!

Thanks for reading,

Shawn M. Cox

Wiggle Butt

2009-11-09T20:42:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty kick-butt Monday! I got to meet up with my coffee buddy and we nattered away about our weekends over mocha's and sweet treats.

Although Market was pretty slow for me on Sunday, I made the best of it and traded with some of my fellow vender's for olive oil, bread, cookies & honey.

I spent much of the afternoon cleaning and organizing my workshop as it got very messy after the weekend and needed much attention. I'm happy with it for now, and soon I'll add some paint to the walls and some proper curtains to the windows to make it cozier.

My two four-legged-friends (Johann the Weimaraner & Ludwig the Yellow Lab) kept me company while I worked: Johann "Bubbles" spent most of his time sniffing around looking for escaped kibble near their food bin, and Ludwig "Wiggle Butt" eagerly offered me his baseball hoping for a game of catch.

Mondays are also fun because a lot of my supplies start arriving via FedEx, UPS & USPS. I've become so familiar with the sounds of their trucks that I know who's hear without even having to look out the window. Our UPS driver leaves Milk Bone's for the buddies, so they know the sound of her truck well and get especially excited!

Tomorrow's going to be a great day: I've already unpacked and inspected all of the deliveries so I can begin the holiday candles. I'll also be interviewed by a local reporter for the Contra Costa Times who wants to come by and see where the magic happens and write a little article about me! How exciting is that?

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered

2009-11-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

I’m sitting in my office going through emails, the hills are green and the view of Mt. Diablo is spectacular this morning. Bunnies are hopping in the field and a light breeze is delicately strumming the wind chimes. A piping hot cup of Earl Grey Tea warms my hands and Ella Fitzgerald crooning “Bewitched, bothered and bewildered” in the background!

Monday’s are often a challenge for me much like everyone else out there. I’m a little foggy and my back is angry from schlepping 75lb totes full of candles over the weekend at events. My inbox is usually full of emails from friends, customers and notifications of orders must be shipped out TODAY so it gets to so and so for their wedding/birthday/housewarming/graduation/other special event.

The only thing missing this Monday morning is my usual coffee date with my dear friend Carla from Delta Moon Soapworks. In my rather unique work situation she is what best could be described as a “Co-Worker”. We both share many of the same challenges in our business and craft but also are great sounding boards for ideas and sharing interesting fragrances with each other.

November is now here and it’s time to start pouring the Holiday fragrances. The always popular Egg Nog, Christmas Tree and Holiday Wreath will soon fill my house as boiling hot pitchers of molten wax wait to be poured into their glass jars.