Yes it’s freezing and yes we were basking in a heat wave this time last year, but it’s April, there was sun yesterday and Easter has come and gone. And there are daffodils, which always feel sunny and happy, whatever the weather.
Don’t you love it when an outfit comes together in the shopping basket? And I feel quite proud that I had 3 of these on my wishlist from before Christmas and managed to wait until they were half price in the sale to buy. All from COS.
The only thing better than new COS loveliness? An online COS order that comes all sweetly packaged as above.
What did I get?
New pyjamas – since I’ve been living in them for the last few weeks, I’ve realised mine are all well worn and could do with an upgrade.
Tan leather purse – good for loose change when I’m carrying a handbag or holding a few small essentials (phone, cash, keys) when I’m carrying a changing bag.
Yellow hairbands – mostly just because they looked so adorable in that little bunch, but also because they’ll add a nice hint of colour when I’m doing nothing more exciting with my hair than throwing it up in a ponytail.
Graphic necklace (neckpiece?) – a quick and easy way to dress up my usual very basic jeans and a tee.
I’ve been rather busy with this little monkey, who arrived six weeks ago today…
In IKEA the other day (an attempt to kickstart labour on my due date – it didn’t work) I spotted this adorable cushion and dropped it in the trolley. Supposedly for my two year old (not actually for use with this chair, also from IKEA, though how cute is the chair now we’re on the subject?), but since we’ve had it home I’ve sort of appropriated it for myself. Not only is it bright and colourful and cheery to look at, but it’s also really comfortable as a lower back support. And at €4.99, who could say no?
You know you’ve been shopping online too much when the DHL van arrives out of the blue, you have to change out of your pyjamas in a hurry to collect the delivery and you’re still not quite sure what’s being delivered. I only placed the order on Friday, so it’s not a good sign that I’d already forgotten about it, but I am impressed with the speed at which it was delivered (for an €11 delivery fee, I suppose it would want to be quick).
I don’t order directly from Becca very much, since Mise Beauty prices tends to work out cheaper and delivery is free above a certain price. But an offer of 25% off and a free eye brush sucked me in and here’s what I got:
Shimmering Skin Perfector in Pearl – I’ve been using the Luminous Skin Colour recently and liking it, so thought this would make a good partner when I want a bit more glow
The Ultimate Mascara in Black – an old favourite, I haven’t used it in a while
Retractable Kabuki Brush – I’ve also been loving the Boudoir Skin Mineral Foundation and this will be ideal to apply it
Brow Shaping Gel – A clear gel to fix my wayward brows in place and replace my almost empty MAC Brow Set
Soft Focus Shader 44 – a free brush is a free brush, no matter how many you have, but this one looks nice
I remember a time (Stella McCartney and Karl Lagerfeld) when designer collaborations with H&M did not automatically sell out in a few hours, but sadly that is no longer the case and I knew I’d be unlikely to ever see any of the Marni for H&M collection in real life, since I had no intention of queueing overnight before the launch yesterday.
Which was a pity, because there were quite a few pieces I’d have loved to get my hands on:
Did you manage to get your hands on anything?
Meeting up with a friend for lunch in the city centre last Saturday, I struggled to think of somewhere that would a) have good food, b) be a nice location for both chatting and managing a toddler and c) accommodate a buggy with ease. KC Peaches on Nassau Street jumped to mind as I’ve been meaning to try it out for a while and though I’d never really seen the interior, decided to give it a shot.
It proved to be a good decision from the toddler/buggy point of view, since there was plenty of room to wheel the buggy in and also park it beside the table without having other diners trip over it and also no steps or stairs to negotiate. We also found a nice highchair easily that pulled right up to the table and didn’t get in the way. We arrived at 12pm, so it was still quiet – by 1pm it was quite busy and less easy to find a free table.
The choice of food here is good – from hot offerings such as lasagne or a chickpea and vegetable curry to which your help yourself, to sandwiches and salads you can either choose from the menu or have made up according to your preferences and delicious-looking cakes and coffee (despite being drawn in by the sound of the cakes, I never got around to trying one – the horror!). And for a vegetarian, it was nice to see options outside of the boring standards – I had my own artisan baguette made up with baby spinach, tomato, mozzarella and avocado and it was delicious.
The set-up here for ordering means timing is important – hot food can be paid for and taken to the table right way, while sandwiches, salads and hot drinks are ordered at the counter and then served to the table when prepared. Our sandwiches took longer than the hot food and salad to arrive, which meant our friends were finished eating by the time we got our food, but it wasn’t the end of the world.
We lingered while chatting and there was no pressure to vacate the table even when things got busier. And the little monkey was rendered temporarily speechless by meeting new people, so mercifully stayed fairly quiet and well-behaved the whole time.
All in all, a good weekend lunchtime experience and I’ll definitely be heading back in to sample the cakes!
A good food blogger I would not make, since I neglected to take any photos of my own. Image above with thanks to ireland.com
If anyone out there (… anyone?) is thinking of dropping the guts of a grand on me for Valentine’s Day, this is top of my list, mkay?
Once upon a time I had a blog called Pretty, Shiny, Sparkly. Sometimes I posted fairly frequently and sometimes I did not. Then I had a baby and stopped posting for ages. Then I wanted to start posting again, but I discovered that someone else had the same blog name as me. Even though our audiences probably never crossed over (except for when readers did a google search for prettyshinysparkly blog and found me instead of her), it bothered me too much that there was another Pretty, Shiny, Sparkly out there.
So (even though I was there first), I decided it was time for a shiny new blog with a shiny new name. The name is unashamedly stolen from the opening page of After Dark, a novel by Haruki Murakami. Let’s not get too literal – I’m not sure there’ll be that much about neon colours here. But I like the image it evokes. So here I am again, doing my usual thing: beauty, style, travel, food, entertainment. The stuff I like that you might like too. And maybe a bit about babies when it takes my fancy – I contemplated a separate blog for that, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll see how well I do managing one blog again first.
Please stay, read, drop a comment if you like (or dislike) something. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
a sea of neon colours 