"Houston - we have lift off!"

I can hardly believe that I am actually able to write this but, finally, after an enormous amount of work and effort on behalf of Twice and our wonderful website team (Kevin, Katie, Simon and Rob especially) the Twice webshop is open for business! I would like to send my very great thanks to everyone for doing a truly brilliant job.

It's a very good feeling to have got to this stage - we have all been working on the website since the beginning of the year. It's been a pretty long pregnancy and even if delivery is slightly overdue (I had hoped for the beginning of September) I hope you'll agree that it's a bonny baby!

There's a taste of what you will find in the shop in this photo. We will be updating the webshop regularly with new versions of our existing designs and introducing a steady flow of new designs to tempt you. You can use the link on the right to visit the shop - we look forward to welcoming you very soon.

Best wishes (and a huge sigh of relief!)
Caroline

Southerly gales ..... of laughter!

One of the reasons we moved to Scotland was for a better way of life, an escape from the hurly-burly of urban living - and, I suspect rather typically of new country dwellers, we have entered into the whole "Good Life" thing with gusto - to the extent that some of our friends in the south have started referring to us as Tom and Barbara! So I thought this photograph would give them a good laugh! These are puffballs collected this afternoon from under a bed of nettles - I'm sure a professional mushroom hunter would be quite used to finding them this size but we were amazed!

I was lucky enough to have inherited an Aga with the house and one of the very best things about it is that we can put mushrooms and other fungi on the warming plate at night and have delicious dried mushrooms by the morning. Last year we managed to dry enough to last until this autumn and this year I think we will beat that and be able to give some as presents at Christmas. The smaller puffballs are really good if you fry them in oil and butter and add a bit of garlic and whatever other herbs you have around - it's a bit like tofu which means that it laps up other flavours that you put with it. I don't think we'll be attempting to eat the ones in the photo though - at little long in the tooth probably.

From a Twice point of view, doesn't the Mug Candle look great!? They will soon be available at www.thetwiceshop.com in our For The Home section.

Best wishes
Caroline

A warm glow .....

We've just finished a batch of our wonderful Cup & Saucer Candles and I really wanted to put something about them in my diary.

The first thing I wanted to explain is why we use soy wax and not the usual parafin wax. The reason is basically that soy wax is 100% natural and doesn't give off that slighty chemical smell that you get with most candles. As with all our products, wherever possible we will take the environmentally friendly option and for candles, this is it. Soy also has a longer burn time than parafin wax - you can expect anything up to 14 hours from our cups. In addition, it is much, much easier to remove from anything - including our beautiful vintage china. So, once a candle is finished you can pop the cup in a low oven (80-100 degrees) to melt any remaining wax and then wash it as normal. The downside of soy wax is that it is much harder to get a perfect finish - but we think a few imperfections in the wax are a small price to pay for all the advantages.

The second thing, which isn't obvious when they first start burning, is how they become more beautiful as they burn down - at night the flame starts to glow through the china and it becomes quite magical on a dinner table - the only sadness is that it is at its best just as it nears the end! Oh well, you'll just have to get another one!

We will have a whole section for candles on the new website, which should be going live sometime during September. When it does, have a look at the 'Candles' section of www.thetwiceshop.com to see our fabulous creations!

Best wishes
Caroline