Sunday started in a whole other world to where it ended.

Breakfast was followed by games was followed by driving was followed by sunshine and music and it was all fantastic.

11 // Snakes and ladders12 // New BFFs

1 // See you soon! 2// Heading home again3 // Up close to the music at Africa Day in Farmleigh. I’d never been there before, it was beautiful.
The atmosphere was super and it was pretty cool to be in the back garden of this amazing house that I’d only ever seen on the news before. 4 // Smiling in the sun5 // Gorgeous smiles everywhere 6 // Farmleigh flowers 7 // Bus back to Dublin And some extra photos of the gorgeous colours and faces in Farmleigh:

What a gorgous day, I can’t wait to go back to see our new BFF for a summer barbeque and I’m really looking forward to next year’s Africa Day. I also really want to see the Discovery Gospel Choir again, they were amazing!

May has been a really busy month for me, and very positive in many ways. I’ve been struggling to find time for everything but I think I’m finally starting to find a balance and it’s great.

New music has been finding its way into my life again and it’s great. Big love to podcasts and the likes of Soundcloud. I know I’m a bit late to the party but I’ve been listening to Alt-J a lot a lot. Breezeblocks is one of my favourite tracks. It reminds me vaguely of Gomez for some reason. And that makes me happy. Listen here.

Noisy Pixels was born! My friend María and I have been talking about photography for what feels like a million years. We go on photowalks together and have been to a few festivals and shows together. So we decided to go ahead and create something. We’re hoping it’ll be lots of fun, and get us in to some shows! Check out our Facebook page here.

I finally figured out a spreadsheet at work and let me tell you, it was one of the highlights of my month. That spreadsheet hadn’t been working for a couple of months and it was like a cloud hanging over my head. The awesome wave of relief that washed over me as I realised I’d finally cracked it was wonderful! Things take time people, reiteration and marination.

I’ve been blogging! What joy to have this back on the go too, I’d been neglecting it but I’m getting back on top of things and it’s so satisfying.

Sunshine! I’m going to Portugal next week for a few days of solo relaxation, photo taking and sun soaking. I can’t wait!

Money! After a phonecall with my beautiful friend Mrs Hanh last week I figured it was time to take a new tac with her funding for her restaurant project. Another previous volunteer suggested using GoFundMe and there’s already $680 in the pot. It’s only a fraction of the $30K she needs to complete the project but time will tell how far it will go. It’s got the potential to be such an amazing place, if we can just get as many people on board as possible to make it happen many lives will change so much for the better. Check the page out here. And don’t be afraid to donate a few euro or dollars if you can!

Mrs Hanh watching the workmen on her site last April. What a gorgeous face.

Game of Thrones has finally made its way into my world…I felt like I was the only one in the world not watching it. But now I can feel a bit of an obsession coming on! Do you watch it? We’ve only watched three episodes, don’t ruin it for me! I enjoyed the first episode but not hugely I’ll have to admit. After the second one finished though I was dying for more. It’s fascinating, I can see why it’s drawn so many people in already.

And my gorgeous niece turned one! We skyped with my brother last weekend and she was so full of life and personality. She’s so big now and almost walking, I can’t wait to meet her and become great friends.

Some things I enjoyed from around the web:

I dropped in on Zoe Spawton’s tumblr about an elderly tailor/ former doctor she’s been photographing for quite a time now. I had forgotten about it and it was nice to catch up on what he’s been wearing! See Ali’s stellar sartorial symphonies here.

I cleared out my Bloglovin account of all the samey stuff that’s been clogging it up and then clicked on XOSarah’s post about being an individual blogger and it was such a breath of fresh air. Read all about it here.

These photos of New York going back well over 120 years really captured my attention and imagination. This one was my favourite. Click the photo for the full article.

Brooklyn Bridge, 1914. Painters.

I’ve had to switch this podcast off while out in public twice now because I was pretty sure I looked like a mad woman laughing to myself – it’s well worth a fluffy listen Pop My Culture.

And last but not least, if you haven’t seen this already then you need to. It was a strange feeling to watch this happening on TV – if you were ever a Fresh Prince fan check this out.

Roll on June! But first I’m off to a hen party for the weekend, how exciting!

Éadaoin

So there I was whinging about the lack of sunshine in my life and then lo, a day of summer appeared! Sunday was the most glorious day, just the kind of day that makes you want to be outside every minute soaking it up.

I woke up pretty late on Sunday but after a little breakfast it was time to get out so we decided to go to Bray Head. I can’t be sure when I was there last but I do know I had dreads at the time, so maybe 2006? Really? Wow… It just doesn’t seem like that long.

Of course I took my camera, let me show you what I saw -

// gorgeous town sized fairy lights     // a gorgeous red and beige couple.
Sometimes I see older couples wearing the same thing or the same colours and it annoys me (or frightens me – have their indiviual identities merged completely or has one person just pretty much lost theirs?) but when you see them holding hands too, well, it’s just cute.// people playing on the beach and in the sea.
It was still only about 12-15′C so most people were fully dressed but it felt good to be walking on the beach!

// I smelled whin bushes all over the top of Bray Head and I felt like I was at home.
The lane up to my parents’ house is lined with these gorgeous yellow bushes. To me they sort of smell like coconut. My friend and I tried to make whin perfume when we were little – eh, it didn’t work out…

// When we climed to the top of Bray Head we had this gorgeous view out over Dublin Bay.// and this blue blue water below us// The Irish Sea// Bray seafront

// The colours are just so beautiful together// And going back down through the woodland is always funWhat was your Sunday about this week?

One of my goals for 2013 is to read a lot more. I don’t think I actually finished one book in 2012, it’s shameful and had to change. I wonder how many hours I wasted on my commute to work pissing about on facebook when I could have been engaging with something so much more meaningful. Terrible.

So, we’re in to February and I’ve read two books already. One was a Christmas present from M and I’ve already passed in on to a friend.

Lamb is unsettling from the first glance. The front cover’s text immediately lets you in on what’s going on – Tommie is eleven, David Lamb is fifty-four. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?  

The book centres around a lost middle-aged man and the girl he seems to think he is saving. We feel we know from the start where the story is going and we know whose side we should be on when we put the book down but as you’re reading, it is hard to discern who “our guy” really is. We feel pity for him, we understand him. We are drawn in by him just as Tommie is. We hear the story only from his mouth, never entering Tommie’s head. The language is tight and the pacing that of a thriller. The book is full of wonderful descriptions of natural beauty – various American mid-western landscapes and Tommie’s own ‘expensive’ freckles and darling innocent mannerisms and behaviour. The book is enthralling and disturbing, bold and beautiful. This book stayed with me for days, I was left full of questions about the pair. What of Tommie’s future – will the trip have left her stronger and more confident or will there be sad repercussions as she realises what the trip really was? 

The second book was something my lovely mama recommended I read, Wait: The Useful Art of Procrastination. (Originally titled The Art and Science of Delay it seems, I think I like that better.) She believes I make decisions too soon. I don’t really. In my own world, I think about something for weeks or months before acting. I’m far from impulsive. I am, however, useless at saying no to anyone, and this my mama knows too well. And then, sometimes I panic a little and gabble. You know the way, you’ve done it too right? I realised as I was reading this book that I do this sometimes in a class, I lose my pace for a second and panic. But it’s not worth it, I need to take a breath, shuffle some papers around and find my spot again. It’s not that hard. I also realised that I sometimes engage in useful procrastination – my Finery project for example. I had that stuff hanging around for months before I even so much as photographed it properly. I tried a few different approaches but it just didn’t work for me. Then one day I guess it had all marinated enough and I was ready to act, to follow it through.

There are some fascinating stories included in the book – studies and anecdotes. I also found myself seeing a little in to the world of economists, stock traders, military strategists and doctors. There is an evaluation of the steps a tennis player takes in returning a serve – the pros do it at the last millisecond. There are also evaluations of apologies – Partnoy gives some examples to illustrate how a delayed apology achieves better results, ie, forgiveness. Fine and well, but a great apology also needs certain levels of remorse and sincerity which may have been overlooked in favour of the delay theory.

Speaking of apologies, Marie Forleo recently made this the topic of her Tuesday video with some pretty useful apologisin’ advice – find it here. 

The moral of the entire book is this though – just wait. Don’t do it, if there’s another second, take it; if you have three more days, use them. If someone calls you to ask you to take on a project that you sense will be the bane of your life for the next few weeks, then ask them if you can call them back in a few minutes – don’t say yes and then have to call back an hour later to say that you’ve actually double booked yourself and you can’t do it! Just stand there and do nothing for as long as possible, and when the time is right (which time would that be exactly? er, not sure) then go get ‘em.