Fun in the City!

Friday Funday.

Friday was my day off work so we decided to head in to Dublin City for lunch.  We were in Ranelagh in the Arts Centre so hopped on the Luas and went to Dawson Street. From there we walked to Grafton Street where we went up on to the roof of M&S - I had a prosecco, Ciaran had a tea.

It was then on to Capel Street (my favourite pedestrianised street in Dublin) which we walked through Temple Bar to get to.  When we got to Capel Street we decided to check out White Rabbit which is an Korean Street Food place in the back of an Asian supermarket.  It's normally packed but today we were able to get a seat at the bar. We ordered some kind of meat roll to share.

This was very tasty......

Little selfie of us both before we headed on to our next spot.

After the White Rabbit, we had a browse in Evans Art Supplies where Ciaran bought some spray paint and also some acrylic paint.

All Bar Chicken

The reason we had decided to visit Capel Street is that we wanted to get wings in All Bar Chicken. And so our next stop off was here!

We shared a plate of BBQ wings which were so good. I highly recommend this fun place for a nice atmosphere and great wings. They do cocktails too with all of the tables around us ordering them - but we just had a beer and a glass of wine.

From there is was back over to the South Side of the City with a walk over to Parliament Street and then up to Wicklow Street where stopped in "Size"  where I had been looking at a pair of Nike Air Max which I really wanted to get but they were half a size too small.  Anyway I tried them on again, and I still loved them (I had been trying to get my size online all week since I first tried them on) and so I decided to buy them and will try stretch them out (they are currently in my freezer with a bag of water in them!).  

Thie Hideout

After Size, it was on to The Hideout in South William Street where we booked in to play pool!  

This was our first time visiting this place and it is great. Loads of pool tables over a few floors and you can do BYOB with a fridge near each pool table so you can keep your beer cold.  We brought in some Moretti beer and I had Orange & Grapefruit Smirnoff Seltzers. It was the first time I tasted this flavour and I thought it was really good.

It was a hot day in Dublin and the pool hall was really hot, so we were glad to see that there was an open back door near to our table which let a little cooling air in.

I like the concept of the BYOB here and think it would make a great place to visit for a work team building event. 

As you can see I put on my new Nike's straight away in order to try and stretch them out!  Watch this space I'll let you know how I got on with the ice in a bag trick.  Next up is two pairs of socks and a hairdryer......

We played for an hour (it went so fast!) with the cost being 20 euro per hour and 5 euro per person for BYOB. All in all great fun.

And after the hideout it was off to the Luas at Stephens Green where we boarded to go home to Ranelagh.......with a little plan to stop off in The Tap House for our final piece of food for the day, this was crab & crayfish tostada which we asked for on lettuce instead. Just delicious!  

After setting off about 2pm we got home just before 9pm after a great day all over Dublin City. A great day off from work and it set me up for going in to work on Saturday.

Home made bunting - no sew method

Over the years I've made bunting in a variety of different ways and if you do a search on this blog you will see lots of results of my efforts. The most time consuming way is when I sew fabric triangles together and then sew the doublesided triangles to ribbon - see this here.  The results for this method are great and it makes long lasting high quality bunting.

But I have devised a no-sew method for making bunting which is quick and fun. 

It involves cutting triangle shapes our of pretty fabric to your taste, using a pinking shears. And then when you have your triangles cut out  you simply iron them on to ribbon using "Wundaweb" which is normally used for repairing hems but works perfectly when you put it between the ribbon and the fabric.

I would say it took me less than 2 hours to make 4 buntings (approx 3 metres each) and cost less than €20 - it would have cost me less if I had used scrap fabric but I needed to buy a metre of fabric in Hickey's as I donated my scrap fabrics to a charity shop after a recent house spring clean.  Hickey's were having a Summer sale and had 20% off craft fabrics so it helped keep the cost down.

I had planned to buy readymade bunting (the Carolyn Donnelly range in Dunnes always has nice bunting) but it was far more fun in the end to make my own!

Here's pics of my no-sew bunting - it's been hung in preparation for our neighbourhood street party which used to be held annually but I think this may be the first one since Covid.

And here's a pic of what I brought to the neighbourhood street party - a little charcuterie plate!

Sunday Funday: Garden Visits

So after a super start to Sunday with a trip to Herbert Park Market (see previous post) it was then on to Rathmines Initiative Open Gardens trail.

Tbis is a trail where you can visit different gardens in the Rathmines area for a Two Euro donation to the Rathmines Initiative.

I didn't know anything about the Rathmines Initiative put they seem to have an area in the public realm and have put forward plans and lobbied for open space plazas in Rathmines along with small pedestrianised areas. This seems like things that are right up my street, so to speak, so I was happy to visit some of the gardens and support the initiative.

We cycled from Herbert Park to Rathmines and visited two of the gardens before Ciaran headed to the gym and I headed home at about 4pm.

Here's some of the pics from the garden visits. The second garden we visited was selling some plants for a bargain price of 1 or 2 euro - so I bought a plant that is called "Spanish Flag". Let's see if I can grow it!

The garden tours reminded me of doing the historical house tours when I visited Key West in the past. Such fun cycling around the island calling in to see different houses. And yesterday in Rathmines the weather was just like Florida so gave me all the KW feels on a sunny Sunday in Ireland. Just great!

Sunday Funday: Herbert Park Food Market

 It was the nicest sunniest day in Dublin on Sunday.

We started with a small walk to Nicks for coffee with Bones. He walks so so slowly these days so it's probably an hour all in to go out for a coffee in Ranelagh with him. But sure we were in no hurry.....

At lunch time we set off on our bikes with a small picnic packed in a cooler bag (newly bought the other day!) to go to Herbert Park and visit the food market.

We split a steak wrap that we got at one of the food trucks and I washed it down with prosecco that I packed in my trusty cooler bag.  While Ciaran got a coffee from one of the other stands.

We had a really lovely time, with Ciaran bumping in to a squash player that he had a little chat with. And then as we cycled out of the park we heard a beep of a horn and saw two other friends with their cute little girls heading in to the park.  So we had a little chat with them too!

Just a lovely time altogether......here's a few pics I took of it all

What I've been up to....

 Here's some of the things I've been up to since I last blogged....

The weather has been very good here in Ireland so we've got out and about to places we normally wouldn't go to. 

We hopped on a Dart to Malahide to visit the car free street in Malahide. First off when we arrived in Malahide (after a long wait for a train and then a longer than expected train ride) I thought the train station was so cute!  I guess it is in the arts & craftts style of architecture (not sure about this, correct me if I am wrong) and it is very quaint and charming.

From the station we made the short walk to New Street in Malahide.  We were in search of wings in Wishbone but discovered that the restaurant has closed - with no mention of this on their social media and website. But New Street itself is gorgeous and has a lovely ambiance. If you are in the area it is definitely worth visiting to experiencing the clean quiet calmness of the car free space.

As I mentioned the weather has been very good in Ireland - particularly over the June BH so because of this, we visited Herbert Park on Sunday as I knew there was a food market there. I forgot to take a pic of the market as a whole but it had a few nice stalls including a large vegetable stall, a fish seller and other stalls selling nice oils and farm fresh apple juice. Along with these stalls there was lots of food truck offerings. Ciaran went and queued for coffee while I went searching a low carb option with signs up for a Wicklow sausage of some sort.....but I never found the sausage so settled on chicken skewers which were so tasty and great to eat in the park in the sun.

And then yesterday evening I met my gal pal Alice in our usual spot of the "Canal Bank" - I love their wings! It's a casual spot and we love our casual meet up for food, wine and great chats.

Even though the restaurant is only around the corner from my house I ended up cycling the short way as I realised I would be late if I walked because I was setting off at 6.26pm in order to meet Alice there for a 6.30pm booking. In fairness it was cold when we were leaving so I was glad to cyce after I saw Alice on to the bus for her to get home across the city. Next time I must suggest that we meet closer to her home as we are on a bus route that literally goes door to door between our houses!

Today is another busy day with a lunch date planned in Dublin city with my mother and niece with the closing of the Ranelagh Arts Group Show after that. The finissage is on from 6-8pm and the weather promises to be pleasant so it should all work out very nicely. 

PIGSY's artwork "I like toast" is part of this show and you can read more about the painting here, or you can watch the video below of his recent solo exhibition in Ranelagh.