That Stinkin' Candle Company: A Second Life

This morning I was sitting at my desk before work, just thinking.

Not about servers. Not about plugins. Not about anything broken.

I was thinking about what I could do for someone.

Lately I’ve been trying to be more intentional about that...looking for small ways to lift someone up without announcing it. No grand gestures. Just quiet acts of encouragement.

For whatever reason, my sister’s old candle website came to mind.

Years ago, I had helped her friend get a candle website up and running in WordPress. Later, my sister decided she wanted one of her own. I helped her where I could: hosting advice, theme tweaks, logo design, answering WordPress questions. But at the end of the day, WordPress has a learning curve. And if you’re just trying to pour candles and be creative, that curve can feel like a wall.

Eventually, the site went dormant.

This morning I tried visiting it.

It didn’t resolve.

I sent her a quick message and asked about it. She told me she no longer had the domain.

So I logged into my hosting provider, searched for the domain, and it was available!

There’s something oddly symbolic about seeing a domain sitting there, unclaimed. Like a storefront with the lights off but the keys still in reach.

I purchased it for a year.

Just like that, That Stinkin’ Candle Company had a pulse again.

Preserving the Past

One thing she said to me today stuck out:

“But I love the logo you made for me.”

That meant more than she probably realized.

I couldn’t find my original GIMP file anywhere. All I had was a flattened PNG I had sent her years ago. So I imported it into Inkscape and traced it into a proper vector. Clean lines. Scalable forever. No more worrying about lost source files.

Sometimes resurrection isn’t about reinventing something.

Sometimes it’s about preserving what already mattered.

The skunk lives on.

I’ve already:

• Set up the hosting.

• Created her email account.

• Built a clean new website

• Started designing proper product photo templates.

• Begun creating stock images for each scent she has in inventory.

And yes, I even dropped in a small Easter egg for her to find. A picture of her and Art the Clown taking a selfie on the About page. She’ll either laugh or roll her eyes. Probably both.

Little by little, I’ve been rebuilding the foundation.

But this time, she doesn’t have to fight WordPress.

If she wants to pour candles and describe scents, she can.
If she wants help with the rest, I’ve got it covered.

Why Now?

I think the spark for all of this came from launching MDBWorks.com.

As I’ve been thinking about selling crafts at local farmers markets, I kept imagining what our booth could look like: Handmade items, woodwork, creative pieces...and then I thought:

Candles would fit perfectly here.

Not just as another product.

But as something we could do together.

It would give her a chance to earn a little extra money.
It would give us time working side by side.
It would give me a way to be more present in her life.

Sometimes tech isn’t about building systems. Sometimes it’s about building proximity.

A Second Life

That Stinkin’ Candle Company didn’t fail because it was a bad idea.

It stalled because learning curves are real. Momentum is fragile. Life gets busy.

But domains can be renewed.
Logos can be vectorized.
Ideas can be given oxygen again.

This isn’t a massive relaunch.

It’s just a second life.

And sometimes that’s all something needs.