As I mentioned on my other blog Candles, Crafts and Whatnot, My big craft show, that I have been telling you all about, is here today and tomorrow. I went Friday night to partially set up for the show, and today was the first day of the show.
There were alot of lookers, but not alot of buyers out and about! I hope tomorrow turns out to be a better day for me and some of the other sellers! I did sell some candles and some jewelry, but there are so many jewelry sellers there this year, that it is near impossible to sell any! Almost every other table is selling jewelry, whereas last year there were maybe 10 of us selling jewelry. Now it is more than half of the sellers! That really stinks. People must be so sick of looking at jewelry by the time they get to my table!
Luckily, I have my soy wax candles, open 
and on numerous tables, to draw them
into my booth, andthen they can smell them, and look at the jewelry too! But it doesn't seem like a very good year for
selling right now?
Anyway, I will let you all know how tomorrow goes.....wish me luck!!!
Kat
I would like to invite everyone to come on over and read the latest issue of "Angels Magazine".
It is a magazine written by women, for women, and has some really good articles in it, along with poetry and photos. I'm sure there is something there for everyone!
I contribute to this magazine along with trying to keep up with my posts on this blog and my other blog, Candles, Crafts and Whatnot, and running my business, Kat's Candles. To say the least, I have been pretty busy lately!!
The ladies would all like to hear your comments about their writing and their articles, as they have all worked so very hard on this magazine. Please bookmark this site, or subscribe to the rss feed, and come back often!!
We look forward to hearing from you!! Take care!!
Kat
Isn't it funny that when making candles, you never know what to expect?
In my business: Kats Candles, I have found that peoples tastes vary from one season to the next, and even from one year to the next. One spring my customers will be crazy over Gardenia scented candles and the next spring it will sit and collect dust. I never know what is going to be popular?
I have mentioned before that I do craft shows, and I can't possibly take with me all 100 scents that I offer, or for that matter, all the products that I have. I usually bring a lot of candles, of all shapes and sizes, but maybe only 1 of each of the off season scents. I should mention that the spaces offered at these craft shows are not exactly huge!! So space is limited, and therefore, so is what I can offer!
Inevitably, someone always wants the scents that I didn't bring, for example, if I'm doing a Christmas show, I usually bring my Christmas/fall scents, and a smattering of the other ones. But someone always wants the "honeysuckle" candle, or the "baby powder"! Now, I try and take what I think will sell, and if the following year I take the "honeysuckle" and the "baby powder" they will just sit there taking up space on my table, and I will have people asking all day for the "blueberry muffin"!!! I can't win! Maybe if I was psychic, I would have better luck predicting what the customers would want.
I am still stocking up for the "big show" in November that I mentioned in a prior post. You can read it here, and I am scratching my head trying to decide what scented candles to make, and what to leave out. I just hope I make the right decisions this year! Wish me luck, and if you have any insight....please let me know!!! :)
A BIG Thank you to Kay's K9s for giving me this award! It is my very first one, and I am soooo excited~! I'd like to thank the academy.....oh wait, that's not right! LOL!
I wrote a nice write-up on Kay's K9s site over on my other blog, Candles, Crafts and Whatnot, and I still visit her regularly. She is amazing with not only the art that she creates, but the work that she does for our animal friends. She sponsors animals that need to find homes and donates profits from her sales to good causes too! She is the best!
Anyway, back to my award.......The Rules for the Award are as follows:
1. Mention the blog that gave you the award & comment on their blog when you post the award.
2. List 6 things you VALUE & 6 things you DON'T VALUE.
3. Then, pass the award onto 6 other blog buddies!
Six Things I Value:
- Family and friends ~ I wouldn't be who/where I am now without them. :)
- Alone Time ~ I really enjoy the time I spend by myself, I am a strong person, and don't at all mind my own company!
- My Creativity ~ It gives me such happiness to create.
- Being in Control of my Life ~ To a certain degree I can control what I do, and when I do it, and I like that feeling.
- My Values ~ Mom brought me up right, and I find that today, some people don't have values, and I feel sad for them. :(
- My Job ~ In today's economy, I am lucky to have a job that supports me.
Six Things I Don't Value:
- Rude People ~ I don't understand the actions of people sometimes?
- Money ~ I value what I need, not much more...I am not extravagant by any means. I always say, I just need enough to live off of, not millions.
- Fancy Clothes ~ I am not big on dressing up, give me jeans and a sweatshirt and I'm pretty happy!
- Dressing Rooms ~ Uggghhh, not a fan, don't use them.
- Cell Phones ~ I use mine pretty much for emergencies only.
- Shoes ~ If I could do without them, I would. I am not a "sterotype" female who owns 100 pairs of shoes. I like naked toes!!! Lol.
So there are my things...now I need to pass this along to 6 other blogs.
I choose:
Congratulations to the above sites for inspiring me so much, that I want you to have this award! Please keep creating beautiful things, and I will keep coming back! :)
Entrecard seems to have fixed whatever it was that was ailing it, and now I am able to drop cards again. I wanted to thank everyone who regularly dropped their cards on me, even though I couldn't drop back for about a week.
I was really getting frustrated with Entrecard, because Whenever I tried to load a page, it would take forever to load or give me an error message telling me that the site was unavailable. Besides that, if I did get a page to load, and tried to drop my card, sometimes it would go through after about 5 minutes or it would say "invalid". It was really, really aggrivating!
But it seems to be working a lot better now. The pages are loading quicker, and I was able to drop some cards tonight......definately no where near 300, but some.
Again, thanks to all of you who continued to drop on me in my downtime! I really appreciate it!
How can the vast majority of Americans that are wealthy, sleep at night? How can they continue in their lavish lifestyle knowing that there is so much poverty? How can they seem to throw their money away on seemingly useless things and not help starving people? There is so much injustice here, that it isn't even funny!
It's my Birthday today, and I got this lovely doodle from my good friend Claire over at A little piece of me , and anyone who knows her, knows just how good she is at her doodles!! Thank you Claire! Hugzzzzzzzzz~!
B) The Bedroom
C) The Kitchen
2) A home candle fire is reported how often? ______________________.
A) Every half hour
B) Every Hour
C) Every 2 hours
D) Once a day
3) What month has the most reports of home fires related to candles? _________________.
B) October
C) December
4) Candles should be kept how far away from things that could burn? ______________?
A) A couple of inches
B) One foot
C) Two feet
D) Three feet
5) What is the best way to extinguish a candle? ____________________.
A) Blow it out
B) Pinch the flame out with your fingersC) Use a long handled candle snuffer
D) Pour water on it
1) B - The Bedroom - This can be attributed to the fact that many people fall asleep with burning candles, or they put many candles too close to flamable objects to create a romantic setting.
2) B - Every Hour - Statistics show that candle fires are reported almost every hour. This rate has risen in recent years, due to the fact that more and more people are burning candles.
3) C - December - This month is the most deadly and is probably due to people using candles in decorations or festivities without proper safety methods.
4) B - One Foot - This is the safe distance, and although it may seem like a far distance, any closer and some materials or objects can heat up from the candle flame(s) and eventually catch fire.
5) C - A long handled candle snuffer - This is the safest way to extinguish a candle flame. Sometimes blowing it out can cause wax to splash or spill, so it is not recommended. If you don't have a candle snuffer on hand, you can blow out your candles by placing your finger in front of your lips as you blow softly....this disperses the flow of air and extinguishes the flame without splashing the wax with a hard blow.
As I've told you in prior posts, I use 100% Soy Wax in my candles....
But you might have some other kinds of wax left over at your house.
Be careful not to mix the types of waxes, some are not compatible with others! There should be a lable on the jar telling you what kind of wax it is. If you aren't sure, just keep the same kind of leftover wax together.
- Save chunks or scrape out the unused wax from jars, and re-melt to make more candles. An easy and inexpensive way to do this is to use a saucepan with water in it and an old clean coffee can. You place the coffee can into the saucepan on the stove and put some of the unused wax into the can to melt. This acts as a double boiler and is the safest way to melt wax. While your wax is melting, put a wick into a container (perhaps one of the old jars?) and once the wax has melted you can pour it into the container and let harden.
- You can also melt the wax, very carefully if it is stuck in the bottom of a jar or container... just place it on a cup warmer (you know the ones they sell to keep your coffee warm at your desk?) and it will slowly melt the wax releasing the scent into the air. You can chose to do this until the smell is gone, or when the wax is melted, pour it into something else to make another candle! I actually sell the candle warmers here. They are just like the cup warmers, only a bit bigger to accomodate a jar candle. Check it out!
- Now, be very careful when melting wax!!! NEVER heat wax directly in a saucepan on the stove.....it looks safe but sometimes when pouring it can combust and burst into flames! You can be severely burned by this! Please always use a double boiler, or the cheap-0 method described above.
- If you choose to use a candy thermometer to gauge the temperature, never let the wax get any hotter than 200 degrees. Always let it cool down a bit before pouring.
- You want to know about wicks?? You can purchase a package of wicks at any crafts store for about $2.00 and they usually come with a wick tab at the bottom to hold the wick in place (much easier when making candles).
- OR....you can use a birthday candle for your wick!!! How cool!?!
- You can melt your old candle pieces in a Tart Burner or Potpourri burner. The potpourri burners look like little crock pots and they plug in, and the electricity warms the pot making the wax melt. The tart burners use a tealight underneath a bowl that holds the wax, and the flame melts the wax. Both are excellant ways to use up that old wax without having to get wicks. Both of these can be found for usually around $5.00-$10.00 at Wal-Mart or Costco, some store like that.
- Here is a Craft tip for you..........You can melt wax in an old coffee can, and then dip pine cones in the wax for a creative and festive look, or to use as firestarters! The wax coated pine cones will help the flames light in your fireplace, or fire pit!
- Another cool idea for a fire starter is to get some old empty toilet paper rolls, fill them with lint from your dryer or newspaper , and coat these in the old wax. Then use these to push into openings in the logs when trying to start a fire. This is so much cheaper than buying the premade fire starters.
- Use a grater or vegetable peeler and grate some of the old wax into a pile on a covered area. Then take some of the shavings and make sachets out of the wax shavings! You can use netting, cloth, old pantyhose or bags, the choices are endless. You can hang these in your closet or hamper, put them in drawers or even in your car as an air freshener!
- If you keep your scents and your colors seperate, you can make layered candles. Just melt one at a time, and pour one at a time, let harden, and you will have layered candles! With the scent being layered, it might smell like blueberry and then go into apple, then go into vanilla, there are so many choices! Just make sure that the scents go well together, or you will have a "stinky" candle that you won't want to burn. This layering method will not work with the cup warmer idea above in #2, the wax will all melt together.
- Try and mix up some good scents by yourself.....a bakery scent with a different bakery scent for example.....or a floral with another floral! You can mix and match and create all kinds of different smelling candles
Well, there you have it!
A bunch of ideas for you to use up that old wax that I'm sure you were frustrated about, and usually ended up throwing away!
Hopefully, these tips were useful and will save you some money.
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Price: $15.00
Price: $15.00
Price: $18.00
This is an 18oz Apothacary jar, with MANGO SAGE TEA fragrance.
Price: $18.00
Price: $18.00
Technorati TagsKats Candles,
Soy Wax Candles,
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Wood Wick,
Strawberry,
Butt Naked,
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