Burl Wood Table
I grew up on a farm. Now, I can’t speak for all farms, but I can speak to my experience. When you have a lot of barns and outbuildings on the family farm, it’s easy to put stuff in these buildings because you might need it someday. That’s not hoarding. That’s, uh, that’s being practical. Waste not, want not. That sort of thing. I can also fix almost anything with baling twine, but that’s a farm story for another day. When the Junk Whisperer (aka my stepmom) came into the picture, she started unearthing these long forgotten treasures while cleaning out the farm’s outbuildings. Thanks to her hard work and ingenuity, I…
Moving to Ireland: The Great Purge
Handy Husband and I have moved A LOT. We are no stranger to packing up our stuff and moving across town, across the state, across country. Moving across an ocean to a foreign country was new for us. Bring. It. On. The biggest warning you will get when moving to a European country from the United States is the homes are a lot different than what you are used to. “A lot different” is code for smaller. Unless you are uber-wealthy, a typical European home is going to be a lot smaller than a typical home in the United States. Americans must not heed The Warning because The Warning was repeated ad nauseam. You…
Moving to Ireland: A Day Out and About
Can I get a hip-hip-hooray for Friday? I have a bunch of posts in progress to share with you, but I just wasn’t feeling it for today. Instead, I thought I’d just share some random pictures. These all happen to be taken the day we got the keys to our new house, but have nothing to do with the new house. In the last month, we have become quite adept at taking the DART train. We’ve taught the kids to swipe their own train tickets and to read the signs so they know which train we are taking and when it is due to arrive. Tourist Tip: The trains are marked with their final…
Moving to Ireland: House Viewing #3
If you’ve been following along on our house hunting adventures in Ireland, then you’ll know that House #1 and House #2 were a big, fat bust. I hate to spoil the surprise, but if we are connected on Instagram or you ran into my dad, then you already know “third times a charm” is now my favorite phrase ever. House #3 is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath semi-detached home located in a small coastal village about 30 minutes south of Dublin. Semi-detached is just a fancy way of saying it’s actually attached on one side and thus a duplex. This home was built in 1966 and thankfully has had some updates since that…
Clothespin Holder
I know this is no way to start a Monday, but I have laundry on my brain. I trust yours is all done, folded and put away. Mine is hanging on the line. For the first time in my life, I bought clothespins to use for their intended purpose: hanging clothes. What a novel concept! (These are just like my clothespins.) It got me to thinking about the Junk Whisperer’s (aka my stepmom) laundry room. She has a super cute vintage clothespin holder made to look like a dress. It’s darling, right? When I visited her home earlier this summer, I mentioned off-hand that it would be fun to make a clothespin holder like…
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Moving to Ireland: Temporary House, Floor 2
After Monday’s awe-inspiring pictures of where we stayed while we searched for a permanent Irish residence, I didn’t want to leave you hanging over the weekend without showing the 2nd floor of this home. You’re welcome. (You can read all about the first floor here.) Let’s climb the stairs to the second floor. Ask me how many times the kids took that stair turn too fast? Go ahead. Ask. Once each. Alright, my son might have done it twice, but his danger streak runs a mile wide. This townhouse is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home. At the top of the stairs you can turn right to the bathroom and one of…
Berry Balsamic Vinaigrette – With Just 3 Ingredients
You saw pictures of my wine fridge kitchen fridge in our temporary Irish home, right? There’s not a lot of room for condiments let alone wine food. It’s like having a dorm room-sized fridge and having to feed a wild pack of hungry beasts a family of four one gajillion meals every day. I should really get over my resistance to eating out. Also, when we get our permanent residence, we have to move all of the stuff we have from here to there. My suitcases were already overweight when I arrived. True story. Now I also have to consider moving the “extra” stuff like food as well. Did I mention…
Moving to Ireland: Temporary Home, Floor 1
Moving to a foreign country is exciting and full of adventure. It is also full of paperwork and more paperwork. You need paperwork to enter the country. More paperwork to stay in the country. More paperwork to open a bank account. And so on. Needless to say, the powers-that-be want to be certain that you really want to live there. While all of that resolve testing is underway, you need a place to stay until you are legally able to lease a home. Handy Husband’s employer provided temporary accommodations for our family while we searched for a permanent Irish residence. The company assisting us with the relocation, Irish Relo, gave us three choices of homes…
Dragon Cake
You might think my longest relationship is with my husband. Not so. My longest relationship is with my friend Kari. She moved across the country road from me when we were about 12 years old and pretty much brightened my whole world. She still does that! I’m well aware of the friendship code, so there’s no way I’m going to talk about our actual ages on the Internet. It is safe to say we’ve known each other since big bangs and AquaNet were all the rage. In other words, a really long time. She knows stuff about me that I have long forgotten – sometimes purposefully. And vice versa. One…
Moving to Ireland: House Viewing #2
To recap: We moved to Ireland. We need to find a place to live before our household belongings arrive on the slow boat. Ready. Set. Freak Out! The first house we viewed was in the town of Raheny. The second home we viewed was located much farther north in a college town called Maynooth. This quaint village is home to St. Patrick’s College and Maynooth University. (Mayooth Harbour with train station in the background.) People. I big, fat LOVED Maynooth. I was ready to settle down with my afternoon tea and my new Irish accent and make that place my home. Maynooth is about 40 minutes via train from Dublin’s City Centre.…
