The Late Late Toy Show!!

The Late Late Toy Show is on tonight!!

If you are Irish, you'll know all about this.  If you are not Irish you may not be aware of this show.  RTE's Late Late Show is the longest running TV show in Irish TV history (and it is also the longsest running show in the World!!).  It has been presented by 4 presenters Gay Byrne, Pat Kenny, Gerry Ryan (presented 1 show when Pat Kenny's mother died) and is now presented by Ryan Tubridy.  It is broadcast every Friday night and includes interviews with celebrities and light discussions about current affairs along with performances by musicians.....you get the idea!

Every year on the last Friday in November, the Toy Show version of the Late Late Show is broadcast.  Have a look at the RTE website for the type of thing that will be on the toy show.  The other thing about the toy show is the Christmas Jumper that is worn by the host who normally wears a suit - there is always big speculation as to how hideous the jumper will be this year!

It is a tradition for Irish people to stay in and watch the show.  Children are allowed to stay up late for it and adults devise drinking games to make it a bit more watchable!!  My twin sister and I intend to get in to our PJ's, mix up some nice wintery cocktails and enjoy some nibblies while watching the show.  Can't wait!!

The show can be enjoyed Internationally for the Irish Abroad, RTE will be streaming it live here on the RTE Player 9.35pm, Irish time.

You know the Christmas Season has arrived once you've watched the Toy Show!

Will you be watching?!!

Marvel at the marvellous things!

The Marvel Room is back!

Every Christmas, The Marvel Room is opened in Brown Thomas.   The nicest gifts are chosen and put in to The Marvel Room.  It is such a nice experience to take a wander through the store and marvel at the marvels!

                               Marvels for him!                             Marvels for her!

Non-compliant puppy

Every year I photograph Bones for our Christmas card.  Over the years he has posed in various Christmas accessories.  This year, however, is different.  He has not been compliant at all!

First off I tried him with two little antlers.  No good, he shook his head until they flew off.

Then I bought a little mini clip on santa hat.  This had pretty much the same result as the antlers. 

Next up was a little Christmas jacket.  He just sulked in this one.

I had to enlist Ciaran to bribe Bones with some ham for the final outfit and we managed to get one usable picture.  I won't show the picture so that you can get a nice surprise if you receive a card in the post from me!!!

Here he is ignoring me and refusing to sit up! 

Pre-dinner canapes

Here's a few pics of some nibblies I prepared for my guests the other night.  They were so tasty!

I served a selection of cheese on my Grey Goose platter.  A blue, a creamy Lancashire along with some brie. I also got to use my star fish encrusted cheese spreader that I picked up in Key West (in the now gone Fast Buck Freddies) on my last visit.  

Even though I had already organised dessert, Ciaran  stopped off in The Butler's Pantry in Rathgar for an apple tart.  It's his favourite and it went down really well with all the guys! ;-)

Christmas Films

I know I blogged about watching "The Holiday" a few weeks ago but I thought I would let you know of another favourite Christmas film of mine.  It's "The Family Stone" starring Clare Danes, Luke Wilson & Sarah Jessica Parker.

It's such a lovely film (and also a tear jerker - be warned!).  I find Sarah Jessica Parker's character Meredith to be highly annoying but I overlook this because the movie is so good.  

Have you seen this film?  What did you think of it?

Planning my menu

We have a group of friends coming over on Saturday night and  I am currently planning what food to serve.  

I am going to have canapes and cocktails for our guests on arrival.  I will serve my usual taste explosions of blini's with smoked salmon, red peppar hummus in pastry tarts with sun dried tomatoes along with bruschetta and a selection of cheeses.

Then for the main meal I am going to heat things up with a mild fish curry and a pot of both korma and tikka masala served with rice.  I decided on the above to keep things casual and informal.  

I am going to offer two desserts one hot and one cold.  The cold dessert will be a deep dark chocolate mousse served with a shot of milk (!) and the warm dessert will be an apple strudel.

I will probably make a jug of cosmopolitan and make caipiroska's to order along with a beer selection and wine.

Luckily I am off work tomorrow so I can go to the shops to gather everything I will need.  

Pictures of the completed food to follow shortly!

Photo Shoot No. 2

Today we had another photo shoot.  Freelance photographer Sasfi Hope-Ross came with Declan from ODKM to do another shoot.   

It will be interesting to see if these photos make any Irish magazines and if they do I will be looking forward to seeing how different or similar the photos look in comparison to the ones taken yesterday!

Declan changed up the scenes when instructed by the photographer.  The Calligaris chairs were taken out of the shot but the amazing Jan Kath Rug was left in.  

At this point the photographer moved upstairs but I was unable to stick around to see her work as I had to go to work - which was a real pity as I found it terribly interesting to see how it was all done!  

Photo Shoot

Today we had a photo shoot in our house for a UK Interiors Magazine.  It started this morning at about 10am when the photographer, Barbara Egan, and stylist, Penny Crawford-Collins, arrived.  The stylist was very happy with the house and said she would need to add very few props as we had a very "strong look".  The shoot only took about 5 hours - again the stylist said this was very speedy as normally most houses need serious decluttering but ours thankfully didn't. 

Here's a few photos from the shoot.

A little rearrangement of a shelf by Penny the Stylist

Lamp being set up in the hallway (our habitat rug was removed from the hall as the stylist felt it didn't match the fabulous rugs that were loaned by RugArt

The stylist added accents of orange to the kitchen.  Oranges were arranged on a platter and my orange Le Creuset pot was set up on the induction hob.

Here's Barbara the photographer taking a picture of the conversation pit

Not a whole lot was changed in the master bedroom.  The stylist added these cushions and brought a few items from the guest room in to this bedroom

Here is the back of the house being photographed.  Isn't the Calligaris chair amazing?!!

Here is my own attempt at staging!!  I set up this little tray of cocktails (Cosmo's) and nibblies - it was used in the picture of the hot tub.

Look to the left of the picture - it's my cocktail tray!
The stylist added the lovely bright cushions which make you nearly forget that it is November and that there was frost this morning!  Shadowlight gave us the lamp to the right of the picture for the shoot.

Ciaran and I were photographed along with the dog once the house was all done. Due to the fact that it will be possibly Summer before the photos are featured in the magazine I was advised that I should not wear winter clothes i.e no woolly jumpers or boots.  I was told to wear pale colours - no black, navy or brown.  I wore a cream floaty blouse with tan trousers and a pair of ballet pumps while Ciaran wore a pink shirt with dark chinos.  We were photographed in various poses such as relaxing watching TV, chatting on the couch and then Ciaran coming in the door with the dog and me greeting them from the couch.    

We enjoyed the whole experience and are looking forward to seeing the photos in the magazine! 

As far as we know the photos won't be published until the middle of 2013 but I will keep you updated!!

Here's a few more pictures to give you a taste of the day.  Enjoy!

You can checkout more pictures here!

Mutt Ugly

I brought Bones to the groomers today.  I had got him booked in with his usual groomer but I had to cancel as it was too inconvenient to get across the city to him.  

I booked him in with Mutt Ugly which is in the village where we live.  When he came out he was wearing a smart blue bandana that they give to all the dogs on their first visit!  Too cute!!

RugArt

As you know we have a photo shoot for a UK interiors magazine taking place in our house this weekend.  RugArt very kindly agreed to lend us some rugs for the photo session.  They delivered 3 rugs to us this afternoon and I have to say I think they are just amazing!!

What do you think?!

The two pictured rugs are from the Jan Kath Collection.

Five Lamps, Dublin Craft Beer

New to the market is a craft beer brewed in Dublin called the "Five Lamps".  Ciaran and the ODKM crew (www.odkmarchitects.com)were given samples by Nolan's Food Fare in Terenure. They all agreed it is fairly delicious and will be looking out for it on draft in select pubs and nightclubs.

 The Five Lamps in Dublin are on the Northside of Dublin.  It is quite near the large GAA stadium, Croke Park.  When people come up from the country to watch a Gaelic Football game they sometimes meet at this point.  

However, tourists should be warned that if they ask a true Dubliner do they know where the Five Lamps are, they will get a witty and quite rude answer back.  Have a look at the side of the beer bottle - this is what they are alluding to!!

 What do you think the answer to the question might be?!!

Uniquely CMC!

Tonight I was considering what design point are what I call "uniquely Ciaran".  When looking at plans and designs from ODKM's office there are certain items that identify Ciaran as being the lead designer as he tends to include certain things.  They are little things but I think they are becoming signature items of his! 

He is a big fan of both bench seats and pocket doors.  He likes bench seats so much that we ended up with two large bench seats in our house - both can seat 10 people.

In just about every house that he has designed recently he has put in a pocket sliding door.  When remodelling our last house he put a pocket door in to our utility room.  My twin sister and I developed a fascination with this room - we reckoned that one day I would open it and find the Stasi Secret Police sitting in there listening to all of our conversations - it just had a very East German feel to it!!

Another thing that Ciaran always does when designing kitchens is that he specifies that the cabinets are built to the ceiling.  Generally kitchen cabinets in Ireland only have two shelves and then have a dust catcher at the top of them.  CMC insists that there is three shelves in the kitchen cabinets - I guess it is just a clever use of space to build them all of the way to the ceiling.  I don't know why all designers don't do it!

When we were 5....

My twin sister and I had our birthday the other day.  Amy sent me a birthday wishes text along with this cute pic of the two of us when we were 5.  I love it!

Would you believe we dressed the same for a few years after this picture was taken?!! (I won't embarrass myself by saying for exactly how many years!)

New vet!

Bones was due his yearly shots so I signed him up with a new vet to get them done.  This is the Animal Welfare Veterinary Clinic.  It's only a short walk away from our house along the canal.  Very convenient to get to and really friendly staff.  We were very pleased with the new vet and Bones was declared in perfect shape!

 In other news, the Christmas Mince Pies are now in Superquinn! ;-)

Not good....

Went back to Bikram Yoga after not being there for ages.  Felt ok at the beginning but by the middle of the class I felt like I was going to faint.  I went to leave the room and by the time I got to the middle of the room my legs went from under me and I fainted.  Oh dear!

I sat out for the next half hour but once the class moved to the floor part of the class I felt well enough to go back in and continue the class.

The teacher gave me coconut water to get my potassium levels back up.  I still feel a bit shaky now but am happy that I went back in and got to the end of the class.

Getting in the mood....

.....for Christmas!!

Ciaran is off playing squash so I am watching "The Holiday" - I love this movie!  It's got 2 love stories and it is set at Christmas......what's not to love?!

I have to watch it on my own because Ciaran doesn't entertain Christmas songs or films for another few weeks!  Me, I'd watch Christmas films all year long if I could.... ;-) 

Oh btw, The Holiday is a bit of a tear jerker too, but sure you can't go wrong with that.

Open House!

We have a lot of exciting events taking place in the house in the next few weeks.  In two weeks we have a photographer from a UK magazine visiting to take photos of the house.  Exciting!!!  
Ciaran, myself and the dog will also be featured!  

Then in December we are holding an Open House event.  This is being organised through Ciaran's Architectural Practise.  If you are based in Ireland and would like to attend, click here

Organising all of the above is certainly going to keep us fully occupied for the next while!

Malbec!

I had my sister and best friend over for dinner the other night.  It was a lot of fun and really great to catch up.  

My twin sister brought a beautiful malbec with her which between the two of us we had no problem polished off - it was delicious.  Amy has been on a big malbec buzz since she was at a recent wine tasting event and she picked up a couple of bottles.  I had got a few nice bottles of wine at the annual French Wine Sale Event in Superquinn but Amy turned her nose up at them.  It's all about the malbec with her!    ;-) 

We ordered a Thai meal from Diep.  Wow, it was amazing.  Their green curry is fantastic!

And then we took a dip in the hot tub.  We are going through a cold snap in Ireland with a polar air front over the country.  Personally I think this is the best time to go in the out door hot tub.  The colder it gets the better the warm water feels.  I can't wait to get into it when there is snow on ground!

                                   Here's Amy & Alice

                                    and Amy & I

Rathmines/Ranelagh

A lot of people have asked about the area I live in and what it is like.  I live in the village of Ranelagh which is in between Donnybrook and Rathmines.  I went for a walk with the dog this morning and took some pictures of some of the stores and restaurants in Rathmines and the surrounding area.

Hope you enjoy looking at the pics!

"The Farm" Organic Restaurant in Donnybrook.  Ciaran ate breakfast here the weekend that I went to Belfast, he said the food was excellent.  They give you lovely purple blankets to wrap yourself in if you are cold when eating outside.

                      Flower Shop on Mespill Road, Dublin 4

                           
               The old Rathmines Town Hall - now houses a college

The Post Office in Rathmines, 1934

Roddy Boland Pub

Zen Chinese Restaurant

                         Connollys Fish - they sell scallops! Yum!  
I also like their sign on the street "Do you get it twice a week?" 

 Rathmines & Rathgar Musical Society (est. 1913) - in an old National School that has a girl's entrance to the left and a boy's entrance to the right.

The Swan Shopping Centre (or Mall if you are from USA!)

This is possibly the tiniest shopping centre I have ever been in.  It has a small 3 screen cinema, a Dunnes Stores, a Kylemore Cafe, House of Tea and a few little gift shops - and that is it!!!  Well maybe it has a hairdressers and a few boutiques also. 

I also found a "Fothergills" Deli up at the top of Rathmines (but I forgot to take a photo).  There was one of these close to our last house and I loved to buy their home made desserts and fresh pate and hummus.  I need to pay a visit there and see what lovely stock they have over this side of the city.