Love a library themed pressie!

Look what the lucky twins got from Cousin Kasey!!

These bags are so fantastic. Amy's is cat themed while mine is bookish......very apt!

 The tag on the book themed bag is a bookmark. Seriously clever!

I had been looking out for a nice new makeup bag as the current Victoria Secrets one I have is just a tad too small (see the pink bag below) but hadn't seen one I liked so I am delighted with this gift. I promptly filled it!

 

The bags are from Strand Bookstore which presumably Kasey visited on her last visit to New York. They are made in the USA (which I'd imagine is quite rare.....as we all know that most things are made in China these days....). As well as being well designed and interesting looking, they are really well crafted. 

From their website, the Strand Book Shop looks amazing!! If I ever go back to New York I will definitely visit :-)

Black Friday Bargains

Black Friday is a phenomena that has been recently imported to Ireland from the USA. Obviously we don't celebrate Thanksgiving so we never did the big rush to start Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving. 

Some of the shops I visited were offering some Black Friday specials.  

Starbucks had a special where you topped up your card by €20 and received a free drink.  I was delighted to have my Grande Extra Shot Cafe Mocha con Pana on the house!

In Supervalu, Baileys was on special at €12 a bottle on Friday only. So I bought a bottle of that for over Christmas. I love a Baileys Coffee on cold days!

They also had 18 cans of Coke Zero for €5. I only bought 1 stack because they were heavy to carry to the car.  Wish I had got a trolley and I would have bought a few more.

I also bought a rake of candy canes (not a Black Friday special but very cheap at €1.50 a box) and a pair of lovely soft pyjamas to chill out in over Christmas (I'm planning lots of Duvet Days indulging in Netflix and catching up on some of the mountain of books that I have been attempting to get through).

So that was the extent of my Black Friday here in Ireland. How did you get on readers? Did you find any bargains?!

"Native Irish Dogs" by Shane McCoy

This Saturday a very special book is being launched.  It's a brilliant book and I consider it special because it was written by Ciaran's nephew Shane McCoy!  

Unfortunately we can't attend the launch (presumably Bones would have been welcome to attend too!) as we have another event on.  I am very disappointed about having to miss it but what can you do.....(it's actually the 2nd event I had to turn down on Saturday - normally my social life isn't this hectic but three events all coincided on this occasion).

I would have bought the book at the official launch but because I'm not going I visited Dubray Books in the Swan Centre and bought it there.  It was really nice to see it on display face out in the shop. I got very excited to see it for sale and I told the assistant that it was written by my husband's nephew.  He was very complimentary about the book and said that there should be a lot of interest in it as it was very nicely presented.

The book is full of marvelous pictures of dogs (photos are by Colin White) and is the perfect present for any dog lover this Christmas - it's available in all good book shops (€19.99 in Dubray) and also online.

It is really is a handsome hardback book. There are lots of things that I like about it.  The pictures are stunning - the dogs look magnificent.  The other thing I like is how the the name of the breeds are written in both English and Irish - nice touch! It's all in all a really well written informative book.  Well done to Shane!

Bernard Shaw Flea Market

After spending the morning in Starbucks on Waterloo Road we then went to the November Flea Market in the Bernard Show Pub. I had seen on Facebook that there was going to be a stall selling comics and vinyl all for 1 euro.  That's my kind of prices for records and it seems that it is a lot of people's prices because when I arrived at about 3pm there was only 3 records left.  

I bought the only one that I recognized which was "Push" by Bros. Wow did it bring back memories when I played it when I got home! 

Bros was made up of twins Matt & Luke Goss and Craig Logan. Listening to "When will I be famous" brought me right back to the late 1980's watching  Top of the Pops!

Book Launch

On Tuesday night I went to the launch of "Beasts and Gods" by Dr Roslyn Fuller.  I had originally planned on driving home and leaving my car and walking in to the city but the weather was so bad (it was windy and stormy) so I kept the car and parked in Setanta Car Park after picking Amy up from her office.  Roslyn Fuller is a fascinating lady and as well as looking forward to reading this book I look forward to seeing her in politics as she is going forward as an Independent Candidate in the next General Election in Ireland.

Getting organised for Christmas

I have started my Christmas shopping. For my nephew and niece I got a Christmas jumper for each of them. I plan on giving the jumpers to them a little bit before Christmas so they can wear them in the lead up to Christmas. Perhaps there will be Christmas jumper day on their last day before school breaks up - is this a thing, I wonder? I think it probably is a thing - I am even organizing a Christmas jumper day in work!

One major job I need to organize for Christmas is my cards. Every year I pose Bones for my card and then get them printed up. I plan on doing this later on today. Of course, he is a rubbish model (you know the old adage "Never work with animals or children") so let's just say it's not an easy task. It takes many shots before I get near a somewhat usable picture.....or I could get lucky and the first one is a good one and I will just use that one and be done with it! 

I adored "Brooklyn"

Amy and I have been excitedly waiting for Brooklyn to be screened in Ireland.  We loved the book and when we saw it was being made in to a film we made plans months ago to go see it together.  

It came out last weekend but we went to see it this Friday along with Alice & Katie.  

What can I say!  It was brilliant......quite possibly better than the book.  Saoirse Ronan as the lead character of Eilis Lacey is quite phenomenal (I reckon she will definitely be a contender for an Oscar).  It's an Irish-American story set in 1952 and I think it will resonate with many, if you get a chance do go and see it!

I had a lovely evening but then switched on the TV when I came home and saw the horrific news of the terrorist attacks happening in Paris.  My thoughts are with the people of France today.