Coleen's Corner

2/15/11

Chandlers In the Family

Chandler:

A cute little kid

With any luck at all we will soon have TWO Chandlers in the family : )

I've been busy with research and development - desperately trying to make my candles behave so they will fill your homes with the most exquisite aromas possible:

Let me tell you, it's no easy task!

Now who would think Monkey Farts would smell a lot better than Grandma's Buns? It's true - Monkey Farts are a hit around here but Grandma's Buns just didn't make the cut. And, believe it or not, I DID NOT come up with the name for "Monkey Farts" - that's exactly how the fragrance supplier has it listed!

The main reason this is taking so long is because I have made the decision to make my candles with soy wax - ALL NATURAL SOY WAX - not a "soy blend" - and all natural soy wax candles are pretty darn tricky to perfect.

When adding color to soy wax, it does funky things when you burn the candles - like "jump lines" - that's what the experts call it. It creates a stripe of colorless wax and makes them look ugly. Yuck.

Without adding color to the wax, they are a bit blah looking, but as you can see, soy burns clean - no soot; melts evenly across the top - no wasted wax clinging to the sides of the jar; soy burns longer than paraffin; and soy wax is water soluble - meaning you can clean up accidental spills with water!

If all of that isn't enough reason to go soy,

I live in IOWA for crying out loud.

What kind of Baffoon would settle for paraffin wax when they live in the heart of soy country?

So, I'm learning to tweak.

A little creative labeling hides the hideousness of the jump lines in colored candles.

Offering personalized labels is a great distraction too : )

Using re-usable containers allows for using no dye and is another advantage soy wax has over paraffin. Since soy wax is water soluble, all it takes is a little soap and water to clean out the container (like this cute little sherbet dish I got at my favorite store in the whole world - Streck Sales [Hi Jolene!]).

So, I've got the detailing down to a manageable level, now it's a matter of perfecting the top secret recipes.

Different fragrance oils call for different fragrance loads and wick sizes.

So, I'll be monkeying around for awhile : )

2/2/11

Twenty-five Below

Baby, it's cold outside! They're registering our wind chill at twenty-five degrees below zero today - so I'm really glad for those big snow drifts blocking our road.. it means I can't go out! I guess I'll stay in the house where it's nice and warm and keep plugging away at making candles : )

I'm a bit candle crazy these days.... so many things to consider - and recipes to get "just right". But I haven't forgotten about the sweet day approaching soon and I'm getting ready for it!

Everybody needs a pretty place to park their Valentines, don't they?

I went to my scrap heap and found some material I thought would work well and started cutting out hearts. I had no idea what they would become, so I just winged it.

Of course I had to "antique" the striped ticking material (that's become another obession!) because I just love the grubby, old look. I simply layered the hearts and used crochet thread (I think that's what it's called) to sew them together creating two pockets.

I also made myself a little Valentine - just in case I don't get any.

Now it's back to making candles - a nice occupation for a horribly cold day!

1/16/11

How Does Your Husband Smell?

I finally got some help with the housework around here and I'm using the extra time to perfect my candle making skills. Actually, making the candles themselves has been easy - and I haven't been disappointed with the outcome of any of them. I had no idea there was such a huge difference between a hand poured candle and the ones you buy at a store. The hard part has been perfecting the look. I liked the first label I made but I wasn't in love with it.

Just a few minor tweaks that took about a day-and-a-half to achieve and I had a label I feel is worthy enough for the candles.

Thank goodness I finally have some help around here with the housework. Now if only I could teach her to cook...

In order to perfect the labels, I had to bring out the big guns. Meet my ever faithful HP Color LaserJet 3600n printer.

He's huge, for sure, but definitely worth his weight in gold. Number one: the text printing is sharp and clean. Number two: there is no worry about ink running or smearing - eliminating the need to spray the labels with a top coat is just about as good as having a cat wash the dinner dishes : ) If you ever have a printing project you want to protect, laser is the way to go. The same effect can be had with a color laser copier - just make sure it's laser rather than ink.

Another reason I changed up the label was for ease in mass production. I liked the raffia and lace and different pictures on the original labels, but realized how time consuming it would be to have to add all the foo-foos.

Plus, all those extras would add to the selling price.

Then something too weird for description happened as I was mixing a candle with a scent labeled "Moon Lake Musk".

IT SMELLED JUST LIKE GLEN!

Well, fresh out of the shower and all spruced up Glen, that is. Obviously, I think is it a marvelous scent and so do the boys - who usually aren't very impressed with any of my creative experiments. (Golly, I wish there was a scratch and sniff feature on blogs.)

Yep, the scent got a new name. (Quit rolling your eyeballs. I know you'd do the same thing if it happened to you!)

Now, you know this is going to have to be our little secret - this candle smelling like my husband thing. I don't think it is a very marketable proposition to try to sell a candle that smells like one's husband. Besides that, I don't want people knocking on my door just so they can smell him, you know, try before you buy?

Yesterday's yield was small, but only because I ordered the wrong wicks. In candle making size DOES matter! Instead of filling vegetable cans, I used empty jars that had a larger opening than the vegetable cans I wanted to use.

Nonetheless, I am getting excited about this candle making ordeal. I've already had a couple of offers from store owners to sell them! Guess I best get busy, huh?

1/9/11

Candle Making for Sinus Relief

I am literally one of those people who are allergic to work. Serious, cross-my-heart, stick a camel in my eye - allergic to work. There is something in the air at work that totally disagrees with me and sometimes I just can't take it anymore and leave!

I feel like I'm playing hooky when I leave because my eyes quit watering and my sinus cavities open up almost immediately as soon as I leave the office. I've tried various remedies - sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I've come to the conclusion that I either have to suffer or leave. I really don't want to leave permanently, I like the work and I'd miss Heather too much!

Anyway, Thursday when I left work, I spent my down time making candles. This fall I dinked around with some regular old grocery store paraffin wax and made some grubby hand-dipped tapers.

I really like them, but they have been dubbed "fecal garland" by a juvenile who resides here and has absolutely no taste for fine art. (Sheesh!) These were really easy to make, but very time consuming. Dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, roll in cinnamon and nutmeg, dip and repeat three or four times. Actually, I think they were dipped at least 50 times, if not more before adding the grubby effect with the spices.

I wouldn't mind taking the time to make more, but I'm not so sure our little neck of the woods is home to very many hand dipped candle lovers, so I decided to get serious and went to the experts at Candle Science for help with making real candles. I'll skip my tutorial on candle making because their site has everything you will ever need to know about making candles. I'll tell you about my containers.

Since I like the primitive look, I started with a cinnamon candle and went to the recycling bin for the container.

A nice 14.75 oz. vegetable can.

This was most definitely going to be a cinnamon candle, inside and out. I painted a thin layer of Mod Podge on the can and then sprinkled it with a cinnamon/nutmeg mixture to give it that old fashioned look I am so into these days.

While that was drying I started to work on the label.

It is a most good idea to look at the label you rip off the can you're going to use to get the dimensions you'll need for your label. I thought all I needed to know was the height and circumference. Nope. After spending an hour or two on the perfect label, I put it on the can and had to turn the can just so I could read the front of the label! Back to the drawing board to reduce the front to about 4 inches.

For good measure I created two designs to see what I liked best. The overwhelming winner was decided by everyone who walked through the kitchen. (Wait! Maybe I shouldn't trust the opinions of those who gave my hand dipped candles a bad name?)

I think they were right. I was pleased with the way it looks.

I made a couple other fragrances as well:

I generally take the claims of odor eliminating products with a grain of salt. However, the Odor Eraser fragrance is absolutely marvelous and it effectively removed the bacon odor from the kitchen last night - I was truly amazed!

Take a look at the difference between the Love Spell candle and the unidentified candle with the buttons. The Love Spell candle poured nice and smooth with a level top. The other one has a serious well around the wick. That's the difference between Candle Science paraffin wax and your ordinary grocery store variety. The difference is absolutely amazing.

The experiments - using the Candle Science wax - turned out very, very well. I was a bit skeptical as to my ability to create a nice marketable candle... especially when I calculated the selling price to be a little over $1.00 per ounce. I looked at my candles and wondered if anyone would pay $15.00 for one of them. It seemed quite expensive for a home canned candle. Then I lit them... oh my gosh! Thanks to Candle Science, Yankee Candle Company has nothing over these aromas! These hand canned creations are definitely the crows toes!

Now, as to the power of the candles as labelled, I guess only time will tell. If I do get up the nerve to sell candles, I will put a disclaimer on the Love Spell candles because I just can't guarantee your honey will love you any more than he already does : )

I still have some fine tuning and practical packaging matters to iron out, but I think this is something to get excited about. My only regret was that I didn't purchase more wicks. I guess I lacked the confidence to believe they would turn out. I'm heading over to Candle Science right now to order some more supplies!

Here's hoping you have a great week! I'll be searching the house for cool looking things to fill with candle wax : )

12/31/10

A Reasonable New Year's Resolution

I do not like New Year Resolutions because I consistently fail at keeping them. The older I get, the more I realize how ridiculous it is to make bold statements about how I am going to start doing this or quit doing that because by the first of February it's always back to the same old same old.

Plus, I am surrounded by people who just love to remind me of the errors of my ways.

Meet my sisters:

Cindy (above) and Rhonda (below)

(faces changed to protect the guilty)

I think these pictures duly capture the very essence of my slightly-short-of-sainthood siblings who presented me with a Christmas gift (in front of God and everyone) that is the basis for my New Year's Resolution:

NEVER TELL YOUR SISTERS ANYTHING YOU DON'T WANT REPEATED

It all started in September when the family was gathered around Dad in the hospital. We've all been there, right? Not knowing exactly what's wrong - waiting for test results - praying everything will be okay. You know how easy it is be become a bit distracted when there's so much to think about.

In the process of waiting and wondering, I tried to lighten things up a bit with "true confessions" after a quick trip to the bathroom.

"Don't ever try to use one of these to dry your hands because they aren't very absorbent," said I.

"You don't know the difference between toilet seat covers and paper towels?????" they howled!

"Of course I know the difference between toilet seat covers and paper towels, I'm just telling you, don't 'accidently' grab one of them instead of a paper towel because they aren't very absorbent."

They found that little comment hilarious too. I thought they were going to get us kicked out of the hospital the way they were laughing and carrying on.

In my defense, I truthfully told them the bathroom was very small, the seat covers were in close proximity to the sink, and the paper towels were on a side wall. I just logically grabbed the nearest paper product to dry my hands.

They just wouldn't let it go.

Seriously, on the way home from the hospital I sneezed in the car and Rhonda (a little too quickly) said, "Oh! Oh! Here's a tissue!"

She darn near went off the road trying to fish a toilet seat cover out from under her seat.

She was mainical!

Okay, so it was a good thing she grabbed a few because those two about peed their pants laughing about their forward thinking and ability to wait for an opportune moment to rub it in!

Fast forward to Christmas and the "surprise" that was hauled up from the basement.