Cloud Cottage Creative Co. has had its share of hard years—both with our health and with our finances. Through all of it, we keep returning to the same idea: gratitude for what you still have, and for what you are still able to do, has to come first.
One of the ways we try to practice that is simple.
We make something. We sell it. And we give the money away.
The Candle
Our Asheville Tree Scented Amber Jar Candle is the piece we have set aside for this purpose.
Each candle contains 8 oz of soy and coconut wax, hand-poured into an amber apothecary jar. It is available in four scents inspired by the forests around us: Frazier Fir, Mountain Pine, White Birch, and Blue Spruce.
The fragrances use clean-scent formulations, without many of the ingredients commonly found in traditional fragrance oils.
More than anything, we wanted it to smell familiar.
Like the ridge behind our house during the first cold week of the year.
Where the Money Goes
We donate the proceeds from online sales of this candle to Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministries, right here in Black Mountain.
There are people in our community choosing between medication, food, utility bills, and other basic necessities. That is not something distant or abstract to us. It is happening right here.
Hurricane Helene made those struggles even harder for many families in Black Mountain and throughout the Swannanoa Valley. Homes, businesses, jobs, and a sense of normalcy were disrupted overnight, and for many people, the work of recovery is still far from finished.
Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministries meets those needs directly, person to person and family to family. That is why we chose to support an organization rooted in the same community we call home.
And as long as people keep buying these candles, we will keep making them.
The Little Town That Rocks
Black Mountain has given us more than we can reasonably account for.
It is a small town with a strong heart, and Hurricane Helene showed just how deeply people here are willing to show up for one another.
Using what we know how to make to turn a little of our gratitude into something useful for our neighbors feels like one of the simplest things we can do.
If you would like to know more about the town we are proud to call home, visit the Black Mountain Chamber of Commerce.
This is Black Mountain.
This is home.
And taking care of home matters.