Tourists

BF's sisters came up from Cork to hang out with us this weekend, and we had a blast! They came up on Friday, and we had a girly night (+BF) at home. I made fresh egg rolls (YUM!), and we had other appetizers and wine. The next day, they woke up refreshed and ready for a day of touring Dublin. Our first suggestion...umm...Ikea? We are a bit selfish, no? They had been to Dublin plenty of times before so didn't really need to see the city and since they had a car...why not?

Off to Ikea we headed where BF and I got some really cute things which I'll post about shortly. After Ikea, we decided to really take them to a tourist spot... Johnny Foxes. WOOP! This middle of no where bar is SO cute. Very Irish-y- Irish type junk hangs from every wall (Old sign posts, old bicycles, etc- Very similar to what you would see in a TGI Friday's).

After relaxing there for a bit, it was time to get ready for dinner and a night out. We headed to Odessa for dinner but made the mistake of not booking a reservation. Oops! Lucky us,  they had room in their members only dining area which was lovely and swanky and made it seem like I had some amazing connections (Not so much!)

Lovely comfy chairs in the member's area

While we were there, we were totally classy and didn't mess around at all. This is not us challenging BF's sister to a jalapeno eating contest- poor girl.

We then headed out to my friend's birthday party which was fab fun. It was so random but some of BF's friends were there since they were friend's of friends and some of BF's sister's friends (Got that?) were there too because Ireland is the smallest country in the world. 

This is what our night looked like after a couple of those freaking jaegerbomb shots that everyone loves so much.

Final funny picture from the night- This is BF's attempt at Blue Steel :) 

Jealousy

So my little sister (the one living in Chicago) was jealous of Carson's success as a baby model and has decided to try to one up him.

She went and got herself featured on Chaco's website. Chaco is a feel good, adventure shoe which apparently are super duper comfortable.

Here's her debut on the site. She's too cute, they only wanted to show her backside so that we wouldn't be jealous :)

She's also featured on the site on this page.  Just click on the ten-step challenge video to see her cute video.

You can also watch it below.

The Little Things

You know when little things can make your day? I had that kind of day yesterday where it was just turning up roses for me. 

It started early. Finished with my AM gym session, I went down to the cafeteria and found my favorite drink! That would have been enough to make my day. 

 

However, when I got to my desk, I found these bad boys there: 

Smut magazines... from the US (no less!). My friend was over for work and brought them back for me. 

It continued though since I had a CDWM dinner. We hadn't had a full one in ages as two of the gals were traveling in Australia (jealous!). We had great food and wine and then ended up being silly. I'm not sure how to explain this or why my friend had seven little pigs in her house, but we were dying of laughter over it.  

Full and content, I went home and had fun mail- a check from the Irish government for extra taxes I had paid. AMAZING!

No turning back!

A couple weeks ago I sent out our Save the Dates and I'm not gonna lie, it was a tad scary. BF and I have been pals for YEARS and YEARS to come (hopefully), but it was just very FINAL when the postcards left my hands and fell into the mailbox. EKks!

However, it's making things more real and the planning is going into crazy mode. We wanted Save the Dates that were cute, but not very wedding-y. I found a great idea in the December issue of TheKnot magazine when I was home and thought it was perfect. - Vintage postcards from the wedding location! 

The magazine suggested getting the postcards from Cafepress, but I was hoping to find it for somewhere cheaper, and I wanted the actual JPEG image so I could take it to the Irish version of Staples to get it printed. I used my trusty pal- Google- and found Cardcow.com. They're awesome! They have a huge collection of vintage postcards and can scan and send it over to you for a fiver. Amazing! 

Here's what they looked like printed. Pretty cool, right? The guy working at the printing shop was impressed at how much it looked like a real postcard too. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you're having a lovely Valentine's Day, dear readers! Any good plans?

BF and I decided that we wouldn't do anything crazy to celebrate and just went for a long walk at the weekend, went shopping and watched some rugby.

I'll leave you with some adorable images from our wedding photographer (which we booked this weekend!)

All Photos by Summer Street Photography

Aren't they so cute? It was really hard to chose wedding photographers as it was one of the most important things to us me (BF thought they all looked the same which is not true!). We ended up hiring Summer Street Photography located in Massachusetts. They are this cute couple who work together and are getting married in June (in the place we initially wanted to get married). We haven't met them yet, but have built up a great rapport so I can't wait to meet them in April when we're home! 

The clutch... put down the clutch!!!!!

That's what the driving instructor kept screaming at me during my first driving lesson today. Oh man.  It was so stressful. Even though I've been driving for 13 years, I felt like I'd never been behind the wheel before. Thankfully, thirty minutes into our two hour lesson, things improved. I got the hang of changing gears and even ended up on the dual carriageway. YEAH!

My driving nemesis though will be red lights. I stalled about 50,000 times - so awkward and embarrassing! Every single time I got close to a red light, I prayed and prayed it would change colour so I wouldn't stall. I'm going to have to practice a TON more since apparently the pass rate for the Irish driving test in Dublin is less the 40%. EKKS! 

Bridesmaid Dresses

One more thing off the list!

Over Christmas, after getting my dress, I went to a couple of bridal salons to try out potential bridesmaid dresses. I'm having 4 bridesmaid and 1 matron of honor which I don't think is too extravagant considering my sister had TWELVE (!!!!!) girls altogether. I've asked my lovely sisters and BF's sisters, so it's a family affair.

Luckily, the gals are similar shaped so I could have chosen any dress I wanted, but I had a good idea in mind after reviewing all kinds of bridal magazines. You ready???

Here she is!

Source 

It's not too bridemaids-y, but I was under no false pretenses that people would be able to wear it again, and it's in my favorite color!  Everyone says they like it, but they could just be lying to my face :)

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Or in English... Happy Vietnamese New Year! It's the year of the rabbit. Dublin is running festivities until February 14th and you can find the event list here.  BF and I will most likely head down to one of the events this Saturday.

My favorite part of the Vietnamese New Year celebration (besides all the amazing food) is that if you wish your elders a Happy New year you get one of these:

Filled with money!!! When my sisters and I were younger, we would get these from relatives and spend it on sweets, food and games.  I wish I was young enough to get them, but now I'm the one giving them out : (