Competition time!

To celebrate my husband reaching 2,000 followers on his Twitter account he is holding a competition.

The first 3 people to contact him through the email on his website will receive one of these Christmas Art Ornaments.

Why not give it a go?!

His website is here ciaranmccoy.com 

La La Land - one of the best films ever!

Wow wow wow!  

What a film!

From the very start I knew I was going to enjoy La La Land. The opening scene was upbeat and uplifting and from there it just got better and better.

Emma Stone is a joy to watch and Ryan Gosling is broodingly engaging.

The songs, the costumes, the scenery - it's all so achingly gorgeous. And then the story on top is real and romantic and makes you want for a particular ending......but I'll say no more otherwise I'll give away the story.

What I will say is, do go and see this film!!





Having seen Jackie (disappointing) and Manchester by the Sea (a tough watch) I thought that La La Land would be the perfect antidote to both these films and I certainly wasn't wrong.

It was a lovely early morning trip to the cinema with my twin sister. It got us up and out on a Sunday morning with the only disappointing thing being that we came out of the theatre to a very rainy Dublin and had to cycle home in the cold rain.  But that was ok - we only had to cycle to the other side of the city to Amy's place and then a little further to my house!

Ciaran McCoy - Pigsy

My husband's new website has gone live!

You can check it out by clicking below:

Ciaran McCoy

It's filled with lots of lovely art - hope you enjoy abstract work in bright colours!

I'd love lots of people to visit his page so do feel free to share the link.....and also let me know what you think of his work in the comments below :-) 

Sister Saturday!

After both working all day (Amy in college, me in work), Amy called over to my house for a chat and some nibblies with a cocktail. We had company for about an hour as a few of Ciaran's friends called in to see him on their way to the annual squash dinner.

I was looking forward to seeing Amy as she had got her hair done on Friday and I wanted to see it.

Looks great!

After listening to some records from a selection that Amy brought with her we then decided to get in to the hot tub. It was so good - the temperature was down about 0 degrees - just perfect to chill out in the warm water. We hung out and chatted there till about 10.30pm.
A fun night all in!

New Art - Deep Love!

I'm in love.....Deep Love......with our new art piece that has pride of place in our dining room!

It's by Artist ADW who was part of the "All Art is Theft" group exhibition with Pigsy in The Kemp Gallery, as well as having a solo exhibition "Born to Create" in The Kemp Gallery before Christmas.

To me it's very aquatic themed and a large version of this image was actually stencilled on to the hull of a massive rusting boat - click here to see this!

Let me know what you think of this artwork - I'd love to hear from you :-) 

Throwback Thursday!

Check out this photo of us!

It is a photograph of a lovely sunny day in Dublin possibly in July 2004.  We were enjoying drinks in the sun before we went to a Simon & Garfunkel concert. Fun times!

Tenerife for Christmas

On Christmas Eve we flew to Tenerife (South Airport) for some R&R over the Christmas break.

We had a lovely chilled out week - we got out walking every morning before breakfast and caught up on our reading. I brought 4 library books with me which I read within the first 3 days.  I then bought two books from a local shop and also downloaded 3 ebooks from the library.  That's how much reading I caught up on!!

We stayed on a B&B basis in the Vincci Hotel. The location is great and upgraded to a sea view balcony. The hotel is very close to the coast and every night we were lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves. Bliss!

This hotel is right on the San Blas square which has lots of restaurants and a pubs. We preferred to walk across the cliffs to the fishing village of Los Abrigos for dinner. 

All in all we had a quiet Christmas week in Tenerife and returned to Ireland rejuvenated for the year ahead!

Wow Burger, Ranelagh

We heard rumour that a burger joint was opening in Ranelagh. When we saw the old Itsa unit being renovated we began to get excited!

And it's open now and it is a "Wow Burger"

We visited today to see how the burgers stacked up....

We were wowed! The burgers were great with good bunability (bun didn't fall apart in your hand) and the fries were delicious - but next time we will go plain rather than garlic butter covered. The portion size of the fries is generous - we shared a portion.

The decor is very bright, kitschy and a tad on the tacky side - I loved it!

Like in 5 Guys, all toppings are free.  You also get a cup to fill your own soda which includes free refills.

We enjoyed our Wow Burger and I think it is a nice restaurant addition to the Ranelagh triangle. Perhaps too good of an addition - it may ruin our diets!!

Happy New Year - it's 2017!

We arrived back in to Dublin late last night and got the Aircoach from the airport through the city to our house.  The bus dropped us off at the top of our road at about 11.55pm and as we got to our front door fireworks started going off.  It was the New Year!

Today we got up early and picked up the dog from the minder - he looked like he enjoyed his little break from us.

We then headed to Ikea where we bought storage boxes for the Christmas decorations.

When we got home we started on the big job of taking down the Christmas Tree.

I'm feeling very organised - all we have to do is get them up to the attic now.

However, for the amount of time we got to enjoy the tree before we went away, it was a serious amount of effort.  I am really considering taking a break for a year and not putting up a tree in 2017.  I'll see how I feel next Christmas!

And finally I leave you with a #lifehack

Pack your Christmas Jumpers away with your decorations - they will be safely stored for next year!