Last of a Few More.

It was wonderful to have a proper getaway to Ireland this time, unlike our whistle-stop tour in May, this was much more relaxed. Consisting of 11 hours of sleep each night and cat-naps during the day, I think we still did really well fitting in all the activities we did. I read a whole book and got stuck into another, and generally felt like I was getting some well-earned rest. I can't believe it's our first proper break this year...


Ballycastle for the Ould Lammas Fayre - it was pretty terrible.



Even as a passenger, some of the drives to do in Ireland are awesome.


Visiting a town where my family used to holiday - not all that much there but a great restaurant called Harry's.





What Moon's Nana and I think to be 'Garron's Plateau'.



♥



Our recent hobby seems to be to make friends with all the dogs, something that's so easy to do in Ireland.


Beautiful Portrush.


The best vending machine I've ever seen.




I'm crazy for any good sky.





From our last-night meal at The French Rooms: perfect interiors, delicious food, smallest portions, 4/10.


I'm really looking forward to having more opportunities to visit Northern Ireland and connect a little more with my Belfastian heritage each time. It's nice to have the option of an affordable holiday destination, but I hope we can be a little more international next year and keep a few more promises to ourselves by this time in 2014.

Other Ones.

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Here are things that are related to other things but don't quite fit in, mostly consisting of what I've cooked.


Is anyone else having trouble getting their tomatoes to ripen? I feel like all the sun did is make them grow and once it got rainy again it took away all opportunity I had to reap the rewards - fingers crossed the sunshine this week will mean I'll be coming back from Ireland with more tomatoes then I can handle. My main plan is sundried-tomatoes but I'm sure I'll be able to think of more things to do, Pinterest is my friend.


I baked a bucket-load of orange and poppy seed biscuits using a great recipe from Technicolor Kitchen, I should have frozen some of the dough for another time but they went so well that I cooked the whole lot in one go, at least it filled the cookie jar.


I got semi-bullied into baking a cake for work for my birthday, it was the best buttercream icing I've made in a long time - rule no 1, always read instructions on the packet.


The second un-birthday cake came for my Gran, whose birthday falls two days after mine. The loaf shape wasn't my idea, rule no 2, loaf cakes take 20x as long.


I surprised my Gran by popping over with my Ma and sister for lunch, I made the salmon tacos which I've mentioned previously on here and they were just as good if not better the second time round, I'm pretty proud of myself.


Suzie is my birthday-twin so it was nice to spend some time with her while visiting my Gran. 18 years old! So glad she's over the health-scare we had a few weeks ago and is back to normal, she sat on my knee for a whole half-hour.


Last but not least is this pretty necklace I got from Moon for my birthday from the lovely Oh Someday. I've maybe talked about Kate Holden's work before before but I love her style and there are so many other pieces of hers that I'm coveting. Unexpected gifts that turn out be to be something you've wanted a while are the best.
Not sure how I feel about this kind of post but I wanted to put these pictures somewhere, didn't want to delete them and didn't want them just sitting on my hard drive either, so there you have it.
Hope that you're having a wonderful Wednesday ♥.

Gold on the Ceiling.

I know this is old, but after seeing it on Rude Tube last week, it's pretty much been in my head non-stop and I'm not really sure what to do. Damn The Gregory Brothers and their ability to make ridiculous yet catchy auto-tuned songs, I only just go 'The Bed Intruder Song' out of my head.

I figured I would do this post now to save further mish-mash, but I haven't been up to too much, you know, due to being ill and tired. My eBay selling was a great success and I spent the last hour of selling counting everything down like a sport, it's kind of weird how some people literally snipe their way in last minute. It's been a bit of a weird week anyway hasn't it, weather wise, it's been stupid, one day it's all duvet and curling up, the other it's t-shirts and being outdoors, I don't get it.


Sadly, I received a rejection letter from Alamy on Thursday, I guess I have to say I'm gutted but if I let rejection get me down, I'd literally never be anywhere. Despite the jobhunt being very slow on the ground due to me having the flu, I've found a few good leads, so all I can do is keep my chin up, all I really want at the moment is my sniffly nose to clear up before my next potential interview.

Being ill hasn't been too bad, I mean it's meant that I've been able to slow down and relax a bit, which is at least something as I can't remember when I last felt like I could do that and I've got a surprising amount of things done. Things that have been less cool about being ill is having a kitten who loves toe-mice waking you up every five minutes, but when she's not being annoying she's ever so pretty and lovely.

As I guess you can gather, this week as been incredibly uneventful, but I went with Moon to Costa on Thursday and placed dismally in the pub quiz that evening, probably one of the worst ones we've done. As Moon had an interview on Friday, I was home early and picked up packaging supplies from Poundland, which I don't think I'll be doing again, as the materials were pretty inefficient, and I'd generally say I'm pretty good at wrapping things. Everything got done regardless though, I just hope they don't disintegrate on their journeys.




My mum dug out this old necklace and gave it to me yesterday, I quite like it and it's a bit different to the other necklaces that I have. I'm really liking collared shirts at the moment, but maybe I'm behind and a bit of a fool.


Here is how my nails look at the moment, I'm a smart cookie and I recognise that they're really similar to ones that I posted last week but I don't care too much. Part of me does think that I should attempt some different designs but I like this mix-up. I put some Barry M Body Glitter over the top of a few of them, but I'm not sure how I feel about it as it's not really the right texture. I saw on her Glossybox review that Kim over at Sweet Monday used the BM eyeshadow to go over the top and that's something I might try next.


If you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed that I said I felt like Santa once I'd finished packaging everything, I hope this photo clears up why I said that. I was super worried I would get a ton of dirty looks but luckily the Post Office was practically empty to so I didn't fel too guilty about holding up people's Saturday.


These are my cushion inserts, this photo makes them look like bags of salt, but I'm sure that they're definitely cushions. I got them from this eBay seller, they took just under a week to come, and I reckon if I wasn't feeling so eager, that probably wouldn't have been a problem.
I found The Black Swan issue of Little White Lies which I bought at the beginning of last year and have noticed that my collection is looking pretty nice. I love Little White Lies, but this made me remember how pretty their covers are.

I'm so looking forward to making these cushions; I think a night of that, pasta for one and Take Me Out are on the cards, that doesn't sound too shabby to me.