A change in lifestyle can be triggered by the smallest events. For Elaine Bumanglag, it was a tick bite.
She told the Sun she got into candle and soap making as a way to pass the time while dealing with Lyme disease.
“I was misdiagnosed for over 10 years,” she said. “But after they finally figured out what was wrong I was really sick and I needed something to do because I couldn’t work.”
A hospital employee for more than 30 years, Bumanglag noted that the disease limited her ability to be effective in that setting.
“I like this because I can physically do it,” she added. “I can work a couple hours, rest, then work a couple more hours, then rest again. You can’t do that when you work in a hospital.”
After all, Bumanglag said, the disease only affected her body, not her mind.
“I’m a go-getter, I’m not going on disability permanently,” she explained. “That’s not the way I think, so I’m sitting one day getting IV [fluid] treatment [for Lyme] at the infusion center with my iPad and started getting everything together and did all the paperwork.”
That day, Parable Candle Company was born.
Fast forward two years, and Bumanglag is celebrating the grand opening of her store at 125 Union Ave., No. 101, in Orcutt. She said the storefront was the logical next step after years attending vendor events and making sales off her company’s Facebook page.
Parable specializes in homemade soaps and candles, along with other home decorations. Bumanglag said the new space would also eventually be available to the public to use for classes on how to make their own soaps or candles.
In the meantime, she will have to get used to the added attention that comes with a new brick-and-mortar storefront.
“I’m so busy, I’m doing really well—shockingly well,” Bumanglag said, adding that she was planning to hire as many as four employees over the course of the next year.
In the meantime, she will try to adjust to the extra responsibility of a physical business location as she recovers from a broken shoulder.
“I shattered it moving a box for [the move-in],” she said. “I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
No matter, Bumanglag explained, laughing off the latest setback. Even with the injury, the new store feels like a clean slate, she said.
Highlights:
• Dignity Health Hospice invites members of Santa Maria, Lompoc, and the surrounding communities to join in the annual Light Up a Life celebration where members of the public honor and remember the lives of family members and loved ones. The ceremony is Wednesday, Dec. 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church at 311 South Broadway, Santa Maria. The community event is a candlelight celebration that will feature music, reflections, a photo montage, the reading of the names of those being remembered, and the lighting of a memorial tree in their honor.
• On Dec. 7, the Santa Maria Chamber of Commerce, the city of Santa Maria, and local veteran groups will dedicate a plaque to Richard Landers, of the U.S. Army, an Orcutt veteran killed in the Vietnam War. The event begins at 10 a.m. at 600 S. McClelland St., Santa Maria.
Staff Writer Spencer Cole wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, mail, or email at spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 7, 2017.