Do you know something that’s just dawned on me, there hasn’t been an interiors post in a while. So here to make up for it, is a plethora of Christmas interior inspiration from around the web. Plus a few snaps from my own home.
Malcolm Gladwell (world renowned Canadian author, journalist and speaker), says in his best selling book ‘Outliers’, it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a particular field. According to him natural talent doesn’t really play a significant part… So, in theory, you can become a master of anything if you put in the time, effort, and most importantly practice, practice, practice!
I have to say, I love his theory. It’s nice to believe that anything is possible. If you want to become the best pastry chef in the Dublin, a professional footballer, or even beat Murray at a game of Tennis - as the saying goes - ‘if you can imagine it, you can achieve it’, just don’t forget to put in the 10,000 hours!
In that case then, my baked risotto must just about be my masterpiece! I’ve made it so often I’ve definitely clocked up a lot of hours of practice. (I must also be a master at nappy changing – but don’t worry I won’t write a post about that!)
With the dark cosy evenings drawing in, crumbles are the ultimate home cooked comfort food. They’re unbelievably easy to make, and absolutely perfect for this time of year.
Yesterday it was time for another very special birthday in our house. This time a 21st. Every year on her birthday Mum turns 21 again. It baffles Ross, he can’t figure out how this can be (I completely understand how he feels, it’s funny when you end up being older than your Mum!). Regardless, 21, or another number ending in a zero, it didn’t really matter, it was an important birthday and we were all set to celebrate!
It’s that time of year again when the kids go back to school, the evenings gradually start to get a little shorter, and the leaves on the trees look somewhat tired. Gone are the lazy days of Summer (well thankfully they’re not completely gone just yet- hello Indian Summer!) when it was perfectly acceptable for little ones to stay in pyjamas until at least 12, and when ‘just winging it’ was allowed. Don’t get me wrong I’m very accepting of routines, but still, I did enjoy those days of not running to the clock!
When we first viewed our house over 8 years ago (yikes!) I fell in love from the moment I walked through the door. Of all the houses we had seen this one just felt like home. We put in an offer, it was rejected, and I was devastated. A couple of months later though, we were contacted by the estate agent and told the offer on the house I loved had fallen through, and would we be interested in placing another offer? We were… we did, and two months later we moved in with our first baby due to arrive a few weeks later! What’s meant to be, will be.
Yesterday it rained and it didn’t stop. Today it’s still bucketing down, and the forecast isn’t looking good for the rest of the week. So it looks like we’ll get to do a lot of baking over the next few days, rainy days are baking days after all!
I asked Ross if he could bake any kind of cake today what would it be? His answer was a chocolate cake with toffee in the middle and icing on top. That would probably be my answer too if I was eight.
Summer holidays… I absolutely love, love, love them! Family time, beach time, lazy days, eating out, all of these things for me equal bliss. People live for them all year round and this year for us was no exception. We’d worked hard and now we could enjoy a recharging two weeks basking in the sun together in Port de Pollença, Majorca.
About six months ago my two ‘toddlers’ started sharing a bedroom. I’m calling them toddlers now as my twelve month old started walking last week - we’ve hit another milestone!
The age gap between them is beginning to feel smaller and smaller, so much so that they now feel more like twins. I know what you’re thinking. “That must be hard.” But no, I’m definitely finding it a lot easier.
Last week while holidaying in Majorca, in between getting a bottle of water from the fridge and grabbing a packet of wipes to run to the balcony to clean a mucky face smeared with chocolate, I was told my blog ‘Maison Jen’ had been nominated for Best Personal Blog in The Blog Awards Ireland 2014.
I was absolutely delighted… knocked sideways at the time to be honest as I had no idea my blog had been entered, but thrilled.
Putting my two babies together in the same bedroom was a fairly big decision. Well it wasn’t really a decision, it was the only way we were able to fit them in!
Lazy summer days call for lazy cocktails. When the skies are bluer than blue and the temperatures are soaring I’m afraid I don’t want to be muddling or shaking or chopping… So here is the laziest of all cocktails and it’s unbelievably thirst quenching and delicious too!
When I lived in America during college many moons ago I was crazy about Starbucks. It was long before the coffee chain arrived here in Ireland, so for me this coffee shop was the best in the world..!
My favourite drink was a tall Iced Caramel Macchiato (I’m sure I still say that in my sleep sometimes) and I was in heaven until the very last slurp.
I had such a brilliant four days in Cavalaire-sur-Mer in the south of France last weekend, and managed to fit so much in that I feel like one blog post just won't do this holiday justice. So I’ve decided to do two!
This morning when I woke up, three innocent little faces were peering in at me. They were all silent, all wide awake, and I noticed that two of those innocent faces had a kaleidoscope of colours on their hands. A clue, that something involving colouring pens had happened while I was asleep. My first thought was uh oh! I knew Ross, the eldest at 7 was too grown up and sensible to colour on anything other than paper, but Callum, at almost 2… he can get very creative on floors and walls… Before I had time to think about where to look for those artistic creations around the house I was presented with two adorable homemade cards, today is Mother’s day! Not only that, David my husband as a mother’s day gift had designed an amazing logo for this blog, thank you David! There were a lot of creative things going on this morning while I was far away in the land of nod.
I love long bank holiday weekends. Who doesn’t?! And I particularly love the first long weekend of the year in March. The weather is starting to warm up, spring is in the air, and everything is waking up. My thoughts at this time of year turn to the anticipation of the summer ahead; longer evenings, trees and flowers blooming, and long lazy weekend meals outside. This weekend for me is a ‘New Year’s’ for the soul. And all my soul needed for the next few days was family, good food, and maybe a glass or two of wine!
