Annie's Survival Candles - Philadelphia, PA - Choose Soy Candles!

This post is about my new "business". It involves making healthy candles. I will be making 16oz candles in Mason-Jars ($15 each)!!

I will make youtube videos: that didn't happen yet

Etsy Store: This did happen! Search ("The Artistic Coconut" and "Mason Jar Candles") in google! I should be the first search result

Ebay: Didn't happen yet...

Email me at: annie.feng93@gmail.com for additional information

They are called my "survival" candles because:

• They are going to be made with essential oils (infused with lavender, vanilla, etc) that will help you survive stress
• Made with 100% soy, they have double the burning time of paraffin candles! So they are a necessity for times of blackouts!
• Paraffin candles are the ones you buy at most candle stores! If the candle doesn't say made with soy, then they are most likely made with paraffin, which is actually toxic! It's like running a small motor inside your house and breathing in second-hand smoke (read on)
• Selling candles will help my bank account and me survive the big college bills

My products:

1. Mason Jar 16oz Candle - $15-20

• 100% Soy Highest Quality Products!!
• Aromatherapy essential oils 
• Burn time of 80-120 hours!!!
• Beautiful to smell and look at 
• An amazing gift with an artistic touch - totally customizable 
• Support an engineering college student attending an expensive Private University 

Why should you choose SOY? 

• Support farms across the country - which in turn supports US economy! 
• Lighting a paraffin candle is like starting a mini-engine in your house... notice the ring of black soot around the candle? They say paraffin candle smoke is like breathing second-hand smoke!! (References: http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2012/04/toxins-in-candles-sad-but-true.html)
• Not toxic 
• Natural ingredients
• Disposable/Decomposes 

Why should you buy my candle?

• Made with 100% soy!
• Hand-poured in my little apartment in Philadelphia, PA
• Made with love and time
• Aromatherapy benefits from the essential oils
• Tea Tree: great for skin
  Calendula (Marigold): good for sensitive skin, soothing
  Chamomile: improves mood, soothing, improves nervous health, digestion, kills bacteria
  Cinnamon: respiratory aid, pain relief
  Citrus: energizing and help uplift spirits
  Bergamot:  soothes, improves mood, promotes digestion
  Eucalyptus: help with colds or allergies, muscle relief, antibacterial
  Grapefruit: uplift spirit, eliminate toxins, help with fatigue (even jet lag!)
  Lavender: calming, soothing, stress reliever, helps with insomnia, skin and hair care, and immune health
  Lemon: inhibits virus and bacteria, uplifts mood, lifts skin, fights infections, and helps with fevers
  Lemongrass: reduces pain, uplifts mood, prevent bacteria growth, repels insects, soothes
  Peppermint: purifies air, stimulates the mind
• No artificial fragrances!
• Beautiful and can be fully customized (smell & color)
• Re-usable, the mason jars can be re-used as cups, pencil holders, or you can even send it back to me and I will refill your candle for a discounted price!! 
• Essential piece of survival tool for blackouts
• Artistic touch
• Help me pay my college bills!
• Competitors: 
• I can beat the best brands of candles in terms of quality and price! 
• Yankee and Bath & Body Works
• 6 oz candle is $13!!! WHAT?
• 14.5 oz candle is $23!!! It only has a burn time of 24-45 hours!

Cooking/Food Shopping I Learned as a College Student

*** Updated information ***

Cooking:

1. It's okay to be adventurous, but have at least one cooking experience (grilled-cheese and scrambled eggs count), or have a somewhat-knowledgeable-friend/chef there with you 
2. Don't always make the same food every night for more than 3 days. You're going to end up really despising that food. 
3. Easy food recipe:
1. Beef/pork pot roast with potatoes, carrots, portobello mushrooms (mushrooms general)
• Heat up some oil (olive, canola, etc), when heat is hot, put in the pork or beef and onions! (High Heat)
• Let that warm up for 5-10 minutes, depending how soft you like the meat
• Put in potatoes - add however much water you want - let it boil
• When the potatoes is slightly harder than you want it (probably another 15 min time on Medium heat), put in carrots, and portobello mushrooms (beef only), white mushrooms for pork
• Put salt, pepper, seasoning, let it boil/cook for another 15-20 minutes then serve!
2. Chicken Soups with potatoes, carrots, celery, tomatoes (Italian style) - This is the college student style. Don't get fancy on me!
1. *HINT HINT* As a personal suggestion, if you want noodle style, boil the noodle separately whenever you want to eat it. The noodle can get super soft and goopy depending how often you microwave it/leave it in the fridge
• Heat up oil
• Add chicken and onions when oil is warm - cook for about 5 - 10 minutes, make sure you flip/stir the chicken around so it's evenly cooked (high heat) 
• Throw in chicken broth, I'll usually throw in a (1 quart) box and then if I want more soup, I'll just pour in more water
• I like my potatoes soft so right when the water starts heating up, I put in a LOT of potatoes
• Let that cook for another 10-15 minutes, then I add carrots and celery 
• At this point I will also add tomatoes, it tastes GREAT! It's like an Italian style (or maybe I think that) - trust me, SO good, you'll thank me later
• Add seasoning, just adding salt is good enough, but basil, oregano, pepper makes it taste absolutely heavenly 
• Cook for another 20-30 minutes (depending if you want the meat and potatoes softer, or if you just happen to forget)
• EAT.
• Do NOT add: green peppers
• If you don't like chicken meat, but the flavor, just don't bother on the chicken meat and go straight with chicken stock (saves you money too!)
• It should look something like this (if you add tomatoes, it'll be more red)

1. How to make ramen delicious and fancy 
1. Make ramen like you always do... Let water boil in a pot
2. When the water is boiling, put in noodle
3. Pour in the spice, crack 1-2 eggs in it, cut up some mushrooms (throw them in ramen pot), add cabbage (or kimchi!), let cook for 3-7 min
4. DONE
2. Normal food to make it seem like you know how to cook
1. Choose a side of meat (ground meat works best) and chopped veggies 
1. (use common sense here on what WOULD taste good together, beef & celery, beef & onion, pork & cabbage, etc)
2. Heat up oil, throw meat in, stir it around, wait a few minutes until it's cooked (5-8 min on medium - high heat should do it)
3. Then throw in chopped veggies, stir it around and let it cook for 5 minutes
4. Add seasoning (salt, soy sauce, pepper, etc), stir for 2 minutes
5. Put it on a nice plate (not paper plate) and serve!!
6. It'll def look better (and healthier) than that cup ramen you were about to make

Food Shopping:

1. Don't go food shopping unless you have finished off 75% of the fridge, this will result to more rotting food (Yuck!) 
• You'll also end up forgetting half the items you have in your fridge 
2. Give yourself a shopping limit, even though you most likely will not follow it...
3. Make yourself a shopping list and try as hard as you can to follow it
4. Buy BIG bags of food (potatoes/carrots/onions/oranges/broccoli/etc) but only if you're actually going to cook them... my roommates did this, and since they cook once a week, it resulted to a lot of rotting food.
1. True story. We all came back from break and fruit flies took over the kitchen. We would shift a bowl and it felt like watching Sparta 360, except with tiny little fruit flies. 
5. Frozen veggies are affordable veggies! For easy cooking, just stick in pot and boil (This should be achievable for even the most amateur cookers) 
6. I recently discovered Amazon Fresh - you need a minimum of $50 purchase (that's easy for me cause I cook every day). It's great for Winter (or every season) so you don't have to carry all those heavy bags from the store and back!! They also have some amazing prices so I've been super happy. I make a large order of groceries/meat every week and half to two weeks. Also they have these recyclable bags which you return the next time you make a purchase. Make sure you leave a nice tip!

Reminder:

1. Eating ramen frequently can give you kidney stones
2. Not eating enough veggies or fruit can lead to malnutrition, drink a Boost once in a while if you're feeling a little weak or tired (or just get enough sleep) 
3. Cooking for yourself is a GREAT way to eat healthy and maintain/lose weight (this does not include making mac-n-cheese, ramen, hamburgers, pizza, or fries)
1. WHY? You won't make gigantic portions (I always do by mistake, that just means easy left over meal for the next day)
2. It's great to be moving around, chopping veggies! Standing is good for you! Cooking is also stimulating for your brain
4. If I can cook, you can prob too. :)

Vitiligo Update - My Personal Journey - Updates Along the Way

March 11, 2015
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I'm in denial it's another year. It's crazy. Time has FLEW BY. Anyways thought I'd do a Vitiligo update. I decided to start using my Protopic cream again. I only apply it at night when I say in PA (Monday-Wednesday nights). You're "supposed" to apply it twice but I've recently had no time to apply it in the morning. I wake up at 5:40AM and you're supposed to wait 15 minutes before you can do anything... and that's just not enough time for me in between getting dressed, putting makeup on, and feeding the cats before I have to get out the house by 6:30AM. When co-op ends and I'm back to classes I'll be able to apply it 2x a day. I also have an appointment with UPenn Dermatology soon, hopefully they can give me more information.

Anyways, update: there is one spot on my right hand, middle finger that you can see visibly got larger. I think the area under my lips is getting worse too... but I can't tell. I'm trying not to stare/over-analyze every spot, because stress only makes it worse. I'm thankful for a supportive and kind boyfriend and a bright looking future!

Anyways, here are some great research articles I found on vitiligo and diet. I want to try to follow it, but it basically tells me not to eat my favorite foods. I LOVE spicy food and pickles! If anyone has other comments/new research please message me!!! Would love to hear any new updates.
http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/24976.pdf
http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jdms/papers/Vol13-issue7/Version-1/I013713942.pdf
(This one is on Protopic) http://www.amjorthopedics.com/fileadmin/qhi_archive/ArticlePDF/CT/071020158.pdf

October 22, 2014
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I just turned 21 a few days ago, 7 days to be exact! Since the last update in February I went to Drexel Dermatology and received two steroid medicated creams. I don't think they have made a difference.

My vitiligo is around my eyes, I still have the "panda eyes" but they are further out than in February. The vitiligo has not connected on my nose bridge yet. I have it on the first joint of all my fingers and toes (will attach pictures).

February 17, 2014
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I have noticed my vitiligo did spread. It appeared right underneath my nose (in between my upper lip and nose). My "panda eyes" have spread to underneath my right eye. It only spread on areas on my finger and my face, not anywhere on my body. I did notice a tiny spot on my right elbow... Nothing noticeable or dramatic though.

I have been drinking a "green" smoothie at least 3x a week now also. Mostly comprises of:
2 handfuls of baby spinach
frozen mango
frozen strawberries
frozen raspberries
2 tbsp of honey
flaxseed
chia seeds
coconut or almond milk.

The smoothie makes me feel full and it's also a "detox" drink so it cleanses my body and gives me the fluids that I miss out on. Loving it! And very affordable. I get most of my frozen ingredients at Trader Joe's.

February 3, 2014
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I recently started applying Extra Virgin Organic Coconut oil to my face and hands before I go to sleep everyday. Not only does it moisturize my hands, it is supposed to help with vitiligo.

It does leave your hand "shiny" but not greasy like olive oil. And the coconut oil is so thin that your skin absorbs it within 10-20 minutes and just leaves your hand smooth and moisturized. Loving it!

Update: I've been using it for a week, I don't see a difference with my vitiligo - but my skin feels nicer and less dry.


Summer of 2011
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In the summer of 2011 I went to China to visit my grandparents. Another minor reason is because it was an opportunity to get some herbal medicine.

In China, to get anything better than average, you need connections. So thank goodness for me, my mom has a lot of "high-power" connections in China, who was able to lead me straight to the doctor's office, cutting about 3 hour's worth of waiting in line and documentation. My prescription had over 25+ herbal roots, most of which I probably can't even translate to English. We bought 100 bags (the max we were allowed to buy), and spent over $1,000 USD.

When we got back to USA with one and a half giant suitcase filled with my medicine, we set about boiling the first batch. We had to buy a clay pot just for it. The medicine was a deep brown color, and tasted terrible, you can also smell it probably from down the block. I had to drink it twice a day, once when I wake up, and once before I go to sleep. I maintained this schedule for about 4 months before I had to go back to college, and was unable to boil it for myself.

Progress: In this time period, my vitiligo did not get better, but it also didn't get dramatically worse. Also, the medicine is so strong, if you drink it for a long period, it actually causes kidney/liver failure (the doctor warned me).

I don't think it did much... and it was a pain to boil and disgusting to drink. None-the-less, I do drink it every time I go back home.