Things I Love Today

Glitter Tip - I love simple nails. My fingers are almost always nude or a pale pink - I save the brights for my toes. Lately though I have been craving a little more when I look down at my hands on the keyboard. A little hint of sparkle seems to be bringing a smile to my lips. Have you tried this out yet? Does it work well with coloured glitter? I've only tried it with gold so far. 

Shoot - I moved house last week. This one has nicer housemates, a bigger room, a clean kitchen and a landlord who doesn't mind me setting up a training target in the house. Anyone who has followed Magatha May for a while will know that archery is my sport, and will probably know that I have been unlucky with injuries for the past few years. Right now I'm working on a training program that is slowly building up strength and stability but this really needs more than the once a week training that I can get from my local club and an understanding landlord is a god send. The fact that I have a downstairs room and no one can hear me shoot late at night is a bonus.  

This Image - All I want to do is print it out and frame it.

Honourable Mentions - salted caramel mochas, days bright enough to wear sunglasses again, Greek yogurt with lemon, sudden snow showers, my first TRX class - and I loved it, remembering a great hug, warm blankets and skype chats, new houses which are closer to work means 15 minutes more sleep every morning, rediscovering Adele's 21 album, THIS song from Passenger, reading and reading and reading for hours on a Sunday afternoon, fresh haircuts, the smell of warm, clean laundry, some dried mango with my mid afternoon coffee, looking forward to a few days in London with Raymy next week

Morning

Do you find it difficult to get up on cold and wintery mornings like these? Is the dark, warm cocoon of your bed impossible to leave. Do you struggle to open your eyes and greet the day with any form of joy?

Try something for me... if your room allows it... move your bed. 

Just catch it and drag it over near the window. Crack your window a little when you go to bed each night. A slightly cool bedroom results in better sleep as your body's internal temperature needs to drop in order to fall asleep. You also have a constant supply of fresh air circulating in your bedroom. The slight increase in the brightness in your room also helps you to wake up more effectively as your body's biological clock is programmed to rise with the sun. This results in your body knowing when it's time to wake up and being ready for it. 

When I moved into my new place I really wanted to keep my room feeling a spacious as possible so I pushed the bed into the bay window in my room. It took a little tweaking of the blinds to make sure that the rising sun didn't hit me in the face each morning, and that the streetlight outside my window didn't keep me awake into the wee hours of the morning. The result has been wonderful though. I'm usually only lightly dozing by the time my alarm kicks off in the morning and it's no longer a chore to drag myself from the bed.

Try it. 

After Eight

The Christmas chocolate season is finally over - I confess that I have only finished my selection box over the weekend. I am such a hoarder. And in hindsight I can say that my favourite holiday sweets are, without a doubt, After Eights. Just yum! 

I have always been a sucker for all things mint chocolatey and After Eights are just the pinnacle of minty, chocolatey, gooey decadence. I love them so much I am starting to be drawn to all things mint and chocolate... even room interiors.

Isn't the combination of fresh and sweet mint green just perfect with the warmth of chocolate brown? Touches of gold give a sense of glamor and  breaking the room up with cream and white stop it becoming too sickly.

 

Keeping a room airy and light with an abundance of mirrors. Removing the curtains, as long as you have no nosy neighbors, lets in maximum light.  

 

Texture adding gold accents make a cool coloured room warm and luxurious.  

 

Let your furniture make an impact by situating it in a simple, paired down room.

Thinking Time

Right now things are good, really good. Everything is looking up.

Do you know what would make things go from good to great? Water pressure. I've recently moved into a new place with some guy friends and it lovely. They're fun, flirty, and make me cups of tea, win. Everything is great except the shower. I was lucky at home to have a power shower at my disposal and got spoiled. This shower? It's more of a dribble than a drenching. There is always plenty of hot water but just not enough of it. I'm one of those people who like to spend the first five minutes of a  shower just letting the hot water work it's magic and soothe everything away in a torrent of loveliness. I had forgotten that it was a sort of luxury, and I miss it.   


Are you a 'stop and think for a while in the shower' kind of person or do you like to just get in there, get washed, and get out again?

Bed

 

I miss my bed.

A girls bedroom should be her sanctuary, her place to go and hide away from all that is bad in the world and forget her troubles as she shuts the door behind her. 

Right now my bedroom is not this place. It is where I go to snatch too little sleep, and toss and turn. I am so looking forward to submitting this thesis and getting to call my room 'home' again. These rooms all look so cozy and comforting, perfect for a little down time.

Has anything ever happened to stop your room being your haven? I'd love to know how you got it back.

Moving Day

So today is moving day - seven years of Limerick and two years of that wonderful house.

Goodbye... Halloween Parties

Goodbye... Brew?

Goodbye... A jarful of Penguins

Goodbye... Manny in our spare room

Goodbye... movies projected onto the sitting room wall

Goodbye... en suite bathroom

Goodbye... wonderfully huge wardrobe

Goodbye... 20MB broadband

Goodbye... to so many memories

Internet relations between our router at home and my laptop are not particularly good so for now it is goodbye to you too. I'll be popping back into blog-land about once a week or so.

Hugs

Erickson Beamon

I love the idea of having a room with a high ceiling and a fabulous chandelier hanging from it. This one by Erickson Beamon is so incredibly beautiful and decadent looking. It would give a huge touch of glamour to any home. 

What Would You Do?

If you could be sitting here what would you be doing?

For me - it would be a Sunday evening, a group of friends who came over for a lazy Sunday lunch would have just headed home and I would be left to curl up with the papers and a scaldingly hot cup of tea. I would probably stay reading the style supplements until the room has grown dark and I haven't even realised.

Were Ya Born In A Barn?

I want, I want, I want.

I am loving this kitchen so much - from the wide floorboards to the kitchen stools and the ceiling beams too. You can check out the rest of this house below - isn't it gorgeous?

source

Things I Love Thursday

Springtime Blossoms - Just yesterday as I walked through the campus I got the most beautiful whiff of fresh blossoms. I love watching the arrival of spring, it literally appears overnight around here. Last weekend saw the arrival of the cherry blossoms on all our trees at home and they are so beautiful to look at.

Wearable Sunshine - Lately I've been dreaming of a yellow dress. I'm not too sure if a pale Irish girl can pull off this look but I am really give it some serious thoughts. Any tips or ideas on how to wear yellow without looking ill? I'm really liking the look of this one for day time and this one for evening.

A Room With Some Blue - There is something so fresh and new about a bright blue room, something that screams out for lots of sun and warm breezes to keep it from becoming too chilly. I've been thinking that a blue room might be a very beautiful place to live in.

Honourable Mentions - huge hoop earrings, real coke, my cherry necklace (thanks Raymy), beautiful desktop wallpapers to inspire me, lime and fig scented candles, tomato soup with extra Tabasco, this video tutorial, so that you never get stuck without a cd case again, weekends off, bare legs, lemon curd milkshakes and rhubarb smoothies, peacock prints 

Things I Love Thursday

Sanctuary -  Making my bed into my sanctuary is one of those things that calms me down completely. I headed out on Monday with the strict intention of not coming home until I had bought some beautifully soft cushions for my bed. Eh Vola! My bed is now a nicer place for everyone. For book reading, movie watching, out the window gazing, coffee drinking, day dreaming... you get the message.

The Hunger Games - I know it's Suzanne Collins book series for teens but I picked all three up over Christmas in a 3 for 2 offer in Easons just cause... and they're great. Easy to read but still keep you on the edge of your seat, likable characters and a movie being made. Here's hoping it will be done more justice than the Twilight Saga.

Mind Body Fusion - I have mentioned this class more than once here but it really is the bees knees for getting back into some sort of fitness routine. Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I don some trackkie pants and a vest and head for the Arena on campus. It's such a gentle class, full of stretching and bending and holding and breathing and so forth. All nice and relaxed with lovely music and a calming instructor. It hardly even feels like exercise. 

Honourable Mentions - This giveaway (FREE STUFF ALERT) over at 'Think What You Like', Nature Valley Maple Syrup granola bars,vanilla and cashmere candles, Angry Birds, finding the exact thing my mum was looking for in the shops for ages, on eBay, and getting it shipped to her, my very first ASOS package arriving this week, pink flowers - preferably carnations (how very Carrie Bradshaw of me), hot water with lemon in the morning