Candledesigns

Lighting up your wedding!

paula sheridan — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:07:10 +0000

Lighting the unity candle is a truly bright moment and signifies the coming together of two people.

The Unity Candle Ceremony is a popular choice for both religious and non-religious ceremonies because it is non-denominational and has no religious significance.

The two outer candles represent your individual lives before today. They represent all that you are from your vast experiences, and they represent your individual families. As you each take a single candle and light the center candle, you will extinguish your individual candles.

Often the Bride will blow out the Groom’s taper candle and the Groom will blow out the Brides taper candle. This represents the closing of the chapters in your individual Books of Life and the beginning of new chapters as you begin to write a new book of Life as wife and husband!

Another way to do this is to allow the two taper candles to continue to burn. By allowing the flame of the two taper candles to remain lit, it represents that the Bride and Groom accept the individuality of each other as a means to fulfilling their commitment to one another.

Alternatively you could have your friends and family participate, give everyone a candle as they enter. When lighting the Unity Candle, each of you turn and share your light with the first row of seated guests on your side. Let the guests share the flame from their own small candle with the person sitting next to them until all the candles are aglow and you are pronounced wife and husband. The minister can suggest that everyone make a good wish for the Bride and Groom and blow out the candles.

If you are creating a new family you may want to include the children in the lighting of the Unity Candle. Often this is done by having the bride and groom light the candle for the children and then everyone lighting the center candle together. This is an excellent way to involve children from a previous marriage.

Having your unity candles personalized will add a special dimension to the ceremony and may reflect the themes and colours of your wedding – Hand crafted wedding candles will be as original and unique as yourselves –

You might consider including children’s names, gift candles for your parents and bridesmaids (and groomsmen too!) ,memorial candles remembering deceased loved ones, favours for your guests and even décor at your wedding reception – consider having personalized globe candles that won’t burn away and can be used again in your home, reminding you of that very special day.

Tip: Make sure that there aren’t any decorative beads, ribbon or lace around the candles – they can easily catch fire. Consider pre-lighting the taper candles and the Unity candle to make them easier to light in outdoor ceremonies. If your ceremony is outdoors, always have several extra lighters nearby in case the wind decides to blow the candles out. Putting the Unity Candle inside a glass hurricane lamp or using Globe candles can be very helpful in protecting the flame from the breeze.

There are other “unity ceremony” traditions that might appeal to others including

Rose Ceremony: A simple unity ceremony where the bride and groom exchange roses. Other variations: the families exchange roses, the bride and groom exchange roses with their families, the bride and groom exchange roses, then present their mothers with the roses.

Wine Ceremony: The bride and groom each take a carafe of wine and pour it into a single glass, which they both drink from.

Water Ceremony: The couple each pour a different colored water into a single glass, creating a third color.

Sand Ceremony: similar to the water ceremony, the bride and groom both pour different colored sand into a glass.

Salt Ceremony: Indian weddings often include a salt ceremony, where the bride passes a handful of salt to her groom without spilling any. He then passes it back to her and the exchange is repeated three times. She then performs the salt exchange with all the members of the groom’s family, symbolizing her blending in with her new family.

Breaking Bread Ceremony: The bride and groom tear off pieces of bread, and then each eat a piece. Sometimes the bread is also shared with family and friends. It symbolizes their future as a family together.

Garland Ceremony or Lei Ceremony: The bride and groom exchange garlands of flowers. This is a common part of Indian weddings, where the ceremony is called varmala or jaimala, and represents a proposal by the bride and acceptance by the groom. It also represents their new unity, blessed by nature. In Hawaian weddings, the bride and groom typically exchange leis. The families may also exchange leis with the couple. Leis represent the love and respect you have for the person you are giving it to, and the unity of the new family.

Circling: In Eastern European ceremonies, the bride and groom circle the altar three times, which are their first steps together as husband and wife. In Hindu ceremonies, couples circle the fire seven times, sealing their bond. The unbroken circle represents the unbroken committment to each other.

Broom Jumping: An African-American tradition that has its roots in slavery times when slaves couldn’t marry. Typically the family places the broom on the ground, and the bride and groom jump over it together. The broom can then decorate a place of honor in their home.

Lasso Ceremony: Lasso or rope is placed around the bride and groom’s shoulders, usually by the officiant. Sometimes rosary beads, or orange flowers are used instead of rope. It can also be placed around the couple’s necks, or wrists.

Celtic Oathing Stone The couple holds or puts their hands on a stone during their vows to “set them in stone (this may be where this phrase comes from!)

My favourite alternative is

Truce Bell. A bell is rung on the wedding day, the happiest day of the couple’s lives and then is placed in a central location in the home. If the couple starts to argue, one of them can ring the truce bell, reminding them both of that happiness and hopefully ending the disagreement quickly!

Here are some wedding reception candle ideas

Candle light is perfect for an evening or night time wedding, you don’t necessarily have to have flowers, but you do need to have candlelight. It adds a lovely incandescent glow and sets an intimate and romantic tone. You can put votive candles directly inside flower arrangements for a wonderful sparkling effect. Adding light to a flower gives it a really nice glow.

Candles can stand on their own, or in simple hurricane vase or votives that shield them from the wind. Globe candles can be used again and again – the wax globe remains while the candle burns within – you can have the globe personalized with design, names or appropriate quotation – the design and text will be illuminated adding a uniqueness to the display.

Reception candles can also be used to underline the architecture of a building or the shape of a pool, or by running along steps or pathways to invite you guests into a space.

What ever way you decide to decorate, keep it in scale with the space. Engage all the senses. Think about how things will look, feel and smell. Scented candles, fragrant flowers and greenery, and rich fabric will create a quality that is rich and sensual.

Competition

Lucky winner of prize will receive unique personalized Wedding Candle Premium Set (worth approx €300) which will include Unity candles (set of 3 candles) in a custom made personalized box for safe keeping, remembrance candle (if required), gift candles for parents. bridesmaids / groomsmen and Small personalized Globe candle for the Main table at the wedding reception. Closing date for the competition is 5th February 2012 with the Carlow Nationalist

Looking forward, with a glimpse to the past

paula sheridan — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:50:04 +0000

I may seem a bit obsessed with the dead this week, but I think its so important to remember all those we have loved and lost – they have impacted on our lives and many have shaped the people we are today. Recently at the annual “blessing of the graves” in my home town it was lovely to see so many people there standing by their tidied family graves, honouring and remembering generations of parents, grandparents and so sadly many young children and babies. Despite all the controversy in the church these days this was a dignified understated ceremony and felt very like a real community celebration of remembrance.

My young 8year old son Milo never met either of his grandfathers, and is desperate to know all about them and what they were like. They would both have been so proud of him – its a shame they’re not around to see this enthusiastic, sporty, intelligent, playful and quite fluent irish speaking boy! We show him photos of our fathers but it takes more to describe their personalities – Milo is fascinated with the fact that he shares my dad’s passion for lego and making things – so he figures they would have definitely got on well and his other grandfather was a gaelgóir so he’s pleased to know that they could have chatted in irish. He often wonders if the grandads get to meet in heaven and have discussions about him and his sisters progress in life! One of his sisters wondered recently what accent my dad had – was it a strong Cavan one like my brother and I found my self saddened realising that we have no video or sound recordings of him – wish I had. My challenge is to bring a wonderful man to life in my son’s mind so that he knows where he comes from and what characteristics he shares with his grandads. We regularly visit my dad’s grave and occasionally my father in law’s (because its more difficult to get to) and Milo was moved to tears visiting them – seeing their graves and headstones as his most tangible connection to them. Unlike his experience we will be able to leave a record of speech, movement and colour – one of the many advantages of our digital age.

In the meantime, we can light a candle of remembrance, shining a light on our past, illuminating our future!

Remembering the Dead

paula sheridan — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 01:20:26 +0000

About 8 years ago I was asked to engrave and paint the names of the soldiers who died in the Lebanon on a memorial candle. The candle was especially made by Larry Kinsella of Moth to a Flame Candles. It was made in 4 sections to make up an entire sized candle of approx 6ft. Sadly such a large candle was needed to allow space for the names of the 47 soldierswho died while on UNIFIL duty between 1978 and 2000

I never had the opportunity to see the candle in the Cedar Room of Arbour Hill Church of the Sacred Heart (church of the Defence Forces) until today. The church always seemed to be closed until by chance when passing I noticed the gate was opened so I had to have a look inside. I was delighted to finally get to see the candle memorial in place together with other mementos of the Lebanon UNIFIL mission which include a book of photographs and details of all the soldiers. It is such a peaceful and dignified room that fittingly remembers these men and according to Betty, one of the ladies who look after this room and the church, this is a room that is often visited and very recently the church held the marriage of a son of one of the fallen men and poignantly a bouquet was placed on the open memorial book in his memory on his son’s wedding day.

: Army Memorial Candle.

I was honoured have created part of this fitting memorial and so pleased to finally see it in place.

May they Rest in Peace

Flower power on Candlelight!

paula sheridan — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:59:21 +0000

I’ve sometimes been asked to engrave and paint customers favourite flowers on candles either for weddings, Naming ceremony, and recently an 80th birthday and golden jubilee. For weddings the engraved flowers can compliment the real thing!

Wedding Orchids

These square candles were especially ordered for Anita & Philip’s wedding. Orchids being the flowers on the day. I usually use pillar type candles, but can source other shapes and sizes when requested.

Personalised Birthday Candle for a Daffodil loving Granny! This was done recently – not much hope of finding real daffodils so these make a lovely alternative!

Golden Rose to celebrate a nun’s Golden Jubilee.

Not a flower, but an Acorn symbolising growth and hope for a baby’s naming Candle

Oak Leaf this time – part of the logo of the Seven Oaks hotel in Carlow

This is the top part of a 6ft display candle engraved for a candle company. This shows the symbol of the Beeswax Candlemakers

Not really flowers, but the new logo of the Gaelcsoil in Carlow incorporates a tree signifying growth with symbols of the ethos and aspects of the school interspersed with the leaves of the tree.

Wedding Candle with interlinked rings and olive branch. Date is in Irish – its June by the way

Not flowers, but tree again – Symbolic Tree of Life with roots and branches interlinked

Red Rose on a White Wedding Candle with quotation provided by the bride

These candles were for my brother and his wife’s wedding. The design is based on their wedding invitation and incorporates simple male & female figures and flowers

Another 80th Birthday candle with floral / decorative design – based on a wall hanging designed by Mary’s daughter Anne

These are some examples of nature on Candles – Other flowers which I’ve engraved (but can’t find photos) are Forget me nots, Snowdrops, Daisies….All commissions are accepted and I’ll be delighted to engrave your favourite flowers on candles – whatever the occasion.

The reluctant blogger flickrs into life!

paula sheridan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:00:51 +0000

I’ve always been a little reluctant when it comes to rendering my business or life experiences in writing, but here goes! Its not that I hate blogging, I just find it difficult – it’s so much easier to put photos up on my flickr page which can then link to my personal facebook , Candledesigns on Facebook and……..of course I should be linking them HERE too! Doh! I could’ve been apparently blogging for ages if I had to think that through! Anyway I’ve joined KLCK (Kildare, Laois, Carlow & Kilkenny) bloggers group now – there’s lots of support, interaction, ideas, lovely people all blogging to their hearts content, or some just attempting to -just like me. So I’ve no excuse and even less so now that I’ve given my first presentation to the group at our 2nd Meeting at the Talbot Hotel in Carlow last Monday (9th Aug).

Amanda launching our 2nd KLCK bloggers meeting

Amanda Webb of Spiderworking(one of the founders of the bloggers group) has given me a deadline to get this together by Monday and she has obviously found the kick in the ass I need! DEADLINE! I definitely work better when there’s a proverbial carrot at the end of the stick.

Ever since my brother Andrew got me interested in Flickr I’ve been busy adding photos regularly. He’s an excellent photographer and musician and has made some great photographic connections and indeed won competitions and sold images through Flickr. It’s worthwhile having a look at some of his work – I would say that wouldn’t I?!!

I’ve been singing the praises of flickr for ages whenever I attend many of the helpful seminars at Carlow Enterprise board (some presented by the same Amanda). So Amanda suggested I might present my view of flickr to the all new KCLK bloggers group. As it was my first presentation, I decided to just talk it through, and avoided tcchnical stuff – such as projectioners and the like! This approach might have made for boring twitter streaming that Amanda had organised, but it seemed to get the message across that Flickr is extremely user friendly, and perfect for showing one’s work off in a visual way to accompany blogs or in my case to be the blog!!

My most recent uploaded photo

So here’s an abridged version of my presentation: For those who would like to go straight to the Flickr site tour just click HERE. You can even set up your account from there. Enjoy!!

For a more wordy untechnical version – read on!

Flickr is an image and video hosting site owned by Yahoo. You need a yahoo account/email address to set up your Flickr account. Its really quite easy to use and remember if you’re already on facebook or any other social networks Flickr is like social networking with photos! You can share photos with other Flickr’rs and the world or just your friends. Other flickr members can comment on your photos and vis a versa. You can link your flickr page or individual photos to your blog or facebook page through yahoo updates or simply by grabbing the link or copying the url and pasting directly. The help forum or frequently asked questions section is useful if you run into trouble!

You can have a free account or pay approx €20 annual fee for professional account. Advantages of free account over pro account-
Free account – you can upload 100mb images per month plus 2 videos. If you have more than 200 photos loaded up the most recent 200 will only be visible. You can only join max 10 photo pools/groups. Small images will only be visible. Other flickr account holders can comment on your photos as can you – so its quite interactive.
Pro Account Costs approx €20 per year – if you upgrade from free account all photos, tags and comments will transfer

Upload unlimited photos and videos (including Higher definition videos) Unfortunately videos are limited to 90 seconds
Unlimited storage and Archiving of photos
Photos can be replaced
Join up to 60 groups / pools
The aspect that I find most useful with Pro account is the ability to check statistics of how viewers find you, how frequently your photos are looked at and where the viewers have found you -
If you’re looking for a useful christmas or birthday gift – pro account can be gifted whether or not you’re already on flickr!

How I use Flickr

My photostream shows the most recent photos I’ve uploaded.
Uploading photos is easy. Choose whether to have photos visible to everyone, your contacts / friends or private. If you want to share your photos with someone not on flickr you can send them a “guest pass” by email.
Give your photo a title
Add tags – Tagging photos is very effective as your photos can be found through all search engines, most popularly yahoo, google and flickr itself. Stats will also pick up if your photos are found directly from your blog, facebook or other social media. You can add up to 75 tags per photo. Geo tags can be added showing where the photo was taken – this can increase audience interested in your photo and is another point of interest for the wider flickr community.
Add description – this can elaborate on your photo information, or simply describe your photo.
Notes can be added by highlighting directly on the photo – useful to identify individuals or specific aspects of your photos. Other Flickr’rs can add notes too
Photos can be edited via Picnik on the flickr site – though I prefer to edit them on iphoto and upload the edited version.
Because I have so many photos on flickr I’ve organised them into Sets and then into Collections.
I’ve joined several groups on flickr in areas of interest to me eg. Candles, Crafts, Mosaics, Lego………have a look at some of my groups HERE. Adding photos to your various groups can increase visitors to your page, and can also be great for giving you ideas and finding new contacts. Have a look at the all new KLCK bloggers flickr page to put faces on some of the bloggers!

I should say that Flickr is a resource to display your photos (whatever they’re showing) – in my case mostly candles, but also my interests, crafts, nature etc. Selling through flickr is not allowed, however they do allow you to put your website in your profile. they don’t want you to sell directly from the site – have a look at the guidelines. An exception to this rule would be selling images – you can opt in to Getty images if you’d like Getty access to your photos with a view to purchasing some – often for product images or some other images suited to advertising.

Flickr can act as a very useful conduit between you and your customers, but also you and the world! I see it as my online portfolio! Whatever you decide to post on Flickr enjoy it and take lots of photos. Start looking around you if you’re stuck for ideas – on regular walks to school with my daughter we used to take photos most mornings of the hedges along the way and animals in the fields. I have a whole set of our observations. It’s amazing how much you can see when you start looking!

Finishing on a positive note!

Helen & Tom’s Wedding

paula sheridan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:52:35 +0000

Helen & Tom

My cousin Helen tied the knot with her fiance Tom on 9th April in St Kilian’s Church Mullagh Co Cavan. Thankfully spring had re-appeared and the sun shone on the happy couple. They were so lucky not to have set the date for the week before where Cavan was covered in snow – the child of Prague was put to work and all was well on the day! It was lovely going back to my homeplace for a family wedding. The music and singing was provided by Mairéad O’Reilly who is a member of the church choir. Her beautiful voice accompanied by guitar provided a perfect backdrop to the ceremony.

Helen & Tom's Wedding Invitation

I was delighted to have made the Wedding Invitations, and was more than pleased when I over heard some of the congregation recognizing that the Mass Booklets matched the invitations!!

Wedding Ceremony Booklet Cover

My other contribution to the happy day included the hand engraved & painted Wedding Candles. Mary, the florist provided roses to enhance the Wedding Candle stand.

Wedding Unity Candles

Lighting the Wedding Candles

The wedding reception was held in the Slieve Russell Hotel, in Ballyconnell. We had a superb meal, provided by friendly staff followed by music from an excellent band – the name of whom I’ll have to check! There were some interesting displays of dancing from several members of my family which I won’t go into now!! (4 May*just found out Band’s name – EDEN from Edenderry! Highly recommend!)

All in all it was a wonderful day – it could have only been improved by the presence of my husband and 2 older daughters! They were unable to come, but I did my very best to enjoy myself with younger daughter and son!! Helen & Tom are on honeymoon abroad, and hopefully won’t be delayed coming home by the icelandic volcano!

Will have to get the party dresses out again in July for another Cavan Cousin day out!

Happy Easter!

paula sheridan — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 00:09:22 +0000

Easter Vigil mass tonight in St Clare’s Church Graiguecullen celebrated by Fr Dunphy was a lovely experience, featuring among other things many many candles! The Church was unlit at the beginning of mass. 7 girls from the local school brought the Easter light in procession to the altar. From this candle the paschal candle was lit. Our famous Fr Liam Lawton, sang a newly composed Easter song with the ladies choir and the entire congregation had their individual candles lit. It was a really uplifting and optimistic aspect of the mass. To add to the occasion there was a christening of a baby boy who was amazingly quiet – the Holy Water didn’t even wake him up!- unlike my own 6 year old who was “bored” by the whole thing!!. His christening candle (unfortunately not one of mine!) was lit from the new Paschal candle. The Paschal candle will be used throughout the year to light many more Christening and Wedding candles – hopefully a some of them will have been personalised by yours truely!

Christening Candle with presentation box and personalised card

The bored 6 year old was eventually rewarded by the Easter Bunny and Chicken giving Easter Eggs to all the children at the end of the ceremony. Of course the same 6 year old Milo was keen to emphasise to me that he knew that this wasn’t the real Easter Bunny, but he decided to take an egg anyway. I hope the real Easter Bunny does actually turn up here or there’ll be one very disappointed little boy in this house!!!

Happy Easter! – hope this time of renewal brings some optimism to us all. Certainly on my part I’m drooling in anticipation of a first taste of chocolate since the beginning of Lent! Yum!

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

paula sheridan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:41:33 +0000

Very tired tonight after celebrating our patron saint’s day – not a drop of alcohol but a lot of tea and coffee! Started early at Killeshin where we had the 26th traditional St Patrick’s parade led by the highly respected Killeshin Pipe Band and backed up by the children’s band from Killeshin National School. Its a short walk to Holy Cross Church from the school but its a wonderful example of community spirit in action, neighbours chatting en route to mass, most people wearing something green, some children (and adults) with hugh green hats and a few sporting leprechaun type beards! The school children and teachers put a huge amount of work into the celebration and the entire congregation put their hearts into “hail glorious St Patrick” at the end of the mass. Then it was back down the hill to the local hall for refreshments, activities for the kids, facepainting, goal shooting, bouncy gladiator game and draw for hamper – all of this was organised by the ladies football club. The hall is still looking great after a recent terrific makeover for the fantastic Killeshin version of the X factor – the “K Factor“!

Now what has all this got to do with my work you might ask,……….well not a lot actually, but there’s more to life than just work! However some of my crafty abilities were on display at our second parade of the day in Carlow. My son attends the Gaelscoil so we marched along with the school behind our uplifting banner – “Slán leis na scamaill, (goodbye clouds) bring on sunshine” - I made this last year and its been hanging in the school keeping a positive note through the year in the halla. It’s still a hopeful thought for these difficult times- positive thinking is bound to do some good!

Bring on the Sunshine!

The tail end of the group was brought up by the Gaelscoil dragon – I made this for the 2008 parade celebrating the Bejing Olympics. All the children and parents seemed to enjoy taking part, drumming, waving flags and practicing Ben ten monster moves with eachother (my boy and friends anyway!) Unfortunately the whole thing was over very quickly – the parade was quite short, but there was a fantastic crowd cheering everyone on. Well done to everyone who took part and especially the organisers and maybe even a word of thanks to him/her upstairs for a dry, even warmish day! Roll on Spring, Bring on the Sunshine!

From Christenings to Confirmations

paula sheridan — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:48:45 +0000

It seems very early for Confirmation ceremonies, but already several schools have celebrated this sacrament. My daughter celebrated the Ceremony of light at Killeshin last Monday. It was a really lovely ceremony with a large turn out from the community – family, friends, sponsors, teachers and school choir turning a regular Monday evening to something special. The ceremony of light is a part of the preparation for Confirmation where the children renew the baptismal promises their parents and sponsors made on their behalf when they were Baptised. Their Christening/Baptismal candle is lit and passed from parent or sponsor to the child symbolising the transfer of responsibility for their spiritual well being from their parents to themselves as acknowledged by their Confirmation into the Church.

Personalised Christening candle with Christening date engraved together with symbols representing Holy Communion and Confirmation

I have been so pleased to have customers returning to me in recent months to add Confirmation dates (and sometimes Confirmation name) on candles which I prepared for their children’s Christening up to 12 years ago. I felt privileged to have prepared my own children’s candles for their Christenings, Communions and finally Confirmation. The next time they’re used could possibly be for Weddings…………I remember engraving candles for a couple who’s christenings, communions, and confirmations were very close in date, so for the individual candles in the Unity set they asked me to engrave all these dates and then the Unity candle as normal – so the candles provided a unique record of their progress through life!

Christmas countdown

paula sheridan — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:47:07 +0000

Its the last Saturday before christmas and I spent most of the day wrapped up in the excitement of the festival, starting with an extremely happy 6 year old son spotting light dusting of snow in the garden and on to rugby training in Carlow Rugby Club after which followed the much anticipated Christmas Party with Santa in attendance and an abundance of buns, cakes, biscuits and all sorts of delicious sugary delights! Picture a hall full of excited, sugar laden 6 – 12 year old boys and mothers and fathers grasping cups of hot tea and coffee, bracing ourselves for the freezing outdoors. Needless to say the remaining snow was just too tempting for my rascal boy and several snowballs hit the spot on the way back to the car!

"Board Walk" Oak Park

Christmas Ballet Boxes with Truffle Fairy Christmas Truffles

The usual post rugby routine of a walk together in the nearby Oak Park Forest was abandoned in favour of delivering several of my dainty personalised Christmas Box Decorations. After a cup of delicious hot chocolate in Madeleine & Andy’s Little Coffee House in Penny Lane Market we stopped by Carlow Farmers Market‘s Truffle Fairy otherwise known as Mary Teehan to purchase some truly scrumptious Christmas chocolate truffles specially individually foil wrapped ready to be dropped into the dainty decoration boxes and then dispatched to the lucky recipients! Yum. The farmer’s market will be open again on Wednesday – so there will be another opportunity to stock up on these fab truffles, but also fresh veg, excellent jams and chutneys, cheeses, meat, fish, bread, pancakes and cakes. Hope it keeps dry and profitable for all the marketeers!

My next big event will be the panto Cinderella at the new Carlow Art Centre - Visual and the George Bernard Shaw Theatre on Sunday. No, I won’t be appearing on stage! but I’ll be there with my daughter and the Special Olympics club. We regularly attend Basketball and Bowling with the very energetic and enthusiastic club and it should be a great evening with terrific company!

The rest of the pre Christmas week with be filled with the excited daily countdown, parties at school and clubs, visiting the grannies and last minute shopping not to mention stitching up a few more mini christmas stockings and painting boxes. The thoughts of cooking the turkey and trimmings is not something I relish, but thankfully an expert teenage daughter will be on hand to rescue the frazzled cook!

Cheers and Happy Christmas to all and Best wishes for a Peaceful, Recessionless New Year!