The Proper Use and Appreciation of Scented Candles: Summer is Over

I'm obsessed with candles. Specifically, scented candles. The kind that stank up your house like you've been running a bakery or making professional floral arrangements out of your home. I just do. And I like my candles to be seasonally specific. I'm actually kind of insane about it. Fun fact. 

Consider this my version of a public service announcement, which I feel like my new surroundings warrant more than ever. Pregnancy hormones coupled with homesickness and general me-style rage have ended in a rampage through every known possible retailer and purveyor of scented wax in the country.

 I've been writing these little blurbs seasonally for years because it's a particular personal passion of mine, and a joke between myself and a friend. I cannot understand, for instance, how anyone - ANYONE - could see the logic in burning a peach scented candle in the middle of January, or a Japanese cherry blossom wax melt in October. It baffles me. Also, "Amber"? That's not a smell, it's a rock. Come on, enough with the generic scents that make your bedroom smell like a middle aged men's clothing store.

Since relocating internationally, I have massively struggled to find ANY scents that are seasonally specific, because apparently "that's not a thing here". Do you know what is a thing? Ridiculously expensive imported Yankee Candles. And I cannot support my habit if I have to resort to them. So let me enlighten everyone that I possibly can, and maybe we can all avoid nasally offending each other this year. 

They apply to everyone, and I mean everyone, so please, for my sanity, follow these recommendations. It's basic logic. Don't let me down.

So, here are the guidelines for this particular time of year, which I typed up in... lemme have a look here... 2010? You need to know.

August-September Transition

This is probably the second most highly anticipated candle season, next to waiting for it to be pine-sap-on-my-shoe season.

Let us highlight the key acceptable transition scents until September 15th, beginning on August 15th:

-Hazlenut, Hazlenut cream, and all variations of nut scents that do not involve cinnamon or clove notes.
-Warm vanilla, Vanilla Sugar, Buttercream Icing. *Sugar cookie is not acceptable*
-Dark Berry Pie Scents
-Caramel-Pecan and Pecan Pie
-Peach Cobbler (peaches ripen late in summer, so this scent is acceptable. Springy peach scents that resemble a Bath & Body works fragrance from the early 1990's are not acceptable)
-Banana Nut Bread (although this scent will undermine all diet plans. This is a fact)
-Cinnamon Bun
-Black Cherry
-Coffee scents

 It is time to retire the following until after the holidays:
-Downy
-Beach scents
-Anything white that is not vanilla
-Green scents that resemble a mixture of cut grass and laundry detergent 
-Country Breeze, Country Linen, and anything else with a picture of laundry on a clothesline on the sticker. I'm sorry if you have a half-burnt Fresh Linen jar on the table, but just think, it's almost pumpkin time!

If you, like myself, are stranded in the UK with no sign of anything nasally pleasing in sight, adopt my new strategy: to buy candles on clearance a year in advance, per season. My husband is going to love that I'm accumulating more crap. But I digress...

Here are a few examples of some candles on my shopping list this month:

This will be like, my payday treat if I get it, and I won't be allowed to buy any more candles for a month.

This sounds like exactly what I need, except its £4 for a tiny little bathroom-sized tin. In a pinch, and on sale, I bet it would satisfy my baked goods scent craving if nothing else can be found.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to. I feel like that should be the name of all Voluspa candles. If I win the lottery someday, my home will be full of them, and you'll know it from about a mile away. I don't even know what this scent actually is, I just love them all and I'm guessing it will be OK for this time of year, based on the color alone.

That's pretty much all I've found so far. I know of a store or two that imports Village Candles, and that's an option, but once again import = expensive. I might as well splurge on Yankee. I just can't wrap my head around it. Last year, Febreeze released a few seasonal scents around Thanksgiving/Christmas time, so I'm crossing my fingers that they pop up again. They're quite small, though, so they don't hold up for long when they're burnt every day, but they definitely pack a smell factor, in the best possible way. 

If you're a UK candle lover and you know where to go for (cheaper) seasonal scented candles, please drop me a line in the comments below! I'm desperate over here!!!

Cozy

This past weekend was just fantastic. Guess what we did!
Nothing.

House all to ourselves, Steve and I sat in front of the fireplace and binge watched Boardwalk Empire. Peace and quiet, no agenda, no ringing phones, nowhere to go. We just spent some much needed quality time with each other... which is something that's hard to come by when you share a home. It's made us even more anxious for my visa process to be complete, so that I can begin to work and we can get our own place.

Doopy had reign of the whole house for the first time, and was so excited to not be confined to the bedroom or upstairs. He basically slept in front of the fireplace in his box all of Saturday and Sunday. That's right - box. He was given a lovely brand new bed when we arrived here, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Then I brought home a big bread box from Costco two weeks ago, and now it's his favorite bed. I give up.

And I did some late day grocery shopping on Friday evening, which led to me finding these gorgeous autumn flowers in the "clearance" bin. £1 for pretty flowers? You had me at hello.

Day 1 & Weekend Recap

Our anniversary weekend was amazing. I came home from grocery shopping to a candlelit, four-course meal prepared by my one and only. At the exact minute we were married one year ago, he handed me an adorable book - a fairy tale book, written about our love story. It's title? "The Princess and The Idiot." I have photos, I promise - I just haven't gotten around to uploading them yet. Dropbox sometimes decides to hate me.

Sunday it was cold and breezy, perfect football weather. Since the pitch was just a 2 minute walk away, I was able to go watch Steve play as the colorful leaves blew across the field. It's a much slower seasonal transition, but I definitely need to get some of my cold weather clothing (especially scarves!) shipped over here ASAP.

Don't forget... Today is the start of my 30 day candid photo challenge - so get on Instagram and hashtag #Disowned30Days to join in!

Wood Nymph

I needed excuses to do two things today: to practice using Lightroom, and to wear my "new" hippie dress that I acquired this weekend. So I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed off into the woods, just off of a trail near the house where we like to walk the dog.

It's sort of sunny but cold today, and the sunlight was playing tricks as it filtered through the ever changing leaves in the soft morning breeze. Hues of gold and orange touched everything on the forest floor, and I felt like the floaty cotton dress was alive as I danced through the birches. It was a quiet way to clear my head today; a simple but effective practice in patience and self-love, as I set and reset the timer on my camera, running and skipping and repeating shots a dozen times each.

And now it's another piece of the puzzle in the learning process, as I gave Lightroom another go. I was going to separately edit in Photoshop and compare the two, but I think I'll keep pushing myself to learn if I don't allow myself another option. It is quicker, I have to say. And the lack of precision in the editing process forces me to think more about the composition while I'm taking the photo.
All in all, I loved the fairytale lighting in the trees today. It's one of those moments that I was genuinely happy to be by myself, alone with the sunshine and my thoughts.

Off the Beaten Path

Unexpected treasures in unexpected places... one of the things I love about living in this city. A foggy, damp Sunday afternoon proved to be the perfect time to explore some woodland trails, without even leaving Brooklyn. The foliage seemed even more brilliant against the gray sky backdrop, and smelled like memories of wandering and playing in the woods back home as a child. For a moment, we forgot that we were surrounded by tall buildings and busy streets. 

I love November. 

The Week in Color

My past week has been filled with such a gorgeous array of yellows and oranges. It's as if the indoor environments I find myself in are reflecting the warm, bright colors of the foliage and late autumn sunlight outside. Some of my favorite hues, brightening my November days. 

Just Another Fall Friday

Ahhhhh what a lovely fall weekend it has been. Sitting here this morning with some pumpkin spice coffee, my senses being assaulted by the amount of fall scented candles in the apartment today (thank you, Homegoods!). Here are a few snaps from my Friday after work. We did a bit of wandering, just enjoying the weather and watching the afternoon turn to evening. 

Oh, and this amazing 70s dress is now in my shop so check it out.

Snake must have just eaten... look at that bulge! haha

Nothing smells quite like farm fresh apples in autumn.

Winding down the evening in a little dive somewhere downtown.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!! 

So Glad it's Plaid

So it's no surprise (to me, at least) that my seasonal obsession this year is PLAID. Buffalo check, tartan, classic or grunge, blue or red, green or yellow - I am grade A obsessed with plaid at the moment. I'm like a tiny Paul Bunyan, but instead of a blue ox, I have an endless supply of pumpkin spice lattes and a predisposition for climbing trees.

Also, it's apple cider season! Words cannot fully describe how much this thrills me. 

A couple glimpses of some AMAZING new vintage skirts and dresses- plaid abundant! - that are new in my shop. Go check em' out!!

How gorgeous is this plaid? It's a 1970's maxi skirt that I'm so in love with. And it's for sale!

Tights are back in season! Be prepared to see oodles of them on my legs in the weeks/months to come <3 

Seasons Change

I love the changing leaves. Every year, I wait like a kid on Christmas Eve to see the first shades of orange peeking through the foliage. Even here in NYC, though the trees aren't as plentiful as the hills of my hometown, it feels like autumn. The crisp air this past weekend, the clear sky, the way the sunlight makes everything seem gilded in the late afternoon... I could sit on a park bench taking it in, all day. All day. 

Take Me Home

No matter where I end up, who I end up with, and what I end up doing there... I will always trace my roots back to the dirt roads in the heart of Pennsylvania. This past weekend I took Steve to meet my siblings & father, and to see a little bit of where I'm from. As he put it, "it's a different world." 

There is so much beauty, so much peace and quiet, and so much fun to be had down the back roads that lead to the places I love so much - made even better by spending my time there with people that I love so much. As happy as I am to be back home after so much traveling, it is my favorite place to escape the nonstop hectic lifestyle in the city we currently call home.

The trees showed a hint of fall (besides the chill in the air) : the first changing leaves. 

Even though he was on crutches from a foot injury, we went for a little stroll in the woods behind my family's home.