busy busy busy

alpacaI've been making away for a Christmas fair in sandymount on the 16th of December so I've been awol from here.
here is some of the things i have been making. broochs, hair clips etc with gorgeous soft alpaca wool and vintage buttons.
more later xxx

Halloween fun

picsartbeen gettin into the Halloween spirit! lol check out the fun I've been having with face paint and picsart

Ikea find!

Today we went to Ikea as a treat for my daughter. she wanted to buy some pink stuff for her room as a reward for keeping it neat and tidy. while I was there I spotted these cute wall stickers.
My box room is very small and needed a little bit of a lift, so when I spied these in the exact colours of my box room, I was delighted! The stickers themselves were very easy to put up and even had a pattern idea. Of course I changed it slightly but I think it works really well.

so Taa daa, that was me for the day.

well except for my piles of fabric and auction bargains! But for that you will have to wait!

Picsart!!!

I use an android phone and i downloaded the coolest little app called "Picsart". Its great it lets me edit, collage, add clip art, frames etc. Its great for uploading pics to facebook, instagram or here.

 I can edit a little bit or even go all out with colour edits or filters. I got the free version which means I have to suffer ads but its quite good so far. Check out some of the features I could do with the same photo..

text function and b&w blur, then some clip art

Collage function

 some frames, clip art and text.

and the original...

The Cedar Tree

Yum Yum Yum

We had dinner in The Cedar Tree last week, it was delicious. It was a Saturday night and we were a group of 5, 4 adults and 1 10yr old. We were celebrating my sexy partners bday, and new job. For anyone who hasn't been it is a Lebanese restaurant on St.Andrews St in Dublin 2. We were sited downstairs and I have to say its an experience from the moment you walk down the stairs. The tables are so nice, a mixture of wood, Mosaic and glass, really comfy and warm, a very welcoming arrival. 

The staff seated us straight away, it was busy but not packed so the atmosphere was nice, friendly and not rushed. 

The food... oh my goodness, my little one hates spicy food so I was worried she might not have enough to eat but boy was a wrong. We ordered a mezze  plates for everyone, it was a mixed starter course of lots of little dishes and the dishes just kept on coming. Hommos, baba, tabouleh, basterma, makanek, sujok, mouhammara, garlic mushrooms, arayess, olives & pickles. Main Course: Beef shawarma with spiced potatoes & salad... oh it was divine. Big pittas to mop and dip with as well. The staff kept the water and wine flowing...

They even came over with a bowl of ice cream for my daughter without us even ordering! 

There was entertainment as well in the form of an amazing belly dancer, Dancing would not even describe what she could do. I swear her body was vibrating rather then moving, it was incredible. Some of the staf joined in with the dancer and even some other customers. Now I make this clear it was by choice they joined in, I have been in restaurants where you sit in fear you would be pulled into the evenings show or have over enthusiastic staff harress you but this was not the case. You want to join in, join in, if not sit eat enjoy the show in a relaxed atmosphere...

I would definitely recommend!

sometimes its just Milk...

Tuesday was a bad day, I was not well at all. 

Join my pity party, we serve snacks.

Woke up feeling crap but still had to walk my daughter to school, moms don't get days off and to be honest if there was a bus route to school I would have taken it that day. Headed straight to the doc after school ( flu/chest infection, take antibot's, rest etc). 

My Parents live a few doors up from our doc so I popped in to their house afterwards to be greeted by my mum looking as bad as me on her way to... yep our doctor. Now normally if both me and my mum were sick we join forces under one roof and have a duvet day but to be honest we were just too sick. Bed and not vomiting were all we could think about.

 My very very kind dad drove me back to my house, were I layered myself in fourteen jumpers and headed to bed.. I was shivering like mad so couldn't sleep. Tea or Horlicks I thought would do the trick...

So I climbed out of the layers, down the stairs, boiled the kettle, pour it out, then...

Yep, You guessed it!  No Milk...

Cue tears, I mean, I wept... last straw and all that...

Sometimes its not a great tragedy that reduces me to sobs sometimes its just milk.

 Isn't this lamp such a great idea!!! 

Its from our window display in Daintree. The brainchild of our Manager Ali. She got a selection of different ribbons and knotted them over the wire frame to make that fab mis-matched pattern. It has a low Watt bulb in it just for safety sake but it looks amazing in the window now the nights are getting darker... 

Wouldn't it be a great idea to match any room... just pick your ribbons to match your colour scheme... 

I love it, great thinking Ali!!!

Mad Family

No this isn't an alternative Brady bunch, this is some of my cousins, Nana and some aunts. All modelling a hat made by our newest Knitter Lisa!!! 

Lisa is the least crafty of all of us but not because she isn't creative, she's just never tried. Last week My aunt Lettie was sabotaging her trying to make pom poms, Lettie wasn't paying attention to her so she kept doing it wrong by not tying them closed and the result was wool all over the floor. 

So to get revenge she decided to make Lettie the biggest Pom Pom ever. Not only did she make the huge pom pom on the hat but she also knitted the hat itself!!!! proud does not even begin to describe it, we have a new knitter in the family!!!!!

What you think, didn't she do amazing for a first time?

Purple Rain

I'm no wall flower and over the ryears I've been all shades from brunette to red to blonde. I also wanted a bit of a change. I considered dipping different dye colours at the ends but was convinced out of it so instead I wanted purple streaks. I'm a big fan of kelly osbourne and I love the grey/lilac/purple shades she's rocking at the moment. I didn't want to go the hole hog because to be honest the upkeep is just too much. I couldn't be arsed to sort out my roots every week so streaks seemed the best idea.

Check out as I washed it, what a great colour

It was such a fun day getting it done, lots of giggles! My fab hairdresser put it mid lenght down my hair in the front. I can't believe how great it came out, and I'm looking forward to the fading as well so I can see the colours coming thru... I may hate it in two weeks time but hey I can just bleach it out...

A Wedding, A Fair

So I spent my weekend smiling at random people at a wedding fair in citywest and normally its all very samey but this time there was some stand out vendors who I loved so let me take a second to show them off. 

First is the Primrose Cottage Cakes, check out there button cake, I want I want. There cakes were so simple, elegant and attractive. I see so many cakes that are SO ott they miss the mark. These cakes were so beautifully made and designed they didn't need diamonds and gadgets to shine. I loved them

Next is a great idea Dressesbyme.ie, you can log on and design your bridesmaid dresses yourself, you pick the length, the sleeves, the colours. Its a great idea, no more searching to fit three different body types you can just get three different shapes in the same colour and fabric. Great Idea

Colour madness

Coming soon, 

what colour will 

I dabble with for my hair....

An ode to Steve

I miss my friend, I didn't think about it too much until I saw a picture of him on the plane. It suddenly hit me, I couldn't text him and have a pint after work. I couldn't run around to his and complain to him at the drop of the hat. It hit me that my friend had actually left. 

I know I'm a johnny come later to his friendship. I actually only know him 5 years but he's a good 'un... 
Growing up I didn't have male Friends I didn't grow up in the same place, moved quite a lot and went to an all girls schools, so it was only when I was older  that I started to have male Friends. I did stupidly fall in the "Harry met Sally" with some male Friends and lost their friendship when i broke up with them. But me and Steve's friendship was different. 

To start he's my mates Ex, I originally met Steve when He was dating my friend. When she left to study abroad we came together in mutual loneliness, spent many a evening eating steak and Watching classic rom-coms like "let the right one in". He went from being Aoifes boyfriend to my friend and it was amazing. I finally had that logical male perspective on all my craziness. He cheered me up like only a male friend can, by not indulging my weepy I miss him rants but instead pointing out the likeness of my ex to a animation rat... I went from tearing up to giggling when I thought of my ex. We had special sayings that would crack us up, spent nights in our local arguing crazy things like what was on the sponge they gave Jesus on the cross.. Yeah that ridiculous 

and as the counting crows say 
Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got til its gone

They paved paradise 

And put up a parking lot 

So go learn to be animated, you are an amazing artist, I would buy all your work If I had a bigger house to put it all, thank you for all the support and advice you've given me over the years. Your a great guy and because of that I could recognise another great guy when he came and swept me off my feet. So Steve I'll miss you  and I'm here should you need anything call and I'm there...

Wool Bottles

Lightbulb moment!!!

I had Friends coming over for a knitting party so needed to tidy up. I had a bag of wool in one hand and empty bottles in the other when DING DONG, a cool idea emerged. I got out my trusty double sided tape and got to work.

I wanted to use the empty bottles to make a centre piece for my table, so I got one wine bottle and two smaller beer bottle. Washed them out really really well so there was no scummy beer smell left. I wrapped the doubled sided tape around the top of bottle and put two vertical strips of it down the sides of the bottle, then all i had to do was wrap the wool around it. I started at the top and worked my way down the bottle then i criss crossed my way back to the top. I wanted to leave the end piece inside the neck of the bottle so i pushed some glue down the neck and secured the loose piece inside. 

Taaaa Daaaaa!!! 

The wool I used was really hairy fuzzy wool my mum got me in turkey but I might try it soon with different colours of dk wool, I'll put up a picture if I do. To finish off the look I put in some paper flowers I'd made before from this tutorial on the rockandrollbride.com  find it HERE

Its what on the inside that counts...

These cookies look a bit minging to be honest but it justs proves 

its what on the inside that counts coz there only massif!!! 

Heres the recipe coz its super easy to do, 

preheat oven to 180

in a bowl, feck in

5oz of flour

5oz of sugar

4oz of soft butter

half tsp of baking powder

2 tbsp on peanut butter

1 egg

now stir like mad til its all mixed in like a big ball of batter, now heres the fun part

throw in anything you like, walnuts, marshmallows, choc chips, coconut...

approx 3oz of whatever you like, 

in the cookies above I mixed marshmallow, hazelnuts and coconuts 

and some cinnamon ( i heart cinnamon)

Lay them out on trays using a tbsp, put a lump the size of a tbsp of cookie on the tray and leave room to spread around them, like i did in the picture. 

Cook for 15 mins til there slightly brown at the sides, they will still be soft when you take them out but they go hard when they cool..

now mmmmmmmm,mmmmmm,mmmmmm COOKIIES!!!!!!!!

Coming Soon...

I will soon explain what I'm doing with alcohol, a coffee jar 

and cinnamon but for now you can ponder that one.. 

Any guesses???

Fashion Sin

I have learnt my lesson about teasing other peoples fashion choices and I'm going to share that with you. The above bag was meant to be a joke! My aunt Trisha is crazy and a total magpie for handbags. On a few occasions we have had to pull her screaming from shops or pry the ugliest bags made, out of her hands. So to tease her for what I ignorantly believed to be bad fashion sense I decided to make her a really ugly bag for her birthday. 

I went to Pennys in the omni centre and bought the navy bag, then I went mad in the accessorise dept buying crazy coloured necklaces for the straps. Next on my shopping trail was the Arts and Hobby store where I bought glitter glue, fabric roses and butterflies. I went home and got to work. The idea I had was to make a bag so disgustingly OTT that she would get a giggle from it.

My poor OH Mic was totally confused when I started to stick it together, I hadn't told him it was a joke present so when I started drawing glitter diamonds and shouting "I need ore tacky stickers", He was bit confused. He was trying to be diplomatic and not ask "What the hell are you doing". Anyway i was finally finished and thought it looked tacky enough and sent a photo to my mother for her to giggle. To which she replied "You know she may like it"... oops

The day finally arrived to hand over the gift and My mother was right, My Aunt loved it. Absolutely loved it. As in she wanted to wear it outside... in public. 

I was shocked, did she not realise this was (excuse my french) a piss take????

 But you know what was the best bit, she loved it coz I went to loads of different shops, planned it for ages, spent hours gluing and sticking to make her laugh. Just like you'd love your kids weird drawings she loved it coz I made it for her. So thats the end of my teasing other fashion choices, she looked past me teasing her and saw the good intention behind so I guess i should do the same. 

Entirely unique, extremely colourful, crazy and fabulous, I think that describes the bag and Trisha

Baking with Mom

Today I was baking with my ten yr old daughter Ceri. We have some friends coming over so a bit of homemade goodness was in order. So first thing I do is pull out my trusty recipe book. I have a brown leather notebook I bought in Daintree Paper in camden street a few yrs ago. Every time I find a recipe that really works well or one that Ceri and I have made up it goes into the book. In the long term I want it to become our family recipe book so maybe one day ceri can use it with her daughter. 

My mum isn't mad for cooking or baking, her favourite line is "I fed you because it was the law", she doesn't see the point of baking and the idea of it being fun is a concept too far for her. In fact on many occasions she's said "I'd rather boil my own head". The thing she doesn't recall is that the few occasions we baked together were special to me, I can remember vividly the day she gave me and my little brother the day off school so we could make Christmas puddings, pouring in the little bottle of Guinness, getting out the big pot for boiling, It was all so special. A memory of family working together, filled with Delicious smells, dipping your finger in the mix, robbing raisins. It was the greatest fun ever and that's what I want to hand down to my daughter. 

My idea is that baking and cooking is an extension of your love, its a time we can create together and hopefully she'll have memories like that too. I always make cakes for birthdays rather then buying them, corny as it sounds, its baked with love and you know yourself its means so much more that someone took the time to bake a cake for you instead of just putting the candle on top. 

I agree with the American Soul Food philosophy, cook with love and pass it on...

Scribble wibbles

I've started to pick up pencils, paints and pastels after a good few years. Its great to be able to play again, I think it was always the experimenting part of art college I always enjoyed more then the finished product. I think  that feeling never left. I have been playing with quick sketches and having fun doing so, this one below was the view from the 16 bus flying along Dorset street on a drizzly but not too wet evening.

That reminds me of a conversation I had with some Australian friends during the summer, on seeing the drizzle outside the Aussies said "aw its raining" to which all the Irish people in the room said that's not rain. This totally befuddled them all how can rain not be rain! anyway I'm rambling. rambling not sketching, sketching good rambling bad so goodbye.

Taaa Daaaa

LOL... OK I didn't make the wool monster but my lovely Mic 

agreed to pose with the scarfs I finished tonight... 

I think he rocked the look!!!

Loopy summer winter ramble

Today I'm continuing on with my knitting buzz, this may be a xmas present for someone but for the moment I'm denying that fact because 1. its too early to mention Christmas and 2. there is a chance they may read this.

So... knitting. The wool you might recognise as "loopy" by Rico. its a fun wool, you only use 8 stitches and size 8mm needles and it knits up really y really quickly. I buy mine from a guy called Sean in mother red gaps market in Coolock, He charges the same as Springwools and Stitch.ie but you know what Hes lovely, He recognises my mum whenever she goes and always has the colours we want and (this is a big AND) He takes back our leftover wool from projects. 

There is a whole range of colours but i love the bright mad colours of its summer colours. 

OK I know people don't associate cold winter with summer colours but damn it i think we should. Its cold outside, everything is grey and miserable so isn't it the most suitable time to be wearing brighter colours. reclaim the winter, Viva la Framboise!

teddy cushion

pomthis little guy is called pompomerian! he started as a cushion for our couch but it just looked to pale when it was done. so i added pom poms to each corner. one for a nose and a New friend for ceri was born. happy days.

i used big softy wool for the body and sewed it onto a cushion base so its hand wash only. but Ceri lots him.

And so it begins

So I make stuff. A lot actually. I bake, I sew, I knit, I read tarot cards. I make cards, not tarot cards but maybe someday. Anyway I get distracted, I have great ideas, make great stuff and give it away or forget about it but no more. Ok really no more. I am going to blog and blog and blog. Not just start and forget I have a blog but post on it regularly. Maybe someone will read it, maybe they won't but the point is its here. This is a public record of what I'm doing, a public diary or journal of my crazy craft exploits or ideas. So here goes...