Hedging

We wanted to mark our territory this weekend and decided to put hedges around the front garden. I know nothing about hedges and assumed you can just plan them in the ground and voila- privacy. Not so much. It takes YEARS for them to grow.

We mistakenly underestimated the size of our garden and didn't buy enough hedges. So besides the plants being dinky, it looks really, really bare. Our lovely neighbor across the way took pity on us and took a twig of his hedge and stuck in between the hedges that had the most space (we looked THAT pathetic!).

Weekend Project #1

BF and I had hired a car this weekend because we needed to go to the burbs for home supplies. Besides going to B&Q, we went to the a floral nursery and went a bit crazy with all the flowers available! We bought indoor house plants and hedges for the front yard. We also bought spring floral bulbs which need to be planted now and winter flowers which can be planted on top of the spring bulbs. (We learned so much while at the nursery- terms like "Summer bedding" had never been in my vocabulary before!) We also got baskets for our front door and that was my first mini project for the weekend.

The materials:


The finished product


Their final resting place- They look so little next to the door!


Our "Winter bedding" - not yet in full bloom

Lounging

So... the last bits of furniture has been placed in the conservatory. Instead of having a couch in our conservatory, I decided that I wanted a day bed so that the main activity for the conservatory is "Lounging". Imagine laying on the daybed reading magazines and books in the sun (or rain!).

Here she is. The day bed is from Ikea - built lovingly (without complaint!) by BF



We didn't get to do much lounging at all this weekend though as we planted hedges, re-finished chairs, put in our winter and spring plants and painted our bedroom (finally!). (BF is a slave driver). Stay tuned for posts on each of the little projects.

Vroom Vroom!

So after passing my driver's theory test several months ago, I finally received my learner's permit in the mail yesterday. YEAH! It's cute, but oversized and awkward to put in my wallet :( I now have to wait 6 months before I can sign up for my driving test (which has a low pass rate strangely enough). I'm taking lessons (like a 16 year old) because I actually don't know how to drive manual and want to learn. Stay tuned for my driving adventures as I learn to drive stick with my left hand :)

The Lucky TShirt

Yesterday, BF, his father and I went to Croke park for the Gaelic Football semi-finals (Dublin vs. Cork). For some reason, even though I don't LOVE Gaelic Football, I find myself at this event every year. It's good fun though, and the sun was shining so no real complaints from me.

My friend, M, is a HUGE Gaelic football fan or really anything that is remotely related to Cork. She was away this weekend and couldn't attend the match so lent me her lucky shirt to wear to the game. She said that every time the shirt is IN Croke park, Cork wins. Well, it was lucky indeed! Cork was behind Dublin the ENTIRE match, but in the last 2 minutes, they scored twice. Whew. Lucky! I'm not even going to go into how Gaelic football is played, but it's a combination of soccer and rugby, maybe, kinda, sorta?

The lucky T - It says "Daon Phoblacht Chorcai" which means "People's Republic of Cork" in Gaelic (Cork is like Texas. They think they should be their own country.)


The Cork Team warming up


Final Score

My first Fairy Buns

Fairy Buns. That's what the Irish call cupcakes. How cute? It has a much lovelier ring to it.

I've always used pre-made mix, but now that I own my own kitchen, I thought I should do it the proper way - That and I couldn't find Betty Crocker mix here :) There are SO many lovely cupcake recipes, but I decided on lemon cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting.

And they turned out really well. BF even ate TWO of them, and he doesn't eat sweets (or crisps or anything bad...how do we manage to live in the same house?)

Here they are in all their badly frosted glory. I'll practice presentation for next time. BTW, those are silicon, reuseable cupcake holders, and I'm obsessed. They are so cute and easy to use.

Sneak Peek

Before


After (Sort of)


There's still a lot of work to be done in the sun room. Rugs, decor, etc and the arm chairs still need their covers but I wanted to share a sneak peek of the room because we have made a lot of progress.

DIY Art

As mentioned before, I'm having a hard time finding yellow accent pieces to add to my living room. Recently I was on the Better Homes and Garden website and found this great and easy DYI wall art project using tape, paint and a canvas. Sounds easy enough, right?

My supplies (Total cost: 26 Euro)


I didn't follow the steps on the website and instead placed masking tape down on the canvas and painted yellow over it. It took about 30 minutes in total and... Voila!

The finished "art" work

Secret Garden

Saturday, I took a break from the house decorating and painting and headed out to brunch with my gal pals. Normally, we head to Saba, but this time to change things up a bit we decided to go to Chez Max on Baggot street for some French food instead.

It was a gloriously sunny day, and I was a bit disappointed when we got there because the entrance is down in the baseament. Sad. But then we were led up the stairs to this quaint little garden/sun-trap. It was AMAZING! We practically had the place to ourselves. The food was delish and after several bottles of wine, I certainly thought I was in France and not in Dublin. I highly recommend checking this place out. Their indoor restaurant is lovely and would be a great place for a romantic date.



After brunch, the girlies and I wandered around the bars of Dublin. We had a fab, fab time! PLUS, when I got home, BF had built our bookcase for the living room. We had gone to Ikea on Friday and bought all this stuff, and he completed one of the projects while I was out boozing. Such a keeper!

A little plaything

My sister treats my nephew like a toy.

Progress

We made some great progress on our house this weekend (The future in-laws are coming in two weeks hence the inspiration to get everything done quickly). I, Me, by myself(!!!!) painted the living room and dining room. BF was busy painting the deck and the downstairs doors and skirting boards.

We also bought a lovely furniture "piece"...ie, a gorgeous, out of our budget bureau for the hallway which has no real function but to look lovely in the hallway. I forgot to take my camera (drats!), and it won't be delivered for a couple of weeks but I will upload pictures when we get it. We also bought a lovely solid coffee table.

AND on top of all that, we made some progress on the wedding planning! We'll be having it in New England next year. (Where? When? I'm not sure....baby steps!)

My New Expertise

Fabrics. Who knew I would get to know this industry so intimately? When we moved in, the previous owners left some furniture including a dining room set. A lot of the stuff is fuddy-duddy and looks very old lady-like, but the dining room set is black-brown wood and actually could be lovely. However, the seats are upholstered in a granny material.

Being SO crafty (not!), I decided that we would pop the seats out and change the fabric. I've been looking for new material since we signed the contract but it's hard work in Ireland! There's a couple of fabric stores, but all their fabric is located in books and so you can't just walk around and find something you like. You have to dig through piles and piles of old lady material.

I'm loving geometric prints but it's not readily available in Ireland. In the past couple of weeks, I've become the Nancy Drew of fabrics- trawling through blogs and design sites, looking for fabric names and trying to find them in Ireland. I now know different fabric designers, their history, if they have shops in Ireland or the UK etc :) I finally found a US site that delivers to Ireland (Fabrics.com).

Here she is: It's the Waverly Cross Section in Charcoal in case you ever go on a search for similar fabric.



I bet you were expecting some amazing, ornate fabric with all that searching! :)

Italian Dinner party

If you've been following my blog for a bit, you know that my gal pals and I have weekly dinner parties. Last night we had a special guest though. One of the gal's BF is from Italy and cooked a SEVEN course dinner for us. I have NEVER been so stuffed in my life. It was delicious and has inspired us to take a girly trip to Italy early next year.

I would offer BF up as a special guest chef, but he literally only knows how to use the George Foreman grill. I think I would be too embarrassed.

Croagh Patrick

We spent the last day of our Irish holiday at Croagh Patrick outside of Galway in County Mayo. Apparently, it is where St. Patrick spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting so it's a big site for pilgrims. The week before we went there was a major pilgrimage so we just missed the thousands who came and prayed.

While the mountain is high, the incline wasn't the hard part. The mountain path is actually made up of rocks and stones so if you were making progress, it only took one little mistaken step for you to roll down the mountain. Thankfully that didn't happen to our group!

Croagh Patrick


Half way point


Sheep!


Jumping off the top

Aran Islands

After all the excitement at the races, we headed to the Aran Islands. With the big win that we received, BF and I chartered a private jet for our friends. Ok Ok ... you can't be fooled. We took a teeny, tiny little plane to the island and since it only sat 8 people, our whole group took up the entire plane.

We had AMAZING weather and spent the two days biking around the island, taking in the cliffs of Dun Aengus and the two pubs on the island. There wasn't too much to do but enjoy the scenery and bike.

The tiny runway


Looking over the edge of Dun Aengus


The views of the cliffs


Our new summer home (Red door just like our real home!)

Off to the Races!

Thursday, BF and I had the day off as we were heading to Galway for the races. BF's friend and his girlfriend planned the trip, and we were meeting up with a bunch of others as well. We were arriving on Ladies Day, and the ladies were dressed up in their finest! I didn't know what to expect so went more low key then most of the people at the event. Although it was a horse race, I didn't see one horse - too busy drinking and people watching! BF and I placed bets to make the races more interesting and we won 96 Euros (which we proceeded to lose on other bets).

The races were over by 6 so we headed into Galway town for a night of drinking on the streets. The town roped off a large portion of the pedestrianized streets, and we were allowed to bring our drinks outside. Luckily we had amazing weather!

Our Hats


Waiting by the finish line


Winning ticket!


Evening Drinks