Aloha! If you follow me on twitter or instagram, you will know that I recently went on a long-weekend trip to Dublin. Mikey has a lot of family in and around the Dublin area so it was a nice opportunity for him to see them all, and for me to meet them all!

I thought I'd do a little photo diary for anyone who is nosy like me!
So here is what I got up to!

Dalkey. About a 40 minute train ride out of Dublin. Mikey says on a hot summer day you could be in the South of France. It was a really pretty little place, definitely worth a day trip to if you are ever in Dublin. Lots of lovely little places to enjoy a bit to eat and a drink!

Mikey enjoying the first of many pints of Guinness that weekend.

After 2 nights in Dublin, we headed out to a tiny little place called Ballylanders. Mikey's dad is from that village, and his Auntie and Uncle were having a 40th Wedding Anniversary party nearby which we went along to. We spent the night there, then went for a nice long walk through the countryside to walk off our hangovers (I think I was still drunk when I woke up thanks to the barman giving us free pints!) These cows thought I was coming to feed them...sorry guys!

After travelling back to Dublin, we spent our last day having a walk around (the weather had finally cleared up), and visiting the Guinness Storehouse! 

The Storehouse was really interesting. They've done a really good job of making it an attraction which is really worth visiting. It's a must if you are in Dublin! Here we are enjoying our free pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar on the top floor. With panoramic views across the city, it's a lovely place to sit and enjoy a drink. 

Afterwards we had a wander around Temple Bar.

And I ended up in a sweet shop...obviously. I just love traditional sweet shops. I got a bad of tutti fruiti cubes and fizzle sticks which are 2 sweets I used to enjoy many years ago when I was a little girl!

And on our final evening we went along to Mikey's cousin's Ukulele club which is held in a bar in the city centre. It was a great night and they were all really good. We even got them to play 500 miles by the proclaimers which got everyone in the pub up dancing and singing! 

We had a great time in Dublin. It's definitely somewhere you should visit if you haven't already. I'm sure I will be back soon to see Mikey's family again.  

TheSundayPost - 15th November

Aloha! I've finally managed to get out of bed on a Sunday morning to write a SundayPost!

This week I've been off work so I've had plenty of time for fun! Here is what I've been up to this week!

1 - Wedding planning. We seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall with it. Quite possibly my fault as I've had no time for it recently due to work taking over my life! Hopefully I can start getting things organised more in the next few months. We still need to settle on a venue!

2 - Mikey bought me these flowers. I love the ombre effect! Sometimes there's nothing better than having fresh flowers in the house!

3 - We went to Dublin! Mikey's dad is Irish so he has lots of family there but I had never been! We decided to take a little trip so I could meet all the family as well as do a bit of sightseeing! We had a great time with lots of good food and beers! I won't share any more photos of our time in Dublin as I'm going to do a photo diary of our time!

4 - On Friday we had a few friends over for dinner. I cooked my favourite dish: Texas BBQ Brisket. I actually think I love that dish so much I'd have it as our wedding meal!

5 - It wouldn't be right if I didn't take a moment to reflect on the horrific events in Paris on Friday night. I won't say much as emotions tend to run high at times like these, and people say controversial things, but all I would like to say is that all those affected by what happened are in my thoughts. I just wish the world could be a peaceful place :( 

xxxxx

My Favourite Things: February

Aloha! Here is my little list of my favourite things from February! 

Food: I've enjoyed a few different things this month. I made a pretty amazing pot of chilli which was just delicious. I doubt I'll be able to replicate it though haha! I've also been loving anything Mexican! I think I'm getting excited for my holiday to Mexico in just 11 weeks time! Countdown is on!

TV Show: I re-signed up to Netflix this month so I've been watching lots of stuff on there! My 2 favourites at the moment are Better Call Saul and The Good Wife. 

Song: This is always a tough one! I think I'd say FourFiveSeconds by Rihanna, Kanye West & Paul McCartney. Such a strange combination of artists but it really works. If you haven't heard it yet, go look it up on youtube.

Beauty Product: I've recently changed shampoo brand to Aussie and it's great! It leaves my hair smelling amazing for ages which is something I've never had with any other shampoo brand!

Candle: In case you hadn't guessed by the picture above, it's gotta be both Jelly Beans & Bunny Cake from Yankee Candle. I got these as a gift from the other half after I was unsuccessful in getting a promotion at work (I have been offered a different job though so it's not all bad). These are from the easter range and they both smell amazing! 

Event: Yet again, nothing much has happened this month, however I would say going to London for the weekend has been my favourite event from this month! We had a lovely time and enjoyed sampling some of the cool bars and restaurants! 

xx

LDN // Wahaca

Aloha! Whilst I was in London last weekend, I was really craving some Mexican food, so on the recommendation of my cousin's girlfriend, we tried out Wahaca! 

Wahaca specialises in Mexican street food, where you order 2 or 3 different dishes each, much like tapas! It was co-founded by Thomasina Miers, a previous winner of Masterchef! The restaurants are dotted all over London and are quite trendy inside. The branch we visited was in Covent Garden which is the original one!

So here is what I had!

Steak Tacos £4.85 : Oh my, these were devine! My other half had pork tacos which came with the addition of a spicy marinade, which was also amazing! 

Chorizo & Potato Quesadillas £4.20 : These were definitely the best bit about the meal! There were 2 of them stacked on top of each other and they were just to die for!

Chicken Taquitos £4 : I've never tried a taquito before! It is basically a tortilla wrapped around the chicken filling then deep fried so it goes really crispy! They were really nice but I much preferred the other 2 dishes! 

Churros y Chocolate £3.95 : Oh m gee. These were amazing! Basically they are gooey doughnuts sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar which you dip into chocolate sauce! I could live off these! 

And to wash it all down, I had one of these blood orange margaritas! These were rather expensive at £7.95 but totally worth it, especially if you love tequila like me! 

Overall the bill came to about £20 a head which, for London, is rather good! If I ever find myself in London again, I will definitely be making another visit to Wahaca! 

xx

LDN // 14th-16th Feb

Aloha! So I mentioned yesterday that last weekend I was visiting London as part of a Uni trip! 

We travelled down by train on the Saturday and had free time up until Monday morning! Unfortunately we got lost walking to the hotel so we ended up not having much time before heading out for dinner. I was a bit annoyed at this as I really wanted to go shopping! 

For dinner we headed out to a little Italian restaurant called Ciao Bella. The food was lovely, however with 25 of us cramming into a little restaurant, I was feeling awfully claustrophobic throughout dinner which resulted in me eating very little! Is it just me who gets totally put off food when I don't have plenty of space around me to eat it? I always feel like I'm choking if I'm eating in a cramped space! After dinner we went for a few drinks before heading back to the hotel for some sleep! 

On Sunday, we woke up early, keen to cram in a full day of sightseeing, shopping and eating! 

We went for a walk around Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace, then headed up to Trafalgar Square! I really wanted to go to Harrods to get a shopper bag for carrying my lunch to work in! Haha! 

After selecting a bag (naturally it has cats on it), I headed to the Westfield Shopping Centre at White City for a look around! I really wanted to go to American Eagle as I love their clothes and the only other time I get to go there is when I'm in the USA! I managed to grab a few sale bargains which was great! 

Afterwards we headed to Covent Garden where we were meeting my cousin and his girlfriend. We went to an awesome Belgian beer bar. It was so lovely to catch up with my cousin who I haven't seen since last summer! 

After 4 Fruli's, I was keen to get some food, and on the recommendation of my cousin's girlfriend, we went to Wahaca, a mexican street food place. I'm going to do a separate post on this, but let's just say it is amazing! 

Monday was our final day which was spent visiting the supreme court and the parliament, before heading to Kings Cross for our train home. 

So that was my short visit to London! 

Look out for my review of Wahaca later this week! 

xx

My favourite things: January

Aloha! So the first month of 2015 is over already! I have a feeling this year is going to fly in just as quickly as the last few! I have decided to change my monthly roundup posts slightly, and this is what I've come up with! Hope you enjoy reading these as much as the old format! 

Here are a few of my favourite things from January

*cue sound of music sing a long*

Food: I would love to write chocolate here but I'm supposed to be on a diet! I've been making a pretty awesome chicken pie whilst dieting. It's so good, I think I've had it every week! You can find the recipe here. 

TV Show: I've just started watching Fortitude on Sky Atlantic. It only started last week but I'm already quite hooked! It is rather graphic so I don't recommend if you have a weak stomach! 

Song: This is rather difficult as there have been a few that I've been playing non stop! I've been loving Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (who doesn't love this song?!), Blank Space by Taylor Swift and Elastic Heart by Sia. Who's shocked there is no Ed Sheeran this month. I am! 

Beauty Product: Still Lush's Snow Fairy shower gel! I'm almost at the end of my 1st of 2 bottles *cry face*. I just love the smell and it clings to your skin longer than your standard shower gel! 

Candle: It wouldn't be me without having a favourite candle of the month! If you follow me on instagram or twitter you will have seen I've been on a huge candle spree in January! I would have to say my favourite one from this month is my berrylicious Yankee Candle! Fresh blueberries. Yummy! 

Event: I'm not going to lie, January is a dull month. The dark and cold nights mean I just want to be snuggled up in bed by 9pm. However the highlight of this month was my trip to Amsterdam! You can find my blog posts on that here and here.

Let me know what you think of my new format for this post! :) 

xx

Amsterdam: Part 1

If you follow me on twitter, you may be aware that last week I took a little trip to Amsterdam! I booked it as a birthday present for my other half away back in June! Here is what we got up to on our trip!

We arrived in Amsterdam rather late on the Tuesday night thanks to Easyjet changing our flight time from 11am to 7pm! We were staying the NH Grand Krasnapolsky hotel right in Dam Square. It was a beautiful hotel. Our room was newly refurbished to a very high standard! The bed was so comfy I could have slept for the whole trip but that would have been a waste!

We arrived too late to go out for a meal so we got some famous dutch chips with mayonnaise to take out! 

The next morning we headed down to breakfast. The breakfast was served in the most beautiful room I've ever seen (see last photo). We enjoyed some eggs benedict followed by poffertjes (dutch pancakes)

After breakfast we decided to take a walk down to the zoo! 

The zoo had an amazing butterfly pavilion  where you could walk about whilst they fluttered around you. 

On the way home from the zoo we stopped in this quirky little bar for a drink, then grabbed a waffle at a bakery. 

After a quick change, we went to this awesome cocktail bar called tails & spirits. They did these amazing cocktails, including the Zombie which is so strong they only serve 2 per person! 

After a few drinks we headed on to an Italian restaurant called Vasso. We had researched the place and knew we wanted to try it. I had the Salmon Tagliatelle which was probably the best pasta dish I've ever had. It was so flavoursome! I then had lemon sorbet and strawberries for desert. The sorbet was creamier than your usual sorbet. It was devine!

We then headed off to Freddy's Bar. My other half collects and occasionally smokes cigars and he really wanted to try this bar which has an indoor smoking room. It was such a cool place to just relax with a glass of vino!

So that was day 1 in Amsterdam! Part 2 is coming up soon! 

xx

TheSundayPost

Hello Everyone! After a week or so off, I am back with a SundayPost! This week has been a good 'un! 

This week I had a week off work for our trip to Amsterdam! I booked it way back in June as a birthday present for my other half! I won't go into too much detail about the trip as I plan on writing a full post about it and the places we visited! 

This was the first night. We arrived rather late (thanks easyjet) so we grabbed some chips and mayo! These are famous in Holland and they are delicious! 

We also visited a little cocktail bar called Tails & Spirits. I'd go as far as saying it was the best cocktail bar I've visited!

Our final night! There was a light festival on whilst we were there so there were lots of pretty lights to be seen! 

We came home with lots of cheese! These are pesto cheese, old dutch gouda and smoked cheese. Very tasty!

This weekend was the final weekend before the diet starts! We decided to treat ourselves to a very lazy weekend and lots of good food! It was great! 

Now it's back to work tomorrow (not good after 12 days off), and the diet begins! I've got my homemade soup ready to go in the morning! 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

xx

Anniversary Weekend Part 2 - Loch Lomond

So yesterday I posted about my trip to Knockderry Country House Hotel for my anniversary! After we checked out on Saturday, we drove a very short distance to see Loch Lomond and have a spot of lunch! We visited a small village called Luss, where we had a bite to eat in The Village Rest cafe. My other half had Steak Pie and Chips and I had Lentil Soup and crusty bread! The food was excellent which was evident from how busy the place was!
Here are some pictures from Saturday!

TheSundayPost #10

Hello! A day late again this week but here is my weekly roundup! Not much has happened this week, although I have managed to blog nearly every day which I am very proud about haha! The blog is turning more style diary now which is great! Outfit posts are something I really wanted to get into so I'm happy I am managing to do it now! 

Wednesday was my other half's birthday (hence the wine picture!). It was a beautiful hot day so most of the day was spent in a beer garden. For his birthday I booked us a trip to Amsterdam in January! Id been keeping it a secret for weeks and nearly slipped up many times! 

I've become such a fan of travelling lately, I just can't stop dreaming about and booking holidays! The Dominican Republic is next on my hit list, so if you've been there, any recommendations would be welcome! 

Sunday wasn't a great day. One of my managers was very mean to me so I spent most of the day in tears. Damn me not being able to handle being shouted at! The evening was better though as my other half's parents came over for chorizo and pea risotto and some of my boyfriends home made banana cake (yummy!) 

This post has quickly turned into an essay so I'll leave it at that for now! Hope everyone has an awesome week! :)