Day 031 - Pattaya Thai

Currently Burning: Coconut Cream Pie

I thought I'd take a different approach for today's Tasty Tuesday. Pattaya Thai in Springdale, AR is my favorite Thai restaurant. They have the best Pad Thai in this area (and it's affordable too!) I usually go at a minimum once every 2 weeks. If you're in the area, definitely check this place out!

Now onto the daily review!

Coconut Cream Pie (5): LOVE this scent. It's not strong on cold throw, but once warmed it smells like coconut cream pie in the oven. It's such a good scent and I'm glad I have this in a candle.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 030 - Howl's Moving Castle

Currently Burning: Stress Relief

Howl's Moving Castle is a Hayao Myizaki and Studio Ghibli film.Myazaki's films are among my favorites because I feel that I really connect with the characters. They're so well written that I can genuinely feel connected to the storyline.

The story is essentially about Sophie who is transformed into an old woman by the Witch of the Wastes. She meets Howl (a wizard) who can tell that she is under a spell. The story follows the adventures of Howl, Calcifer (a fire spirit), Turnip Head (a scarecrow), and Markl (Howl's apprentice). If you've never seen a Myazaki film definitely check this one out because it is one of his best!

Now onto the daily review!

Stress Relief (4): This is a blend of peppermint, lavender, and chai tea. I mostly smell the peppermint and lavender. I'm going to be ordering this in a smaller candle next time I place an order. The throw is really strong on this one because of the mint.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 029 - Update on School/Work

Currently Burning: Key Lime Pie

With January coming to a close, my work life is starting to pick up. Since I'm busiest during the summer, the spring semester is a time of hiring staff, prepping for summer, and beginning the discussion for groups that want to come to campus. While I appreciate having slower Fall semesters, it can sometimes make it harder to get revved up in the spring. By March I'll be in full-blown busy mode.

As far as school goes, I'm already behind in one of my classes. Of the 3 classes, 1 has assignments due every week, 1 has assignments due every other week, and 1 doesn't have due dates. I always find the ones that do not have due dates the most difficult to motivate myself to complete. I'm on track with the first two (just need to finish my discussion board post and then I'm good for this week) but my Principles of Adult Ed class I haven't even started.

I did realize that my diversity class is actually a lot more difficult than I originally imagined. Hopefully this semester ends well. I'm so ready to have my Master's degree so I can be done with school. Taking 1 class at a time isn't too bad, but this whole full-time thing sucks. I'm just ready to be done (December graduation here I come!) I'm glad I'm doing this blog because hopefully it will help me stay on track.

Now onto the daily review!

Key Lime Pie (4): This is true to what it is supposed to be. I can smell the Graham Cracker Crust and the Key Lime filling. I can tell it's key lime because it smells very tart like a key lime. The throw on this one is pretty good as well so I may be reordering this one in a smaller candle.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 028 - CBV Spreadsheet

Currently Burning: Obsession

Today I thought I would talk about how I figure out what scents I want on my next order. I could just go down her list of scents, but I figured I would take a more practical approach.

I use an excel spreadsheet to track my CBV wishlist. Here's a link to the google doc where I uploaded it today. The first tab is all of the scents that I have tried or all the ones that I currently have that I'm waiting to burn. The next page has all of the scents I want to try. I have it grouped by Must Order, Should Order, Might Order, and Special Orders. I find these scents by watching YouTube videos about CBV mostly. Anything that people rave about I put on the Must Order list. Usually what I will do is pick scents from all three lists in my next order. From now on I'm also going to probably include 1 special candle as well (Black Label, Sweet Treat, Comfort Candles, etc).

The CBV newsletter comes out on the first of the month and will have the new sales for the month. Depending on how February's sale looks I'll either be placing another massive scent shot order or another smaller order.

Victoria also has a CBV Scent Browser that one of her customers made for her. This has all of the scents in an interactive format so you can rate and leave reviews for others. It also has an order plotter that supposedly interfaces with her website, but I can't get it to work for me so I just order manually. It takes more time because everything is in a drop-down menu, but I don't really care because the products are worth the hassle.

Now onto the daily review!

Obsession (2): This is a dupe for the Calvin Klein cologne. I've never smelled the cologne so I'm not sure how close of a dupe it is. On cold throw I really didn't like it and didn't really want to burn it. I'm glad I did because it is better warm, but it still probably isn't one that I would burn again. It smells like a very manly cologne and I don't tend to go for those musky scents. The throw is medium.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 027 - Final Fantasy XIII

Currently Burning: Blueberry Cobbler

I've been playing Final Fantasy games since Final Fantasy X came out. I've played VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, and XIII. I've recently been playing Final Fantasy XIII again because XIII-2 comes out on Tuesday! Final Fantasy games are independent of each other (except the direct sequels X-2 and XIII-2) so you don't have to play any of the previous ones to get the story.

FFXIII follows the story of 6 main characters (this is a theme constant in most FF games). Lightning (girl in the middle above) is the main protagonist. The other characters from left to right are Snow, Vanille, Fang, Sazh, and Hope. The girl on the far right is Lightning's sister, Serah, who plays a pivotal role in the motivation for both Lightning and Snow, but she isn't in much of the game. FFXIII-2 has her in a leading role.

The story is very immersing and is a high fantasy RPG. FFXIII got a lot of criticism because unlike it's predecessors was largely a linear storyline. There are many areas in the game that you cannot go back to once you go through them. I didn't like this aspect either, but it does have a very large world at the end to explore. The game is divided into 13 Chapters that each have a different setting. Chapters 11 and 13 are open exploration chapters.

While this isn't my favorite Final Fantasy game, I do like it. The battle system works really well and  even the linear storyline seems to fit the mood. This is a much darker game than ones in the past and it's nice to discover the plot along the way.

I'm super excited for Final Fantasy XIII-2 and I'm sure I'll do a review of it at some point :)

Now onto the daily review!

Blueberry Cobbler (4): While this is a good scent, I'm not sure if I would reorder it. I need to try more of her blueberry scents (blueberry cheesecake in particular) before I decide for or against it. The cobbler scent in this is REALLY good so I do like that. Victoria has several cobbler scents that I'm also eager to try. The throw on this one is pretty strong.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 026 - Glee

Currently Burning: Apple Jack N Peel

Recently I've caught up with Glee (finally). I had stopped watching this past October and I'm not really sure why. I've been going in and out of interest with this show for the past season and a half, but I'm back to being a fan again :) I still need to watch the "Yes/No" episode from earlier this month, but I'm caught up through the Christmas episode. I'm glad they killed some of the story lines from the first part of the season, because they weren't great. However, I am loving the music this season.

 Glee comes on Fox Tuesdays at 8/7c. I'm excited for this upcoming episode because it will feature all Michael Jackson songs :) They had an episode a few back where they had a couple MJ songs, but this should be pretty good. Definitely going to tune in for that!

Now onto the daily review!

Apple Jack N Peel (2): This sucker is STRONG! It's a mixture of apple, cinnamon, and orange. The orange is what hits me the hardest. I bought my mom a candle in this, but I don't think I could actually burn this for very long. I also have a bad memory associated with it from the last time I burned it so that doesn't really help either!

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 025 - danisnotonfire

Currently Burning: Marshmallow Ambrosia

I've been watching danisnotonfire for about a year. My first experience was when he guest starred on another of my favorite YouTube channels, VlogCandy.

After that, I made my way over to his personal channel and saw that he is actually really hilarious. He also puts a lot of effort into the majority of his videos so I appreciate that. He has a series called Danecdotes and one called Reasons Why Dan's a Fail. The latter are my favorite because I feel like I can relate to a lot of what he is saying.

He's really good friends with another YouTuber (amazingphil) and some of his best videos are the ones with Phil.

Overall, Dan is definitely in my Top 5 YouTubers. His videos are really funny and it always puts me in a good mood to see him in my subscription box.

Now onto the daily review!

Marshmallow Ambrosia (3): This is a very light thrower. It smells like freshly made marshmallows (not Jet Puft). It's a good vanilla scent, but it just doesn't carry enough for me to warrant getting a full-size candle.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 024 - Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Currently Burning: Pumpkin Apple Cinnamon Bread

For today's Tasty Tuesday, I decided to go with an old favorite of mine. I've been making these for several years, usually for work parties. They're super easy to throw together, and they're just as good the next day. I think that originally they were a Rachael Ray recipe, but I'm getting mine from this site.

First, add the 3/4 of a cup of flour, 3/4 tsp of baking powder, and 1 Tbsp of Italian Seasoning to a medium mixing bowl.

Mix in 3/4 of a cup of milk and 1 egg slightly beaten.

Add 1 package of mini pepperoni rounds and 1-2 cups of Mozzarella cheese. The original recipe calls for Parmesan as well, but I just added extra mozzarella. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Spoon into a mini muffin pan (should make about 24).

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with warm pizza sauce and enjoy!

Now onto the daily review!

Pumpkin Apple Cinnamon Bread (5): This is a great fall scent (I know it's January, but let's just say I'm feeling nostalgic). To me it smells like a really sweet raisin bread. I get the apple and pumpkin notes as well, but the cinnamon bread part of it is definitely the star. The throw is pretty strong on this one as well. I've had this scent before and got it as a free scent shot recently. I'm glad I got it again because I definitely need a big candle in this one!

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 023 - Beauty and the Beast 3D

Currently Burning: Springdipity

Yesterday Roman and I went to watch Beauty and the Beast 3D. He had actually never seen this movie before! It was interesting to see it in 3D, but most of the movie it just looked like 2D images stacked on top of each other. This is one of my favorite Disney movies so I would definitely recommend it. Seeing it in Theaters was a great opportunity since it came out in 1991 the first time.

Now onto the daily review!

Springdipity (4) - I was feeling into spring today so I decided to try this one. It's a mixture of different florals and fruits. It's a very light, slightly perfumy scent. I do like it though so I may order it in a smaller candle.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 022 - Plantasia

Currently Burning: Bite Me

I've always liked having plants. However, my apartment doesn't get the greatest light. A few months ago (back in September I think) I bought 2 plants at Walmart. I got a prayer plant and another one that's sort of like a peace lily. When Roman put up the Christmas tree at the beginning of November, we had to move the 2 plants out of the window and over by the front door. As such, they did not get as much light. After 2 months of minimal light, the prayer plant died from lack of sunlight :(

The other plant is a survivor! Now it's back in it's home by the window. I decided to name it Plantasia. It's really hardy so I really like that about it. This is the first plant I've been able to keep alive for more than a few months! I figure it's a good starter before I get pets or kids. The next step is a pet, but Roman is putting up resistance to that. Oh well, maybe in a couple of years and a new apartment.

Now onto the daily review!

 

Bite Me (4): This is a very tart cherry scent. It was one of the Halloween themed ones released last October. I now have an 8 oz candle in this scent because I really like it a lot. I've found that just about anything that has her cherry scent in it I'm going to love. The throw on this one is pretty good too.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 021 - Candles by Victoria Haul (FINALLY!)

Currently Burning: Hawaiian Rain

I FINALLY get to talk about my CBV Haul!!!! I'm always SO excited when these come in :) So...I went a little crazy this time, because there were a few things that I knew I wanted to try, plus I had to get a ton of new scents for the blog. The box was the biggest one yet!

 

Usually it's one of those flat rate shipping boxes, but I guess all of my stuff wouldn't fit it one :) Pretty much 2.5 seconds after I signed for the package I tore into it!

 

I knew that I needed to document all of this mess for the blog so I took a ton of pictures. Matt (the Candleman) does an amazing job of packing these! Here's an example from one of the candles:

Basically there's about zero chance that these things are going to break in transit. Some of the bigger candles were wearing a ton of this armor! Now, I'm not going to review any of the scents because I do that in every blog anyway, so I'm just going to list first impressions! Starting with the scent shots:

 

I thought it was funny how they were all similar colors. Reds, Oranges, Greens, Purples, and Browns for the most part (a few blues/white thrown in). Most of my last order was red, yellow, and white! The funny thing about the colors though is they change. I ordered 30 and got 1 free (as always). My freebie is one that I got as a free scent shot in my very first order! It was Magnolia Blossom. This time it was Orange. Last time I remember it was a really bright reddish pink color. I was actually excited to get Magnolia Blossom again because I was thinking about reordering all of the old scents that I didn't love to see if my nose had changed. It definitely did with this one because I like it now (we'll see once I burn it!) The rest of the scent shots were on my "Must Order" list (with a few others thrown in). I wanted to get most of Victoria's Lush dupes to see how they smelled (even though I've only ever had Lush's Porridge soap). I still have a few to try (I already have Bath Time with Pooh, Peace, and Goldilocks) but this gets most of them out of the way :) I'll list the lush product in italics next to the names:

Emperor's Love - Sultana
Finger Lickin' Good - Yummy Yummy Yummy
Gorilla's in the Mist - Jungle
Heavy Metal - Rockstar

Pink Bubblegum Crush - Candy Fluff
What Goes Around Comes Around - Karma


For the rest of the scent shots, I'll divide them by what category they fall into.

Bakery Scents
Apple Cinnamon Butter
Apricot Crumb Cake
Banana Walnut
Creme Brulee
Genevieve's Tea Ring
Hello Dolly
Pumpkin Pralines

Fruity Scents
Best Friends
Cucumber Lime Twist
Fresh Squeezed Oranges
Ginger Peach
Gone Grape
Poisoned Apple
Raspberry Guava
Summer Crush
Tropical Kisses

Drink Scents
Fizzy Pop
Mulberry Cider

Floral Scents
Sophie Belle
Water Lily & Pear

Other Scents
Blue Sugar Cotton Candy
Me Tarzan, You Jane
Pink Sugar
Spearmint

Overall a really good haul for scent shots. I'm excited to combine a few of them to make Create-A-Scents!!!

Next, I got 3 of the 4 oz candles. I really wanted to try this size since they are very reasonably priced at $5.00 each.  I went out on a limb choosing 2 new scents that I had never tried before: Bergamot & Herbal Mint and Love Shack. I'm so glad I got those in a candle rather than a scent shot because I love them so far. The other candle on the right is a repurchase of Shamrock Kiss.

With every order, I usually try to order a sampler pack because it's the best bang for your buck for getting candles (6 8oz candles for $40). In the past, I've had trouble picked out 6 scents that I like and have ended up getting a few duds. Not so with this order. The scents from left to right are: Bermuda Triangle (LOVE the blue color), Bite Me, Pumpkin Cider, Sexy in Stilettos, Mango Sorbett, and Bergamot & Mandarin. I've tried all of these scents before and they are among my favorites.

I wanted to try one of Victoria's Black Label Candles. These are more expensive since they use Top Shelf fragrances. I really love the packaging on these candles because I feel it helps with the Top Shelf motif since they are very sophisticated compared to the usual country-style jars she usually uses. I went with Godfather for my first one. I'm not sold on this yet, because it is still curing so the jury is out for another few weeks. There's a few others in this line that I'd like to try, but I'm not sure when I'll order another.

This candle looks good enough to eat! I wanted to get one of her comfort candles since people RAVE about these. Just look at the top!

I went with Momma's Peach Cobbler and it smells DIVINE! It has Peach Preserves, Cornbread, Maple Butter Crunch, Gold Butter Flakes, and Cinnamon on top. It is a really great scent and even just by sitting on my counter it is smelling up the living room. I had to put a piece of saran wrap on top so I could burn other candles!

The last one that I got is my all time favorite scent. I love Bella Swan so much (and not because of Twilight). This scent is just amazing to me. I wanted to get a Glitter Candle and one of the 22 oz tureens and I knew I had to get it in this scent. Now, I'm one of those people that wants the Glitter color to match the scent. My 9oz candle of Bella was a dark purple color so I went with Grape glitter. Look how pretty this is:

Without Flash

With Flash

I know glitter shows up differently with and without flash so I did both. Now, I really do like the grape glitter, but I'm kind of sad that I didn't go with Purple glitter instead. After I ordered, I saw a video on Victoria's YouTube channel with both of these colors next to each other and I like the Purple glitter better (purple is more blue, grape is more pink). The tureen is also HUGE and double wicked so I love it.

So that's my whole haul! I was super excited to get this in the mail on Monday and depending on how the sales look like for February I may be placing another order soon :) Though not as large as this one...

Now onto the daily review!

Hawaiian Rain (3): This is a tropical scent. I've actually had this scent for a LONG time in my collection. It is very clean to me and has pineapple in it. I think it's pretty much Victoria's Rain scent with pineapple added. I'm not a huge fan of the Rain scent, because to me it smells to much like cleaning products. However, the pineapple really mellows it out for me so this one isn't bad to me. I probably won't reorder it, but it's not bad.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 020 - Tales of Vesperia

Currently Burning: Fruit Loops

Tales of Vesperia is a game that's part of the "Tales" series. I've never played any of the others because Vesperia is the only one for the XBOX 360. This is a fantasy RPG that can actually be multiplayer. The main character is Yuri Lowell (guy with the black hair on the cover). The main plot of the story really isn't revealed until over halfway through the game because this game has several false endings. It starts with Yuri trying to find the person who stole a energy source for his town's water supply.

I really like this game a lot. I first got it through GameFly, but then decided to go ahead and buy it. The only thing about this game is it takes a LONG time to play because it has a lot of story elements. It's also animated rather than trying to look realistic. If you're a fan of RPGs, definitely check this one out!

Now onto the daily review!

Fruit Loops (4): This smells EXACTLY like the cereal. The first time I smelled this I was like "How does she do it!?!?!?" I have this in a 9oz candle as well so I've burned it multiple times. The throw is pretty strong on it, so if you love Fruit Loops cereal, get this candle!!!

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 019 - Once Upon a Time

Currently Burning: Clean Cotton

My favorite show of the moment is by far Once Upon a Time. It airs on ABC on Sunday evenings at 8pmEST/7pmCST.  The premise is a world of fairy tale characters was transported to the real world by a curse. The only people who know the truth are the mayor of the town (Evil Queen), her adopted son Henry, and the owner of the pawn shop Mr. Gold (Rumplestiltskin). Every episode focuses on one or more of the characters and switches between the real world and the story from the fairy tale world. The episode this past Sunday was about Hansel and Gretl.

Now onto the daily review!

Clean Cotton (4): This is a really nice smell. It's more floral than clean smelling. To me, it smells like cotton blossom bath products rather than laundry. I would probably order this in a bigger candle. The throw on this is pretty light though.

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason

Day 018 - gaysoftheweek

Currently Burning: Sexy in Stilettos

For this first installment of Watching YouTube Wednesdays, I thought I would talk about one of new my favorite YouTube collab channels. About 2 weeks ago, I somehow found myself at the gaysoftheweek channel.

I can't remember specifically what brought me here, but I know that I had heard of it before. Over the course of the past 2 weeks, I've watched just about every video they've posted (almost 450!) They do a really good job of making videos and I really enjoy watching them. The channel was founded in February of 2010 with 4 members Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. They eventually added a Thursday to bring the total to 5. Three of those original 5 members have been replaced over the past 2 years to the current cast of 6 which is what I will be reviewing.

Mondays (Ryan)

Ryan is the actual founder of the gaysoftheweek channel. He live in Los Angeles, CA so a lot of his videos have him at the beach or enjoying LA. His personal channel ryanjamesyezak is mostly music videos that he has created. His videos are how I originally knew about this collab (though at the time I didn't start watching them). He's recently started a campaign to film a documentary called Second Class Citizens that will explore the discrimination experience by gays and lesbians in America. As of yesterday he met his goal of $50,000 on kickstarter and the total keeps climbing (it's over $97,000 at the time of posting this blog). So excited for him!

Tuesdays (Daniel and Brian)

It's not very common for collab channels to feature a couple as one of their days. Even when they do, it's usually one member of the couple that is the actual member of the collab, and the other partner just co-stars. Not the case with Brian and Daniel. They were added to the cast in mid-February 2011. I love these 2. They are so adorable and their videos are usually REALLY funny. You can tell they put a lot of effort into making them. They started off living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, but moved to Toronto at the end of this past summer. Their personal channel, brianinnis, is also combined. Mostly they just post vlogs on there.

Wednesdays (Scott)

Scott is the original Wednesday. He's from the Kansas City, MO area. At first, I wasn't really sold on Scott. He was pretty annoying to me so I would just skip over his videos. However, I watched a couple of his videos where he was impersonating other people and I was hooked. His video of impersonating Miles Jai (Friday) is HILARIOUS. I was rolling on the floor. After that, I watched more of his videos and realized that even though he isn't my favorite day of the week, I can't imagine the channel without him. His personal channel is scottVnelson but he doesn't really post videos over there.

Thursdays (Roland)

OMG. How to describe Roland. He was added the same time as Brian and Daniel to replace the previous Thursday. He's from England so it's nice to have an addition from "across the pond." The original Tuesday was from Sweden so I was glad they could continue with representation from Europe. Roland is a hoot to watch. He speaks extremely fast and I love his expressions! His videos are all very high energy and I love it! His personal channel is rolyungashaahd and he usually posts vlog-type stories that are HILARIOUS.

Fridays (Miles Jai)

Miles Jai replaced the original Friday back at the end of April 2010. Miles' videos are always a great way to finish the week. He has the funniest characters that he creates and his editing skills make the videos so funny! Several of Miles' videos are my favorites from this channel. Miles is from Las Vegas, NV though he moved to southern CA fairly recently. His personal channel is milesjaiproductions. He got a lot of exposure a few months ago due to his video Like Mah Status so that may have been how I made my way back to this channel.

So overall, these 6 guys have been making me laugh for the past 2 weeks. I really enjoy watching them and I'm sad that it took me almost 2 years to find the channel! I don't think there's plans for them to leave anytime soon so here's to many more posts from gaysoftheweek!

Now onto the review:

Sexy in Stilettos (5): This is probably my 2nd favorite scent by CBV that I've tried so far. It is a gorgeous scent that mostly smells like Victoria's Secret Lovespell perfume. It also has a other notes in it that soften it and make it a really good bedroom scent. The name is very fitting. It was inspired by a YouTuber. This was one of the candles that I got in my most recent haul. Can't get enough!!!!

P.S. The sky this evening was too beautiful not to pass up. I was driving when it was really pretty so by the time I got home it was almost too dark. Here's my pitiful attempt at outdoor photography :)

Remember to keep those wicks trimmed!

Jason