My Favourite Home-Related Christmas Presents

This Christmas was a scaled back one, presents-wise. My sister suggested a secret santa among our siblings and my college girls and I decided to skip the presents this time but make more of an effort to meet up. 

It was obvious from the few presents I did receive this Christmas that the givers put thought into their purchases. And so I ended up with some gorgeous gifts for my home.

Back in the summer I put together a wish list of Irish-designed items. It seems Santa read that post. I returned to Germany from my post-Christmas visit to Ireland with two Stephen Pearce dishes, perfect matches for the bowl I already had, and an Avoca Handweavers rug which had belonged to my Nana (thanks Dad and Mam!). 

From the Max Benjamin collection, which I have given others on several occasions and only realised recently that they are Irish too, I was given a candle and a soap set by my mother. The candle is from the Max Benjamin Tea Collection and is called Victorian Earl Grey. The scent is beautiful and tin the candle is housed in is such a pretty shade of turquoise. 

The soaps too smell divine and will suit our redecorated bathroom perfectly. Even the box they come in ties in nicely with the colour scheme of the bathroom.

Speaking of the bathroom, the boys were given a set of Cath Kidson face cloths. They are the softest thing you've ever felt. The pattern of cowboys on horseback throwing lassoes appeals to the boys very much, so fingers crossed face-washing may also gain some appeal. 

My very favourite gift for our home this Christmas has to be the cake slice from the Dunnes Stores' Carolyn Donnelly Eclectic collection. 

The detail on the handle is what makes it so special, I think. It pairs really well with my vintage silverware and my mis-matched china plates, both flea market finds.    

With my birthday coming up, the cake slice won't have long to wait for its first official outing. I've already been given a few presents but, not one to open my gifts before the day, I have them put away. 

I do have a sneaking suspicion though that there may be another Stephen Pearce item in there somewhere. 

Multicultural Family Life - Meet the Cuddle Fairy Family

Because of the fact that we are a family made up of two nationalities, I am always interested to hear how other families in similar situations live their lives. And I thought you might be too. 

For this month's installment of Multicultural Family Life I asked a blogging pal from the Irish Parenting Bloggers to share with us how she and her family survive their multicultural family life.

Becky is a parenting & lifestyle blogger at Cuddle Fairy (www.cuddlefairy.com). Her blog's motto is that there's positivity around every corner. Under the handle @cuddlefairy, she'd love to hear from you on social media! 

1.  Tell us a little about your family's background - where you're from, where you've lived, where you are now.

I grew up in NY & lived there until I was 26. My husband is from Ireland and we decided to move to Ireland to build our house and start our family. We have lived in the West of Ireland for the past ten years. We have three kiddies. Our oldest son is 8, youngest son is 6 & our daughter is turning 3 in the new year. There are times when I'm homesick but I really love having my children grow up in Ireland. 

2. What languages are you children exposed to? Do you have a preference for American words over English words or vice versa?

Our children are bilingual - they speak Irish English & American English. ;) They are learning Irish in school. There are so many words that are different in American English & Irish English. I had to consciously change several words, which was very difficult at first but they are part of my vocabulary now. One word I had to change was pants to trousers. In the US, pants are trousers. Here, pants are your underpants. One day someone laughed at my son for saying pants & I felt so bad! Trousers was such a foreign word for me at first. Also, the pronunciation of certain words are very different. One example is garage. I say these words with an Irish-ish accent for the kids' sake. When I visit the US sometimes I forget my American words!!

3. How do you handle holidays and ensuring your children see their American relations regularly? 

Unfortunately, we don't make it over to the US that often. The airfare is quite expensive for a family of five. When we do travel over we stay for awhile & try to see everyone. My husband's family lives near us so the kids have plenty of family for the holidays. Also, some of my family flies over regularly to visit.

4. Do you or your other half have any of the stereotypical traits of your nationality? Has this had any effect on your life in Ireland?

Oooo interesting question! I remember when my husband's family would visit us in NY. We'd always go to the pub which was really strange to me. I had never gone into a pub with my family before. Pub culture is totally different in the US. You don't see kids or families hanging out together in bars - it's a totally different atmosphere. Living in Ireland, we often go out to eat at a pub & wouldn't think twice about bringing the kids. I'm sure I have some terrible American stereotypes that I don't realize lol

5. How different, if at all, would your life be if you lived in the US rather than Ireland?

I think our lives would be very different in the U.S. We were living in the NYC area before we moved. Housing is so expensive & we'd have to send our kids to private schools there. Unless we were earning huge money, we wouldn't have a big back yard like we have here. I think country living is great for kiddies. We could have moved to the country in the U.S. of course & had a similar house but we wouldn't live near either of our families. Having my husband's family near by is a big plus!

6. Have there been any child-rearing differences between you and your husband based on the mentality of your home countries? 

No, happily!! I can't think of one example so that's good.

7. Are there any Irish customs you've adopted in child-rearing or anything else?

People are much more laid back in Ireland than in the U.S. I've become more relaxed as an individual & as a mother. Although having more children makes a person more laid back too I think. I'm sure there are other things that I can't think of. I don't notice my changes until I'm back in the U.S. & they stand out to me then, like how I pronounce certain words. 

Thanks for sharing your experience with us Becky! It is clear that even though you are a native English speaker in an English-speaking country, language issues still pop up now and again.

It is great to hear that you have settled in well to life in Ireland and that it has given you the chance to raise your children in the countryside and near their relations.  

Fingers crossed the future will allow you the opportunity to bring your children over and back to the U.S. now and again so that you can share more of your home culture with them.


[Are you interested in joining the series? Contact me on the contact form on the right. I'd love to hear from you.] 

15 from '15 - My First Year of Serious Blogging

The wonderfully gifted Sadhbh who blogs at Where Wishes Come From started up a review of the year linky a few years ago and I have decided to join in by looking back on the first year in which I took blogging seriously. 

You see, back in 2008 I started a little cookery blog but by 2015 there was a lot more I wanted to write about than food. So Three Sons Later was born and here now are my 15 blog highlights from 2015.

1. Most Popular Blog Post

I suppose it depends on how you define popular, but my most-viewed post was this one on celebrating breastfeeding. It was part of a #PositiveAboutBF linky and I really enjoyed writing it, sharing the handy hints I picked up during my three bouts of breastfeeding.

The most commented-on post, on the other hand, was this light-hearted list of blog post ideas for frazzled parents.

2. Favourite Blog Post

A hard one to pick, but I think it has to be my first blog post on Three Sons Later. After some humming and hawing on whether to expand my food blog or start a second blog, I decided to start Three Sons Later and try my hand at writing something other than recipes. I am very glad I did. What I wrote in that first post, almost a year ago now, is still true and I have very much enjoyed writing, crafting, photographing, reviewing and pondering ever since.

3. Favourite Photo

Another tricky one this. Like most mothers and bloggers, I have taken a huge amount of photos over the past year - lots of dodgy snapshots, a handful of lucky snapshots and a few carefully set up photos. Choosing one and only one is damn near impossible, but I have decided to go with this one of Number Three discovering grass and daisies in the springtime sunshine.

4. Favourite Craft

My favourite craft of the year definitely has to be decorating eggs for Easter. We tried out so many different variations and ended up with a lot of gorgeous patterns that were an absolute joy to look at. Well, for me anyway. 

5. Most Common Theme

The term muddled niche springs to mind here. I have a lot of interests, from crafts to books to food to parenting. I want my blog to reflect me and my hobbies, and I hope it does, so sticking to a few themes is challenging to say the least. I suppose though parenting and home/DIY/interiors would be the main ones.

6. Favourite Comment(s)

I love it when anyone leaves any kind of nice or helpful comment, but it is the ones that are not related to a linky that I really, really appreciate. It means someone has read my blog and they didn't have to write something but they chose to. Helen from The Busy Mamas has a knack of leaving funny, upbeat comments that always make me smile. In one, she had the inspired idea to use velvet for the seat of the rocking horse I was renovating, so that would probably be one of my favourite ones. 

7. Most Productive Month
Of the twelve months of 2015, September was my most productive month of blogging. Thirty posts in thirty days! For most of August I was on holiday and only blogging intermittently, so I suppose I had a backlog of ideas and was feeling refreshed after the break. Whether I will ever reach that level of output again is unlikely, especially now that Number Three is a full-on toddler, with short naps and high energy levels. 

8. My Best Move

Tús maith leath na hoibre (a good start is half the work). Without doubt my best move, blog-wise, in 2015 was starting Three Sons Later. 

9. Favourite Freebie

This would have to be our personalised tray. I love everything about it - the shade of red, the woodand pattern and the big, fat Z in the middle with our surname below.  

10. Worst Blog Moment

An easy one - following The Blog Awards Ireland on Twitter, seeing the name of the Diaspora category winner appear and it not being mine. Sure as I was up till then that I wouldn't win, I was strangely disappointed when the time came. Then I was cross with myself for being disappointed and took myself off to bed.

11. Best Blog Moment

Another easy one, this. Winning bronze in The Blog Awards Ireland in the Diaspora category. I was so pleased to make it from the nominations to the long list. I was thriled to make it from the long list to the short list and was sure I would not get any nearer to an award than that. I didn't fly back to Dublin for awards night. As I mentioned above, I followed on Twitter, got no mention and went to bed. The following afternoon my blogging buddy Andrea from OfficeMum.ie sent me a message telling me she'd been at the awards and that I had won bronze in my category. Another day later the offical e-mail from the organisers came in and I was over the moon. The only other thing I'd won before was a go-carting race. 

12. Favourite Title

My favourite actual title would have to be Summer So Strange. My favourite almost-made-it title is An Explosion and Two Sticky Knobs.

13. Favourite Blog Series

My This Is Motherhood series, which usually appears on a Monday morning, is probably my favourite series on my blog. The others - Multicultural Family Life and my Clear Out And Eat linky - are less regular and require a fair amount of mangement. But This Is Motherhood is a one or two sentence verbal snapshot of motherhood through my eyes and reflects on the situations, from the banal to the fantastic, we find ourself in as mothers. 

14. Favourite Collaboration
In the first half of 2015 I had the chance to work with Wayfair on both their UK and German sites and really enjoyed the experience. The German collaboration was with my food blog. On the UK site I took part in a craft series with my tutorial on how to sew a greeting card. I absolutely love making sewing machine embroidery pictures, so it was great to have the chance to share my tutorial with a broader audience. 

15. What My Blog Did For Me In 2015
First and foremost, it has kept my mind occupied in the way a job you love does. It has been something to turn my attention to when reading a book or crocheting a baby blanket hasn't filled my need to do something other than being a wife and mother. It has introduced me, virtually at least, to a lot of brilliant fellow bloggers. It was won me an award, enabled me to get articles published and has given me the motivation to improve my photo-taking ability.

I hope that my blog has given you some entertainment too. Thank you, readers, for sticking with me.