05/20/2026
I’ve always tried to be transparent with this community, because Oswego River Candle Co. was never built to be just another business to me. It was built out of real life, real struggles, real healing, and a genuine love for the communities around me. At the same time, I also try to maintain a certain level of privacy, because at the end of the day, this business is still being run out of our little cottage on the river by my partner and I.
Recently, I’ve unfortunately had to decline a few candle requests and collaborations, and I wanted to explain why.
Our cottage is small. Very small. Part of it can’t even fully function year-round yet because of seasonal limitations, which means during parts of the winter and even some hotter or colder stretches, our usable space becomes even smaller. Every inch of this home has been carefully balanced between being a place to live and a place to create.
For a while, the plan was to build a dedicated space for the business. However, life shifted a little recently in the best way possible. My partner accepted a new job opportunity that comes with a substantial pay increase, something we are incredibly grateful for. But with that change also comes working from home full-time, which means our already limited space now has to serve even more purposes.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve had to really sit down and reevaluate what we need — not just for the business, but for ourselves and our home. There are still many things we need to improve around the cottage to make it more comfortably livable before we can realistically expand the business the way we originally imagined.
I also want to be honest about something personal.
Part of the reason this business works for me is because it allows me to work in an environment where I feel safe and grounded. Living with depression and social anxiety can make traditional business models feel overwhelming at times, and creating from home has given me a sense of peace and stability that honestly means more to me than I can fully explain. The thought of renting a storefront or commercial space may sound like the “next step” to some people, but for me, it’s not that simple.
At the same time, there’s another side to running a home-based business that people don’t always see. When your business exists inside your home, there really is no true “clocking out.” The business doesn’t stay neatly contained in one office or one room. Depending on what I’m working on, it spills into other areas of the cottage. I’ll have boxes of candles stacked for weeks while processing orders, organizing inventory, preparing launches, or waiting on deliveries. Supplies slowly take over corners of rooms. Fragrances, labels, wax, and shipping materials become part of everyday life.
And while I’m incredibly grateful for the growth and support, constantly living inside the business can become mentally exhausting at times. There are moments where I genuinely cannot escape it. I wake up around it, work around it, and rest around it. Sometimes there’s almost no separation between home life and business life at all, and not getting that mental break can be incredibly draining.
That’s also part of why I’m trying to move carefully and thoughtfully with future decisions instead of rushing into growth before we’re truly ready for it. I want to build something sustainable not only for the business itself, but for our lives and wellbeing too.
And truthfully, I don’t necessarily want the business to become something overly commercialized either.
One of the things I value most about this business is that it encourages people to continue supporting the amazing local shops that carry my candles. Those shops matter deeply to me, and I never want Oswego River Candle Co. to grow in a way that unintentionally pulls support away from the very small businesses that helped support me first.
There are also many products and ideas I want to create beyond candles. Soaps are a perfect example. I actually began making soaps, and I truly enjoyed it, but earlier this winter our stove unexpectedly died. Since I use the stove during part of the soap-making process, it brought everything to a stop.
At the time, our driveway situation also made replacing it incredibly difficult. Living on a hill in the middle of winter while trying to navigate major repairs just wasn’t realistic. Now that the driveway has been fixed and we’re in a better position financially to replace the stove, we’ve reached another crossroads: we honestly don’t know what direction we want to take the cottage yet.
There’s potential of redoing the kitchen entirely. There’s potential of major renovations throughout the cottage. There’s even the possibility of eventually rebuilding sections altogether. Because of that, I’m trying to be intentional with the decisions we make instead of rushing out to buy expensive appliances or make large changes before we fully know what direction we’re heading in.
I don’t want to spend a significant amount of money on a brand new stove right now only to realize six months from now that we’ve redesigned the kitchen entirely and the stove no longer fits the layout, style, or plans we ultimately chose for the cottage. Right now, we’re trying to think long-term instead of making rushed short-term decisions that may not make sense later.
And because this isn’t just a business location — it’s our home — every decision carries a little more weight and thought behind it.
And because of that, I’m not rushing.
I’m not rushing Oswego River Candle Co. I’m not rushing decisions about our cottage. And I’m not rushing growth simply for the sake of looking bigger or moving faster.
I’ve learned that rushing into major decisions usually creates more problems than solutions, and I want whatever we build — whether it’s this business, this cottage, or our future plans — to be something stable, meaningful, and lasting.
At the heart of all of this, what I’m really trying to build is trust within this community.
I want people to know that I am working hard behind the scenes every single day to build something genuine. Something that lasts. Something that resonates with people in a real way instead of chasing trends or trying to become something I’m not.
I also know that no matter how hard I work, I’ll never be able to make everyone happy. That’s just the reality of owning a business, especially one that is so personal to me. But as long as I continue putting care into what I create, continue trying my best, and continue operating from a place of honesty and heart, I truly believe it will become something worthwhile.
That said, this does not mean I’m done dreaming.
One thing I would absolutely love in the future is creating a small creative space where I could host candle-making workshops or intimate gatherings. Not in a huge commercial way, and not open-house style to the public, but something thoughtful, intentional, and personal. A space that still feels safe, calm, and genuine to who I am and what this business was built on.
I know I haven’t posted much lately, and part of that is because we’ve been navigating all of these changes behind the scenes. But I wanted to share this because you all deserve honesty from me, especially the people who have supported this business from the beginning.
Thank you for understanding. Thank you for reading. And thank you for continuing to support a small candle business being built one step, one room, and one candle at a time inside a little cottage on the Oswego River.
