An affirmation a day is ok... right?

Yeh, it's a bit American of me to come over all positive and affirmation-lovin', but sure we'll just call it a belated homage to the 4th of July!

Anyway, I'm a total Stressy Bessie by nature, so this really struck a chord with me:

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."

- Corrie ten Boom

Ah, indeed.

*Nods knowingly in benign knows-all sage-like fashion.*

Must learn to "live in the now" and give all the feckin' useless worrying the boot. But given that I've been worrying about anything and everything since the year dot, will I be able to manage this and also remember to breathe??


Affirmation-y quote via A Thousand Words

Free as a bird

You may remember me getting a bit episodic about birdhouses and birdcages lately. Well, last night I managed to get rid of a little of that payday money that was burning a hole in my pocket, and arrived home from Monsoon Accessorize in Liffey Valley with this little beaut in tow:

Isn't it pretty? The little white birdcage pendant houses a doony silver birdie and sports a faux pearl dropping:

Maybe if I change his diet I can get him to lay/poop real pearls?

There's also a gold-y bird on the chain itself, getting the flock out of there:

I like to think that he's just nipping down the town for a curry and a bottle of wine to bring back to the cage, or maybe going hunting for something that would help him break his pal out of said cage, rather than just abandoning him altogether. (Although I'm sure the little silver birdie loves his cooped-up gaff. Ehem.)

Happy payday to meeeee...

It's payday today, and despite the fact that a pay cut has kicked in and I've sorted all my bills and stuck some cash into my savings, I still have moolah to play with.

This is because I will have not one, not two, but THREE (count 'em!) paydays in July. We're paid fortnightly, and having been paid weekly and monthly and, shall we say, sporadically in the past, I definitely think it's easiest to manage the finances with fortnightly pay. There's none of the accidental "I feel so RICH!" overspend followed by three weeks of stoney brokeness that goes hand-in-hand with being paid monthly, and it's easier to budget for monthly expenditure than when you're on weekly pay.

I'll be saving some of those pennies for Oxegen, but in the meantime I'm indulging in some window (or maybe screen?) shopping.

Trilby & frocks: Oasis. Shoes: Office.

What's keeping me from spending my pennies on these lovelies is that big bad ol' Sterling/Euro conversion chestnut. The shoes, for example, are £55 on the Office website, but €80 in their Irish stores. XE.com reckons that £55 is in or around €64 at today's rate of exchange, which is about a week's lunch spend away from 80 quid for me, and I just can't stomach handing over that difference.

Why is it that whenever you've a bit of cash for shopping, the universe always seems to step in with a roadblock of some kind?

For the birds

Now, I can't remember exactly when ornate birdcages like the one above became cool as an interiors accessory. I do, however, clearly remember predicting that they were going to be The Next Big Thing about eight months before they started cropping up all over the place and being well-impressed with my cool hunter abilities.

I still have a grá for both indoor and outdoor fancy birdcages/houses for some reason - here's the Scandi chic birdie residence in our own back garden, for example:


So I was in my element altogether when I came across no fewer than three posts on new-to-me interiors blog Style Carrot dedicated to lovely ornamental ornithological gaffs.

There's an inspirations post, featuring decorative birdcages in interior settings.

There's a "where to buy" resource post.

And there's a post choc-full of accessories, including art and birdcage necklaces and wall decals from Etsy sellers.

And yes, sadly enough, I love it all!

Deeeelicious: The Door Desk

If ever I have a home office, I'd be a pretty happy (and, of course, wildly organised and tidy and productive) bunny if my desk was as cool as this:


Yep, that's an old door on some trestle legs, topped off with glass. It belongs to photographer Meredith Perdue of & Unlimited Dogs, who takes beautiful canine snaps as well as having a seriously covetable studio space. The door was liberated from her parents' place when they were doing a spot of renovation.

Yum.



Now, if I could just get Mam and Dad to replace their front door, have some glass cut, procure some IKEA Vika Artur trestle legs - oh, and get a new, work-from-home job - I'd be all set...

Photos: Meredith Perdue
[Via Apartment Therapy Unplggd]

Save The Date: Your nearest H&M, 14/11/2009

Set your phasers to Oh. Mi. Gaw!

H&M's next designer collaboration will be with - swoon - Jimmy Choo! They'll be designing a line of shoes (of course), bags, and accessories for the girls (ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah) and the boys (ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah) and the strings as well as a womenswear clothing collection.

Now, I know people go mental for them, but personally I think that H&M's designer collaborations to date have been decidedly hit 'n' miss. Well, mostly miss as far as I'm concerned: I don't think there's been any piece that I've seen and thought "Wantsies!", regardless of how much they're raved about in the glossies. Any of the stuff I've checked out has struck me as very, well, cheap-y looking. And I know it's H&M, but I've quite a few bits from H&M's own collections and I do think that the designer designed clobber is of inferior quality compared to them. However, I've great faith in Tamara Mellon and really don't think she'll put the Jimmy Choo name to any product that's sub-par.

See you in the queue on the 14th of November...

Sure what Domestic Goddess In Training would be without one?

While having a lazy trawl around the Interweb for an Irish source for the very cool Umbra wallflowers in John & Sherry's gaff, I stumbled across a very nifty idea for a cookbook holder. The Cooknook, above, looks like it would solve nearly all the problems that confront me when I try to cook from a cookbook. Although it won't make the grub taste any better and is unlikely to prevent me cursing at the tome like the fishwife of a sailor, but then it's not magic.

What it would do:
- keep recipes at eye level;
- keep pages out of the way of spashes (and spills, in my case);
- look a bit cooler than the usual fairly gammy cookbook holders you might see about the place;
- fold back up into the fairly useless dead space under the cupboard when not in use, thusly not cluttering up the worktop or taking up room in the back of a press that could otherwise be occupied by some gone off naan breads.

Me likey.