Candlemaking the Natural Way (+ Giveaway!!!)

When I first met Hubs, he already owned the house we now live in. It was definitely a bachelor's pad at that point, which was actually kind of great, since it enabled us to set up the space together. As he was giving me a tour of the place, and he showed me the bathroom, I immediately noticed two things: he'd had a large, soaking, "garden" tub installed, and he had lots and lots of candles in there. For himself. A nice tub, and nice candles. "This," I thought to myself, "this right here is my kind of man."

Hubs shares my love of hot baths and candle light. We have an entire cabinet packed with tapers, columns, pillars, votives, tea lights, and every manner of candle-holding vessel imaginable. Every room in our house, aside from Huxley's room, has candles, too. When the power goes out, we're set. When evening rolls around and we're dining on the porch, candles are burning. During dinner parties and cookouts and all sorts of other get-togethers, candles are 'a blazing.

My Small Measures post tomorrow on Design Sponge will offer a tutorial on making all-natural beeswax bug-repelling candles at home. I used Rebecca Ittner's Candlemaking the Natural Way when creating the candles and can't recommend the book enough. It's packed with essential information on handcrafting beeswax, soy, and palm candles, including 31 projects to whip up, whether you're hoping to light up your own space or gift to your nearest and dearest.

Lark has graciously offered one small measure reader a copy of Candlemaking the Natural Way! You're going to love it, I promise. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below detailing your favorite way to use candles, or candlelight memory. For me, it happened two winters ago.

We lost power for 5 days and relied on our candle stash to light up the night. Though it was rough going (the forecast had called for 3-10 inches of snow, not the 17 we ended up with, so we were seriously caught off guard), huddling around the wood stove, listening to NPR play Charlie Brown's Christmas on a battery-powered radio while eating cookies from my recent cookie exchange and sipping on rum-spiked eggnog (we buried coolers in the snow outside and filled them with the contents of the refrigerator and freezer) made the whole ordeal slow, and sweet, and precious in a way I'd never have thought possible.

I'll run the giveaway for one week, concluding next Wednesday, July 4th at midnight EST. Per Lark's request, the giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Sorry, international buddies! PLEASE leave a means of contacting you in your reply, either by linking back to your blog/website (which will need somewhere on there telling me how to contact you), or by leaving your email address with your comment (if you'd like to keep your email private, just make a comment with your name and then send me your email at: ashleyadamsenglish(at)gmail(dot)com).

Either way, win or no win, do check out Ittner's book. Candle-making is a serious blast, feeling something like alchemy as you stir the pot, watch the wax melt, and shape-shift it into the candle holder.