The story of king Alfred the great and candles as Time Indicators

Once upon a time, in a far away England there ruled the good king Alfred the great. He couldn't give up his love of studying and reading and yet he had so many kingly obligations. What a dilemma!

Clocks were still not invented and the idea of candles as time indicators were still to be thought of.

One night, in his royal bedroom after his personal servant has just departed, king Alfred set all alone, at last, for the first time during his awake hours.He was looking at the last candle still lit on his night stand.

The flickering light of the candle was trying to tell him something. Something important, he was sure. The circle of light was small but bright and in it, next to the candle, where all his precious books, lonely and unopened for a long time.

 "Too long", thought the good king Alfred. Maybe he could read some now, just before he goes to sleep.  "Maybe this is what the candle wanted to tell me".

He was ready to get up, choose a book and go to his desk but the light of the candle flickered side to side as if saying "no!" He looked at the candle, his eyelids almost closing up on his eyes. He was too tiered. What if he falls asleep, reading a book and the candle will fall on the pages and they will catch fire? He got into his royal bed and blew the candle off and even before his head reached the pillow he was fast asleep dreaming.

In the morning he ordered his chandler in and asked him to invent a candle that will let him read not too long because he needed the sleep and in a safe way so he will not fall asleep on his book with the candle beside.  He presented task to the chandler and sent him away.

That same night, just when got ready for bed there was a knock on the door. "It's me, the chandler! Sorry to disturb you but I think I found a solution". 

                                                               Candles as time indicators

"Come in!" said king Alfred. The chandler had in his hand a brand new candle in a massive gold candle holder. He lit the candle and asked the king to sit down and start reading. The king was startled by the strange request, but complied anyway. The chandler was sitting in an extra chair, counting the turning pages of the book until the king's head started to sway then fell on the opened book. The chandler then gently woke the king up and helped him get into bed, not before he blew off the candle on the king's desk and got out smiling to himself with the candle in the golden candle holder in his hand.

The rest of the story of Candles as time indicators, will be told in the next blog in my new website together with modern uses of them.

Decorative Candles Can Increase Your Creativity

Picture  decorative candles in your mind. A beautiful candle composed of anything that you like – it could be lilac and white with the fresh smell of lavender, or blue and green with the calming smell of the ocean. It could be orange, blue and green, with the invigorating smell of a brand new Spring morning. What does that candle make you think of? Spirituality, love, friendship, memories, happiness, warmth? Can you picture yourself sitting on a soft, warm beach or walking through the meadows?

All of these beautiful images and thoughts your mind conjures up are a not-so-subtle hint of the sheer power of your own creativity. Within milliseconds of thinking of that candle, your mind has painted you a picture that you can see as if looking at it with your very own eyes.

 

Decorative candles are the perfect way to guide you into becoming more creative

Candles are already very much related to creativity – we all have seen pictures of writers writing by candlelight in the middle of the night with a quill pen and a log fire. We may not have quill pens or log fires, but we sure do have a heap of creativity and the finest candles!

But why are decorative candles related to creativity so much? Perhaps it's the calming effect a flickering flame has, or the various images a particular scent conjures up. Maybe it's the soft, subtle light that they produce or the low glow of heat they let off. Everybody is different in these things, but the fact is that decorative candles bring pleasure and positivity to any room you're in.

Candles are associated with many things

Life, death, happiness, sadness, celebration, spirituality, and many other important occasions. All of these thoughts, feelings and emotions can be turned into something beautiful, whether written, painted, drawn, captured, sculpted, knitted – it's all an act of creating something.

That one candle is enough to inspire you to paint the picture of perfection that your mind sees. It's like having a photographic memory, but without having seen a photograph. Your mind will remember that picture and recall it every time you see or think of that decorative candle until you bring that picture to life. It's a well-known fact that we should create what we want to see; well, this is your mind giving you a very big hint.

How to use Soy candles for creativity- Rainbow candles (part two)

It is very simple really to use candles, especially these unique soy wax candles made for creative people.

1.       Make sure your work place is in order and position the candle you have chosen in a place where you can clearly see it.

2.       Put the candle in a candle holder, or simply use a glass plate.

3.       Take your time, breath in and out. Enjoy the colors of the rainbow as each one of them has some good influence on your mind.

                                                         4.       Light the candle.

5.       Look at the flickering light, let the scent into your thoughts and feelings and concentrate.

6.       Start creating.!Whenever your thoughts are wandering too far away, look at the candle and remember: it is watching you and measuring your time of creativity and work.

7.       Remember- you are not allowed to leave the room while this soy wax candle is still burning as it is against safety rules.

Each candle will come with different timing.

In this one – it will take approximately two and a half hour for each color to burn down.

Enjoy! You can have many creativity sessions with this big soy candle as it has a lot of burning hours in it.

Rainbow Soy wax Candles for creatives- part one

"I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth"

                                          Genesis, 9-13

Rainbow is a covenant 

Rainbow is a promise 

Rainbow is all the colors of white light.

The colors of the rainbow are bright and fresh, cheerful and deep. The primary colors are blue, yellow and red and from them emanate orange, violet, indigo and green. Each color has its own effect on feelings but all together, I believe they provide a perfect scene for creativity.

Looking at a rainbow, even if it's not full, makes me smile and always lift burdens off my heart even those I didn't know were there. I always try not to point at the rainbow as someone once told me it might bring bad luck, although "Hey look! A rainbow!"  Always spills out of my mouth unintentionally.

And so when I thought of  unique candles for creative's which will combine inspiration, good energy and a non digital way to measure time I came up with the idea of rainbow soy wax candles. Each one of the candles will measure the time differently. For instance this one will be about two and a half hours of normal time for the burning of each color.

These first candles are Vanilla scented but you can ask for the scent which you love best and makes you most inspired and focused.

P.S

Of course if the Rainbow doesn't work for you, the same candles with the same way of  "time measuring" can be made with other colors.

The first ones are now posted for sale in my Etsy's shop

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BusyBeeArtBoutique

Scents and Sensibility

How to use scents sensibly? Looking at myself and others we tend to surround ourselves with artificial scents, perfumes, air fresheners, scented creams and soaps, and of course scented candles. Sometimes I realize I get carried away using all sorts and forms of smells to cover up our natural scents. I tend to forget the good smell of sweating during a workout or good sex. If a shirt is left alone with the sweat to get sour it needs washing not deodorant underneath.

 If I enter into a closed carpeted room and it smells moldy, clearly it has mold in it so the most sensible thing to do is to thoroughly clean it, maybe let some real fresh air in and not only light a heavily scented candle or use a strong air freshener spray to cover up 

the unpleasant smell. Mold is not good for us so better try to get rid of it and then maybe light a slightly scented candle for a last touch of cleaning like a dessert at the end of a good meal when you are not too stuffed up to enjoy it.

I am not a religious person yet one of my favorite philosophers is one of the greatest Jewish Rabbis ever, Maimonides or the RAMBAM as we call him in Hebrew, who in the 12^th century taught of "Golden Mean"- the middle path in life which is good for soul as well as for body (he served as the personal doctor of the king of Spain).

 I try to lead my life accordingly and my approach to scents in candle is no different.  So I try to make my candles as friendly as possible without them being too invasive in their scents.

I try to make them as scented as spices and herbs in good cooking and not as heavily scented as air freshener for the loo. I must tell you that when you enter my house you can feel their presence but they will not be able to compete against my famous chicken soup or the dreamlike scent of blooming Jasmine at night time.

Yet this is me and my taste, if you feel differently you can always contact me and I will be happy to follow your wishes and dreams and expectations from scented candles.

https://www.etsy.com/your/listings?ref=si_your_shop

I will love to get your feed back and opinion so please leave a comment. 

Eulogy to our Fibi- one dog's life

Whether the spelling is this way or another Fibi didn't really care. She was with us from the end of 2000. Born and raised in Costa Rica she was fast and alert, brave and smart, an excellent jumper and as stubborn as a mule. When I first tried to put a leash on her to take her for a walk she glued her legs in the floor and refused to move. I spoke to her softly; I spoke with all my authority voice. I tried to bribe her with smelly salami…nothing. She just set there in the center of my bedroom and wouldn't move. I had to leave. I put the salami in front of her and left home for about four hours. When I came back I found her in the same position, the salami untouched. I gave up, took the leash off her and immediately the salami disappeared within her and she left the room waving her tail up victoriously and went to her business.

  We had to send her to school for 6 weeks to learn how to accept the leash and ever since she came back from school basically trained but still with her free, brave, loyal spirit,

we were together.

Now she is gone.

She took care of Bell our late old Coli dog and when Bell was gone Fibi was so depressed she didn't smile. Her tail went between her back legs, she hardly ate and…there came Lulu the next love of her life.

 When Rony left home to UBC, Fibi set in front of the gate every day at three pm waiting for the school bus. When no Rony came of the bus she howled a bit and came back home sad and depressed. It went on like this for three month.  Then Rony came home for vacation and somehow Fibi understood.

Now she is gone

While walking in the neighborhood with Maribel and lulu a vicious giant German shepherd charge in for an attack Fibi got tensed then Maribel unleashed her and in a counter attack she fought against twice her size dog and sent him away wailing with a torn ear. They were never attacked again.

 In 2008 we left Costa Rica with both Lulu and Fibi on the same flight and came to live in San Diego. By this time we already knew Fibi will take it hard since she was of those stable, changes hate persons. It took her some time but she adapted well to the totally different life in an ocean side- desert weather of San Diego area. She did it for us and for Lulu and she was happy. We were too. Fibi and Lulu made a home for us wherever we went.

And now both are gone… left… 

 I came home today walking from the car towards the back door looking to the garden gate expecting to see her standing there looking at me with blind eyes and still know me. It's been a long time now since she wiggled her tail with joy, not that she ever was a great wiggler, but she stopped completely after Lulu left, and of course she wasn't there. She will never again be there… I try hard to remove this kind of instinctive notions from my mind as soon as they are coming in.

Fibe, I was left behind with a nagging question was I right to make this decision of ending your life since it is an irreversible decision? You are silent as always…

We love you; we always have and forever will. It was a privilege to have you in our life it was joy and happiness and since I don't intend to have another dog to replace you, there will never be such unending unconditional love like yours to me.

  

Plumeria and sunshiny days candles

As I said in my end of May candles' posts in my Etsy's shop at:

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/BusyBeeArtBoutique

It was a gloomy dump rainy day and I all I could think of where the humble small Plumeria trees in side street in Tel Aviv in summer, their yellowish white crown of soft, gentle flowers and their wonderful scent adorning the deep blue Mediterranean sky.

 

I had to think it and make these candles in order to be absolutely sure that the warm days of late spring and then summer will really reach here in south east Pennsylvania eventually where my home is now,  and I will be saved from the misery of getting used to cold days even when May is aging towards June.

So  blue sky,  sunshine and Plumeria are all invested in these candles in colors, scents and all the rest.

 They were like a sort of prayer because today, sunshine and warmth are here and…that is what I wanted for now.