DOES PARIS, FRANCE LIVE UP TO THE HYPE IT HAS THESE DAYS?

Growing up in a family with a father who was the CFO of a company called Diebold we travelled quite a lot. My father was in charge of international affairs within the company which made for some very interesting weekend excursions. When this first started we were relocated from the lovely providence of Ontario, Canada to an even more lovely place...Paris, France. Le Vesinet, France to be more specific (a cozy quite town right outside of Paris.) Although I was young when this happened I remember quite a bit of information. On the weekends we would travel to London, Switzerland, South Africa, Germany; you get the picture. So I'm here to tell you the truth about all the hype on all these closely knit countries and what it's like when you're actually there.

Paris: Oh Paris, who doesn't love you after-all? Any female these days seems to be infatuated with Paris. Here are the cold hard facts on what it's like to be in Paris.

-Paris is not what you think it is

-Paris has some of the best and worst smells in the world. First you pass a Patisserie and you'll get the fragrant lure of lovely french pastries, they are absolutely beautiful in the windows, and the next minute you make a sharp left onto a new corner and there will be urine stains on the walls of the city, and guess what? It smells so much worse than you can imagine. As we all know the French are very fond of alcohol. This means that when everyone gathers on the Seine River in the middle of paris when the sun goes down and they all indulge in their lovely plethora of brightly colored bottles they will quickly need somewhere to let all of that liquid out. This happens to be the city walls.

-The small towns outside of Paris are incredibly quaint. The most cozy, lovely, peaceful villages I've ever encountered. All the sidewalks are cobblestone and there are romantically small cottages with all sorts of vine and shrubbery creeping up these structures.

-There is something a lot of people do not know about the French that really may change their minds about France. The French are a quiet, reserved group of people. When you go to France and you're American you are immediately noticed. The French know we are abnormally loud and that offends them so if you go to France try and contain your excitement. This is a big reason why I was raised as a quiet child. A lot of people think I come off as shy, I am just quiet.

-At night the Parisians come out and dance, not that nasty stuff we do here in America. The Parisians have separate sections for all different kinds of dance: Salsa, Waltz, Swing, and anything else with immense amounts of classy and grace.

-The crime rates in France are scary high. Every home in France has a sky-high, iron fence in front of their homes, at least the height of their home. Our home had a gravel driveway that came out of the iron gate and we frequently found all sorts of gang signs written in the gravel outside of our house. My mother would franticly dust them away with her foot before any communication was made to anyone through the signs.

-Oh and if you go to France stay FAR AWAY from Le Bois de Boulogne. It's the largest park in France and it's filled with drug dealings, prostitutes, and all sorts of strange things. In the day-time it should be a lot safer, but I wouldn't take my chances.

-Oh and they don't have luxury hotels, big movie theaters, fast food, Quick-E Marts. BUT they DO have small cafés with lovely views of passers-by. The food is amazing. The Chateuxs on the countryside, if you have the time to drive to them, are incredibly astounding and awe-inspiring. Over all France really is a lovely place. It is kind of culture shock at first if you've never been there, but it is truly incredible. I would move back there in a heartbeat if I could.

8/10 

ABOUT ME

LIFE -

Here is my ABOUT ME:
-Born in Indiana in 1993
-2 Autoimmune Diseases (Lyme & Hashimotos)
-I LOVE me some holiday seasons
-Was sealed/married in the Mt Timp Temple August 5th, 2014
-I have never been so happy in my life
-I love my SleepNumber bed. I'd die without it....I mean it (my # is 45)
-I take an equal amount of pills to that of an 80 year old daily
-I have many habits of elderly people (sewing, collecting teapots, meds, slow moving, always sleepy)
-I am bad at writing ABOUT ME sections

That's pretty much it. I'll expound at a later date :)

xoxo
- Claire

HOLIDAY CANDLES (everyone loves holiday candles, you know you do)

HOLIDAY CANDLE LOVES

As the Holiday season approaches we all start to get a bit happier, a bit more kind, and a bit more festive. For me the Holidays are absolutely the best time of the year because I get to go craft and cooking crazy. I want to share a few of my favorite things with you as we approach Halloween this month because who really doesn't want to be extremely festive? No one ;) But let's get into a specific cheesy topic, just for now, specific too. Candles. Cheesy right? Wrong. If you could see my house it's covered in all kinds of candles, therefore making me the queen of all things candles so I'll be sharing with you all the best candles out there and reviewing them.

                                                       First off: The Apple Candle -

This one is quite literal. It's the notion that you can cut out the center of an apple and stick a tea light in there and it makes a great candle, that is until it rots. What I've discovered is that the apple candle can usually last about a week or two until it is completely unusable. My advice is don't waste unscented tea lights in your apples, make sure their scented, otherwise it doesn't really benefit your home. Personal favorite tea lights for the apple candles are the pumpkin spice tea lights from yankee candle, check em out!

Secondly: The Orange Candle

This one is also literal. Both the apple and orange candle are makeshift candles that are beautiful and easy to make. The orange candle is actually one of my favorites. It looks absolutely beautiful in a darkened room where it can shine, plus is smells pretty awesome. I used to make and use this candle when I was in college and needed a little bit of the holiday spirit in my little room. This candle mixed with some holiday music and a cozy blanket were some very good memories. My only complaint about these makeshift candles is that sometimes if you don't make it properly it doesn't light well, but when it does...wow...it's beautiful! I'll put a tutorial on how to make these candles below. 

p.s. you'll need to make sure the white stem on the inside of the orange stays attached to the skin when you pull out the actual orange, and you fill these oranges with olive oil or any kind of oil so they can burn :)

LASTLY AND MY OWN PERSONAL FAVORITE: Woodwick Candles 

Okay and just as a side note I have not been compensated at all to make any kind of advertising to Woodwick Corporation. BUT if you haven't heard of these candles before they do something absolutely wonderful. These candles have a special wick in the candle. When the wick is lit it makes the same sound as a burning fire. It automatically makes your home 100 times more cozy and happy and festive. Seriously they are amazing. You can't go wrong with the Pine, Hot Chocolate, or Apple Cider Woodwick Candles. I'll put a link below to the site because they are just that amazing. And if anyone is looking to buy me a gift you know what to get me now ;) 

http://www.thelampstand.com/wood-wick-winter-items.html