I love candles. I always have. As a child I used to watch as the flames would dance around the tops of each candle on the large candelabra over our dining room table. It was always a thrill to me to be able to snuff them out with our long snuffer at the end of the meal. In my youth, candles represented a certain sense of elegance.




The next time I would be so taken with a candle was not until I was in college in Boston. Heather lived directly across the hall from me. Her room was amazing. Everything about it. But what I remember most was her incredibly downy duvet and her blueberry candle. It wasn't your typical overwhelming, over-perfumed Yankee Candle variety. It was subtle and it was sweet. You couldn't quite tell, initially, what the aroma was until you knew. It was big and blue and blueberry. If my memory serves me right this candle came from Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts just over the Connecticut border, where Heather lived. I was amazed at what a sense of peace and calm, and warmth a single candle could provide. I don't remember ever having candles in my dorm room, nor do I remember anyone else having a candle in their dorm-room. I graduated from college 4 years later and lived, it seems, all over the place in Boston before moving to Connecticut. I was 22 and invited to a friend's party on the Upper East Side. Jamie had a wonderful apartment with amazing views of the East River. What impressed me most in the nicely decorated, dimly lit apartment was the assortment of candles he had arranged on a tray on the coffee table. There were easily 2 dozen candles of varying sizes and heights. They were white and majestic. They evoked, once again, a feeling of calm, warmth and relaxed elegance. I remember, once again, watching the dancing flames... I knew at that point that candles would always be in my home.

I prefer white candles myself. I prefer unscented as well. But I love the white candles to be of all sizes and shapes. We have candles on top of the hearth in the family room, and in the living room we have large white pillars of varying heights placed inside the fireplace. I love the look of the contrast of the clean bright white against the bold black of freshly painted brick. I have candelabras and candle sticks on top of my piano, on my dining room table, little white tea lights in the entry way, and white candles in old mason jars around my large bathtub. To this day candles calm me. To this day I still love to watch the flames flicker. In the winter these candles seem to warm my home, warm my soul, and yet I love candle light in the summer time too. What one can do with candles, and where one can place and utilize them in limitless.