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Spring 2011 at Claire Burke
The Claire Burke motto is "The Scent of Memories" and everyone who has ever smelled Claire Burke's Original fragrance WILL always remember it. But Original is not the only fragrance Claire Burke has in her stock of fragrances. There's AppleJack & Peel which has been a favorite for many years. A lot of folks seem to like it better around the holidays. There are the two fragrances which came out a couple of years ago - Vanilla Bean and Wild Cotton which are quite popular. Then last year Tropical Flowers arrived earlier in the year and later came Cherry O! And all of these fragrances can be layered by using so many different products: georgeous bagged potpourri, beautiful botanical candles, long-lasting filled candles, smaller votives and tealight candles, simmering oils, refresher oils to freshen up your potpourri, the wonderful light fragrance of diffusers and of course the electric fragrance warmers and who can forget the fabulous vapourri room sprays. These can be used for their visual appeal or fragrance alone or in combination.
Some products impart a stronger fragrance for those larger rooms and some have just a hint of fragrance for smaller spaces. If you have a favorite fragrance among all of those that Claire Burke offers, there is a product in that fragrance just for you.
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Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. The quick brown fox jumped over the log.
Last year Claire Burke jumped into the reed diffuser market with a lovely diffuser bottle using their Simply Jasmine fragrance. So what is a reed diffuser? Reed diffusers are the best alternative to candles. Strong, vibrant scents. No risk of fire. Reed diffusers have a wonderful aromatic scent while being flame-free. Absolutely no heat is needed. This makes them safe for classrooms, offices, nursing homes, homes. Reed diffusers emanate NO soot or film onto your furniture, walls and ceiling--the way candles do. If you use an ionic air cleaner, you already know that ionic cleaners must be cleaned twice as often if you use candles in your home. Not so with reed diffusers and fragrance oils. The BEST thing about Reed Diffusers? They last for months!
The Claire Burke diffuser kits include the beautiful bottles, the diffuser oil and the reeds. You simply pour the oil into the diffuser bottle and insert the reeds and that's it. Turn over once to expose oil-moistened sticks to air. The oil will continue to wick up the reeds and scent your room for several months. Turn the reeds occasionally to refresh scent. When the oil is finally used up, simply pour in an oil refill and replace the diffuser reeds.
Claire Burke, Tyler soy candles, Sweet Grass Farms natural body products, Vitabath & SeedBallz plus wedding favors and many other gifts at Dogwood Square
Give Claire Burke's wonderful home fragrance products; Tyler or Sweet Grass Farms soy candles; bath products by Vitabath or for that gardener, either an assortment of SeedBallz or a garden-in-a-bag. Getting married soon...we carry shower and wedding favors, accessories & gifts..and for the new Moms, how about a baby monitor!
Claire Burke was a highly sought after interior designer who decorated some of the most prestigious residences in New York City. She expressed a strong, creative flair that was elegant and feminine that transformed every home. One of Claire's passions was creating exquisite botanical blends of dried rose petals, herbs and greenery combined with luxurious fragrances to share as special gifts. She shared these with her friends and after retiring to Virginia in the early 1950's began selling her beautifully designed botanical blends to specialty shops and boutiques. She and her husband actually hand mixed these fine blends of dried rose petals, herbs and distinctive fragrance oils in their bathtub. Claire Burke products masterfully combine the art of color with the elegance of fragrance. Indulge yourself with fine home fragrances that add dimension to memories, and help create moods and emotions that enhance any holiday tradition.
 
Visit our Friends on These Links Pages:
Claire Burke|Vitabath|Tyler soy|Sweet Grass Farms|Wedding Favors--all at Dogwood Square!
Give Claire Burke's wonderful home fragrances; or Tyler soy candles. Getting married soon...come see our shower & wedding favors & gifts.
Claire Burke
Vitabath
Sweet Grass Farms
Favors & Accessories
Tyler Candles
Potting Shed Creations
KateAspen
Why a flower bed should look bare when you first plant it
by Heather Rhoades
It is probably one of the most common new gardener mistakes. It is even a mistake that, in their excitement to have a beautiful yard, seasoned gardeners make. That mistake is planting a new flower bed with too many plants that are too close together.
A new flower bed should have lots of bare ground. In fact, there should be enough bare ground between the plants that you can walk easily between them. Unfortunately this creates a flower bed that looks nothing like the flower beds you see in gardening books and magazines.
Gardening is twenty-five percent work, twenty-five percent love and fifty percent patience. We lovingly plant the garden with our own bare hands, often times with little or no mechanical help. When we finish with our new masterpiece of a flower bed, we want it to look like the masterpiece we envision. But Mother Nature has never been a speedy sort of spirit, and if you try to hurry her up, she will punish you.
It is best to think of your flower bed like a child. When you plant it, you need to give your flower bed room to grow and develop. Just like children, if you try too hard to give it a personality too fast, your flower bed will rebel rather quickly. Instead of the masterpiece you thought you were planting, you will end up with an overwhelming jungle that will either be more work than it should be or the entire flower bed will need to be dug up and replanted.
Fortunately, flower beds do not need 18 years to "grow-up". It takes about three to five years to develop a good, healthy and, more importantly, nice looking flower bed. By the fifth year, you can expect that your flower bed will have filled in nicely without crowding each other.
So how do you make sure your flower bed gets planted correctly?
First, when planting your flower bed, make sure that the plants have been planted at least one and a half to two times the plant's recommended spacing. Yes, the tags are helpful, but remember, the nursery that sold them to you is in the business of making money if you buy more plants. By putting only the barest minimum spacing required for a plant on the tag, they will be able to convince you to buy more plants. Extra spacing will allow the plants good breathing room without tripping over each other in only a year or two.
Second, plan out your flower bed before you put the plants in the ground. Lay all your plants out on top of the ground before you even think about digging a single hole. Once you have the plants all laid out, step back and look at the bed. Does everything look right? Is everything spaced right? If not move your plants accordingly, then step back and look again. A few minutes of quiet contemplation at this stage will save your hours of back breaking work in a few years.
Third and most important, use your imagination. Imagination is a gardener's best tool. Imagine your plants as they will look five years from now. Imagine your plants will have spread to be 10 times bigger than they are now. Picture them at their full height. At these sizes, will they still have breathing room or would they be on top of each other? Space again if you imagine they will be too close.
At this point, you are ready to dig the holes for your new plants. And the best indicator of whether or not a new flower bed is planted correctly is if you look at the bed and say "It just looks too empty." If that's how your flower bed looks, than your new flower bed is probably planted just right.
So kick back and relax and just keep on relaxing. For just a few years' worth of patience, you will have years and years of beauty to enjoy with very little work.
Heather Rhoades is a online marketer, consultant and writer.
Heather Rhoades may be contacted at http://www.gardeningknowhow.com
We, at Dogwood Square want to announce a new Newsletter. It's called A Foodie Looks at Food Newsletter. As it sounds it's all about food and has fun facts, newsy articles and recipes....recipes in every issue. And as a kick-off here's a fun recipe just in time for Halloween which you and your kids will enjoy. It's pumpkin pie-filled chocolate cobweb cup cakes:
1 can pumpkin pie filling
1 box chocolate cup cake mix
milk or water
egg
safflower oil
1 can milk chocolate frosting mix
1 can cream cheese frosting mix
Mix chocolate cup cake mix using mix, egg, water or milk and oil as indicated on the box. Spray your cup cake pan or place paper cup cake liners in the wells of the cup cake pan. Fill each well 1/3 full with cupcake mixture. Make a dent in the middle of the cup cake mixture and add small amount of pumpkin pie filling in the dent. Cover with more cup cake mixture so the well is 2/3 full and the pumpkin pie filling is hidden. Bake about 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
When cooked, let cool for about 5-10 minutes. Make sure both of the frostings are at room temperature before using. First frost each cup cake with a thin layer of white cream cheese frosting. Then place chocolate frosting mix in a plastic lunch bag and make a tiny cut in one corner to make a piping bag. Beginning in the center of the cup cake, pipe the chocolate frosting in circles out to the edge forming spirals on the tops of the cup cakes. Now, using a toothpick or sharp knife, drag from the center of the spirals out to the edge to make the webs. Be sure to keep the toothpick or knife wiped clean so the web doesn't get messy.
Orkut Happy Christmas Comments & Graphics
Wedding Favors and Gifts- Unique and inexpensive wedding favors and gifts as well as Claire Burke time honored home fragrances, highly scented soy candles from Tyler and Sweet Grass Farms, luxurious Vitabath shower gels, lotions & soaps, cute and cuddly baby shower gifts and scrapbooking tools to keep all those wonderful memories alive! Welcome to DogwoodSquare.com!
 Don't forget we have expanded our candles to include over 400 fragrances of all natural soy candles and soy blend candles. We even have our take on the popular "Wood Wick" candles. Ours are known as "Cracklin Wooden Wick" candles and come in either a wonderful 8 oz. Mason jar for $8.50, 14 oz studio jar for $15.50 or a 16 oz jar with for $16.50 in fragrances like: Apple Spice, Brown Sugar and Cinnamon, Carrot Cake, Christmas Cookie, Christmas Splender, Eggnog, Fresh Cut Christmas Tree, Gingerbread, Harvest, Pear Berry, Pineapple Crush (pictured), Pumpkin Spice, Snickerdoodle, Spicy Christmas, Sugar Plum, Twigs & Berries, Vanilla Pumpkin Pie and Warm Orange Gingerbread just to name a few. They have a burn time of 100+ hours. These candles are much more reasonable in price. In comparison WoodWick candles begin at $11.00 for 3.4 oz. You will get the same "crackling fire" sound and exceptional fragrance for a fraction of the price. I know you will find one or more that you will just love.
I encourage you to look at the Navigation Panel at the left to the link which says "Home Decor (wreaths, garlands, candle holders and so forth.) I have enlarged the link and colored it.
If you click on it, you will end up at the Dogwood Square Oddity Store. There you will find - just as the link says, wreaths, garlands, candle holders, many kinds of candles, and all types of items to make decorations for your home or office or to give as gifts. The folks who run this part of my business have given you several examples of arrangements you can make. You will find all of the pieces you can put together to make "Designer" arrangements.
This is the time of year that we all like our homes to look and smell just right for all those parties and folks who want to drop by. This site can give you all kinds of ideas and tips so you can use what you have on hand along with a couple of new items and really create that "WOW Factor." Also for those of you who don't have an artistic bent, there are videos to show you how to make arrangements and tell you what to buy to duplicate them. Truthfully, most of these are just buying the individual pieces and putting them together - no mess, no fuss - and waiting for the oohs and ahhs from your family and friends.
I'm going to show you some of the possible arrangements you can make from the glasswear, candles, artificial flowers and other items you can get from this unique area of Dogwood Square.
It's September and Back to School Time
TIPS for Freshening Dorm Rooms From DOGWOOD SQUARE®
Often among the top suggestions for adding a simple and inexpensive décor item, open flame candles can be dangerous. Each year an estimated 23,600 fires are caused by candles, including fires in campus dorm rooms. Between 2003 and 2006, U.S. fire departments responded to an average 3,570 fires in dormitories, fraternities, sororities, and barracks resulting in $29.4 million in property damage. As parents and their college-bound children make plans for life on campus, Dogwood Square® suggests that candles and fragrance can still be enjoyed if a safe and practical candle warming appliance is used, such as a plate candle warmer, or an electric fragrance warmer.
For example, using an auto-shutoff plate candle warmer (like the one pictured to the right) heats the candle from the bottom to release the fragrance quickly and with the automatic 8-hour shutoff model, you don’t have to worry about forgetting to turn it off. Without a flame, you benefit from the soft glow that’s cast from the candle without having the open frame. There is an added bonus to using a plate candle warmer: because you are not burning the candle, it will actually last about three (3) times longer than the traditional method of burning the candle. It’s really the best of both worlds, and eliminates the worry altogether.
Some additional tips for safely managing odor and freshening a room’s air quality include:
- Give drawers new life and clothes that “mom-cleaned treatment” with Crabtree & Evelyn Iris Draw Liners to gently scent clothing with an iris fragrance;
- Use a mobile laundry basket on wheels, an easy transport option for dirty clothes and a great way to move bad scents out of the dorm room;
- Use laundry sachets from Sweet Grass Farms in Fresh White Lilac, Herb Blossom, Lavender or Lemon Verbena. You can put these in the dryer, in a drawer or gym bag to give your clothes a hint of fragrance;
- Wipe up spills with the Bad Air Sponge that literally draws out sunk-in odors from university-provided dorm furniture and keeps the closet and room smelling fresh
- Place a houseplant such as a Boston fern, Peace Lily, or English Ivy in the room. These and other plants contribute to good air quality and add a touch of home.
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