hometowncandles

There's still hope that you may receive your packet eventually, although you might not be around to see it. This article was on our news the other night so I just had to look it up and post it, talk about misdirected mail. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316896,00.html

Have you ever thought about offering say 6 or 8 standard scents and then allow them to choose 4 to 6 more, in advance of them selling of course? That's what I was thinking of doing. I'm hoping to get into a few fundraisers in the coming year, I thought about offering 10 scents with 6 of them being from my best sellers, and then allow them to choose 4 more. I mostly like the bakery scents, but I know there are some who simply hate them. And I can't stand most florals, but I have a few customers who won't buy anything else. I just thought it might be good to allow my fundraiser customers to have some input, since they will most likely be buying some to help their little ones raise money. Just a thought.

IMO~ I would just pay her, you could end up losing a lot more in the long run. I am getting ready to file a claim in small claims court. I'm not sure if it works the same in all states or not, but in KY if the Judge rules in favor of the Plantiff, they can not only recoup the actual money they are out, but they can also get court cost and any other fees or monies the Judge deems reasonable and necessary. Such as, time lost from work due to pursuing this matter, bank fees they incurred from you cancelling the check, etc. and it's up to $1,500 in KY. And more than likely, the judge is going to ask you why you didn't call and inquire as to why you didn't get an info packet before cancelling the check. I know it stinks that you didn't get your info and you didn't get to do the show, but when you apply for shows and don't hear anything by the deadline, you have some obligation to contact them about it. Oversights do happen to everyone, especially when you are dealing with something as large as most craft shows. Jennifer

Citric Acid Mango Butter Apricot Kernal Oil Almond Biscotti F/O-This is for candles My Flicker's order came too~ I ordered the Juniper and Aloe to use in my bath bombs and my melts and a sampler of the Brown Sugar and Fig. Almost got my gift bag orders filled, all I need to do now is pour a few candles and get everything together to be delivered. Whoo hoo, then the lab will be open for testing.

I am soooo excited, I just got my supplies from Brambleberry today. And wouldn't you know, I have so many orders to get out this week, I don't have time to play around with it.LOL I guess I should be happy for the orders so that I can order more supplies. Hopefully by the weekend, I'll get to play around with some of bunny's bath melts and some snowball bath bombs. And can I just rave for a minute about Brambleberry, not only was everything packaged very well, I got a free sample of Chai Tea f/o and a $10 off coupon. This was my very first order from BB but definately "not" my last. Let the new addiction begin.

I talked to Robert at Taylored a few months back about duping an f/o. He said to just send them a small sample of the f/o, so I'm not sure about an actual candle. It was pricey, can't recall exactly how much, but say if it was $1,000 then you pay that up front and it works kinda like a credit. You can apply that towards your orders on that particular fragrance up to what you paid to have it duped. I hope that makes sense.:undecided I'm not real good explaining stuff sometimes.

Well, I got an e-mail from brambleberry today. My stuff is scheduled for delivery on the 12th, so I guess I can give the fed-x guy a break. This time anyway. Kinipela~your secret's safe with me or whomever you may be talking about. Scented~I think I've long past run out of room, I have so many candle supplies and now I'm adding b&b to it. DH just kinda shudders whenever he sees a new box of goodies sitting on the dining room table. He got so tired of being overrun with candle stuff in the house, that he had me a workshop put up in the back yard back in the summer. The only problem is I don't have a heating and cooling system to keep a consistent temp, so the only things I can actually store out there are supplies that won't be affected by temp change. So most of my b&b stuff will have to be kept in the house. I have a feeling I'll be getting an updated heating and cooling system this summer.

I don't know how accurate this is, so maybe someone with experience can chime in here. But, I read somewhere that you can run your pillar candles across a heated non stick griddle to get nice smooth bottoms. And since it's non stick it should clean up pretty easy. I don't do pillars so not really sure. I always gripe about shipping charges, then I feel really bad about it when I read post from you guys in other countries. Many of us here in the US, I'm probably one of the worst, just take it for granted that we can order what we want and get it in a matter of days for next to nothing compared to chandlers and soapers in other countries. Too bad there isn't a better way for you guys. :undecided That would really stink to pay as much, or more, for shipping as you do your products.

When I was younger, we would always have a candlelight service at church on New Years Eve. Right before midnight, everyone would light a candle and sing church hymns to bring in the new year. We would just wrap aluminum foil around the base of the candle and form kind of a drip pan with it. It may not look very nice, but nobody really cared, it was the purpose of the event itself that made it all special.

Paypal offers both a debit/atm card and a credit card. I just recently ordered my debit card there wasn't a credit check or anything for it. If you go to paypal's site and click on the products and services tab at the top of the page, you can get more info about both products. If you get the debit/atm card your available paypal funds are used first, but you can choose a back up funding source if you exceed what you have available just like with your regular paypal account. HTH Jennifer

PA, I'm glad to hear you say that, I ordered a paypal debit card just the other day to use when ordering online. DH and I are thinking of nixing our debit cards with our checking account and only using checks to pay bills using cash for all other transactions. And I have already started cancelling all credit cards. I hate to keep a much cash on hand, but with all the identity theft and fraud these days, I worry about using debit and credit cards.

Ok, I know it's the busy season for suppliers, but I am so anxious to try the bath melts and bath bombs, I can hardly wait for my supplies to arrive from flicker's and brambleberry. Everytime the fed-ex truck comes down our lane, I stand there with my nose pressed against the window waiting to see if he's coming here. But yet he doesn't. Of course, the site of a grown woman standing with her nose pressed in the window watching him may make him a little uneasy. I guess technically it could be considered stalking. Guess I'd better rethink my strategy. I know, when he starts down the lane, I'll close the mini-blind and peer through one little slat, yeah that'll work. Honest, I'm not crazy in real life, just in my little b&b world.

That's adorable, and such a great idea. I might try one of those for dd & ds birthday's next year. They're like their momma, they have a whole mouth full of sweet tooth's LOL

Keep saying it, but unless you have way more will power than me, these people will suck ya right in.LOL Oh, yeah, they enjoy every minute of it too. They lie in wait and watch for the weakest member of the group and then they pounce. I am weak. But, then they give ya lots of encouragement and good advice, so overall not so bad.

I think I'm more excited about this than when I first started with soy candles. Don't get me wrong, I love making candles, but after a while unless you try the different types, pillars, votives, etc. it's just the same old same old. But with b&b oh my! I am hoplessly addicted and haven't even started. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves, posting such beautiful stuff to tease all of us wanna-be's. Besides, I feel that I could do better in my area with b&b, there is another girl that does the candles and she does a beautiful job with them. We are usually at the same shows, she sells way more than I do, but she's been in it for almost 8 years now, so she has much more experience than I do. But if I focus mainly on b&b and do my candles as a sideline, then we can both do well at shows and not cancel each other out as much. There really hasn't been much to offer in the way of b&b at the couple of shows that I have done. A couple of people have had lots of odds and ends and have included a little b&b but nothing to write home about. So watch out DH, momma has a brand new addiction and I need lots and lots of cash> Can anyone say income tax refund. Ok, I just spent $75 on butter, oil, citric acid, and f/o's. My addiction has officially started.

I have recently started selling the 8 ounce mason's, I sell them for $6.00 each or if a customer buys at least 4 they get them for $5.00 each. I just made sure that I was still making as much as I wanted to even at the discount price, and the customer feels like they are getting a good deal too. You'd be surprised at how many people will buy one or two more just to get them at a discount.

Thank you so much, I'll try not to be a nuisance, but, I'm so excited and am dying to try something. Since I really don't know enough about most of the ingredients that go into soaping and the major b&b products, I figure it'll be a long time before I try some of that stuff. I'll simply go mad if I have to wait that long to make anything.LOL Well, I'm off to check out millersoaps now. Jennifer

Please forgive my ignorance, but the only thing I have ever used these two items for is cooking. I am wanting to venture into the wonderful world of b&b. Me and my bank account have all of you talented folks that have posted the beautiful pics in the gallery to thank for that. I am wanting to start with a couple of simple items that don't require water, so I don't thave to worry so much about preservatives until I completely understand them. So I thought I might try bunny's bath melts and maybe some bath bombs, I am going to use family and close friends for Guinea Pigs:naughty: But I was wondering if the cornstarch and baking soda is food grade or if there is a special cosmetic grade that I should be using or if it even matters. I have done a search and couldn't find anything that addressed that specific question. I also have a few books, but couldn't find anything in there either. Thanks so much. Jennifer

Oh why Oh why do I do this to myself. I am wanting to start making soaps so badly and looking at all of the beautiful items in the gallery just fuels my desire. But, I have made myself a promise to not start anything new until the Christmas decorations come down and the house is clean. I have ordered my books and bookmarked miller's soap. Now all I have to do is patiently await the new year. Those are so very beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks guys! I really had a great time, I think I enjoy just getting out and talking to adults as much as anything. There's just so much you can talk about with a 2 & 3 year old.LOL

My show was on Friday and Saturday, this is the second year I have done this particular craft fair which is located in a local mall. Candle sales were good and my bath and body seemed to show a pretty big increase since last year. Although I was happy with what I made, sales overall were definately down from last year. Almost everybody I talked to at the fair said the same thing. I guess people are feeling the crunch this year from price increases on everything under the sun. But I had a really good time, got to spend some time with my mom, favorite aunt and dd. My little girl is quite a trooper, she is only 3, she spent both days at the craft fair with me and was so good, you hardly even knew she was there. I'd bet we walked 200 miles over the course of 2 days around and around the mall. The three of us took turns walking with her, she really enjoyed the live bluegrass music most of all. She would stand out in the hallway and dace, everyone that passed by got such a kick out of her. Last year she and ds stayed home with dh both days, but she is now going through a stage where she doesn't want to leave my side and I am the only one that can do anything for her. I really enjoy it, but for her sake, I hope she outgrows it soon. I don't want her to suffer any separation anxiety if every I should have to be away from her. DS stayed with dh and they went Christmas shopping. Yay! Can't wait to see what they picked up. Well anywho, here are pics please let me know what you think. TIA Jennifer

I don't like to put names on a message board, but let's just say she carries many of the same b&b bases as WSP. Just to clarify, it wasn't WSP they have always been great and all of my supplies from them have been top notch. The biggest reason I ordered from this person rather than from WSP is because she offered larger sample packs than WSP and I could save a little money, or so I thought. That should tell many of you who it was, but if you are still curious please pm me and I will let you know. I don't like bashing others, but I do feel some responsibility to share my experiences good and bad. We all spend alot of money one supplies to fuel our addictions, we need to be able to make informed decisions about the supplies we buy and from whom we buy them. Sometimes that means posting the not so pleasant experiences too. Hopefully my incident was isolated and it won't happen to anyone else, but I will never order from her again.

I ordered some samples a few months ago that had pet hairs in them. I contacted the supplier she tried to say at first that it was cardboard particles that had gotten into the jars from the box she had them stored in. I took pics and emailed her and told her that there were also pet hairs on some of the labels also. She then said that she had a lady helping her out and she must have used some sample bottles that she had set aside to discard because they were dirty. She said she would fix me up some replacement samples personally and resend them. Well she did and you guessed it, they had pet hairs in them too. Needless to say that was money wasted, and a learning experience. I didn't bother to email her again, I figured it wouldn't help anything. And besides, I won't be ordering anything from her anyway, so I don't need anymore samples. I'm not opposed to pets in the home, but if you are going to run a business from that same home, you need to keep your pets out of your business. That was just disgusting.

Congrats! Everything looks really nice. You've done more shows in the last 8 days than I've done in 2 years. I would be totally exhausted. *faint* I'm looking to add a couple next year, children permitting. LOL