New: Prayer Candles from éan candles

This weekend has been a bit hectic in the best way possible for me. I went to a Tails of the City Rescue adoption event and think I found the pup of my dreams (more on that later – still in the middle of the adoption process), got some writing done, and made a LOT of new candles for my etsy shop.

I live right next to a small family owned Mexican-Catholic candle and oil store. I go in there so often the dogs in there are excited to see me again and the woman that owns it gives me free incense every time I go. I have been purchasing Prayer Candles from her and quickly became fascinated with them. There are prayer candles to make a lover stay loyal, prayer candles to get money fast, and prayer candles to help open up roads and remove blocks. A lot of this fell into line with what I had been researching when I first started my candle line: hoodoo, oils, and herbs and their magical properties. I decided that since I am a bit of a lapsed Catholic and didn’t feel comfortable working with Saints (as many of the prayer candles at aforementioned shop did), I decided I needed to make my own, secular-based magical prayer candles.

And here they are! Carefully crated, handmade soy wax ritual candles. Each candle is prepared with intent, full of essential oils, and contains seven small and gorgeous pieces of Fluorite. Fluorite is an incredibly versatile crystal, able to help with intuition, protection, balance, enhancing creativity, and bringing about wisdom and power.

These candles are perfect for meditation, manifesting wishes, placing on your altar, or even to be lit strictly in times of need. With a burn time of 80 + hours, these beauties will charge your fluorite gemstones with intent. Once the candle is completely burned, carry the crystals with you in your pocket or as a piece of jewelry to keep the intent strong within you.

Each candle is topped with black soy wax, full of myrrh, melissa, oakmoss, and marjoram to get rid of any negative energy or obstacles preventing your intentions from manifesting. The bottom color corresponds with your intention.

So, if you feel like shopping this President’s Day, please look at the new section of my etsy shop! Each of these candles are made by hand (as evidenced by my kitchen counter top caked with wax in every color imaginable), use essential oils, and really are my baby in a way. I am really proud of what my little etsy shop has become and seeing it grow over the past several months has been very rewarding.

Feb 14

Fresh Fridays: Feeling the Love Edition

I was thinking about this post a lot as my reading deprivation was lifted on Wednesday and I was allowed to read all of these blog posts with their viewpoints on Valentine’s Day. Some people love it, some people state the obvious about how it’s a commercialization and bastardization of what love should be, some people are completely indifferent to it, etc. So almost everything that can be said about this polarizing Hallmark holiday has been said.

Here’s my two cents, and I think it falls in line with how a lot of people feel about Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. It’s just another day, but I do think it is a good reminder to bring a little love into your life. And I’m not strictly talking romantic, either. I came into work this morning a little frazzled and my coworker/photographer extraordinaire Attila handed me a box of chocolates with a stupid cute cat on it. My mom sent my siblings and I a group text this morning about how much she loves us.

Both of these things almost made me start crying.

OK, so I cry easily (A few weeks ago I started crying in the car while listening to Elton John’s “Your Song,” because it is so freakin’ beautiful), but I think the point is, if someone is important in your life, whether platonically or family-wise, or yes, even romantic, you should let them know. A lot. It is easy to fall into patterns and assume these people know how much you care about them, but do you notice how much your day brightens up when someone you care about says, “I’m proud of you!” or “I really appreciate you being in my life.” IT’S LIKE GETTING 50 LIKES ON A SELFIE CONFIDENCE-BOOST-WISE. And don’t forget that one of these people you have to tell you love them is YOU. Look into the mirror and tell yourself you love yourself over and over until you believe it. I am not asking you to reach Ghandi self-actualization levels, but give yourself some love today (and everyday), too. You deserve it.

In honor of this lovely Hallmark Holiday, I AM sporting a lot of pink and red. I feel like a Valentine’s Day mascot. And I feel pretty good about it.

Attila telling a penis joke. I show a lot of teeth when I laugh.

Love this dress. From the Jason Wu line for Target.

If Amélie cut her own bangs and made them all derpy and slanted.

Feb 4

Introducing: Seymour (HOPEFULLY FOREVER)

As you may or may not know from my self-help book post, I have been reading (actually just finished last night) The Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne Dyer. While there are some things I do not agree with (he talks about how people “don’t really need medication” to get through depression, it’s just a lower energy…yeah, no bro, I think some people DEFINITELY need medication for mental illness. ), there are a lot of things that I was like, “Oh, that makes sense.”

One of them was putting out into the universe what you want and acting as if you already have it, or “thinking from the end.” I liked this because that’s what everyone tells you to do with screenwriting (and it does help) and it makes sense. You act as if you have already achieved your end goal and therefore you do more things to actually get you there.

I am probably explaining this terribly, but what I want to say is that IT WORKS. Saturday night, I was posting an obnoxious amount of photos on my Mom’s facebook of chihuahua mixes I wanted to adopt. Chihuahuas and Pit Bulls are constantly abandoned in Los Angeles (200 Pits are killed A DAY in LA County) and while my apartment is too small for a Pit, I figured I could handle a chihuahua of sorts.

Cut to the next morning. I go outside to get my mail, and here is this cute lil pup, no collar, nothing. I walked him around the neighborhood asking if this was anyone’s dog, but none of my neighbors were claiming him. I brought him to a Vet, found out he is perfectly healthy, flea-free, and has miraculously wonderful teeth. He has no microchip, nothing to mark him as owned, and, despite all of the posters I have put up in my neighborhood, the Craigslist ad, and searching through the missing pet postings on a bunch of different websites, no one is claiming this 1-2 year old chihuahua mix.

SO. I decided I am going to keep him for the next couple weeks, see if anyone responds to my posts or I come across anything, and if not…I’m keeping the kid. He’s so sweet, loves sitting on laps, and, surprisingly, is getting along REALLY WELL with my cat. Well, they are getting there. He was kissing her and she let it happen for a couple of seconds and then just walked away. See? BEST FRIENDS.

Here’s to selfishly hoping no one claims Seymour so I can keep him forever.

He was the hit of the Super Bowl party where he had 20 different names.

Pookie and Seymour...they will be best friends.

Like seriously, he is the handsomest chihuahua mix I have seen. I may be a bit biased but WHATEVER.

See? Look at them both chilling together? TOGETHER.

Jan 21

Weekend Hike: Solstice Canyon, Malibu

One of my many little resolutions for 2014 is to hike more. I live in a gorgeous part of the country (it’s been 80 degrees here the past few days) and I need to take advantage of that and spend more time outdoors. On Saturday, I took the trek to Malibu with a few friends to go to Solstice Canyon and hike the Rising Sun trail.

It was a pretty rough hike (at least for Paul, Charlotte, Colin and myself; we need to spend less time in cars), but very rewarding in the end. We wound up at the ruins of a mansion designed by architect Paul Williams. Fred Roberts, the owner of a chain of grocery and liquor stores in Santa Monica, commissioned Williams to start the project in 1952. Roberts and his wife lived their until his death in 1976 and in 1982, a wildfire took it. What’s left feels like a frame out of The Jungle Book or Pan’s Labyrinth. I was too busy gawking at the ruins to take too many photos, but here are a few. If you are an LA resident, I highly suggest the trek to Malibu to see this.

I felt like this was the opening to the scary place in Pan's Labyrinth with the guy with the eyeballs.

Jan 17

Fresh Fridays: Too School For School Edition

While the rest of the country has just gone through an insane polar vortex and are wearing sweaters on sweaters on sweaters, it is pretty toasty here in LA, and I can’t help but long for chillier days. I KNOW I KNOW THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER. I do get a taste of the chilled weather in the morning, though. On my drive into work, I get to sport a beanie, which I don’t understand my sudden love for them. Maybe it’s because they make my self-done bangs look less cuckoo bananas. Maybe it’s because I wish it were cold enough to wear them all day….but aren’t beanies like something you get into while you are in high school or you never get into them at all? Whatever, I have started to wear a bunch of glittery nail polish and heavy eyeliner on the weekends as well. At 24, I’ve become too cool for school.