A little fun turns in to a big mess

They look sweet and innocent enough don't they. Let me share a story with you. It's long so if you don't have time just skip to the bottom.

So I have been working sort of feverishly on a bunch of business related things lately. I had to complete all my samples and check off all other awesome contributors to insure there samples were mailed (they did this on there own. I'm just trying to sound busier then I was.)( I had to mail samples for the sag bags and 2 big candles as door prizes for tomorrows Portland Craft Mafia kick off show. Business has been picking up on line, and I have been applying for and doing every show I come across. Cohen started school this month, and I keep hurting my ever sensitive back which makes me pretty much worthless.
I have been working on become more organized, which means I have been scheduling specific things to accomplish each day. Yesterday I cut and sanded a ton of bottles, I painted and made a bunch of wine bottle candles for orders and for tomorrow nights show. I packaged all my fall flavored votives and new pumpkin and leaf candles so I have those for tomorrow as well. I cut a bunch of business cards and made more tea lights to give out tomorrow. I am sooooo prepared. I want this show to be a huge success for me and everyone vending it.
So anyway when I tend to accomplish a lot with my little business I also tend to ignore my house and kids. At this point my house looks like someone should take a match to it. And the boys, well, let's just say they kept busy while mom made candles. I recently received a HUGE shipment of frosted glass jars and as anyone who has received breakables in the mail will tell you, you get a lot of packing peanuts. One of the boxes arrived with the side broken open so there were already peanuts all over the garage floor. I had opened a couple other boxes to take out the smaller boxes inside. The boys decided sitting inside these boxes was a blast and as long as they are not bugging me while I get some work done then who am I to judge right!?
In my maybe 10 to 15 minutes of distraction this is what took place.

And the attempted clean up.....

Portland Craft Mafia Kick Off Show

This Saturday I will be at the Portland Craft Mafia Kick Off Show. I am really excited for this one. I will have all my 8 oz jar candles marked down from $8.75 to $6.00 and I will have some of my palm wax votives in delicious pumpkin-y scents.
The Mafia got some great press in the Portland Mercury and I was named specifically in a comment from original Portland Mafia member Cassie of BeBe Babies and Friends. If you want to read are bit o' press there is a link here at the Portland Mafia blog spot http://portlandoregoncraftmafia.blogspot.com/ . I hope to see some of you at our this great show. It's gonna be a blast!!

The Portland City Sampler

As some of you know I am a member of the Portland Independent Artisan's Cooperative or PDX Indie. It's an incredible group of crafters and Artists who have joined forces to cross promote, increase business and encourage each other as independent artists. One of the ways we have joined together to support each other is by putting together the PDX Indie City Sampler. A large number of members contributed 25 to 100 samples of our craft or art product in order to give people an idea of what this great group has to offer.
The Home of the Sampler is a business that each month collects and sends out a box of fantastic samples from independent crafters, artists, designers, zinesters and record labels from all over the world. To see what each month of the Sampler has in store, please visit our Gallery for a peek at some wonderful samples from our Contributors.

For more info or to get a box of PDX goodness, which will be available in October, visit there website @ www.homeofthesampler.com

Earings by Rubygirl

Window clings by Eyepopart

A little something lovely from Beads and Badger

Love Ladies from Zeladoo

Stickers from Lolly-tots

and so many more. I am so excited about this little projest and if you buy a sampler please let me know all about it.

How I love Last Thursday

Last night may have been(lets hope not) the last Last Thursday of the year in which the weather was warm, and it stayed light out until 9ish. It seemed to me to be by far the busiest one of the summer. I arrived around 4:30 thinking setting up would be a breeze that early, but it turned out a bit more complicated then I thought. I parked on 16th, and set up on 20th. Have I mentioned my candles are really heavy. Anyway I promptly locked my keys in my car. Good thing I have AAA. I set up across from a lady named Monica. She had a coolest blue tights and was selling these great little stuffed creatures called Moctipye or secret keepers. They are lovely little plushes made from reclaimed fabric with 2 different sized button eyes and no mouth so you can tell them your secrets and and they can tell anyone. I knew my oldest son would think this was the greatest idea ever created. He loves to both tell and receive secrets. At the end of the night Monica and I made an excellent exchange. Cohen has not put his down all day.

As the evening progressed we had a great group of drummers set up about half way down the block from us. There is something about just a bunch of different drums that really gets people dancing in the street. I did pretty well, got rid of nearly all my paraffin pillars and votives, and had a ton of fun. Thanks Mary for being such a great partner in crime.

Keeping up with what's current

So I have been feverishly working on cutting, sanding, painting, frosting, etching wine bottles so I am ready for the fall and winter months. I am hoping that there is enough interest to make the cut wine bottle my primary offered candle, but mean while I have been looking at new jar options for my current line. I did love the jars I was carrying, but alas, they are being discontinued and I have to find a replacement. As I have become more educated about how candles work and burn and have continued to test, test, test, I can say with 100% certainty that the best candle jars are those with straight or nearly straight edges. The good news is that wine bottles work perfectly. They are made from thick glass which makes them safe, and they are straight, (well at least to the neck, which I cut off anyway)so they create the ideal burning situation.

Ok, ok enough about wine bottles. The reason I keep on blabbing about the shape of the glass is that I wanted to show you the new tumbler and cooler shaped glasses I am adding to my etsy shop. I am continuing on my quest to find candle jars with lids that resemble my old jars, but have a more condusive shape, but until then this candles burn great and look beautiful. I hope you think so too.

A few more ideas for candle jars

I came up with a couple more ideas for candles jars. I am still messing around with what I want, and what gets good feed back so here are 2 more. Thanks for peeking.

New items I am adding for a Greener Business

So it's really important to me to do everything with this little business of mine as green as I can. I few months back I decided to start hand cutting recycled glass wine and some beer bottles. I have been working like crazy to come up with something that was still really pretty, but a bit more green. I have been testing and burning like crazy so I can be ready by fall with alot of great new upcycled items. Here is what I have been working on:

I added the first one to my etsy shop today. They require a lot more work then buying glass bottles, but I feel like it's worth it and hopefully others will too.