25 Before 25: Take a Random Roadtrip

So ideally, this would have gone down something like this: boyfriend and I would decide to go somewhere to stay overnight without booking before hand, fill up on petrol and hit the road with no destination in sight. Though as I approach the deadline for this I realise it’s not going to happen (neither is visit a country I’ve never been to before unless I win the lotto or someone wants to pay for me to go abroad! *cough*).

So Saturday morning I had to drop my aunt off to the bus station early and I bought along my friend K who was staying with me for the weekend. We decided instead of heading straight back home we’d go on a drive, deciding where to stop along the way. Which lead to a mini tour of South and West Clare.

The first place we hit was Lissycasey, where we drove past this pub and then promptly turned around for some photo opportunities.

Next main place we hit was Kilrush, where we decided to visit the Vandeleur Gardens. Unfortunately, seeing as we were up so early, we were 2 hours too early to enter. Instead we went for a quick stroll in the woods.

And then off went again! Next we hit Kilkee so we decided to stop at the West Clare Railway at Moyasta. And would you believe it, it was also closed! (are you beginning to see a theme here?!). So I took this quick snapshot of the office and cafe.

From there we decided to head onto Loop Head Lighthouse. We looked up on K’s iPhone that it was open until early September. We weren’t sure if they would be open or not seeing as it is now mid-September! But we decided to take the gamble. And luckily it was open!

After we went for a quick walk around the cliff edges.

After our lovely walk, we continued on, deciding on a whim to stop in Doolin in the Tea Rooms. Unfortunately it was closed! Moving onto Quily we stopped at Seafield beach to look at Mutton Island.

We were then going to play some arcade games at Sugar Island Cafe but it wasn’t open yet! We figured that was the final sign to head on home and put our feet up!

Nails of the Week!

I was trying to use my striping tape to do some pink and mint green nails and it went a bit wrong. So I covered it up with black crackling polish. It reminds me of the 80s for some reason!

Rimmel Lycra Pro Professional Finish in Peppermint

Angelika Nail Polish in Sweetie Pie

W7 Crackle in Black

Nails of the Week!

I was so excited when I received my Dollish Polish in the post! I got ‘Heart of Glass’, named after the Blondie song and it’s just beautiful, so sparkly. I decided to use it over a black nail polish for a dramatic effect.

Black base- Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses At Night (with flash)

I couldn’t capture it properly but the black has very subtle pieces of dark glitter through it.

Look at how pretty it is!

No flash

With flash

Blurry picture but it shows the colours the sparkles give off

I love this polish, it has 3 elements to it. The big chunks of glitter, which to me remind me of broken CDs or something (also reminds me of the bits in the Essence The Huntsman polish), the sparkly strands and then the holographic pigment that coats all the nail, making the base colour holographic. It’s so beautiful, I got lots of compliments on my nails, even from my boyfriend!

Bakewell Cupcakes

I fell in love with Lilly Higgins’ Make, Bake, Love the first time I saw it. It’s so charming and fun, packed with lots of great recipes. The Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes stood out though and I couldn’t wait to make them. I love cherry bakewells though I rarely eat them for some reason. I need to rectify this!

Bakewell Cupcakes

Adapted from Make, Bake, Love by Lilly Higgins

Ingredients

220g caster sugar

100g butter,softened

2 eggs

160g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1 and half tsp baking powder

150ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

6 tbsp raspberry jam (I prefer seedless)

6 glace cherries, halved

100g icing sugar

1 tbsp boiling water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line cupcake tin.

2. Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

3. Sieve the flour, ground almonds and baking powder into a bowl, then carefully fold in the egg mixture. Add the vanilla essence and milk and stir until just combined.

4. Add batter into the cupcake cases, filling only half way. Add a teaspoon of jam to each cake case and top with the remaining mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cakes are golden.

5. Leave to cool fully on a rack. To make the icing, combine the icing sugar with the water and beating until the icing is smooth and thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. If it was too thin, add more icing sugar, if it is too think, add a small bit of water.

6. Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, ice them with the icing and top with a half a glace cherry.

The first time I made these I used jam with seeds in it but I didn’t really like it so I used seedless jam the second time around. I love the addition of the ground almond, it gives it an interesting texture.

YouTube Pick of the Week!

Another round of YouTube picks!

I had heard about The Marshmallow Test. The idea was to give a child a marshmallow, tell them they can eat it right away or if they wait 5 minutes without eating it they would get a second one. The children’s reactions was filmed and it’s very funny seeing them antagonize over whether or not to eat it!

Sminky Shorts are a delightful piece of Irish humour. I chose this one as I love the Cork accent!

This song from Korean rapper PSY is as catchy as the flu and the video is so bizarre you’ll want to watch it again and again!

I’m a sucker for puns and this video is just pun after pun!

I had heard of VSauce before, I was even told by my boyfriend I’d enjoy it. Of course I didn’t listen to him and only started watching it this week. I’M HOOKED! The show has some simple but fascinating sciencey videos as well as DONGs (stuff to Do Online Now, Guys) as well as videos for funny images and quirky things to buy. I can’t get enough!

I posted this video the other day when I wrote my Childs Play post but it’s worth posting again in case you missed it.

Simple Bird Magnets

I’ve wanted to try this for ages since I first pinned it on Pinterest (unfortunately I can’t find the original source for that pin, if you know it please let me know!). I pinned it, collected some rocks and then completely forgot about it! Until one day I was feeling crafty and I decided I’d give it a go. I decided to turn them into magnets as I badly needed some new ones!

Making them was easy, just paint on your base colour of choice until it is opaque. Wait until dry. Then using a smaller brush, paint on your designs. Once dry, cover with a coat of varnish (if you want) and then attach the magnets (make sure you attach them correctly, that the side you have facing out will attach to your fridge properly) with a hot glue gun. Once dry you are free to use them! You can of course paint on different animals, I just really like owls.

These are my favourites!

Childs Play (Your Inner Child)

I watched the above video on YouTube last week and it really struck a chord with me. It’s all about the games we’d play as children, the silly things we did to entertain ourselves. And I realised that it wasn’t something I did when I was younger but it’s still something I do from time to time!

The video opens with games the narrator and his sister used to play in the car. I did these too, both of them. I used to ‘chop’ all the hedges and trees to the same height. Or failing that I’d pretend someone was travelling beside the car, doing somersaults and flips on all the objects so they wouldn’t touch the ground. I still do this when I’m a passenger in a car.

And while I no longer try to stop a stopwatch on the exact ‘perfect’ time, I do try and get my petrol pump to stop at the exact number!

To entertain myself going down the street, I would try not step in cracks, limit myself to 2 steps per pavement stone and balance along the curb. I’ve been known to do the balance thing when walking back to a friends house after a night out! When I was around 7 I would also walk across the top of my closed gate, something I don’t think I’d try do now!

I would run and (unsuccessfully) try to touch leaves and other things at heights, try to successfully predict when the light will turn green, hold my breath will going through a tunnel (something my boyfriend and I still do to this day!).

I would get the sweeping brush, line it up against the couch so it was at an angle and try and walk up it! I would turn off the light at night and try to run into my bed as quick as I could so the monsters wouldn’t ‘get’ me. I used to tuck my teddies in with blankets so they wouldn’t get cold. I used to sleep my head under the covers as I was afraid that people such as my teachers had a secret view into my bedroom at night! (that one is quite weird I admit!). And I wouldn’t let my feet out of the bed covers in case they got eaten.

And then we come to the classic ‘Don’t Touch the Lava’. It’s funny as I was playing this game last month in the Burren with two friends of mine!

This has reminded me of how many of the ‘games’ I still play and it makes me happy, as I think it’s important to be in touch with your inner child from time to time. But it’s also reminded me of how fearless you can be as a child. I used to walk across my closed gate when I was 7-8 and I was never afraid to do so. Now I don’t time I’d have the courage to try that! I would hop up on skateboards and the likes without fear. Now I see my younger siblings zipping around on whip sticks and yet when I’ve tried to go on them, I get straight off as it’s terrifying! It makes me sad how much fearless we become as we grow older and release responsibilities and other things like that. It’s certainly necessary but I hope I can tap into my inner child when I need it, to help me relax and play when things become to serious or too stressful. I suppose that’s the good thing about having younger siblings (or for some people nieces and nephews, children, grandchildren), they are great to be silly around!

Do you play any of these games? And how do you stay in contact with your inner child?