Mothers Day Baskets

There are finally here! I couldn't make up my mind on which fragrances that I wanted to use so after a lot of thinking and asking opinions I finally came up with the combination of Lilac and Rose. I am still working on the other basket which will be scented in more of a Mothers Kitchen idea. The Rose candle that you see in the center of the basket is a large candle that consists of almost a full pound of wax by itself. It measures three and a half inches in diameter and stands about two and a half inches high. My cousin is a return time after time customer and she just loves these!
Upon asking her approximately how long they burn for, she replied that most of the candles burn for at least 12 to 15 hours! She of course lights them in the evening when she gets home from work and blows them out when she goes to bed. She's a night owl like me, so she is up until the wee hours of the morning.
I've included 12 scented Tea Lights, six in each fragrance. Those will burn for at least six hours. Apparently I don't know how to do anything small!
The Break-Away Tarts are of course, wonderfully scented and will last hours upon hours in your oil warmer. I love the clam shell container! It reminds me of the ice cube trays that sit in my freezer all day. Maybe I should start using them?
I do like to recycle, so I have included in my candle making the use of all my grandparents old jelly and canning jars. In this basket is one 4 ounce jelly jar that brought tears to my eyes. It brought a lot of old memories of spending time with my grandmother as she would be in her kitchen making jelly. Don't worry, there are literally hundreds more where that one came from!
Two fifteen hour votive candles, wrapped in a wonderful sachet material. I even recycled that! The material was left over from a craft show that I had done last year.
Two 4 ounce Travel Tin candles, one is a mystery scent to keep mom guessing! The other is scented with Lilac.
The dolly dress pot holders are something that I threw in at the last minute. Kind of an after thought. My sister in law helps me with crocheting these. She can turn the needle a lot faster than I can.
Of course I have also slipped in my business card and a brochure of my shop.

Well lets see, I have started working with my engraver again and some of the works have turned out pretty good. I started woodworking and engraving when I was a young girl working side by side with my grandfather in his garage. I love working with my hands and seeing the outcome of all the hard work and labor that I have put into each and every piece. 
I love trying different things and making usable pieces for my home and office.
I started my candle business in February of 2011 hoping to help pass the time so that I didn't suffer from cabin fever. My brother and sister-in-law have been making candles for a few years now and I always enjoyed the wonderful smells that they would produce in each candle. 
I hope you enjoy all the many wonderful nick knacks and candles that I offer.

Well I finally received the molds I had been waiting for. They were only a day late due to a typical Northern Michigan snow storm! LOL. I have added the shamrock candle embeds to the website and am now working on the 3" ball candles. First time for everything!

Each embed is approximately 1 square inch. I recommend using two of these at a time in your tart warmers for the full effect.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94679568/shamrock-embed

Nothing to do but work!

Well we got a good two feet of snow over night. Blast winter!!! LOL. Checked on the family members and everyone is okay. I'm glad of that. 
Still struggling with the candles, not a lot of money to spend for advertising so this is the best way I can think of. I hope I get followers soon! 
Working on a few new designs for St. Patty's Day and Easter as well. I will be relaunching the Easter candles baskets towards the end of the month. So much to do and so little time to do it!

New Listing on Etsy!!

A beautiful hand made plastic canvas earring holder for the typical teenage girl or busy on the go woman! Many different colors of plastic canvas and colored yarn to choose from.


 http://www.etsy.com/listing/93348894/plastic-canvas-earring-holder

Festival Time!!

Well I am starting to produce the inventory for the local Riverfest. I am hoping that it will be a great success. 3 dozen of each of my candles is going to take me quite a while to complete but that's okay, I am most definitely up to the challenge. I am also going to start making different "bundles" or gift bags. Trying something new to liven up the shop a little more.

If you are in the Alanson, Michigan area on the 12th, 13, or 14th of August be sure to stop by and check out all of the wonderful candles that I currently have in stock. You're sure to have a good time. Live music. flea market and all sorts of wonderful crafts and antiques.

Here is just one of the roses that I have done as a special order for a wonderful family member. She is I think to date, my biggest fan and supporter. I send her much love along with all the wonderful candles that she has bought. The color is a wonderful turquoise and the fragrance is moonlight path. These beautifully aroma roses have an approximate burn time of 12 hours and each are triple scented with the highest quality fragrances.

New Candles

New Candles!!!   Beautiful rose and rosebud candles. Hand poured and hand painted. The large rose is a 3" diameter rose candle, the petal outlines are hand painted. This particular candle is an pumpkin orange color and has been triple scented with cinnamon. The rose bud 2" diameter candles are colored both florescent yellow and pumpkin orange. They are also triple scented. Pumpkin orange is cinnamon and the yellow is scented with Birds of Paradise.The florescent rose petal candle is also triple scented with Birds of Paradise.

The tarts are triple scented with Cinnamon and are a pumpkin orange.

Well Easter went pretty well. Sold a few candles and tarts so I can't complain any. My mother started her chemo treatments today and she has been holding up real well. I am really proud of her. She is definitely a fighter!
I am starting to take orders for the Mothers Day candles. Most are hearts but i have been thinking of doing a combination of sorts. I will post pictures as I complete the projects.

Happy Easter!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter today. Spend it with the ones that you love.

First Sale!!!

Yahoo!!!! I made my first sale today to a non family member!!!! I feel so good about how this business is going to turn out.

New Ideas

Okay so I came up with some ideas for my Mother's Day candles. I was thinking that I would put a layer to it. Kind of like different colored sand. Then once the wax cooled I would add a few embellishments like hearts or butterflies. I think that would look cool.Now all I have to do is figure out if I want to add fragrance to them or if I want to leave them unscented. Some many thoughts are running through my head right now that I might have to start writing them down to remember them all. 

As for Easter, my sale didn't go exactly how I wanted it to so this summer I am going to advertise them again as a special and see how that goes. Who knows? Maybe as time goes by, people will discover the wonderful world of homemade candles...

The Next big thing is to work on the Mother's Day project and to come up with ideas for Father's Day. Maybe a candle shaped like a fishing rod? Or better yet a golf club!!!! Now if I can just put my ideas to creation.

Mothers Day is May 8th!!

Okay, Mother's Day is Sunday May 8th. I have decided that I am going to present my mother with a beautiful handmade heart that reads #1 MOM in the center. 
As for the candle business, I am going to start selling my 6 inch heart shaped 3 wick candle for $8.00 a piece. It takes a lot of time and effort to make one of these candles and for mothers day I am looking for ideas on how to embellish them for a little more meaning. I have thought of glitter, candy toppings, different shaped embeds and even a swirl heart. I could use any ideas that any one might have.

Homemade Handpoured Candles

Hand made plastic canvas Easter baskets filled with brilliant colored embeds and a single, beautiful votive candle. We parents are always getting the little ones chocolate bunnies and all the sweets so I thought that I would create a perfect gift for the moms and dads out there.


True it is a small 2" by 2" basket but it carries some much beauty and fragrance that will last for hours. And the baskets themselves are reusable! Filled with embeds, tarts or votive of your choice. I have butterflies, round, heart, jelly bean, marshmallow embeds. A large assortment of scents and colors to choose from!!

Each basket is $6.00 (U.S) that includes the cost of the actual candles themselves plus packaging material.
Shipping is to be determined by amount ordered and where the item is to be shipped to. I ship UPS and USPS so please allow time for delivery.

Check out my store at www.etsy.com/shop/destanys