Birthday parties...

I love a good theme for a birthday party! Over the years I've had lots of parties for the boys and I genuinely love the prep involved,,,I also love that I've gotten better (I think) at planning their parties,,, practice makes perfect as they say!
(If your looking for a girls party I've only thrown the one so far, and I warn you there was a lot of pink! Annabels 1st Birthday Party )

I think we are so lucky that we now have Pinterest for unlimited supply of inspiration,,,although this can sometimes be a curse when our own parties never quite get that same 'pinterest perfect' look! Also, I find shops like Dealz and Eurogiant brilliant for party supplies that don't break the bank. Also there is such a wealth of talent on Etsy if your organised enough to give yourself time to order off them.  

Here are some of my top boy themed birthday parties, usually the theme is whatever the boys were 'into' at that stage, I hope it gives some inspiration!

1. Soccer Theme...

We sent out soccer shaped invitations and everyone was asked to wear a jersey to the party. We were lucky with the weather and the kids spent most the time outside playing a soccer match and a penalty tournament. 

2. Farm Theme...

This was a mix of a cow theme and a farm theme! We went for John Deere green! The balloons were just white and I cut out and stuck on black cow pattern shapes. My sister printed the logo for his tshirt on iron on paper, it was so cute for the day but didn't wash well.
(As you can see the green table cloth was re-used from the soccer party!)

3. Magician Theme...

We had a magician for Senans 7th birthday party and he was amazing,,, he entertained the adults as much as the children! This would be great for a winter party where bouncy castles aren't really an option! I made the cake 

4. Superhero Theme...

For Senans 5th party we had a superhero theme by the lake. The invite asked everyone to wear a superhero costume if they wanted to,,,Senan was Superman obsessed at that stage so he wore his Superman costume and we had a superman cake. We went with blue and red balloons and table wear but other than that kept it fairly simple!

This was Senans 5th birthday, serious reminiscing here!

April Round-Up 2016

I honestly do think the older I get the quicker the time goes! It's almost May,,,like that's Summer in Ireland! But anyhow April has been a good month, I love looking back over the month and seeing what we were up to! We had lots of celebrations, the biggest one being a good friends wedding in Galway. We had such a fantastic day and night (and sleep in!) I got my pink dress in Minx in Mullingar and I had my gold strappy sandals since Christmas time. How fab is the brides short dress! I loved it, it completely suited her and her personality and it looked so comfortable, she just glided around the from for the night. 

The weather picked up in April and we got out and about lots more. The kids just love being outside and to be honest it makes the evenings a lot easier when they can use up their energy outdoors! 

We celebrated my mothers birthday, she really is amazing, I'd be lost without my parents! I just love the homemade cakes and cards, I think it's little celebrations like this that make the best childhood memories! 

We also changed our car this month, we had a Landrover Discovery so we actually just got the same again but went up a few years,,,I find we need the 7 seats with the three kids, an aupair and if there's ever any of the kids friends with us. 

We had a great April....roll on May! :) x 

5 Top Tips for Fitting it all in

Everyone seems to have so much to do these days. We want to fit so much more into our lives. The buzz word seems to be 'balance', sometimes this isn't achievable, I think in life there are different phases when some things require more time and effort and other things have to slip for a while eg with small kids I think the priority is to spend time with them, when they're all grown up and gone I can shift more time back to pursuing my own hobbies. Sometimes its just not physically possible to fit it all in, so we need to figure out well what are the most important things to us.

1. Set your priorities, decide what is most important, is there anything you do that is just out of habit or for the sake of it, that you could actually stop.

Figure out not only how you need to start being more organised but also what you need to stop doing. (I had to delete the Daily Mail app because I literally spent hours of my life on it!!) Could you record you favourite shows and fast forward through the add breaks. So think about family, work, friendships, fitness, diet... what are your priorities? I find these Wheel of Life templates excellent, use the different categories to decide firstly what you want to prioritise and then by marking how happy you are in a certain area you can clearly see where you need to focus your time and energy.

I find these 'Wheel of Life' templates an excellent starting point.

2 Get up early or stay up late.....but NOT both! I am such a firm believer that everyone needs between 7 and 8 hours sleep to function properly! Personally I'm a morning person, I always have been even through my teenage years. Once it hits 8pm that's it, I'm off, I generally have no energy or want to do anything, so this is my watch TV, scroll through Instagram, chill out time. I do however get up early, that's when the washes get put on, lunches made, blog posts typed. But I am generally tucked up in bed by 10 o clock. I understand some people are night owls and I think this works great if you have a job that you can sleep in and get your 8 hours rest, its when you stay up late and have to be up to kids or for work, that's when it doesn't work. I think knowing when your most productive time of day is and using it wisely is key to fitting in more. 

3 Sometimes realise you can't actually do everything. Be fair on yourself. Ask for help. Build up a good network of people to help. delegate, get your spouse and children to help. Pay for people to help if possible. I think that when we look at celebrities or really successful people we forget that there is always a team of people helping them. I am not saying this to take away from their success, I am saying this to encourage us all build up our own team. Everyone has different skills and talents (cleaning is not one of mine, so I delegate this as much as possible!)

4 Write lists, allocate time for each thing. Make a plan. Again I know everyone is different but personally I have to write EVERYTHING down. From what I eat, to my exercise, to what phone calls I need to make. On a Sunday evening or Monday morning I write out my plan for the week. I literally feel so much calmer and have a clearer mind once I put everything on paper,,,it's like it empties my mind. I write down what has to be done each day, what I'm cooking for dinner and if I plan to exercise. Now sometimes naturally things don't go to plan and that's ok. I have lists on my phone that I go to regularly, for example my food shopping list, if I run out of something I just pop it in my list straight away so I'll remember to buy it when I go grocery shopping. Also at the start of each month I make a monthly plan, jot in any birthdays or events and it just helps figure out the month ahead.  

5 Multitask. Watch youtube videos or snapchat while chopping veg. Have a book in the car for when your waiting to collect the kids from activities. (bring a book for smaller kids to look at if they're in the car with you). Have runners in the car that if you have a spare few minutes you can pop on and go for a power walk, you get some fresh air and exercise. Don't try multitask changing a nappy and making an important business call. The trick with multitasking is knowing when to do and when not to! Putting activities that don't require much thought or have huge importance together means you can get double the amount done in the same time space.

Hope these help a little,,, let me know if you have any other tips or tricks!

Hen Party with a difference at Lough Crew House

Place settings for dinner

It is always a huge honour to be asked to be a bridesmaid and I was over the moon when my sister asked me and my other 2 sisters to be hers for her wedding last Novemeber. It is such an exciting time, wedding dress shopping, bridesmaid dress shopping, emails, facebook messages and pinterest notifications to beat the band, ideas flying left, right and centre. But, then comes the realisation that the hen party needs to organised too! Now, some women come into their own with a big event like this, however I am a more last minute type of girl and with the 2 other bridesmaids living in Australia (they were amazing though!) I was freaked at the idea!! But thankfully it all came together wonderfully and we had an amazing time!

The entrance to Loughcrew house

Knowing the bride to be, Doreen so well, I knew she would like something a bit different for her hen party.  Everything about the hen was a surprise for the 'Hen' and the guests. This was probably the most difficult part, trying not to let any of the details slip out!! After a bit of research we found the perfect location.... Loughcrew House , Oldcastle, Co. Meath. It caters for approximately 15-20 guests. They are so helpful and easy to deal with. They really were wonderful (even when I asked them to send me on the measurements of the dinning room table....I wanted to buy a table cloth!!) We were welcome to set up the space any way we liked, so we added some decorations and created a festive table setting using a deep red table cloth, gold chargers, holly and lots of candles. A lot of the decorations were made by Cards by Eilish ,,,she makes amazing decorations, wedding invitations, cards, you name it, she does it. (Also a bonus she is our mother!)

Loughcrew House have caterers that come in to cook dinner. We sent out the menu in advance to the guests and everyone chose their meal, they also were superb and accommodated for vegetarians and coeliacs in the group. The food was fabulous.

The table we set up for dinner

We all met at 1 o clock on a Saturday in our home, we had prosecco and cheeseboards and then we were bused to Loughcrew House. Before we left, we got everybody to guess where we could be going....nobody did!! It was such fun on the journey there, everybody trying to figure out where we were going, it was a complete surprise to everyone! When we arrived there was lots of wandering and exploring the house. In everyones room there was a little quiz about Doreen they had to fill in, we went through these over dinner, it was good fun! We met at 3pm for our main activity, which was Scrapbooking. We organised this ourselves. Basically everyone had a picture of themselves and the bride and we had a table of arts and crafts supplies (Dealz is super for stocking up on these) and everybody set about decorating the page and writing lovely messages. It was a wonderful activity as everyone got stuck in, and it was perfect to talk to the people at the table...and of course sip on plenty of prosecco! When everyone was finished their masterpiece they were all gathered together into an album and the bride has a wonderful keepsake of her day.

Next on the agenda we divided into groups and designed beautiful toilet paper wedding dresses! Again, peoples creativity really began to explode and they were adding bauble decorations and Christmas wreath headpieces!! This was a great activity for mixing different groups of friends. After all the fun, it was time to go get ready for dinner. At this stage the bridesmaids cleared up from the days activities and set up for dinner. We all reconvened in the drawing room for yet more prosecco at 6 o clock.

Party Games!

The next surprise for the bride was we organised for a photographer, Verona Photography , to come for an hour . This was money so well spent, her pictures are amazing! I think its easy to spot which are the photographers pictures and which are not. She took some fabulous group pictures and then some 'action' shots of us over dinner. The bride to be was thrilled to have all these beautiful pictures of her day.

Scrapbooking fun...and drinking prosecco!

We really made our own fun, we chatted and laughed the whole way through dinner, it was super we had the house to ourselves, we didn't have to worry about disturbing tables beside us! We provided our own drink, so there was no shortage (or pub measures!) We went through the quiz answers people had filled in, played pass the parcel, had Jenga and Guess Who,,, its starting to sound like a 10 years old party! It was all such good fun. There was no, waiting in cold queues, looking for taxis in the rain, standing at bars waiting to be served, people getting lost or separated. It was all so relaxed and fun. We sat by the big open fire, we drank and danced into the early hours. It really was a hen party to remember.

Beautiful album for the bride to be

Dinner time banter

Hen Party Goodie Bags

Who said party bags were just for kids!

For my sisters Hen Party in November we put together goodie bags for all the guests. They are so simple and easy, yet so thoughtful and such a treat for all the guests. It's great to pop in a drink and goodies that will go down a treat after a night of partying, and maybe some Panadol for the next morning! Really anything can go in them, there's no hard and fast rule. It's a good idea to start collecting up all those free samples and keeping an eye out for little bits and bobs that are reduced in Penneys. Each bag doesn't have to be the exact same-hopefully there'll be no fighting over bags! They really don't have to cost the earth but can give a really personalised touch.

Here are some suggestions of things you could put in:

• Hair clips
• Hair bobbins
• Makeup samples 
• Water
• Paracetamol/Panadol
• Fizzy drinks
• Chocolate
• Sweets 
• Eye mask 

We made Doreens bag from fabric, cut with a pinking shears and hot glued it together with a glue gun. The writing was done with paper you print on to and then iron on. It was got in the local pound shop. As you can tell Doreen was quite the DIY bride! Her wedding invitations were home made as well as her wedding favours, guest book, menus... There were so many amazing personalised touches on her wedding day. (I'll ask her can I do a blogpost about all her DIY creations for her wedding day!)

Below are the goodie bags we made for my other sisters hen party 2 years ago (Bernie's Hen Party.) We went with pink paper bags and home made personalised labels. We had a fizzy drink, a bottle of water and Panadol, meanies and sweets, perfect for the day after!

Pink Hen Party Bags

Wedding Plans

So I got a bit of a shock when I opened my emails the other morning and saw this....

so much to do in so little time!

I do have a few bits checked off the list

• venue Here's where we're getting married
• band Lightening Strikes
• cake Bouquets 2 Banquets
• hair Agnes Burke Hairdressing

ok, that's not a huge amount but it's a start!

On my list this week is to book

• humanist/spiritualist
• wedding dress shopping appointments
• makeup

and perhaps have a peek at Pinterest for invitation inspiration, although I'm so nervous of going on Pinterest because I have a feeling I could lose the run of myself!! My motto for our wedding is 'Keep it simple', mainly because with three kids and work it's a time issue.

I'll keep you posted on how the plans are going. I can't wait to go dress shopping. I don't even have the faintest idea what kind of dress I would like, I think this may be a good thing as I'm happy to try anything on!

Any tips, info, help, advice.... please feel free to send it this way!

How I lost my baby weight...third time around

If I had to answer in 2 words it would be 'Weight Watchers',,, but that wouldn't make a very interesting blog post so let me go into more detail about Weight Watchers and losing my baby weight journey!

Annabel was born March 5th 2015.

A friend once said '9 months up, 9 months down' regarding baby weight and it really stuck with me, so that has always been in the back of my head, to be fair to myself and not put myself under too much pressure, but really at the end of the day I'm happier in myself when I'm at a healthy weight and my clothes fit nicely.

First baby: I was 21, it was 11 years ago, I actually don't remember thinking much about baby weight, we didn't have social media, it wasn't all over the magazines, none of my friends had babies so it wasn't a hot topic of conversation! My fashion sense consisted of O' Neils tracksuit bottoms so thinking back I was probably lucky that I didn't give much time or attention to baby weight, I just went on about life as normal.

Second baby: I was 29 when I had TJ (by emergency C-section), I was delighted I was pregnant and truthfully I did not watch what I ate when I was pregnant, in my head I was gonna get huge one way or another so I might as well eat plenty along the way. After TJ was born he was a very poor sleeper and quite a demanding baby so I was so tired and exhausted I really didn't think or care much about losing weight. With this post pregnancy I really took the approach of lots of exercising and still eating pretty much what I liked. When TJ was 6 months old myself and a friend ran a half marathon in Monaco, we had trained for maybe 3 months before hand, I jogged between 3 and 5km a few days during the week and a long jog at weekends,,, it did help me lose the baby weight and I think the running was great head space too.

Third baby: So baby Annabel was born March 2015 (by planned C-section). I definitely feel by this stage there was so much more pressure to 'lose the baby weight', tv programmes, magazines, Instagram, there were always so many images and articles about celebrities bouncing back to their pre pregnancy figures and while I knew to take it all with a pinch of salt it's still there at the back of your mind! At the end of April 2015 myself and my mother joined Weight Watchers together. It really helped that we did it together because we could talk about different food and recipes. If we were out and about we would help keep each other on track. I've always preferred saying I'm starting a healthy eating plan rather than I'm going on a diet. I really feel on Weight Watchers you can eat lots, even the treats, in moderation. We went to our meetings religiously every Thursday morning, we weighed in and stayed for the meeting which too was vital, the meetings have so much useful information and just keep you motivated to keep going. This time around I didn't really get to include any exercise, with 3 kids I just really didn't have the time. I had great will power most times, I ate porridge for breakfast, usually eggs of some sort for lunch and a healthy meat, spuds and veg with out all the extra sauces and butter for dinner. Every night I would have a weight watchers chocolate bar and a cup of tea. The treat at the end of the day really kept me focused not to pig out during the day. The weekends I was a lot more relaxed about my food, we usually went out for dinner or had a take away but I would watch my portion sizes and remind myself that I didn't have to eat every single morsel that was served up to me! I changed a few things things like using Brennans Be Good bread instead of regular white bread. I changed to unsweetened almond milk. I began to use brown rice and pasta instead of white. I made healthy alternatives for dessert. I really found small changes made a big difference. Over the course of 12 months I lost 2 stone. Genuinely this was by watching what I was eating, not including any exercises. Even though I lost all the weight and fitted into my clothes I still have what I call a 'pouch' from the C-section, but I just don't think that is gonna go!

My sisters wedding last November was the goal that kept me focused, I even got through Christmas fairly okay, but I definitely have hit a bump on the road. I am not watching what I eat at all, I'm being lazy about my food choices and the pounds are creeping back on. I'm planning on getting back to my weight watcher meetings every week, and what works for me is if I plan my food. So on a Sunday I want to write down what we will eat for the week and buy everything we need to keep me on track. I think it's important to have healthy food in the presses. The one time of day I really struggle with is when I get home from work at about 4, I find the biscuit tin is being raided, so I need to plan out a healthy snack for this time.
With my own wedding this November I think I have a good enough goal to work towards! I'll keep you posted how I am getting on!

I'd love to know how you stay on track with your healthy eating,,, please share any tips you have!

Christian Dior Makeup Haul

In my post about my night away in Dublin last week (here) I mentioned I got my make up done at the Christian Dior counter in Brown Thomas. I wanted new lipstick and I know if you get your makeup done it is redeemable against 2 products, so I figured I'd get my makeup done and see what lipstick colour looked nice :) And hey who doesn't like getting their makeup done by a professional! Like I said it was last post, this was a big treat for me!

Dior Haul!

The only Christian Dior makeup I owned before this was an eye shadow pallette that my mother got me when I was a teenager, so I just felt like a change, something new and different because God knows I am a creature of habit!!

The makeup artist used the Airflash foundation which I was really excited about because I saw it on other people and thought it was flawless. I didn't actually love it on me though :( I didn't think it gave me as much coverage as I liked and I just didn't like that when you spray it on it kinda goes all over the place, it got on my top and handbag. I know to some people that's not a big deal but I just couldn't see myself liking that if I used it everyday! So I decided to go for the Forever foundation in a darker shade. ( I personally felt the Airflash shade was far too light, even though I know it was the actual match for my skin tone!)

Lip liner: Brown Fig

Lipstick: Rouge Dior 434

Lip Maximizer Collagen Activ

I LOVE the lipstick shade the makeup artist chose for me, I never would have chosen it myself but I love it on! The lip liner and lipstick are a perfect match and I had no intention of buying a lip gloss, but, the Lip Maximizer Collagen Activ is just fantastic, I really felt it made my lips look plumper and it gives a slight tingling sensation too!

Overall I love my new products and think they are a great addition to my every growing makeup bag!

Make up I did myself using Dior foundation, lip liner, lipstick and lip gloss.

Before and after picture of Dior make over in Brown Thomas Dublin