Sunday

Country Living "50 gifts under $50!" Candle Feature December January 2013

*** If you've found this page through the Country Living magazine, and just want to find our candles, and not peruse our Winnebago Diaries, here's the link to the featured set:  Two Keys - Two Poisons "Locked-In Lovers"



   But as for the rest of you ...

alOha ; )

   Well .. this is kind of an emergency blog (just to throw a few tag words into the etherNet), so the short of it is - we were just featured in Country Living "50 gifts under $50!" and they even put us on the table of contents page ; ) Awesome !! But the "emergency" aspect here is that they didn't put our name Pollen Arts ... anywhere ???

   We've had a little press in the past, and stuff like this -always- happens, always, I barely blink at it ; ) "There's no such thing as bad press." (We were just in the Huffington post, and they wrote us up as pro Snowboarders ((we're skateboarders .. I can't snowboard to save my life.)) who make candles out of a Winnebago ((which we haven't done for a long time .. )) who travel the country at will ((we wish : ) Maybe after the holidays..). And in our Foam Magazine interview, we were "living deep in the forest in a salvage yard" .. huh .. That sounds fun, but not us ;)

   So on the way home from work yesterday, at 8 or 9 at night, after a very long day and only sleeping 3 hours the night before, I asked juwels, "Are you sure you want to go to Barnes and Nobles and get this magazine now, or do you just want to get back to the Winnie and get some rest?"

   She wanted to go, so fast forward 5 minutes, with us both sitting at the cafe table near the window, each with our own copy, and juwels, psychic gypsy that she is, opens to the exact page. "Found it! Page 37, good numbers!!" I wasn't anticipating any fuss .. we'd been contacted by the etsy press team, I connected with the assistant editor - sent them all our bio and links and specs on the candles. They made sure we'd be selling the specific collection online during the dates of the issue, and as juwels read the description aloud, I just started laughing.  .. In fact, as we left the truck to go into the store I jokingly said, "Now - will you promise me that you'll find something about the feature that will totally work you up, so I can laugh my ass off?" But I was just joking, and thought this was pretty straight fwd (btw, we were in the Anthropologie holiday catalogue last year, and they forgot to put our name in as well .. guess we should have learned, but I'd feel kind of odd and patronizing to say .. now, please, remember to put our name in there .. so people will know who makes them. ha ha ha. Next time ; )

   Juwles had the most intense energy for the rest of the night ... which was fun ; ) And I did my share of laughing and watching the show - she's so cute when she gets worked up (about little nothings .. and details ) but anyway, I figured I'd post a quick little blog, so people who wanted to find our stuff could Google "Key Candle" or "Country Living Candles" or whatever, would have a place to find us. And also, we wanted to share the good the news that we were featured in the magazine, on two pages, which is a very big deal/ doesn't happen much for grassroots artists ; )

   Here's the pages ; )





Caption: "Stick-straight tapers don't hold a candle to these Bottle-Shaped beauties !"



 Caption Reads: "Candles Scented with honey and wildflower nectar, these bottle-shaped beauties hold the key to illuminating style. Her House 518-592-1422"

   .. the name and number is from one of our accounts. It's a long story, and I'm not even sure I understand it right, but I got a message from the Her House owner saying that an editor from a big chain of magazines walked through her door, saw our candles and was inquiring about doing a piece. I sent along all the info, and never heard anything back

   Cut to: Months later, a girl from the Etsy press team messaged us saying that the Country Living people had been cruising the site and picked our candles to potentially be in the Gift Guild. She said  to send samples, we did, and later they told us that we were in ; ) Then .. a week or so before they were supposed to go to print, I get another message from the CL contact asking what store we have in Millerton NY. I told them Her House, and didn't think about it again .. The bummer is: we don't sell this collection to stores .. some of the small candles are pretty finicky to burn, so we'll only sell them direct, where we can list the burn tips and msg the buyers directly .. plus it's hard to wholesale the tiny poison and mini key without having the end price too high or wasting our time. ..

Happy Holidays, Buzz-Buzz,

 -p&j


















Country Living, Bottle-Shaped Candles, Bottle Shaped Candles, Key Candles, Skeleton Key Candle, Scented with Honey and Wildflower, Beeswax, Pollen Arts, Her House, 50 Gifts Under $50, 50 Gifts Under Fifty Dollars, 156 Creative Holiday Ideas, December, January, 2013, Handmade in the USA, Walla Walla Bing Bang ; ) 

6 comments:

  1. Ugh. I can't believe that. The way I see it they are stealing your pretty pictures with out giving you actual credit for your work. I know how it goes with working with magazines and newspapers.... they never get it right, but man, that is frustrating! This is your business and your art and that should be beside any picture of your product. I'll contact them asking how I can find the candles.

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  2. So that phone number they included is for a single store... at least she can pass on your info to people who call ? I feel bad for the ceramic piece with the birds that is harder to google. I think yours are much easier to find on the interwebs at least. I'm fired up. ;)

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  3. ha ha ha .. you're cute ; ) we're not complaining (much) it's just that we do everything as near perfect as possible around here - our pictures, descriptions, curating our collections, sourcing the wax, etc .. and then they don't name us, don't say that they're handmade in the USA by a mom & pop .. or even that they're beeswax ; (

    BzzZZZzzzZZzzt !

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  4. Hey, there - love, love your blog. I'm in the PR business and this is the risk you run, unfortunately... since the placements are "earned" media (b/c you two rock) not "paid" media (that includes exchange of money) all final details are up to the editorial staff. This happens often, even to huge companies, since fact checkers have become a thing of the past.

    So, props for getting so much coverage. Without hiring a PR person, you two are doing a great job managing the coverage. If you ever have questions send 'em my way, as I'm happy to help. And if you ever want a publicist - let me know :)

    Brandie @BGdoesPR

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  5. You guys are awesome and your positive attitude always makes me smile and sometimes makes me giggle. Happy for the good things coming your way (even if they come a bit indirectly!). Congrats!

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  6. I saw this (My mom is a subscriber) last night and went "HEY! That's the wrong name on those candles!" I sent an email. Politely worded of course but it may have been a tiny bit stern.

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