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.