07 Feb 2016

Proud Owner:

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When looking ahead to 2016, I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to start buying candles. I had always felt a little bit behind knowing that all the guys I ever dated had candles on their desk or bedside table whereas buying a candle for my home had never even crossed my mind. Candles are sold everywhere, Rite Aid, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Safeway – but if I was going to get serious about this, I wanted to do my research. I wanted the best of the best and Mandi let me know that the only place to buy them was Anthropologie.

The same day that I landed back in California after spending the holidays in Seattle, I came home, dropped off my luggage and drove straight to Anthropologie. Since this was going to be a new hobby/collection, I thought I would start off small and purchase 1, but after sniffing almost every candle in the store, limiting myself just didn’t seem like a good idea. Instead, I bought the three pictured above. Three different sizes – all different scents and in three different tins so that they could be re-used. More on that in a future post though!

I realized though that when it came to candles, I was kind of a n00b. I had a lot of questions – all of which Mandi answered for me:

  • Should you light more than one at a time?
  • How do you know which two to light together?
  • What am I supposed to feel when I light candles?
  • Will they set off my smoke detector after I blow them out?
  • Do you put the lid on top of the candle afterwards? What purpose do those lids serve?
  • Do people light candles during the day?

Also, this is embarrassing to admit, but continues to prove how much of an amateur I am with candles – the first night that I lit them I got really close to smell it and a piece of my hair just breezed right on through into the flame.

Thankfully, I was unscathed by this incident, but I can’t believe that it happened in the first place. It could have been a lot worse, especially if the candle had interacted with something else, like my curtains or sofa. As this is now on my mind, I may have to get in touch with somewhere similar To Aardvark Electric, Inc. so they can come and test my smoke detector, just so I know that it works if anything should happen regarding my candles. I hope it doesn’t, but you can never be too sure. And I think that this will be the right thing to do going forward, particularly as I had a close shave with a major incident myself.

With that being said, I purchased these candles at the beginning of January – happy to announce that I have since returned to Anthro to buy two more candles! We’ve got a problem here. I think it’s going to be an expensive collection to keep, but at the same time it’s so nice and relaxing to light them at the end of a work day while I’m writing late night emails or blogging. They also make my apartment smell 110% better!