Love a library themed pressie!

Look what the lucky twins got from Cousin Kasey!!

These bags are so fantastic. Amy's is cat themed while mine is bookish......very apt!

 The tag on the book themed bag is a bookmark. Seriously clever!

I had been looking out for a nice new makeup bag as the current Victoria Secrets one I have is just a tad too small (see the pink bag below) but hadn't seen one I liked so I am delighted with this gift. I promptly filled it!

 

The bags are from Strand Bookstore which presumably Kasey visited on her last visit to New York. They are made in the USA (which I'd imagine is quite rare.....as we all know that most things are made in China these days....). As well as being well designed and interesting looking, they are really well crafted. 

From their website, the Strand Book Shop looks amazing!! If I ever go back to New York I will definitely visit :-)

Black Friday Bargains

Black Friday is a phenomena that has been recently imported to Ireland from the USA. Obviously we don't celebrate Thanksgiving so we never did the big rush to start Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving. 

Some of the shops I visited were offering some Black Friday specials.  

Starbucks had a special where you topped up your card by €20 and received a free drink.  I was delighted to have my Grande Extra Shot Cafe Mocha con Pana on the house!

In Supervalu, Baileys was on special at €12 a bottle on Friday only. So I bought a bottle of that for over Christmas. I love a Baileys Coffee on cold days!

They also had 18 cans of Coke Zero for €5. I only bought 1 stack because they were heavy to carry to the car.  Wish I had got a trolley and I would have bought a few more.

I also bought a rake of candy canes (not a Black Friday special but very cheap at €1.50 a box) and a pair of lovely soft pyjamas to chill out in over Christmas (I'm planning lots of Duvet Days indulging in Netflix and catching up on some of the mountain of books that I have been attempting to get through).

So that was the extent of my Black Friday here in Ireland. How did you get on readers? Did you find any bargains?!

"Native Irish Dogs" by Shane McCoy

This Saturday a very special book is being launched.  It's a brilliant book and I consider it special because it was written by Ciaran's nephew Shane McCoy!  

Unfortunately we can't attend the launch (presumably Bones would have been welcome to attend too!) as we have another event on.  I am very disappointed about having to miss it but what can you do.....(it's actually the 2nd event I had to turn down on Saturday - normally my social life isn't this hectic but three events all coincided on this occasion).

I would have bought the book at the official launch but because I'm not going I visited Dubray Books in the Swan Centre and bought it there.  It was really nice to see it on display face out in the shop. I got very excited to see it for sale and I told the assistant that it was written by my husband's nephew.  He was very complimentary about the book and said that there should be a lot of interest in it as it was very nicely presented.

The book is full of marvelous pictures of dogs (photos are by Colin White) and is the perfect present for any dog lover this Christmas - it's available in all good book shops (€19.99 in Dubray) and also online.

It is really is a handsome hardback book. There are lots of things that I like about it.  The pictures are stunning - the dogs look magnificent.  The other thing I like is how the the name of the breeds are written in both English and Irish - nice touch! It's all in all a really well written informative book.  Well done to Shane!

Bernard Shaw Flea Market

After spending the morning in Starbucks on Waterloo Road we then went to the November Flea Market in the Bernard Show Pub. I had seen on Facebook that there was going to be a stall selling comics and vinyl all for 1 euro.  That's my kind of prices for records and it seems that it is a lot of people's prices because when I arrived at about 3pm there was only 3 records left.  

I bought the only one that I recognized which was "Push" by Bros. Wow did it bring back memories when I played it when I got home! 

Bros was made up of twins Matt & Luke Goss and Craig Logan. Listening to "When will I be famous" brought me right back to the late 1980's watching  Top of the Pops!

Book Launch

On Tuesday night I went to the launch of "Beasts and Gods" by Dr Roslyn Fuller.  I had originally planned on driving home and leaving my car and walking in to the city but the weather was so bad (it was windy and stormy) so I kept the car and parked in Setanta Car Park after picking Amy up from her office.  Roslyn Fuller is a fascinating lady and as well as looking forward to reading this book I look forward to seeing her in politics as she is going forward as an Independent Candidate in the next General Election in Ireland.

Getting organised for Christmas

I have started my Christmas shopping. For my nephew and niece I got a Christmas jumper for each of them. I plan on giving the jumpers to them a little bit before Christmas so they can wear them in the lead up to Christmas. Perhaps there will be Christmas jumper day on their last day before school breaks up - is this a thing, I wonder? I think it probably is a thing - I am even organizing a Christmas jumper day in work!

One major job I need to organize for Christmas is my cards. Every year I pose Bones for my card and then get them printed up. I plan on doing this later on today. Of course, he is a rubbish model (you know the old adage "Never work with animals or children") so let's just say it's not an easy task. It takes many shots before I get near a somewhat usable picture.....or I could get lucky and the first one is a good one and I will just use that one and be done with it! 

I adored "Brooklyn"

Amy and I have been excitedly waiting for Brooklyn to be screened in Ireland.  We loved the book and when we saw it was being made in to a film we made plans months ago to go see it together.  

It came out last weekend but we went to see it this Friday along with Alice & Katie.  

What can I say!  It was brilliant......quite possibly better than the book.  Saoirse Ronan as the lead character of Eilis Lacey is quite phenomenal (I reckon she will definitely be a contender for an Oscar).  It's an Irish-American story set in 1952 and I think it will resonate with many, if you get a chance do go and see it!

I had a lovely evening but then switched on the TV when I came home and saw the horrific news of the terrorist attacks happening in Paris.  My thoughts are with the people of France today.

The drinks are on me!

My sister found this little gem of a drinks trolley for sale by a guy down a lane near her office in Dublin City near the historic Abbey Theatre. He is selling stuff from his garage every day from 12-3pm and she has bought things from him every now and again (including this chair). 

I am so happy that she encouraged me to buy this item - I think it looks perfect in my house and I was also very happy with the very reasonable price tag on it too!

Something else that was for sale was this Singer Futura 1000 sewing machine.  I was a little unconvinced whether this was a good buy but when I got home I cleaned it up and it grew on me.

The sewing machine can be lifted out and a wood panel can be put in to the space where the machine sits.  This means that the desk can be used for lots of other uses rather than just a sewing desk.

The desk/cabinet is marked as being made in France.

The machine was made in "West Germany" so it is certainly older than when the Berlin Wall came down. I would reckon it is from the 1970's. It can do lots of different stitches so I will have fun trying it out!

I carried it in from my car myself and also reattached the legs.  But I will need a hand to get it up to my studio so for the moment it sits in my hallway  :-(

The Red Cups are here!

It's the small things in life that make me happy. One of these things being the arrival of the Red Cups in Starbucks!

When I see the Red Cups come in I know that Christmas is on it's way. This year Amy and I enjoyed our first Red Cup together in Waterloo Starbucks where we had a Double Decaf Espresso con Pana.

This year the Red Cups are a Red to Cranberry ombre colour (check out pics from my blog of the 2013 version) and this in itself seems to have caused controversy. Some people are not happy with the plain cup with the ombre effect. Past cups have had additional drawing and decoration on them and this is missed by many people.

Personally I have no problem with the 2015 cup. For me, the Red Cup is all about the red colour and not a whole lot else. I couldn't tell you what type of doodles were on them in past years.

I certainly won't be boycotting Starbucks like lots of unhappy people all over the world just because the red cup doesn't have a snowflake on it!!

Another thing I've heard is that the unhappy people are saying their name is Merry Christmas when they give their order. Staff then write this on it and call out Merry Christmas when their drink is ready.  I kind of like this idea!

New chair, new glasses

I scored a new chair!!  From my sister Amy!

You can read all about where Amy got the chair here. Unfortunately it was too big for her bedroom when she got it home, so she offered it to me.  How lucky am I?!  I love it!

I also got these funky new glasses in All Rooms in the city. They were an incredible bargain - only 40 cents each!! 

And finally check out this picture I took the other morning before work. The corten panels of our house coordinate so well with the Autumn leaves on the trees. It made me happy to see the colours and put me in great form as I headed to work.

Dressing the table - Christmas Crockery

As I mentioned before we are staying home for Christmas for the first time in over 10 years.

We have been making plans to have a really chilled out holiday and catch up on lots of movies and just generally relax together.

I've always put up a tree every year but now that we will be home for Christmas Dinner I've been thinking about how to dress the table - and as such I bought some new china tableware in TK Maxx today.

The dinner plate is printed with a tree but the side plate is plain.  I think they are very old fashioned looking but very classic. I think I will be able to make a very nice table with them!

Below is some crockery that I got in the USA over the past few years.  I got the Santa plates in the Coca Cola factory in Atlanta, Georgia.  I missed my connection from Florida due to bad weather and got stuck their for 24 hours. With the flight leaving for Ireland at 8pm I visited the factory before heading to the airport for my flight home.

It was unseasonably warm today in Dublin with a temperature of 14 degrees and very bright and sunny.  It certainly didn't put me in the frame of mood for Christmas shopping.  However, after hearing that my twin sister was doing some shopping I went online and bought a few little things.  It's a start! I also see that the Christmas Craft market is on in Ranelagh Multi-D school shortly so I expect I will get a few more items at that....

Have you started your Christmas Shopping?  How are you getting on with it?!