DIY Pressed Flower Frames

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In an earlier post, I shared how I preserved my wedding bouquet. Since then, I’ve been saving and pressing, saving and pressing. I LOVE making art out of flowers and I’ve found that it can make a perfect gift for others as well. So far, I’ve gifted my mom and sister-in-law framed flowers and I can’t wait to create more with my favorites!

Laura’s Preserved Wedding Bouquet

My sister-in-law married her college sweetheart at the University of Redlands in May 2018 and I snuck away with a bouquet and the Redlands table number to create a framed version of her bouquet for her birthday.

pressed-wedding-bouquet

Mother’s Day Framed Flowers

When I was little, my mom read me the classic book “Love You Forever” and it became our thing. She made up a song to go along with it that she sang me to sleep with every night. She even made a funny version of the song that has stuck with us my entire life. For mother’s day, I asked my aunt, a talented Sacramento calligrapher  who owns The Lovely Hue, to help me with this special project. I absolutely love how it turned out!

pressed-flowers

My Preserved Wedding Bouquet

I tested out my first pressed flower art on my wedding bouquet, which was very special to me. Two of my bridesmaids, my mom, and I scavenge the perfect flowers from a wholesale shop and Trader Joes two days before the wedding. I was even able to find one small bunch of ranunculus  – my personal fav – for my bridal bouquet. I wrote about how I preserved my wedding bouquet in an earlier post.

wedding-bouquet-preservation

ClaudettesCorner

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Name Change List for Newly Married Babes

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I’m going to be real here. The name changing process sucks. It’s long, frustrating and hard to determine what all needs to be changed and when.

To help my fellow newlyweds out, I compiled a list of where to change your name and tips for how to do it in order to make the process as efficient as possible. I’m also a huge fan of lists and wasn’t able to find a good consolidated one when I was changing everything, so I hope this helps someone else out there!

Step 1: Marriage license

Get three to be safe. You’ll want to keep one on file and then will have to send in a couple copies during the name change process.

Step 2: Social Security

First, make an appointment at your local SSN office. Then, fill out the application, print it and bring to the SSN office. You will receive the new copy in 10 business days.

  • Bring all forms of ID and paperwork – old license, marriage license, new social security card, birth certificate, and name change

Step 3: DMV

Schedule an appointment for at least two weeks after your SSN appointment. You’ll need your new SSN card in order to get a new license. FYI, apparently when you get a brand new ID, you go into the system to be called for jury duty. I got my letter about a month after I went to the DMV!

  • Bring all forms of ID and paperwork – old license, marriage license, new social security card, birth certificate, and name change
  • Complete form DL 44

Step 4: Banks

Once you get your new license, you can change your bank information. Bring your ID and marriage certificate to the bank. Now’s the time to switch bank accounts or join with your hubby. We’ll save that convo for a later date.

Step 5: Misc

  • Credit Cards – These are pretty easy, at least with Chase & CapitalOne. I was able to change both of mine online!
  • Bills – Now that your bank info has changed, you’ll want to update all of your auto-pay info with your new name.
  • Passport – You’ll need to purchase a new passport Fill out the application and bring passport photo, birth certificate, certified copy of marriage license, and ssn card to a local post office or place that makes passports. They will take everything from you and mail it back in a few weeks.
  • TSA Precheck – Make an in-person appointment, bring your marriage license, and may as well bring copies of your legal docs. It took 6 months for them to change my name after my first phone call.
  • Airline Accounts (Southwest) – This will vary from airline to airline. For Southwest Rapid Rewards, name change requests must be submitted in writing to Rapid Rewards, P.O. Box 36657, Dallas, Texas 75235. Written request must include a letter about your new legal name, member contact info, RR account number, and photocopies of legal docs (old and new photo ID & marriage license). If you already have a flight booked with your old name, email crrrdox@wnco.com – submit copy of old & new ID, copy marriage license, and flight numbers to change.
  • Employee Benefits – Update your name with your company and they will help you change your benefits information.
  • Home – Title company & mortgage company
  • Auto – Car registration & auto insurance
  • Gym Membership
  • Voter Registration

Did I miss any important ones? Let me know!

ClaudettesCorner

Eating Our Way Through Paris in 2 Days

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Honeymoon Part 4

Our final stop after the Amalfi Coast, Tuscany, and Western Switzerland was Paris, the city of love…and foodgasms. Leaving miles and miles of walking for last day may have been a little crazy since we were totally pooped after 14 days gallivanting all over Europe, but it was worth every last second bite.

Overall, Paris was surprisingly cheap. At least compared to where we had already been. They even have free water (woahhhhh crazyyyy). After two weeks of purchasing it everywhere, this was pretty exciting.

Okay, back to the trip…after a lot of research, I was torn between which area to stay in. I finally chose St. Germain, which turned out to be an up-and-coming neighborhood in walking distance to pretty much everything. Our 2-CV local tour guide even said we picked quite a cool place.

While in Paris, we basically just bar and appetizer-hopped our way around the city for two days and had a spectacular time doing so.

Foodie Favs

  • Breizh Cafe. The crepes here are so so so good. Salmon and goat cheese is to die for.
  • Eggs & Co. Matt found this place on Yelp and I would venture to say it’s pretty hipster, with the hole-in-the-wall type of look. Yet, it’s decorated tres cute and the food is great. I had the benedict and au plait eggs with bacon, chives, and parmesan plus they give you salad and yummy mini potatoes.
  • Odette. Definitely stopped here because 1. it looked cute and 2. because it rhymes with my name. Turns out they have yummy cream puffs and I don’t even like cream puffs!
  • Les Philosophes. Two words. Foie gras. I didn’t know what exactly I was eating until I had finished, but holy s*** it was good. Who knew duck liver + jam on toast could be so tasty? We also had the french onion soup, because well, France.
  • Paul. I think this must be a chain since I saw two of them, but they’ve got some great pastries.
  • Escargot. Turns out, not a fan. We ordered half a dozen, tried to thoroughly chew 2 and were unsuccessful. Also had to awkwardly ask the waiter how to get those suckers out of the shell with the clamp. Everyone in the restaurant had a good laugh.

Favorite Hoods & Must Dos

  • Le Marais. A cute historical neighborhood in the 3rd Arrondissement with plenty of shops and food, notably Les Philosophes.
  • Rue de Boci. Another super cute neighborhood with outdoor cafes, live music in the street, and great people watching.
  • 2 CV Tour. Matt’s dad said we HAD to check out this 2-hour night-time tour and he was totally right. Riding around Paris in a lavender-colored, French version of the VW bug with no roof was seriously the coolest thing ever. Our tour guide was a local French woman who was a bit crazy behind the wheel but very entertaining and knowledgeable. Not only did we get to see all of the big features in Paris lit up, but we got a great lay of the land on night one.

We will definitely be back and I can’t wait to continue exploring and EATING!

Cheers Claudette 2

How to Preserve Your Wedding Bouquet

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DIY Dried Flower Frame

After months of planning your dream wedding, suddenly it’s over. All of the details you pined over for the past year waiting to be boxed up, thrown away or donated. Luckily for us DIY-ers, there are plenty of ways to reuse wedding décor, add a very personal touch to your home, AND get a daily reminder of your special day.

I’m all about memorabilia, and my bridal bouquet was something I definitely wanted to remember. I decided to try a couple different DIY projects to preserve the flowers: hanging a bridesmaid bouquet to dry and pressing my bridal bouquet flowers to create a DIY piece of art for our home. I am obsessed with how the framed flowers turned out and get to walk past it every day in my hallway!

What You’ll Need:
  • Kitchen scissors
  • Books
  • Paper
  • Large floating frame (The biggest I could find was 20×24)
  • Hot glue gun (I used a flower detail glue gun and it worked great)
  • Optional: vows printed on paper
  • Optional: ribbon from bouquet

Florals by Ahnalise Draper @gingerroots_ca

Disassemble Your Flowers

The day we got home from the wedding, I set to work on cutting flowers from my bouquet off each stem. I cut most of them to ensure I had plenty for the frame. In retrospect, I would have let them dry out a for a couple more days.

Thicker flowers like roses can be cut in half or you can pull out as much of the center green part as you can to spread it out in a circle. I ended up liking the round ones best after they dried.

Dry Your Favorites

Place flowers between two sheets of parchment paper and squash down inside a book. After you’ve gotten all of your flowers inside of books, pile them in stacks in a closet or other dark space. Add some heavy books on top to weigh them down more. After at least two weeks of drying, you can gently take out your flowers.

  • Blue thistle surprisingly dried perfectly in its full form, although I did try cutting them in half as well.
  • Carnations ended up not looking so pretty, so I used them underneath other flowers to add texture.
  • Peonies kept the most color, especially the pink one in my bouquet, which turned out to be a pale shade of purple when dried.
  • Snapdragons turned out great and I wish I had dried more!
  • Greenery and wax flowers made for nice borders around the vows sheets and other flowers.

NOTE: Make sure to let them dry out for a couple days before pressing them. I pressed them right away when they still had water in them so some of the larger flowers, like the roses, ended up ruining pages in my books and molded a bit during their time in the closet.

Arrange & Glue

Now comes the fun part and probably the toughest, since your flowers will be fully preserved (AKA not moving) once you glue everything down. I printed our vows on paper that looked like wood to go along with our rustic wedding theme and placed the flowers around them. You can also incorporate other flat items, such as the ribbon from your bouquet.

Cheers Claudette 2

Guide to Western Switzerland: Thun & Montreux

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Honeymoon Part 3

After about a week of being in Italy, we hopped on a train from Florence to Milan to Thun, Switzerland. The temperature was a crisp 45-50 degrees, a huge difference between my bikini and sundress days in the Amalfi Coast & Tuscany. Needless to say, packing for this trip was extremely tough, especially getting it all in one carry on bag, but I managed!

Both halves of the trip were totally amazing and so different. We got a taste of everything and I am so happy with the places I picked for us to go!

Thun

*Sigh* The magical little town of Thun, where everyone is happy, friendly and accommodating. We went in October and had a 2.5 chilly days, a bit of rain, and plenty of amazingly gorgeous views.

Thun, said “Toon”, is a German-speaking town to the north of Interlaken. If you want to go to a very locals-only small town, this is the place. And I highly recommend it.

Thun Activities, Restaurants & Tips:

  • Schloss: Gorgeous castle overlooking Lake Thun.
  • Outdoor bars: Even in the cold, the Swiss chill outside.
  • Glug: Return of glug and it was even better than I remembered.
  • El Camino. Had the best nachos ever here. Yes, we’re from Southern California and think that this Swiss bar’s nachos are better.
  • Kaffeebar Muhleplatz: A quaint outdoor bar overlooking the river. Our waiter was incredibly nice and even put on a hockey game for us on the big screen.
  • Cafe Brotie. I had 3 Schinkengipfeli in two days. It’s basically like a pig in a blanket but OMG.

Jungfrau Region

On our second day in Thun, we ventured down to the Jungfrau Region to take advantage of our rail pass and find some cows with bells. Because…Switzerland.

Erlenbach. We wanted to take one of the tramways to the top of the mountain, but it was raining and windy when we got to Erlenbach, so we chose not to take our chances on missing one of the only trains for the day. A girl at the local market took pity on us freezing our butts off and made us some tea from their break room.

Wengen. Again, not a soul in sight here and definitely nothing open for lunch like we had expected. Turns out October in this little ski village is desolate so do your research beforehand!

Jungfrau. You can get to the highest point in Europe, Jungfrau, from Wengen for 112 euros. If you don’t feel like coughing up that kind of dough or want to make sure there’s visibility, walk into a bar and there’s a 90% chance they’ll have a live web cam of the peak on tv. The view we’d have had would’ve been 100% white and not being able to see 2 feet in front of us.

Lauterbrunnen. The cutest little town known for it’s gigantic waterfall pouring down the side of the mountain. The waterfall hike is super cool (and slippery) and definitely a must-do if you’re in the area! The view from the top is so classic Swiss, I could cry. Best news of all? Found some cows with bells here!

Interlaken. We heard and read a ton about having to go to Interlaken. We went, walked around, and realized that the downtown is very city-esque with expensive shopping and restaurants, but that’s pretty much it. According to our favorite bartender in Thun, it’s just the stop off for most activities since there is a large train station and multiple tramways to take.

Montreux

 

If you envision what Fairy Tale Land would look like, this is it. I used to think I liked long walks on the beach best, but long walks along Lake Geneva? Truly magical. Plus, the sunrises and sunsets are unreal, lighting up a snow-capped mountain in the background. The catch, it’s helllllza expensive. Try a standard burger for $26+.

  • Chillon Castle. Holy cow. Best museum tour ever! Definitely give yourself 1-2 hours here…it’s seriously so cool.
  • Les 3 Sifletts in Vivey. Our super friendly Thun bartender recommended this place for trying the quintessential gruyere fondue. Our Swiss table neighbor, who also happened to be the most interesting man in the world, recommended that we have it with white wine and order the meat platter for dipping. Obviously, we obliged. The waitress was shocked we we ordered a small fondue to share, but when we finished it clean, she said she’d rarely seen fondue newbies finish the bowl. Still confused by these reactions.
  • Angels Bar. Had pizza and crepes here that were bomb dot com.
  • Christmas Market. While we weren’t in Montreux for the Christmas Market, they were already building and setting up the structures. Based on how awesome the Christmas Marketing in Copenhagen was, I can only imagine how a Christmas Market on Lake Geneva would be!
  • Grand Suisse Hotel. This is where we stayed and this is where I would not recommend. While the views are spectacular, the service is crap, the dessert sucks and it’s more expensive than it needs to be. Plus, it happened to be particularly warm (shorts & tank weather hot) while we were there but they couldn’t turn on the AC in our room because it wasn’t summer. We slept with the door to the balcony open and no sheets. On the plus side, their plan chailly white wine is delicious.

Swiss Rail Pass

Let’s talk about the public transportation sitch here for a sec. First of all, I’m not sure how anyone commutes here because the trains are so dang expensive! For example, we went from Thun to Montreux, which is about an hour train ride, and it was over 115 euros each.

We did the math ahead of time and figured that we’d get a better deal buying the Swiss Rail Pass, especially knowing that we were bound to take the wrong train or decide we wanted to go somewhere else at some point. No tickets needed and you can hop on, hop off without a care in the world! Except, make sure to look up return trains and ensure that you’re on the Swiss food schedule. A lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays and Mondays.

With the Swiss Rail pass, any mistakes or wrong trains wouldn’t cost any extra, which turned out to be a very good decision (i.e. Erlenbach and Wengen fails)!

Both parts of Switzerland were absolutely stunning and I can’t wait to see more of the country!

Cheers Claudette 2