Zebra Wine Glass

Hello all! 

Here are a couple facts about my daughter.

Other than being the most wonderful daughter I could ask for,

she loves zebra stripes,

she loves purple,

she loves glittery, girly things

and she just had her 25th birthday.

So what do you make for her?

A purple and black, glittered, zebra striped wine glass,

of course.

It was hard to get a really good picture of it,

but here is the best one I could get.

At least it shows the glittery, zebra stripes.

And here is a picture of the birthday girl when 

I gave her the glass.

I was out for breakfast at the pancake house with her

and her boyfriend.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Hope you love the wine glass!

Thanks for stopping by today,

come again soon!

Ireland #25 Clonmacnoise

We had another wonderful breakfast on our last day in Ireland.

Then we were off to visit Clonmacnoise, but first we 

had to take a couple pictures.

Here is a picture of the Celtic Adventurers with 

the proprietress of the B&B.

Here she is with her son, who helped her in the kitchen,

served our breakfast, gave us some traveling 

advice and has an absolutely adorable little girl.

And one last flower picture for the trip.

This was one of the hydrangea in front of the B&B.

So pretty and such a beautiful color.

We had to make our way to the next B&B which was

near the airport and as it worked out, Clonmacnoise was

just about half way there.

Clonmacnoise is an ancient monastic settlement.

It was founded by St. Ciaran in the year 544 

Not long after his arrival Ciaran met Prince Diarmuid,

together they built the first church on this site.

Sadly Ciaran did not live to see the monastery grow and flourish,

as he died of the plague just 4 short years after settling it

at the age of 33.

But flourish it did.

Over the years there the settlement was attacked

and burned many times.

It was pillaged and many were murdered, but

 it rose up again and again.

The ruins are incredible and the 

Celtic crosses are absolutely amazing.

The originals are about 1000 yrs old and are kept inside

the "visitor's center" 

The ones that stand outside are replicas.

This is the guide we had for our visit.

This is the whispering arch.
With this arch, if a person stands on either side of the arch

and faces that largest arch and another stands on the other side

 of the arch, when one whispers into the arch, the other person can clearly hear

what is being said.

Here is a picture that I found online showing people whispering

into the arch.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture like this.

They just whisper in one side and the other person can hear

clearly what is being said.

Dave and I tried it and it is quite amazing how clear you 

can hear what is being said.

Here are some of the pictures I took of the graveyard and

ruins at this site.

The pictures below are of the original 

Celtic crosses that are approximately 1000 yrs old.

If you click on the picture below (or any of the pictures) 

it will enlarge and you can read a little about St. Ciaran

We spent a couple hours at Clonmacnoise and

I enjoyed every minute of it.

So much history in one place. 

Amazing and beautiful in a haunting kind of way.

Then we were off for a nice lunch.

We wanted to do a little shopping back in 

Bunratty so we went to have lunch at 

The Creamery

We were here at the beginning of our adventure

and I do believe they had the best

Fish and Chips

of the trip. 

And that is exactly what I ordered

It was fabulous!

After lunch we went over to the Blarney Woolen Mills

to do a little shopping, then into the shop at the

Blarney Castle.

We all finished up buying souvenirs and 

gifts for family and friends.

Then we were off to check in to our B&B

for our last night in Ireland.

The Knocknagow B&B wasn't our favorite,

but it was clean, comfortable and close to the airport.

Thanks for visiting with me today.

Ireland #26 will be the last post from our 

Ireland trip and I'll tell you about 

the Medieval Banquet at

Bunratty Castle.

Squash with Pecans

Hello!

I have to say, I do love squash and recently I found a way to fix it

that I am just loving.

I cut a butternut squash into cubish pieces.

I know, they should be uniform in size, but they aren't,

that's why I say cubish.

Onto a cookie sheet with a bit of olive oil and salt,

then into a 350 oven they go.

I baked this squash for about 45 minutes until it was nice

and soft.

Just before taking the squash out of the oven, 

I put some pecans into a pan with some melted butter

and let them toast up a little.

Then I dumped the squash into the pan and mixed it

up with those pecans.

Yes, I did get those pecans a little darker than I wanted,

but they tasted great anyway.

Just beware not to have the heat on too high.

Mix them around a little bit to cover with the butter.

This doesn't need much butter as the squash is just so darn tasty.

But if you like more butter, go ahead and use more.

 I only used about a tablespoon or so.

Then into the bowl it all goes.

I finished it off with a sprinkling of Kosher salt and it was ready to go.

I have made this for my family a couple times, but this time

it was just for me.

Hubby was out of town, 

my son was out with his girlfriend,

and I didn't really feel like cooking much.

The squash with pecans really hit the spot.

Thanks for stopping by today,

I hope you'll try this simple and tasty recipe.

Let me know what you think.

Birthday card for Elliot

This past weekend we were invited to

 a birthday party for a 1 yr old.

So of course, I had to make a card.

I stamped the balloons onto different colors of 

paper and card stock and fussy cut them.

They were adhered to the card base with foam tape.

I tied a bit of home made baker's twine to each balloon and

gathered the strings and tied them together.

I stamped the Happy Birthday greeting onto white card stock 

then used my Perfect Layers Mini tools to 

mat it with all the colors I used for the balloons.

Perfect Layers make getting perfect cuts every time easy.

I made the envelope using my 

Envelope Punch Board

from We R Memory Keepers

Making envelopes is quick and easy with the

Envelope Punch Board.

For the name I just punched circles and stamped 

the letters with Crushed Olive Distress Ink.

Of course, Elliot didn't have a clue that he even received the card

and gift.  He's only 1 year old after all.

But his Mom knew right away that I had made it and

she loved it.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you'll pop in 

again soon.

Until then Happy Crafting!

Ireland #24 Celtic Crosses and W.B. Yeats

We're almost to the end of our trip, but I have a few more

places to take you and interesting things to show you.

The next place we visited was Donegal

We ate lunch at a lovely hotel restaurant, which unfortunately

I forgot to take a picture of, so I don't know the 

name of it.  The food was excellent.

Here are a couple pictures I took at the restaurant of things

 you don't usually see in the U.S.

I went to use the ladies room and here's what I found.

Yes, that is a "pay as you go" curling iron.
It says "Hygienic & Sterile" don't know how they 

achieve that, but there it is.

I guess if it's a wet day, you can come in, dry your hair

under that hand dryer and restyle it before having your meal.

This is something you see around Ireland.

Cigarette machines.

I remember these from when I was a kid, but we just don't

have them in the U.S. anymore and I believe that is 

a good thing.

I wouldn't say you see them "all over" Ireland,

but it isn't too hard to find them.

I remember on other trips seeing them mounted

into some of the stone walls, but I didn't notice that this time.

The Celtic Adventurers spent some time touring a small castle,

checking out the town and shopping.

It was a tough day for me, the fibro was kicking in and 

with the damp weather, the old bones, joints and muscles weren't

cooperating.  I spent some alone time reading in the car and then

 did a bit of Christmas shopping in a lovely little jewelry shop with Dave.

Then we were off to see some beautiful old Celtic crosses.

This is the first thing we saw when we pulled up to this old

church grounds and cemetery

A beautiful Celtic cross.

Click on the picture to enlarge it, and you can read a bit about the cross.

This picture was taken from the parking lot, looking back at the crosses.

Beautiful scenery in the other direction.

Welcome to Drumcliffe Church

This church was just beautiful, inside and outside.

Poet William Butler Yeats is buried in the Graveyard at Drumcliffe

Although he died in France in January 1939, his remains were brought

home to Ireland by the Irish Naval Service and re-interred

at Drumcliffe in 1948.

His wishes were to be buried here, where his grandfather had served 

as rector.  His instructions were that he be buried in a grave that consisted

of  "no marble, no conventional phrase"

His grave is marked with this simple headstone with the inscription,

"Cast a cold Eye.

On life, on Death.

Horseman, pass by"

His wife is buried with him in this plot.

Did you know that his wife's name was George?

After our visit to Drumcliffe, we were off to visit Sligo.

Sligo town is situated on the Garavogue River.

As you walk along there are bridges like in this picture to cross from

side to side.

I was quite taken with the beautiful swans that we found there.

When we got to Sligo town it was just about dinner time, 

so we found an interesting restaurant, The Fiddlers Creek, I took a seat,

had a diet Coke and waited for the others to walk around a bit.

The shops weren't open after 5:00 so they did a quick tour of

the shopping area and then came to join me for dinner.

And of course, I had to check out the fish and chips.

Very good too.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their dinner.

I know I'm a bit strange, but Jane had wanted some ginger ale,

when the waitress brought it, it was in the cutest little bottle.

Only 113 ml which is a little under 4 oz.

I had to bring that cute little bottle home.

Don't really know what I'll do with it, 

maybe something crafty, or maybe it will just 

sit in my craft room as a cute little reminder

of a wonderful trip to Ireland.

See, isn't it the cutest little bottle?

I took this picture with a pop can, so you could see

how small and cute it is.

I know, I'm strange, sometimes little things make

me smile and this is one of them.

After dinner, it was back to Teach Eamainn, 

where we visited for a while and shared lots of laughs.

Our trip was winding down, we only had one more day

in Ireland.
We spent some fun time, talking, laughing and sharing stories.

I don't think any of us really wanted to break up our little

"party" but morning was going to come pretty quick, 

so we were off to get a little shut eye.

Next post I'll tell you about Clonmacnoise

an ancient monastic settlement and 

share some of my pictures from that 

historic place.

Thanks for stopping by today.