What a wonderful 2013! This was my first year open during Christmas and I had great first year sales. I still consider my candle shop fairly new, and believe that my sales will get better as more people slowly buy my products.

My best friend's birthday was a few days before Christmas and she really wanted an Island Breeze scented melt (similar to the Pure Romance Island Breeze scent). No one makes this scent in candles, so I had to try to create it. I haven't gotten it perfect yet, but I got her something similar to hold her over until I can perfect it. When we arrived at her house she was burning a big box store melt, and I couldn't smell it unless I was right over the melting bowl. She emptied it and put my melts in, within ten minutes her whole house smelled like IBTestBatch1. It was beautifully floral and fruity with a hint of clean linen. She placed it in the window and later when she was walking back in the house she says "oh I could smell it outside too, it's so yummy!"

So yes I am confident. Confident that as more people decide to try this brand they may have never tried before, they will fall in love with how full the aroma fills their houses. Why spend $3-6 with other brands when they do not scent your house like mine do?

Other than Holiday sales, my 2013 was glorious. We bought and moved into our first house. I have an official candle workplace in this house, got a new drum set (man I missed having drums!) and overall life was just great! I am hoping for an even better 2014, and if the first week has been any indication, this year is going to ROCK!

How about you? Have you had a great 2013 and inklings of a good 2014?

Will you be taking a chance and buying a Tree Frog Candles product this year?

I feel swamped!  It's a good feeling, but overwhelming at times!

Since moving, I still have a lot to unpack.  Plus I need to buy a new color printer for my labels.  BUT!  I have all of my candle making supplies unpacked and set up perfectly.  (Well, as perfectly as I can tell so far!  I will have to make more to know for sure if I will be switching it around again!)

Making candles brings me to....

SEASON SPECIALS!!!

You know there is someone (possibly even yourself) that you want to buy candles for this holiday season, right?  C'mon, think about it...  Yep, you got it!

Wouldn't they/you LOVE a yummy Cinnamon Balsam wax melt or candle for burning during ChristmaHannuKwanzika?

Or how about a DELICIOUS Warm Apple Pie candle for Thanksgiving?

Maybe start the new year off FRESH with a Sage & Lemongrass candle?

Place an order of $25 or more, and get 15% off that order with coupon code PRETURKEYDAY
This coupon code expires at 11:59pm on Wednesday, November 27th, so HURRY!

If you want to place an order on "Black Friday" (or as I like to call it, "I'm not getting trampled by a bunch of crazy people so I will shop online instead Friday")

Get 30% off your order of $25 or more with coupon code BLACKFRIDAY2013
This coupon code only available 11/29/13 - 12/1/13
Yup, that's right, I extended BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING TIME

Please place your Christmas orders no later than 12/15/2013 to Guarantee Delivery before Christmas!!!  If you place your order after that, you risk late delivery.  (Not because I am a slow candle maker!  Oh no no...  But think about how long those lines are at the post office, UPS, FedEx, DHL, ya know, every shipping place at Christmastime...  The larger work load and longer hours those delivery people have during this time of year.  


Now on a Debbie Downer note...

I think I might give up on Tree Frog Bath & Body...  at least for now.  With my longer commute to the mortgage paying job which in turn equals a larger monthly gas bill (man oh man I can't wait to trade in my gas guzzler for a PRIUS!)  I just can't justify spending more money on making items that I can't guarantee will be sold in a timely fashion.

I will keep the email address and Etsy site, but I can't guarantee how soon it will be before I can make all the bath & body products I wanted to begin.

Anyways, I should get back to the grind now!  Please go visit my Etsy page, maybe make a purchase?  I LOVE going home knowing I have candles to make and ship!

www.treefrogcandles.etsy.com

I LOVE YOU, MY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!  *Ribbit*

Well it's been quite a while, but I'm finally back!

We bought a HOUSE!  Yay!  Now I finally have an official, set up candle making space!  Not just pulling out everything I need each night I need to make candles into the kitchen and then cleaning it all up before passing out to go to work in the AM.  Now, I can work at a work station, and I do not have to make sure the kitchen is functional in the morning!  I have a hot plate, so I even melt my wax in this room. (Yes, I am in the room now, making my first attempt at a rainbow candle!) 

I have missed making candles so much while I was packed up.

Please check out my new online store, 
www.treefrogcandles.tictail.com

Soon, it might finally just be www.treefrogcandles.com !  I will keep you updated!

Have any questions?  Scent suggestions?

LET ME KNOW!  I love to hear from YOU.

I feel like I have been neglecting you.  Severely.

I'm sorry.

Really.

Things have been crazy / awesome lately!

The end of June, my purse was stolen out of my car during the Crystal Ballroom 80's Video Dance Attack.  The 80's dance party was AWESOME.  Walking into the parking garage and finding my window down and purse missing, not so much.  Thankfully I had my ID and phone and car keys on me, but my debit cards were used immediately.  I was 4 hours late cancelling the cards, but after the couple hundred dollars was already spent, I was able to dispute the charges.  The bank refunded my money, although not officially since VISA hasn't "verified" the fraud yet.  I do not know how long this takes exactly, but I was relieved when my purse and social security card were returned!  None of my bank/credit cards were, but otherwise I am happy.  And all of my cards have been replaced with new ones now anyways.

I haven't had a lot of sales lately, but I haven't really done anything new lately either.  I have so many ambitions and so little time/money to realize them all!  I really want to get into a house with room that I can work in and not have to transport my stuff back and forth from my bedroom closet to the kitchen to the closet again.  Found out yesterday, it might not be that hard for my hubby and I to get a home loan!  We found a great place in Salem, and while we aren't 100% sold on it yet (have yet to see it in person, get a feel for the exact neighborhood, etc.) It is at least offering everything I want in a place.  3 bedrooms, 2 bathroom, fenced yard, garage.  While it would be all too easy for me to just buy it, I am afraid I would have buyers remorse and so I am thankful for my husband, who is going to help me make sure we do not rush into any particular house.  I will be commuting daily to my day job when we move into a house, so we have to find the perfect location.  We also are checking out school district test scores, etc before we find the perfect place.  I would hate to move into a beautiful house, and then sacrifice my kids' education just because the house was awesome but the schools were not!

I am starting Tree Frog Bath & Body, a "subsidiary" of Tree Frog Candles.  I currently have only made some rose necklaces (you can see them on my Tree Frog bath & Body Facebook page!) but plan to make natural bath & body items as well. Deodorant, cologne, shave soap, etc.

Anyways, I just wanted to put an update out there for those of you not on my personal Facebook page.  I am still doing business, just slower than usual!  I have big plans for Tree Frog, and hope you'll all stay with me during the process.

One last thing - If you would like to be featured on my "Links" section of this site, let me know!  I am more than happy to put a button link to your page and a description of your items. (Handmade/small businesses only please!)

I love you, beautiful people!  Peace & Love.

Hello again lovely people.  I have missed you.

I have missed making candles, too.  It sucks when sales are down!  I can't afford to keep doing giveaways, but I can't afford for my business to go under.  So do I keep doing giveaways and hope that it helps my name get out there, or do I stop and save all supplies for sales?

I want to make candles so bad.  But I need to clean my apartment.  My candle area consists of an area in my bedroom for all of my supplies, and the kitchen when I need to use it.  I prefer to make larger quantities right now due to the amount of stuff I have to pull out of my room to make just one candle.  It's kind of a hassle, and I wish I had a store where I could make and sell my craft at the same time.  That's my dream.

I started an Indiegogo campaign, in case you haven't seen it.  As you can see, in the few days it has been up, no luck.

http://igg.me/at/treefrogcandles/x/3544201

Oh well.  We can't all be winners.

My niece and nephew are in town from Texas right now.  I am so excited to see them!  We took the kids to the airport to pick them up on Saturday.  This is also why I haven't been candling in a while.  Summer + Kids = BUSY!  I can't wait to go camping this summer, and get out of town for a week!  Then I will come home, and hopefully have some orders to make and ship, and new happy customers!

Do you have any candle ideas?  I am thinking of going more novelty here pretty soon.  But it takes $ I do not have right now.  Once I get some more money, I can buy more of the novelty molds and try my hand at funny/silly/adult candles.  Don't sorry!  I will make sure any "adult" candles are marked as such before pictures are put out there for the world to see!  What scent do you make an adult candle?  I will have to find out.

Alright party people.  Thanks for letting me get that out.  I know it's a boring post but I wanted something to write about and do not have new candles to show off yet...  I need to get to work! 

My molds arrived! I currently have wax cooling in them, but made two of each yesterday. They will be added to Etsy and Storenvy today. I just edited the photos to upload quicker and am working on the posts as you read. If you are reading this as soon as I post it, at least. I am excited to get these guys available to ship!

I had no clue how big they would be. The frog is one pound, and the new owl is a pound and a quarter! They are made with soy wax so they are very dense, too.

I also made the tortoise shell pillars. They are pretty cool looking. The different scents and colors can make them look different each time. So no two will be identical!

I hope you look at my store fronts soon and enjoy!

This morning my new store went live. 

www.treefrogcandles.storenvy.com

It doesn't seem to be as widely known as Etsy yet, so I hope that I can get the name out and maybe generate some more traffic for myself that way. I am still learning the site, so I hope to have it look better in the near future. Right now it is kind of bland. However, on my Etsy store each item is totally separate. On the Storenvy store they are grouped by scent family. I really like it, but it is a pain to list each scent every time. If only there were a way to select options you had already used... Oh well. 

My molds finally shipped! They should arrive tomorrow and I am so excited. The tortoise pillar wax should arrive tomorrow too. It's going to be an exciting weekend at Tree Frog Candles! I will try my hand at new molded candles with cotton wicks and Tortoise pillars. I am so excited!

I am so excited.  I have now started using soy wax, and I love it!  I haven't tried out my cotton wicks yet, but soon I will.  I have also now bought some tortoise shell palm wax I am excited to try out.  It makes crystilline patterns on the candle that look like a turtle shell.  Dang am I excited!  This cute little owl here (Coconut Banana Blast) was sold to a gal who loves owls and she loves him!  (She got 2!  One to burn one to keep?)  I plan to try a few other methods for making silicone molds, that should cost me less than $20 each...  Let's hope it works!

I am noticing my thoughts are a little bit everywhere this morning.  I am listening to the Counting Crows and the kids are running around like mad men.  I guess this means it is time to start our Memorial Day Weekend! 

Before I forget...  Save 20% in my shop this weekend with coupon code MDW2013

Last Tuesday I ordered super cute chubby owl and fancy frog candle molds.  They STILL haven't shipped!  I'm a little frustrated, but motivated enough to make my own molds.  I searched this weekend for the perfect cute little owl to make a mold of, and found one (half price even!) and tested my mold making abilities.  The first mold I made, oh dear, not perfect.  So I made two more.  Wonderful!  However then I discovered I do not like to make molded candles with paraffin wax.  The candles look partially see-through and like they have a weird crepe covering them.  They smell great!  I have one burning in my living room now.  So I decided to try soy wax. PERFECT.  Not only is there no thin crepe enveloping my owl, it is so smooth and looks very creamy.  I am excited to get more of these cuties made, and added to my Etsy site.

It's amazing when you search owl candles and find no less than 10 shops offering identical candles for varying prices...  Mine is one of a kind. 

Someone recently asked me if I could make an owl candle. So I have been looking into shaped candle molds. Not standard pillars, but cute shapes and designs. So hopefully soon I will have novelty candles for sale! I will keep you updated on the progress!