burn for me, scented candle!

You know those times in your life where you are extremely upset because somebody made something really cool and you wish you had made it? This is one of those times, my friends. The video below (titled "Scented Candles") is YouTube at its finest, and incredibly hilarious. Please note the unbelievable awkward couple in the back who seem to be debating whether or not to makeout along with the sidekick boy who sometimes chimes in with spoken echoes ("fire" being a personal favorite). What we did before the Internet, my friends, I do not know, but I bet it was boring and depressing.

don't dismay. it's the scent of the day!

Christmas Cookie

description from the Yankee Candle web site:
"Buttery rich, vanilla scented, holiday sugar cookies."

Ok, friends, have you ever wanted to eat a candle? Because, let me reassure you, you are not alone. This candle has caused many a person to carefully debate the pros and cons of licking wax. This candle not only smells like amazing sugar cookies, but after awhile, if you are sleep-deprived enough, it starts to look like one. Burn with caution.

But seriously, this is a fantastic candle to give as a holiday gift. While it is usually a bit tricky picking out scents other people will like, there is no logical reason for a person to not completely enjoy this scent. Just keep out of the reach of small children, or else you might have burnt mouths and angry parents.

without the flame, there's no fire

Ok, what is up with this? I was just at candle-icious.com (I know, ridiculous name, but a decent site) and apparently, they have jar candle warmers, which allow you to heat the scented wax without lighting the candle, thus allowing the scent to be released into your room without a flame. People, what fun are candles without the risk usually involved with having an open flame? Everyone knows there's a chance that you might burn your whole house (or dorm room) to the ground, but there's some small thrill in that, isn't there? Or am I the only one?

I put a picture of it below, only that you might stay far, far away from it. If you are my friend and you buy it, I promise I will judge you.


Stupid candle warmers, sucking the joy out of life.

eight crazy nights

Now I'm pretty sure that most of you know (unless you live under a rock) that candles are often used in religious ceremonies. Growing up Catholic and being an altar server, I used to carry a candle down the aisle in the procession towards the alter. It was pretty sweet.

But I think the coolest religious candle deal has to be Hannukah. They light not one, not two, but EIGHT candles over the course of the holiday, and the religious significance is pretty sweet.

here's the down-low about it from Wikipedia:

Hannukah, from the Hebrew word for "dedication" or "consecration", marks the re-dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus IV and commemorates the "miracle of the container of oil." According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate fresh olive oil.

So if you've never gotten a chance to experience the lighting of the Hannukah candles, get on it, my friend. It is not an experience to be missed.

trick or treat?

Ok, my friends, we've all been there. It's your birthday, you're sitting at the kitchen counter (we always had to eat in the kitchen) and people are singing a dirge-like tune as your mom/dad/aunt sally is slowly bringing in the cake, her hand covering the candle flames so they won't go out before you blow them out and spit all over your cake. They place the cake in front of you, and as the song ends, you screw up your eyes, think hard, and then give a blow (minds out of the gutter, now), extinguishing those small candles with one mighty gust of breath.

But wait? What is this? The stupid candles just re-lit themselves. Is this magic? Horrible crazy voo-doo? Karma? You put them out again, but they keep re-lighting. These. Stupid. Candles. Won't. Go. Out. Finally, you give in to the tears while your mom/dad/aunt sally quickly pluck the candles from your cake and throws them into a sink full of water.

As you sadly eat your cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting, to be exact), you begin to wonder. What was up with those candles?

Well, my friends, I have a bit of truth for you. You have just been hoodwinked by one of the cruelest birthday tools known to man: trick candles, candles that manage to re-light themselves over and over and cause you to question your sanity.

How do these awful things work, you might wonder. Well, I did a little googling, and I got the chemistry low-down (a science that I passed with flying colors, thank you very much, but I am still going to let someone else explain it to you).

from howstuffworks.com:

The key thing about a normal candle that is important to a trick candle is the moment after you blow out the candle. Normally there is a burning ember in the wick that causes a ribbon of paraffin smoke to rise from the wick. That ember is hot enough to vaporize paraffin but it is not hot enough to ignite the paraffin vapor.

The key to a re-lighting candle, therefore, is to add something to the wick that the ember is hot enough to ignite. That way the ember can ignite this substance and the substance can then ignite the paraffin vapor. In the links below, the most common substance mentioned is magnesium. Magnesium is a metal, but it happens to burn (combine with oxygen to produce light and heat) rapidly at an ignition temperature as low as 800 degrees F (430 degrees C) (aluminum and iron both burn as well, but magnesium lights at a lower temperature).

Inside the burning wick, the magnesium is shielded from oxygen and cooled by liquid paraffin, but once the flame goes out magnesium dust is ignited by the ember. If you watch the ember you will see tiny flecks of magnesium going off. One of them produces the heat necessary to re-light the paraffin vapor, and the candle flame comes back to life!

There you have it, my friends. And a word of advice. Next time someone puts trick candles on your cake, kick them in the shins. No one deserves that on their birthday.

great moments for candles in cinematic history

Ok, my friends, here's the truth: there is nothing that I love better than a good musical, unless it is a movie version of a musical done ridiculously well. So let's talk about The Phantom of the Opera. Good musical, great movie. The movie-version Phantom is quite attractive (though Raoul is not), and Minnie Driver provides fantastic comic relief.

But what we are really interested in, my friends, is the INSANE amount of candles that exist throughout the movie. In fact, if it wasn't for these candles, the Phantom would be completely out of luck, because they a) totally set the creepy/romantic mood he always seems to be going for and b) illuminate his crazy underground lair (because the silly opera house didn't think of putting in outlets in the watery dungeon). In essence, without candles, the movie would be a complete bust.

So thank you, candles, for being a part of this movie. They definitely could not have done it without you.



So many candles! Glorious.

guest blog! score.

Hey again, my friends. I now have the supreme pleasure of introducing Ms. Allison Kostka, one of my fantastic roommates, who has decided to save you all from my ridiculous thoughts by blogging a few of her own. Enjoy.

Like many of you Wickersnapper addicts out there, I love candles pretty much any time and anywhere. But the hard truth is that there are some places where real burning flames, and the melted wax, heat and soot that come with it, just aren’t practical.

Take, for example, my first three years of college. As anyone who has lived in university housing can attest, candles and other flame- and heat-producing devices are almost always banned from dorms on the grounds that they are a “fire hazard.” What are candle lovers to do when they’re stranded for months at a time without the warm glow of a flickering friend by their side?

My mother, as it turns out, had just the right solution for that dilemma: the battery-operated flameless candle. While there’s nothing quite like a real burning flame, the folks at Candle Impressions have come pretty close and found the perfect substitute for your waxy companion.

I’m not talking about one of those plastic candles with the flame-shaped bulb that people put in their windows at Christmas. Instead, these babies are made from real wax and with the flip of a switch, give off a realistic, flickering glow. My own candle even has a light vanilla scent which permeates when the candle warms up, though it is not nearly as fragrant as a real candle. These candles are also great if you have young kids or pets in the house, if you want to leave a candle unattended or if you have an irrational fear of open flames. Just pop in some batteries, switch it on and you’ll swear you have a real candle in the room as you bask in the glow.