A Fun Video

I love this video! 100 years of fashion. I found it on this blog, and she found it on this blog. 

Enjoy!

Flowers in a Cup

Today was Eoin's last day of school, so last night I stayed up late making presents for his teachers. My goal was to make something they would actually enjoy, 

but that was inexpensive and also creative.

A friend gave me this lovely bouquet-in-a-cup recently, and it got me thinking...

 

I don't exactly have any flower arranging experience, but I figured- why not?

So I started with some cute mugs, two bouquets of flowers, ferns from my garden, and an oasis:

I cut the oasis to fit in each cup:

Then I added water (should I have done this at the end? I don't know...) and began adding flowers:

I soon realized I needed more foliage, so out to the dark, blustery garden I went...

Ta da!

I made four: one for Eoin's teacher, two for his special needs assistants (Eoin has autism, so he has helpers in the classroom), and one for the prinipal.

Then I added cute little thank you notes on wooden skewers

And lastly I made a cake voucher for his main teacher:

I'm so thankful for Eoin's school. He has had such a wonderful year and his teachers were marvelous in every way. Now if only it would stop pouring rain.... it might feel like summer!

All Summer in a Day

Last weekend, we had our annual church retreat. This year we went out to the wilds of Kerry on the west coast and stayed in a lovely little hostel in Dingle. 

It's been raining every day for weeks, and when we arrived, it was lashing! 

But on Sunday, the sun came out, and we had our summer in a day!

photo courtesy of Liam

We were the only ones on this spectacular beach (that little dot in the photo below is Eoin!)

They couldn't resist a race... 

We got home on Sunday evening, and I immediately went outside to check the progress in my garden. It's always the first thing I do when I've been away; I'm a little obsessed! My absolute favourite thing about summer is watching my flowers bloom, and just one day of sunshine makes a world of difference in this rain-swept land. Sure enough- my garden had burst into life!

I brought this hydrangea with me from our old house, 

and it's finally flourishing! 

It has about 20 blooms on it, each one a bouquet in itself.

Yum! 

I planted several strawberry plants in an old wheelbarrow I found. 

They love it there!

A vibrant clematis I trained up our hedge.

Hello favourite flower in the world: 

the humble sweet pea! 

Every year I plant loads of them 

all over the garden. 

Their fragrance is divine.

A climbing rose, blooming for the first time.

This rosebush is the only one I didn't plant. It's definitely what you would call an "antique rose". 

I like to imagine the first tenant in our house, lovingly planting it and enjoying the sweet pink blossoms just like I do.

And here is my first harvest of the year! I can't wait to spend the rest of the summer picking flowers every day and arranging them around the house.

You can never have enough fresh flowers, and you can never have enough old glass bottles. Together, they make the best of friends.

Morning in Kinsale

I look forward to Monday morning all week long. That's because it's Mike's day off, and Eoin is in school, so it's our only chance for adventuring together! It's been our special day for over 8 years now. We realized today that this is our last Monday until September (summer vacation means date day turns into family fun day!). So we decided we better make the most of our three hours!

(you may ask- what is so creative/vintage about that? 

to which i reply: we had to be creative to use our precious time to its utmost potential, and my outfit was semi-vintage...!)

We made our way down to the picturesque harbour town of Kinsale....

Here are some of our favourite doors:

As soon as we started to take this photo, it began to rain.

We took refuge from the downpour in the nearest cafe, which happened to be lovely!

All locally sourced meat and produce, great coffee, a glass conservatory ceiling in the back, and a quaint little courtyard. Highly recommended!

The walls

of the
court-
yard
were
so cute!

Here's what was under my raincoat:

 The necklace is one of my favourites. I got it on sale in the cutest antique jewelry shop in Macroom. 

I made the skirt from a random rectangle of fabric I had; I hemmed it and just kept adding darts (and vintage buttons) till it fit! 

And I've been tromping in the rain in these German shoes for years, so they're pretty battered- but I will love them forever!

 Then we found this amazing new print shop, with gorgeous Kinsale travel posters covering the walls. I have a huge weakness for old fruit box labels and travel posters... so I was hooked! 

These aren't vintage, but I think the artist did an incredible job recreating and updating the look.

 The best part? Look what we found, reduced because of a tiny hairline crack in the frame! I was so excited! I had birthday money left, so it came home with us.

All in all, a great Monday! I love you Mike!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my dear husband Mike!

And to my wonderful Dad!!

Happy Flag Day!

My calendar tells me today is Flag Day in the USA (235 years of the stars and stripes)... Turns out, it was also Multi-Cultural Day at my son's school, so we had to dress in patriotic colours and bring a dish from our homeland to share.

Here's how we inadvertently celebrated Flag Day!

 Step One: Wear red, white, and blue! 

These dresses would have been perfect...

stylehive.com

dorotheasclosetvintage.com

 Or dress like a cowgirl, since that is very American. 

It would help if I could turn paper doll clothes into real clothes!

Or, if you had to finish a cheesecake that morning, take your dog to the vet, and it was pouring rain... then perhaps just go with what you've got in your closet:

 The cardigan is vintage 50s, and the skirt is vintage 70s, 

but I was going for a 40s look?! Ha!

Step 2: Make sure husband is appropriately attired:

 I LOVE the detail on Mike's vintage 50s cowboy shirt! 

It's my favourite shirt he owns. Here's the back:

 Step 3: Make sure son is appropriately attired:

Last minute charity shop find!

Felt saves the day once again.

Glued it on 'cause I'm lazy (but I sewed the button at least)

And here's Eoin checking it out!

And the final step? Make American cheesecake!

 Yum!