The pyromaniac in me must say this......

Nothing makes a house feel more like a home than candles I think.  They really warm up an otherwise "cold" interior.  I know there are a lot of electric candles, flameless, and LED's, but my favorite are the old fashion light 'em up wicked candles.

I'm a bit of a candle snob actually.  I'm incredibly picky about purchasing candles.  It's not just for one trait alone either.  They have to smell good, or not smell at all.  They have to burn clean, last a long time, and be worth the money.

As I've said in the past, Illuminations had the best candles for clean burning and beautiful reusable containers.  The candle accessories they offered were top notch quality, something you could pass down as a family heirloom kind of quality, but I really didn't like too many of their scents.

Yankee Candle has an incredible assortment of scents and I love a lot of them, things like Blueberry Scone, Christmas Cookie, Cranberry Chutney, and my list goes on and on, BUT they are really expensive.  Their candles sometimes smoke up and their candle accessories lack a lot.

Some of my friends swear by Partylite and/or Gold Canyon, but neither one of them do it for me.  Either I don't like a lot of their scents, or their accessories are a bit bland.  Every once in a while I will purchase something from them, but only because I really like it.  No offense intended to my dear friends who like these lines.

Northern Lights Candles had some great smelling candles and accessories in the past but they are spotty when it comes to stuff I want to buy.  If you've never heard of them it's
northernlightscandles.com

Surroundings is a company out of Oregon that will show you what's possible with candle centerpieces and then if you want, purchase all the things you need to make them yourself.  They have an incredible inventory of candle accessories and holders, but I haven't actually smelled any of the candles.  A lot of the time, they are selling centerpieces and not really scented candles.  But for creative centerpieces, they are awesome.

Unfortunately, I just haven't found a candle store that sells awesome accessories and has affordable awesome smelling candles.  I think Yankee really needs a company to step up and give them some competition.