Sunday 20 December 2015

Basket Brigade

For the past four Christmas's, Amy and I have been involved with "Basket Brigade". It's an event where a group of people come together a few days before Christmas, bringing food and money, and make up and deliver 150 hampers for families in need all over Dublin.

Our best friend Alice is also involved  along with Kasey who unfortunately had to miss this year due to another commitment.

Here are the three of us before we got started! 



The first job that gets done is that each box is covered in nice Christmas Wrapping paper to make it look festive. Then we get down to the business of filling the boxes.

This is the list of everything that goes in to each hamper along with additional miscellaneous items including such things as pasta, sauce, soups and baked beans, etc.


This is the first hamper we made. Each hamper gets a chicken and a ham which are put on the top so that the receiver can see them and can refrigerate them immediately.


Amy paired up with another friend of hers - here she is working away on a hamper. While Alice and I worked together as another hamper packing team.

After each box is filled it is wrapped in cellophane and tied up with a cheery ribbon. They look attractive and are surely appreciated by whoever receives them.


Here is a batch of hampers all lined up and ready to be delivered. What great work by everyone involved!


A big thanks to all the companies who help with this endeavor. It really is a worthy cause and hopefully it gives a little help to the families who receive the hampers this Christmas.




Thursday 17 December 2015

Sunday 13 December 2015

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

It's definitely beginning to feel like Christmas.  On Thursday, I watched one of my favourite Christmas films "The Holiday".  It really made me feel a lot better after a bad day (don't ask!).  

Then on Friday I was finally able to get my Christmas tree up and decorated!

I'm very happy with it.....I don't think I could get a whole lot more on the tree.

And this year I had a new angel for the top.....a Holiday Barbie decked out in red - she goes perfectly with my mish mash of ornaments.



My twin sister sent me pictures of her tree and what a difference!

We both have Barbies at the top of the tree but that is where the similarity ends. My colours are generally red and green while Amy is all about white and silver. I like both trees!



Saturday 12 December 2015

Early start to see McGregor knock out Aldo

We got up at 5am this morning to see the main UFC event of McGregor v. Aldo.  I cooked sausages the night before so we had a tasty breakfast with tea and coffee.

Well would you believe it only took 13 seconds for McGregor to deliver a left punch that knocked out Aldo!! 

Fight over!



And so it was back to bed for us....happy that it was over and the Irish man was the world champion!

Revamped Dunnes Stores in the Swan Centre

The Dunnes Stores in the Swan Centre (along with many other shops) had gone through an amazing revamp.

We called in today to find that the Clothes Section is open and airy and has an up market feel to it.

The supermarket is even better!  It's hip, cool and very up to date.

The first new part we discovered is a bakery and cafe with a seating area. Ciaran recognized Cafe Sol as he goes here for coffee since he moved to his new office.


The Butcher had an overhaul and is fairly funky. It's got a traditional market feel to it.


When we happened upon Sheridan's Cheese we were in heaven! It's a concession like Cafe Sol, I presume. We were kindly treated to samples of a few different blues and some cheddar which we then purchased. Along with this we bought some quince and just before we left the stand we had a little sample of a Gruyere. So nice! 

The selection of cheese was excellent and the staff were so friendly. We will be back!

Dunnes has been improved dramatically - I felt like I was shopping in America!

The changes that have taken place in the Swan Centre have really turned it in to a good shopping destination - we both agreed that our shopping experience in the Swan Centre this morning was brilliant!

I had written about the Popcorn shop before (see here). It has now opened and is super looking. I tried a sample of Caramel & Oreo Popcorn and it was so good!!! I think the popcorn shop actually could do well here (as the centre does have a cinema) and hope the business succeeds!

Friday 11 December 2015

Kylie - Christmas Isn't Christmas 'Til You Get Here (Studio Video)





I've been listening to Christmas FM all week and this is the one song that is really sticking in my head.

When I first heard it I thought the voice was so familiar and then I realized it was Kylie Minogue!

I think it is a great song, really catchy!  What do you think?!

Saturday 5 December 2015

Brown bagging my Christmas Presents!

I started wrapping my Christmas Presents this evening.  A lot of my presents are very small (you know what they say - they best gifts come in small packages!) so I have been wrapping them in these Snowmen printed brown bags I got in Ikea.


The gift tags are by Helen James' Considered range for Dunnes Stores.

The seals for the "lunch bags" are also by Helen James.



I was originally going to use these brown bags (also from the Considered range) but I don't think they are festive enough for Christmas.

I'm happy how these little presents look.  Hopefully I can wrap my bigger gifts nicely too!

How are you sorted?  Have you started your wrapping yet?!