To paint or not to paint?

For my birthday earlier this week I was gifted this little gem of a curio cabinet from my parents. It’s an adorable piece with lovely details. It has a faux mahogany finish on the shelves but as you may or may not be able to tell, the back panel hasn’t been finished to the same standard and the shelves are chipped here and there. But my question – do I paint it or leave it as it is? To my surprise, my parents immediately suggested “it would look lovely painted black!“. I was surprised by their suggestion considering they’re forever trying to steer me away from black to, well, practically any other colour in existence. So when they suggested I paint it black I was pleasantly surprised. 
What pretell will I be filling said cabinet with? I mentioned a little while ago making the move to becoming a Level Nine Crazy Cat Lady by having a collection of Sylvanian Families kitties. As it happens, I got not one, but TWO SYLVANIAN KITTY FAMILIES for my birthday and I was so excited that I cried [they’re just so cute and I get emotional over cute stuff. Please don’t judge me]. I can’t wait to fill my cabinet with them. And for all our future visitors think I’m insane. 

So what do you think? To paint or not to paint? We’re expecting a lot of rain this weekend [yay] so a little painting project could justify being indoors all weekend. Now I can’t stop thinking of its gothic potential! 

As for my birthday; Robert surprised me with a stay at Powerscourt Hotel for the last night of my 20’s [seriously fancy], then on my birthday we ate black forest gateau, played Cards Against Humanity [thank you again, Kimberly!], drank way too much sangria and spent the day in inappropriate levels of hysterics. It was amazing. 

Also featured – waxing moon painting – gold tumblers – #DirtyThirty

#DirtyThirty

I don’t usually share when it’s my birthday online, but seeing as today is a bit different as I’m now IN MY THIRTIES, I figured now would be the best time to buy some obnoxious balloons and write about it.

I’m not worried about turning 30. I’m actually quite looking forward to it. Most of my 20’s were spent worrying about what other people thought and doing what other people expected of me. In the past year I’ve notice my priorities change and I’ve started doing things I want to do and what’s the best for me [politely, of course]. It’s probably what most people consider a normal level of self esteem, but I for one am looking forward to feeling a bit more confident in my decisions. Dare I say, attempting to adult. 

For the day that it is, I thought it might be fun to share 30 random things you may not know about me. Fun, or it’s boring. Terribly, terribly boring. You be the judge …

– When I was 15 I had my nose broken at my brothers baseball game, needed surgery and had to wear a cast on my face for a month [you can hear more about it here].

– There’s only one thing that terrifies me; ET.

– I was on the grooms side of my friends wedding in high school.

– In high school I gave myself a smilie piercing, but had to take it out for said friends wedding and then it healed over. Welp.

– I was a dental hygienist assistant and a dental assistant in my teens. I know how to extract a tooth with the least amount of bleeding.

– 98% of my friends throughout the years in high school were guys. I think I have them to thank for my potty mouth, nothings-off-topic sense of humour and the inability to understand makeup, fashion or traditionally girly things to this day.

– I graduated high school on the Ontario Honour Roll. Meaning, my overall average was above 80%.

– I was the biggest Lord of the Rings nerd in my teens. I made costumes, wore them in public and wrote in Elvish.

– When I moved to Ireland at 18 I had no friends so I passed the time by teaching myself Russian, playing The Sims and walking to the library.

– The first conversation I had with Robert when we first met was I taught him how to say hello in Russian [“zdra-stvu-ee-tyay”].

– We met at a cinema where we both worked [in the Blanchardstown Centre]. He was 18 and I was 20.

– Seven years later, we honeymooned in St. Petersburg, Russia.

– While talking to my grand-aunt at our wedding I found out my grandmother always wanted to go to Russia. It makes sense as my dad [and subsequently I] have Russian names.

– I have a crippling fear of heights. Even standing on a chair terrifies me.

– People always think I’m a vegetarian. I guess I just look like one?

– I’ve been approached to work on television a handful of times in the past year, but have politely declined. I just can’t. Yet. We’ll see. I’m getting ballsier.

– I can wiggle my ears.

– I’m becoming more introverted as I get older and realise it’s perfectly okay to stay at home. As Anna Dorfman perfectly puts it, “I don’t have social anxiety on the Internet.

– I used to have two microdermal implants in my chest. I nearly fainted getting them, would get them caught on everything and they got infected many times [sorry], but I loved them. Unfortunately, my skin eventually rejected them.

– I’ve never been able to spell ‘definately’. I just can’t.

– I have an ultraviolet tattoo the length of my left forearm that can only be seen under a black light.

– I’m not afraid of insects or ‘creepy crawlies’. I’ve caught wasps with my hands to rescue distressed men, and once [when I was getting said black light tattoo] rescued a snake that got out of its cage in the tattoo studio. A grown man covered in tattoos basically standing on his chair in fear.

– Hypodermic needles make me faint. Every. Time.

– To date the only sectors I haven’t worked in is the military and agriculture. I’ve worked in everything else. The health sector, child care, education, security, laboratories, food preparation, hospitality, animal services, publishing, construction etc. I could go on but this post is already quite long [that’s what she said].

– My hair is naturally blonde. I dye it every 5 weeks otherwise I look like a skunk.

– I’ve always been fascinated with darker things. I was never a princess or anything pretty for Halloween; I was always something that involved a black wig. Now I have one permanently attached to my head.

– I’ve had pneumonia three times and swine flu once.

– I have a lot of anxieties about things I can do nothing about. At the moment I think a lot about over population and over consumption. It’s where my mind goes when it’s idle.

– I can move my eyes independently of each other.

– If I wasn’t involved with interior design, I’d probably be working in astrophysics or the likes. The only thing stopping me is going to university full time.

And there you have it! 30 completely pointless points about me. I don’t know about you if you’re also 30, but I don’t feel anywhere close to it. Maybe just a slightly more responsible 18 year old, but definately not 30. I can barely adult.

I’m going to finish this now as I have cake to attend to and a messy afternoon planned with family. See you on the other side! xx

Lavender bed linen

Before it looks like I’m claiming full bragging rights for this idea, I have Kristen of the Hunted Interior to thank. I was catching up on her blog a couple of weeks ago when I read a particular post of hers about Bedding Basics – How to Build a Better Bed. In her blog post, Kristen wrote about misting her bed sheets after she makes the bed. Specifically, using lavender water on her daughter’s sheets as a kind of cheat to get her to sleep more easily. MIND = BLOWN.

We were in our local health food shop over the weekend when I saw a bottle of Atlantic Aromatics‘ lavender water and thought to try it out. I took the label off [sorry, Atlantic Aromatics] and added some old, faithful dymo label. As pretentious as it sounds, I spritzed our bed pillows and perhaps it’s a combination of having a busy weekend + lavender water gently snuffing me to sleep, but I slept like a baby. 

I will be the first to admit. Yes, misting your pillows with lavender water sounds a bit pretentious. We’re in the process of making our room a phone-free environment and more so somewhere to relax [duh], so I’m hoping this will instil my idea. It’s only been a few days so far, but I’ve loved being greeted by the smell of lavender in our bedroom. Lavender is one of my favourite smells [case in point – I have a jar of dried lavender that I occasionally open and place my face in. It’s soooooo good], and I feel so fancy and grown up adding it to our room in this way.  

Also featured – thrifted gold lamp