all aglow

i love the incredibly simple idea of lining a walkway or staircase with candles when having people over in the evening. it's perfect for a holiday soiree or even just a casual dinner with loved ones. i've thought about the homes of several people i know -- from big suburban houses to tiny city apartments -- and there isn't one of them that i don't think could execute this in a clean, hauntingly beautiful way. you could do in outside as your guests enter the home, or you could line an indoor hallway or set of stairs. or both.

i always know i really love an idea when i continually rediscover it in different iterations and seasons...when i was looking for beautiful images of this idea, i stumbled upon my own post from early spring about this same notion, but with a decidedly springy, summery feel.

image, image, last two images

falling for fall

are you enjoying the beautiful fall colors and relishing the coziness that is true fall? the colors  seem to be at their peak over the last few days where i am, and i'm trying to savor every single moment. 

i'm off from work this week, and inside the house i'm burning harvesty scented candles for their scent and their glow,  and i'm boiling whole cinnamon sticks on the stove to squeeze out every drop of their aroma. how do you take your fall? are you loving it?

tiny treasures...heaven scent

you just can't do better than the glade winter collection candles. last year, i wrote about several really good gift candles on the (relative) cheap as candles go. and i stand by those choices for gifts. but i have to tell you...i am utterly, knocked down, dragged out impressed by glade's winter collection, and they're 2 for $5 in most grocery stores and superstores. sometimes even 2 for $4. and in many locations, there's a tear-off coupon pad for $3 off 3.

these are so perfect for lighting throughout your home this season, even after the holidays have come and gone. the longest, coldest part of winter is ahead of us without the holiday cheer to warm us, so a soft and delicious smelling glow at home is necessary. one of the things i love most is that the labels on these candles are made for peeling off...and you know how i feel about eliminating visual noise in the home.

my favorite is the apple cinnamon which smells like the holidays, full stop. yeah, i said full stop. a close second is the french vanilla, but then i really love the bayberry spice too, which smells perfectly of pine and cold air. the only one i really don't like is the very purple sugarplum fantasies, because i think it misses the authenticity of scent that my favorites really capture.

in the winter collection, they have the oil candles and refills, the plug-ins and refills, but to me, the candles are simple and straightforward. we all have enough things we always need refills for, right?

loving these...not in the way that i feel the need to put a glade app on my phone, but i do love them, and i think you will too.

image

man(zanita) up!

you might remeber my lament last year that west elm had discontinued their beautiful manzanita wall sconces. crazy, if you ask me. but this year, i'm thrilled to find that they have brought us a manzanita candelabra. i love it, and in light of it, i can forgive the wall sconce fiasco of 2009.

they also make a manzanita menorah which is nice, though not my favorite menorah on the block. here are the ones that are:

the tree menorah and the gold pomegranate tree menorah by the new classic master, michael aram.




and could the architectonic menorah by famed architect richard meier be any more amazing looking? check out his collection of mezuzahs too.
and where celeb menorah designers are concerned, leave it to jonathan adler (a good jewish boy from jersey who started his pottery work at summer camp) to come up with a quirky, luxe design like this peacock menorah.
and to go along with your fabulous menorah, hello futura seder plate.

lastly, i love the iron curvy menorah by blackthorne forge for its strong traditional roots but the fact that it doesn't look old-fashioned. a modern classic indeed.

whatever you light, whatever you fry in oil, whatever gifts you give and receive, happy channukah.

all images from linked sites

tiny treasures...lucky strike

well, i'm sure i don't have to tell you how much i love candles and what serenity and loveliness they can bring to any room. that conversation is just old hat, don't you think? (for a review, check out this candle post, and this one).

but you know what i think just seals the deal? these large matchboxes that i've been mildly obsessed with since last winter. i first received one from my mom as a yankee swap gift with a $5 limit, and she got them at pier 1. but they're totally the kind of item that you have to always be on the lookout for because pier 1 no longer has them, and neither does anthro.

i've been told kate's paperie in new york has them from time to time, and a very special store in port washington i plan on introducing you to soon has a very healthy collection. but they're the type of item that rotates in and our of inventory, so you have to just always be mildly looking for them.

and what's nice about that is that when you know what you're looking for, you find yourself well positioned to seize the opportunity when presented... a few weeks ago i found myself at the christmas tree shop and found a whole display of these, all with birds, butterflies and flowers, for $1 each. in tiny treasure speak, that means 5 of them! the truth is, you could never have too many of these because you can have one with each candle at home and they're perfect as gifts too - alone as a little token, or with a candle as the little detail that makes the gift.

one thing i've found is that in a lot of grocery stores, you can find boxes of four inch matches (albeit more generically packaged) which can come in handy when you need a refill, since it's such a shame to throw out the pretty box.

of course if all else fails, you could always use the boxes this way - just remove the flammable part, obvi.

and if you really fall in love with this idea and want to go the personalized route, check out for your party, where you can order custom matchboxes for your home, for gifts, for parties, etc.

despite the difficulty in finding them, i have no choice but to designate these a tiny treasure because to me, they totally enhance my enjoyment of all the candles i already love. it feels special to strike up a nice, long match on a pretty matchbox...it feels literary, in a way, more dramatic than using a bic or a little nothing matchbook. it makes the very lighting of the candle more of a ritual and an experience, which is really what tiny treasures is about.

so tuck away this week's $5 and save it for when you find this treasure in your travels. besides, it can be kind of fun to always be on the lookout for a little treasure, don't you agree?

a nice beginning

so i realized yesterday that i haven't filled you in on our new years weekend trip to washington! of course, everyone is over new years by now, but there were a few finds and tips i wanted to share. we were visiting barack and michelle...okay, just kidding, we were visiting kelly and cory. even better!

it was the first time we had seen their new place, so that was exciting. the apartment is beautiful and has kelly's touches all around, including beautiful displays of their china, crystal and silver, some of which they received as wedding gifts and others which she's collected over the years at tag sales and from family.

kelly's abundant and everyday use of silver trays under candles, flowers, champagne flutes and more lent a simple but elegant touch to everything, and inspired me to move deeper into my dabbling in a silver collection. so versatile and lovely looking, and a great mix with the crystal and china i already collect. what's nice is that along with the proper silver collection mainly from her grandmother and tag sales, kelly also uses new silver-tone pieces like the astor collection from crate and barrel and some of pottery barn's barona collection.

i also love love love the color scheme in their bathroom which is blues, greens and dark wood. so beautiful and oasis-like...sort of tropical feeling, but not in a gimmicky or out of place way. isn't their shower curtain, shown below, so pretty? helping the look along was kelly's wonderful collection of blue and green glass, and the oceans room spray from pier 1.

and silver wasn't all that was in abundance...the new year's eve spread kelly put out was the best kind - lots of small bites, with varied, delicious taste profiles, and definitely the type of spread that would be welcome at any casual, festive gathering. she did her famous dates, which i've sung the praises of before, and several different cheeses, shrimp cocktail, a charcuterie platter which i thought she very artfully laid out, and assorted dips.

the cocktail sauce with the shrimp was nicely hot - surprisingly, it was the regular jarred kind from trader joe's, but enhanced by lots of fresh-squeezed lemon juice right before serving.

we drank mostly champagne, and some prosecco and cava for good measure. i'd never tried cava before, which is spanish sparkling wine (as champagne is french and prosecco is italian). it was great - nice and dry, which is how i prefer my champagne. also, we tried one of kelly's staples which was on the sweeter side but very delicious also. it's an italian sparkling red wine, so a little weightier than a sparkling white, and said to have flavors of rose petals and raspberries. it's definitely worth trying if it sounds appealing to you. it's called rosa regale, and is available here.

as a fun accessory to our bubbly, we tried out the spanish tradition i wrote about on new year's eve, where you place skewers with twelve grapes in each glass for the revelers to eat at midnight, each grape predicting a sweet (or sour) month of the coming year. we froze the skewers of grapes for about 2 hours, which made them a nice, refreshing treat at midnight.

my personal directive was to keep it to yourself if you ate a sour one...we all need to believe that the year to come will be a sweet one, right?

also on our trip, i had total fragrance envy the whole time. kelly has started wearing michael kors perfume that smells postively dreamy and is now totally on my wish list. i found myself following the scent down each aisle everywhere we shopped, and it was positively delightful.

also on the fragrance front, i was reminded at their apartment of the amazing smell of most fig products, including the fresh fig spray from pier 1, which is what they use. the smell quickly became an obsession, so for a little fix, i bought essence of beauty's creamy fig handcream from cvs and am loving it (and so are the people around me when i put it on). until last week, i'd been regretting not getting the body mist and the body butter too, available here, so you can imagine how thrilled i was when i found some leftover holiday-packaged fig products at bath and body works for just over $1. SCORE.

also, we hit world market, which is a fabulous store if you have the opportunity to go to one. unfortunately, we don't have any nearby which is a real shame - they seem to start in the washington area and go south and west from there, but i did discover they have a shoppable website, which i didn't know. i love them because they have very reasonably priced items in all the fun categories - home decor, bath and body, accessories, more home decor, and then they have an extensive international food section, and a wine section. love that place and kelly and i always plan a trip there when i'm visting.

this time, i fell madly in love with the pattern above which they had in a tablecloth (only rectangular and i have a round table) and curtains (couldn't figure out where they'd go) called "tree of life." as i'm sharing this with you, i see they have them for sale online, which i'm seeing as a second chance at love...and i'm going to get to thinking about how i could use it as fabric...throw pillows? apron? placemats? i don't know...i think i need to do something with it though. isn't it gorg? oooh...maybe curtain tie-backs for our bedroom which i'm doing in many layered patterns...YES.

my main purchase there was six really pretty glasses with a trellis-like print which i really love and were a great bargain, on heavy sale for just over $2 a glass.

take a look through their website, i think you'll see some stuff you like...some really interesting items at very fair prices.

kelly and i topped off our galavanting with a drive through a few of washington and chevy chases's prettiest neighborhoods, and a stroll through the women's coop market in bethesda where we got some fresh pastries, some produce and where i scored these antique mirrors for $1. for the set. yeah. we also made a stop at the gap where much of the inventory was on heavy sale, including my choice of some comfy lightweight scarves (this and this), for $7 a piece.

all in all, my kind of long weekend - food and drink with friends, lots of shopping and talking, and afternoon naps each day. throw in some antique mirrors and small bouquets of orange roses in each room - perfection.

shower curtain and tablecloth photos from www.worldmarket.com, handcream photo from www.cvs.com

tiny treasures...mellow yellow

news team assemble! i am preempting my previously planned tiny treasure (tune in next week) and replacing it with a clear command to take your $5 and go quickly to bath and body works, one of my favorite purveyors of reasonably priced pampering products. (say that three times fast). sorry, i just had to.

bbw's "yellow sale" has reached fever pitch, and they are almost giving things away.i recommend going at a time where you have some time to walk around, sniff, test things out and not feel rushed. take pleasure in the act of treating yourself, not just the end result. it's so much nicer that way.

note: to take full advantage of this sale, you have to go to the store - forget the website - prices are different, plus they're shipping. and tiny treasures are NOT about paying for shipping. find your local stores here

.

okay, so we're talking 75% and 90% off of hundreds of products, in all different scents including lots of evergreens. that means that if someone were to purchase a large bottle of festive vanilla fig lotion (or any other "holiday traditions" scent) because said person is really into fig right now, it would cost $1.20. yes, that's right, $1.20. to me, it surely doesn't matter that they're in holiday-style stripes and colors. i care about the goods only!

also, you might like to know that the aromatherapy candle (nicely sized, and well-scented) is selling for $2.62. the lavender vanilla is what i would recommend, one of my all-time favorite scent profiles. also on the candle front, kelly was thrilled to get some of the 4 oz slatkin & co jar candles for $5 this past weekend, and i think i saw them for even less at my local store yesterday. look for leaves - it's a great, earthy, nostalgic scent for fall and winter.

and how about cozy, shea-butter infused sleep socks for $1.87 a pair? YES.

if this bevvy of items isn't a well-spent $5 to warm up the coldest days of the year, i don't know what is. put down the calculator...it's actually $5.69, but you know what, you're worth the extra 69 cents. AND the tax.

you can also use this opportunity to stock up on gifts for giving over the next year...candles, bath gels, creams, socks, slippers and perfumes are never out of style (many of the signature eau de toilettes are 75% off, selling for $6.62 - look for vanilla noir and enchanted orchid, specifically).

stock up your guest bathrooms, wedding welcome bags, next year's stocking stuffers, you name it! but do it fast - sale ends sunday.

all photos from www.bathandbodyworks.com

honey gift files...burning love

for my money, there's nothing that buys a spa feel like a good candle. it seems to be a well-known fact the quality of a candle's burn and scent is often directly correlated to its price. most "good" candles hover around the $26 mark, while there are some that are closer to $80 or $100. like most things, though, there are some lesser known gems that are a little less. or, some companies offer smaller sizes which are a great way to get in on a great candle without a second mortgage.

a candle makes a nice gift for a few reasons - first, candles are enjoyed many times over a long period of time and can enhance one's home experience. also, people rarely buy themselves candles, because they're such an indulgence. but my vote is on indulgences just like these for the people you care about at the holidays.

here are my picks for the best gift candles out there right now. i'd love to know some of your favorites too.

cowshed "knackered cow" ($46) - all vegan, "herbaceous" and relaxing smelling, beautiful etched-looking glass jars that almost glow when lit - available here or at soho house's cowshed spa.


also available in a set of 4 small votives ($30) - a more multi-fuctional, less expensive way to get "knackered":

voluspa seasons tin ($18) in baltic amber is one of my favorite candles EVER. an amazingly sultry and sweet scent in a long-lasting three wick candle, but the scent has become hard to find, though i have seen the diffusers and room spray at anthropologie. BUT all is not lost - there's a deliciously similar one now called french bourbon vanilla (available at nordstrom). for this low price, sniff around at both anthro and nordstrom for a scent you like - it's well worth it. they smell delish and last forever.

l'occitane candles ($28) in sweet cherry and spicy orange are surprise favorites of mine. not usually one for overly sweet smells, both of these scents strike just the right balance. the sweet cherry smells pleasantly reminiscent of childhood to me, while the spicy orange is edgy and moody and delicously warm smelling. presented tastefully in a frosted glass jar and pretty boxes, all you need is a ribbon or pretty gift bag.

the perfect christmas collection ($10) of candles at bath and body works is for sure, the best candle buy out there right now. the best-smelling of all, to my nose, is fireside which smells totally wintery and wonderful. they are $10 each on the website, and 2 for $20 in stores (must buy 2) and it's pretty unbelievable to me that such a large, well-scented and nicely packaged candle (including gift box) could be $10. trust me - they look like WAY more. bath and body works large filled candles are also 2 for $20 right now, and the leaves scent is very lovely and nostalgic in the nicest way. most of their scents are available in this size, including all the winter ones.
also in bath and body works, the most perfect candle i've ever smelled. i mean it. it's the henri bendel vanilla bean candle for $26. perfect in every way. i can't even describe it better than that. sweet, but not too sweet...that's it, i can't do any better. i am out of words. of course, comes in a stylish box, lovely frosted jar. BUY IT. FOR ME. okay, sorry, moment of weakness. if you're not into it, try the tuberose. also extraordinarily lovely.
happy sniffing.

top picture from bath and body works; all other pictures from linked sites.

tiny treasures...light up

i know for me, a good candle is worth spending some money on. not crazy money, like the ones that approach $100, but most good candles cost at least $18 - the cheapest i know of that smells incredible and burns long is the voluspa seasons candle tins for $18, which i get at anthropologie. the subject of candles warrants its own post(s), but for the purposes of tiny treasures (small indulgences for $5 or less), i want to talk about one small aspect (pun intended).

recently, i've started to buy votive size versions of very good candles because they usually cost between $1 and $2 and pack all the concentrated scent of their larger counterparts, but aren’t such a commitment. because one of the advantages of nice (read: expensive) candles is their burn time, the small ones last surprisingly long, provided you trim the wick each time before burning. set on a pretty little dish, in a mason jar or even in an antique teacup, they bring a smile to my face.

i usually get the colonial candle ones i buy at the amish market across from my office, and they’re $1.50 each, so for under $5, i can get three candles and use the scent throughout the house, one in each downstairs room. i tend to do this when i’m in a seasonal mood of some sort. the other day, i bought the farmers market scent which is a fresh, autumnal scent. later in the year, i’ll probably buy warm apple cake OR....

i could get this sampler set of votives from yankee candle that has four of their new fall scents (thanks for the heads-up to reader and friend kim!). the names of their new scents alone make me want to get in the car and head to the mall -- they're called: be thankful, autumn fruit, almond cookie, and moonlight harvest, among others. how much, you ask? it's as if this set was born to be a tiny treasure....$5!

with good candles priced the way they are, the votive sizes are great for so many reasons - it's nice to have so many points of fragrance when using the same scent throughout your home, rather than just have the immediate area around the candle smell good. also, it's a great way to test out a scent and decide if you really love it before you buy a larger one. also, it's a way to enjoy several scents in different areas of your home, if that's what you prefer, without having to take out a loan to buy all the full size candles.

to me, this is a perfect tiny treasure, just as tiny treasures should be - a small but wonderful luxury at a price that makes it easy to indulge.

votive photo from http://www.bbc.co.uk/; farmers market photo from http://www.colonialcandles.com/; yankee candle photo from www.yankeecandle.com