About Me

 

Hi, Welcome to my Shop!

I'm a book lover enthusiast from Puerto Rico. My name is Mari, and like many other book lovers out there my love for books led me to expand my horizons and  create Likes and Candles in March 2021. During the creation of the shop I was already the owner of another business dedicated to making appetizers and desserts for parties, meetings and others, Likes and Candles was meant to be a hobby along with my favorite hobby of all, reading. Sadly I too experienced first hand the hardships that the COVID -19 pandemic brought to everyone worldwide and found myself with a lot of free time in my hands, well sort of since I am also a homeschooling mom of two and that job never ends. Making the best out of a hard situation I used the new free time to read lots of books and create candles and bookmarks inspired by them after I had finished reading them. Slowly  I started to create other goodies and fell in love with what I was doing. Reading and working on new products also helped me with my mental health so it is more therapy for me than work. To make the pandemic times more complicated my oldest son was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in April 2021. Those with knowledge of this disease know that the first couple of years are very hard and treatment is also rough, this led me to no choice but to close my first business once and for all in order to be able to care for my son. For me Likes and Candles is a true labor of love in which I get to mix my love for books and raise awareness for Mental Health and Crohn's Disease.

I am truly grateful to all those book lover out there who have supported this shop and have become more than customers, you are all my bookish friends and I will be forever grateful for all of you.

Sincerely, 

Mari