…Cake. As a candle. Holy shit it’s going to be amazing…I ordered the 1oz sample today!! German chocolate cake is blended with semi-sweet chocolate chips and laced with crunchy toffee bits. Vanilla creme and butterscotch syrup with hints of almond and coconut round out this delectable scent. I can’t wait to try it!!

But, that’s not the point of this post. I am having a pre-Black Friday sale. Because I’m awesome like that. 50% off shipping. Which, that’s kind of a big deal, especially if the order is big enough to use a box. Which, it just may be if you order a candle more than 4 ounces, or more than one candle. The way I’ve set up shipping to work is this: If you order a 4oz candle, shipping is $3.50. More than one, add $.50 per additional candle. For 8oz candles, shipping is $6.50 for one, adding $1.00 per. To ship just one 8oz candle costs between $5.45-6.00 just thru USPS, but I also need to recover the cost of bubble wrap and boxes. So, 50% off shipping is a great deal. I will start the sale now, and it will end on 11/16, a week from now.

You can take a look on my Etsy HERE to see what’s available…however, do not order from Etsy. There is no coupon code you can create for 50% off shipping, so you will have to message me your orders either here, on the Facebook page, my personal Facebook if you’re friends with me there, or my email: crystal_helgeson@yahoo.com. I will calculate your orders and take the discounted rate off of the shipping price from there. I will accept PayPal, cash, check, money order, or Bitcoin. (@Marica0701: I learned of a new currency tonight you might be interested in learning about, called AmiCash. You can check out a FB page HERE.) Of course, I will always accept a trade offer I’m interested in if you also make and sell items.

I’ve been working almost all day…took a break to watch a couple episodes of Sherlock, and watched a movie called Thrive, but other than that been doing research on new and interesting scents…there are so many I want to sample!! But for now I will settle with the seven I ordered today, including Better Than Sex Cake

I hope you enjoy the sale…after all, Christmas is all about giving, and candles are a great gift to give. I personally have given candles as gifts many times. And, 50% off shipping ends up being a bigger savings than giving 20% off the items you’re buying

Since it’s kind of late (or, early in the morning…), I’ll spread the news to the Facebook page and my personal Facebook tomorrow…so whoever is up now gets a head start on the sale… I’m also listed on HERE on Agorist Marketplace, and I will spread the news on the Agorist Marketplace FB page tomorrow as well.

REC to spread the cheer of a pre-Black Friday holiday sale (and you know I never ask for those )

I can’t remember what movie that’s in, but it’s in something..

After a bit of anxiety and freaking out, I have a solution to the problem. I will move down to my mother’s house and work for her selling eBay stuff and work in the office for my step dad. But, only if I don’t get any more unemployment. And if I don’t find a fast job here. Cody said he would help me find a job too. My sister Taylor might move to California, but Rachel and Josh still want to look for a house. But what I truly want, is to grow my business. I need a bigger customer base…so I’m thinking of having another contest to broaden it. I hate working for corporations because I hate everything they stand for. I hate how they treat their employees unless you have a higher ranking in the pecking order. I don’t want to live that way. I want to be in business for myself and work from home, but I need help from everyone in order to do that. I’m not expecting to become rich off of this, but what I do want is to have enough income from it to live comfortably. I know I can do that if I have enough customers. This is really important to me, and I’m constantly thinking of new things I can make, and how I can make them. I’m thinking of glitter in candles and soap…

Anyway, other than that, I have a paper to work on and creating invoices for Savory Scents. People also tell me I should create an order form. Maybe..but that might be difficult because I might not always have the same scents, and I plan on adding different scents. I have about 7 that I’m ordering sample sizes from a new website.

Anything else to update? Not personally, at the moment…just keepin on keepin on. School work, work work, sleep, and eat. Speaking of eat, I’m hungry!!

And I feel so tired I wanna fall over. I just finished catching up on filling out my admin work in the spreadsheet for Savory Scents..I was quite a bit behind. I have five orders to ship tomorrow, so yay. Two more orders to hand deliver, and Cody’s family wants to order more, so sometime this week I’m going to bring one of each over and his mom and sister are going to place orders. On Wednesday I’ll be ordering 1oz sample fragrances from a new website I found that has a TON of fragrance oils. Had some requests for soap so I ordered some soap supplies last night, and after the request is filled, I’ll place the rest of them for sale to everyone else. Pre sold 7 bars of soap that aren’t made yet, lol!

Speaking of requests, if anyone would like a special order, I can give you the websites I order from and you can look at the available scents…

All of my orders so far have been people just telling me what they want and if it needs to get shipped we use PayPal, and if it’s someone I know I just deliver the product, bypassing Etsy…but tonight I made my first Etsy sale! Whoot!! Speaking of sales, Spring Rain soap is sold out. If you want to check out my Etsy, you can do so here.

My mother called and said she doesn’t like the way I took pictures and she wants to re-do them all. I said no, I like them, and they aren’t getting re-taken. It took me a lot of time to take those pictures…

I played poker yesterday. I lost most of the night and came back at the end. I ended up $1. Ha. But, we played for 10 hours, so it’s not so bad to win only $1. Had some freakin delicious chili…mmm. And chip dip..gah I ate way too much yesterday. But oh well…was among friends. Have to live it up every once in a while

I have a rough draft of a paper due Tuesday. Haven’t started yet. Thankfully it’s only a rough draft so it doesn’t have to be too coherent…but I’ll be fine. I’m writing about how the invention of the printing press created change for the Church by being able to spread the “Word” faster by distributing reading and studying materials faster, but also made things stay the same by continuing to spread the word. Change and continuity. Even though I don’t like or agree with the Church, I think it’s an interesting subject…mostly because it involves the invention of the printing press. As a lover of books, I think it’s fascinating.

Anyway, I need to get to bed before I pass out at my desk…

Well, I have the perfect gift giving solution: candles!! 12 of the scents are listed, with different options on each..4oz tin, 8oz tin, and 8oz jars. I lowered the shipping price, so that’s awesome. You can check out my Etsy store to see what’s available!

Yesterday I spent all day cutting and applying labels and photographing the candles..and today I’ve spent listing everything on Etsy, so yes, I’ve been productive. Now what to do…I still have to put the warning labels on the bottom of about half the candles…but I’m glad I’m mostly done. When I start getting revenue from the candles, I’m going to order some sample scents and also going to make lotions, since those seem popular with the testers, and maybe soaps. There are a couple people that have smelled some of the candles I’ve made and said they would buy soaps in a couple of the scents, so that’s awesome.

Anyway, I know I haven’t been around much lately, but I’ve been so busy..I’ll try to be around later today and tomorrow.

You can check out my Etsy store HERE.

And here are some of the pictures I took:

The one above are candles ready to have warning labels put on the bottom

No real update. I’ve been terrible with this lately.

So I dropped one of my classes..philosophy on the front page. I’m thinking of dropping another one, child psychology. I’ve been wanting to stop studying psychology, but I’ve been convinced to keep with it. I was told it was a good fit for me, given everything that I’ve been through and my empathy. I’m still not entirely sure, but I’m not ready to completely give it up either. I guess we’ll see how I feel about it, but I would hate to spend money on something I’m not sure about. If I don’t do psychology, I don’t know what I would study. I kind of wish all I could do is create things like candles and soap and lotions. Maybe make quilts at some point. I think I’m more of a domestic person. And, that doesn’t mean it’s not hard work. I spent 12 hours in the kitchen a couple days ago finishing up candles, and I was on my feet for a good portion of it. My feet were sore…

Then last night I developed a fever and had the chills, throwing my blanket on and off every few seconds. I took a vitamin c supplement and I feel a lot better. I watched 12 episodes of Once Upon A Time last night..got kind of involved. Now today, I’ve been doing homework for class tonight. I have to leave in an hour and a half and I have a map to fill out and a few more things to read, but I just thought I would drop in and update on the goings on in my life… I hope everyone affected by the hurricane is safe and not too much damage..

Also, all the candles are made! Hopefully soon I’ll be able to list them on Etsy!

Life isn’t about getting it right all the time. We are meant to fall. We are meant to stumble. We are meant to hurt, sometimes deeply, to the point of not breathing and wondering how we’ll ever survive this. Without pain, we can’t accurately or truly appreciate joy and happiness. We recognize it better when it comes to us. If we never experienced gut-wrenching pain, we would never learn what it’s really like to be happy. You cannot fully feel either unless you feel both.

Life isn’t about things. It’s about people and connections, relationships. It’s about openness and learning, growing. Never let yourself stop learning or growing..never let yourself become stagnant in daily goings on. People lament on what the meaning of life is, what’s its purpose. It’s these things. It’s not a big secret or some profound thought. It’s never giving up, and staying as strong as you can. Sometimes we need a hand, because no one can do it on their own all the time. It’s giving and receiving of time, knowledge, and love. Life is about love. It’s about continuously striving towards your goals. Life is about learning from everything you can. Why would we have these amazing brains and minds if that wasn’t so? The amount of knowledge we can gain is so vast, why would you ever stop?

Start living.

So earlier I added some new things on Etsy….

I also added a couple scents of soap…Creamy Soy Coconut and Spring Rain. They both smell wonderful and the base is soy.

Making Hansel & Gretel’s House right now, and I’m also going to make Hollyberry tonight. I made Dragon’s Blood and Cotton Candy last night, and so far everything smells great!!

Other than that, I don’t have much to add. I know, nothing but candles and stuffs…but it’s pretty much what my days consist of, lol!

You can check out my Etsy page HERE.

But I am not tired. What the hell. I only got 6 hours of sleep…and normally I don’t do well on that amount O.o

Don’t forget to enter the contest…just share my Facebook page to get entered to win a free candle

Also, I’ll be listing a few things on Etsy today. Some bracelets and also some soap I made yesterday..Spring Rain and Creamy Soy Coconut. They are soy based soaps and they’re wonderful! The coconut scent was a bit light so you can still smell the soy base under the coconut, but it still smells good. I think I’m going to make it a habit to make soap..we’ll see what happens!

Another word about my trip…San Diego is amazing! But the cab drivers drive like maniacs O.o The weather was absolutely beautiful, with sunny skies and palm trees. I would have liked to sight see a little, but I was kept super busy with the convention, which, at least it was on the water, so I got to look at that once in a while. There was also a panel on alternative currency, so I got to learn about bitcoin (which is awesome..you can just let your computer run on some websites and generate money!). I have a bitcoin wallet set up, so if you want to buy any of my products using bitcoin, just let me know. I also bought some dime cards, which are awesome too. Using dimes made of real silver, it’s a currency that will be really useful once the dollar crashes.

It was wonderful to be around so many peaceful people who think that violence is not the answer. I’m definitely going to go next year..maybe even as a vendor!! And sell my wares XD That would be frickin awesome!! Maybe I’ll even make some voluntaryist and anarchist bracelets…that would sell pretty well there, I think!

I’m going to go and try to sleep some more…

I know that I’m late in blogging about my trip, but I’ve been super busy, running around and doing stuffs (I was at a concert and met a couple of country music stars, for instance…I’ll have to blog about that!!) But anyway, on to my trip!! For those who are unaware, Libertopia is a convention for Anarchists, Libertopians, etc. You can find more info at libertopia.org And, this isn’t about all of the trip..I might blog more later..to skip to the contest part, if you wish, it’s the last paragraph

It was held in San Diego, CA, at the Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn. I was nervous to travel alone, but once I got to the airport, my nerves settled a little. I was mostly nervous about not knowing where I’m going at the airport and missing a flight or something like that. I had only flown once before, in 2000, which was quite a long time ago and I was young. But the airport is pretty easy to navigate, actually, and I was pleasantly surprised. I was traveling from Minneapolis, and had a layover in LA on the way there and on the return trip. I was completely okay in the plane while it was on the ground, but I had forgotten about my fear of heights. When we took off, I was a bit freaked out, but I was okay once we were in the air, and the slight turbulence didn’t even bother me at all.

Registration was the first night, Thursday, plus the Guy Fawkes party. Stefan Molyneux opened the convention with a speech, and afterwards I was lucky enough to sit with him and some others at a table, discussing different things. The next day things really started with different speakers and such in meeting rooms talking about various topics plus various speakers at the main stage throughout the day and discussion panels. The evening ended with a toga party. Saturday was the same, with the awards banquet that evening. Sunday was the same type of schedule. There were vendors set up around the parameter of the chairs set up for the main stage, most of them interesting. There was one booth with a whole bunch of awesome books..I would have bought so many of them if I could have.

Anyhow, what I really wanted to discuss this post was the topic of voting. There was a panel of speakers who discussed the topic To Vote or Not To Vote, with the following people on the panel: Judge Jim Gray, Mike Benoit, Richard Boddie, Stefan Molyneux, Larken Rose, and Kristi Stone. This was very interesting. I knew what position that Stefan and Larken would take, and I was right: that voting only says that you’re willing to overlook the immorality of the government. Kristi took the position of wanting peaceful, voluntary interaction in the future, but we aren’t there yet, therefore we should vote Libertarian until it is so, or have an Anarchist run for office (there was laughter there, a little bit..because, how would an Anarchist run for office and stay true to their values?) She thought that voting should be used only as a platform to speak out against the government. Mike said that saying those who vote are immoral is a fallacy, and also saying that all those who don’t vote are right is a fallacy. He said it was a grey area, and to use voting as a means to get something done.

What was interesting was the judge. He is the one running for vice president of the Libertarian party. He said that there will always be a government, so there’s no use in hoping for otherwise. The clash between him, Larken Rose, and Stefan Molyneux was very, very interesting. There was quite a bit of back and forth between the lot of them, and I could tell that Stefan was having a hard time not jumping in and saying something whenever he (whole-heardtedly) disagreed with what the judge was saying. You can see the panel if you go to YouTube and search for it, if you’re interested.

It’s my personal view that voting doesn’t do any good. For one thing, I obviously think that the concept of the government is immoral, by forcing others to do what they want by the threat of violence. I do not think that the initiation of violence is okay. For another thing, I think that pretty much all politicians are dirty, corrupt liars that are working for corporations, and really do not have the best interests of the People at heart. I do not believe in voting for the “lesser evil,” because there is no such thing. Evil is evil. For those who say they vote for the “lesser evil,” what does that even MEAN? That you’re going to vote for an evil that you agree with? An evil that’s more tolerable in your eyes? Well, that kind of thing is purely subjective, and I don’t think any evil is tolerable at all. Therefore, I think my decision to not vote speaks for itself pretty loud and clear: that I don’t stand for anything any of them say. I don’t care if it’s Republican or Democrat or whatever..I don’t believe any of them.

In other news, I’m finishing writing this in between creations (I started it in the LA airport, lol!). I just finished making some tester soap bars, and taking a break before I start making candles. And speaking of candles, if you go to my Facebook page (facebook.com/cksavoryscents) and share the page to your friends, your name will get entered into a drawing to win a free 8oz jar in a scent of your choice!!

For some reason, it’s not letting me use links in this post…wtf :/

I still don’t have time to explore all your pages, so maybe you can tell me how you’ve been the past week? I’ve missed you all!! I still won’t have time today because I have a TON of homework to do…didn’t really have time to do any of it while I was in San Diego..

Anyway, I hope you’ve been well…just let me know what you’ve been up to! Also, I’m hoping to finish mixing the lotions today and get stuff shipped out tomorrow, including @Foodhog‘s candles…yes, I’ve been lazy about that O.O I apologize.

I ordered all my supplies last night..spent lots of monies…