A Tale of Grace

Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Best Gift of All!

This day last year Patrick and I got the most amazing gift we could ever imagine, our beautiful daughter.I don't think either of us ever imagined a love like the love we feel for her - she is such a joy and amazes her parents every day. Watching her grow, learn and explore is so amazing and she is teaching us all the time. She has taught me a love that I never imagined - an unconditional, all encompassing, fierce, protective love that grows every day even when I feel that that couldn't be possible - sometimes I think the word 'love' just isn't enough. Watching her trying to walk, crawling, playing - it's amazing how much she has grown in one short year and how our families have just fallen in love with her.

Happy birthday, munchkin. xoxo

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Jess LC Jewelry Giveaway - what's not to love?!

My friend Freck is having an awesome giveaway on her blog, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere. If you're lucky, you could win a beautiful piece of jewelry from Chicago jewelry designer, Jess LC. Here are a few of my favorite pieces:

A bracelet, but I'd love to see this as a necklace, too!

So hop on over to Freck's blog (which is awesome and you should read it every day anyway) and to find out how you can enter to win!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

There's less than 3 weeks 'till Christmas....

AGHHHHHHHHH!!!

Are you ready? I'm certainly not! We're still working out our Christmas menu, I have more shopping to do and more Christmas movies to watch!! This weekend we're heading West to decorate the house for Christmas. I'm excited to do this as we are not doing a tree in our apartment this year (sniff sniff). As we're spending Christmas with my parents and we have a toddler, we decided no tree was the best thing for our sanity (I can't even imagine the havoc C would wreck with a tree at her disposal!). So, although our streets are lined with a 3" block of ice, I braved the elements and headed into town this weekend to really get in the spirit.

The weekend started on Friday night with this vision:

It's a little hard to tell from this photo but that's P in his coat, scarf, cap and suit trousers tucked into his WELLIES. Blazing trails in fashion, this man.

On Saturday morning, my sister, C and I went for a wander through the park and saw this ginormous snowman:

Can you see the little boy beside it? It's enormous!

Impressive, huh? As we don't really have the festive holiday stuff indoors this year, I decided to head into town to get into the spirit whilst doing some Christmas shopping.

The lights were up on Grafton Street (excuse the bad photo):

The shop windows got a festive makeover and it makes window shopping so much more fun!

Here are the windows at Brown Thomas:

images: blondorexic.blogspot.com

A modern doll house in Bewleys:

Hilarity at Ted Baker:

Sunday morning called for some relaxing.....

....before heading out to see Arcade Fire at the O2. They were FANTASTIC. I was so mad that I forgot my camera, so All I have are some pretty shoddy camera phone pics. Still, they were great and it was a fantastic night out!

And what better way to get in the spirit than with some music. Here's what I am listening to right now, from 1976 by you-know-who! :)

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Fly-Away Friday: Santa Land!

The lead-up to Christmas is one of the most enjoyable times of the year for me - the Christmas music on repeat, the tree, the decorations, the crispness in the air, the Christmas movies, the hot cocoa, mince pies and cookies - I love it all! The blanket of snow that Dublin is covered in makes me quite happy to stay here this weekend, as does the fact that I'll be seeing these guys (with these guys opening) at the O2 on Sunday night:

So. Excited.

If I were to escape Dublin this weekend I'd definitely want to savour that Christmassy feeling, so snow is a requirement. And where better to enjoy a Christmassy weekend and bring out your inner child than in Santa's home - Lapland...

When you're there you can post your letter to Santa at his very own post office, tour his 'office', and visit the man himself in Santa Park. You can hang with the elves in their workshop or pick up some elf-pointers in their very own elf school. They also have a gingerbread man 'factory' where you can eat gingerbread men and drink mulled wine to your heart's content. That's where you'd find me. :)

But what happens if you don't have kids or you're craving a more adult kind of getaway? Is Lapland out of the question? Of course not! Instead of Santa's village you could stay here....

This is Snow Village, folks. A hotel, restaurant, and bar all made from ice and snow. They have log cabins, too, for the not so cold natured. You can stay overnight, pop in for a quick look (for a small fee) or have a guided tour (for a slightly bigger fee). The most fascinating part of this whole thing is that every year they reconstruct the entire village. From their website:

"For the winter season 2010-2011 the Snow Village will be created for the 10th time. The annual construction of the Snow Village begins when the temperature drops about ten degrees below zero which is usually at the end of October or the beginning of November. Approximately 1,5 million kilos of snow and 300 000 kilos of crystal clear, natural ice are used for the construction. The constructors, specialized in using snow and ice as building material, are constantly developing new tools and instruments for snow construction and exploring innovative ways of taking this art form into new levels."

How nuts is that?! I'd love to see Lapland but there's no way I'm sleeping on a block of ice! Santa Land it is! Here's what I'd be packing (disclaimer: I'm dressing for fun, not practicality, of course!).