yesterday and me.

                                                

Yesterday was a keeper. A hidden gem of a day...

...a day to wake up and make fruit panckakes for breakfast just because.

To spring-clean barefoot, throwing open every window and door to let the sun colour in the dark corners.

It was finding a sunny spot and curling up in it like a lazy cat to read and think.

It ended with my Mom coming into my room at bedtime to roll up my blind and show me an amazing moon hung like a shiny silver half-penny against the sky .

Yesterday and me were best buds.

I hope me and today get along just as well.

a Surf n Turf weekend

my goodness, I needed that! I enjoyed a sweet little weekend break this Friday through Sunday... myself and my Mom drove with my aunt and cousin up to Gweedore in county Donegal to stay in a cottage that's been in my mother's side of the family for decades. 

Gweedore is a regular beauty spot with its mountain views, time capsule thatch cottages and sandy beaches.

the sun was kind to us for the whole weekend and we adventured out onto the beaches both days for long strolls, sand-dune climbing and deep breathing of sea breeze, returning back to the car happy with runny noses, wind-burned cheeks and pockets full of seashells :)

the evenings were spent hunkered up in front of the turf fire, listening to my Mom and her sister swap holiday stories from their girlhood summers in Gweedore, solving crosswords and playing old-timey board games.

it was the perfect weekend remedy for getting over a recent slump in my mood and popping my bottom lip back in to place!

a little Mother lovin'

After two years of  Mother's days and birthdays apart it was a pleasure last Sunday to shower my Mom with a little Mother's day sugar. She's such an inspiration to me in so many ways. Like the way she accepts and never judges me, her support for absolutely anything I choose to put my hand to, and the breathing space she has always given me to learn and grow.

I remember when I was 11 and she was a subtitute teacher at my school. The girls in her class would run up to me in the playground and tell me how great she was. I felt so cool.

She was the kind of mom then who would sit on the edge of my bed at night reciting shel silverstein poetry and making up half the words, who always encouraged me to write and who bought me a pack of stickers every single saturday. She's the kind of mom now who sits and does crosswords with me on the sofa, tells me to listen to the lyrics of a leonard cohen track and think about my boyfriend and who cooks the most delicious sunday roasts. i can only hope to be such a mother one day.

i'm lucky to have her.

Beautiful and loved.

Mother's Day sugar :)



A sprinkle of luck

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S!

On Friday I travelled in to celebrate St. Patty's weekend in Dublin's fair city where the Irish weather did not dissapoint and it rained to beat the band all day!! I still managed to get into the spirit by wearing my green St. Patrick's day pin and had a wonderful evening of drinks and dancing in an Irish pub with my cousin Christine. On Saturday a touch of good ol Irish luck brought fine weather and the kind of hangover only a cheeseburger and a milkshake can cure :)

How was your St. Patrick's weekend?

him.

what I wouldn't do for a front porch, a jug of iced tea and his company right about now.

Spring Forward

  Do you ever get the feeling that Spring is a just the biggest tease? She's been flaunting her stuff around here for weeks now... a tiny pink blossom here, a bright burst of daffodils there.

A sunny day, a pretty smell. She's definately putting the moves on me. But don't let Spring's flirting tempt you too much. She'll rain and break your heart.

I am looking forward to her promises of Easter chocolate, St. Patricks day celebrations and toasted hot cross buns though. Come on Spring, give it up!

Nana's House

Boy oh boy. These past 5 days have yanked so hard on this girl's heart strings. My 89 year old Nana was taken into a nursing home on Thursday and since then we've had the hardest task of packing up and clearing out her little bungalow... not only her home for over 50 years but my own Mother and 7 of her brothers and sisters were born and raised here. I spent countless blissful summers playing in this house on my school holidays as a child. I even lived here for a year with my Nana when I was 11 years old.

So I've become a little weepy more than once while I've been boxing up all her knick knacks and trinkets and doo-dads, casting long last looks at her now empty favourite chair, lingering over the photo gallery of her children's weddings. Trying my best to lock it all away in a safe box in my memory.

Up to our armpits in rubber gloves and feather dusters it feels like with every surface I wipe and every spider I evict I'm chasing out and dusting over all the many happy memories of this house...polishing away the evidence of husband, 11 children, 20 grand-children and 2 great grand-kiddies. In all the packing up I've managed to thrift out and squirrel away a few little relics of my Nana that I can keep and remember her house by...a pill box, some handmade doilies, a chipped mug that's been here forever. I'm a sucker for old lady things.

The main thing , of course, is I still have my beloved Nana Kitty to love on and appreciate. House or no house, that gal's a gem.



She's a Crafty Girl

Today was a chilly, rainy, stay inside in your pajamas all day, kind of a day. A fixing up bowls of steaming homemade tomato soup and burning your tongue kind of a day. The perfect kind of day for camping out in the living room in front of the fire and putting idle fingers to good work by making my own jewellery. This beautiful Navajo necklace is made from penne pasta can you believe! I found the tutorial here and I'm super happy with how mine's turned out. Now who said playing with food is for kids only?? :)

Hey Little Girl

Yesterday my little cousin Caitríona came to our house for an afternoon. She's almost six, has an Amelie style haircut and is a perfect little madam as all nearly-six-year-old girls are. As far as I can tell her favourite things to do are pretending to be a dog, jumping on her "trumpoline" and blowing in my ear when I'm not looking.

We spent the afternoon indulging in one of her favourite past-times at my house...adventuring into my make-up bag! She also painted her own nails and bossed me around and raced me through every room in the house.

Children are so much fun to be around and spending time with this five year old and her imagination makes my heart pound at the thought of possibly teaching Kindergarten in Korea this year. I had such a great experience at the boys middle school for 2 years but I have to confess I think teaching the little 'uns will be more of a hoot.

Boys are boys at the end of the day and when you throw a bucket of teenage hormones into the mix you've got quite a hard crowd to please in the classroom! Small kids, if their anything like this one, are more likely to "ooh" and "aah" and humor teacher by playing her silly word games. She hopes!

Happy Monday! x

Today Outside

Lately I like to break up my nesting period by plugging music into my ears and taking  my camera out for long walks. I'm loving the transitional weather we're having at the moment where the sky just can't decide if it's Winter or Spring. I love the crisp air and clean smells, dodging raindrops and coming home with a cold nose and red cheeks. Walking outside I love to loaf around the 'F' section on my iPod...First Aid Kit, Fleet Foxes, Feist...perfect outdoors/nature music.

The lane our house lives on leads down to the most beautiful little church hiding behind old stone walls and surrounded by a crumbling graveyard where snowdrops are springing up between the faded headstones. Like something straight from a page in a Bronte novel, it's Gothic and dark and beautiful.

And today the biggest of treats, returning home to the smell of a freshly mown lawn. I'd bottle it if I could :)



First Daffodils!



Wild blackberries



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