London baby!

After my recent few days in Canada the planning starts for the next trip!

Myself, Enid and Ciaran are travelling to London where Irish artist Pigsy is exhibiting in The Other Art Fair at the beginning of October.

Pigsy as you may know is the artist alter ego of my twin's husband, and as one of my side hustles I help him out with the sales of his artwork. 



Here's Enid and I at Ciaran's last solo exhibition. 

Signing the guest list is Mike Andrews the documentary maker who made the charming short film about Pigsy. Actually that reminds me, before London Enid and Ciaran already have a different trip planned. They will be going to Bristol where "Pigsy" is showing at the Bristol Film Festival.  Read all about that in Enid's blog here!

I am excited about London! I fly out on Wednesday evening to meet up with Enid & Pigsy, and we will make our way to our digs for the next couple of days. We have rented a cute little trendy flat in the Covent Garden area of London. The next day (Thursday) we will spend setting up the pieces and preparing for the opening reception that evening.  And then Friday, Saturday and Sunday we are working!

I am excited about meeting lots of interesting people and talking with them about Pigsy and his artwork.  Yes, don't worry it won't all be fun and chats, I will be working too!  Although if you are familiar with Pigsy's work you will know that the selling of the paintings tends to look after itself.  There is a buzz in Dublin about his work ever since his last exhibition and I am excited to be part of bringing that to London!

Watch out London! The three Irish amigos are coming!

Complimentary tickets!

If you are in London over the 4-7th of Oct do call in and see me at The Other Art Fair - if you  are interested in attending, click here to see info on Pigsy's blog about complimentary tickets. 

Nostalgia's not what it was

Following on from my blog post last week, the excitement about Irish artist Pigsy's exhibition (Nostalgia's not what it was) continues to grow. 

Pigsy as you know is my brother in law - and if you will allow me the immodesty I am just a little bit proud of him. And how could I be anything but, after coming across THIS in the Irish Times on Thursday.  Not bad being referenced in a piece with the incredible Jean-Michel Basquiat eh?!

For the online text of the article see here.  And for more info on Ciaran/Pigsy check out his website. 

If  you are around Dublin this Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun why not drop into the Fumbally Exchange on Dame Lane and say hi.  I shall be there most of the weekend helping out and enjoying the vibe :-)

Nostalgia's not what it was - a solo exhibition

Busy times for my brother in law Ciaran McCoy aka the Irish artist Pigsy. At the moment he is preparing for his second solo exhibition at the beginning of October.  He is also being filmed and interviewed by filmmaker Mike Andrews for a documentary Mike is making about him.  Oh and on top of that he only had one of the projects that he was lead architect on featured in the Sunday Times this weekend (I like to say he is an architect by day, and an artist by night!).

Anyway, I digress.  His exhibition!
Running over 4 nights in the very cool Fumbally Exchange, opening night is Thursday 5th of October and am sure will have a great buzzy atmosphere just like his last exhibition.  And then on Friday night there will be a street party vibe - the Fumbally Exchange is on Dame Lane which is always good on Friday nights!

Oh and.  Did I mention free beer?
Hope Beer will be showcasing their hand made Irish craft beers at the exhibition too

For more information about Pigsy check his website out here



 

Have a look at some fabulous photographs :-) Support is needed! Your vote counts!

My sister's house is in the final/down to the last 5 for an Architizer award. It is an international/global architecture competition and they are up against houses in Norway, Japan and Germany! 

Please can you give them a vote. There is a public choice award and a jury award. So while it is a long shot that they will win, wouldn't it be great to think that a small practice (ODKM Architects - facebook) in Ireland could win....so every vote counts! 

Hover over "Ranelagh House" and click vote - you can vote via facebook or with gmail. I think the fb option is easier... Thanks in advance all!

So in my post title I promised you some fabulous photographs!

click HERE to view and vote!

Choosing Bathroom tiles

As you know I am planning some home decoration.

Today I went to the bathroom shop and made a final decision on tiles for the bathroom.

I am getting the bathroom fully tiled (no painted walls) and for the walls I have chosen a white subway tile.  

With this tile I am going to do a black grout so it will be very brick-like.

Like this!

Then on the floor I eventually settled on a very plain cream/biscuit colour large tile.  Truth be told I had originally planned on a matt black tile but my brother in law of ODKM Architects advised me not to.

Below is a picture of samples the shop gave me of the white subway and the floor tile.

I am very happy with this look.

Room designs

Dear readers, be advised that over the next few weeks you will be reading a lot about my home decor project.  Already I am bored with it, so I hope it will not bore you too much - I find that after making the initial decisions I find everything else tedious.  

In particular I hate all the visits to stores and all the discussing with workmen and the scheduling of the work.  

I am very lucky though to have an architect/designer in the family - my brother in law is a partner in odkm Architects in Dublin so he is a great help.

Below are some very quick (5 minute) sketches he drew to give me ideas of how I should proceed (based on some of the furniture I have bought and some of the ideas I had).

LPA Open House

 

I am not sure if you know my sister Enid's blog?  She has been renovating an old house for over a year now.  Check out her blog here.

 

 

Anyhoo! Her house is finally finished and her husband (the architect) hosted an Open House event at the weekend.  I had the pleasure(!) of working at the event.

 



 

Goddamnit I covet this cocktail bar!  That's Bones the dog in front of it.



There was a great turnout and the event went very well.

 

For more photographs of the event and the whole renovation/house 

be sure to click on my sister's blog.

Enjoy!



Photo Shoot in LPA (my sister's house)

 

My twin sister and her husband have been renovating a derelict house for over a year now.  She has been blogging about the project since the very beginning so for any of you interested in that type of thing it makes for very interesting reading.  Click here to have a look at her blog.

 

Today is a big day for them!  They have been invited to appear in a UK interiors magazine talking about the build, and the photoshoot is taking place today. 

 

Below are some of the pics that Enid has sent me so far today.  The girl in the blue top is the stylist who is staging the house.  She told Enid that it is not actually a big job for today because they have already such a "strong look".  Enid was delighted to hear this - but really it should be such a surprise to her - her husband (Ciaran) has his own architects practice so if their house is not amazing there is no hope for any of the rest of us! 

 

Ciaran's practice is odkm Architects - he is the "M" - check out their website for design pics.

 

 

Stylist at work!  Painting of Bones in her hand (painted by Ciaran's dad)

Stylists "stylings" - that is Enid's first camera (Fisher Price) which the stylist found on a shelf and placed on the coffee table.

Photographer setting up. 

Note the book shelves in the background.  The stylist liked Enid's colour coding of her books.  Enid is a librarian so she could have shelved them using many different methods but she chose by colour, which is something that the late great Maeve Binchey also did (Enid did not know this before she chose to do this).

The stylist chose to place some of Enid's orange/yellow kitchen accessories on display.

Wet bar.

That is my blender on the counter over to the right!

 

 

If Enid sends me anymore photos I shall post them up. 

 

If you are interested in visiting this house and seeing it in the flesh an Open House event is planned in December.  Check out the odkm faceboook page and the event page for more information.

An excellent blog to follow...

This morning I went to visit a house that my twin sister and her husband have bought and are renovating.

It needed to be renovated from top to bottom, and from inside to out, so it is a huge project. But happily for Enid and Ciaran they are coming near to the end and hopefully it will be ready to move into the house in May.

Here is a blog Enid has been writing since they started the build: http://renovatinglpa.blogspot.com/
It's got some great pics and is a fantastic record for them to have in years to come.