Seasonal home decorating

I've been inspired by my friends in Pennsylvania to decorate my front door for Autumn.  They have put some pumpkins at the entranceway to their home along with some autumnal coloured plants in pots which looks very sweet and festive.

I plan on making a wreath for my front door and also for my mothers front door. I plan on making the wreath with a jute/hession material base along with autumnal coloured ribbon and flowers.  I popped in to Inspiring Ideas before work to get supplies.  Photos of completed wreaths to follow.

Do you decorate your home for seasons and festivals?  Probably not the done thing in Ireland - but I may start a trend for door wreaths!

What I'm reading....

"And the band played on"

An amazingly meticulously researched piece of work that outlines the spread of the AIDS virus from the late 1970's onwards.  

Author Randy Shilts was a journalist who wrote a "Gay beat" for The San Francisco Chronicle in the eighties. Sadly he was diagnosed HIV positive in 1987 and died in 1994.

I love reading medical books and also social history topics - this is a great mix of both.

FlightFest Dublin

FlightFest in Dublin City

Organized as part of The Gathering 2013 it consisted of over 30 planes doing a fly by Dublin City at 800ft.  Awesome!

TEDx Dublin

Went to TEDx talks yesterday in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre (now renamed Grand Canal Theatre). Highlight of the event was hearing about Quantum Locking - it's worth googling!!  But overall I was underwhelmed by the event.

Fiona Newell spoke about beauty and perception.  All very predictable and didn't hear anything I didn't know.  She also put up the ugliest picture of Brad Pitt to illustrate beauty!!! Baffling!!!

I expected to enjoy Surfer Easkey Britton's talk but I found it bland and pointless.  It was wishy washy giving us no details about why or how she ended up doing what she has been up to - Surfing in Iran.  She did let us know (a few times) that she is at one with the ocean, however, and also how spiritual surfing is.

When Constantin took to the stage the TEDx talks began to get better.....the Soviet Rockstar Evonomist spoke about Human Capital and I found it to be a very interesting and stimulating presentation.

To say I was wowed by Dave Smith was an understatement - listening to this guy makes you feel like you can do ANYTHING!

What's not to love about the work of Sean Love......but is TEDx Dublin the place to hear about it?

Hmmm this talk was a big miss for me.  The talk was very superficial, low on detail and the speaker lost her way a few times. 

A serious scientist who competently spoke about the work that he does. Very interesting and entertaining.

Although not the best speaker in the world, I was pleasantly surprised by Chef Thornton's presentation. Insightful and thought provoking, his passion exuded through his dour accent.  He even told some funny anecdotes that got big laughs from the audience. Along with his stunning photographs, Thorntons presentation was one of the better speeches (this doesn't reflect well on some of the other speakers).

Tongue in cheek talk about vampires - No Thank You.  Far too many "in jokes".  Is it wrong to expect serious speakers about serious topics at TEDx?

Cathal's speech was one of the best at this event.  He is a very impressive guy and I love the fact that he freely shares the work he does - including the plans for a printable centrifuge.  

But it then begs the question why is he speaking at an event that has a cost of 30 odd euro attached to it?  Which further begs the question, should TEDx Dublin talks not be free for all to attend???

Penultimate speaker - I was losing the will to live and unfortunately had lost interest at this point.  Mildly humorous and very loud, Robin Ince did little to draw me back.

Lisa Domican developed an app to allow people with autism communicate. Ms. Domican seemed like a very driven person who you would not want to cross.  Australian by birth she now lives in Ireland with her husband and two children (both who have autism).

Childhood Treasures - Fisher Price Kodak Camera

Nearly 30 years ago in about 1985, I received a camera for Christmas from Santa.

It was a children's Fisher-Price camera made by Kodak and it took 110 film and it's flash involved attaching a strip of cube bulbs to it.

Out of all my childhood possessions it is the one that has still survived and I still have today.

It was a chunky camera, solidly made to allow for dropping and rough handling by children with rubber ends in order to protect it.

To wind on the film there was a large yellow slider on the underside.

And when you took a photo there was a satisfying click as you pressed the button.

Film was loaded in to the back of the camera.  There is still a roll of film in my camera but the pictures would be ruined as the film has been exposed to the light over the years.

A safety feature on the cord allowed for quick opening in case of emergencies.  This was in order to prevent strangulation accidents, I presume.

Here (black catch)  is where the strip flash was connected to 

Having a camera was a novelty for children in the '80's in Ireland and on school trips, and the like, sometimes I was the only child in the class who took photos.

Taking photos on film was quite the adventure before digital as you all know.  It involved a serious process of buying the film from the chemist, taking 24 careful snaps over a few months.  You would then return the film to the chemist for development.  In 2 weeks, or so, you would collect the photos and nervously take them out of the wallet and hopefully there would be lots of nice pics.  More than likely there would a few blurry efforts that would be binned but if you got 20 good pics you would be happy.

As well as being time consuming, film development was quite costly so photos were generally taken at special occasions in my house and not wily nily!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Do you have memories of taking photos before digital? Do let me know in the comments below.

I'd also love to hear from anyone who had seen this camera before or knew of someone who owned one.

Thanks for reading!

Today's Irish Times

The Gloss, Interiors magazine is in today's Irish Times.  ODKM Architectural Practice along with our house is profiled in an article.  

Bones even gets a mention!

Mmmm meringue!

So cupcakes are out and meringues are in!

I have to agree!

My favourite dessert is Eton Mess - crushed meringues mixed with whipped cream and strawberries.  Have you ever eaten it?

I serve my Eton Mess in retro ice cream dessert bowls. I plan on buying mini Kilner jars and serving it in them for a cute funky look!

See below pic for inspiration