Spilt Needles

Hello everyone! I decided to write a quick mid-week post to tide myself over until the weekend. I wanted to do Monday's post in two parts so this is sort of part one of Monday's post. Hmm..I don't really know how that works but it does in my head! I wanted to show you some of the things I picked up in work on Friday when I got paid (well actually I didn't get paid until Saturday due to a very bad "clerical error", but it was payday in my head so I bought some things anyway).

[Regal Heart Brooch]












[Antique Lace Alice Band]




[Enchanted Butterfly Bangle]




[Woodland Feather Statement Alice Band]




[Mega 80s Chain Stud Earrings]




[Oversized Button Stud Earrings]

I also ordered some Clarks boots from ebay the other day [see image below]. I already have 2 pairs of Clarks boots, both the same style but in two different colours, Brown and Black (The brown pair have been sitting in my wardrobe for six months waiting to have their heel mended). I bought the brown pair over a year ago in the store (for less than half price) and then the other pair on ebay months later when I realised they came in black. They are so so comfortable, which is why I splashed out on 2 pairs and they are the perfect shape on me! I don't know if everyone has this problem but I just find it so difficult to find a pair of boots that are comfortable, a good neutral colour, the right shape on me and not too expensive. I got them at a third of the price they were in store too! I hope they fit me and are comfortable, I'll let you know how it goes!

[Clarks Mayhem Miss Ebony Boots]

So what do you make of my purchases? I just love the key necklace! I've had a bit of an obsession with ornate keys ever since seeing The Secret Garden in the cinema for my sister's 6th birthday (I think). It's such a magical film, and very scary too. The big house is amazing! I always loved when Mary went exploring and found all the secret passageways (and garden of course). I wanted to dress like her when I was a kid, wearing the red woolly hat, the duffle coat, the straw boater hat and pretty white dresses with ribbons in my hair.

[Image found here]




[Image found here]




[Image found here]

That was a bit off point, but it brings up an interesting question; Who did you want to dress like when you were little?

That's all from me for today, I should really go make dinner! Hope you are all having a lovely week so far. I want to leave you with this song that I've been playing over and over this past week, the album came out a few years ago and I saw them live 2 summers ago, which was one of the best gigs I've been to. This was my favourite song on the album when I first heard it and still is. Enjoy!






Em xxx

Wet Hot Irish Summer

Greetings friends! I've been quite busy since last Thursday. I think this is the first opportunity I've had to catch up on blogging (both reading and writing). I had a bit of an internetless weekend, partly by choice and partly because I was away so there wasn't the convenience of just sitting down to use the laptop. It felt so good to get out of the city for the weekend. You may remember my ramblings from last week about how irritated I was becoming by living in the city? Well I think the couple of days away did me the world of good. My boyfriend and I went to stay with our friend in Carlow which is also where my boyfriend grew up and where his family lives (apart from his brother who lives in Scotland, but he was over here for the weekend too!). It was late when we arrived so we went straight to Niall's house and ordered chinese food and sat in the garden having a few drinks. We also watched Wet Hot American Summer which I don't think many people over here have seen, but it's one of those films that is so funny every time you watch it. It's got a great cast too, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks would be the most well known from the cast but there's a lot of other great comedic performers including a few members of the cast of the early 90s MTV show The State.

Photo Credit: Here

On Saturday we went over to my boyfriend's parents' house and had a lovely barbeque with his family. We had lovely food, including strawberries, cream and meringues for dessert. In the afternoon we went to see Donnacha's parents building that they are renovating for their business and then for a stroll around town. We came back that evening and sat out in the garden drinking some wine and beer and listening to the Beatles, the Beach Boys, David Bowie and The Kinks. It was a really relaxing evening, I miss having a garden to sit in when the weather is nice. We had a lovely roof garden in our apartment building last year but unfortunately we didn't get to make much use of it.

Wilson- Niall's Lady Cat

The old kitchen in the building with amazing mustard yellow colour scheme





Donnacha messing about on the old staircase

Ice Cold Cider on a Warm Summer Evening











An old 2 pence piece that I found under some rubble at the building site. Lucky?




Tails




Donnacha's dog Snapper finished off the crisps









My new (new for me) Coach bag!












Bow Jewellery!




My man's watch




Donnacha's mom gave me these old sunglasses that were just gathering dust in a drawer




Modelling my new (old) sunnies

This Guy




The weird outdoor chimney thing

On Sunday late morning we had a full Irish breakfast and then set off for home. It was a lovely weekend away but it's always good to be home. Last night we went to a gig in Anseo on Camden Street. Simon was playing bass for his new housemate's band. It was nice to catch up with friends and listen to some music to round off the weekend. My sister stayed over last night and we all watched the new episode of the IT crowd! It was great! It made me want to go back and rewatch all the other seasons. I'm sure I will at some stage.

The wonderful clouds on the way home




Sean Lynch and Friends

I was so happy to receive my coach bag in the post on Thursday! It's always nice to get something in the mail, but especially the day before payday. It's such a great bag, I can't believe how little I paid for it. Speaking of which, funny story; I got an email last night from the ebay user who sold me the bag. In the email she said that I owed her just over $11 extra for shipping because it cost her more than she thought it would. I found this absolutely hilarious and very confusing as it had been 2 weeks since I paid for the bag (which I paid for as soon as I was emailed the invoice) and the price that she quoted me as costing her was not the price on the envelope which I happened to still have. So really it only cost her a little over $5 extra for shipping. But the way I saw it, it was her who underestimated the shipping costs and I had paid the costs she had quoted under the item shipping and handling charges on the item page. I think she must be just chancing her arm that I would fall for it. Needless to say I retracted my positive feedback. What a joke! I love the bag anyway!

So that was my weekend. How was yours? Did you have any adventures?

Until next time...

Em xxx

Free Stuff, Packages, Strawberries and Cous Cous

It's Wednesday! I've been having a nice week so far. Work is going well and the weather has been lovely which always cheers me up. On Monday I went to see a film called Wild Target with my friend Simon (Sven) and my boyfriend. I still don't know whether I loved it or hated it. I think I was the only one laughing (yet again). The boys didn't like it at all, they were only laughing at the goofyness of it. It was very messy and the performances were a bit all over the place, but I enjoyed it all the same, and I love Emily Blunt!





When I got home from the cinema I had 2 packages waiting for me (and one for my boyfriend). I got mascara that I ordered from ebay because it's one that's not available here. The other package I thought was going to be the other pairs of 50c fake eyelashes, which I actually received today, but instead it was black fake nails that I won from the Glamour Magazine website! It's really nice to win something, even if it is something small. I had great fun with the nails. I haven't used fake nails since I was about 13 and I think it was only the one time because I found them unmanageable to wear all day. However these ones, as well as being a great colour were nice and short so it doesn't feel like I'm wearing fakes at all. My boyfriend won something too! The package that arrived for him was a DVD of Where the Wild Things Are. He also entered a competition online. I can't wait to watch it again because I really loved it when I saw it in the cinema. I think the reason I liked it so much (apart from it being a great film with great performances) is that it reminds me of one of my favourite childhood films Labyrinth. The basic plot is the same, a kid having a hard time at home retreats into a world they've created in their imagination. I'll talk more about Labyrinth another time because I love it so much so I don't want to just skirt over it and leave it at that. Maybe it will be the focus of an upcoming Film Friday!

[You might remember these sunglasses from Sunday's post, I tried them on and went back and bought them on Monday because I liked them on me so much. They were €10 in the Market Arcade on Georges Street.]











Cous Cous- The Food So Nice They Named It Twice!
[with longstem broccoli, butternut squash, red peppers, sunflower seeds, pomegranate kernels, asparagus and lemon dressing]





My favourite cold drink- Diet Coke with ice and lemon slices




Strawberries for dessert

Yesterday my mam met me after work and we went to a little bakery in Temple Bar for lunch. We got coffee and sandwiches and sat out in the sun. Then we went and got iced mochas in Butler's Chocolate Café. I also finally got my hair cut professionally after 2 years of cutting it myself and letting it grow. About 2 years ago I got really bored with it and chopped it all off and totally hated it so I let it grow out trimming it now and again. I also gave myself bangs which I liked but they were too hard to look after because my hair is so curly I would have to straighten them every time I washed my hair so I'm letting those grow out too. I'm so happy with how it turned out. It took 2 and a half hours because I got it done in a hairdressing school so the lady who cut it was being supervised and was taking her time but I didn't mind at all, it was nice and relaxing!

That's all from me for today. I may not post again until the weekend because we're going to stay with our friend on Friday night. How is your week going so far?

Love Emma xxx

His and Hers

I hate how my weekends go by so quickly, but I suppose it makes you appreciate them even more. I had a fairly relaxed weekend. My Saturday involved a nice late sleep and then a trip to the cinema to see MacGruber. I was very excited to see it because I love the sketches on SNL. Unfortunately, it was in one of the smaller screens in the cinema and there weren't too many people there. My boyfriend and I were the only ones laughing for the mostpart. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. I thought it was great. So funny! I'm not sure whether I would have found it as funny if I wasn't an SNL fan, but I am and I did and it was a nice surprise to see a cameo by Maya Rudolph (one of my favourite ever cast members on SNL).

Photo Credit: Here

On Saturday evening my sister and her boyfriend came over to our place and we all watched Pineapple Express. I've seen it about 4 times at this stage and for me it's one of those films that every time you watch it you laugh just as hard as you did the first time. James Franco really stands out in it as does Danny McBride. My favourite scene is the amazingly funny fight in Red's House. We watched Observe and Report this morning too so it was a bit of a Seth Rogen marathon. Ronnie's outfit that he wears on his date with brandy always makes me laugh, I couldn't find a proper picture of it and I'm too lazy to get a screen grab, but you get the idea from the picture below of the jumper he wears, it's quite amazing.

Photo Credit: Here





Photo Credit: Here

This afternoon my boyfriend and I wandered leisurely around the city centre looking in record and book stores, trying on sunglasses and looking at pretty vintage dresses in Wild Child. We grabbed a quick lunch. I had pasta with pine nuts, spinach, parmesan and cherry tomatoes. It was yum! Then we went to see an Irish documentary called His and Hers. It was a series of interviews with a number of women of different ages from young to old talking about the men in their lives whether it was father, boyfriend or husband. It got a bit sad in parts when some of the older ladies spoke about their husbands not being around anymore and missing them. I have to say I got a bit choked up at a few parts. All in all it was a very touching little film and it was beautifully shot too (it actually won an award for World Cinema Cinematography at Sundance).

[Photos by Donnacha and I]

I like walking around the city when you have nowhere to be, I don't usually look around the shops because it can get quite busy and I find crowds infuriating which was the case on Saturday and I just couldn't wait to get home. Oh, also on the way home today we were walking past a McDonalds and a woman was allowing her young son to urinate against the wall of the building (of a very busy street), I found it disgusting that I had to step over a stream of urine in the middle of the path and so I looked at the woman disapprovingly and upon seeing my face her response was "Get over it, he's a kid" (in an inner city Dublin accent) and I just thought, yes he is a kid, but there's a toilet literally on the other side of the wall he is peeing against and it's not great parenting to encourage your young child to urinate publicly in the middle of a busy street and 5.30 in the afternoon. We just walked ahead and didn't say anything because with people like that you can't get through to them so there's no point in responding. It just makes me so annoyed when people feel this sense of entitlement to do and say as they please. There's no restraint anymore.

I'm getting tired of city living. I've been living in Dublin for 2 years now after living in a small seaside town for 8 years. I miss being able to walk around the corner and have the sea right in front of you or walking out the door to the fresh seaside air and not having cigarette smoke blown into my face. Anyway I don't want to complain about it anymore because if it hated it enough I would just move away and I'm sure I will in the future but for now I'll just have to try and see the best the city has to offer.


What did you all do this weekend? I hope whatever it was, you had fun and you aren't dreading Monday morning too much!

Goodnight,

Love Em xxx

P.S. Happy Father's Day!