Curb appeal

A little bird tweeted this picture to me a couple of weeks ago, and I had to splice it here. How gorgeous is this? And if they dry properly {as in not all stupid droopy} they will keep so beautifully. The front door on my future house better watch out. It’s going to get it good.

Well I don’t mind if I do. Thanks for the heads up Livlig! I took it further and googled some more hydrangea wreathes. Phwoar. Are they ever delicious.

Thrifty things – hostess tea set

I am obsessed with old tea sets. The older, the kitschier, the daintier, the better. Whenever I step into a charity shop, it’s the first section I go to – that shelf with random pieces of china waiting patiently to be added to my collection. 
Quite some time ago I found this unusual shaped tea and saucer set {below right} and had to get it since it matched a set my parents have had since before I was born. The shape was so unusual, but perfect for my standard stack of cookies. Later when I was in the Arnott’s home department, I saw a tea set in the same shape, called a ‘housewife hostess tea set’, hence where I got the name for these. I don’t really know if that’s what this style is called, but I could hardly call my post ‘Thrifty things – tea set with a kind of charmingly wobbily abnormal shaped saucer’.

Later I found my second set {above left}. I must admit, fiance uses them much more than I do. I don’t actually drink tea, which is very unusual for this part of the world. But my love of dainty tea sets outweigh my dislike for tea.
First tea set €3 at Respect charity shop on Prussia Street, and second set €3 at Mrs. Quin’s Charity Shop in Rathfarnham. 
Wedded note: This is actually something along the lines of what we’re thinking for our big day – dark plum and burgundy tones, dainty tea sets, mulled wine, candles on anything that stands still, and a shit-ton of hydrangeas – obviously. So excited to get started!

Lovely mention – Irish House and Home

I’m still completely bowled over to have been asked to do a write up for House and Home. And for it to appear on their site. Which is somewhere I creep regularly.


This is my first mention here in Ireland, and I’m excited to see where this can will take me. The publicity my blog has received to date hasn’t felt 100% real, since it was mentioned in far-away lands (not that I’m not obscenely appreciative), but now there’s a chance that someone I know or am related to might actually see my tutorial on an Irish site – kind of extremely surreal.

My tutorial can now be found on the Irish House and Home online How-To section. Here is a direct link to the tutorial on their site. A big thanks to Jimmy who was a pleasure to work along side, and who was painfully patient in my scrambling attempts to put together better images for the site. This pretty much made my November.

p.s. See current profile picture.