Wildfox

Here is my new favourite item of clothing: my Wildfox track suit jacket. I just love it. It was perfect for my trip to Ireland, just right for travelling and with a nice big hood for rainy days. Colm took these photos in the garden and field at my parent's house where I grew up. Rusty car aside (my dad used it for parts for another car), it's a magical place, and spending a week there was wonderfully relaxing. There's nothing like going home.

What I'm wearing: jacket from Wildfox, top from Topshop, jeans from Gap, shoes from Vans, scarf is thrifted

Spring Cleaning

So I've been on a bit of a break from tweeting, instagramming, and blogging recently. Life got a bit overwhelming as I tried to take on more than I could at once, and I decided to take a step back from everything. I gave myself a few weeks of space, and I decided that when I got back from my trip home to Ireland with my boyfriend, I would start afresh, hoping that the break gave my mind enough time to freshen up; a spring clean of the mind, if you will. So here I am, back with lots of good resolutions which I will try hard to keep up. Here's to a fresh start! I hope you enjoy these photos, taken last week in my parent's beautiful garden in Ireland.

Everyday

This past week I haven't been doing a whole lot apart from working. Adjusting to a new routine, with Colm working different hours, has taken some getting used to as it means less time together as well as trying to make the most of the time we do have.

 

Some things I've been enjoying this week:

 

 

The flowers that Colm surprised me with on Tuesday when I had to work and he didn't. I woke up to the flowers and a wonderful breakfast of waffles, strawberries and cream.

 

 

My new Wildfox hoodie which my sister treated me to as an Easter present. I've wanted it for so long; ever since I saw it featured on this post on A Beautiful Mess in June last year. I can't wait to wear it for the first time!

Some new reading material: US Marie Claire, my favourite, also from my sister, and Wild by Cheryl Strayed, which I've wanted to read for absolutely ages.

I'll leave you with some silliness: bouncing cats and a dancing llama (I think)! Happy Sunday!

Portobello and The Beach House

This week, Colm and I decided to plan a trip to Portobello on our day off. It's always nice to have a change of scenery, and even nicer to be by the sea. Luckily the bus goes from right outside our house so we hopped on, and 40 minutes later we were at the beach. The first thing I did was take my shoes off to walk down to the water. Colm refused to paddle, but I ventured into the icy water for a few minutes until my feet started to hurt: it really was that cold! However, it was a beautiful sunny day so we were very lucky.

After we wandered along the beach we headed to The Beach House, which I had heard lots of good things about. I was not disappointed. Unfortunately it was too cold to sit outside, but inside was warm and inviting and we managed to nab the only free table. We both ordered the yellow split pea soup which was served with three slices of delicious fresh bread. It was perfect, warming and wholesome, and reminded me of my mums homemade soup. Then we managed to find room for tea and cake. I had the wonderful lemon cake that you see above and Colm had the chocolate fudge cake. The lemon cake was perfection. The sponge was delicate, moist and lightly flavoured while the filling was just incredible, like the best lemon curd you could ever dream of made into frosting. The service was brilliant too, and we will definitely be going back.

After our lunch we headed to Portobello Swim Centre which is located in what used to be Victorian baths right beside the beach. The interior is beautiful and we enjoyed the Turkish baths feature as well as going for a swim. All in all it was a lovely day out!
 

A Is For...

All Good Things - Mandy Moore

 

I adore this song. This was on the first Mandy Moore album that I ever listened to, and I fell in love with it immediately. It was bought for me by my sister, of course. She introduces me to so much of the music I love! And while I do like some of the songs from her more recent album, Amanda Leigh, these are the ones I keep coming back to. It's one of those albums that never fails to cheer me up (Few Days Down is particularly good for this) and it's also full of good memories. It was one of the few albums that I took with me on my first trip to New York at the age of 19 with my boyfriend at the time, and I remember sitting on the subway back from Manhattan to Queens, exhausted after a day of walking around a city so new and huge, so full of excitement, this song filling my head.

 

This is one of the songs that I can't help but belt out in the shower!

Anne Of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

And Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island, and Anne of Windy Willows, and Anne's House of Dreams, and Anne of Ingleside. I'm a big fan of all of the Anne books. I've read them all countless times, and I never get tired of reading them. I remember my Dad reading them to me when I was young, and I could almost recite along with him as I knew them so well. If you haven't read them it's a travesty, and you must! They contain the stories of a red headed orphan who comes to live on Prince Edward Island. Anne is full of imagination and always running into adventures and one scrape or another. There is joy and tragedy and magic in each book as Anne grows up, goes to college, becomes a teacher, gets married and has children.

She is definitely a kindred spirit of mine.

You can read a wonderful synopsis of the story, written by Margaret Atwood, here and another shorter piece here.
 

Ally McBeal

I don't think I need to explain this... Ally McBeal had too many hilarious moments to recount, but this video gives a little reminder of the Barry White dancing which happened throughout the seasons. Watching this video made me want to rewatch Ally all over again!

Afternoons

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” - Henry James

 

 

For me, the word afternoon conjures up wonderful images of afternoon tea complete with scones and tiny pots of strawberry jam and clotted cream. Afternoon tea at my parents house with tea and biscuits, a daily staple. Long afternoons in the summer, the sun slowly descending, the shadows getting longer, playing croquet and sitting on the lawn before dinner.

 

At the moment, working nights means that the afternoon is when I start my day. But I'm looking forward to a time in the future when I can reclaim my afternoons. And until then, when the clocks change on Sunday, maybe I can get up early and enjoy some afternoons at the park across the road over the next few months.

Ambitions

I promised to write something about me for each letter of the alphabet, so I thought I'd start with a little about my ambitions. When I was younger, I wanted to be a writer, a lawyer, all sorts of things. At the moment, age 23, I'm working in a bar to make ends meet. It's fine for now and I'm grateful to have a job at all, especially a one that is full time, but I hope that in the future I will either own my own small business (my main ambition, career wise) or have a job that is fulfilling in some way.

 

I would still love to become a writer someday too.

 

I hope that Colm and I can finally move into our own flat in 2013. Living with another couple is great money wise, but it would be lovely to have our own home. And I hope that one day we will own our own home, and have a family together.

 

Other than that, I just want to be as happy as possible, and healthy, and I want everyone that I know and love to be happy and healthy too. That's not too ambitious, is it?

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed the first post in my new blog series. Lots more to come!

A to Z

 

... A new blog series! I started thinking about it after I read one of the brilliant 'Things I Love Thursday' posts from Kaelah of Little Chief Honeybee which mentioned some of the blog series that she was currently enjoying. I liked the idea of something in the form of a list, and alphabetical seemed like a fun idea. It reminded me of the childrens game where you have to write different categories across the top of a page and then have to find something for each category with each letter (Insect, Food, Place: ant, apple, Austria).  

 

So from now until the end of the alphabet I will be doing a new list each week, starting with A (surprise surprise) in the next few days, with a new letter and five different categories: a favourite song, TV show or film, and book; something about me; and something random. Hopefully it will be a bit of fun and something a bit different. I'm already finding it hard to choose what to put on the list... some letters have far too many choices!

Are any of you planning anything similar?

Haircare Dilemmas

 

This is the current state of my hair.

 

At last it has grown to a length that I love, but cutting it all off three years ago and proceeding to dye it very blonde has wreaked havoc on my poor hair. I really need to get it trimmed, but I don't want to lose any of the length, so for now I am trying to give it as much moisture as I can until it grows a little longer.

 

I needed a new conditioner last week and decided to go for one from a childrens range, Tantrum. So far I love it: it's really creamy, smells great, and completely detangles my curly locks. Have any of you tried it? It's also free of parabens, and I figure that anything for childrens hair must be pretty gentle. Although I don't remember needing conditioner when I was a child!

 

I was using Organix Moroccan Argan Oil conditioner but although I liked the product I wasn't impressed with the packaging: after the first few uses it got really hard to squeeze the conditioner out, which led to me trying to balance on one foot while squeezing the bottle as hard as I could with both hands onto my knee so that I could scoop it back into my hands and onto my hair... it really shouldn't be this hard!

 

I also use the Toni and Guy Nourish Reconstruction Mask every once in a while and it seems to help a bit, even though I don't really believe that my hair CAN be reconstructed at this point!

 

The shampoo I use is a medicated one, Stieprox, and try as I might I can't wean myself off of it: my scalp gets so tight and dry without it.

 

So do any of you have any tips for undernourished hair?