I am the worst at announcing give-away winners. I’m always late! Although today I’m only about 24 hours late. I’m getting better!
The winner of the Irish mammies tea towel is Michelle! Congrats, Michelle! I’ll be in touch with details!
Thanks to all for participating and for sharing your stories of your own Irish mammies – I love hearing those memories!
Hello, friends! Can you believe it’s only two weeks until Christmas? I have a simple and inexpensive DIY to share today. Inspired by the beautiful decals from Shanna Murray, I wanted to make an Irish themed set of wreaths to decorate our glass patio doors. For less than five euro, I whipped up my own temporary version to add a little Irish Christmas cheer to our living room!
Nollaig shona translates to Merry Christmas in Irish. I have a hard time pronouncing it, but this site has a little pronunciation guide for you!
The key to these wreaths is a chalk marker. I picked mine up at KM Evans, but you can find similar ones online (like here). They are cheap and write on glass and come in a million colors. Best of all, they wipe off easily – no razor blades or anything, just a wet paper towel.
I traced a big circle on a piece of newsprint and taped it to the back side of the window. I wanted my wreaths to be roughly the same size and shape and tracing them was very quick.
For the leaves, I started at the top and worked my way out. I tried to keep them equally spaced out but didn’t fuss too much if they weren’t perfect. If I made a mistake, I just wiped the leaf off and started over!
With a gold chalk marker, I wrote Merry Christmas and Nollaig Shona as neatly as I could – and voila! Quick holiday cheer in our living room!
Since that lovely husband of mine has some Christmas shopping to do this week before he comes to meet me in Maine, I thought it would be perfect timing to post one last gift guide. Here are some of my favorite picks for the chic lady in your life! (ahem, Michael, hint hint!)
1 / Beaded bib necklace from Eliza Vale
2 / Hand dyed cotton scarf from Janey Clothing
3 / Cashmere snood from Eilis Boyle at Bow Powerscourt
4 / Crab claw necklace from Eily O’Connell at Coldlilies
5 / Leaf earrings from Chupi Sweetman-Pell at Coldlilies
6 / Orange hat from Shevlin Millinery
7 / Beaded belt from Eliza Vale
Happy Friday, friends! That whole week in America flew by. And the best part? I’m still here for another 3 weeks! I’m certainly making the most of my time here, working by the fire in the evenings, chatting with my parents while we make dinner. I’m loving it.
This weekend brings lunches with friends, a holiday party thrown by my sister, and a little Christmas shopping for a husband who rarely fits into clothes bought in Ireland! And of course, getting a few projects ready for next week.
Now for a few links for your weekend!
Lisabeth is doing an advent give-away of some Irish crafts on her blog.
A really sweet cardboard gingerbread house!
A new Snapshot of a Marriage over on Snippet and Ink.
The best roundup of Irish cookbooks.
A surprise box of cool gifts!
Damn Fine Prints – limited edition Dublin prints for sale!
Have a happy weekend!
I know it’s a little late in the month to be sharing an advent calendar DIY, but the beauty of it is that you get to open the first six all at once! Way more fun, right? So here you are, a Dublin Georgian Advent Calendar (and you can download the image to make your own below).
I love that this photograph looks so old, but I only snapped it last week! I had it printed at Kinko’s when I arrived in Maine – they print large format in black and white for 75 cents per square foot. It took five minutes for them to print my 2×3 foot image!
I mounted it on poster board using spray mount, and then used a craft knife to cut out the windows.
Then I simply chose a 25 Christmas quotes, activities and verses, printed them out and pasted them behind each window. Since the poster board was a little floppy, I attached the whole calendar to a big piece of foam board. Now it can stand on its own against a wall.
Finally, I cut out a miniature wreath and garland for the two center doors – just to make it a little festive!
That one says Watch Home Alone, a Christmas must! I chose activities I knew I’d be excited about – like making homemade marshmallows for hot chocolate, going sledding and cutting down a Christmas tree. Then I sprinkled in some sweet Christmas Bible verses as well as some quotes about the magic of Christmas. I can’t wait to open each one!
You can make your own Dublin Advent calendar by clicking on this image. Just open the image, then right click on the image to save it to your desktop. Put it on a memory stick and bring it to your local printer. You’ll have to choose your own activities to match your favorite Christmas traditions! Enjoy!
A mini Irish gift guide for the babes in your life. I don’t even have a baby, but I need those booties and that bunny in my life. I’m out the door to finish off the last of my (very late) advent calendar to share later today! Back soon!
1 / Booties from 31 Chapel Lane
2 / Sweet sailor sweater from Si + Lu
3 / Baby blanket from Avoca
4 / Goat’s milk baby soap from Si + Lu
5 / Irish baby card (quite frame-able!) from Placed
6 / The sweetest toy bunny from Magic Forest Handmade Toys
I have been getting such a kick out of the Irish Mammies Twitter account lately. Have you seen it? It was started by Colm O’Regan, and he tweets things an Irish mammy or mom would typically say. From what I know of Irish mammies, the little 140 character snippets are spot on. Here are a few examples:
Well would you look at that! A HOLE in my slipper. Already. They don’t make stuff to last at all now.
I see Kate Middleton is expecting… Twouldn’t be any harm if the two of ye were getting a move on too.
Listen to me now: You’ll eat it and what’s more, you’ll like it.
The Irish Mammies Twitter account even inspired a book that was recently published! I did a little interview with Colm about his alter ego. Here’s a little inside scoop!
What’s the most popular thing the Irish mammy has tweeted?
Go out there now and don’t mind what anyone says to you. They’re only jealous of your grand anorak. I think it resonates with a lot of people forced as a child to wear an item of clothing that they loathed. Deep down they knew well no one would be jealous of their anorak.
Do you ever find yourself speaking like an Irish mammy offline? Yes, particularly when it comes to coats and the discussion in the hall. Is it cold enough for a coat? Shur bring it anyway, if you’re too warm you can take it off. No sooner were the words out of my mouth I realised the wheel had come full circle. I think what people like is that the tweets are little slices of very mundane, very ordinary conversations that would ordinarily never appear in a public forum. When they appear in their Twitter feed sandwiched in between Stephen Fry and Charlie Sheen, it brings them back home for a moment.
Do people ever send you suggestions, if so, what takes the cake? Yes, all the time. But for the moment I haven’t tweeted them as I don’t want to steal them! I think I will when I run out. My favourite one is a little obscure: Where is the comrade of that sock? The International Communist movement never foresaw the word comrade being used in that context, I’m sure.
Irish design firm Curious Design came up with a few Irish mammy tea towels based on some of the most popular tweets and they’re giving one away to an FCV reader! You can find all their designs here. To enter, leave a comment here with your favorite Irish Mammy tea towel and I’ll pick a winner on Tuesday next week. Good luck!
A few weeks ago, I worked with One Fab Day on a Christmas wedding inspiration shoot. While I was there, I whipped up this really simple DIY Christmas wreath – using just a scarf, a wire wreath form and a ribbon! It was the perfect cosy addition to the rustic table. Click here for the simple instructions!
