Sunday, December 27, 2009

Winter & Paris ~



it's 3:30 in the afternoon and i'm still in my pjyamas!  last night i slept for nearly twelve hours straight.  i'm really enjoying this break, it has been much needed.  and the best part is that there's still another week to go! :)  

at the moment i'm looking at hotels in paris for our honeymoon next may, and i'd love to hear reccommendations that any of you have!  i'd really like to stay somewhere that has an authentic parisian look to it, so many of the hotels i've come across online are very modern and look like they could be in any city in the world.  i'd love somewhere charming and unique, it doesn't have to be very lavish. 

i find when we tell people we're going to paris they're rather surprised as i think there is a tradition of going on exotic honeymoons in tropical places rather than to european cities.  also it's not very far from our home in dublin.  but paris is the first place where daniel & i went on holidays together and it holds many romantic and exciting memories for us both, i am thrilled at the thought of going back there again.  we're not the kind who like to lie on sun drenched beaches or who enjoy long periods of travel (in fact i hate flying!) and we're much happier at the thought of returning to a much loved city rather than making our way to the equator lol.

so let me know if you've stayed anywhere nice there and i'll check it out!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Petals & Ice ~



merry christmas everyone, i hope you've all had a wonderful day :)  

ireland has been hidden beneath a layer of ice the last couple of days.  this morning we woke up to a temperature of -8 degrees which i don't think i've ever seen before.  the world was white after a glittering freezing fog had turned the whole country into ice, it was beautiful and i guess a white christmas of sorts.  i've been praying it would snow, but unfortunately instead it rained and froze instantly into ice on the ground, and now everywhere is slippery and slidey like i've never seen before.  we had to warn everyone who arrived to the house and ran out of salt trying to make the pathways a little safer. 

so today i was lucky enough to be given lots of presents that happen to relate to cupcakes, including two new recipe books.  so when i get back to the apartment in dublin you can be sure one of the first things i will do is make a batch!  i've never made cupcakes before, but i'm certain it's going to be fun & you can be guaranteed some sticky, messy photographs of the process ;)

i have totally fallen in love with the new lens, it's beyond what i had expected, i hope you like the results!

PS - i survived the dentist, not without trauma, but i'm on the other side now!! ♥ 


Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Baubles & Bokeh ~



ok so tomorrow i have to visit the dentist, and i know everyone hates going the dentist but i really, really hate the dentist!  so to cheer me up a bit i've been allowed to open a christmas present early!  it's almost worth going to the dentist for ;)

daniel gave me a canon 50mm f1.8 lens for the camera and i'm very excited to show you my first nifty fifty upload :)  it's been such a pleasure to experiment with it for a little while this evening, but i'm excited to take it home to the country on wednesday and give it a proper try! 

it's almost christmas day, i hope you're all as excited as i am ♥

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Inspiration & Decoration ~

i wanted to share with you some of my favourite bloggers and the inspirational christmas photos they've been posting over the last couple of weeks.  the blogosphere has been alive with beautiful christmas/winter themed images lately, it's such a joy to be able to spend some time looking through them all.

click on the name to visit the owner's blog & the photo to visit the posts they appear on.  hope you like! ♥


















Hot Chocolate & Giveaway Winner ~



hi everyone, i'm so sorry it's taken me this long after the giveaway deadline to get around to posting the winner, it's been such a busy week!  but now work is over for me until after the new year and i can finally take a breather :)

ok so the random number generator chose the number 7:

 
which means that theresa from t does wool is is winner of the two prints!  theresa send me an email to eadaoinryan@gmail.com to give me your address details and the prints will be in the post to you as soon as possible (which should be pretty soon considering i've so much lovely free time now lol).

i almost feel guilty not having enough prints to give to everyone who entered lol, i'll run more giveaways in the new year, so don't worry if you missed out this time, there'll be more opportunities.  

i'll leave you with some photos of these cute little christmas treats, they're tiny pieces of white chocolate with a mint flavouring, you can drop them in hot chocolate to give it a minty twist, delicious! 







 

Sunday, December 13, 2009

City & Hearts ~



 

christmas lights in dublin city through the lensbaby's heart shaped aperture.  inspired by this photo by irene suchocki who is one of my favourite photographers, i've been waiting for christmas to come ever since i saw that photo, just so i could try my own city heartscapes :)

don't forget you have until tomorrow night to enter the print giveaway on this post.

i hope you've all been out enjoying the festive atmosphere this weekend!  ♥

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Tea & Cookies ~



things i learned about using an icing bag for the first time ever to ice these lemon cookies:

* icing cookies is 100% not as easy as it looks
* never ever fill the little paper icing bag up to the top
* be prepared for a great big mess, wearing an apron would probably have been a good idea!
* everything gets sticky

i'm sure the next time i try it it will be a much better experience! 

i want to send a huge thank you to erin for such a sweet feature on my photography on her blog this lovely city.  i discovered her through the diamond in the rough blog project and i'm very glad to have come across her lovely serene blog space, it's well worth calling over to her take a look, she's also into baking cookies so you'll find more tasty things to drool over on there!

one great thing i found on this lovely city is a link to a tutorial on how to make a cupcake case tree on your wall (while you're looking at that link take a look at the rest of sweet paul's blog too, it's amazing, full of beautiful craft ideas and photography).  i love this idea & might just try it myself, although technically i'm not supposed to stick anything to the walls of this apartment... but it might just be too cute to resist! 

i got some new teacups from a charity shop last week so included one in this little christmas cookie photoshoot, they're so pretty!  i hope you like ♥

 

 

 

 

 





oh and don't forget to enter the giveaway i'm having on this post, you still have two days to enter!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Giveaway & Focus Experiments! ~

click play on the video below and treat your ears to a feast as you read! i've fallen in love with the music from pride & prejudice by dario marianelli, this piece in particular (your hands are cold) is devestatingly touching at times. have a listen and see what you think yourself :)



ok so down to business, in the spirit of christmas giving i've decided to have a giveaway of two of my prints. unfortunately i cannot afford to give away professionally printed ones (saving for the wedding is taking its toll on my wallet) but they'll be printed at home with love by me using high quality canon paper on my little canon printer!

i'm giving away these two as a pair of 5 x 7 glossy prints:



 

visually i think they work quite well together and are very pretty as a duo! they'd make a great christmas present for folks who love vintage teacups and romantic flowers (or a great present for yourself if you love those things too lol).

to enter this competition all you have to do it leave a comment. opportunity to enter will be open until the end of monday 14th december, the winner will then be chosen by random and i'll post them out as soon as possible :)

i'm leaving you with a couple of blurry shots from the archives! i like to play around with focus a lot but rarely put the results online, so here are a few out of focus shots where my attention was drawn by the colour & light rather than the full detail of the scene. they're different to my usual style, but i hope you like them ♥