Wednesday 31 December 2014

New Years Eve SUP Safari

Stand Up Paddle-boarding has always been one of my dreams to do and today it happened and what a way to send of 2015. Starting at 12.30 this morning we gathered at the Lake Isle of Innisfree around the campfire having a cup of tea and getting to know everyone. Then we headed out on the lake. Three company's came together for four days to present a special SUP Safari which included SUPing, kayaking or going on a tour boat round the lake and down the river. It was the most amazing view being surrounded by mountains and forests and so unbelievably quiet. Everyone was so friendly and chatting the whole way, they were also looking out for me and cheering me on because I was the only person who hadn't done it before. The paddle back was extremely hard because the wind was against us but we stuck at it and made it back to shore after and hour and a half paddle, of course this was the moment I took to nearly fall in, went in to quick and hit the bank and did a 'little dance' on the board till I found my balance again. After we all made it back it was time for a gorgeous cup of Mulled Wine and a chat around the campfire until it started to rain and we all went out separate ways. It was the most amazing experience I have had and something I recommend everyone tries.











Thursday 25 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 25 : ITS CHRISTMASSSSSSSS!!!

I was absolutely spoiled rotten this year and was given the most beautiful presents, I couldn't be more lucky. I want to share what I got so I always remember who gave me these meaningful gifts.

First from My brothers girlfriend this AWESOME ' #'  Pilliow and then my brother got me the  'OMG'  pillow. Harry Potter t's, amazing books, THE BEST PRESENT EVER a surfing lesson, a box of delish sweets and a Penny's voucher. 







From Bobby, Millie and India (the pets) I got this bath products for looking after them.

From 'Santa' I got this gorgeous tin which I love because it is so bohemian/Artsy, this amazing diary which is unlike any other because day by day it gives  you inspirations to reach your goals and last years diary really made a difference to my life and this most amazing family picture frame that I can not wait to start filling with beautiful family pictures.



Christmas is so much more then presents and I'm getting today's post done early so I can spend the rest of the day with my family. I hope you have had the most amazing Christmas.

Wednesday 24 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 24: Christmas Eve fun

I've never left presents till the last minute but I did this year so me, my dad and brother headed into town to pick up (little did he know) my dads present. The town was chocka of course but I kind of love it because you met so many people you haven't seen in years and everyone is wishing you a Merry Christmas and just generally nice. Finally after my brother looked in every new shop he hasn't seen before we headed home for a nice family dinner (curry and chips, real festive). Then like the true kids we are my brother and I sneakily went round the presents at the tree guessing what they are, and also (mainly me) opening some just a crack (quite a bit and taping it back together). We then headed to the graveyard to say some prays for my grandparents, and now its back to watching some Christmas movies and the traditional thing we do on Christmas Eve, light a fire in the sitting room, have little snacks and play board games.

Tuesday 23 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 23: Home for the Holidays

Today consisted of back to back Christmas movies until my brother arrived home for the couple of days over Christmas. Things were all hush hush as he had a present for my parents and wanted to surprise them (a new mattress). After there was lots of hugging, tea and mattress moving we had dinner, a nice big stew I had on the range all day. To me this is the start of Christmas when all the family's home and we have a family dinner. So again I'm keeping the post short today because not much is happening other then movies, movies and mince pies. Hope your having a fun holiday too.




Here's my dog Bobby's reaction to my brother coming home.

Monday 22 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 22 : Sleeping on bins

Back volunteering today and boy I was lucky the fella I was working with had been out four nights in a row and was wrecked because I was not prepared for a lot of work. We got all the jobs done by 10.30 and then I found him asleep in one of the rooms on top of a load of bins.. and that is really how this day went. I sat on the floor while he laid on the bins, we'd have a chat every so often, get up do some more jobs that needed to be done then went right back to napping. It was by far one of the weirdest days I've had but at least I know they trust me to sleep on the job when I'm around.. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, probably not one for the CV anyway. Even though I did poop-all today I was wrecked out and don't even remember getting home just waking up when the car stopped. Of course the night your wrecked tired and in your jammys all the neighbors come calling with Christmas cards and what not, Lets just say it was probably one of the most horrible cups of tea they've ever been giving by me.

Sunday 21 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 21

Honestly today consisted of the longest sleep in ever and a bunch of Christmas movies. The weather is horrible, my mood is horrible and I'm extremely tired so it is a proper lazy day for me today. At least there's always new Christmas movies to rely on.


This picture just sums me up right now in a nutshell. 

Saturday 20 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 19 + 20: Sleep deprived

Today I was back volunteering at the ISPCA for the day along with a great new friend I met who is also a volunteer, Kate. We were on Cattery and once we had that done were asked to clean a room. The things is though when you ask me and Kate to clean something expect it polished, organised, categorized, labelled and to be fair looking brand new. Our idea of cleaning is to take absolutely everything out of the room and put them back in order. And boy did we do that. This took us pretty much five hours but we had our Santa hats on, the music blasting and had a great time. When we finally got finished and made sure to put a giant note on the door saying 'touch or mess anything and you die' we headed back to Kate's and I spent the night at hers. We watched Frozen, FINALLY only a year late I can finally say I have seen it and I am a changed person. Then we watched Bad Neighbors which was absolutely hilarious. Thing with us is, we didn't just sit watching these films like normal people they had to be paused constantly whenever we had to tell each other something, or when we randomly took her dog up to play the piano, or when we sang to loud to actually hear what was going on in Frozen or when we just plain fell asleep at 5.30am.  It was a great night but the reason we had the sleepover was because she was volunteering on the 20th as well so we thought it would be fun for us to be in together again and so it began another day at the ISPCA with 4 hours sleep. We were giving another room to clean (shouldn't have done such a good job on the first) and we literally spent all day on it and I swear the room has never looked so clean. We found out there was a sink in the room (news to us) and also there was this strange thing called a 'floor' in the room. Anyway it was some weekend and all I need right now is roughly a weeks sleep.

Thursday 18 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 18 : Shop sinanagans

All I needed after a 4am start yesterday was a double shift in the Charity shop today, I stupidly said I'd cover for someone on top of my own shift. I actually had a really fun day though. To start off some kids from the local primary school were in the market yard (where the shop is) doing a carol session and they attracted quite a crowd. Being there for the whole day I organised the place from top to bottom, putting clothes into categories, labeling them, pricing them, folding them then finally everything looked fine to my eye. Between all that I had a busy day with lots of customers getting the last of their Christmas presents. Everyone was so in the Christmas spirit and I had the Cd on to sing -a-long to all day, although I had only one Cd with about six songs on it so these were on repeat constantly and I did learn to block it out after awhile. It was my last day in the shop before Christmas and the New Year so after packing up and saying goodbye to all the stall holders, wishing them a Merry Christmas I am quite in the festive spirit too. Don't ya just love Christmas.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 17: LIVE ON NATIONAL TV

I got picked to go up to Dublin with two members of Staff from the ISPCA to show some of our 'golden oldies' that are up for adoption along with the Dogs Trust and Ash Animal Rescue Center. I was not expecting this at all as I've only be a volunteer there for four months but I was so pleased to be picked and what an experience. The drive up was surprisingly quick but manly because we were having such a laugh (I went to turn up the song, she went to turn it off, etc). When we got there it was a nervous hour's wait until our slot so we decided to wait outside in the freezing cold instead of the awkward silence that was going on inside, along with the fact that there was models everywhere and we were here in mucky dog drool covered clothes and have very low self esteem. Finally our time arrived and it was over in about 2 minutes but it was such an amazing experience and I will never forget it.  And being honored to be picked out of all the staff that work there really means a lot.

I don't think I ever want to see 4am again.. It's still dark outside, that means its bedtime.


 Sorry for the poor quality on set pictures but I took these really sneakily on my phone because there was like a gazillion people around and I'm pretty sure I wasn't meant to have my phone anyway.

               
                                 There's me on the tellybox.. (left)


And again with of course the dog facing the wrong way.  Thanks Fluffy for that.

Tuesday 16 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 16 : Christmas Party with the kids

Finally got back volunteering in the Youth Cafe today and I was welcomed by a colorful sight, the whole cabin is decorated in Christmas decorations and the table was laid out for a Christmas dinner for the kids. It was the last day of term so we were sending them off with a bang (and on lots of sugar, so good luck parents). First off they got some pizza and chips along with there candle lit dinner and crackers for fun. After they were full and high on orange juice they had a great time playing with a snowman pinata which surprisingly was a lot stronger then it looked and were pretty sure was actually made of metal, we ended up getting one of the maintenance men bashing it.  Finally after they tackled each other to get the sweets we got them calmed down for a festive film, The Santa Claus. Having some popcorn, the lights turned off and curled up with blankets made it a perfect evening for them and they really seemed to enjoy it, I know I did. So that's it in the Youth Cafe for this year, start back in mid January.

Monday 15 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 15 : Never taking anything for granted again

Today was my first day in the office at the ISPCA they needed help doing the Christmas orders and I got picked and thought it would be a nice change anyway. For about two hours I sat cutting cards. The Christmas cards were too big to fit into the envelopes so I had to cut them.. every single one.. on each end. Finally though something I quite liked, the orders. It was a challenge to remember what you were at because I was getting handed orders left,right and center and had to go round collecting what each person ordered, package it ,label it , leave it in the post pile and then go with the order form to be filled. It thought me never to take anything for granted, something as simple as a letter goes through many stages to get to you.When all this was done it was PUPPY TIME.. my favorite part of the day. We had to take pictures of 11 puppies and boy were they trouble. Not alone was the one on the table that we were trying to take the picture of as hyper as a kid at Christmas but whilst I was doing that I had two pulling off my shoes, one in my pocket, one tugging my jumper and the rest chewing everything in the room they could find. Let's just say it took us an hour and 25 minutes to take pictures of 11 puppies, it was a struggle. In the evening more orders came with the post so had to package them up again, then I was shown how to do some computery thing.. basically I knew what I had to do, I didn't know what it was for or what it did but after coping and pasting 209 peoples information from one Excel page to another I never really want to see a computer again. Moral of the day: I never want to work in a office.

Sunday 14 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 13 +14 : Making Christmas Treats

After searching Pinteret for fun little festive treats I came across these little beauties and couldn't wait to try them. First up 'Elf cookies' made from Cheerios with icing sugar,coca powder and some dipped in melted chocolate with sprinkles then was possibly my favorite Cinnamon bun flavored popcorn. I can not put in to words how good the house smelt and how good these taste you just have to go with me on this one and try them for yourselves. Lovely take on popcorn for this time of year.














Friday 12 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 12: Winter is a coming

WOOO woke up to the best sight.. SNOW. Even if it was only an inch thick, but it was prettyful. Today I dawned the hat, scarf and gloves from winter pasts and headed up to the ISPCA to volunteer for the day. When I got there though there wasn't a sign of snow so I didn't really get to have a fun snow day.. yet. I was on Cattery today which pretty much goes the same as always. Clean the cats, feed the cats, water the cats, give meds to the cats, feed the cats, water the cats, clean the cats, feed the cats...put the cats to bed. In between all this I cleaned the rabbits and canaries, took pictures of some dogs for adoption profiles and brought four boarder collie puppies for their first adventure outside. Two of the four went brilliant, one isn't a fan of the outdoors and the other was a wanderer. It was quite a quiet day so don't have much to tell on that basis although I have some very exciting news to do with the ISPCA that is happening next Wednesday.. I'll keep it a secret for now.. keep the suspense.

BLOGMAS Day 11: Shop to till you ..Train

Today I started the morning in the newly relocated Charity shop I Volunteer in. It wasn't the busiest but boy was it a relief to be in a warm shop instead of the Antarctic conditions of the other one. I finished in the shop at 1PM and had exactly 15 minutes to get to the train station,  find a parking space and get my train ticket before missing it and having to wait till 3PM. I headed down to Sligo with my mum for the evening. I needed to return books to the library ( I go there because its the most amazing library around) and get a pressie for a friend. We stopped for lunch in Subway which I'm pretty sure I mention before, but they have the most UH-MAZING Veggie patty subs. Yeah so we had to past the time then till 6PM to get the train back, joys of living in the Country, theres only a train every two hours. It was super dark by the time we got the train but that meant we got to see all the decorations up in houses on the way home. It was a fun evening with my Mum and hopefully the books I got will last till after Christmas.

Monday 8 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 8: Traditional Christmas

For me Christmas is all about the traditions. I think every family have their usual set of things they do each year. Although there is some changes, we are older now, every year there's always the same things. For starters every year on the 8th of December we put up our Christmas decorations (take them down the 8th of January). Every Christmas Eve we would gather in my Nan's house and have a mini party and give each other our presents. It was always the best because it would normally be snowing and on the way home we'd always say we could see Santa's sleigh. We'd always start Christmas day the same. Super Early. We would all bring our presents and stockings into my parents room and open them together then 'Santa' used to hide our presents around the house starting with always a toothbrush and paste in the bathroom, working our way to the kitchen. In the kitchen though the real fun began because 'Santa' was a right messy fella and would knock things over and spill the milk, then there's Rudolph who would leave dirty hove prints everywhere. Back in the old day we used to go to Christmas mass in the village and then would run back home to open the rest of Santa's presents. Then it would be the long day of passing time watching Christmas movies till Dinner. Now what we do is sleep in till about 12, still find 'Santa's presents, have a nice family breakfast then watch endless movies till Dinner. After dinner we would all do the washing up so we could spend the rest of the day opening our presents from other friends and family, plus eating a lot of sweets. I really love Christmas traditions I think its what makes it a special holiday.

Do you have any Christmas traditions ?? let me know in the comments below.

Sunday 7 December 2014

My Music Must Haves

There has been endless amazing CD's released lately and I wish I could get my hands on them and have them on repeat till they wear out.

       

Ed Sheeran- X
What can I say Ed (were on first name bases here) has been one of the top winners of 2014 winning multiple(ly) awards and Multiply was flying off the shelves before it could even get comfy. I love everything about Ed to be honest and after seeing him on the Toy Show, if it's possible I love him more. He doesn't just do amazing up beat catchy songs there are heart grabbing-out-of-you-chest-and-fill-it-with-the-feels-then-chuck-it-back-at-ya songs like Thinking Out Loud, which by the way he nailed the dancing in.














Ella Henderson - Chapter One

From Ghost to Glow, everyone of Ella's songs are amazing. Her voice is so powerful and emotional that all you can do is stop and listen when her voice comes on. I know her album is going to be amazing if its anything like her first singles.















Sam Smith - In The Lonely Hour
Again another fella who has owned the music scene for 2014. When my dad knows the name of a current singer then you know he must be extremely popular. Just announced for 6 Grammy's Sam Smith is a winner all round.















Micheal Buble- Christmas
Mr Bubble as I like to call him is just well Michael Buble, there is no better way to describe him, he is naturally unique and outstanding. When I want Christmas tunes its this fella I want to be singing them he just has that happy tone to his voice that I just heart.  This CD is never a must have for me right now

BLOGMAS Day 7 : Christmas Shoppppppping


I've never been so unprepared for Christmas than I am this year but finally today I got my shopping-till-I'm-a-dropping shoes on, money in the pocket and list in hand. We headed to Athlone for the day. Penny's was of course the first stop and to be honest I got more stuff for myself than I did for others, they just have the nicest room decor in and with the Christmas music blasting and the trees and lights everywhere I'm super in the Christmas mood. I really enjoyed today everyone was really in the spirit although at times it was like the Apocalypse was starting with the way people would shove you to get the first snowman. But finally by the end of the day I had all my gifts got, including the cat and the dog of course. To top it all off we stopped for dinner on the way home and ran into Santa at a Christmas Party in the hotel.. I rather seen to much of Santa though, he really needs to learns to close the curtain while he's getting changed.


Saturday 6 December 2014

BLOGMAS Day 6: Santa Claus is Coming To .. our village..


Every year Santa makes a grand entrance (on a horse trap) to our normally quiet little village, but on the day he's arriving there's hyper kids every where, all you can see for miles is red Santa hats and for the first time this year they even had a snow machine. Going to the Christmas party in the village was one of my favorite parts of Christmas it meant the start of the Season and all that is yet to come. One of the best parts was, every kid in the village was there so you got to meet all your friends as well as Santa. To be honest though when me and my brothers names got called to go in and see Santa in his Grotto it used to frighting the 'tinsel' out of me. This little dark shed in the corner of the room with this big fella, a very excited Ms Claus and very dodgy looking elves was enough to traumatize anyone. But we did come out with presents so it was always worth it. I still remember getting a (odd looking) doll and car one year and then another year getting the game Operation. Ah reminiscing Christmas's Past you gotta love it.

 I'll admit I was too excited waving to get a good picture but.. isn't Santa's back lovely.

Friday 5 December 2014

International Volunteer Day

On International Volunteer Day today it has me thinking how proud I am to be a volunteer and how I am doing my bit to help out the best I can. I currently volunteer in the ISPCA National Animal Center, a local Charity shop in aid of the Hope Foundation and a local Youth Cafe helping with the afte rschool homework group. So many people ask me do I get paid for the work I'm doing and are shocked when I say no. But being on my Gap Year with no other plans, volunteering to me just makes sense. I'm currently unemployed so why not give my time to charity because YOLO and all that. Volunteering also gives back so much, not only a great one for the old CV but I have made friends for life, gained experiences I never would have had the option to get and also honestly had the time of my life. I look forward to volunteering everyday and places like the ISPCA who rely on volunteers so much, really do make you feel appreciated (as I showed you on my birthday post), with regular Volunteer Appreciation Day's (we're out for lunch tomorrow for ours) and having a dedicated Volunteer coordinator who is always there for us and does her best to make sure the volunteers are part of the team. Volunteering is such a simple thing to do and has only positive results.
The Voluntary Service Overseas have a great guide on simple things to help out

BLOGMAS Day 5 : Festive Fashion Wish List

I'm super into the Christmassy mood this year and have been thinking about my Christmas Day and New Year outfits since October. Also this year I've been invited to a few Christmas Party's with the places that I volunteer in so I have those to look forward to.. and also find outfits for. I really love Velvet fabrics and sparkles for Christmas and the great thing is there's no set colour for Christmas its completely up to your style.Christmas is the perfect excuse to go all out on your outfit because its all about the celebration. With all the amazing TV adds for all the great stores and online shops I have some great inspiration, here are just a few of my favorites.

BooHoo.com


Elysia Lace & Velvet short Playsuit 
Niami Velvet Skater Dress
Gemma Sequin Shoulder and Sleeve Shift Dress
Kelly Velvet Long Sleeved Maxi Dress 
Molly Metallic Keyhole Skater Dress
Hattie Gold Metallic Lantern Mini Skirt



Miss Guided

Rita Lace Panel Midi Skirt 
Classic Shaggy Faux Fur coat 
Steph Lace Front Skater Dress. Navy
Well the only thing I've learnt from searching these outfits is.. I can't choose one and I FREAKIN LOVE CHRISTMAS.