Holiday souvenirs!

When I go away on holiday, I like to bring back souvenirs, something that I can use regularly to remind me of the great time I had on holiday.

On my recent sailing trip, I bought a natural stone turtle soap dish on the our second last night when we moored in Marigot in St Lucia.

I also bought two mini turtles for my two lady sailing companions. 

Today, I got a text with a picture showing where one of the little turtles ended up. It sure brought a smile to my face and was a nice reminder of the trip!

An electric bike is all fun and games.....until you forget to charge it up!!

I blogged about my electric bike when I got it back in 2017. 

I absolutely love my bike.........except when I forget to recharge it and it goes dead as I set off for home after work. I then have to cycle the full 11kms with no assistance!!

Aside from when the battery dies, I am loving the cycling to and from work. As we say here in Ireland, there's "a grand stretch" in the evening and it is beginning to get lighter on the cycle home. As I set off from Dun Laoghaire, I can see all the way out to the chimney stacks across Dublin Bay and I can even see the beautiful Aviva stadium. It's a glorious view for sure!

Ranelagh Gardens in Spring

After coffee in Butlers we took a stroll in Ranelagh Gardens.

Officially Spring began on Feb 1st here in Ireland.....but it still seems pretty Wintery to me. And of course we will have St Patrick's Day in March and then Easter of which both can be fairly cold.  Last year in particular, St Patricks Day was particularly cold. Amy and I were cycling in the parade and the weather was miserable as we waited to start off and then even as we cycled, we didn't really get warm.

Anyway, here's a few pics of Ranelagh Gardens in "springtime".

I spotted this as I first entered from the Luas tracks end. At first I thought it was a bird house, but on closer inspection, I think it might be a "Bee Hotel". Can any of my readers confirm?!

The playground was deserted. It normally is busy most of the day but there had just been a heavy rain shower so that probably cleared most of the families out.

The ducks were swimming around one end because the other end had frozen water.  Although, there are signs up saying not to feed the ducks bread, someone had dumped a load of mouldy bread on the frozen part. 

The trees at the other entrance to the park look bare and very grim. Roll on better weather and hopefully they will flourish.

Of course Bones doesn't care how the park looks, he just enjoys being in it!

Miracle oil for dry skin - Almond Oil!

I had a patch of dry skin that just would not go.  I tried numerous creams and it just stayed and possibly got a little worse.

Finally I happened upon Almond Oil.

I popped a little bit on the dry patch after my shower and then later on before bed and I put some more oil on and then covered it in face cream.

Well what do you know, when I woke up the dry skin on my face was gone and I was left with the softest skin.

The other thing that I use almond oil for is as a hand scrub. Mixed with sugar and then rinsed off with warm water it leaves my hands softer than soft!

Monday wrap up...

Cycling to work has been going really well. I've cycled every day since the 2nd of January. That's a record for me!

Before work, I took my homemade soap out of the mould and then cut it in to bars when I got home from work.

The soap has to now cure for 4 weeks or so and then will be ready to be wrapped.

Speaking of Monday wrap ups - check out this little parcel wrapped up and on it's way to the US of A. 

It's a little pressie for Miss A!

Sunday was productive!

I had an awesome Sunday. I got piles done, getting up early to get straight in to my soap making which I had been planning on doing all week.

I needed to buy a few pieces of kit to make the soap including a digital scales and a thermometer. I had a regular old fashioned scales but after using the digital one I can honestly say it is invaluable.

Here's a pic of the utensils and also the ingredients.

The soap is now in the mould (a shoe box) and has to be left for 24 hours. After that I will cut it in to bars and then leave for about 4 weeks to fully cure and saponify. 

The next thing I did was drop 5(!) bags of clothes and kitchen items to the charity shop after a big Marie Kondo clear out. I'm sure charity shops are seeing lots of donations at this time due to the popularity of her show on Netflix.

The charity shop we went to was in Rathmines and across the road from The Pot Bellied Pig so went over there for brunch after the drop off.

I had the Eggs Benedict which was very good while Ciaran had The Hog which was essentially the full Irish.

After that, we had a browse in the Swan Centre stopping in at Tiger where we got some art supplies.

When we got home we watched two episodes of Schitts Creek on Netflix - it's sooo good!

Then we did laundry and then we started another Marie Kondo clean up!!

By 4.30pm we had another two bags so we quickly dropped back to Rathmines and got the bags dropped off just as the show was closing at 5pm.  There was some good stuff in these bags, including some brand new never worn clothes with tags on. Get to St Vincents shop in Rathmines, if you are interested!!

And then home again where we made Keto Pizza base and then chilled for the evening.

How was your Sunday?  What did you get up to?!

Saturday Soap Day

Guess what I learned to make on Saturday?!

Soap! That's what!

I signed up for a soap making workshop on Facebook. It was held by a lovely lady in her own home (how hospitable) and was free - all she asked was for a donation to the hospice.

It was a lot of fun learning to make soap and it was also lovely to meet like minded people. 

I look forward to making soap shortly myself at home. I need to organize myself and buy a few pieces of equipment.

It's not a massively difficult project but serious care is needed when dealing with certain ingredients - in particular the caustic soda/lye.

After 24 hours this is the result of our work. The soap will be cut now and then left for a few weeks before packaging up.

This is the finished product. How great do they look.....and oh my gosh the smell!

Watch this space - I will blog about my soap making once I get down to it.