Favourite Songs of 2012 Part 2

So this is the last post for my favourite songs, the first one can be found here.

I love Encore from Wallis Bird. It’s so so catchy, I love the lyrics and I find myself singing along to the chorus every time I hear the song. It’s so positive and upbeat. I also loved Heartbeat City from the same album.

I’m not a huge fan of Florence and the Machine (I just never got Florence fever like everyone else) but paired with Calvin Harris in this song, I love it. Though more because I sing the lyrics ‘You’re giving me such sweet muffins’!

Another Calvin Harris, this time with Ne-Yo. Instant dancing!

Second Azealia Banks songs, I love the 90s look for the video and trying to pick out all the references! And the song has me bopping along.

Loved the Skyfall film and the theme song by Adele is just perfect for it. I really hope she gets some recognition at the Oscars next month!

This is the last song. I heard this earlier on in the year but had forgotten about it until I heard it again last week and I’ve been listening to it ever since. There’s a behind the scenes making of video here.

And that’s it! I probably liked a few other songs but nothing that stands out. I didn’t like ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ or ‘We Are Young’, I found ‘Starships’ catchy but I don’t think I’ve listened to it at all outside of a club! What were your favourite songs?

Favourite Songs of 2012: Part 1

It’s the time of the year where I post my favourite songs from the previous year! I only want to do two posts this year instead of three so I had to make sure there were only 12 songs max. Once I had put my list together I noticed it was all female except for 2 songs! Kinda cool really.

2012 was the year of Azealia Banks for me! I’ve properly listened to her more than anyone else this year. Though I decided to limit myself to just two of her songs, Liquorice being the first of them. I love the beat to this, it’s so catchy (originally Pineapple Crush by Lone).

If you asked my boyfriend what was my favourite song of the year he would probably say Domino by Jessie J. Probably because he caught me singing it so much! I first heard it in the car coming back from Dublin with my brother, he already knew the song but thought it was Katy Perry! I’m not sure if I like the original version or Jessie’s Live Lounge cover better.

Do My Thing contains two of my favourite singers, Estelle and Janelle Monae. I love the positive message in it and it makes me want to dance every time I hear it.

I couldn’t leave Gangnam Style out, especially since I had a whole blog post dedicated to it!

This is an odd choice because I didn’t really listen to it myself a lot. In fact, according to my iTunes, I’ve only listened to it 3 times and I say that was during one or two parties I had. I’m adding Call Me Maybe more for the fun I had dancing to it on nights outs! (along with Gangnam Style, though I actually listen to that at home).

Last one for this post, Euphoria by Loreen, this year’s Eurovision winner. I didn’t really like it at first but boy did it grow on me. It’s a great one to dance to and to belt along to.

New Year’s Resolution Recap

It’s the time of the year where I go over the New Year’s Resolutions I made for the year and see how I did!

1. Be more healthy and exercise more (I really need to lose weight too but I think if I concentrate more on being healthy instead of obsessing over losing weight, I’ll succeed better)

Eek! This is never a good resolution is it?! Best to leave it at that!

2. Get a job

Sigh, so close on some accounts but no dice.

3. Cook 12 new savoury/dinner dishes

15 new things! Yay! Roast Turkey, potato stuffing, bread & sausage stuffing, honey slow cooked chicken, yaki soba, chick pea burgers, turkey mince stir fry, slow cooker chicken korma, naan bread, onion bhajjis, chicken burger, oven cooked parmesan chicken, Chinese 5 spice chicken with hoisin sauce, spiced honey pork chops and potato gnocchi!

4. Make 12 new sweet dishes

22. TWENTY TWO! A record for me! I guess having my own kitchen helped. Here they are: vanilla slices, pecan pie, pumpkin tart, pumpkin muffins, molten chocolate pots, soda bread, lemon meringue pie, cherry bakewell cupcakes, butterscotch blondies, Coca Cola cake, chocolate fudge cake, red velvet cream cheese brownies, cake batter fudge, macarons, banana butterscotch sponge cake, banana and peanut butter cookies, coffee mascarpone bundt cake, peanut butter, banana and bacon bread, honeycomb, Dutch oven pancakes, banana and honey nut muffins and cake in a mug! Phew! (I’ve just noticed that I’ve really loved bananas this year).

5. Finish reading all the books I’ve started (There’s about 20-30 of them).

Right, just as I thought, I got really side-tracked by new books! Typical really. According to Goodreads, I read 28 books (not including the cook books and novellas I read). I’m in the middle of 3 books at the moment, I might finish one before New Year’s Day though.

6. Watch 50 films I’ve never seen (while completing the A-Z list I started last year).

From my records (and I could be wrong as I didn’t really do a good job keeping track), I got to 37. It could be one or two more, I might have seen some films on TV and just forgot about them. I have 3 left in the A-Z: O,Q and Z! Sigh, I will get it completed eventually!

7. Learn a new skill (as of yet I have not decided)

Hmm, I didn’t really stick to anything. I got back into knitting which was nice. I concentrated more on doing 30 Days of Pinterest and 25 Before 25, which was fun.

The C Word

Around this time of the year, the C word usually is Christmas. People start saying in November ‘Is it too early to mention the C word?’ or ‘I’m so excited this year for C********’. But that’s not the one I’m one about today. Nor is the more naughty C U Next Tuesday C Word! No, the C word today is cancer.

In March 2009 my father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that week, I was in the middle of my 3rd year college exams when he was admitted to hospital. I remember sitting an exam and managing to convince the supervisors to let me leave early so I could run to get the bus to take me on the 2 hour journey to the hospital. And 2 weeks later I had to move across the country to do work experience. Luckily the treatment worked and this time last year he stopped chemo and went into remission. Dad went for regular check ups and last month something showed up. It happened so fast, check up Wednesday, phone call Wednesday evening and then overnight admission to hospital Thursday and chemotherapy started again following Thursday. I don’t know why but this time it seems to have affected me more. Maybe it’s because this time Dad will lose his hair. Maybe it’s because he’s found it very difficult to wrap his head around it and has been so up and down, it’s hard to watch someone go through something so emotionally. Maybe it’s because this time he’ll have to get a bone marrow transplant, it sounds so scary and daunting.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they caught it early again thanks to the regular check ups. It’s just, even though it’s hard to deal with something like this at any time, it seems especially hard around Christmas time. Next chemo session is this Thursday meaning Dad should feel well for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but will more than likely be ill for my sister’s 21st a few days later. I am glad to be closer to home this time though.

This has mainly been the reason for my lack of posts, hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the swing of things again soon!

My Halloween Party

Ok, so two posts in one day about Halloween, probably should have done them earlier than this but I wasn’t feeling great. I had a Halloween party for my birthday Saturday night (I will be doing a 25 Before 25 update seeing as I am now 25!). I had a great time organizing it!

This was the bathroom. We added a red light bulb for an extra creepy feeling, added cobwebs all over the place, wrote REDRUM on the mirror and put the creepy doll complete with axe and ‘blood’ (strawberry syrup!).

Here’s Mike the Mummy! We got some white clothes, stuff with them newspaper and then wrapped him in a ripped old sheet. Luckily the sheet was off white anyway so we didn’t have to tea stain it or anything. Got the idea from this video. We also added a red light bulb to that half of the kitchen.

I also got some warning tape from Tesco that said ‘Enter if you Dare’ and put it on the front door, but never got a picture of that unfortunately.

My cupcakes! Jack Skellington and vampire puncture marks. All I did was cut the top off cupcakes to level them off, add a bit of icing to it (jam would work too), rolled out and cut out ready to use fondant, stuck on top of cupcake and then used icing pens to fill in details. Simple but effective!

Brain cake pops! I got the idea from this post here. The broken ones happened because the chocolate wasn’t thick enough, I suggest doing a double layer of white chocolate at the beginning to make it stronger.

Brain hemmorrhage shots! Inspired by this post. But instead we used pear schnapps.

These weren’t made, my boyfriend bought them for me, but they’re too cute not to add!

I also had a jelly brain made from a big jelly mould I got from 2 Euro shop, Jelly shots and Jelly Shots in the shape of pumpkins and skulls that I made in a silicone ice cube tray.

We played snap apple and also I made a pinata in the shape of a Mummys Head but didn’t get a good shot of that.

 

And you can see my costume here, I was Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games.

We had a great night, I really enjoyed it. If you are looking for other Halloween treat ideas, check out my post on Witches Fingers and last year’s post about random Halloween treats I made. Enjoy!

YouTube Pick of the Week

Back to a nice mix of things after last week’s Gangnam Style week!

I love these guys, they always have me in stitches. All Irish people should enjoy this Glenroe Swipe video!

Big week this week as Chanel No.5 has it’s first ever campaign front by a man (that man being Brad Pitt!). To see it click here. I,however, prefer this video. It sums up my reaction to the whole thing perfectly.

I did however love this video about Chanel No.5 and some history behind it. It’s a very charming video.

Bodyform has decided to tell the truth! Very funny.

I’ll admit there was some dust in my eye watching a father describe his daughters wedding day.

Finally RTE released a One Take Lip Dub to The Stunning’s ‘Brewing Up a Storm’. So much going on in this video, I must saw I was impressed by it.

25 Before 25: Host a Tea Party/Host a Fundraiser

I knew from the beginning of my 25 Before 25 that these two entries would be together. I’ve wanted to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness Month for a while now, it’s something close to my heart after seeing my Nana die from it and seeing other family members battle it. I had seen the Get The Girls ‘Round campaign last year and thought it was the perfect idea. Straight away I knew I wanted to do a tea party, it was perfect for all ages and I could bake away to my hearts content! Here’s some of the pictures from the event.

Those adorable bun cases above (and in the 3rd photo) were very kindly sent to me by Orla from Irish Girl in London.

As you can see I went with the pink theme. I made the bunting above in the second photo, as well as a skirt for the occasion (which I will do another post about!). We had some jazzy tunes playing and I had collected tea cups from charity shops all through the summer. Local businesses kindly donated gifts towards a raffle and since people brought along a load of other baked goods (we had another table covered in goodies!), we had an impromptu bake sale the next day after Mass. I have yet to finish counting the money raised, as I keep getting donations in, but so far we’ve raised in around the 500 Euro mark! Very happy with that, I was hoping to get around 200 Euro so I’m delighted.

And here’s a shot of the aftermath!

That doughnut looking cake in the background was delicious and I will have a separate post with the recipe for that!

YouTube Pick of the Week: Gangnam Style!

So I’ve been meaning to put this out for a while now but seriously slacked on it. I’m still loving Gangnam Style, which I wrote out in a past YouTube Pick. And of course I’m also loving all the spin offs of it!

Grant from Mythbusters does his spin on Gangnam Style.

Mom and son dance to Gangnam Style! They also got to do it on Ellen!

Speaking of Ellen, here Psy surprises Britney and teaches her how to dance Gangnam Style.

Are you a metal fan but find yourself loving Gangnam Style? Fear not as here’s the metal version done by 331Erock. He does loads of other metal versions of songs, even if you aren’t a massive metal fan you’ll still appreciate them!

US Naval Academy decided to do their version too.

Key of Awesome were of course on trend and did a parody called Kim Jong Style.

Last but not least is Bill Nye the Science Guy doing it Science Style.

Book Review: The Casual Vacancy

This book isn't going to be to everyone's taste. But I really enjoyed it. The step when reading this book is to completely take J.K. Rowling out of your head. Because if you don't you'll just ruin it for yourself. Done that? Good!

The book is very character driven, not a huge amount of action. The book is building up slowly to a climax but it is more about the characters, their relationships and how they interact with each other. I really enjoyed this as I live in a small village and I find it interesting how people know each other from just being around the place and as I'm a bit nosy I often wonder about the secret lives of people and what goes on behind closed doors. This book is kinda like that.

I found myself wanted to read this after I had put it down to do something else. And if I had started to read it and just thought 'one more chapter', I'd actually end up finishing after 6 more chapters. That to me is a good sign, that I found myself wanting to read more and more. Though it's not necessarily a sign of a good book. I do think it is a good book though as I liked the characters (or loved to hate the nasty characters), I could identify with some, I could identify the characters as 'real life'.

The only downside I thought it had at first was when I didn't quite get the whole J.K. Rowling aspect out of my head and I found it very crude at first. The swearing, references to sex and drugs. At first I did wonder whether she was doing this just because she could, for the shock value and to try set herself apart from Harry Potter (I managed to go this far without mentioning HP!). There did seem to be a certain element of that. But once I managed to get the J.K. Rowling thing out of my head I did find that it fit into the story and it didn't bother me so much. Also it can be a dull in places as it isn’t so action filled.

Overall I would recommend the book, especially if you like character based stories. It’s a sturdy read and if you like J.K. Rowling’s ‘voice’ then you should like this.

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!