Christmas is coming!

We called in to Brown Thomas in Dublin City after visiting "Yo! Sushi" for Sushi Sunday.  I couldn't believe it - the Christmas Shop was already open!!  I was in my element!  Ciaran was not too impressed, he said it should be against the law to sell Christmas items before Halloween.  Here's a few pictures of all the beautiful decorations.

                                                     

                                                 

What a lovely morning!

We are getting a security alarm fitted in the house today.  I was off work so I headed off for the morning to let the engineers do their thing.

I cycled to Rathmines firstly to do a few chores and potter around the shops.  I then called to Rathmines Library where I signed up for membership.  They had a very different selection of books to the Library where I work so it was nice to browse as a "borrower" rather than as a Librarian.  Obviously I couldn't help making comparisons between my work library and this branch library!  ;-)

I then cycled into town to meet my twin sister for something to eat during her lunch break.  She took me to the cutest little place, Estling & Anders, and treated me to a gorgeous hot chicken wrap with the nicest tangiest relish.  It was delicious!

After our food we got a coffee in OCB's and took a stroll around the area near her office.  

Twin coffees for the twinnies!

Here is a picture of a little food market that was on down at the canal - Amy works just a few steps away from the Canal.  Lucky girl!

The food market was just great!  There were about 20 different stalls selling various types of food including Thai Curries, Paella, Wings, Gourmet Burgers, Noodles, Burritos and also cakes and pastries.  There were loads of people sitting on the wall of the canal eating their delicious food.  I will definitely be meeting Amy here when the weather is warmer and we can sit out and eat in the open!

Here's a picture of Miss Amy!

Great days like this make me feel very blessed to live in Ireland!

Who is it?!

Recognise this pair?!

 Painted by Ciaran

And check out this little handsomer!!

 "Bones" painted by Ciaran's Dad

Bones outside the house - he is not an outside dog, he goes out to go to the bathroom and then immediately starts to whine to be let back in - I think he thinks he is human!

We went to Tribeca.....again!!!

If you are a regular reader of my blog you are probably getting a sense of what is my favourite restaurant in Ranelagh - it's Tribeca.  We are terrors for finding a restaurant we like and then continually going to it and never trying out any other place.

On Sunday we met friends for lunch and when they asked us to make a booking you can imagine what restaurant we chose!!!

The two friends were Frank & Eilish.  They brought their son with them and also Frank's sister and partner.  Frank loved the vibe of the restaurant, he was amazed by how busy it was and how there was such a good vibe in the place.  He had been speaking to the waiter about the steak special on the menu and he loved that when the waiter was delivering the steak to another table as he passed our table he nudged Frank and pointed out what the steak and eggs were like.  Frank turned to me and said "I got the nudge - I love that!!!"  

Food came out and it was gorgeous as usual!  I also had a nice glass of house wine.  I ordered the merlot (as usual - as pointed out by Ciaran!).  After lunch we walked to our house and had coffee and cake for afters.  A lovely afternoon with friends!!

Here's some photo's of Tribeca that I found on the Internet as well as a review of the restaurant.

Our conversation pit!

Yesterday I blogged about visiting the very cool and retro Sam Stephenson designed Conversation Pit in Number 31

Here's our take on a conversation pit - our upholstery was completed and delivered on Saturday morning.

10 people can comfortably sit on this couch - 12 if you are feeling friendly!!

How do you think it turned out??

House pictures!

It's been a long time since I posted pictures of the house.  Here are a few that I took this morning.  I hope you enjoy them and would love to hear your comments.

Artwork in the Master Bedroom - this was painted by Ciaran

                                   The Master Bedroom

                                                         
                                          Bathroom

This is the living room:

The glass stairs leading up to the studio.

The Lucellino Wing Lights in the Guest bedroom.

Here's the bed in the Guest Bedroom.

Here's the mantlepiece in the Guest Bedroom.  I have put my Paddington Bear's on the ground.  Check out the biggest bear - he's nearly 30 years old and he is one of the original design Paddington Bears - he is a much more solid bears then the newer ones.  I used to love reading Paddington Bear when I was younger, written by Michael Bond he will always be a favourite of mine.  Here is some trivia about Paddington Bear - Jeremy Clarkson's mother (of Top Gear fame) made and marketed the first Paddington Bear Teddy!!

The picture on the mantlepiece is of Picasso, it was painted by Ciaran's Dad.

Architecture in Ireland in 1950's

This morning we walked down to Number 31,  a mid century mdern beauty designed by Architect Sam Stephenson, which was open to the public as part of the Open House Architecture Festival.  

We were meeting friends at 2pm for lunch and tours of the guesthouse started at 12pm.  We got in line at 11.30am (we were in 2nd place) as we needed to have the tour completed by 1pm or so.  

Here's some pictures that I took of the place.

Here's the exterior of the building.  It is a mews so the entrance is down a lane at the back of a building.

 The Piece de Resistance in the house - the sunken conversation pit around the fireplace

 The ground was covered in tiniest white rectangular tile mosaics.

 We got to sit in the conversation pit to fully experience it - here I am making myself comfortable!

 To the back of the room was a bar that was tiled in mosaic mirrored tiles.  Very cool!!

The tour took about 20 minutes as we only toured a few of the rooms in the guesthouse - this is a working business so obviously we could not see the whole building.

You can stay in this guest house!   A word of warning though - some of the rooms are based in the main house so make sure you request a room in the Sam Stephenson house.

More info here!

Our conversation pit being built.

Click here to view our conversation pit!

And you can see the one off bespoke coffee table designed for the space in our Conversation Pit.