Once May comes the garden really starts to brighten up.This year I have planted Lupins, Antirrhinum (Snapdragon), Nemesia, Kniphofia (Redhot Poker), Pansies and Dahlias. Now all I have to do is wait for them to bloom. It is raining today after days of heat and sunshine so they should really take off now. In the meantime I am enjoying some photos I took of various gardens I visited. Hope you enjoy them too.

Magnolia Trees are so pretty when they are in bloom

Oh what a fabulous day we had here in Ireland, sunshine and blue skies and I have an extra long weekend too. I spent most of the day in the garden-mowing and weeding... can't wait for summer now with lots of flowers... below are a few pretty flower arrangements I photographed at an agricultural show here in Ireland last year... which is your favourite?? I'd have to choose the one with the hydrangeas....

Well Summer is well and truly over now and Autumn has set in. The evenings are much shorter & it  is getting darker much quicker. This Summer I spent a lot of time in my garden and set a lot of flowers. This weekend I hope to set some bulbs for Spring time.

This year we visited the Tullamore Show and the National Ploughing Championships, both of which were great days out. I took note of all the home grown produce at both events. Tullamore Show is Ireland's largest one day agricultural show and country lifestyle event with approximately 60,000 visitors and over 1,000 competitions taking place. This year the weather was great on the day and I really enjoyed all of the show marquees- there was one for home baking, flowers, poultry, photography and craft. There are all types of animals- cattle, sheep, pigs, horses and rare breeds along with exhibitions and trade stands.

This week myself and my husband visited the annual National Ploughing Championships which is a three day event. We went for the first day of the event. It is Europe's largest outdoor exhibition and agricultural trade show. Different types of ploughing takes place and judging takes place each day. This year 283,000 people visited the event over the three days. It was extremely well organised and there is so much to see and do. For anyone interested in agriculture it is a great day out... Below are just some photographs I took of vegetables and flowers from the two events.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We had an extra long weekend for Easter with a bank holiday today. I also took Thursday off work so really enjoyed the time off. I spent time with family and pottering about. Had a look around the shops and done some housework. What did you get up to? Hope you didn't overindulge on the Easter eats....

Over Christmas I have spent lots of time with family and friends. It's now New Year's Eve, the years seem to be flying by... 2015 has been good to us, we spent good times with family and went on a wonderful holiday visiting Spain, France and Italy... We didn't get much sunshine or heat here in Ireland, it is almost like we skipped some of the seasons with just Spring and Autumn and no actual Summer or Winter. Lots of rain and wind... Over Christmas I have been-

Wearing;

Eating & Drinking;

Wishing you and yours a wonderful New Year's Eve and best wishes for 2016 and all it has to hold.....  Goodbye 2015

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better" Albert Einstein

Hello everyone. Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, I'm busy at home these days. I try to post a few nice images on my instagram account.Do follow me if you like. Below are just a few small items I purchased recently. I spent a long time in my garden yesterday as the weather was lovely. Unfortunately it is back to its normal rain and wind again today :( Hope you are all having a nice weekend....

 

Now that Spring is here, I am itching to go shopping for home interiors. For the moment though, I can lust after the items below. All are cheap and cheerful and would really brighten up the home. All of these items can be purchased online but I much perfer to go to the shop myself and take a look at the items first. Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and enjoying the Spring weather....

{Images from Dunnes Stores}

{Images from Heatons}

Last weekend I visited Asda in Enniskillen and bought this lovely new king size duvet cover for just £14.00- such a bargain. It is really soft and suits our bedroom perfectly as it is light blue with cream furniture.

{Image from Asda}

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. I had an extra long one as I took Friday off and today was a bank holiday. I spent Friday with my parents and Saturday with my sister in law. Yesterday I did the shopping and today I just chilled out and did some housework.
Below are a few images from around my home if you would like a nosy. First up is my growing stack of pretty towels in our bathroom with a few Cath Kidston items thrown in too... The wee lotions I got for 50p in a charity shop, I will probably never use them as they are too pretty. As you may have noticed before my bathroom is very vintage style with lots of florals.

Here are a few more photos of the dresser in my living room. Some of my books are stored here including Selina Lake's Homespun Style, Lorna Sixsmith's Would you Marry a Farmer, Gisele Scalon's Goddess Guide, the rest of my books are stored in my library room in the attic. I also have lots of country inspired items. The card is hand painted silk from Swallow Yarn Barn. You might also spot my Rachel Allen Forget me Not candle and the pretty wildlife cards from Wrendale Designs.

And finally some more of my books in my library in the attic...

So I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek around my home...

Hello everyone, it's the weekend again, the weeks just seem to be flying by. What horrible weather we have had this week, rain, sleet, snow and high winds. It has been a week for staying indoors. But alas I woke this morning to sunshine, yes sunshine! At last, Spring may be on its way. The bulbs I planted in my garden are popping their heads out. I may do some Spring cleaning today but first I thought I'd share with you some lovely items from Cath Kidston which I have my eye on. I am loving crochet these days and as always anything nature themed like this beautiful bird wallpaper. I love baby blues, pinks and pastel greens. Have you any nice plans for this weekend?

This weekend I took a look around Marks and Spencer and found the cutest home accessories! Check them out below, pretty patchwork stag's head, home sign and cute dog door stop. They are all floral fabric. Both Marks and Spencer and Next have lovely home accessories. I didn't buy any items for the house as I was on a mission to buy clothes. I will show you some images of all the Autumn clothes I bought in another post. The Autumn is really and truly upon us, the evenings are getting shorter and the weather is much cooler.  Hope you are all having a nice weekend.

All images from Marks and Spencer

This week I spotted the New Country Range Doll Furniture from DFS. It is very feminine with lots of pastel colours. It is almost shabby chic with a modern twist. I think it is really pretty. Have you seen it yet? If not, do you like it? I love all the cute patterns- florals, birds and patch work. Although it looks so pretty I wonder how practical it is?

Hello everyone, I hope you are all enjoying the Summer time. The weather has changed here today and it has started to rain. We are currently painting the outside of the house. I am taking a day off work tomorrow to relax. Have you any nice plans for the weekend? I'm off to Castle Leslie for Afternoon Tea which is a nice treat. You know how much I love tea.... I hope to take lots of nice photographs but just to give you a taster of what it might be like, here are some nice Afternoon Tea inspired images...

Images from top; Pretty China from Fancy That Gift Shop & Tea Rooms , a fourth birthday tea part from A Fabulous Fete , I love you blogs & tea print from Made by Girl

I just love floral patterns! In my opinion floral patterns never date, they are in all the time! Here are some of my favourite floral items taken from a range of online sources, sorry I don't have the link backs to them. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and you have lots of nice plans :)