Bonfire Night & Skateboarding

A week home alone with my brother kinda spells trouble but surprisingly we managed and with the beautiful sun (some days) out in force we had a chilled week. First off came Bonfire Night down at the Quay in our village. The was a small turnout but it was more peaceful that way with the sun setting on a warm summers evening. Bonfire Night is a yearly tradition and we hadn't been since we were little so it was fun to go again and the lovely locals did a BBQ and handed out burgers as well. We had a nice evening down by the harbor and did I mention of course Bobby came too.. and had quite a few marshmallows.

Then came the skateboarding. I decided to dig out my old board from the garden shed and once I did I didn't want to get off it. My brother and I headed down the village and found our new skating spot, not to hilly not to flat but perfectly smoooth. Saying I was scared is an understatement. Skateboarding is nothing like surfing, for one you have the water in surfing to cushion your fall, here you have the nice hard tarmac. But as the days went on I would like to say I can use the word 'better' when describing my skateboarding. The long evenings are perfect and has become my new thing of going down to 'our spot' at 9 pm each evening for a little skate. I can also say I have mastered the right turn.. left no forget that.

I would like to point out I did not fall here.. long story short I was sitting on the ground. I hurt my knee getting off the ground. The Skateboard happened to be beside me. 

25th Wedding Anniversary PARTAAAY!!

So the day has finally come PARTAAAY!
Only now have I releised how little pictures I took, but I made up for it by videoing the party which if you want to check out is on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoP-Z03kvqQ&list=PL5wlAJWugX8myB0G14NA0hOYHHTASFMRv


We all got up quite early to start preparing for the party at 5. My favorite part of this was the fact my parents still didn't know who was coming and in the evening got a surprise each time they opened the front door. We started off all the cooking and preparing food to have it ready for the evening and this little salad I am pretty proud off.. no one was allowed to eat it of course.

Being a party in Ireland of course there was no shortage of tea available 

I laid out my cake along with my Mums knife she got at the wedding 25 years ago on the table giving it center stage. It was really nice to have the stands from the original wedding cake 25 years ago too.

Oh how could I forget..

Bobby also wore his Shirt and Tie.

After pretty much all the food was gone and we were all full of Coke-Cola, us young-ins spent the evening playing 'tennis', volleyball  and whatever else we came up with on the spot.

It was a really great evening and we had a great turnout surrounded by family and friends. I must add my bean can lanterns looked so pretty when it had got dark. I don't think I've ever had such a long day 9.30 am to 2.30 am but I've now got a week to rest as the 'bride' and 'groom' are gone on what their calling a second honeymoon. 

25th Wedding Anniversary Party Prep

So my parents 25th is coming up and I'm planning a little family party and thanks to Pinterest I've had plenty of inspiration. I wana make it not your typical sit down party and have some thing unique so through pages of searching and spare time in the evenings I came up with these...


First off this adorable little painting. Quite a twist on a usual guestbook but really personal. Simply on a piece of black paper I wrote ' Please leave your Thumbprint and sign your name' and on a long piece of picture I drew a tree which I'm surprisingly proud off. I searched everywhere for a picture frame to fit the tree picture and my last resort was a canvas which is sightly ginormous and kind of defeats the purpose but it still will be a nice addition to the party.

Next up lighting.. 

Because it is outdoors (thanks to the beautiful June weather) candles are must for the evening and I decided to make some adorable tin lanterns from recycled bean cans. Using a drill I simply (not too simply) put a few holes throughout the can to give it a nice effect when lit. I was going to paint the cans and then remembered the Party was a Silver anniversary so decided to leave them silver. 

 


I made about five and then tied some string through two of the holes, placed a candle in each can and then hung them along the fence.







Finally the cake. I used a basic sponge cake for this but used gluten free flour because of celiacs in the family. Its quite ridiculous the amount of eggs I used.

Take one                                                                                                Take Two

After adding a few silver ribbons, silver balls and a silver 25th candle (which took me forever to find) the cake was complete 

Also the cake stands were from the original wedding cake 25 years ago.

Ladies Night

From the moment I heard about this I've had Kool & The Gang Ladies Night stuck in my head.

The event was to raise funds for the local Childcare center and my Mum and I got all dressed up and headed off. We were greeted at the door by huge goodie bags with samples and leaflets and a free class of Prosecco or tea/coffee and gorgeous homemade chocolates.





David Ballantine Millinery Hats.

The function was so well organised with a huge variety of beauty, hair and well being demos. Brilliant professionals were offering advice and treatments such as Benefit Cosmetics, Boots, Laila Valentino, massages and Tarot reading,  The turnout was also unexpected as there was quite a crowd, although people say the World Cup has to thank them for that.

A beautiful outdoor tent decorated with flowers and lights led off from the stalls into a garden surrounded by a lake.

 A local catering company were handing out gorgeous tasters of a variety of things. Each person was given a serving of Bulgar rice with tomatoes and mint,spicy butternut squash and roasted beetroot.  Also there was three variety's of deserts I went for a delicious strawberry cheesecake.

Also for a bit of fun there was a selection of herbs laid out and you had to guess through smell, taste and sight what each herb was. I admit I got one out of five.

Unfortunately members from Ardnahoo a Yoga retreat were unable to attend on the night but this beautiful little tent was still too pretty to miss a look at. With the sun setting over the lake it was so peaceful. 

It really was a brilliant night and a great mother-daughter time for me, ending with 5SOS She looks so Perfect being blasted on the way home 

Family Sunday Out: Clondra & Fireworks

Sunday is our day for relaxing and back when we were younger it was my Dad's only day off so we would take off in the car for the day and go where the road brings us.






This Sunday we decided to head to Clondra Canal Festival in Co. Longford. The beautiful June weather was warm and sunny and a perfect day for exploring.


And of course we brought Bobby.














We walked for ages along the Canal and across locks in the peaceful outdoors. The town was a busy place to be with the festival on. There was horse trap rides, cookery demonstrations and boat trips.
After Bobby and most defiantly we, were wrecked out from walking we headed home but not before stopping at the old mill in town for some artsy pictures.

Later that night, 11 pm to be exact, a huge fireworks display was taking place as part of Carrick Carnival. Me and my Dad went in to it and spent more time finding a car park and walking to the Quay then watching the fireworks. I have never seen such a crowd of people in town especially at 11.30 pm on a Sunday. After a short performance from O'Neills school of Irish Dancing a magical array of fireworks was set off in tune with upbeat music from the Hijackers. Hundreds of people lined the Quay and the bridge all stunned into quietness, heads up at the lit up sky. It was a beautiful display and the Carnival only being on its second day this year is surly to only get better.