Jamie Thingelstad

Please join us for our 2nd Annual Things 4 Good Fall Fundraiser and Open House! We moved over the summer and would love to welcome you to our new digs back in our old hood. We really missed the people and charm of our old haunt and jumped at the opportunity to move back.

Last year with all of your help we raised $4,757 for four charitable organizations. We are making more Wicky Thing Candles this year and hope to raise yet more for good causes!

These candles are all hand-made by our family, using the highest quality wax and the signature wooden wicks that give that delightful crackle while they burn.

We will provide small eats, delightful company, and Jamie will make his Wassail Tea (perfect for a late fall day). Along with the candles we will also have puzzles and Sweet Thing honey available to purchase. More things = more $$ for charity! 💰

The Fall Fundraiser and Open House will be on:

If you have any more questions about the sale and open house, hopefully they are answered in the section below. If not, please reach out and ask away. 👍

What is this candle sale you speak of?

4 or 5 years ago, Jamie bought a wooden wick candle at a local Christmas market. He fell in love with the crackle sound and candles in general and decided to start making his own. He made a few, then a few more, then a few more. He gave some for gifts and several people asked if they could buy the candles to give to others. Being that Jamie is gainfully employed and isn’t exactly lacking with things to do in his life, it was decided that Jamie should not start making candles on demand. Instead, we came up with the idea of a once a year sale, where all proceeds are donated to charity.

What happens to the money you raise?

During the sale we keep a careful tally of all purchases. Last year we allowed shoppers to allocate the dollar amount of their purchase between four non-profits and at the end of the sale we added up how much money was raised for each non-profit and donated that amount to that non-profit. There is still some debate on how we will run the sale this year, but rest assured that all money raised will be donated to a non-profit that is doing good work in the Twin Cities area.

How much will things cost?

Great – these one of a kind items are available for donations of:

Payment can be made in cash, Apple Pay, Venmo, or check.

If you want to use crypto, see Jamie and USDC and DAI stablecoins will be accepted on Ethereum, Polygon, or Gnosis.

So you make the candles?

Yes, we make the candles. It’s not rocket science, but we like to pretend that it is. 😄 We hand pour each beauty. Jamie is generally in charge of the procurement of all supplies and the scenting of the wax. Mazie is in charge of weighing and cutting wax and getting it into the melter. Tammy pours the scented and melted wax into the vessels and Tyler makes sure that each vessel is ready with a properly placed wick. We wait for them to harden and next get to work on the labels. Here Mazie is the artistic voice and the rest of us are the worker bees. She handwrites each label with care and Jamie, Tammy and Tyler get those labels on each candle.

So you make the puzzles?

Yes, we make the puzzles. That is to say we made the image and then had the image turned into a puzzle. Jamie and the kids have been making Tammy a custom puzzle each year for Christmas for a few years and Tammy is always excited to see what they will come up with each year. She thought it would be fun to do a puzzle for the sale and invited everyone to join in on the fun. Mazie and Tyler did most of the work, but Tammy learned more about what is involved in making a puzzle and appreciates even more the puzzle she gets each year from the rest of the family.

So you make the honey?

Well, not really; the bees make the honey. Last year we sold Tammy’s sister’s honey as she keeps bees and sells honey each year. Tammy got the bright idea to apprentice under her sister this year and be able to sell our own honey for the sale. She bought a bee suit, hive supplies and then shortly thereafter a new house. Needless to say, she did very little beekeeping and what beekeeping she did she found a bit terrifying. Thankfully her sister is not terrified of bees and did not buy a new house, so thanks to her and the bees, this year we will have Sweet Thing honey.

What is this POAP token Jamie keeps talking about?

I don’t know, ask Jamie… There was a 2021 Things 4 Good POAP!