Candle In The Wind . . .

From the time I could understand words, my mother instilled the fear of fire into me.  She grew up in England before the days of central heating, where a coal fire was the only way to keep the shivers at bay (and not very well, either.  You toasted on one side while the other froze).

So when candles became the rage, I never succumbed to the temptation to buy and light them.  All my friends did, but the idea of touching match to wick was just more than I could bring myself to do.

Okay, I exaggerate.  Before I learned to say NO SMOKING IN MY HOUSE, I'd burn a votive candle when my friend Judy came over.  When I visited my brother, I used to take a candle with me because it seemed to dissipate the smoke somehow.  (Either that or it was wishful thinking.)

My friend Gail waxed poetically (pun intended) about certain candles.  She particularly liked the lemon icebox cookies aroma.  (They're soybean wax/no lead Kitchen Pantry Lights from Swan Creek Candle Company.)  Gail told me she sits her candles in a potpourri warmer and the aroma keeps her from eating cookies all day. (She should know.  She's a Weight Watchers graduate and has kept the weight off for several years.)

I thought about it for a long time before I broke down and bought myself a candle warmer and yes, a jar candle of lemon icebox cookies.  At first, I timidly warmed the candle in the kitchen, fearing the cats would knock it over.  But after a couple of weeks and they didn't go near it, I worked up the courage to bring it into my office, where it's sitting even as I type this.

Oh, the heavenly aroma of lemon icebox cookies is enough to make me get out a spoon and gouge out a piece of wax...it just smells sooooo good.  I've also got a butterscotch toffee candle that someone gave me as a gift that smells just like butterscotch pudding.  Yum.

Supposedly burning (or melting) aromatic candles should heighten the senses and cause your creativity to flow.  I don't yet have enough experience to know if that's true.  But if it is...I've got a world of dessert-flavored candles in my future.