A Dragon Boat race!!

I was asked to be the drummer on a Dragon Boat for a charity Race, I of course said yes, however I had never seen a dragon boat before and had no idea what I had just signed up for!
I think if I had I may have had second thoughts!
To say the my position on the boat was precarious is an understatement!
It was fantastic fun though and as a crew of complete novices we did pretty good! We won 2 out of 4 races and we were all very proud of ourselves and very exhilarated!!
In the video (taken by my sweet man cycling along the dock until a building got in his way) we are the boat closest to the dock and winning all the way!

A trip to the theatre

We had a fabulous evening in the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin at "Donka, A letter to Chekov" It was a stunning production, very powerful.

I was quite overwhelmed at the end!

A New Addition to the Sitting Room

I went for tea and cake to a little coffee shop / antiques shop in Glaslough village (in County Monaghan) with my Mum. It's a great little spot called Ambledown Cottage, the coffee is great and I always spot a curiosity that gives me the "will I, won't I?" moment. So on my most recent trip, I immediately fell in love with this..............

The Castle Leslie Estate is right beside Ambledown Cottage, the ivy was stunning. This is the lodge house, the castle is a little further on and fabulous. My sister got married there and it's always a treat to stay for special occasions.

In her new home.

Rubenstein tours NewYork

Whilst in New York I came across a plush stripey rabbit in MOMA and decided he was the rabbit to see my new nephew Ruben James through his early years.
He's quite a dashing rabbit and had a great time sight seeing with us.

Going for Breakfast in the Village.

Where's Rubenstein?

On the high line, taking it all in.

Rubenstein takes his first flight.

Ruben waiting on Rubenstein....

New York City Baby

Ok, so I took my guy to New York as a buying assistant for my store, Dirty Fabulous. It rocked.

The awesomeness that is The Rockefeller Building in all its Art Deco splendour!

A sculpture in context exhibition

As promised, here is a follow on post from A portrait sitting.
The opening night of 'Sculpture in Context'  an exhibition happening in The Botanic Gardens in Dublin from the 8th till the 21st of October 2011.
It was a rainy evening and was beginning to get dark quite early so I didn't get to see the full exhibition that was spread out all over the Botanic Gardens. I will definitely go back and make a day of it before the exhibition finishes.



Ayelet won an award on the night for this piece, it was stunning in its intended location. I'm pretty sure it won't fit on my mantlepiece but you never know!

See no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil, also by my good friend Ms Ayelet Lalor.

One of the many victorian greenhouses in the gardens.

I LOVED these guys!!!! Ayelet was also totally smitten.


Okay there were quite a number of sculpture pieces that I really really wanted!! Here are a few more..........

A Dirty Fabulous Photo shoot at my house

We had a photo shoot at my home for Dirty Fabulous. I took a few behind the scenes snaps for y'all to peruse. It was a great day, i had a big clean up before everyone got there and then we trashed the gaff!  Very tall models, make up artist, hair kit, rails of vintage dresses and accessories, cameras, lights, photographer and props can make a house feel tiny all of a sudden!

 The fabulous Paul Marconi at work with my heavily pregnant sister watching  over Meagan for little adjustments needed, like smoothing fabric and stray wisps of hair!

Our menfolk were relegated to the breakfast room with coffee and the Sunday papers to keep them occupied. You know the way guys hate having models lounging around the house all day.........

A day at the Dublin flea market

I wandered to the flea market today in search of treasure....................

 http://dublinflea.blogspot.com/

It was sunny, it was cold, it was hot, it lashed rain, sunglasses on, sunglasses off, raining again, put on hat, sun's out, too hot, take off coat......All the seasons within an hour, I love Irish weather, never a dull moment.

Good tunes............

Gorgeous up-cycled vintage cases and bags from the lovely 'lucky bag vintage'

I'm loving the mickey & minne suitcase!

Great to see a regular customer of Dirty Fabulous, the lovely Maria with her company Me Auld China at the market too,  sorry the photo is a bit blurry but it was very busy on her stall and I had to nab the pic quickly in between customers!

I bought these six books for 10 euros (i don't seem to have a euro symbol?)

I actually already have the Roald Dahl book so someone may get this as a pressie! I have a problem of buying the same books over and over if I loved it, I can't help it. Although I also lend a lot of my books so it solves the problem if I don't get them back!

A great day was had by all!

A Portrait sitting

Today I sat for an artist friend of mine, Ayelet Lalor. She had begun the painting quite a while ago and in the meantime she had gone travelling, gotten engaged, Dirty Fabulous had a fire and subsequently moved premises.......you get the idea...time had passed!

The artist at work! The large head sculpture in the background (from a group of 3) will be exhibited in the grounds of the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin from the 7th of September.  I will do a post about the exhibition after it opens so you can see the finished sculpture in its intended habitat. Hopefully it will be a lovely sunny evening and we can drink wine amongst the flowers while pretending to know lots about art and culture!

 

Give it to me, I want, I want....
Just put it in my handbag and we'll say no more about it. Thank you.

A stroll on the pier

We headed out to Howth for a bite to eat and a walk down the pier. It had been quite a while since I've been to Howth and I had forgotten how nice it was. Lots of people fishing off the pier and a few people feeding the family of seals that have taken up residence. They are some fat seals!

I was going for a vintage - holiday - Tim Burton mash up with this outfit! I felt rather sunny and ladylike.

Another vacant building we would happily take off someone's hands and bring a bit of life to....The list grows and grows......

I jokingly asked the owner of this vintage Ford Hotrod if he would like to sell it to me,  apparently I was the 4th person that week to ask. Ah well....

The lighthouse at the end of the pier, super cute.

We finished off with a stop at the local fishmongers, we bought some razor clams and a mixed bag of seafood to make spaghetti marinara for our tea.

A Big Fun Day Out!

Russborough House
We had a lovely day out in this stately home in Wicklow. They have just opened an exhibition space in the basement that houses 3D photographs and 2D film from the 1920's and 1930's taken by Sir Alfred Beit on his world travels, as well as a selection of his extensive vinyl record collection and sheet music collections from the 1920's onwards.
Its really cool!

A very cool collection of albums that you could listen to!

In the cinema watching a slide show of 3D photographs that Alfred had taken as a keen photographer and explorer during the 20's and 30's.