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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Faithful Friday...Striving to be like Jesus! and Candle Giveaway!

Well, I attended a training class for the preschool teachers at my church preschool this week.  We had a great time together.  Imagine, 14 women of all ages getting together to "train" on teaching preschool.  It really was a lot of fun!  Our director is awesome, the best around.

We have a theme for the teachers every year, just to help us stay focused.  This year, our theme is "Striving to BEE like Jesus".  What an awesome theme!  For some of the kids that attend our preschool, this is the only "church" they will ever get.  And, we have an awesome opportunity to teach them about Jesus!

So, here are a few of the verses that were picked out to go with our "BEE" theme.  Ephesians 4:2 was my favorite for the day.  It says "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love".  Isn't that awesome?!?  Especially in dealing with preschoolers and their families.

Another good one is Ephesians 4:32.  It reads "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you."  Is it hard for you to forgive as Christ forgave?  My answer is YES!  I'll be honest, that is a struggle a lot of times.  I think part of our human nature is to hold grudges and not forgive, so that is why Christ has to tell us in His word to forgive.

I think those are two awesome verses to set to memory.  Both of them show Jesus' love, compassion and forgiveness.  If we are going to "strive to be like Jesus", then we need to hold on to these verses!

This week, I had an awesome opportunity to meet (in blogland, of course) a great lady by the name of Karen.  She has a really neat candle shop on the internet, named Karen's Country Candles.  Here is quick little "interview" that I did with her this week...


Julie:  How long has Karen’s Country Candles been in business?
Karen:  We have been in Business for about 16 years.

Julie:  What is the story behind the business?
Karen:  Back in 1993 a friend and I started wood painting. We would buy tons of books and patterns, cut out our own wood pieces and paint daily. That was a job and a half. We set up in many craft fairs and one day decided that wood painting was very time consuming and wasn’t selling that well. So we decided to try our hand at Candle making. My friend dropped out of the candle making and went back to wood painting but I continued to make my candles. I made so many mistakes and wasted a lot of time, wax, and fragrance, but the desire to make this happen kept me going. Eventually, I got the hang of it and took my candles to a local craft show and sold out.I would receive many orders from the local people and had to think about what I was going to do to fill these orders.

In 1994, Karen’s Country Candles was started in my home which is nestled in a small community outside our hometown of Mena, Arkansas called Dallas Valley. The name of the business came about due to the beautiful Country Scenery of the Ouachita Mountains that surround us. My daughter Jamie and Daughter in law Priscilla started helping me fill the orders and it has become a great business for us. We opened Karen’s Country Candles website in September of 07. It started out really slow the first year but has picked up the pace a bit. We sell a lot of products to the local Doctor’s Offices, Banks, Insurance Offices, and so on. Everywhere we go now, someone has one of our candles sitting around. It is a great feeling to know that the local community enjoys something that you have made by hand.

Today, we continue to sell our Great Smelling Candles and Tarts out of my home and our goal is to open a full blown Candle Shop to the general public in the near future.


Julie:  What is your favorite product and fragrance that you sell?
Karen: Our favorite / best selling product is our 16 oz. Jar Candle. The best selling fragrance that we have is the "Apple Butter", which we generally sell all year long.


Julie:  I am sure you are extremely busy around Christmas time, so do you have a deadline for orders to be guaranteed for Christmas delivery?
Karen:  I prefer to have orders placed for Christmas delivery by December 10. I can get most of my products shipped out by or on that date but the postal service is what I worry about. Sometimes around the holidays they are pretty slow and the delivery time may take longer.


Julie:  What is the burn time for your candles?
Karen:  Our 16 oz. Candle burns about 75 hours. The normal burn time for a candle this size.

Julie:  Is there anything special that you would like for my readers to know?Karen:  I would like everyone to know that all our Candles and Tarts are hand made by myself, my daughter, and my daughter in law. We hand pour all candles and tarts and hand package every product that requires packaging. We feel that a handmade product needs to be just that… Hand Made. We also do custom Gift Baskets and Candle Sets upon request. We ship to the recipient, and we also ship out Secret Sister and/or Secret Pal packages for customers.


So, are you ready to win???  Here's what you need to do...click HERE, so that you can visit Karen's shop.  Then come back and leave a comment with the name of the fragrance that "sparks" your interest.
Then, for a second entry, follow me and comment that you are a follower. 

Good luck!  This giveaway will be open until Monday, August 23rd and the winner will be announced on the 24th!  Please be sure to let me know how to contact you when you win!

21 comments:

  1. I like the sound of apple butter! I know I like how it tastes! :o)

    And I'm already a blog follower!

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  2. Coffee Caramel Latte!!!!

    I know I'm going to win. You know how to contact me. :) Cindy Haislip

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  3. Coffee caramel latte!!! YUM!!!

    ~Rachel :-)

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  4. I like the sound of the apple butter!! Sounds fabulous to me!

    Love your site Julie!! :)

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  5. Julie,

    I am now your 29th follower! That is my favorite #- how cool!! :) Have a blessed weekend!

    Cyndi Rogers

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  6. Hi. I am a new follower from New Friend Fridays. Great blog. Blessings...


    Saved By Love Creations

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  7. I think I'm going to have to go with Candy Corn.

    I was a follower; and completely messed up my google account (I deleted it, ok; there I said it) - now I'm refollowing!!

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  8. I am a follower now and I wonder what the Carmel coffee smells like! I love the smell of coffee!

    dropcqueen at yahoo dot com

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  9. Oh I love candles!! Gingerbread Applesauce has my interested "sparked"! But there are many that interest me.

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  10. I am a follower. I'm from Follow Me Friday. Love your blog.

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  11. I love your thoughts on Jesus up there. They mirror a lot of my own. Forgiveness can be hard, but so rewarding in the end. Good luck with your preschool class!
    Thanks for linking up with my very first "Everything but the Kitchen Sink" party! Hope to see you next week as well!

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  12. Hey Julie! Following you from New Friend Friday. Please follow me back!

    http://inspiredbyron.blogspot.com/

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  13. I love Sweet Pea scented candles, but the Cranberry Chutney Candle has sparked my interest!!!

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  14. New follower!! Thanks for stopping by my blog!!
    lifeofperks.blogspot.com

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  15. mulled cider sounds good!!

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  16. Okay, I had a really hard time deciding on just one...but I want to say I'd loved to try the coffee, too. I love my kitchen smelling like coffee, so I think a candle elsewhere is a terrific idea.

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  17. Okay, that was me, Amy N., Camp Creek. And I cannot figure out how to "follow" you. I enjoy the blog and usually just click your link from FB, but I didn't see a FB link on here? Am I missing something?

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  18. i think i would love to smell the apple butter! i so love to eat apple butter on toast, so how could i not love the smell this fall? yumm!!!
    Cathy Henry

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