Besties Baby Shower

From the moment my best friend told me she was pregnant, I've been thinking about throwing her a baby shower, looking up ideas on Pinterest and planning it all and today was finally the day it all happened <3
As my bestie is Kurdish, her and her family didn't even know what a baby shower was so it made it extra special to be able to treat her to one. I haven't seen my friends in a good while so this was a great time for a good catch up and also celebrate our little boy arriving soon.
I went OTT on decorating because I do love me some crafting and couldn't help it with all the cute ideas I found on Pinterest... beware prepare to become broody girls, baby fever is real.

The first thing I made was something I saw quite a lot of and thought it was a super cool idea not only does it make an interesting decoration it also is a gift as it is a supply for the mamma to start with. 

These diaper cakes are sooo cute and so simple to make turning a bunch of nappies, some little towels/face cloths and bubble baths, shampoos anything you like, into a lovely little decoration. 

I rolled up all the nappies and secured them with hair bobbins (lots of hair bobbins) then tied the ribbon around them to hold them in the circle and then took off the hair bobbins (girl gotta hang on to them hey) 

Next were some little games and interactions as we blindfolded each other and had to guess the (gross) baby food. Then a competition to select a date you think the little one is going to arrive on and finally leaving some notes for baby and mama. 

I made a little pamper gift set for mama to be as we all now new mums need some pampering.

( the ready to pop sign in this photo was meant to go on a bag of popcorn, but I forgot the popcorn)

I also made some little photo booth props but we ended up just laying them on the table as a decoration (ain't nobody taking photos of us not prepared) along with a cute idea I seen for baby boy showers was to fill toy trucks with snacks. I searched every local shop for this truck and finally found the dumper truck one I needed, 

Lastly, my favorite decoration was a baby clothes line. Seeing the itty bitty clothes and socks hanging around the room really top of the baby shower feel and whats great again about this 'decoration' is it is also a gift as then the mama has the clothes to keep after. 

I am totally swooning over all the cuteness and wanting to dress up a little person, but I'm gonna have to stick to just throwing parties for a little person for now. 

DREAMS COME TRUE

As I write this I still don't believe it, even after being told I have a place.
But I guess I have to believe it, it is true, I'm actually going to college to do Veterinary Nursing.


After three years of applying, even travelling to Scotland to try there, and this being my last year to try as I had given up all hope, I have finally secured a place on the course I have wanted for years and something I have always dreamt of doing in the future. Not only is that exciting but I have also been selected for Advanced Entry into second year so will only have to study for two years and will be a qualified Vet Nurse... AHHKAMLCLEFOEF!! As excited as I am, being a nerd two years will fly and I know I'll want to study more though.

Calm, I am Calm.

I went up yesterday to an information day and took a little tour around the (AMAZING) college and saw the lab I would be based in and it's weird but I freaked out over real stethoscopes like only real nurses use them and the fact I get nursing textbooks <3
I walked around picturing myself going to college here, as I did with all the other colleges I have visited in the past few years, but this one I will actually be a student in and its just hard to explain but something you have dreamt about for many years finally coming true and it being your biggest wish to do, it's incredible.

It truly does go to show though, don't ever give up on your dreams,  they do come true if you push yourself to keep trying.

Mini Exploding Photo Box

I think everyone knows about exploding photo boxes at this stage, right? 

If not their pretty self-explanatory, super easy to make and really make thoughtful little gifts.

Instead of giving a typical photo frame of some photos of us for a birthday gift I wanted to make something and when I first saw the idea I knew I had to do it. The thing with these is there is no right or wrong way, it's totally up to you and you can add in as many photos, quotes, tokens, etc. 

The main basis is to start with a cross shaped piece of card and then layer and layer all types of different colored cards or papers on each side of the cross to build up the flaps. 

I wanted to make each side a different kind of topic but in the end, some were mixed up as I had too many photos I wanted to include, but that's whats good about this project is going with the flow and making it however you want. 

For this project, I wanted to show you through videos as it is an interactive one and can be seen better through the videos, please don't mind the background music, I mean who doesn't love Little Mix.

I'll start off with my favourite one, one I dedicated to our adventures and exploring things together..

The next two are both mixed selection of photos but just to show some recycled birthday/Christmas cards I used as tabs aswell. 

Lastly is the interaction page with little pull out tabs and notes.. 

Our Adventure Book: The Cork Page's

As seen from my recent post, Cork was a big adventure for us and we took the time we had there and used it to the max, so that leaves us with more memories to add to Our Adventure Book. 

The first thing on this page is a list of all the towns we passed through on the way home as it was something I did as a kid on holiday's, just a great little memory and fun to collect and say you've been in a lot of places. 

I also made a little pouch for some odd receipts we collected along the way, such as dinner receipts and even petrol. I thought of the idea of the pouch as a way to keep them neater looking and can also pull them out and have a look at. 

 

The Jail page as I like to call it is one of my favorites as the map reminds me of the Maurders Map in HP. I used the map from the tour as the background for this page and kept it simple by just adding in our tickets. I may possibly add in some of the photos we took there at a later date, I don't want it looking too cluttered though.

I take it back, THIS is my favorite. I've had this little wooden frames for ages and been waiting for the perfect moment to use them. I thought with the fancy castle we visited its the perfect occasion to be fancy and use some cute little portraits from our day there and added some strips of floral paper for an added decoration.

Make sure to read my blog post on this adventure for all the stories behind these photos.
https://misstblogs.blogspot.ie/2017/08/cork-adventure.html

Cork Adventure

With a days notice  I got a call for an interview for my dream job in Cork... 6 hours drive away.
I knew I couldn't miss the opportunity and immediately started planning my route and of course gave himself a call as he is always up for a roadtrip. Next day I picked him up and we set out on our journey which began with us getting lost, ending up in Mullingar ( the wrong direction completely), getting used to roadside garage toilets (ewy), meeting some little goats in a trailer and hearing the same damn Katy Perry song not once but FIVE times on the journey down. Now I only passed my driving test three months ago so the idea of having to drive on a motorway was freaking me out but with my co-driver encouraging me along (with sweets and tunes) I soon got used to it and even took over some slow ass trucks. We took the motorway the whole way down thinking it was the easiest way and we soon got to our Airbnb which was a nice/odd place. We were staying with some lovely Chinese people who didn't have great English but the room was so fancy and comfy. The place although fancy, had a hostel feeling to it as people came and went every day just staying for one or two nights. We didn't mingle much as we were so tired we just had movie nights in bed and were too lazy to get up for breakfast.

Beautiful little Airbnb in Togher

We took a stroll to a Chinese nearby and found this amazing nature reserve in the heart of the town.

After my interview, we went exploring the city while we were there. We found some touristy places to check out and we decided to go to Cork Gaol (jail). It was a beautiful building and had really interesting stories on all the inmates. We then took a walk into the city which we couldn't quite put our finger on it but had this almost like the whole city was under reconstruction feeling. Yet we still found the most amazing Cathedral that was just breathtaking, although we didn't go inside as you had to have tickets. We didn't stay for long looking around the city as we were wrecked from the walk in and so we took some side streets home. For me driving and then walking I got this feeling of Italy when in Cork city as the streets are tiny and all up hill it was a big difference than back home.

We stayed two nights at the Airbnb then headed for home with the intention of stopping at the Rock of Cashel on the way home. Another beauty I have been to before but wanted to show rich. Now I think everyone knows at this stage I'm a Potterhead through and through, and of course, when I see this place I immediately think of Hogwarts. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves it really is a beautiful place.

We spent longer than expected there and were absolutely wrecked so decided we would stay somewhere on the way home for the night, little did we know we know it would only be an hour from Cork. We decided on Thurles just off the motorway and searched for a BnB there with the first being a disaster (in a loud pub with no breakfast) but the next being a sheer miracle. I can not say enough how amazing Helen and her little Bnb is but please if you're ever in or passing Thurles check out St. Josephs on the way into town. It started off with Helen offering us tea, coming into the room to show us everything and getting to know us, taking our breakfast orders for the next day and even turning down the bedcovers for us. I mean I literally feel in love with this little old lady from the moment I met her. We were madly in need of some showers and to our royal delight (yeah we're getting fancy now) there were fluffy dressing gowns for us both (also Rich decided he wanted the girly flowery one) and the most amazing bubble gum shower gel, I mean we could still smell sweets the next day.

Helen really puts everything into her BnB and we noticed how much of a perfectionist she is (my kind of girl) as she had little sweets and biscuits laid out for us with everything labeled. We decided for another quiet movie night in bed with our fluffy dressing gowns but beforehand came across one of the notes from Helen which says there were books to read and take home in a drawer, I mean come on could this be more magical. After some serious debate in my head over which book to take I went with the classic Wuthering Heights as I've never read it.

Now to breakfast where things just got more magical. We were the only guests at the time, yet Helen made a huge effort to lay out everything we could possibly need in the breakfast room just for us and then she made up fruit bowls and the most beautifully placed scrabbled eggs on toast ever. We were truly treated like royalty as we sat in the sun with out china cups and opera music in the background.

 Helen also homemade her bread and jam, and just look at the detail on the melon <3

Helen continually came to check on us and then even came out with a map to show us a different way home. So full of knowledge and interesting stories she talked with us for ages about local events and history and then told us about a huge telescope at Birr Castle on our way home which we knew we had to check out, which were going to send some photos of us at to her as we noticed she had some from past customers too as she had told us one couple were at her house then went home to get married and visited her again and brought their wedding photos to show her, she made that amazing of an impression . After bidding our fair wells to Helen, who before we left offered us water for our journey which actually comes from the Devils Bit mountain which we heard of at the Rock of Cashel. Myth has it Saint Patrick and Satan fought on the mountain causing the stone to blow over and create the Rock of Cashel creating a cutout shape in the mountain. 

You can clearly see the famous cut out shape here.... and also the sky which should have told us a storm was clearly coming.

So we headed off for Birr Castle but on our way saw a sign for the Devils Bit close by and decided we would go see it up close (little did we know how close).
When we got there, there was quite a lot of people heading up the path and of course, mister wanted to climb it but my gosh I was not prepared for this and don't know how many times I sat down saying I was giving up, until I saw this note on a picnic bench...  looking out on the view I caught my breath and seeing older people making the climb I decided I have to do this.. along with some encouragement from Dale the lurcher we met who came for cuddles before racing to the top.

 'if it dosen't challenge you, it won't change you'

This was proper mountain climbing as we climbed rocks, slipped between gaps and steps until just before the top it got incredibly dark... of course a storm had to come. We ran up to the top thinking there would be some kind of shelter but our only shelter was this huge cross where people were already hiding under. I have never felt hailstone as cold as this, but I guess I have never been so high up on a mountain in a t-shirt during a storm before. As we all huddled together, with poor rich getting most of the beating (perks to being small I took shelter under his wing) we literally just counted down until it would end. Finally, with all traces of the bubble gum shower gel from yesterday been washed off us completely, the hail ended and there was a moment of sunshine that we took to get our classy edge -of- the -mountain -looking -out -on -the -view photos before getting off the mountain asap.

We decided to take a different path down as the way we came up was dangerous enough without the rain, but of course, the path we took wouldn't be that simple and yet again we got lost. Finally, though we made it to the warmth of the car where we again met Dale and his owners who we talked with about where we were from and heading to and they told us about a little organic garden centre with a cafe that we had to try, much to Rich's delight they had hot soup. We dried off as best we could although shoes were destroyed so driving in socks was an experience, wrapped up in blankets (thank you, mammy, for keeping one in the car) and went to find the cafe.
So it turns out there were two within 10 minutes of each other with the same name (whhhy google maps must you do this to us) but we eventually found our little one and had hot drinks and soup.


We got back on the road and headed for Birr Castle in Offaly arriving just in time to take a quick look around before they closed, and just in time for the heaviest rain so we couldn't take much of walk around without getting soaked too.
The castle here is actually still being using and we happened to see the people being brought around in a horse and chariot (while us peasants stood sharing a tiny umbrella getting soaked). In our chances to take a walk between showers we strolled the gardens as lord and lady imagaining it was us that lived here. What we went there for was the giant telescope which was the largest in the world for over 70 years and was incredible to see.

I had to put this one as Rich is convinced this plant is rhubarb.

Finally, we got back on the road for home taking lots of back roads passing through 7 counties and endless little towns, tried to make a list of all the places we passed through but my co-driver was too busy enjoying being in the shot gun seat and eating all the sweets.
It was some adventure all packed into four days but isn't that was life is about, experiencing all you get a chance to.

Update: I got a call while writing this, I didn't get the job, heartbroken but have to move on.