♥: Life long friends

Every summer for several years I have taken a weekend trip to visit my dear friends in Pennsylvania. It is about a 4 hour drive from my home. I have known this family since I was 8. We began our relationship as neighbors and I soon became the 6th child.

Here are some photos of Lewisburg PA
It is a great town.
It is home to Bucknell College.
Many NJ kids attend Bucknell.

They have 5 grown children . . . 3 daughters (Lydie, Cindy and Holly) and 2 sons (Cliff and Luke)
Only one of their 5 children still lives close to home.
So every summer those adult children, that are able too, come home to visit.
I always try to make it so I can see them since we all live in different states ranging from
Florida, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

This year was a bit different. The annual weekend BBQ was not going to be able to happen.
So I took two days off during the week and headed out with my Aunt Rose.
This was going to be just us 4 girls. Sara, Lydie, me and Aunt Rose.

Me, Lydie, Sara and my Aunt Rose.

This is Lydie and I.

Friends since we were 8.

45 years !

This amazing field of sunflowers is about 10 minutes down the road from their home.

They seem to go on forever !

I also made a new friend this weekend.

This is Hastings. He was born in Florida and was a 4 month old stray.

He showed up at Lydie's door when (just his good fortune) Lydie's parents were visiting.

He was so warm and friendly they fell in love with him and once they determined

he was a stray they adopted him and brought him home from FL to PA.

I am a DOG person. But my goodness this boy opened my heart to other options.

He is so so sweet, a bit mischievous and such fun.

He comes when you call his name. He investigated both our suitcases and

visited my poor Aunt during a 2 am bathroom break hah

We visited one of our favorite shops Country Cupboard.

It is a hotel, banquet, restaurant, bakery, candy store, ice cream store and shops.

I found these photos from their face book page.

Crafts...

Home made candy...

Baked goods . . .

An amazing collection of candles...

Beautiful kitchen accessories . . .

Lovely clothes . . .

They make their own jellies, dips, dressings . . .

A beautiful courtyard.

I treated myself to a Kringle Candle - Warm Cotton

I love the container. I can think of a hundred things I will do with this jar when done.

Here's the story of Kringle Candle.

I think it is such a neat story.

When he was just sixteen, my father Mike Kittredge made a candle using his old childhood crayons for his mother’s Christmas present. Within a year, the antique Queen Anne stove you see here had become the heart of a tiny but fast-growing business called the Yankee Candle Company.

By following his inspiration and always stressing quality, my father made Yankee the candle industry standard which reshaped the modern giftware landscape. He sold Yankee Candle in 1998, and retired from the world of wax and wicks – or so he thought.

In 2008, I made my first candle on this same old stove purely for fun; I had just turned nineteen. So when my 2009 college course required that I create and promote a product, my choice was natural: candles. As I worked on the project I felt a great sense of heritage and fulfillment, and an idea that wouldn’t go away formed in the back of my mind.

I discussed expanding the academic assignment into a real business with my father. We spent several days considering what it would be like for both of us if I followed in his footsteps. There was a growing excitement as we realized we both wanted to explore the concept further.

As part of this process, we decided to see what sort of available facilities might be suited to candle crafting. On a drive through lovely Bernardston, Massachusetts, we discovered a building for sale which seemed to hold great promise. And it was familiar; the owner was a very good former customer of my Dad’s during Yankee Candle’s heyday.

At over 18,000 square feet, the place seemed much larger than I’d conceivably ever need. But as we looked around Dad said, “Just imagine the options for a moment. Production would fit nicely in this area, packaging and shipping goes over there, and this section could be an ideal showroom/retail space.”

I had to agree with my father; the property offered lots of flexibility and having a store made solid sense. His theory held that to be a good manufacturer you ideally have to be a good retailer of your own product. It’s the very best way to learn why a product sells, or doesn’t.

So, not long before Christmas 2009, the Kringle Candle Company was born. And our new home is less than twenty miles from Yankee Candle, on the very same state highway. I’m proud that the company my Dad created is so close by, and that we offer a high quality product and visitor experience as well.

The ultra-fragrant Kringle Candle line unites the best of the traditional and the new, with exciting candle products designed to mesh with virtually any decor. We’ve worked hand-in-hand with the industry’s finest perfumers to select an array of robust, realistic candle fragrances. Our all-white candles not only blend perfectly with all backdrops, they emit the purest, brightest light possible.

My Dad and I are still working together to create a new kind of candle business focusing on exceptional product quality and outstanding customer service, plain and simple. We pledge to you that we’ll remain wholly American-owned and operated, never straying from our singular mission of making only superior, honest candles that you’ll want to have in your home.

We’re very proud of our candles, and I think you will be pleased with them too.

Mike Kittredge III

I found these chocolate mints my hubby loves.
They are hard to find in our area but they had them at Country Cupboard.
I treated him to some.