I have a ton of photos in a ‘dump’ folder on my laptop. Before the days of pinterest, it was where I saved any images I found online and loved… but didn’t really know what I was going to do with yet. Sorting through that folder recently, I noticed these two separate photographs, saved side by side. Although not related to each other, they seemed to depict, so perfectly, how love ages.
Do you speak more than one language?
Whenever I spend time abroad, I’m always struck by how encouraging the locals are of any effort to speak their language. While eating out in Sicily earlier this year, for example, I successfully asked for ‘burro’ (butter) in Italian. There was actual applause from the waiting staff. “You speak Italiano”, our server announced, as if I had just translated Ulysses.
Still, I can’t help but feel crippled by my inability to speak any language but awkward, clumsy old English.
Here are three easy (and free) ways to start learning another language today:
BBC Languages offer free lessons and courses online.
Learn10 automatically generates ten new words every day, selected from the 1000 most common English words.
Live Mocha allows you to join an online learning community. You earn points by helping others to learn English, which you then use to ‘buy’ lessons in another language.
To master the non-verbal communication, one of my Italian friends sent me this handy guide to Italian hand gestures from the New York Times. He claims it’s completely accurate!
The last thing I needed was another reason to visit Paris, but here it is anyway: Pink Flamingo Pizza. There are several locations dotted around the city and their exotic menu looks so good.
You can eat in one of the trendy restaurants OR just stop in, place your order, take the cheerful pink balloon they hand you and wait by your picnic blanket for them to come find you. That’s not even a choice, is it? You’ll be waiting for their trademark pink delivery bicycle (!) somewhere along the Canal St-Martin, won’t you? I’ll be right there with you.
In case you missed it, see my full guide to Paris here and a photo diary from my last visit here.
Throughout last month, there was no point in asking me what day of the week it was. July was one long Saturday.
While the sun shone in Ireland (shocker), I pretty much lived in this Zara skort, which I bought in two colours (black and a bright orange red). No regrets. via Sincerely Jules
This chic scooter is something I did not live in (on?), but wouldn’t that have been nice? One day! Scooters make normal(ish) outfits look really cool. Here’s a tip: if you want to sell me something, put it on a scooter. via Facehunter
via The Sartorialist and Coohuco
Prints, prints, prints… everywhere. We talked about how to mix them last month, but even I’m not so concerned now. Rules seem more bendy as the Summer sets in.
via Hey Pretty Thing and Coohuco
Faded leopard print will always be my ‘go to’. I’ve wanted these leopard print Vans for the longest time.
Jules, flaunting those jeans shorts in my face (I’m still looking!).
Pretty bags, via Where Did You Get That? and Village
Monochrome works for Summer too, via Trop Rouge and Where Did You Get That?
via The Sartorialist
And a handsome man. Oh, I’m so predictable!
Photos taken at The Ewe Sculpture Gardens, Glengarriff, Co. Cork
My new toy is a Panasonic Lumix FZ62.
I’m not about to pretend I know camera talk and do a fancy tech review. Instead, I’ll just tell you what I like about it. No jargon.
The FZ62 is a bridge camera, which is sort of a cross-between a compact digital camera and a ‘professional’ SLR. It does lots of the things a bigger SLR camera can do, with both manual and automatic settings. The ‘intelligent auto’ setting is there for inexperienced and lazy photographers like me – it works incredibly well and is one of the camera’s main selling points. The other selling point is it’s wide-angle 24x super-zoom lens. I promised no jargon. Sorry. It’s super-zoomy. Video recording is more intuitive than most cameras I’ve seen with a simple start/stop button at the top of the camera, enabling immediate recording without having to switch to ‘movie mode’. The continuous shooting setting operates on the same principle, with a separate button for ‘burst’ shooting beside the shutter button. There is a ‘scene mode’ on the camera with predetermined settings for 18 different shooting scenes including portrait, scenery, panoramic, food (this one has been particularly useful)(!), sunset, night etc. I’ve had a lot of fun using the creative control setting, which allows you to apply different filters (similar to those on instagram) before you take the photo. You can also edit photos on the camera afterwards.
I bought this camera direct from Amazon and I am so pleased with it. I ordered this bag too. It fits the camera perfectly, with a little space left for lens cleaner, memory cards or other small accessories.
€5 has been donated to UNICEF Ireland for the completion of this ‘thing’. Click here if you too would like to donate online.
This cartoon made me laugh…. but then I read about how Dusty the Dolphin’s boisterous activity has led to serious injuries for swimmers in County Clare, Ireland. Irish journalists are making Dusty out to be a criminal with headlines like ‘Dolphin attacks fourth swimmer in a month’ and ‘Diver claims Dusty tried to drown her’. A little unfair. Poor Dusty!
petals
teardrops
snowflakes
rain
stars
tides
eyelids
time
shadows
leaves
the sun
and I,
for you
via Modern Hepburn
I love this! The MaCool is a cooler designed to look like a vintage Mac computer, circa 1984. It even sports a ‘happy mac’ icon.
via Swiss-Miss
Morning yoga routine. I own you, downward dog.
Sidenote: What the what is upward dog? There is nothing dog-like about this pose. Does anyone else call it Cobra… or did I invent that?
p.s. more yoga talk
I’ll admit that I was not wardrobe-ready for this spell of warm weather we’re experiencing in Ireland. I have suffered the consequences of ignoring the weatherman. Getting dressed in the mornings has become very frustrating as I fixate on that one essential item that’s missing from the closet: the perfect jeans shorts.
The pair I’m after are low-rise, mid-thigh, relaxed, distressed pale denim. A kind-of shortened boyfriend jean, if you will.
(I’d wear mine with stripes too)
The Autumn/Winter stuff has started to creep into stores, but I refuse to give up on my Summer mission. Ideas?
All photos collected on pinterest
Last week was just one of those weeks. I was juggling a ton of stuff. Except I can’t actually juggle, so really I was just throwing stuff in the air and waiting for it to come back and hit me in the face.
When the weekend arrived, my to-do list had been reduced to one simple instruction: Sort your shit out. Working out what that entailed was the cause of some emotional stress, to which my body automatically responds by ingesting ice-cream and gin, separately and generously. Hashtag Science. Hashtag notreally.
That’s how a second item came to be added to the list: Make ice-cream and cocktails. Immediately, the sorting of my shit (whatever that even meant…) didn’t seem so important after all.
Sage Syrup
(make this first)
What you’ll need:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Small handful of fresh sage
Here’s how:
Combine all three ingredients in a pan over medium heat, allowing the sugar to dissolve. Remove from the heat, remove the sage, cover and allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight jar/ bottle in the fridge.
Blackberry Sage Spritzer
What you’ll need:
Fresh blackberries
Sage syrup
Good quality gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
Sparkling water
Ice
Here’s how:
Half fill a glass with ice. In a shaker, muddle a handful of blackberries. Add equal quantities of gin and sage syrup. Add a few cubes of ice and shake well. Strain into the glass and top with soda water. Garnish with a fresh blackberry or two and serve immediately.
Recipe by Joylicious via Nao Me Mandes Flores. Mine looks a little different since I used more blackberries and make it a shorter (read: more alcoholic) cocktail.
On some rare, sweet occasions in this life, things just fall into place while you lie slothfully on the beach, becoming further engrossed in your book and sipping on Blackberry Sage Spritzers. Cheers to those times!
I did it! At the weekend, I made the Barrack Obama of ice-creams. I’d like to thank my Sister, Fiona for her unwavering support and encouragement and God for not letting the custard curdle.
The whole tub has been consumed, exactly 24 hours after I started making it. Of course.
Recipe here.
€5 has been donated to UNICEF Ireland for the completion of this ‘thing’. Click here if you too would like to donate online.
