An American Girl in Dublin

Ten years!

2012-01-27T17:50:00.000Z

It's my ten year dating anniversary with Hubby! Are we still suppose to celebrate this even though we are now married? We figured, yes...any excuse to go to Saba, my favorite Thai restaurant, for cocktails.

A scanned(!!) picture from our first three months of dating. This was at my college university's formal ball dated February 22, 2002.

A picture from New Year's Eve 2011. Funny, how nothing really changes in ten years!

Sunday Driver

2012-01-24T13:39:00.001Z

To practice for our driving test (Yes, neither hubby nor I have our Irish driving licenses), we rented a car over the weekend.

The scary part of this whole experience for me - having hubby drive. In all the years that we've known each other, this is only the SECOND time, he's driven with me in the car. The first time, we were in Brighton Massachusetts, and he stalled at an incredibly busy intersection. How embarrassed was I? VERY!

This time around, we went automatic, but the whole time we were driving, I kept giving him directions (since I have 15 years experience compared to his 2 years) - "You're too close to the next car, ekks, slow down...it's a red light, stop." Relationship saved though as it was only in my head! :)

Do you trust me with your life?!!?

He's taking the test before me next month. I figured he could be the guinea pig before I signed up (plus I can't seem to find my permit!).

Number 1

2012-01-20T09:41:00.000Z

Woop! The factory has been voted the number one place to work (in the US).

It's true, I drink the kool aid (or rather Vita Coco coconut water), I really enjoy working here AND everything they say in the article is pretty true, we do get some amazing perks (such as my lovely breakfast of an egg omelet with tomatoes, mushrooms and TRUFFLE OIL). YUM!

I better go... I'm late for my massage...Kidding. I know I'm being a brat ;p

Want to join? Send me a comment. We're always looking for good people!

Cop out!

2012-01-18T17:55:00.000Z

Two decisions were made this week, and I'm totally copping out on my goals in life.

1. I may not run the entire half marathon in Paris- When I signed up at the end of November, I thought I had loads of time. With the holidays, I didn't run as much and now I've got five weeks to run 13 miles. I'm currently on 3.5 miles. I don't know if I'll be able to make it. Ekks. It may be a "walk/eat croissant/run/eat a crepe" situation.

2. I won't be getting a manual Irish driver's license - So when I moved here, my American license did not translate so I thought to myself "Since I have to take the test anyways, why don't I learn a new life skill and learn manual". Silly me! Those manual lessons were the worst hours of my life. So stressed- stalling at lights, teenage boys pointing and laughing at me (no lie). So this weekend, I ~~forced~~ asked Hubby if we can just get an automatic car so I don't have to learn and ta-da!, my magic worked. Automatic car = no stress! (Apparently though, the test is still really freaking hard. )

Do I feel bad about copping out? A little, but it's made my life 1000% less stressful so it's for the best!

Best news ever!!!

2012-01-13T15:54:00.006Z

I've been living in Ireland for three years and not once during that time has a family member come to visit me. Maybe because I'm a middle child?

BUT...yesterday I received news that my sister and her husband are coming to Ireland at the end of February. Not only that but they are bringing my FAVOURITE family member.....This guy!

The baby is coming to visit us!!!!!!!!!!! Whoppee! I can't wait!

Also, I came into work this morning and my favorite drink, Vita Coco, was available in the fridges. A fabulous start to a relaxing weekend!

Belated New Year's Post

2012-01-12T12:08:00.001Z

Ekks... I'm behind on my adventure posts! :)

Hubby and I headed to Westport, County Mayo on New Year's eve for a friend's wedding. We had such a short time there and sadly only saw the inside of the wedding hotel and the church. We didn't even head down to the village area with it's lovely canal and apparently amazing pubs with great live trad music. Oops! Definitely one to add to the potential travel spots for weekend trips.

The wedding was our first after our own wedding so was really nice to sit back and just enjoy the readings and ceremony and champagne!!! :)

Bride and Groom with a festive Christmas tree

Prom pictures!

New year, new hair for hubby!

The gals with the bride

My daily view

2012-01-09T09:27:00.001Z

New year, new work team, new desk... the view from the new desk is pretty sweet, no? Aviva stadium and the gasworks... makes Mondays less painful

Yippee!

2012-01-05T09:20:00.001Z

Our little wedding got posted to a fun wedding blog (my wedding dream come true, besides marrying Hubby).

You can find the two parts here and here.

Resolutions

2012-01-03T16:41:00.003Z

I generally never do resolutions, but I love making lists so figured why the heck not this year. I'm a generally optimistic person, so my resolutions are going to be positive-ish (someone's been going to yoga a bit too much?)

Eat more veggies and drink more water. The junk food in the office is overwhelming and I would like to be more healthy so I'm going to put this on the blog and hope by making it public, I'll actually follow it (as I eat a rice krispie chocolate treat- Doh!)
Wear more clothes - I have this terrible shopping addiction. I was hoping that since there was no Jcrew in Ireland, I would hopefully control the amount of shopping. Incorrect. I'm hoping to reorganise the closet and wear more of the stuff that's sitting in the back.
Visit Belfast. Hubby and I have said this every year since we've moved here. Three years later, we've STILL not made it to the North. For shame!
Get an Irish Driver's license- I stall at red lights and stop signs. So embarrassing considering I've been driving for 16 years.

That's it! A nice and easy list that is definitely manageable. Hope you made some good resolutions.

Belated Wishes!

2012-01-02T18:13:00.005Z

Happy Belated Christmas and New Year!!!

Hubby and I spent time in the country for Christmas with his family. The internet was so slow, I thought I was transported back to 1997 when we had dial up internet (hence the lack of posts). Seriously, how do people live like that? :)

Anyways, the weather was so warm over Christmas (55-60 degrees F), hubby and I took lots of long walks in the countryside.

For New Year's, we headed to the west of Ireland to Westport for a friend's wedding. Pics from the countryside are below for your viewing pleasure.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday break!

View of the countryside

Walks through Sally's Cross

Walk among the trees

Rainbow from the train on New Year's day

Just one more

2011-12-21T13:14:00.003Z

This is THE saying Irish people use to try and convince you to stay out for one... just one...which always leads to 12 and ends up in Zaytoons, THE kebab place in Ireland (best eaten after 2:00am).

My Saturday started out respectably. Brunch with my lady friends and a secret sanata at Hugo's. We exchanged gifts ( I got monster slippers! and gave the OPI Best of the Best, which I highly recommend. I may or may not have gotten one for me too). We had a lovely, civilised meal complete with Christmas Crackers!

Our token man playing with his Christmas cracker gift

My plan was to go home afterwards and snuggly up with hubby. Wrong. I ended up in front of a man shaped fireplace (as you do). Pub one of my THIRD 12 pubs of Christmas this season. Seriously, put a gin and tonic in front of me, and I'll follow you anywhere.

Fireplace at Longstone Pub

After each pub, I kept saying, "Right, now I'm leaving." 8 pubs later, I had to pull myself away... Why is it so hard?

Last bar

This is my final holiday celebration before actually Christmas. I can't wait to just sit at home and not drink :)

2011

2011-12-16T09:43:00.003Z

I love a good video montage and this one is GREAT! See how the world searched on Google in 2011.

10 years!

2011-12-14T11:43:00.000Z

Hubby and I met 10 years ago today at an Irish pub in Allston Massachusetts. It was so long ago, I don't even think I had a digital camera at the time. Imagine!

Here's an old picture of us from 2003 - 2 years after we met (this is as far back as I have without having to scan pictures). Look at our fat cheeks. We look like babies!

Münchner Christkindlmarkt

2011-12-13T17:57:00.003Z

I arrived in Munich Friday afternoon and just had time to drop my stuff off at the hotel before the girls dragged me to the HofBrauhaus of Octoberfest fame. The lucky gals had been in Munich since Wednesday and were experts by the time I got there.

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't see much of Munich since I was really only there for a day and a half- basically the inside of the HofBrauhaus and the Christmas markets. But Munich is a gorgeous city. It's weird because the architecture seems old but because it was destroyed in the war, it's actually relatively newly built - giving it a fake Disney set feeling :)

Below are some of my fave pics from the weekend.

Entrance to the markets

In my happy place, Sausage and Beer!

The ladies and I at the Hofbrauhaus

Snowing in front of the square

Gluvien out of a boot!

The markets

Santa!

The markets

The markets. It was PACKED full of people

Lounge Update

2011-12-12T17:11:00.003Z

Loved the Aer Lingus Lounge!

I arrived relatively early to the airport because I NEEDED to track down books two and three of the Hunger Games (BTW, have you joined this bandwagon? What are you waiting for ? It's SOOO good).

Once I got the books (I had to go all the way to terminal 1 cause it was sold out in terminal 2), I walked through the doors of the lounge and landed in a glassy, modern lounge. It looked nothing like the pics in my last post but was still lovely.

They lent out Samsung Galaxy tablets, had free wifi and lots of drinks and snacks. I debated on pouring myself a gin and tonic, but decided it was a little too early to start drinking!

I took some bad sneaky pics of the lounge to share with you.

Open Bar :)

Weird view of the lounge from where I was sitting

It was a lovely start to a lovely vacation!

Fancy Fancy

2011-12-09T11:43:00.001Z

I'm off to Munich today with my American gal pals, and I can't wait to check out the Christmas markets.

More exciting though is that I finally realised that my Aer Lingus Circle Club membership (which I've had for two months now) allows me to go to their fancy lounge with their free wifi, drinks and magazines. AND, I get to cut the queue for check in and boarding. WOOP! I feel so grown up!

Below is a pic of the lounge from their website. I'll try to take a sneaky pic when I'm there, but I don't want to be over-excited and appear like I don't naturally belong there :)

More Visitors!

2011-12-07T11:45:00.001Z

This week I had gal pals from work come stay with us over the weekend. Poor husband has been such a good sport- watching girly holiday movies, going shopping with the gals and generally catching up on celebrity gossip from both sides of the pond :)

The girls arrived on Saturday- a bit jet lagged. After a little nap, we headed into town for a lovely brunch at Odessa. Hubby joined in afterwards where we showed the gals all the different pubs of Dublin -12 to be exact. It was good fun! Some pics from Saturday.

The gals and I- fresh faced at the second pub

Hubby joins...

and turns into a creep. He's gonna hurt me for putting this picture up :)

Pub 6- not too bad

Outside a pub in Temple bar. Second time in a month I hang out in Temple bar. Never again!

Restaurant break after pub 9

Last pub of the night - look at the poor guy in the back just trying to get in

After a raucous day out, this is what our Sunday looked like :)

Chocolate Treat

2011-11-30T10:21:00.001Z

I was showing the ladies around Grafton Street on Monday and it was sooo lovely and Christmasy. We stopped in for a hot chocolate treat at Butler's which is HIGHLY recommended. I had heard so much about them, but never had one. So ~~sorry~~ glad I tried. It was sooo rich and warm and chocolatey! Can't wait for another one next time I'm in town.

Christmas Happiness Indeed!

Study abroad visitors

2011-11-29T14:17:00.001Z

This weekend, Hubby and I hosted my best friend from high school's husband's sister (got that?) and her two friends. The gals are studying abroad in Italy and wanted to visit Dublin. (Plus they were really keen on staying in a house that spoke English- something we can provide!)

We took them for long walks along the Irish sea, had pints and went out on the town. We showed them some bars and then they showed us some bars...mainly where the Trinity Irish students hang out (they had friends studying abroad here).

Hubby and I felt like the old, creepy couple hanging out with college students (which we were!), but the music was good, and we had a great time!

After sleeping until noon the next morning (when hanging out with college students, do what they do, right?), we sent them off into town while we I cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Not gonna lie, it turned our really well. The turkey was perfectly cooked, and the stuffing was AMAZING. I used this recipe but added apples.

Hubby and the ladies in front of Trinity

My confused Thanksgiving table (with Christmas napkins)

American Friends!

Nailed it

2011-11-28T14:59:00.001Z

I haven't been much of a manicure gal... I've only had it done twice in my life, and it was both this year at the ripe old age of 31. I just can't justify the price of getting my nails done especially when they chip so fast. But recently I've been loving the look of nail polish and based off a recommendation from a friend, I purchased this top coat last week. Love, Love, Love! I highly recommend it. It's called Seche Vite and made by Essie.

Basically, you just top it on your wet nail polish, and it speeds the drying process along. Also, it's suppose to keep your nails nice and healthy. I got it down at my local boots. Totally worth trying if you're into changing your nail polish often (which I have taken to doing recently)! Makes my nails look completely professional and is fast!

Gobble Gobble!

2011-11-24T10:24:00.001Z

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm so very sad not to be home this Thanksgiving since my entire family is home. WAA! But I have loads to be thankful for so I can't complain too much.

Plus, we have American guests this weekend (and next. Woop!) and I'm planning a mini, belated Thanksgiving dinner which is a first for me. So excited!

Early Christmas

2011-11-23T17:48:00.001Z

Merry Christmas to me!

I came back from a meeting today and look what was on my desk.

YEAH! I can't wait to use it... though I'm really bad at techy stuff so looking forward to learning with this guy....

African Scenery

2011-11-21T13:31:00.001Z

Opps! Totally forgot to write about the different landmarks we went to while we were on safari. Silly! My favorite would have to be Ngorongoro Crater. Awesome! Second favorite, Olduvai Gorge, the cradle of mankind.

Below are some pics

Wildebeast Crossing on the Mara River

Border of Tanzania and Kenya

Sunset drinks on the shores of Lake Victoria

Camping Site in the Serengeti

Gate into the Serengeti

Drinking Serengeti Beer in the Serengeti

Look at the beard! Days without shaving

Olduvai Gorge

Ngorongoro Crater

Wow! A Lion!

Zanzibar

2011-11-21T13:19:00.001Z

Honeymoon post! After two weeks of camping and being with other people, Hubby and I said our goodbyes and headed to the relaxing, romantic part of our honeymoon- Pongwe Beach in Zanzibar.

As we pulled into the tiny airport, the weather wasn't great- gray and humid, with a potential chance of rain. As we pulled into the resort, it started POURING. The rain didn't stop the entire first day we were there. Waa. But to be honest, I really didn't care because in the resort, we had our own...TOILET! YEAH! Seriously, I was so happy to have a toilet in the room. I have never in my life spoken so much about my bathroom habits then when we were camping. Between looking at animals, it was a constant debate on whether I should drink more water, when would the next bathroom stop be and would I risk going out in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or is it better to stay in the tent and ensure I wasn't eaten by buffalo? :)

We were only at the resort for 3 days and 2 of those days, it rained HARD. We did have one sunny day, which was breezy and even though I reapplied sunblock, loads, I got burnt- second time in my life :(

Welcome Drinks

How lucky am I?

Our little hut (with it's own toilet!)

Not a bad view!

First day... pure gray weather

View from the pool

Amazing!

Octopus!

80's Rewind

2011-11-16T15:39:00.001Z

Annually, we have a conference at work, and it was this week. I love these conferences because it reminds me how awesome my company is and how grateful I am to work here (Yes, I drink the kool-aid).

Last night we had an end-of-event celebration, and they held an 80's affair at the conference center. It was soooo much fun! The gals and I got decked out in 80's gear for the party. I even CRIMPED my hair, and my favorite 80's cover band Spring Break were there.

There was a special surprise guest at the party as well. Scroll down to find out who it is...

Decked out with crimped hair.

Special guest Lionel Richie? Nope... keep scrolling

Maggie Thatcher? No no... even better

Boy George!!

Our special guest was Boy George. He was our Dj for the evening. How cool!?

Kilmainham Gaol

2011-11-15T10:06:00.001Z

Hubby and I have been saying that we'll go see Kilmainham Gaol since we moved here and we FINALLY went to see it this weekend. It's been unseasonably warm and so we decided to go for a walk around Dublin and then head over to the gaol which was really interesting.

It was 6 euros to go in and they gave you an hour tour with history of the gaol and information about its most famous residents including Eamon De Valera, former president of Ireland.

Here are some pics from the day:

Fall walk in Merrion Square

Front of the gaol

Large wing of the gaol

Eamon De Valera's prison cell

Execution Yard

People of Kenya and Tanzania

2011-11-14T10:52:00.001Z

Back to the honeymoon... I think I've got two more posts left before I'm completely OVER writing about the honeymoon.

We were traveling with a group of North Americans and Australians for most of the trip, but we were able to meet many Kenyans and Tanzanians along the way as well. In my experience, the Kenyans were very friendly, while the Tanzanians were not as friendly. Generalised statement, I know, but that is what we encountered on our trip.

Below are some of my favorite pics of everyday Kenyan/Tanzanian life.

At the New Hope Orphanage

Liverpool Fans!

Local village near Lake Nakuru

Takes a whole village to help me spin yarn (As I get my hair braided!)

Mother and child

Hubby makes new friends!

Hubby and Fiona

In the Masai Village

Listening intently to the Masai Village Chief

Masai Warrior Dance

His ears!!! (He indeed has a stick through the other ear)

Spear Throwing

Our first travel group

Our truck broke down ... waa waa....village children come to see what's going on

Village market in Kisii

These ladies were SO sassy and fun!

Local Market

This man insisted we take a picture of him. Really looks like an ad for his website!

Buy my bracelet!!!

Morning Commute

2011-11-14T09:55:00.001Z

How gorgeous was the sky this morning?!

View from my bus stop

Belated Anniversary.

2011-11-08T14:58:00.000Z

Oops! I completely missed my 3 year anniversary yesterday with my delightful Ireland. I can't believe I've been here for three years already. Only two more years before I can become an official citizen. FUN!

Animals!

2011-11-07T11:48:00.002Z

It's kind of funny that hubby and I went on a safari for our honeymoon when in reality neither of us really like animals. (We are not serial killers, I swear).

We saw the big five lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino and a whole slew of other animals. My two favorite animals were the warthog and the dik dik.

Warthogs are just soo cute! Because of the way they are built, they eat on with their front knees bent. Adorable. Dik Diks are a type of antelope. They are about the size of a cat. Imagine how cute that could be! I loved them, because they mate for life and you ALWAYS see two of them together. The only sad thing is that both of my favorite animals are rather skittish and so we didn't get great pictures of them. You'll have to settle for the pics below of some of the animals we got. Also, we debated between getting a real (SLR) camera and using our point and shoot, and while I did wish we had a better camera, the pics didn't turn out too badly.

* Please note there is one really saucy picture in this post.

Three cheetahs

Leopard in a tree with it's dead prey (small gazelle)

Rhino!

Tons of flamingos

Ta-da! Hubby and a giraffe

Posed :)

Mama warthog and babies!

Mama elephant and baby

Hippo - This was taken using our friend's camera

Lioness! Taken using our friend's camera. (Way better zoom then ours!)

Fighting wildebeast

Saucy picture. I debated on putting this up, but it's just too funny!

We're legal!

2011-11-02T15:04:00.002Z

It's official, Hubby and I are husband and wife! You're probably thinking... "obviously, we saw your wedding pics and you won't shut up about it", but wait...we had problems....

We went to get our marriage license in the town of Wolfeboro before the wedding. (It was the cutest town hall). See?

Town Hall

We went in and filled out the paperwork and received an almost filled in marriage certificate. The only thing missing was that we had to get the officiant to sign it and send it in within six days.

Signed!

The only problem with this....we didn't read the six days part. EKKS! We had our big day, went on the honeymoon and when I came back and read through the certificate, I realised we didn't mail it in on time. Oh lord!

I finally spoke to the town hall today, and it's sorted. They were really nice and helpful and confirmed that we are officially married. Whew!

First Honeymoon Post!

2011-11-02T10:17:00.002Z

I've been stalling on writing up our honeymoon, because I was totally overwhelmed by all that we did. I just didn't know where to start! I'm going to try to break it out into different parts to make it easier to digest.

First stop, honeymoon camping - WAAY better then expected. I am not really sissy but the thought of going into the wild (my only camping experience was in my backyard as a child) was the tiniest bit intimidating, but I set my expectations VERY low and throughly enjoyed it!

Hubby and I did the Intrepid truck tour and had two different groups (week 1 and week 2). Everyone had to pitch in and clean and cook all the meals.

Below are some pics of the camping. By the end of the trip, Hubby and I had perfected the art of putting up a tent and taking it down in 8 minutes :)

Backpacker Chic! Ready for the camping

First time pitching the tent!

Washing the dishes at our first camp site

Sleep Sack, Insect Repellent and flashlight -Ingredients for a romantic honeymoon

Onsite Spa

This is how we dried dishes every FREAKING day...flapping them back and forth in the wind

Cooking!

Our truck stopped at a picnic site for lunch

Masai warriors guarding our tent from ELEPHANTS!

Last time pitching the tent!

In our little tent!

Moooooooooo!

2011-10-31T13:29:00.000Z

Happy Halloween! I can't wait to see the little trick-or-treaters tonight.

I went to a friend's last minute Halloween party this weekend and with no costume planned, I popped into Penney's to find something suitable. I looked everywhere and didn't see anything, until I bumped into a little girl who had this cow costume. I ran quickly down to the children's section and picked up these Pj's. Apparently my shortness allowed me to wear a child's size 9-10. Tee hee hee....

Add caption

On another note, my sister and her friend decided to do the cutest group costume. Look at Baby Carson as Bam Bam and his little Pebbles girlfriend, so cute!

Hope you enjoy all your Halloween treats today!

End of an Era

2011-10-30T20:16:00.002Z

Well dear readers, I did it... I deleted all the wedding bookmarks I had on my laptop. So strange! Now what do I read? I'm focusing right now on fashion, working out and food. Any blog suggestions out there for me? Send them my way please!

Final Wedding Post

2011-10-28T15:04:00.000+01:00

Last post, promise! We got a highlight reel of our wedding video today, so I figured I would post that instead of going into every little detail about the wedding. Enjoy!

Ly and Kieran Highlight Video from Andrew Klokow on Vimeo.

The Dress

2011-10-23T10:37:00.000+01:00

Back to some wedding posts... and most importantly (besides hubby!), my dress! As you may recall, I bought the dress in New York at Kleinfeld's, and it was the very first dress I tried on. When I got home, I did a Google search just so I could look at it all the time and who happens to have worn the dress before in a music video? Taylor Swift... A little embarrassed that an 18 year old and I have the same style? a little bit...thankfully, I do really like her dress sense and she always looks fab on the red carpet so I got over it quickly. (Thank god it wasn't someone like, Avril Lavigne!)

And here is my actual dress in detail...so dreamy... I wish I could wear it ALL the time!

Zut Alors!

2011-10-21T09:51:00.003+01:00

Now that the wedding is over, I've got no projects! The house is pretty much decorated. I've already started my Christmas shopping, so now what? (Defo not ready for baby!)

I got talked into running another half marathon. I haven't run in AGES...seriously stopped running after the incident in India. The fun news is that it's not until March (Thank God!) and it's PARIS! That should keep me motivated, mais non?

I've started a very, very basic running program in the tune of "Let's make sure you can run a mile" before you start training for 13. Any good running song recommendations, please send them my way! It's gonna by a long winter!

Vietnamese Tea Ceremony

2011-10-19T10:53:00.002+01:00

Our wedding day started early, beginning with a Vietnamese Tea Ceremony. To be 100% honest, I wasn't sure what the heck was going on during the whole thing! :) The basic premise is that Hubby has to come over bearing gifts to present to my family to ask for my hand in marriage. Cute! After that, we pay respects to our ancestors and then serve tea to the elders in our family. Oh and the most fun part, the bride gets "dressed" with jewelry - now that's a tradition I can buy into!

Here are some pics from the tea ceremony:

My favorite baby!

The gifts

Getting dressed

Peeking out the window to see what is going on!

The groom's family and friends -ready for the procession

Giggles before I'm "presented" to the crowd

Getting jewels!

Serving tea- I always feel very Mulan-like when I pour tea

Laughing at my dad's jokes!

The incense

One big happy family!

Formal picture down by the lake

Pre-wedding festivities

2011-10-16T17:29:00.002+01:00

Hubby and I drove up to the house on Thursday before the wedding, and before we even settled into the house we headed over to city hall to get our marriage certificate!! YEAH! Did you know, that you can get married at the age of 13 in New Hampshire? Nuts!

Marriage Certificate!

We then spent the day organising the house for the wedding.

Working hard

Hubby's parents and sisters flew in on Thursday, and can you believe after ten years of dating, this was the first time our parents were going to meet? Hubby and I conveniently missed the first meeting because we were running errands. I was slightly worried as his parents have pretty thick Cork accents and my parent's have very heavily Vietnamese accented English. Luckily, all went well!

On Friday, my sisters, mom and I had appointments for mani's/pedi's. It was sooo lovely to spend some time with the gals and even lovelier because this was my first pedicure...EVER!

Getting pretty with mommy

Finally, after we finished at the beauty salon, it was time to sort out the flowers- nothing like leaving it to the last minute. I ~~was cheap~~ wanted the flowers to look really natural and not very bridal so I thought it would be perfect to do the flowers (both bouquets and centerpieces) ourselves. There was a cut flower farm just 5 miles from the wedding house so off we went.

Unfortunately, when we got there, they didn't have tons of flowers. They barely had any flowers at all. Ut-oh. We managed to find some pretty potted plants for the centerpieces and feathery yellow flowers which we thought would work for the bridesmaids. Sadly, there was nothing for me! I am not gonna lie, I was pretty near tears. However, my lovely sister/matron of honour, took control. After leaving the farm, we dropped by a florist and she picked up some simple hydrangeas. When we got home, she pulled the bouquets and centerpieces together and they were EXACTLY what I had imagine. How lucky am I?

Here is the lovely lady, herself, at the farm.

Flower picking

The scary, before flowers. I didn't think it would work!

Below are the finished products!

The lovely bridesmaid's bouquets... natural and airy...just the look I was going for.

Gorgeous, no?

My bridal bouquet- Love, love. It was exactly what I wanted...not too bridal and not one of those tightly bunched bouquets. She's amazingly talented (and wait until you see how she did my makeup!)

Bridal bouquet & Table centerpiece

I'm back!!!

2011-10-15T08:47:00.001+01:00

I'm finally back home after 6 weeks away!! It is sooo nice to be back. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend unpacking and catching up on X Factor, but expect lots of wedding and honeymoon updates in no particular order :)

Wedding Week & Wedding Details

2011-09-21T03:36:00.002+01:00

Get ready for loads and loads of post recapping the wedding! It was such a crazy week. We started off with a Wednesday night BBQ at a friend's house in Boston. This is when hubby (EKKS!), first flew into Boston. We went to pick him up and we drove straight to our friend's house.

What I miss most about living in Dublin is warm summer nights- having a couple of drinks outside.... Luckily we got the most perfect weather at the BBQ and the hostess was fantastic... Amazing BBQ, peanut butter cupcakes and champagne.... I don't think we could have asked for a better night!

Besides that I spent the week pulling together the programs, guest seating charts and finalising the centerpieces.

A quick look at the work, my mom and I did from our wedding photographers!

- Remember my cake toppers? Here they are in all their glory. I love them!

- To the right are straws with colorful flags that I made using cocktail straws and Washi tape. I am slightly obsessed with the washi tape... There were tons left over from the wedding so I can't wait to use them in other post wedding projects.
- Up until Wednesday, I had no idea what to do for a seating plan. Randomly, Ms. Martha Stewart sent me an email about seating plans - like a fairy godmother- and I copied her idea. Branches, decorative paper and calligraphy.

- Our centerpieces! The lovely pots from hobby lobby that I was obsessed with and then some potted plants thrown in.... We had 4-5 different shaped pots with 4-5 different flowers that worked well together.

- A lovely little sign we had for our bar.

Below are my programs and confetti bags. I debated a long time about the confetti, but I'm so glad I got them! We have one of the best pictures from the wedding (so far) with the confetti.

See? Happy and confetti-ed!

I'll try to space out wedding posts between other updates. xx

Sneak Peek!

2011-09-19T11:39:00.004+01:00

First picture from our photographers! :)

Making out in fields, as you do, on your wedding day. A big fat cricket crawled up my dress after this pic. The things I endure for a good picture!

Final Fitting!

2011-09-14T02:47:00.002+01:00

I had my final fitting today. EPPs! And the dress is still perfect... I cannot wait to wear it for real in 4 days!

Also, my mother finally finished sewing my veil, and it's LOVELY! I went with a cathedral length simple veil. It makes me feel like I'm playing dress up. As a bonus, the least expensive similar style I could find that I liked was at David's Bridal for $150 and mom made it for 10% of that... 10%!!!!! Veils are so ridiculously, silly expensive!

Come on weatherman!

2011-09-13T05:28:00.001+01:00

Please be right!! The weather has been amazing and I hope it continues until this weekend...pretty please Mr. Weatherman (or lady)!!!

Tying the Knot

2011-09-13T05:25:00.000+01:00

Traditionally, tying the knot derives from the nets of knotted string which supported beds. The theory goes that, in order to make a marriage bed, you need to tie the knot! (Source). I didn't know that, did you?

For me tying the knot has been literally tying KNOTS...hundreds and thousands and gajillions of knots. Seriously, since I've been home, I've been tying bows on everything...programs, gifts, guests cards, EVERYTHING... my fingers have become nubs- no joke... I'm done though (I think). On to finalising the centerpieces. EKKS!

Round Two

2011-09-10T23:19:00.003+01:00

Mom, Baby and I have been running around like crazy trying to get all the things we need for the wedding. Yesterday, we went back to Hobby Lobby (LOVE!) to find remaining pieces for the centerpieces.

Not only did we finish up a large chunk of centerpiece shopping, we also managed to find time to get a hair cut...

and get glamorous!

After all that time though, mom was tired and had to rest in the greenery... She was over it! I have to say though Hobby Lobby is probably one of my new favorite stores. They have everything you could possibly need for wedding decor!

Seafood!

2011-09-09T15:29:00.002+01:00

I met my lovely friend Lizzy for lunch yesterday at Legal Seafoods. I haven't been there in YEARS and really was way too excited about my meal... Look at it though, wouldn't you be?

Lobsters, scallops, clams, mussels, shrimp, calamari- oh my!!! I couldn't get enough!

Right after this picture was taken, I cracked into my lobster leg and the juice shot like a gajillion meters up in the air and landed on the guy at the table next to us. How embarrassing!!!

Score

2011-09-08T04:57:00.000+01:00

Since I've been home, I've been scouring the craft shops (Michael's and AC Moore) for centerpiece items. I have a whole pinterest page of items saved as inspiration, but I'm finding it really difficult to locate pieces that fit my ideal look for the venue- rustic and simple. I was in quite a panic today so I went shopping...for honeymoon clothes. Priorities, no? Breaks from wedding talk is completely necessary!

After a grueling day of shopping with mother, we decided to meet my dad and sister for dinner at a local restaurant. Since they arrived late, we went across the street to Hobby Lobby. I've never been in there before, but I LOVED it. It is WAY nicer then the other craft stores!

With literally 10 minutes to go before meeting the rest of the family, my mother and I walked into the front door and were greeted with the most perfect buckets for my centerpieces!!! AND, they were on SALE! How much did I love my life? I got way too excited and wiped their display out grabbing everything I could get my hands on.

They also had some lovely home decor stuff right in the front of the store and like a marketer's dream, I started grabbing things for our house. My mom had to calm me down and said that we could go back when we had more time (this said, while I had a nautical knot door stop and a humungous iron wall clock in my hands) How the heck would I have gotten the clock back? Good thing she stopped me.

Anyways, here are the lovely buckets! I can't wait to find flowers and greenery for them!

Adorable Boston

2011-09-06T18:07:00.001+01:00

I'm in the adorable Boston office today. I hadn't been back since I moved to Dublin, and I really missed it! It was lovely to catch up with old friends and the office has really grown. They've added in new floors, but my favorite is this one.

The Cape Cod beach area. So relaxing! And on top of that the Boston office welcomed me back with New England Clam Chowder, Sushi AND seaweed salad for lunch -all of my favorite things... I need to work out of this office more often!

State Fair

2011-09-06T15:45:00.001+01:00

I woke up early AGAIN yesterday, but since I needed to do work (I'm still working until Friday), I was able to get all that done and have time to hang out with the family.

We headed to the Hopkinton, New Hampshire state fair which was great fun! I hadn't been to a fair in years! There were rides, bad but amazing food and livestock (!!!).

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Mommy and me!

Baby Stage Coach

Little Sister, Big Cow

Piglets!!!

Ego boost... TWO vendors at the fair thought my FIFTEEN year old sister and I were twins. YES! I think it was just because we were both wearing black tank tops. What do you think? No, right? Plus, she's taller then me and still growing :(

Twins?

Summertime

2011-09-05T09:44:00.000+01:00

I'm finally home in New England, and it is HOT! Even though it's the last weekend of the summer for most New Englanders, it's finally the beginning of the summer for me. I haven't felt this warm in AGES, and I can't get enough.... To be able to wear a dress without having to bring leggings, a scarf, a cardigan and an umbrella - just in case, is AMAZING!

Last day!

2011-09-02T09:43:00.000+01:00

WOOPIE! Today is my last day at work in Dublin. I will still be working out of the Boston office next week, but that's ok because I'll be able to catch up with friends I haven't seen in years!!!

I've been able to check off more of my wedding to do list which includes seating plans, ceremony (finally) and play list. I'm really looking forward to going home and ~~going shopping~~ seeing family and to really get started on wedding projects.

Practice, Practice, Practice

2011-08-31T10:22:00.001+01:00

I FINALLY booked a restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. There are a limited number of restaurants in the wedding village, and they have been less then responsive to my emails and phone calls, but it's finally done!

Since the booking was so late, I had to send out email invites. I wanted something cute and easy and I found the loveliest template on Wedding Chicks. They have an amazing selection of templates for save the dates and even whole invitation suites.

They make it sooo easy as well! You just chose your color, fill in your wording and ta-da! A Jpeg! Amazing...

Wedding Sneak Peek

2011-08-30T11:11:00.001+01:00

We're having a traditional Vietnamese tea ceremony during the early afternoon of the wedding, and the family will be dressed in traditional Vietnamese gear. Since my aunt still lives in Vietnam, she helped us order custom made ao dai's which I'm really excited to try on!

I got a sneak peak of Baby Carson in his ao dai, and I couldn't wait to share.

Isn't he the cutest? I can't wait for the ceremony!

But wait! There's more cuteness in this picture... Can you spot it? Look again...

The star!

My piles and piles of online shopping/wedding goods! YEAH! Can't wait to rip into those boxes :)

New Co-Workers

2011-08-29T09:40:00.001+01:00

The G has been renovating buildings in Dublin, and today I got to move to my new desk space. It's lovely, bright and awesomely decorated. The best part... I have new co-workers!

How cute? They are at the end of everyone's desk space. We have yet to name them. The big question though... how long they will survive? Especially since I only have FIVE more days of work in Dublin before I go home.

Oh my Actual God

2011-08-24T11:14:00.002+01:00

Last night BF and I were watching the Rose of Tralee (kind of like Ms. USA-kinda,ish?). They don't do bathing suits and just interview people. If the gals have a talent they can perform. Overall, we weren't 100% impressed with the interview until Ms. Dublin came on. She spoke well and seemed normal until... her talent.

You need to see it. SO freaking funny!

This is seriously how "street" Ireland gets (in a ball gown nonetheless). And did she really just do the Rodger rabbit circa 1994? Poor thing. Every time I watch this I giggle.

Relaxing

2011-08-22T11:16:00.001+01:00

With the wedding only a couple weeks away, I've been focusing a lot in the past weeks on relaxing (even though we have engagement/housewarming parties and visitors every week!). This past weekend, BF was away so I was able to take it easy and have a lovely girly weekend.

I spent Friday evening, wedding dress shopping with two gal pals for both (!!) of them, not me. It was so fun! I bought my dress at Kleinfeld's in NY where they ask you what kind of dress you like and bring it out to you. I didn't get the browsing (except online) experience, so I really enjoyed going through the dress racks and looking at wedding dresses. Saturday, I went for a reflexology treatment. My weekly massage therapist (I realise I am SPOILED!) mentioned that I indeed was stressed, and suggested reflexology along with massage. No need to twist my arm here! Basically, because there are so many nerve endings in your feet, massaging different areas of the feet massages corresponding internal organs. While she was massaging, it felt like different parts of my internal organs were responding (not sure if that was imaginary or not!)

After that relaxing day, I headed over to a friend's housewarming/engagement party (seriously, everyone is getting married or buying a house over here!) Her house is beautiful!!!

How cute is her little birdhouse!?

Then Sunday, I spent the entire day in my sun room, catching up on fashion magazines and reading a book. Lovely!

One Month!!!!!!!!

2011-08-17T13:43:00.000+01:00

YEAH!!! Only one more month, until I get a hubby. So excited!

I'm ready to be done work and ready to fly to the US to get the little wedding things done. Thankfully, I'm able to fly home earlier then expected to work from the Boston office so only 2.5 more weeks in Ireland until the wedding.

This past weekend, BF and I attended our friends' engagement party. It was so lovely to see an amazing couple at the start of their wedding planning. Lots of champagne was passed around and all kinds of shocking things happened!

First, BF proposed to my friend Gina. What the heck?

Wait... you're already engaged!

Then BF proposed AGAIN to my friend Davey.

How come his ring is sparklier then mine?!!?

Then the guest of honour decided to give BF kisses. Out of control!

Me and the guest of honor

After the party, Kieran and I were walking down Baggot Street to ~~find a Burger King~~ grab a cab and we ran into Anne Doyle out on the town at 2:00 in the morning!! Anne Doyle is a news reporter for RTE. I tried to chase her down to no avail. Surprisingly, she didn't show up for the Sunday evening news...must have been a rough night for her! :)

Love hearts

2011-08-15T14:53:00.003+01:00

To be a teenager again! How cute (and creative) is my little baby sister (who clearly has too much time on her hands!) :)

Dublin Mountain Way

2011-08-15T11:30:00.001+01:00

BF and I continued our staycation and decided to do the Dublin Mountain way on Saturday. We started off taking the DART to Shankill and walked through the cute little village before heading onto the hiking path. To be 100% honest, it isn't well marked and it felt like we were sneaking into people's backyards to get to the start of the path.

Once we were there though, it was gorgeous! Only a 20 minute ride from the city, and you're in the countryside! Here are some lovely pics from our 3 hour hike.

The start of the trail

The lead chimney

I think... I can... reach it...

Look at this crazy mushroom! I've never seen such a thing and it reminded me of fairies and elves...(or the super mushroom in Super Mario brothers!)

Crazy Mushroom!

We finally got to the top and this is the view! We wished we had the foresight to bring a picnic lunch up here. Would have been amazing.

On the way to the top!

Check out my 80's wind blown bangs!

Once we reached the top, down we went to head to Johnny Foxes. We've been here once before with BF's sister, but this time we had to walk there...uphill...after not having anything but breakfast five hours earlier... in uncomfortable shoes...whine whine whine...that was me :)

Above the valley

We finally got there, and I enjoyed an excellent Fish pie. I would have taken pictures of the cuteness inside, but I didn't want to be a tourist so here's a pic of me waiting outside for the cab to take us home!

Come on cab... I need a nap!

Shh....

2011-08-11T13:45:00.000+01:00

Hi readers!

I've got nothing. It's been really quiet here the past couple of weeks and so I have had nothing to update on the blog. BF and I have been hanging out at home (boring), going out for dinner and drinks with friends (fun, but nothing unusual), and I have been doing ALOT of online shopping for "the wedding" which is my excuse to justify buying anything I would like to my heart's content (new make up, new make up brushes, new "rehearsal dinner dress"...) and telling BF that it should be included in the wedding budget. He hasn't caught on just yet! ;)

I'll leave you with this lovely wedding inspiration which is all I think about as the day gets closer and closer!

The look and feel of what we want our wedding to be like!

A Surprise

2011-08-03T10:56:00.000+01:00

I got home from another make up lesson last night (more on that in a different post - maybe- the pictures I make in the after make up shots are a bit scary) and received a surprise package in the mail. YEAH!

The only bummer thing about receiving a package from the US, the custom sheet always gives the present away before you open it... waa waa

Special Package

So I knew it was stationary before I opened it, but look how cute it is?!? My sister sent me personalised paper in my favorite colors- gray and yellow (First my living room, then my wedding and now stationary!) But even better, it has my soon- to-be married name. YEAH!

Teddy's

2011-08-02T11:19:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, was a bank holiday in Ireland. Normally, BF and I work bank holidays so that we can take other days off. However, we took advantage by relaxing all weekend since we have some crazy weekends planned for August. We lazed around the house, went into town, watched movies and went for long walks.

At the beginning of the summer we said that we would treat ourselves to Teddy's ice cream on the hottest day of the summer. Unlucky for us, it has not been hot AT ALL and if it was slightly warm we had plans and couldn't get down to Dun Loaghaire for a bite of Teddy's. We picked yesterday (the gloomiest, most rainy day of the summer) to head down to the little ice cream shop.

How cute!?!

It was well worth the wait until August! Look at the cone!!

Cutest and tastiest ice cream cone!

Check, please!

2011-07-29T11:20:00.001+01:00

In my daily travel and fashion blog reads, I came upon this GORGEOUS picture... Love the maxi skirts, love the sea, love the little house in the middle of the ocean.

Photographer- Mario Testino for Vogue UK

I did some ~~intense research~~ clicked on the picture and learned that the little house is actually a restaurant, and it happens to be in Zanzibar which is where I'll happen to be in October. I quickly sent an email to the Rock Restaurant, and I'm in the process of booking a table for me and future hubby (EKKS!) for a honeymoon lunch. So excited!!!

Below are some more gorgeous pics from the photo shoot in Zanzibar. Don't worry I'll force BF to take pictures of me just like this!

Mario Testino - Vogue UK

Mario Testino- Vogue UK

You've Got Mail

2011-07-27T22:36:00.000+01:00

Did you enjoy the blast-from-the-past early 90's AOL reference in my title? Tee hee hee...

Look what's been coming in the mail... our RSVPs! So exciting, but BF keeps getting home before me and ripping them open. He's not saving any of the fun for me :(

Cluck Cluck

2011-07-25T13:54:00.004+01:00

This weekend was my HEN party!!!! YEAH! BF's friends ~~was forced by me~~ conveniently also organised his stag this weekend as well. They headed to Kilkenny - the stag and hen capital of Ireland. I heard the safe and I'm sure censored version of the weekend on Sunday but I do know they put him in a terrible costume which looked like this. I have ONE picture of BF in this outfit but I think he would seriously hurt me if I posted it online...

The Only Gay in the Village- A character from Little Britain

My hen could not have been more lovely! It started off with a lovely and lazy balcony lunch at my friend Michelle's. We grabbed some sandwiches at Donnybrook Fair (which carries PopTarts!) and sat soaking up the sun until the other gals arrived at her house. We had a lovely makeup artist come by and do all of our make up. She was awesome! Way better then my last make up trial. I wish I could pack her up in my suitcase for the wedding.

Getting my face done

She did a good job on the make-up, no?

My lovely come dine with me pals!

The gals bought me a LOVELY purse pinata (Prada, of course) so we spent some time trying to break it while my poor friend Sarah offered to hold it (BRAVE) because we couldn't hang it anywhere.

Courageous Sarah

A lovely surprise in the pinata

Willies!

After getting ready, we headed to Diep le Shaker for some amazing Thai Food. It was sooo good! Even though my sister couldn't be there, she and baby Carson sent over bottles and bottles of Prosecco for my friends and I. That baby is such a lush!

After dinner the gals then held a Mister and Missus game. If you're not familiar they asked BF tons of questions and I had to see if our answers matched. Even after almost 10 years, I didn't get all of them right. EKKS! I also embarrassingly outed myself on some really terrible nicknames!

So embarrassed!

Really funny funny game! Highly recommend for all Hen parties!

After dinner we headed to the Baggot Inn for some more cocktails and dancing

Always trying to work out!

Convinced the gals to do lunges too!

Finally, we headed over to Buck's which is a late night club. It couldn't have been more fun. There were a group of 25 to start, and most of us managed to keep it together even at this late hour.

Standing Strong- similar to what our vision was like after all the cocktails!

It was an amazing night with AMAZING friends, and it makes me even MORE excited for the wedding!

Weekend Recap

2011-07-19T13:09:00.000+01:00

Not only did I help BF finalise his wedding outfit, I also found some time to booze it up with my lady friends for our linner get together. Linner is actually one of my favorite things in the whole world- boozy lunch that leads into a late night of drinking? Yes please!

We started at Chez Max, and I can't get over how adorable this place is. I always forget about it as an option for food, but every time I go, I swear I'm going to become a regular. It's a cute little French Bistro with a lovely back garden. We were relatively lucky at first with the sun warming our faces, but then there was a major downpour. No big deal for this little bistro as they have a roof to pull over their garden. Lovely!

We started off fancy with some Champagne.

Yum!

And had some fresh baguettes with meats and cheeses

How cute are the French flags?!

After a large steak frites dinner, creme brulee and multiple bottles of wine, ~~we got kicked out~~ it was time to go to our next stop.

Now I can't remember the name of this cute little pub, but it was just around the corner from Chez Max's. It's a pub with a snug! I had never heard of this before, but apparently, it's a little private section in the bar that was once used for secret rendez-vous or for ladies to have drinks in when they weren't allowed to be seen in a pub. This pub was full of little "sections" and the one we got was ADORABLE.

Locked in for privacy

In the snug

Happy Guinness

Diva!

2011-07-17T20:51:00.002+01:00

After months of prodding and nagging, BF finally decided to try on suits in earnest this weekend. We did go shopping while we were in the States, but he's such a little diva, he wasn't really happy with any of the suits that he tried on.

Today, I was dragged to Louis Copeland's, which is the only suit shop either of us know (besides Brown Thomas). Randomly, when we were in Israel, we met two girls who after learning we lived in Ireland mentioned that their great, great, great grand dad opened the Louis Copeland store. Random!

Anyways, after literally 5 minutes in the store, the sales person sized up BF, grabbed a black suit and got him into a dressing room. 15 minutes later, we were out the door with an alteration ticket in hand to pick the suit up next week. How easy was that! BF ended up with a black Italian Canali suit which apparently is THE top suit designer...sure, sure, tell us anything, just get us out of here... clearly the sales person had easy prey when we walked in.

On a cross-things-off-our-wedding-to-do list high, we got home and ordered ties for BF and the groomsmen too.

For the Groom!

For the Groom's men!

Yeah! More things checked off the list!

Boy or girl?

2011-07-15T11:10:00.000+01:00

No, no... I'm not talking about babies... I'm talking about wedding invitations!

My lovely sister/Matron of Honour has been amazing this week - working on calligraphy for my invitations. How lucky am I? However, she has been sending me hilarious emails asking if my guests are boys or girls. To be fair to her, before I moved to Ireland, I couldn't pronounce many of the following names much less know the gender!

Eoghan (Boy)
Eadaoin (Girl)
Diarmuid (Boy)
Adrian (Boy)
Jaime (Boy)- those last two would be questionable regardless.

Source

But happy days! It's all been sorted, and the invites are being dropped in the mail today! One more thing down!

Little bride

2011-07-14T12:33:00.001+01:00

Last night, I attempted to paint the wooden dolls, and I'm pretty happy with my results so far. I started with the little bride as she had very little details and she turned out pretty well. I haven't added her hair so she looks a bit like a boy at the moment. I also haven't added on details of her dress but I wanted to keep that a surprise for now. BF thought she is cute and commented on how great her arms look (I'm OBSESSED with making sure my arms look good in my wedding dress. HA! He knows me too well.)

Wish I had taken better pictures since you can't really see where her head starts here.

Side View

Front View

I started working on the groom, but he was hard! There are so many little details, and it was time to ~~watch Teen Mom 2~~ make dinner so I put him aside for the weekend. I will update as soon as he's ready!

My first DIY project

2011-07-07T13:12:00.001+01:00

It's wedding crunch time, and I need to start some of the wedding DIY projects that I've been thinking about. I'm finding it really difficult to get started over in Ireland as I can't seem to find a ~~Target~~ a store that sells all the crafty goodness I need. Sad.

However, I'm starting my very first wedding DIY project this weekend after receiving some supplies I need from the amazing Wunderkind on Etsy.

I saw this on a blog and thought it was the cutest thing ever - custom cake toppers. I'm not sure if I'll actually use them for our wedding cake. They may just chill out on the cake table.

Source

So I ordered the wooden dolls, and they arrived yesterday in the cutest packaging.

Inside were my little dolls with a special surprise...

A baby! Is this Etsy seller trying to send me hints? How cute is that baby doll? I didn't expect him/her but I may paint our adorable ring bearer (if I master the main dolls!)

Happy July 5th!!

2011-07-06T10:04:00.000+01:00

So I don't have a grill (which is a BIG point of contention in the red door house) or American friends so didn't have the opportunity to celebrate July 4th. However, there was a CDWM dinner at a pal's house last night and even though she is Irish through and through, she decided on an American themed dinner. SWEET!

We had lovely steak sandwiches and homemade fries -YUM! and the piece d' resistance... Dessert!

USA! USA!

Stay-cation

2011-07-04T15:50:00.000+01:00

With the pending nuptials and our extended honeymoon, BF and I haven't gotten a chance to travel as much as we normally do. We took advantage of the Irish sun this weekend and headed to Howth for the first time ever. It is such a cute village, and we felt like we were on holidays even through it was a short 40 minute/ 2.80E Dart ride from our house.

The weather was lovely, and we got to enjoy the little outdoor market. We walked along the pier and stopped for fresh oysters and wine- YUM! We finally ended the day with a walk along the cliffs which are AMAZING!

Along the pier

Sadly, the fish markets were closed.

Oysters! Yum, yum yum!

You are indeed!

Along the pier

Group shot!

View of Ireland's Eye on the far left

You can't really tell but there is a STEEP drop straight into the ocean to the left. Scary.

Happy Birthday Sissy!

2011-06-29T13:14:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday to my lovely sister! (Think it was probably an anniversary of some sort for my parents, no? Since our birthdays are only a day apart??)

Here she is in all her random glory!

This picture was not staged. She actually fell out of her chair.

Anniversaries

2011-06-28T15:16:00.000+01:00

Today is the 10th anniversary of my 21st birthday. (Did you get that? Does it make me seem any younger?)

AND.... It's also the one year anniversary of when BF and I moved into our little house. YEAH!
We've had a lot going on so not doing anything too crazy to celebrate .... just a quiet little dinner in my favorite Thai restaurant.

Cannes- Part 2 (The Date!)

2011-06-28T10:49:00.000+01:00

Although I had to work in Cannes, BF was able to come over and stay in my little hotel room with me which was amazing! I arrived on Tuesday and BF didn't get there until late Thursday night. To be honest, I didn't see him at all until late Saturday afternoon when all my work was done. However, we had made the best of the 5-6 hours and had the most lovely date exploring the old section of Cannes and San Margarita Island. Below are some pics!

Studying hard for his exam

How fake does the background look?

Please... no pictures! (In front of the Cannes Film festival Auditorium)

View of Cannes from our ferry ride

On San Margarita Island

Lovely little swimming/lagoon area on San Margarita

Cannes- Part 1 (The Work)

2011-06-26T18:04:00.001+01:00

As mentioned in my last post, I was in Cannes this past week for work at the Cannes Lion Creativity festival. Googs had rented a lovely beach area and turned it into a cool beach hut -filled with smoothies, yoga and fun activities. There were lots of meetings (on the beach) but also mingling with new co-workers and clients.

I'll let the pictures do the talking- It was probably one of the best work events I have ever attended!

Pier on the G beach

Paddleboats with slide

Seaside Hammock

My new temporary desk

Googley beach chairs

Color coordinated to the beach chairs!

Tough Life

2011-06-23T12:39:00.002+01:00

Sorry I've been MIA dear readers... I've been busy working in Cannes, and it's kind of ~~difficult~~ amazing!!

This is what my current office looks like. Pretty swanky, no?

Congrats!!!

2011-06-20T14:56:00.001+01:00

I woke up this AM to some fabulous news... one of my good, great, amazing friend got engaged over the weekend. I know she reads my blog ~~religiously~~ sometimes... so a huge congratulations to her and her newly acquired fiance (and bling!!). She's in the west coast at the moment so the time difference has prevented me from hearing the story. GRRR!!!

Here's the lovely lady herself. This was a pic in London a couple of years ago where we ate and drank our way through the city before heading to Harrod's and cheekily trying on fabulous jewelry (which may or may not have included an engagement ring or two !)Wish I was there to toast you with a glass of wine (and maybe some pho!) xxx

Gaoith Dobhair

2011-06-20T11:18:00.002+01:00

Was away at the weekend with my gal pals in Gweedore- or Gaoith Dobhair in Gaelic - in the County of Donegal and had the most fun. I'm still unpacking and I am EXHAUSTED from the weekend, but thought I would give a sneak peak of one really cool thing we saw....

A Shipwreck!

New ways to view my blog

2011-06-16T11:32:00.000+01:00

The factory has come up with new ways to view blogs, and it's really fun! It's called dynamic viewing options. All you need to do for any blogger blog is to enter in the blog name and then "/view". The example for my site would be utran28.blogspot.com/view

There are five different ways to view blogs and I think my favorite is mosiac. Definitely check it out!

Taste of Dublin

2011-06-14T10:59:00.000+01:00

Over the weekend, my foodie gal pals and I decided to check out the Taste of Dublin which is a food festival that allows you to try little meals from different restaurants around Dublin. I LOVE trying new foods and sampling different bites for my meals so this was right up my alley. We got super lucky because the weather was gorgeous (for Ireland). The only con about the Taste of Dublin was that they charged an entrance fee of 28 euros (ouch) and that doesn't include the food tastings which were about 5-8 Euros. Luckily the prosecco was inexpensive!

We started off classy with some sausage and prosecco.

Here are the ladies in the sun with picture evidence that it actually stopped raining in Ireland this summer!

My amazing pasta bowl that was actually really good value for money.

Thai dancers in front of the food stall for Baan Thai (one of the best Thai restaurants in Dublin in my opinion)

Oysters. Yum! This was my first time trying them. I love seafood of all kinds so not sure why I never had them before. I'm now obsessed.

My friend the unicorn... not sure what it was doing there!

A Gordon Ramsey treat- Raspberry and chocolate mousse

Doing a 90's line dance to Smash Hits, a 90's cover band

The gorgeous Ivegh Gardens. I love this little house!

Summertime...

2011-06-13T13:21:00.000+01:00

and the living is indeed easy... While the weather has been TERRIBLE, we've been trying to make the best of it. Even though there was a downpour of rain, BF and I decided to meet up with friends anyways. We were caught in a downpour...booo...but then rewarded with a double rainbow... yeah!

After drying off at one pub, we decided to meet up with some long lost friends at another pub down the road -one who had been in Australia and was home for the next couple of weeks and some American friends who were working over here for a couple of weeks. It was great fun and so good to catch up with everyone!

My Irish friend living in Oz

Three buddies from the American offices working abroad for a couple of weeks

100 days!!!!!

2011-06-09T14:28:00.001+01:00

I can't believe it's 100 days until....

...I get to sit on this adorable swing with ~~BF (not anymore!), soulmate (barf), hubby (ekks) ,~~ ball and chain (?)

Sunny Dinner party

2011-06-08T11:10:00.000+01:00

It was my turn to host our group dinner party this week, and I was TOTALLY uninspired. I love looking at food blogs and have a back log of recipes to try out, but my energy was sapped with the entertaining of the future in-laws.

Lucky for me, the work on the garden paid off because the gals barely noticed the food since we were able to sit out in the sun on the deck -sipping lovely glasses of wine (and mint water - with fresh mint from the garden!)

How bright and sunny? Lucky for us, the deck is a sun trap as it was quite chilly in Dublin yesterday.

The menu for my dinner party included steamed shrimp dumplings (delicious and easy since I bought them pre-made from the Asian supermarket) and beef lettuce wraps -also really easy to make and so healthy. To make up for the lack of carbs and sugar, dessert was a make-your-own banana split extravaganza. This was my best genius moment! I was so lazy, I tricked them into making their own desserts :)

Wedding Loveliness

2011-06-07T13:58:00.000+01:00

Although I've been mentioning that the wedding planning has caused some stress, to be 100% honest, it has been pretty smooth sailing. We booked things relatively easily and just have the little details to deal with.

Two fun wedding things have happened to me in the past two days.

I read endless wedding blogs and every once in awhile if I'm bored, I'll enter their giveaways. I never expect to win but lo and behold I received an email yesterday from Beantown Bride (see how I'm trying to hold on to my roots?) and BF and I won a little prize from one of their featured vendors, Pinhole Press. How exciting! I never win ANYTHING! And what have we won? Custom wine bottle labels- Perfect for each guest table. WOOP!

The second fun wedding thing that happened to me, I made a new wedding friend a couple of months ago while I was studying in France. She had just gotten engaged (getting married this August at the MOST gorgeous venue in Ireland) and loved talking about weddings so we became fast friends and update each other on the progress of our wedding planning often (even though she lives in London). We were discussing the wedding ceremony and I was saying just last week that I don't even know how to start tackling the ceremony reading. What arrives in the mail today from this lovely lady?

How lovely!? Or else, she's trying to tell me she loves me in which case slightly weird cause we have one more session in France together :)

How does your garden grow?

2011-06-06T14:31:00.001+01:00

Ours is FINALLY growing! BF has been intent on making the garden nice but he doesn't really have a green thumb so his parents came up this weekend to help us pick out plants and give us tips on planting. Watering often was the key advice. You would think the stereotype of rainy Ireland would keep our plants alive but no dice! The other helpful advice for BF... remove the thin fabric film from the plant BEFORE you plant it in the ground. I nearly died laughing when his parents discovered that he had planted the plant WITH the fabric film on- There was no hope of survival for that poor thing!

Below are some before and after pics.

Before: Front buckets (That BF planted about 3 weeks ago)

After: My new front buckets! And my favorite work of art - my window box!

Before - The right side of the garden. I HATE that bush

During- TIMBER! Take it down! Take it down!

After- Bright little flower bed without the atrocious bush!

My little guest, who I'm obsessed with. This is our house gnome, but he wanted some time in the sun so I let him play by the mini tree which is about 6 inches tall. So cute!

Teeth

2011-06-03T15:54:00.000+01:00

I've been having problems with my jaw recently (due to the previously mentioned stress) and needed to head to the dentist to get it looked at. Imagine my surprise when I showed up to the dentist and saw a film crew from TV3. Agreeing to be interviewed before I realised what was going on, I was featured on TV 3 this past week.

You can find it here. Just a warning there is a LOT of teeth involved in this shot. (Thanks mom and dad for all the $$ spent on braces. See, it was worth it. My teeth are famous!)

Yes I Cannes

2011-06-01T09:53:00.001+01:00

So... it's been a bit quiet here on the blog because my life has been nothing but hectic- enough so that I was run down and out sick for two days last week. The last time I took a sick day was when I had Chikungunya fever! The wedding has been just a bit stressful, but I'm also changing jobs in the middle of it. (Why not, right?)

One of the first tasks for my new job... Go to the Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity* and hang out at the beach all day. No...seriously. When asked what I'll be doing there, my new manager said "Well, we have the beach rented out for the week, and I'm expecting you to be there for the entire day mingling. Hope that's ok" Um...yes, please! It's on at the end of the month and I cannot WAIT! I need some sun badly!

* The Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity is like the dorky/nerdy brother of the fabulous Cannes Lion Film Festival. If only, I worked in movies and not online advertising!

Meanie

2011-05-29T08:55:00.000+01:00

The face to scare all badies... my little Batman. So cute, I had to share.

Check!

2011-05-28T11:21:00.000+01:00

One more thing off the wedding to do list- the invitations!

Not going to lie, these were the bane of my wedding existence. There are SO many different options and every time I saw a new invitation I changed my mind. Plus, I didn't know if I wanted something traditional and formal (which my mom was definitely pushing for) or something more modern and casual which is more Kieran and I. I waffled about for 2 months(!!), but finally bit the bullet today and ordered them. WOOP!

I'm really excited that it's FINALLY been decided. I won't get them at all though because my sister is packing them and addressing them for me (Best Matron of Honour EVER!). Here's a bad sneak peak of them. The site I got them from features it in a blue which is not our color, but you can see pieces of the envelope, and front and back of the invitation.

Visitors!

2011-05-23T13:30:00.000+01:00

Well kiddies, it's been a busy couple of weeks! ~~I've~~ Ireland has had the Queen over to visit, and today Mr. President is over as well! I wish I wasn't working so that I could pop over to the green to go see the concert and check him out :( No dice though as I'm stuck emailing my life away...

My current US government claim to fame... I went to the same high as Mr. VICE president- Joe Biden. WOOP! Go Auks!

Shark!

2011-05-19T17:50:00.001+01:00

I was on an email chain today trying to round my friends up to go out for dinner next week at a Michelin star restaurant. One of the items on the menu was ...SHARK, which I've never had. If you know me at all, you know I love trying random new foods so was really excited about trying this delicacy.

My friend emailed this back to me which made me double over laughing... I had to share :)

A bit bustier then usual!

So Vain

2011-05-16T14:30:00.002+01:00

I don't know what it is, but these past couple of months everyone in the family is getting professional photo shoots! My last post contained our engagement pics, and Baby Carson recently got his official first birthday pictures done as well. I love his little face so I can't resist putting these up.

How cute are these? My favorite is the one of him sucking his thumb. Adorable! You can find the rest of the pics here. I promise these are the last of the professional pics of my family until the wedding ;p

Engagement Pictures!

2011-05-12T15:37:00.000+01:00

I sneak peeked our engagement pictures here, but our photographer (who is amazing!) put some more up on her website. I love lots of them, but here are some of my favorites. You can find them all here.

Walking along the streets of Beacon Hill. We're really patriotic :)

Under the cherry blossoms in the Boston Public Gardens

Making out in the Boston Public Gardens

One of my favorite places in Boston - the library!!!

Laughing at one of BF's lame jokes

The library's reading room

Get online!

2011-05-10T09:53:00.000+01:00

A project that I have been working on for months at work FINALLY launched yesterday- Getting Irish Business Online! It's a great initiative that helps small to medium businesses get online for free. We had a launch event yesterday, and guess who showed up?

My new BFF! Enda Kenny the Taoiseach of Ireland.

If you have or know of people who own a business and are looking for help to sign up and receive a free website, definitely check out the Getting Irish Business Online website!

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

2011-05-07T14:31:00.001+01:00

To my most favorite baby in the whole world!!!!

I can't believe he's one! Part of the reason, BF and I went home last week was because Baby was throwing an extravagant party which we simply could not miss. He didn't disappoint either! There were musicians, bouncy castles and cakes and dessert galor! Here are some of my favorite pics from the party. (Hold on cause I loved a whole bunch of pics!)

Cake boss cake

Carson cookies

Carson Water bottles (She should have worked in marketing with all this branding!)

Starting early?

Cake and Candy bar (which I put together)

The whole entire family

My favorite pic of the entire week- All the sisters in the bounce house.

Pampering Firsts

2011-05-05T14:13:00.000+01:00

Although I love shoes and bags and clothes, I'm not much of a beauty girl. Maybe it's because I'm ~~naturally beautiful~~ lazy!! tee hee hee... Also, I can't justify spending money on nails and makeup when that money could be better spent on clothes or even better... take out pad thai!

But being all grown up (and prepping for the big day), I went for my first hair and make up trial, which consequently was the first time I've had my hair and make up done. There is a reason why I didn't do it before.... I look SO unnatural. Who is this fake person? ekks....

And the hair is not me either... The back was ok and looks fine in this picture, but it was stuck to my head and the bangs in the front were just off. I can't explain what it would take to fix it though :(

After that fiasco, my mom and I went home and scoured the internet (LOVE) and found amazing makeup and hair videos. With their help (and on the actual wedding day- help from my glamourous sister), we're going to do my hair and makeup. (Kate Middleton did and if it's good enough for a princess, it's good enough for me!)

On the plus side for beauty and make up firsts, I got my nails done last week on the insistence of my sister. I got the new shellac nails which is the IT thing apparently, and I think I'm obsessed! It makes my nails so shiny and is suppose to last for 3 weeks. Pretty and easy. Woop!

NYC

2011-05-03T12:01:00.001+01:00

In between food tastings, makeup and hair trials, dress fittings and engagement pictures, we also managed to head down to NYC for the weekend. I think I seriously clocked up about 1500 miles on the car and listened to the new Britney Spears song 6,325 times.

We met up with the baby and took him out for long walks along the Hoboken waterfront. This was the first time BF met Baby, and it was AWKWARD. He'd never held a baby before.

No, Uncle BF...this is weird for me...

Cuddles....aww...that's better.

You're so funny Aunty!

Sisters along the Hoboken waterfront

Then we went into NYC to check out the High Line which my little sister INSISTED was going to be awesome. Basically it's a garden built on old rail road tracks. ooohh..exciting (can you sense the sarcasm?!?) It was a cute garden though and I can imagine a lovely place for New Yorkers to go to escape the city streets.

City scape with mother and sisters along the High Line

Flowers along the old train tracks

Tequila!

2011-05-02T20:00:00.000+01:00

On Monday, after picking BF up from his friends house (He was in NYC for a boy's weekend), we met up with our wedding officiant to have dinner and talk about the wedding ceremony. The officiant is actually my best friend from high school (CUTE!) and so it was a lot more talking and eating then actually planning the wedding.

We headed to Lolita's Cocina and Tequila bar which just recently opened. It was really cool and hip inside and really entirely too dark (signs of old age?). We were greeted with this loveliness upon sitting down:

A steaming container of tequila. How cool is that?

Dinner was great. Tacos and shrimp were eaten and when the bill came, a big ol' ball of sour apple cotton candy came with it. It was sprinkled with pop rocks too. YUM!

Friends and cotton candy!