The Fifes

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Iceland :: Part 1

I've completely skipped blogging about our honeymoon-not-honeymoon trip to the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand! Maybe someday I'll get around to recording those memories.

Iceland was on Peter's bucket list and due to some complications resulting from our trip to the Philippines we turned those into a blessing and decided to go! Our friends Chris and Liz Romney came along and made it into a couples trip. We traveled on the cheap so that meant packing airplane snacks/instant dinners/a camp stove/a pot and pan, camping, grocery shopping once we got there, and splitting the costs of rentals betwixt the couples. It turned out to be a great way to go on the wallet but we also learned that some things like a bed and shower can be very worth the money.

Most of our trip was spent in a car traveling around the island. Since 75% of Iceland's population lives in Reykjavik, there were so many random homesteads spotting the landscape. We were surprised that contrary to our preconceptions, there were not as many sheep as we expected and way more horses. The Icelandic horse is a beautiful shaggy horse like nothing we've ever seen.

"Get an SUV", we said. "It will be perfect and roomy", we said.

Dusty, our faithful stead in vehicle form, was a champ. We were able to somewhat escape the wind enough to cook our dinners but boy did we feel cramped. This is us on day one. Just imagine what we looked like on day seven after we had spent way too much time together.

Rauðfeldar Canyon

This was the first place that we adventured. We saw it off the side of the road and make a quick U-turn. We kept an eye out for Bárður, the murderous troll, whom legend says still haunts this canyon.

Londrangar Cliffs

Very picturesque but too windy and cold to really appreciate, in my opinion.

Gatklettur Arches

The waves from the ocean splash against the arch opening and spray water up sometimes 30 feet into the air. At one point we were its unlucky victims. SOAKED. (see video below)

Kirkjufellfoss

It's the most iconic waterfall and mountain in Iceland but when you see as many waterfalls as we saw the entirety of our trip you begin to become a waterfall snob. And as snobs, we think this one is worth skipping.

Hraunfosser

At most of these waterfalls we just couldn't fathom where so much water was coming from!

Glymur Falls

Peter and I don't think there is a place in the world that could top the beauty we saw at Glymur. Beauty doesn't even come to describe it. It felt surreal and other wordly. With probably a 1.5 mile hike crossing a rapidly fast moving river, this was by far the best experience of the whole trip.
10/10. Would recommend.

We came probably one week prior to all the lupins you could ever wish for being in full bloom. Aside from not eating more pastries, it was the biggest heartbreak of the trip.

Well there you have it; the first two days of Iceland!
Stay tuned for part II.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Empties :: Autumn Candles

Candles are something that I’ve become very fond of these last few years. They seem to make our house feel so cozy, warm, and smell wonderful. Once I even lit probably 8 candles or so to make our place heat up a bit because I was too stubborn to turn the heat up. (It didn’t work but it smelled nice!)

My candle graveyard boasts many more candles than this but I’ve held on to these ones that I’ve killed just this Autumn and Winter for this cheeky little review.

Bath and Body

Bath and Body candles have a high oil to wax ratio. The more oil, the more scent and a faster burn. So these candles produce a lot of fragrance and have about a 25 hr burn time. I always find myself rationing how much I light these but I can’t get over how easily they make my house smell like a fairy-turned pumpkin carriage or a rainy day in a rose garden.

Watermelon Lemonade - This one I burnt all through the summer but it trickled into Autumn because who really wants to burn a candle when its a blazing 92 degrees in your house and it doesn’t get dark until 10pm, amirite? When you smell this, it doesn’t smell like an ounce of watermelon or lemonade. It is straight up watermelon jolly rancher (which we can all agree also does not smell like watermelon). It’s pretty sickly sweet which I’ve found that Peter really likes but are not my favorite.

Leaves - There will never be an Autumn that I won’t have this burning. I LOVE this scent. It says it has notes of pumpkin, golden nectar, and cloves and I’m not sure what golden nectar is but the combination of these three is divine. The cloves are not overpowering and the pumpkin is a bit subtle so whatever golden nectar is is holding down the fort like a champ. This definitely has a more spicy tone to it which is right up my alley as opposed to the sweeter tones.

Twisted Peppermint - This is one of my Christmas time must haves. Its a very sweet mint scent but it doesn’t smell like you’ve fallen into the Candycane Forest. I also love that its white and not red. For some reason that makes it feel a bit more classy and pretty to have around. I usually pair this with the Bath and Body Fresh Balsam candle which smells exactly like a Christmas Tree.

719 Walnut Avenue

This is a brand that I happened upon in Walmart and convinced Peter to let my purchase just one. It was well worth it. This brand burns much like a Bath and Body candle because it has so much oil in it but the plus side is that is is a quarter of the cost which makes it my #1 candle brand of choice. (Just yesterday I found an Autumnal 3-wick on the clearance rack for $1!) I’ll let you all in on my secret: I’m not sure everywhere they sell but I bought mine at Walmart NOT in the candle aisle but in the aisle with the household cleaners and air fresheners. Keep it secret. Keep it safe.

Caramel Cinnamon Roll - Like I said above, this has a lot of oil in it so it produced a strong scent which made my house smell like I just baked some morning goodies. It smells exactly like a caramel cinnamon roll which you can imagine would be very sweet which is why this is Peter’s favorite candle. I loved it because it made my house smell like a bakery. We’ve saved a tiny bit of it for next Autumn in case we can’t find a replacement come Autumn 2017.

MainStays

It’s easy to buy a lot of these because they are cheap, which is why I have so many, but you are getting what you pay for here. It has a high wax to oil ratio which means that these burn longer. I’d say I burned mine for about 30-35 hrs. However, I could only smell the candle if I stuck my nose right above the flame which earns it last place in this particular candle list. Its always nice to have the ambiance of the flames though so this is a cheap solution although I would stick to pillar candles if you are looking for strictly light ambiance (which they do wonders for btw).

Banana Nut Bread - If you stuck your nose into a box of vanilla wafers, you would smell the same thing as if you stick your nose over this candle.

Glazed Apple Cider - Very sweet with a subtle apple scent. Not much of the cider, spice-y scent.

Evergreen Spruce - The reason I couldn’t purchase a Bath and Body Fresh Balsam this year. I grabbed a few of these while they were on clearance. It smells like Christmas Tree but, again, its not a strong enough scent to fill a room so it was a poor replacement of Fresh Balsam. I ended up supplementing the Pine scent with another pine candle that I received as a gift.

That’s it! I’m sure I’ll have more candles in the future but prime candle season it on its way out and I can’t for spring! Speaking of spring, the 719 Walnut Avenue brand has their spring collection out already. I picked up their sweet floral/fruity scent called Country Market and would have picked up another one which I forgot the name of. It had a cedar scent in it which my husband prohibited because he wants me to smell him instead of the candle :)

I’m still on the hunt for a lilac scent for spring and also a gingerbread scent for next winter.

Sheesh. You could say that I like candles.