mountains, wilderness, or plain vanilla?

                                                                                                                       photo: University of Georgia School of Forestry

I ordered small balsam fir pillows from a company in Maine that has been making them since 1931. They are so aromatic---fresh and piney. If I ordered 24 (which could be a mix of styles and sizes) I could get them imprinted. They make nice souvenirs so I decided to do that. But what to put on it? Catskill Mountains sounds nice, and there are mountains (albeit small East Coast ones). There is also a vast wilderness park. Lots of rolling hills and dairy farms. Lakes and rivers and waterfalls. I decided to keep it simple: The Catskills.

I put most of them in this big basket.

and a couple here

and here

I wish I could transmit the aroma to you.

Jen

p.s. You might want to check out this article on American rustic via the lens of the NY Times.

candles, men & me

candles & matchboxes on barnwood shelf

When I decided to open a store, I said to myself, "no candles, no potpourri, no ruffles and flounces". I didn't want the kind of store that men run away from. Maybe it was on my mind because I have 3 sons or maybe just because I like simple primitive stuff (with exceptions of course). But that was pretty much my design plan--a store that men would like as much as women. (And no, we're not going to get into gender stereotypes and politics here. Just go with it please.) Anyway, candles. Somehow I had come up with a bad public image of them. There are a lot of icky overwhelming artificially scented ones out there. But I actually like candles--the glow on a winter night when I'm too lazy to build a fire is comforting. And the scents, when well done, are intoxicating.  So I went in search of candles for the store and got some cool ones from Skeem. The scents are light and pure and the designs of the containers are inspired by nature, thus perfect for my store, and they are reusable--you can put paper clips in them or cotton balls or anything that fits nicely in a small glass container with a tin top.

You can see some of them in this picture (especially if you click to enlarge). The one with the bird on top is white lotus, the octopus is wild orchid and the others are blood orange, guava persimmon and dune sage. The box with fish on it is one of the match boxes I bought too. See how I casually put it on the Fishes Golden Guide? I am feeling so clever. I just put them out--let's see if anyone buys them.