The Interior DIYer

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Not quite Home of the Year

In September of last year, an RTE researcher contacted me looking to have our apartment take part and be in the running for RTE’s Home of the Year for 2017. After much hyperventilating I pulled myself together, but I decided, however exciting it was to be asked, it wasn’t something we could do. At the very least, the show tours each home for roughly 10 minutes and as I later said to the representative, the camera man would pan our living room and filming would be done. It would take all of three and a half seconds to feature our apartment. Our apartment simply isn’t enough of anything. And TBH I didn’t know it I was up for scrubbing the entire apartment at 8 months pregnant, because there was no way I was going to allow a TV crew and judges into our home without scrubbing an inch off everything.

We had a lovely discussion, I thanked them many times and politely declined after explaining my concerns. As it turns out, we couldn’t have been featured in the end as we don’t own our apartment and that was one of the base guidelines in order to be featured.

It’s a slightly pointless blog post, but the truth is that I’m very proud of that offer and opportunity. Our home didn’t need to be on the show. Having been asked was more than enough for me. 
Happy Friday, homies x
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The Irish Independent, Weekend Magazine

Last Saturday’s Irish Independent Weekend Magazine featured a piece written by Emily Westbrooks all about how DIY needn’t be so daunting. And to prove just that it featured our coffee table contact paper makeover [along with the ever creative Linda of Make Do and DIY!].

I had every intention of sharing the piece on Saturday, but we spotted a man laying on the side of the road with a gash on his forehead on our way home [very long story short; we tended to him, called an ambulance and he was taken care of], so I completely forgot to share my mention that evening as we were a bit distracted, to say the least!
Thanks again Emily for the mention and for including our slightly-less-gaudy-rental-coffee-table thanks to a roll of contact paper and some elbow grease. And if you’re curious, you can see my full coffee table tutorial here. 

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That time I won a year of gin*

Back in early December I saw some friends tweeting about a TheTaste.ie Twitter competition with Glendalough Distillery Gin and needless to say, I was intrigued. I really enjoy a good G&T so I entered the competition and have no shame in admitting I used my nearly year-long pregnancy and new mom induced sobriety as a pity plea …

I thought nothing of it until a few weeks later when I opened Twitter and found out I WON! ME! Before long John from Glendalough Distillery was in contact and Daryl delivered the gin. I brought a canvas bag with me when I met Daryl to carry the two bottles of gin back up to our apartment. I was so wrong. There were not two bottles of gin. Daryl was holding 5IVE bottles of gin. 
Me –     “Wait, you have five bottles. The competition said Sloe Gin and Four Seasons?”
Daryl – “Yeah! A bottle for each season!”
Me –     “😲😍😲😍😲 OKAY 😲😍😲😍😲”
A huge thank you to both TheTaste.ie and Glendalough Distillery for my epic amount of gin. We’re about half way through my Spring Gin bottle so far and it’s so delicious. and I’m hoping to get fancier and experiment with some cocktails. I’m utterly clueless when it comes to cocktails, so if you have a gin cocktail you love, please let me know as I’d love to try it.  
p.s. I just spied Glendalough Distillery have a few cocktail recipes of their own! Friday night sorted ✔

*For me right now, at this point in my life, five bottles of gin equates to a years worth of gin. If you asked me a few years ago, it would last a substantially less amount of time.