Hello out there! Auntie B’s Wax offers a lot of candles, and would love your opinion on what candle fragrance types you like best. Please take a moment to voice your opinion. The results of this poll will be taken into consideration for future fragrance offerings!
With my contribution to a candlemaking book I was asked to submit a brief biography of myself. One of the things I said was “my favorite state of being is ‘cozy.'” OK, it sounds kind of corny and they deleted that phrase at publication, but there is nothing more true about me. Cozy is something I aspire to nearly every day.
I suppose what constitutes cozy is different for everyone. Autumn and winter are my favorite seasons simply for the cozy factor. What feels more snug than a heavy turtleneck sweater? Comforting foods like beef stew, freshly baked bread and homemade cookies make a cold winter day welcome.
Shadows cast by a flickering candle. A walk through the orchard followed by a warm, toasty apple turnover. Flannel sheets. Snuggling up with your sweetie and watching a really good movie. Crispy leaves blowing across a country road. A steaming cup of hot chocolate.
The world moves way too fast for me. Lots of us are expected to put in way too many hours as unfulfilling jobs and technology urges us to remain in constant contact at all times at the speed of light. Calendars are double booked. Food is cooked with microwaves instead of fire, e-mail takes the place of a personally crafted hand-written note. The pace and substance of our society are big inspirations to get cozy and remember what’s really important.
How will you get cozy? Curl up in a comfy chair with a good book? Wear your fuzzy slippers? Maybe take a nap in the middle of the day?
However you choose, I hope your weekend is a cozy one.
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What is it about anniversaries? Not counting birthdays, which I think should be acknowledged come hell or high water, the acknowledgement of anniversaries sometimes baffles me.
I got my hair cut the other day and my stylist was celebrating the ten-year anniversary of her divorce. Every year I acknowledge the anniversary of my first day at my big-girl job by taking the day off and being as far away from the job as possible. Lots of us even acknowledge death anniversaries.
Do we need to constantly remind ourselves of the passage of time? Is celebrating an anniversary a way of validating some kind of accomplishment? And those death anniversaries ~ are they marked on our mental calendars as a desperate attempt to never forget the one who’s died?
Maybe we recognize anniversaries simply to give us a reason to celebrate, to realize how we’ve advanced emotionally, or to remind us that, tic tock, time’s a-wasting.
Yesterday Husby and I recognized our wedding anniversary. It gave us an excuse to treat ourselves to a nice dinner, to recall the fun day we had when we were wed, and to realize how much has changed or stayed the same in those years since. It brings to the forefronts of our minds how content we’ve been after making the decision to commit.
It doesn’t much matter if the actual day was recognized or not, to me. Cards exchanged and a bouquet of flowers from Husby are nice touches, but for me the things recognized on anniversary dates should be part of everyday living. Remember those you have lost on all days of the calendar. Be proud of your accomplishments every day instead of the yearly mark of specific ones. Be happy and content always with the one you chose to marry. Each day is an anniversary of something significant or trivial, and each day should be celebrated.

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The trees have burst into color in the last couple of weeks. I don’t know what autumn is like in other parts of the world, but in the midwest of America it is glorious. Reds, oranges, and golds line the streets and fill the forests.

I remember a time when Dad would rake the leaves in the back yard into gigantic piles just so we could jump into them. All right, our jumping pleasure was probably not the main objective of Dad’s raking, but those gigantic piles were just begging us to dive right in and Dad would indulge us. They were noisy, crispy, and dirty but what fun we had. We’d burrow into the piles, sure that we were invisible to any onlookers. We’d throw armfuls of leaves onto our playmates or up in the air to watch them fall again. The fun we had in the leaves was a prelude to the fun we would soon be having in the snow. Same artform, different medium.
Seasons of the year and the sights, sounds and smells of the season all trigger memories. Hopefully the memories are happy ones. We tend to romanticize the past ~ that’s what we call nostalgia. It’s romantic. It’s uncomplicated. Usually it makes us smile.

Nostalgia is the thing that makes Auntie B’s Wax so much fun. I’m full of it! Nostalgia, that is. There’s only one thing better than being nostalgic ~ living a life that will make for nostalgia in the future. Go on now, live it!
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