What exactly are wood wick candles? and...a Barred Owl comes to North Fork

Wood wick candles are candles that have a wick that is made from wood instead of the traditional candle wicking material. They are quite wonderful because when they are lit, they crackle like a fire. They create a wonderful atmosphere. I highly recommend them!

OK....check this out!! Yesterday, near twilight, I saw a huge bird circle in the back yard. At first I thought it was a hawk but it was a Barred Owl!! It landed on the pole that holds our bird feeders and it was awesome.

I have to say that it was quite amazing. As you can see from this picture, they are quite large. Acutally they are nearly 2 ft. in length. I was quite fascinated as I watched it turn it's head from side to side and then look right at me! I took as many pictures as I could. After a couple of minutes of perching here, it went over and sat on the top  of the pergola for a bit and then flew away.  It was a wonderful experience to see this large bird close up.

I'll be watching to see if it comes back to visit any time soon.

Wood Wick Candles in a Victorian Jar

I was so excited when I first saw these victorian jars. I couldn't wait to make wood wick candles in them. The pewter top sets it off. I haven't put my usual organza ribbon on these as I'm still thinking about what I like the best. Smelling the lilac made me think of spring and all of the wonderful things that come with that time of year. Skiing is so much fun and I look forward to going out into the woods and along the edge of the fields everyday. There are so many things to see. There are always tracks from one kind of animal or another. Today we saw fox tracks and rodent tracks. We saw many deer tracks as well. It was a very fast ski and a great deal of fun! One of the other fragrances in my candles was Lily of the Valley. What a wonderful smell. If you close your eyes you can imagine standing in a patch of them. Such a tiny flower and such an incredible aroma! I just love seeing them in early spring.

What a wonderful smell. If you close your eyes you can imagine standing in a patch of them. Such a tiny flower and such an incredible aroma! I just love seeing them in early spring.  Another flower that is amazing is lavender. I've yet to get it to come through the winter but I will keep trying none the less. Lavender has a most wonderful aroma. It is used in aromatherapy for relaxation. I've had my experiences with this for sure. This past fall I bought some lavender buds to put in my soap. I was so excited to make the first bars of soap with lavender and I was so proud of how nice they looked. It was all quite temporary however. My mom put some by her kitchen sink. She liked it as much as me. Over the course of a few days, the lavender began to turn brown. It looked like my soap had bugs! My neice reached to use it at my mom's and jumped and threw the soap bar thinking it had bugs on it. Obviously I have some work to do in this department. I am

very proud of my lavender candles. I like the colors and so do my customers. I'll have to keep working with the soap to get it right but this wood wick soy wax candle came out really well. As I think about spring and the warm weather, I do start to wish for the end of winter in a way but usually it's when the snow has melted and there's no chance of it coming back that I am ready for spring and summer to arrive. Until they do, I'll keep making as much as I can to be ready for the upcoming crafting season and the sales that'll have in the mean time.

More Pressed Flower Candles

Here are more pressed flower candles. They are so pretty. I love burning them because the flame ends up behind all of the flowers as the candle burns. They are really beautiful. This one has some grasses and a few maple leaves along the bottom.

The leaves are collected in early spring. The grasses are picked in the summer. Some grasses can be pressed, others need to be hung and dried. I usually press the smaller and thinner ones as they work better for candles.

This beauty, to your right, has large flowers pressed along the bottom with delicate flowers and a few grasses coming out toward the top. A wonderful deep pink-lavender flower. Quite delightful.

This is a favorite of mine. I love the delicate flowers and grasses.
The colors in this one are really pretty too. There is some very deep blue, almost purple, with some lighter creamy colored flowers and greenish grasses. The combination is really pretty.
All of these can be purchased at our gift shop.

Awesome Soaps and more candles on the way

Yesterday I made amazing goat's milk and oatmeal soap. There are 2 different fragrances and both are amazing. Oatmeal, milk and honey and warm vanilla sugar. Both smell wonderful! I just love the way oatmeal feels and how it softens and helps your skin. This is great for a winter shower or bath. I made several different guest size soaps for our Bed and Breakfast Guests to use. I put them in our complimentary ammenities baskets. Everyone loves our soaps and many guests purchase some from our gift shop to take with them when they depart. They make wonderful gifts and they are a nice addition to any bathroom or kitchen to add that special touch.

Valentine or anytime....Spa Bath Basket

Here's a really nice valentine or any time spa bath basket. I always leave compimentary soaps for our bed and breakfast guests. I'd like to offer a spa package and I'm working on putting one together. Part of that  involves a Spa Bath Basket similar to this one. In this basket there's a Basic Bath Tea,

a 4 oz. bar of "Beneath the Stars" sweetened honey soap with an all natural goat's milk, heart shaped emed.

there is a nylon suds maker soap bag,

and a bag with 6 unscented, heart shaped pink and white bath fizzies.

A very nice and very enjoyable basket all for a very resonable price. Go to http://www.northforkgifts.com/ or http://www.northforkgifts.etsy.com/ to see this new basket and make your purchase before we run out! I'm also working on lotions and made quite a few new candles yesterday so check back often to see what's happening.

Peppermint Candles

Last night I made peppermint candles. I'll be making more today. They smell wonderful. There's nothing like that fresh clean smell. We have lots of different fragrances to choose from. Frazier Fir is on the list for tonight's candle making session. You can take a candle making class when you stay at our B&B just let me know when you book your room that you'd like to take a class and it can be arranged for you.

So much fun in the woods today skiing

We had so much fun in the woods today skiing. This is the first thing we saw. It is what remains on the ground after the pileated wood peckers have made holes in the trees.

Here's what the holes look like. I apologize for the blurry picture. This is what happens when you take your glasses off to ski because of the freezing drizzle. You can see the huge holes in the trees. The wood peckers had quite the feast by the looks of it.

We checked this out for a while and then headed over to Petey's loop. As you may remember, we saw 4 porcupines yesterday but I had forgotten to take my camera. Today, we weren't so lucky. We only saw one.

The big dark lump in the middle of the two tree trunks is a porcupine.

You can see him even better in this picture. Basically he looks big and black. They don't move or anything. They look like they are sleeping. They are quite cute.

These are some close up shots of a set of single porcupine tracks. It's such fun to go through the woods and see who has been there. I find it all so very interesting. I couldn't wait to get back and share these pictures. Hopefully, the next time I'll have my glasses and more porcupines to take pictures of.