The year of the Gift Bag

Just  before Christmas, I discovered that wrapping paper is not recyclable - particular if it is shiny. An alternative is to use brown paper but I wasn't sure that I wanted to do that even if I do think brown paper parcels can look very nice when tied up with cute ribbons. Looking on eco websites, I saw another alternative to wrapping paper is to wrap presents in tea towels that can then be used by the recipient.....I don't know about this one!!

So in the end I decided that this would be the year of the Gift Bag. I thought this was a good option as hopefully the bags would be reused by whoever I gave the present to. I also chose fairly non Christmas looking bags (I selected a few red and gold tartan bags in Dunnes) so they could be reused for any other occasion than Christmas. 

I didn't take any pictures so I'll just share a Christmassy snap of Ciaran and myself!

Handmade Irish Soap

One of my favourite things in the world is homemade soap. Once you start using homemade soap it is very hard to go back to the commercial variety.

I was very lucky to receive a lovely  thoughtful Christmas gift of some really gorgeous eco friendly Irish handmade soap.

It's Palm Free Irish Soap and it is made in Co Clare in Ireland.

There are three lovely flavours in this box. Pictured below is Lavender & Seaweed and I also got lemon flavour which I promptly put straight in my shower. I love lemon and this one is really nice as well as being lovely and bright coloured which is so cheery.

If you want to order some lovely soap, head over to their website or go to their Facebook page to give them a follow. 

I'm intrigued by the "Feile" soap. I wonder what it smells like. Feile is the Irish word for Festival so it sounds like a fun soap!

Pizza time! Rita's in Ranelagh

I've written about different restaurants in Ranelagh before and from reading them it should be apparent that Ranelagh is quite the foodie village and should be a destination for any food lover. Over the past few weeks there has been a few new openings that make great new additions to the area.

There has been The Devlin (I never knew Ranelagh was missing a boutique hotel until this place opened!) which offers food in their rooftop restaurant Layla's or the American Bar on the ground floor. Hobarts closed but reopened as Scoff with Gigi's going in next door.

However, the restaurant I was most excited to visit is the very recently opened Rita's which I had heard serves top class pizza. We were out in Dun Laoghaire where we went on the vintage Ferris Wheel from Grease and on the way home we decided that we would pop in to Rita's "for a slice" ....or even a pie!

Rita's is in a central location in between  Kinara Kitchen and Host Restaurant (in the old Bow and Pearl location) and it is nicely decorated with cool stencil work on some of the walls. ** EDIT - Rita's is now relocated to the old Brioche location on Elmwood Avenue Lower in Ranelagh Village (across from Lidl) ** It's got a great atmosphere and when we visited it was packed with a great buzz in the place. It is small and cozy and of course it's got a great big pizza oven in the restaurant.

Once we were seated we got down to the business of ordering our pizza. The menu is interesting and included some pizza toppings that we had to google before we ordered. For info, Nduja is a spicy pork salami!

I ordered a pizza with blue cheese on it. I love blue cheese and this pizza did not disappoint - it worked well with the glass of red wine that I ordered too.  Ciaran went for the pizza with nduja and also scamorza cheese which he washed down with a couple of bottles of Peroni.

The pizza was really superb - beautifully cooked, thin base with a soft doughy crust around the edge. We ordered a portion of garlic dipping sauce which was perfect for dipping the crust in to. These are seriously good pizzas.

Rita's certainly is an asset to Ranelagh and I hope it does well. It will appeal to all and is perfect for big groups who are looking for a fun reasonably priced meal or couples out for a nice bite to eat. It will be sure to prove popular with families also. If you visit, let me know!

The above pic is the huuge pizza oven where they cook those pizzas at 500 degrees!!!  That's one hot mama of an oven!

It's a Wonderful Life!

We had a wonderful Christmas day yesterday. After a slow wake up, I made myself a Baileys coffee (Hello, Reindeer Antlers handled mug from Starbucks!) while Ciaran poured himself a cup of tea before we started in to our present opening,

Breakfast was a light option made by Ciaran. We just had poached eggs and Clonakilty black pudding because we wanted to save our appetite for the main event later on!

Santa truly spoiled me this year. Every present I got was a surprise and they were all gorgeous.

I was  especially happy when I saw that Ciaran got me the "A Star is Born" soundtrack.

I promptly poured myself a glass of prosecco and put the record player on.

This is the cutest little glass to drink from.  My mam bought it for me on her recent trip to Amsterdam and she got it engraved with my name in the Heineken museum.

We also listened to David Byrne's American Utopia which I had bought for Ciaran.

Dinner was lovely. The turkey and ham were cooked by the Butler's Pantry and it was lovely and moist. We had some nice wine with dinner and afterwards we sat down and watched "It's a wonderful life" which was so good - surprisingly, neither of us had ever seen it.

Benefit Cosmetics Launch - The Devlin Hotel

The lead up to Christmas was fairly hectic with lots to do. It was great, however, to be able to catch up with my best friend Alice and attend the Benefit Cosmetics Roller Liner Launch in the Stella Cinema in The Devlin Hotel on the 18th of December. 

It's a great venue and we were treated to some pink bubbles along with a demo of the liner by the Benefit Head of Marketing Mark Rogers.

Suitably impressed by the makeup demos that we saw we made our selections and picked up a few items for both Christmas gifts to friends and family along with gifts for ourselves - well I did need a new foundation and blusher! 

Licence to drive!

Finally!

I swopped my paper licence for a credit card sized version.  I had been intending on changing over, since....oh about 2013 when the new credit card sized one was introduced.

I finally got sick of the old one and with it still being valid until 2021, I made an appointment with the NDLS to get the new one.

The process to apply for the replacement licence was fairly painless.  I had to complete a short form and bring proof of address to the office along with proof of my PPS number. At the office, they took my photo - I look very stern because the lady taking it gave me very strict instructions not to smile.

And then about a week later this little dinky thing arrived in the post!

It feels so civilised to carry this card around in my purse rather than constantly moving the big pink paper thingy from bag to bag. I nearly wish that I had changed over years ago.

I also look forward to proudly presenting it when I next hire a car abroad rather than sliding the long piece of paper over the counter to bemused car hire clerks who hold it up like it is a piece of toilet paper!!

Ice cold Alex!

I was introduced to Brandy Alexander on the island of St Lucia on the second last night of my recent sailing trip and since then I've had one (or two!) at every opportunity I've got.

On Satuday, Amy and I had one in Dillingers and then we had another one the next day when we met Alice for dinner.  Alice agreed they were just like milkshake and partook in two!

Here's the Dillingers version (sans nutmeg - which is fine by me):

And here's the Shelbourne version:

In the Shelbourne, we introduced Cousin Kasey to Brandy Alex (at that point we were so familiar we were going by the short name.....lol) and she also agreed they were mighty good.

So for the moment it is a see you later to Espresso Martini and a hello to Brandy Alexander!