During autumn of 2019, Woodsy (Canada) was created in the kitchen of our home, located in a suburb just outside of Toronto, Canada. That year had been financially challenging for Brad and I, but I still had the desire to offer a special gift to family and friends that coming Christmas, so knew I needed to plan in advance.

As I thought of what I could make or create, finally a candle came to mind, but not just any candle, it had to be a wooden wick candle that crackled. I just loved those.

So I went to work sourcing the materials, ordering samples of fragrances, and choosing a wax base for my candles that I would feel comfortable burning in my own home. As I received my candle jars that I ordered, I realized that now I needed a label on the jar to make it look more professional, so that was the point in the process when I figured I needed something to call my “candle company”. As I was thinking on a name, “Woodsy” came to mind. I'm not even sure if there was a runner up, it just felt appropriate naming it Woodsy when the gift I was giving was a wooden wicked candle.  From there I wanted the perfect logo for Woodsy, so naturally, I hired a designer to help me be able to reflect the design and look I wanted for these candles (go big or go home), so along with a front logo decal, I also had made a “You were made to Shine” decal which I added to the back of the candles with the Matthew 5:16 reference, because of course, my candles needed a message to share, and Woodsy’s message was going to be a reminder that God created us to be a light, to do good works and to shine for His glory.

All of a sudden this was not a frugal Christmas gift anymore…I was invested.

I went to work making what I would now say were terrible candles, lots of them. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to create the perfect candle I had in mind. As I tested them, sometimes they would not give off any fragrance, or other times the tops wouldn’t be smooth, or even worse sometimes random candles just would not light at all for me! I had invested so much more than expected, and now it wasn’t going as perfect as planned.

My sister-in-law, Becki, was hosting a Christmas Tea at her church the end of November that year, which would also have a small Christmas market. I casually offered to host a table with my candles if she wanted, which she agreed to! I ordered extra jars, and brought 74 candles to that market. Though the candles still were far from perfect, I put each candle in a white box and wrapped them with glittery ribbon. They looked so beautiful on display that night, and I ended up selling almost every candle. I was amazed. Even more candles were bought that year from family and friends, though some I'm sure were bought out of empathy and a desire not to squash my entrepreneur spirit despite my lacking product. Though I don’t even think I broke even that year on candle sales, it was an exhilarating experience getting a taste of what it was like to run my own business.

I gave my candles as gifts that Christmas and had the intention to let Woodsy melt away with the snow, but as I was sitting at a New Years party chatting with a friend, her daughter came up and asked if I had new fragrances for my candles for the coming year. The coming year? I hadn’t thought about that...but all of a sudden, that became all I could think about. Could I continue this business? My youngest of our four kids was only 2 years old, how would I be able to do swing this?

Over the next months I worked hard to improve and start to perfect my candles(it’s a science!), it was a long process of fails and wins.

I continued to think on what it would look like to keep going. I daydreamed about other items that I would love to add to my collection at Woodsy. And then, with the support of my husband (Brad), in April that year I launched my first online shop. The shop carried my candles, but also other items like aprons, jewelry and a few pieces of home decor that complimented my everything "homelife” idea that I had for my store. Being a mom of four, much of my life was spent in my home, and I wanted to have items that added to the "homelife" experience.

Since then, so much has changed.  Feeling God’s prompting, we sold our home in Canada, and most of our possessions, picked up our family and moved to Texas to pursue what we believe the Lord has planned for our future, and started building something new though familiar.

I believe Woodsy Homelife is our next step to grow what already was in Ontario, Canada , to something so much more here in Tomball, Texas.

The verse I’ve clung to over the last several years as we’ve started Woodsy Homelife and made this transition to the United States, is Proverbs 3: 5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge him and He will direct your path.”

I’m so excited to see where God takes us as a family, and Woodsy Homelife as we learn to trust more in him on this exciting adventure.