The Interior DIYer

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Merry half-way-there!

Back in Canada, the town I was from would celebrate “Christmas in June”. It was amazing. Everyone would go to the lake front and if you owned a boat, you would deck it out with as much Christmas stuff as you could – lights, Christmas trees, Santa’s, Christmas music, all in 35°C heat. At night all the boats would light up and twinkle on the water and it would be magical and lovely. Just for the hell of it.

There’s nothing like that here in Ireland, so fiance and I started our own tradition. 

Every Christmas fiance’s mom makes us a whopper Christmas pudding, so I’ve started saving a chunk of it for our ‘Christmas in June’. We celebrate by having a slab of pudding with a dollop of brandy butter which will knock you into next week. Fiance adores Christmas pudding, and nearly burst with excitement when I reminded him ‘Christmas in June’ was today. It’s something silly, but I love our tradition.

p.s. Due to the vast amounts of alcohol in it, Christmas pudding lasts forever. If anything, it gets better with age. 

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My newest addition

There’s a new addition to our living room that is something I’ve wanted for a long time – a skull. While my family and I were wandering around St. Macdara’s Island last month, my dad found this beaut of a sheep’s skull and I squealed with glee like a little girl, coupled with clapping of the hands. Don’t worry, I got some weird looks so you’re not the only one. I just really like skulls. It might have to do with my undying {and secret / embarrassing} love of pirates.
I did some research on how to keep and best show skulls and it’s quite interesting. From removing the teeth and sticking them back with glue {to make sure they don’t fall out and go missing}, as well as giving them a coating of clear nail varnish to make them look fancy. 

He looks a bit sad at the moment. Maybe he needs to be propped up on more books, but I was thinking of kicking him up a notch. I quite like this mounted version below, although my sheep isn’t so well endowed, or there is the emo-alternative of painting him all black. I’m leaning towards lefty at the moment … What do you think?

I feel I should say this sheep {more than likely} died of natural causes on an isolated and uninhabited island in the Atlantic, roaming free and smiling and bleating all over the place and eating grass to it’s heart content, until it’s unfortunate demise quite some time ago. I didn’t attack this poor creature with a hatchet. In case some of you were wondering.

Image cred 3 and 4. 
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The month of June

Any non cat lovers avert {and roll} your eyes. This is my third {and final} cat birthday installment for the year. My true baby, Juniper Pearl Berry, turned 8 this past weekend 🙂 She’s the most trusting cat I’ve known, carries her toys in her mouth and howls until you play with her, loves getting her belly rubbed, and is able to throw some seriously dirty looks if something doesn’t suit her.
Juniper comes with a tiny sob story since she was a very unhealthy kitten when we first got her, but she’s a trooper. She’s all good now. We found a lady who was looking after abandoned cats when we were in search for some additions to our family 8 years ago {insert dream sequence} …

The lady said she had a special kitten that would need particular attention. She brought out Juniper who was so weak  she could barely lift her head. So much sob! I took one look at her and knew she was mine. We brought her home along with another black kitten who we affectionately named Lucifer – my brothers cat. 

When Juniper was small she caught a bad chest infection {before we got her}. Her eyes were bad, her ears infected, her mouth had sores, and she had a bad cough. That is, until I mothered the hell out of her. I cuddled hot water bottles with her, wiped her nose, cleaned her mouth and ears until she got better, and subsequently got an attitude. The most adorable attitude ever. If I were to leave the room, she would get up and follow me, even if she was sleeping. And still does it to this day.

Thanks to Junipers chest infection when she was little, she is in a constant state of snorting like a piglet – vets say that her nasal passageway grew around the infections, so she is forever breathing like Darth Vader. It sounds scary, but it’s quite cute in a weird way. As I say to guests “she just sounds sick. She isn’t really”. 

June sleeps under the covers with me every night and is the best cuddler. She literally is my child.
Above, June cutting a pretty dirty look with my Colonel cross stitch, and being a seriously grumpy model with my monochromatic afghan blanket. She’s probably saying “mom, you’re embarrassing me”, but I’m ignoring her.