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!!!

Tadaaaa

 Fit has hit the shan, in the best possible way.

We made a tiny human. 

I know I've been absent on here for a long time, and I have a few good reasons for that (keep reading). Lately I've been honestly and truly feeling like blogging was missing from my life, and now that I actually have something semi-interesting to talk about, voila! Here I am. 

I apologize in advance for all of the photos being taken/edited on my phone. But you know what? We just can't afford my Adobe subscription for Photoshop right now, and I've got no shame in saying that I know what the essentials are, and Photoshop isn't one of them. Food is. Lots and lots of food. My appetite is playing catch-up for the 6 weeks of constant round-the-clock nausea I endured. Things that the budget still includes: this waterfront lunch of tapas when we spent the other Saturday chilling down in the sunshine in Portsmouth. I got fed AND bought new shoes. Priorities. Photoshop can wait. 

Anywho... It's 3:32 am. I have this hip pain thing going on, and although my midwife assures me that it is totally normal, it also makes sleeping in just about any position wildly uncomfortable (and standing up 10x worse). Seriously? I'm only just in my second trimester this week; I feel like I shouldn't be uncomfortable yet. But I'll still go around smiling ear to ear like a complete fool because I can't stop looking down at this tiny little bump-in-progress. 

Yes, it was kind of a total surprise. Two days before I had to get on an international flight, alone, I might add. But then again, we were kind of lax in our preventative methods because we both were open to (and secretly hoping for) this outcome. So there's your first question answered.  Honestly in all its glory. Sorry for the details, mom. I know you'll keep chalking it up to immaculate conception for the rest of your/my life. 

So, as a FTM (that's "first time mom", because I'm totally a nerdy What To Expect message board addict at the moment), I'm all ears for you more well-rounded mothering sorts. Particularly the ones of my own generation (again, sorry mom) so that I can have a little insight on what really is the low down these days. Tricks and tips for anything and everything, except "morning" sickness (total misnomer), which I have only recently managed to escape the hellish grasps of, are greatly welcomed. I'm kind of doubly deer-in-the-headlights when it comes to knowing/recognizing anything to do with baby brands over here in the UK, too, so if you live on this side of the pond, [please] help me out. 

On the non-preggo front, here is the rest of the news: 

I started a new job, at which I immediately had to tell them I'd be going on maternity leave in about 6 months. So that's fun. But it's a beautiful castle (literally) of a school and it's filled with really wonderful people. I'm quite happy there and they've been really great about the whole "tadaa! I'm pregnant!" thing. Then again, as Steve would say, "it's a Catholic school; they have to be." Lol. 

We've been in our flat for about 3 1/2 months now (the first month or so of which was spent without Internet, the second of which I was in America for, hence my absence), and of course we immediately now need something bigger. We're the poster children for Murphy's Law. So we're thinking of moving in November, but with our current lease we can leave anytime after 6 months if we give enough notice, so it wasn't that much of a "hurry up and panic" situation.

Well my friends, it's 3:51. I'm wide awake because I was so gosh-darned-tired that I fell asleep at 8:45. Ish. I don't know what to do to get myself comfortable enough to go back to sleep, so I'll probably just read, since, for the moment, I've run out of things to write. 

Much love. 

D 

Life at the Pond

It's been a month, and unfortunately it's also been a month of radio silence, since that's apparently how long it takes BT to fix the internet wiring for our building. But before I go off on a rant, let's focus on the happy fact: It's been a month in our new home, and it's wonderful.

Not having any access to the outside world was kind of a blessing. There's been a lot to do before the space inside these walls felt like a home, and it's helped me to get out and embrace the beautiful town that I can call my own. Alton is a beautiful place. Our flat is a cozy place. And the pond is a glorious place. I already feel so affectionately for Kings Pond, which I have dubbed, "my pond," despite its obvious public location and use; and I have spent many an afternoon seated at its sides, watching the ducks, geese, and swans while indulging in a book.

 I hadn't read a book in ages, which is so unlike me, but with the lack of internet and incredible used book store just around the corner, I've been in binge mode. It's been a relief, really. I felt like life was so less hectic when I didn't have to worry about updates and emails and notifications, and I kinda liked it. It was a bit irritating to have to stand outside of coffee shops stealing wifi and trying not to look suspicious when I really needed to send an email, but it happened and we move on none the worse. Maybe for the better. Maybe it will inspire me a little to put the iPhone away more, to focus on what's around me more than what's supposed to be constantly entertaining me. And I'm hopeful that it does.

For more updates on Instagram, check out my hashtag #LifeAtThePond