Goodbye

Hello everyone.
For personal reasons, I have decided to stop blogging.I wish you all the best for the future and thanks for all the comments!
Bye. :-)

Paris Part 2

A street scene from Montemartre, with the Sacre-Couer in the background.Notice the artists on the streets and the bustling atmosphere!Beautiful.

Us drinking coffee and eating our picnic lunch in the Luxembourg gardens, what a gorgeous, hot day, loved that park and cannot wait to take the kids there!

Luxembourg Gardens, in the background - the French Senate.

On the Champs-Elysees - The Arc de Triomphe behind us. This was another hi-light of my trip, I loved the atmosphere here and the Arc was awe-inspiring.

One of the mansions in an area called Maison Layfitte where we went for dinner. Lovely leafy suburb of Paris.

I had to slip another little picture of Montmartre in the top there, what a lovely atmosphere. Its also high up, and so the views of Paris and the Eiffel Tower from up there are amazing.
The next pic is of us having a delicious picnic in the Lux Gardens,( just INCASE...I am NOT the skinny, pretty blonde lying down!) The weather that day was glorious.
That night we went shopping on the Champs-Elysees, I loved it so much. Such a glamorous beautiful atmosphere and as for the Arc de Triomphe - breath-taking. This was one of the best parts of my trip!

The last day - Sunday - we went to the flea markets, I will post pics of that next!

Paris Part One

Typical Parisian street scene - a Cafe on every corner, loved that!

The famous and beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral.

One of the many Carousels we came across - I was amazed at the detail and beauty of them.

Of course - The Eiffel Tower, I was blown away by the magnitude of it, and how much work must have gone into building it.Beautiful. I would like to go at night the next time!

The Sacre-Couer - one of the hi-lights of my trip. What a sight as you walk up the stairs! This is a view from the side in Montmartre.

"Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a row boat and taking the tartar sauce with you." - Zig Ziglar

What a great quote, don't you think!

Firstly, thank you to all for your well wishes before I left!

Wow, I don't know where to begin about my trip to Paris...it was all so beautiful.
I have to do it in 2 parts as blog spot won't allow me to download more than these photographs at one time.
Paris was a lot bigger than I had imagined it would be, getting around was quite a challenge - even with Jodie, who was fluent in French, (she had studied it in college, and had lived in Paris for 6 months - her enthusiasm and love for all things French helped spur on my excitement about the place!)

Our apartment was in an area called Gare de l'Est, which is pretty central. We caught the metro everywhere, which is quite an economical way of getting around.
The apartment was VERY Parisian and decked out very well, but also extremely small! Fine for 3 women trying to get dressed and put their make-up on (not!!!) No - it was really fine, such a nice personal space to go to at the end of a busy day.

Day one - we arrived late and so freshened up and went for a beautiful dinner at a restaurant in the Latin Quarter. Experienced the lively streets for the first time, I think I was in awe the whole time.
Day two - we went shopping, had an amazing lunch (crepes and wine, yummy) and went to the Eiffel Tower. That night we visited Montmartre, which houses the Sacre-Couer, an amazing church and piece of architecture. All around Montmartre there are artists doing portraits, the Salvador Dali museum and a rich assortment of cafes, bars and restaurants. It was bustling and the atmosphere was unreal.

Day Three - We woke up and got fresh pastries which we had in our apartment with coffee and Earl Grey tea (very la-di-da).
We walked around the streets of Paris, went to a couple of lovely vintage/thrift clothing stores and then to the Luxembourg Gardens, which were amazing...I will continue in my next post....x

Au Revoir!

Hi there!I just thought I would say goodbye, I am leaving for Paris in the morning.I will tell you all about it when I get back. x

Our Kitchen

"The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure" - William Shakespeare

thank you for your comments on my previous post, I really am excited to be going on Thursday, but nervous to leave my babies, not because I think they will not be okay, but because I may not!
As I make their lunches everyday, bathe them and brush their hair, I have a method to everything and I guess I get scared that my husband is not going to do everything the way I do it...
Sound strange? I guess it is just from spending most of the time with the children and that is really my "job" - my world!It always feels strange to hand the reigns over, even if it is to my beloved hubby!!
But I shall hand the reigns over - and be CALM about it! :-)

Anyhow, I thought I would write a post about our kitchen, as I think it is my favourite room in our house. I love my stove and I like my white shelves, with all the colourful tins, plates and nik-naks.
However, I am ready for a change and a total de-clutter. Looking around my house, I really feel that there is far too much clutter...too many walls that have been left half-painted and pieces of furniture that I no longer want. I need to do a clean out...
What I would love to do, is change the kitchen cupboards to ALL glass doors, and paint the walls white.


I feel the need for simplicity, in line with the desire to simplify my thoughts and my life...I really do believe that your surroundings have a huge effect on your mind...so I want to do a lot more posts on this subject and take it room by room.

A lazy afternoon in Kinsale and...Paris here we come!

Steph and I in Kinsale - the most beautiful view!

Kinsale harbour

The Bulman Bar and Restaurant in Kinsale. Its lovely there, we sat and had a glass of wine and enjoyed the view! If you ever visit Ireland, be sure to visit some restaurants in this beautiful town, it is the gourmet capital of Ireland...my favourite place to go on the weekends!

"The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else." - E.E. Cummings

Hello hello...I am so sorry for taking so long to write a post...
It really has been a mad two weeks. I feel like my head is spinning!
How have you all been? I miss blogland when I have been away for a while..
Anyway, the good news in my life is that my Passport arrived back from Dublin this morning with my Visa inside - and that means I will be able to go to Paris next week Thursday! Yahoo! (this is after delays with the embassy, postal strikes etc). So I am relieved.

I wrote a post on here a few months back saying how it has always been my dream to go to Paris, and we have been in Ireland 7 years and I thought it would be easier to take trips to Europe, as a lot of countries are a mere hours flight from Ireland.
Well, I guess life doesn't work out that way, with Kids and a house and finances, sometimes you need to wait a long..long..time for your dreams to become a reality!

I am going Thursday next week with two friends of mine (Steph in the photo above and her daughter Jody), we are staying in an apartment (which from the website looks very charming..very Parisian) and we are just going to see the sites..the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower etc..and people watch and eat lovely food and drink lovely wine!
But, I have to say, I am very apprehensive about leaving my kids, I am not very good at that at all and I am NOT a good flyer at all...in fact I hate flying! Do any of you feel this way, or get anxious when taking a trip away from your kids?

Lovely things and a clean spare room...

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort, " - Herm Albright

Hello everyone, I was in Avoca in Dublin as I mentioned in my previous post, and I tried these beautiful shoes and dresses on, and fell in LOVE. If I had enough credit on my visa or cash in my account, I would soooo have bought one in every colour, the shoes also came in Brown, Red, Purple...and probably a few other colours I can't quite recall.
All I do know, is the clothes in this shop are EXACTLY what I would love to wear, everyday...I simply adore them.
They are pricey - I won't lie...but really quality and they fit so well. I am going to put a bit of money away here and there, and get on that bus again to do some shopping. How often do you come across a shop that has exactly what you were looking for all along, and with prices that are not TOTALLY totally out of your.........reach?!
oh dear, I definitely have a thing for shopping and lovely things.

Below, I wanted to show you how I spruced up my spare room (all in a day, I may add) - for my friend, Lisa's visit. Sorry, there are no "before" photos, but believe me, they are not pretty!