Retro Nation

You might be wondering what's going on here!!

What I'm up to is collecting a prize that I won on Facebook from Retro Nation in the Stephen's Green Shopping Centre!!

 

This is what I won:  A Friends Travel Cup and Mug

 

Here is the travel cup - I love it!

 

And this is the mug which I gave to my twin sister.

 

 

And while I was in Retro Nation I bought an Elvis mug for Ciaran!

 

Retro Nation has a great selection of quirky items - here's what they are about (from their Facebook page):

 

RETRO NATION - iconic gifts and accessories. Great gifts with great memories. Memorabilia plus current iconic branded gifts from mugs to magnets, cufflinks to canvas art, lunchboxes, sandwich and collectors tins, tea towels to wallets, playing cards to money boxes, trays to tea pots and a wide range of bags from such memorable names like - Star Wars, Sesame Street, Batman, Rainbow, Hanna Barbera cartoons, Dr Who, Warner Bros., Star Trek, Vespa, The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Superman plus loads loads more......that's RETRO NATION.

 

If you are in the Stephens Green Shopping Centre pop in for a look in Retro Nation!!

Gabrielle Designs - Paddington Bear

Currently in The Ark in Temple Bar there is a V&A Teddy Bear Exhibition.  Along with Mr. Bean's and Bono's bear there is a Gabrielle Designed Paddington Bear.

Gabrielle Designs was a small English company that made Paddington bears from 1972 until the late 1990's.

I have a Paddington Bear from the 1980's.  He is a little bit tired and worn and has lost his hat and label that used to be attached to his coat. He is a hard stuffed Paddington.  Many of the later produced Paddington's are soft stuffed.

His boots have paw prints on the sole and PB printed in reverse!

This Paddington Bear was made in Britain.

How cute are his wellington boots?!

 

A teeny weeny hand sized Paddington

Printed on the red boots are "Made in Korea". "China" is printed on the blue pair of boots.

As a child I loved reading about the marmalade sandwich eating Paddington Bear  - he got up to such great adventures! 

Did you read Paddington Bear books??

Big business for florists!

 

I took these pictures of the florist in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre at 8.50am this morning.  They were setting up for probably the biggest day of the year for florists everywhere.  Its the 13th of February - the day before Valentine's Day.

 

 

There was even some prospective customers this early in the morning!

 

The florist had a really lovely selection of flowers.

My younger sister has recently started to learn how to play the ukulele - check out this video of her singing a Spice Girls song.  She's not bad!!

Ireland is currently recovering from really bad storm yesterday.  250,000 were with out power and today there are still 150,000 without electricity.  The roof of Limerick Boat Club got ripped off in the high winds.

Seemingly Met Eireann is forecasting that we will get another battering tomorrow with expected floods too.

Tidy Desk Hoard

I have been giving my desk area in work a good clean as I am moving branch shortly. 

In the drawers next to my desk I found the most bizarre collection of items!

Item 1:  A disposable camera (the development date on it is 2010!!)

Item 2:  A bag of 9 dice (there was a receipt in the bag - the dice were bought in Jan 2009)

Item 3: A barely used pair of leather/tweed gloves (I vaguely remember getting these for Christmas and then promptly losing them......or so I thought!)

Item 4:  A photo of me kissing the Blarney Stone the weekend of my friends wedding in Blarney, Co Cork (this was taken in 2007)

I only cleared 1 drawer today - I can't wait to see what is in the 2nd drawer!!

Feed your pet!!

We feed our doggy Gain which is a dry dog food that is made in Ireland by Glanbia.  Normally I buy it in Petstop which is conveniently near where I currently work.

As I am changing work location shortly I knew I needed to consider an alternative to Petstop.  My sister had recently blogged about a new pet food supplier that had just been set up by acquaintances of her husband. My sister had ordered special weight loss food for her cat and was very pleased with how promptly it had arrived so I decided to order from Feed Your Pet too.

I was pleased with how easy it was to make an order and when the food was delivered to Ciaran's office he remarked how polite the delivery guy was. 

I intend to order from this place in the future I just need to be a little more organised and do it before Bones food had ran out like this time!

Sunday Cinema

Later on Sunday we went to the Swan Cinema to see the Dallas Buyers Club starring Matthew McConaughey (it's a very good film - do go if you get a chance!). 

 

We love going to the Swan Cinema.  It's a small cinema and we always joke that we are going "back to the eighties" when we visit!

 

After the cinema I made Chicken Caesar Salad - I used some leftover rasher (bacon) from breakfast this morning.

Dessert was strawberries and cream.

What a great Sunday!!

All made up!

I needed a new foundation so on advice from my younger sister I decided to try Smashbox.  When doing research about which one to buy I discovered that I should also be using primer.

Primer!!! Who knew?!

Why did no one ever tell me??

It seems that primer is especially essential for older skin like mine and it smooths the appearance of fine lines and pores.

Here's what I bought in Boots in Dundrum Shopping Centre.
 

Smashbox Studio Skin - 15 hour wear foundation (Shade 2.3)

A sample box that included:

Photo Finish Foundation Primer

Photos Finish Lid Primer

Full Exposure Mascara

Limitless Eye Liner (Onyx colour)

Lip Enhancing Gloss (Illume)

These are all Smashbox best sellers.
 

In other news, on our walk this morning I noticed a new restaurant is opening in Ranelagh where Door 51 used to be.  It is called "Edelwise" and is a Fondue and Raclette eatery.  Sounds interesting!!