Sorting, moving, boxing

The epic clean up on my studio has commenced! As I mentioned earlier on the blog John will be moving to Cork for a year to do his Masters, so this means I need a new house mate to help with the rent. Which in turn means I've to move my bedroom into my studio!! We got lots of work done on it last week, and John was a great help getting things into our small attic. I've lots left to do this week, but I'll show you more photos of my studio/bedroom when it's totally finished.

Thankfully my really good friend Cecily will be moving in, so the worry of living with a stranger has been eliminated. It's all happening this weekend, I can't belive it rolled around so fast! Hopefully the year without John will go just as quickly.

Do you Love Limerick?

As lots of you may already know who are from outside Ireland, the lovely city of Limerick has a pretty bad reputation. Some bad stuff has happened here like any other city, but it was completely over blown by the media, cos bad news sells papers. All the positive cultural thing were ignored for years by the general media, and the city has suffered through lack of tourism. A good friend of mine Richard Lynch decided that to battle this problem in the only way he knew how, with positive action. Himself and a few other proactive folk in Limerick set up the website ILoveLimerick.com, to document all the amazing things happening here. It's an online tv station packed with interviews and footage of the city.
It's so great to see people facing a promblem and instead of gripeing about it down the pub, they gotten up and done something for themselves. I love the range of different topics that they cover from break dancing, theatre, sport, festivals, comedy and art. I've talked to Richard about maybe getting my own spot on it too, which would be lots of fun and great exposure too.

Note: If you watch the first video you'll see my very handsome boyfriend John Elliott talking about the history of Limerick.

Ode to St.Patrick

It's official I've been a very bold blogger over the past week or so, especially after my prolific start to the year. I do have a good excuse I've been a busy lady.
As usual I've been pumping lots of energy into my supplies shop, and I'm quite chuffed with how sales have been tipping away lately. So all the good work is paying off, for once :) . I've also been doing lots of sewing, developments are afoot with the shop that sells my work in Kilkenny....more exciting news of that next week I promise.
I've also been trying to get together some St.Patricks Day themed items for the upcoming celebrations. Etsy have made some noises about focusing their attention on this green holiday and I thought I'd hop on that bandwagon and see where it led me. During the week I made these quite sweet patriotic pincushions. I'm happy with how they turned out, they have the tricolour but they don't look like mantle piece decoration from the house of Darby O Gill.
Add on top of that Valentines Day, and myself Johns 3 year anniversary, all in all it's been a pretty hectic week!! Phew, I even feel tired typing all that.

New Camera....and Xmas Tree Pics

John let me have my new camera a few days early!! We went shopping today and picked it out, I chose a canon IXUS 95 IS, it's a handy point and click, with a pretty good macro for it's price range. We figured we would get by on this one until we can afford a better one later next year. I'm delighted to have a camera again, it's been so long since the last ones were robbed.

In the run up to Christmas I've been selling every day this week at the Bedford Row market, it has a lovely atmosphere there, and everyone seems really positive and cheery. On the other hand it is some of the coldest weather we have had in years. Today I thought my fingers were going to fall off with the cold. But I did come home to the lovely treat of a beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the front room. While I had been out in the bitter cold John got and decorated our tree. ...isn't it so lovely!!! ( The close up shots are of some decorations I made)

Wholesome Fun

As you know we decided not to hook up our television when we moved into this house. So it's been about 9 months with no tv and I love it. It does help that we have broadband so John can still get his fix, but to be honest I never really bother. In all that time I think I watched Off the Rails and Brides of Franc on the RTE website about 4 times and that's it.

Last night we had a wonderfully retro evening and played board games all night. We started with a game of trivial pursuit, which John won by the skin of his teeth. Then we had a little bit of Jenga, and I, thankfully, lived up to my previous title of Jenga Queen. After that John showed my the joy scalextrics (well a mini version). I got a little bored of that, and I really don't understand how you can play with it for hours on end. Lastly we finished of fwith a few games of mariokart on the Wii. It was a thoroughly wholesome and brady bunch night, and I loved it!

I Know Why Men Don't Shop

I spent all of yesterday shopping with my boyfriend John. We are going to a wedding just before Christmas and we needed to get him a suit. Thankfully we got the hard part done very easily and quickly. On the way into town we popped into the mens shop at the bottom of our street and he got a beautiful navy pinstripe suit which was in the half price sale. Now I know why poeple go to proper shops with assistants, they can tell by looking at you what size you are, show you what they have, and they are really pleasant. So all we had left to do was get a shirt, and maybe an over coat. Sounds simple right? Oh no, there is that awful issue of sizes, everything is massive, and really badly organised. God forbid you would ever want to buy something that fits properly! Also the selection of clothes ranges from beige to bland to vomit.

I will from now on totally understand when John comes home exasperated after a simple shopping task. I'm so glad I'm a girl and we have things like colour and cut in our clothes.

On a side note I'm toying with the idea of buying a new dress to go to the wedding. It's 110 euro, but I'm broke and I really shouldn't be spending that kind on money when I have a perfectly good dress in the wardrobe.

So to dress or not to dress?

Things I love Friday

I've decided to do a random things I like post inspired by Magatha-May's Things I love Thursday.

1. Twilight- yes of have joined the screaming hoards of teenagers and developed more than a little love for this teenage vampire story. I listened to the audiobooks this month, which of course led me to watch the film with the entertaining eye candy of Robert Pattison. I know it's a bit sad but it brings me back to my days as a teenage goth when I was obsessed with The Crow. As my friend called it today, 'cozy safe popcorn that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside'.

2. Warmth- as much as I love are lovely white house with open plan living, it's bloody freezing this time of year. Lots of glass, high ceilings, and a budget on the amount we can afford on heating is leaving me walking around with lots of layers of jumpers and blue lips. A part of me is missing the coziness of our little flat. Only a small part though, as aesthetics always wins out with me.

3. Kris-kindle- this genius idea is saving me a fortune this year. Usually I buy presents for my 3 siblings, their spouses, their kids, my parents, John, his family, and about 8 other close friends. Which all adds up to about 25 people give or take a few. Which is pretty pricey! So this year all I have to get is one present for a family member, presents for the kids, John, one friend, and Johns family! Yey, it's so much easier, less stressful and I can spend time choosing presents that people really want rather than panic buying on x-mas eve.

4. My Filofax- anybody that knows me from college would laugh if they heard I owned one of these. In my head it seems like such a grown up thing, like a mortgage or having children. I'm trying to become a reformed scatter brain. I try very hard, but sometimes I fail miserably and things fall by the wayside. So after bitching and moaning to John about how I've loads to remember and sort out he went into town and bought me a beautiful red leather filofax. It's brilliant, I have all my deadlines, projects, addresses and phone numbers in the same place. Why didn't I get one years ago!!

The Little Things in Life

It's always the little things in life that make a difference. The other day we eventually sorted out our lack of wardrobes after months of living in this house. It's so nice to wake up in the morning and not have to dig through piles of clothes that have been living on the floor. It's really not the most beautiful wardrobe in the world...but in my eyes it's magnificent

In other news I am still buttton washing and listing, I roped John into to helping today, but we watched Rambo while we were sorting them so it was reall manly...I swear. As you may have guessed John is a bit of a superhero boyfriend. He may not cook, but he emties the bin, helpes with laundry, and now and then does very girly things like sort buttons, and staples labels onto packages. Gold star and a mexican wave for John.

Photoshop Hell

This week I've been doing lots of design things rather than sewing. My boyfriend John has been working on a medival map of Limerick city for the Civic Trust for the past year and a half, and it's due in this week. Many months ago I convinced him not to collate his book by copying and pasting old style with glue, scissors and a photocopier. I said I would help him with photoshop and that it would be properly designed. A simple task of colouring in a map, developed into a 20-odd page booklet with illustration and an A1 size map. It was at this point that I realised he didn't know how to copy and paste, or even how to open a document in photoshop!! Eek. What followed was not an idylic scene of a young couple working from home together in bliss, chatting holding hands and drinking coffee. No it turned into a bickering mess. It's true when people say don't teach your other half to drive, it becomes a bit power struggle, and nobody learns anything. So many months later he has become fairly handy with the programme, although now and then he asks me shockinly simple questions, I think it must be just to annoy me. So for the past week he has been surgically attached to our lovely computer, while I sit in the background and answer questions every 5 minutes. We got there in the end but I must put my hand in the air and admit that we are not one of those couples that work well together.

Ps; I saw the most shocking style faux pas today, white velure tracksuit bottoms with an illuminous yellow thong popping out of the top. I would have taken a pic to show you all that it really happened but A) that's really creepy B) I do believe if I was caught the girl in question may have strangled me with said thong

Thanks

It's my 2 year anniversary today with my wonderful boyfriend John. So this post is in hommage to him(although he will never read it as he thinks my blogging addiction is mental). Here is to that quiet customer who shyly ordered pints off me for two years and didn't say anything. To my friend Cecily who decided to go home early and leave me in the nightclub by myself with nobody to talk to. To John's brother,Paul, for getting us talking and then tactfully disapearing for a couple of hours. To Paul's girlfriend for insisting that we come back to hers for beers even though I lived next door to the club. To me for having the balls to get his number and text him a few days later, cos this one felt different than all the shit I'd been through for the previous few years. To both of us for being brave and not putting up walls, when sometimes that seemed like the safest thing to do. To John for taking a huge risk and moving in with me after 4 months of going out together. To John for staying strong and quiet when I needed to cry and rage against how hard this business has been. For the night I shouted and screamed at him because I was so angry at everyone because Dad was sick. For getting up every Sunday, on his only day off, and hauling all of my stock down to the market, and not complaining....and all the rest in between.
Thanks
(Ps: the photo is a bit odd because I haven't transferred all my files from the old computer yet and this was the only one I could find, it's after a Celtic reconstruction weekend, he smelt like charcoal, mead, sweat, and dirt)