Butlers Chocolates, Ranelagh - New Store

After closing and reopening a few times, Coffee Society finally closed a little while back.

Butler's Coffee has now opened in the old Coffee Society location in Ranelagh.

It opened yesterday (Sat) and we visited today.

We would probably have sat outside with the dog but the canopy was not pulled out so the chairs had got wet.

Coffee Society was one of our favourite Sunday morning haunts in Ranelagh.  We will miss it.  We loved the lovely neighbourly atmosphere in it and the staff all knew us and we knew them.  I reckon that Butler's might become a go to spot in Ranelagh once the friendly staff begin to get to know their regulars.

The outside is not changed so much but there is big changes inside!

Love their coffee and also how you get a chocolate with your coffee! 

We expected it to be mobbed because it was the opening weekend but it was relatively quiet.  Maybe it was quiet because the clocks went forward last night and although we were there about 10.30ish that was really 9.30ish?

It's good timing to open a chocolate shop!

Look at the great range of chocolate eggs they are selling for Easter.

New Coffee Table!

Since we completed our house, well over two years ago, we have been saying that we needed a coffee table for the front room to go with the conversation pit.

We have been looking around for a good while for one but never found the perfect one.  The closest one we came to was in Roche Bobois where they have lots of amazing furniture but the coffee table we were looking at there just wasn't big enough.

Ciaran decided that we would have to design one himself as really it needed a bespoke one off piece that fitted perfectly in the space.

So along with Dean Cooper this beauty was created!!  

The whole table is made of honed Zimbabwean granite and needed two men to carry it as in total it weighs over 180kg!!

After the base was set down the table top was put in place.

It's a really simple design.

It's literally a big square hunk of granite.  But the proportions are beautiful and it looks very streamlined.

One comment was that we were very brave to bring the '80's back!

I have to agree it does have a very '80's vibe to it.  

But classic '80's I think!!

Or perhaps something you might have seen in Michael Douglas's apartment in Wall Street???!!!

It's great that this is a one off piece, designed for this exact spot (well it is so heavy it won't be moving anywhere on a whim) and you won't find it for sale in any shop or walk in to anyone else's house and see this exact table.

Personally I think it looks even better in real life than the photos - you would not believe how happy I am with how it turned out.

If you have an interest in commissioning a one off piece like this, you can contact ODKM Architects here. 

It gets the nod of approval from Bones (presume he is thinking it is the perfect height for him to eat off if he ever caught sight of a tray of canapes sitting on it - watch this space!)

Perfect table to rest your wine glass on......but I'm missing something......need to put on a jacket with huge shoulder pads!!!  ;-)

What I'm doing......

I'm listening to.....

First Aid Kit's "Stay Gold" 

Great Scandinavian folksy sound - thanks to John Creedon for the introduction!

I'm drinking....

A mocha coffee (made with hot chocolate and Nespresso coffee)

I'm reading....

"Dear Ross" by Evelyn O'Rourke

"Dear Ross" is the true story of how Evelyn O'Rourke got through the situation of discovering she had breast cancer when she was also in the early stages of pregnancy with her second child.  

It is great book and Evelyn is an incredible woman.  Having always enjoyed her on radio and television, I found the book to be written in the exact same matter of fact way that Evelyn is when she talking in person.  The strength and fortitude she showed when going through this struggle and all her treatments is immense.  I am glad to say that the book has a happy ending and I wish her happiness with her family for the future.

Home Of The Year | RTÉ One | Thursday 26th March 8.30pm (Declan O'Donnell, Architect)

A few weeks ago I wrote about having a film crew in my house for a day or two.  Here's more details about the show they were filming and also a few pictures from the day, along with my thoughts about having a film crew in your house.

The show is "Home of the Year" and it involves three expert judges travelling around Ireland and judging amazing homes and ultimately choosing a winner.  I can't wait to see all the fantastic houses (I'm sure they will be very diverse) so will be watching this programme avidly. 

My home, was not entered in to the competition, but instead was used as a filming location and two of the judges were interviewed and filmed in my main living room.  

The first interview was by Judge and Architect Declan O'Donnell of ODKM Architects, who I know well, as Declan along with my husband and Barry Kane are the partners in ODKM Architects (follow on Facebook here).

Declan is a natural on camera and his Belfast lilt comes across really well as he lyrically describes his style and the style of all of the homes that the programme has featured.

The second judge is the charming Hugh Wallace - who you could just listen to forever!

The final judge is Helen James the designer who currently has her Considered range in Dunnes Stores.



The publicity shots were also photographed in my house - here are the three judges with a painting by my husband in the background.

As mentioned at the top of the blog I said I would give my thoughts on having a film crew in your house.  After having a few different crews in filming, my thoughts are that you should:

1. Give over your house to them - they are extremely professional and will clean anything that gets dirty, fix anything that gets broken (which is highly unlikely) and put back anything that they move (and they probably will need to move somethings)

2. Mentally prepare for a lot of people entering your house and it immediately becoming a working location (reread number 1 above!)

3. If you stay and watch the filming process, stay very quiet and ask the crew where you should sit to be out of shot - you wont be able to be doing work like cleaning your house as you may make noise so it may be better to head away for the day.

4.  If you do head away, give the crew a contact number so they can contact you if they finish up early.  Probably best to not arrive back thinking it will take a short amount of time (like I assumed!) - filming is a slow detailed process (although it is incredible to watch and see how good the whole production team are and how much work they get through).

I've included the below pic to show certain things that you can expect when a film crew are working in your house.  I arrived back from the shops to find a light in my garden (shining in to the house to brighten a room) and also the bins were all moved out of shot - they even had to ask my neighbour to move their car!!

 

As you can see Declan is a TV highlight of the week so make sure you tune in to "Home of the Year" on RTE this Thursday at 8.30pm.  If you do watch it let me know what you think and also feel free to ask me any questions if you need further information about a TV crew coming to your house!

EDIT: 

*Just a short note to say that I didn't enter my house in to the competition but that it was only used as a filming location for the judges interviews and also the judges publicity shots. 

Barbie has a new home!

My twin sister started collecting Barbie Dolls about 15 years ago or so (Amy - correct me if I am wrong!) and has amassed a collection of about 40, I think.  

For the past few years she has been storing them in my parents house.  The other day our mother took them out of storage to see what is to be done with them.

Amy was kind enough to offer me any one of them that I wanted.

I chose these two Christmas Barbies.  I may take this one out of the box and sit her in my Christmas tree next year.......watch this space!!

This is "Happy Holidays 1997" - absolutely stunning.  It's very over the top (not really my style!) but I am glad to have given her a new home.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in Starbucks

This is the new reusable cup from Starbucks.  Doesn't it look disposable?!

It's a light toughened plastic cup with a heavy plastic lid.

It costs €1.50 and you get 35c off your coffee every time you use it.  The barista instantly gave me 35c off my coffee so in fact it only cost me €1.15!

Do you use a reusable cup?

Cycling in the Dublin St. Patrick's Day Parade!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all!

Amy and I joined up with a group of cyclists from the Dublin Cycling Campaign to cycle in the Dublin Patrick's Day Parade.

Most of the group cycled on Dublin Bikes which were bedecked out in banners and daffodils in the front baskets.

Lots of others cycled on their cargo bikes in which they carried a few kids!

The dress code for our group was blue but children could wear green (so Bones wore his green hoodie and his hi-viz vest).

A lot of work had been done by the group.  Flower baskets were made for the bikes along with flower pot head pieces(!).  There were also signs for the bikes that were very effective in letting everyone know that we were the Dublin Cycling Campaign.

Amy cycled on a Dublin Bike.

I cycled on my own bike with the trailer for Bones attached to it.  

Speaking of Bones, he got a serious amount of attention from the parade audience and we heard a lot of collective "Aw, look at the dog" as we passed by.

We waved, we blew our whistles and bike horns and we had the best St. Patrick's Day ever!

My photos are obviously all of the cyclists and don't really show a lot of the parade, click here to see more.

You can read Amy's blog about the day here.

San Lorenzo's, George's Street - Dublin, Ireland

Last night we went to San Lorenzo's on George's Street.  I had been looking forward to going here for awhile.  We were able to get a 9pm reservation so our friends called for a drink in our house beforehand.

I loved the setting of the restaurant - it was very minimalist with plywood walls and also bare walls painted with funky designs.  

Food wise we split two starters between us and then had a main each.

Here's duck liver crostini - I thought this was intensely delish!

Gambas on bread that was soaked in the most amazing flavourful garlic oil.

I had a Delmonico steak (10oz) that I thought was very tasty but way overpriced at €38.

The others had meatballs, duck and also a 10oz Hereford steak. 

I had a great night.  Our friends are extremely sociable and tell the most amazing stories.  

One of the stories was how my friend upped off to go work and travel in Spain and France when she was 17.  She ran out of money at one point and rang her Dad to get him to send some money to her so she could continue her travels.  Her Dad refused to send her money to continue her travels but said he would send money to buy a ticket home.  They got tickets to Gatwick in London but when they arrived they were unable to cash a cheque that one of the other girls had got from her parents as the banks were closed.

They really needed to get to Heathrow airport where there was an Aer Lingus desk that would cash the cheque and they could fly home from there but unfortunately they didn't have any cash to get from Gatwick to Heathrow.

Not knowing what to do my friend saw a policeman (an English Bobby!) and went over and explained their situation.  He felt sorry for them and gave them £20 from his wallet and told them to buy tickets and a sandwich.  

My friend took his name and address and when she got home her dad sent the money back to him.  Her dad also wrote to the Gay Byrne Radio Show and told the story of the kind policeman and of course it was read out on the radio!

I loved this story!!

Even though there were only three of us drinking we still managed to get through 2 bottles of wine - probably a little more than I would usually drink but it was so nice and we chatted in the restaurant until about 12.45pm which was nice - I liked the way they didn't rush us out but instead cleaned around us.

A chocolate pot was ordered and we all had a taste of it.  Very heavy and very good!

All in all I liked San Lorenzo's ALOT - the others perhaps didn't like it as much.  I did think it is a bit overpriced and although very hipster it seemed to be trying too hard.  The food was very good and I'd certainly return again.  We were lucky though as it was definitely the company that helped us have a really great night!

Roundabout Ranelagh

I had a great day pottering around Ranelagh and then took the Luas in to the city.  

It was a lovely sunny day and I took a few pics of some of the quirky sights and shops in Ranelagh.

Here's a few businesses in Ranelagh.  Village Books is a book shop that I have never gone in to.  A small Tesco express opened in the last year or two and is located next to Mutt Ugly.  The bottom pics are of McSorleys and Birchill's pub (est. 1850).

The Luas Station is close to Nick's Coffee.

I don't get the Luas in to the city generally so it was a real novelty!

The picture of the road is taken from up on the bridge that the Luas goes over in Ranelagh.

Here's a blast from the past!
It's a public pay phone in the Irish Life Mall.  
I saw it when I was waiting for my sister to meet me for lunch.  
I had got my hair cut in a hairdressers close by (the less said about the hair cut the better).

The world goes green on St Patrick's Day

Sit back and enjoy listening to the dulcet tones of Liam Neeson!

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney's "When all the others were away at mass" has been chosen as Ireland's favourite poem.  While I think it is an intensely powerful poem, my favourite Heaney poem is "Mid-Term Break".  I find it moving and incredibly sad and, in fact, when I read it aloud I tear up as I get to the last line.

Here it is in full below, please let me know what you think of it.

Mid-Term Break 

By Seamus Heaney

I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying--
He had always taken funerals in his stride--
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

The Rewrite - Hugh Grant & Marisa Tomei

I borrowed a new Hugh Grant film from the library and we watched it yesterday evening.  I've been a big fan of Hugh Grant since Four Weddings.

He seems to have become typecast as a washed up/failed songwriter, singer and now in "The Rewrite" as a screenwriter.  I have no problem with this as I think it is a format that suits him and I think he was perfect as the writer of a one hit wonder in "About a boy" and even more perfect as an ex-popstar in "Music & Lyrics" which just happens to be a favourite go-to film of mine along with "The Family Stone".

So what about this new film?

Well it's not going to set the film world on fire but it is certainly watchable and I was thankful that it was not overly cliched in regards to him getting the girl.

So if you are a Hugh Grant fan, I'd definitely recommend but if you aren't well you can probably put it to the back of your to be watched list!

Gifts & pressies

I had a 50th & 60th birthday celebration over the weekend which was a lot of fun.  Here's the two gifts I got for the birthday boys all wrapped and ready to go.

And speaking of pressies, look what my super twin sister brought for me when she called over to my house before the 60th party on Saturday for nibblies and drinks.

It's this really cute serving tray from Laura Ashley.  As you know I love Humming Bird prints (check my Jennifer Rothwell dress out here) so I was thrilled by this little gift!

Kasey brought me an early Easter gift! Gorgeous truffle egglets and praline-filled soldiers from Hotel Chocolat.  

I feel quite spoiled by Amy and Kasey! 

The theme of the 60th Birthday on Saturday night was "Travel" as my uncle was a great traveler and lived all over the world including London and San Francisco before coming home and settling back in Ireland a few years ago.  

Here is his amazing cake which is shaped like a suitcase.  It was made by Candylane Cupcakes (which just happens to be owned by my cousin!)