Thanks to Nancy for her mention of our lobster candles on her blog, Newport Weddings. Nancy is an Interior Designer from Newport RI and was kind enough to add us to her blogroll.

Yet another great suggestion on where to use our candles….!

The tragedy that struck the Port-au-Prince region in Haiti not two months ago shook the world. Many people were left wondering what they could do and how they could help - but because of the stringent restrictions on travel in and out of the ‘hub’ city, volunteers and supplies were few and far between when they were needed most.

Airline Ambassadors was the one of the first NGO’s on the ground after the disaster with three planes full of medical supplies and sixty doctors, half of whom spoke Haitian.

Their work in Haiti has helped save numerous lives and improved conditions for many who were left without a home. We’ve been following their journey for the past month on their blog, which we encourage all of our readers to follow as well: http://airlineambassadorsblog.blogspot.com/

We cannot tell you how much it means to get this type of insight into a catastrophe unparalleled in our western hemisphere human history.  In their efforts, detailed in their blog, we saw much pain, death and misery but also hope, love and something else…

Joy.

Those reflections, journals, stories, hit that special nerve in one’s heart that said, “These people are incredible!”  This includes the AAI volunteers, doctors, the military of the US Southern Command, all the people helping and most of all the sorely wounded people of Haiti.

black & light co donates a portion of the gross proceeds of the sale of all Inspirational candles to AAI.  In addition, shoppers using the AAI100 promo code receive a ten percent discount on their order and we’ll donate a percent of the proceeds of all sales using this code regardless of candle.

AAI will be on the ground in Haiti, long after the media attention wanes, like they were before the event and like they are in eighty-one other countries around the world.

black & light co is grateful to be able to provide goods and donations to AAI, an opportunity for plain ordinary people like us help them do their extraordinary things and dovetailng with our desire to measure success by how we support those in greater need.

Click on the link above or the picture below to visit the Airline Ambassador blog!

Our latest cyber outreach lead us to the awesome interior design blog Creative Home Expressions! We absolutely love hearing feedback about our candles and send many thanks to Kathy for her wonderful review. Creative Home Expressions will soon be doing a candle giveaway, so stay tuned to her blogroll to enter and find out if you’re a winner!

We want to congratulate two of our top retail partners for making headlines in Niche Magazine’s Top Retailers of 2009 - so to all of the folks at The Laughing Dog Gallery and Max’s - congratulations on a job well done! We look forward to continuing our relationship with both galleries and wish them even more success in 2010!

Just before Christmas Chantal from the Luxxury Living Blog was kind enough to write a review on our popular Lark candle. Click on the image below to see the great post!

Also, we have several exciting announcements!

• By next week we will be launching our first ever semi-annual Clearance Sale. It will run for a limited time only, so be sure to check www.blackandlightco.com frequently to see if your favorite candle has gone on sale
• Holly Eve is hard work at several new candle designs that we will be unveiling for the February Buyers Market of American Craft in Philadelphia PA.
• We will be adding an additional 3 candles to our Inspirational collection

We wish everyone a safe and happy New Year and look forward to sharing the glow in 2010!

Many many thanks to the folks over at the Charitable Gift Giving Blog for their kind words about our candles. We really appreciate the post and the pictures of our candles in action! Click on the image below to be directed to our awesome write-up.

When one witnesses ‘inspiration’ on a ‘global’ scale, not just in its reach around our good and great earth, but in its intensity as well, where does one begin?

A couple of representatives of black & light co, candle slaves as we often refer to ourselves, although in this case they may have been candle elves due to the time of year, recently viewed ‘inspiration’ on that global level. They attended for the second year, Nancy Rivard’s and Airline Ambassadors’ International Annual Event honoring people of compassion and peace who acted on behalf of others. This year’s event was again in NYC at the UN building.

This year’s recipient of the Global Compassion Award was Jauquin Antuna, Founder of Paz y Cooperacion, which in English means Peace and Cooperation. Jauquin’s site link in English can be found here. Jauquin counts Mother Theresa, with whom he’d conversed at length as one of those who inspired him. Listening to this great man, as he spoke of what each and every one of us can do to foster a better life, as just plain ordinary people, for others was proof our world is capable of doing better, and that despite the drudgery of war, violence of all sorts and the economic environment, the world can be and is a better place. His enthusiasm, great cheer, and absolutely childlike glee infected everyone. As he said (or something to this effect), “It is through the wisdom of children that we often see the solution to problems we adults struggle to solve.”

The Global Humanitarian Award recipient was The McCord Foundation, Jim and Darlene McCord. The Foundation currently funds activities in three areas: athletics at the University of Iowa; research fellowships in the University of Iowa biosciences department; and independent labs working on researching the Buruli Ulcer. Their site can be found here. The Foundation’s unique Pennies Have Power^® program utilizes the fundraising skills of children helping children, by empowering grade-schoolers to raise money to help Ghanaian children suffering with the Buruli Ulcer.  Buruli Ulcer is a skin destroying disease affecting people in thirty-one countries. Darlene spoke, like everyone seems to at these Airline Ambassador events, that any person, can help other people in greater need, particularly children

black & light co chose to become involved with Airline Ambassadors in August of 2008, at the suggestion of our Director of Sales & Marketing. He agreed to ‘contribute’ goods and monies for the October Global Compassion event. Holly Eve, an elementary school teacher for twenty-five years before retiring early to found black & light® co, attended last year’s event in person. Holly’s had her life changed by many things over many years. That singular event instantly made her top five and possibly even higher – and Holly has experienced perhaps more than her share of life changing events.

Her candle elves are pleased to report after this year’s event that black & light® co will always support Airline Ambassadors in every way possible. Nancy ‘sold’ our staff with her amazing effort. She convinced us too of the one thing that best sums up her sixteen year plus effort…

“Ordinary people can indeed do extraordinary things.”

There is no better phrase to communicate what Nancy Rivard and her team of thousands of ordinary volunteers do and dovetails perfectly with Holly’s mission – “We measure our success by how well we support those in greater need.”

At the end of this blog are a few pictures from the paparazzi of one of our candle elves who attended the event on Holly’s behalf. We’d like to close this post with this comment about the people pictured below who help Nancy by emcee-ing her Global presentation events.

They too epitomize what Nancy is about as they delivered their comments with eloquence, compassion, and a deep passion for inspiring others to do what they can as just plain ordinary people, like each and every one of us are regardless of race, creed or station in life, to help our fellow human beings, particularly those most vulnerable, the children of our world, and above all those children who literally have nothing; no clothing, no house, no food, literally. Of their genuineness – there can be no doubt.

Visit Airline Ambassadors at www.airlineamb.org and please think about becoming one. We all need to be ambassadors of peace and goodwill, towards all men and women of the same – and not just at this holy and joyous time of year, but always, and especially to those little ones of us, our children, the future of who we are.

Thanks to Purely Delicious for the great mention in their most recent issue! Check it out below…

Taking pictures of our candles is not the easiest task in the world. Just ask Holly and her helper. They’ve been hard at work the past several weeks trying to get the ‘perfect’ picture of our candles in a setting. Here’s an example of what they’ve been able to accomplish!

Because of the way our candles glow, they are not easily photographed in normal lighting. In other words, you either have to sacrifice the design (shoot it without the flash) or the glow (shoot it with the flash and other background lighting). It takes a keen eye and a great deal of practice to be able to get the glow of the candle coupled with the color of the design on it.

We think they’re doing a great job but we are always welcoming suggestions. If anyone has any experience photographing glowing (literally) objects and they have secrets as to how to keep detail, please let us know!

Holly Eve, with great gratitude, recently offered Mayo Clinic employees, friends and family a discount code, mayo10.  Very simply any item ordered with this code will result in a ten percent discount for any user of the code and a similar amount will be allocated and sent to Mayo’s financial donor program completely under the rules they specify for any cash donors.  Holly is doing this independently of Mayo Clinic and infers in no way a relationship with this incredible health system.

Holly’s reasons are personal.  She is married to a man whose been on disability since 2000 and who’s quality of life was seriously questionable as recently as May of 2009.  Three visits to Mayo Clinic gave him an incredible new lease on life, not a cure due to the incurable nature his particular health situation, but a much brighter prospect for a much higher quality of life.  He is proof positive that Mayo works constantly and almost exclusively with one simple thing in mind, “what is in the best interest of the patient”.  With Mayo, this is a statement more than it is a question.

She and her husband know this first hand, upfront and personal.

It is with deep appreciation that Holly offers this discount to anyone interested in purchasing a gift or candle that gives back, to Mayo Clinic for changing her husband’s life.