Living room

Ah sure a few more pics why not!

Dining/living room

A few more pics of my kitchen/dining/living room...

Table for four!

How cute is my table set with my favourite flamingo and pineapple glassware!

Towels n accessories in my bathroom

Few more pics of my towels etc in the bathroom - replaced black (eugh!) towels with white with a grey stripe.

Personally I'd prefer plain white - may still end up doing that...

Painting of Liberty Hall, Dublin

With our recent house refurbishment we have some items that need to be rejigged, replaced or rehomed.

Below is a beautiful painting of Liberty Hall in Dublin painted by my twin sister's father-in law Brian McCoy.  

I love this painting (and the subject) but I don't have a place for it in my house now.

SO! I am going to send it over to my sister who lives in Oman.  I know that when I was living abroad I always loved having Irish things on display - to show to people, plus to remind me of home.

So Lydia, if you are reading this from Oman here is the painting all bubble wrapped and packed, for you!

Ikea trip

Few small purchases this morning!

Lampshades for living room, hall & landing.

Bottles for juice & water in the fridge

Alert! Work in progress! 

I bought a clothes rack for a short term solution to this room - what used to be an ensuite bathroom (which was never used) - and what will be a walk in wardrobe in the future.

I originally went for black towels in the bathroom originally but my lord did they show the dirt - in particular toothpaste stains.  

I have now switched out to a white towel with a grey stripe.

Lifehack - how to clean your retainer / mouth guard

From browsing the internet for a solution to this "smelly" problem it seems that it is a problem for a lot of people, not just me.

I wear a mouth guard (to prevent teeth grinding) at night and one yucky thing that happens is that it gets quite dirty - stained - and even worse very stinky!!!!

The staining I can handle.  But the smell is really unbearable.

There doesn't seem to be one failsafe cleaning solution available on the internet.  A lot of the items like soaking in denture solution or mouthwash cannot be be used longterm as it damages the guard.

So here is what I have come up with!

1. Give it a quick rub over with toothbrush and toothpaste every morning

2. Give it a good scrub once a week with  toothbrush and toothpaste 

3. Store it in water every day i.e. it's either in your mouth or in water

And finally my NEW suggestion (I did not see this anywhere else on the internet)

4. Wash it with washing up liquid/fairy liquid/dish cleaning detergent.

I was nervous about it initially but then I figured you use it for glasses/cutlery and crockery which you then consume food from and it's okay, so why not this?  I did give it a good rinse after though to make sure there were no remains of dish soap on it.

Most importantly it got rid of that bloody smell!!!

I won a prize!

A fantastic prize at that!

My work is currently running a Health & Wellbeing week. 

One of the events today was a sudoko competition.  All correct entries went into a draw for 5 prizes and my name was one of them pulled!

I won Scrabble!  Which is actually one of my favourite boardgames.

But seriously, I am actually a bit embarrassed about winning because the sudoko puzzle was so bloody easy.

It should really should have been much more challenging.  

Like I'm not really much of a maths brain and being honest I generally hate sudoko but this one, you just had to look at it and the answers were obvious.

So considering I found it too easy, God only knows what the actuaries and fund accountants made of it!!!!!

Christmas sweater

I went charity shop (thrift store) shopping yesterday and got a real bargain!

I picked up really kitsch cute cardigan for Christmas day.

Only €6! 

Unused!  Tags still on it!

I wonder how much this would be if purchased new??

Crazy cat playing with, and scared by, a wet feather!!!!

Check out this video of Harry playing with a wet feather.  

He seems equally fascinated with it, and scared by, it at the same time!

Pet Bow Tie

Popped into Avoca on Suffolk Street for a look around and look what I found!

Best tenner I've ever spent in my whole life! :-)

"Fits any collar" is not strictly true - I had to stitch it smaller to fit Harry's collar (which is about the size shown in the picture on the packaging)

How adorable does Harry look???!!!!

Harry!!!!  Boldie!!!

There he is, looking all sophisticated in his smart new bow-tie and he has to go and contort himself like something from The Exorcist!

Olive Green, Grand Canal

Just outside my train station this morning there was a girl giving out little tickets for a new coffee shop around the corner.  Special offer of any tea or coffee for a euro.

So never one to turn up my nose at a special offer I popped around at 10am for cup o' joe.

First a funny picture of me holding the ticket which has a picture of the shop in front of the shop.

I like this photo :-)

Now I'm not a tea person but seems to me that is an interesting little section of tea offerings.

How cute are their cups!

My coffee: 

I am sad to report that my skinny cappucino wasn't great. 

It was really really sweet or something.  Almost as if there was sugar in the bottom of the cup before they started pouring in the coffee.  (I don't take sugar in my coffee).

But while it wasn't great, it wasn't the worst either...and for just €1 it was grand.

Living room transformation

Before

After

This photo has some gaps!  We will put a large picture on the right hand wall.  New tv cabinet is on order!  Plus need to choose new lightfitting / lampshade for main overhead light.

Guest Bedroom (after)

I have no before shots of the guest bedroom (it was an afterthought that I would do this room) but basically it was very plain white walls, with one blue wall.

The walls are now painted the same colour as the downstairs and hall, stairs and landing.  I got the same carpet everywhere as well.

And then the major change I switched the cast iron bed room from the master bedroom to this room.

The new bed linen and curtains are from IKEA(!!!) of course!

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

...who is the fairest of them all?

As part of our home decor project we needed a mirror for our hallway.  Previously we had a little rectangle cheap gold framed mirror - left from the previous tenants when we bought the house 7 years ago (the shame!)

So we went on a mirror hunt.  We didn't have a massive agenda or idea,  figured we'd probably get a plain and simple mirror.

Well that was the plan until I spotted THIS!!!!!

In argos of all places!

And reduced to half price!!! (Only €35)

How divine is it.  

Art Deco is one of my favourite designs/periods so I am ecstatic to have a small piece of "deco" in my house.

We have positioned it over a little book press or what we refer to as the "what not".  

I am so happy with the mirror in design!

And also, it is a great size so reflects great light into what is a very dark hallway.

So, what's the verdict?!

Hallway, stairs and landing transformation

Before

After