After shot

ALAS! A single (and very important) house project has been completed!

You may, or may not, depending on how long you've been with me, remember the idea of hanging pictures above our "new" TV chest.  For those of  you not familiar, here is a link to refresh your memory

(I will also add a few before and after pics here in a sec.)

So for those of you a little too lazy to hop on the link above (no judgement from the peanut gallery), here is an inspiration picture found off this lovely website:

I really loved the idea of staggering framed pictures all over the wall, yet still incorporating the big ol' TV.

Here is what we started with:

Frankly? A little too boring for my taste.

So we decided to display photos we took while in Ireland last year.

First, we had to choose the pictures AND the frames, then decide how to arrange them.  Once we did that, we laid the frames out on a piece of paper to make sure we liked the layout. Then we chose pictures and how we wanted those grouped.

Once we were satisfied with the arrangement, we traced the outline of the frames, hung the paper up on the wall and then placed nails right through the outlines on the paper. 

This is what we ended up with:

Voila!

We are quite pleased with the result, and now I can't help but stare at the pictures instead of the TV.

Now I need to add something to sit on the cabinet that adds a bit more color.....

It's three o clock in the morning...

...and I can't sleep. 

So, I figured instead of rolling to one side, then the other, then flopping from my stomach to my back over and over again, that I would just get up and do something other than sleep... for now.

But when I can't sleep I have to be quiet, because I'm not the only one in the house.

Being quiet is especially difficult for me, so I thought I would occupy my time by looking through pictures.

Do you know what I realized?

I never finished sharing the highlights of our trip to Ireland.

Well, now is the time to finish with a few more highlights of the things we saw in Ireland.

First off a few pics of the many rock walls spread throughout Ireland.  There is definitely not a shortage of rocks in that country.

What do you do when you have too many rocks?  Make walls I guess.

                            

Then we:

Saw the most impressive full- castle tour of Bunratty Castle

Beautiful scenery

Saw the king tut exhibit

Heard some live traditional/modern music in the oldest pub in Dublin,Ireland: Brazen head

Went shopping at Grafton Street (a very popular spot) in Dublin
(didn't buy anything due to the expensive price tags)

Toured the Jameson Distillery

Visited the historic Kilmainham gaol

Walked through some very old grave yards

Took a seriously impressive tour through the Waterford Crystal facility and saw this...

....and this

Walked through the oldest working lighthouse built built by monks

Then there were abbeys to be seen:



Walked through Boyle Abbey which was undergoing restoration






Then we toured great houses and their equally great gardens

The food And drink of Ireland (for us)

Since I'm a self proclaimed foodie, no trip would be complete with out food.  Good food that is. 

I'm sad to say that not every meal I tried in Ireland was the best breakfast/lunch/dinner I've ever had in my life.  Some of them couldn't even pass as good.

However a few of them were definitely something I want to eat again.

Since we most likely will not be returning to Ireland anytime soon, I plan on searching the web in order to obtain such recipes. 

I didn't get the chance to take a picture of every single meal we ate but here are a few I did manage to take some quick shots of before we devoured them.
I should also confess that I can't remember every detail of every meal (or even the name of the dish) so sometimes all there will be is a random picture.

Bon Appetit!



Fish and chips from the Royal Crown in Belfast. 



White fish combined with bell peppers, onions and a cream sauce.
Delicious!






Aaron's first burger of the trip.  He said it was good.





Sweet goat cheese tart with caramelized onions over a bed of greens with a sweet sauce.  It was delicious and I hope to make it again.





Kilbeggan whiskey from Locke distillery.  Sooo smooth and it went down easy.  Lovely.



Our first (and last) complimentary pint of Guinness from the rooftop bar at St. James Gate.



More fish and chips and the BEST dish I had: Guinness beef pie.  It had so much flavor and I would like to make it too!





Have you ever...

Have you ever played a little game of "have you ever?"

No? Yes?

Same here.

Well.....let's not make this any more awkward than it already is and get things started, shall we?

Have you ever....

seen the movie "the Princess Bride?"

If the answer is "yes", then you'll (soon) realize what I'm talking about.

Have no idea what I'm talking 'bout? 

Just so you don't feel left out take a look at this and get caught up:

Okay, so the reason I wanted you to watch this little video was so you could see what we saw.

No more, no less.

If you want to see more of the movie, that is your responsibility.

Anyway.....Did you hear the little,bald guy mention "the cliffs of Insanity!?" 

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Well don't get too excited.  Last time I checked, cliffs by this name aren't really out there.

However, in real life there are some cliffs Ireland call the "cliffs of Moher."

And they are real. They can be found in County Clare on Ireland's west coast

In fact, word on the street is that the cliffs on insanity are actually the cliffs of Moher.

And they are a-maz-ing.  AMAZING!

Here is the insanity section that we saw:

Does it look familiar?

But wait!  There's more!

Here is the rest of the cliffs:

                                                and the tower that rests upon them....



Ireland- Day 3- Random nothingness with a little something

Not every day in Ireland was amazing, over the top fun.  Some days were pretty ordinary but still fun.  Like day 3 was. 

Let's start out with something that became pretty routine for us Aaron: driving the rental car. He initially decided it would be a good choice both size wise and financially to rent a small car and we became the proud foster parents of a Nissan Micra.

Little Mr. Micra liked to be driven on the left side of the road, so Aaron obliged and I came along for the ride.

We saw signs printed in words we could not pronounce,

at speeds we (originally) couldn't comprehend.

Then, we saw sheep and they saw us. 

Good times.

But that wasn't all we saw that day.  We also payed a visit to Castle Coole. It was built in 1798 as a summer house.  House?   Don't be fooled by the name, it's actually not a castle but a VERY large, very "grand house".  I fell for Castle Coole because, A) It was the first ridiculous/grand house we took a tour of, and B) I kept imagining one of Jane Austen's characters visiting or living in a house just like this.  It was impressive, gaudy....and pretty wonderful. 

I decided that it should've been mine.

But unfortunately, it wasn't for sale and a little sheep told me that even if it was, I wouldn't be able to afford it.

So we decided upon something else we could afford.

It was good.

The end.



Northern Ireland- Day 2

Did I mention the previous night in Belfast we got home close to 11 pm because we literally could not find a time OR place to catch a bus home so we walked for over an hour?

And I had to pee SUPER bad (as in def com 4).

And there were no toilets to be found?

No?

True story.  But enough about that distant memory.

The next morning we woke up early, had breakfast prepared for us and it was amazing!!  I had french toast with cut up Irish bacon and cheese melted over the top of it...AND syrup and Aaron had an omelet.

From breakfast we decided to take off and head drove further up north.  On our way out of the B and B's driveway, we saw two people who were really dressed up and going door to door.  We decided they must be out in service so we stopped in the middle of the street and waved them over. We asked if they were Jehovah's witnesses and they replied "Yes," so we said, "us too!"  We had a brief visit and were so happy to start our day out with that!

The B and B owner recommended a castle, Carrick Fergus to start with. 

We did.

It was fairly interesting but a little too touristy for our taste.

So I talked to one of the tenants but he didn't have much to say back.

So I stared him down....still nothing.

Take a look:

 

Did I mention it rained and rained for the entire first week? 

Yes, so things were a bit moist and we had a bit of difficulty keeping water off the lense of the camera as it was blowing right into us. So my apologies for any water spots.

One of the places I wanted to see the most was the Giant's Causeway.

Legend is that a giant named Finn McCool built it.

You can read the rest of the legend here Giant's Causeway legend 

Others (as in scientists) say it is a lava flow from a nearby volcano.

Even though I think the latter is more like it, I do like the legend as well.

Regardless, the place is amazing and should not be missed.

We moved on and eventually out of the north.  We had no plans as to where we were staying that night and figured it would be fairly easy to find a hotel in one of the bigger towns.

We were wrong. 

We drove in circles, back and forth with very little help from the GPS.

We finally pulled over, asked someone where a place to stay could be and then drove in circles again.

The place we were told to drive either didn't exist (not likely)

OR the directions were awful (we're betting on that one).

We finally settled on a B and B that the GPS recommended.  By this point, it was 10 pm and Aaron was brave enough to knock on the door and ask if there were any rooms available.  It turns out there are very few hotels and that B and B's are actually Ireland's version of hotels.  It was okay that we had no reservations and the couple was so warm and inviting that they even served us tea and cookies in their sitting room.

One of the things we discussed was this amazing, "derelict" structure in the middle of a farm field.  They told us it was called the Ogilvy mansion.  Derelict or not, it was breathtaking and almost like it was straight out of the movies.