Category Archive: The Gallery
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My Dad’s Book – The Gallery
Here’s a special book for you. A book that nearly didn’t make it. A book that took a long time. A book that my family are very proud of. This is my Dad’s Phd. My Dad passed away 3 years ago and was too ill by the time he was granted his Phd to really appreciate it. We only got sent a copy of his work a couple of months ago and its lovely to see it in real life. I even get a mention in the acknowledgements for my part in doing the typing – I’m really glad I could help. Miss you every day, Dad. Rest in Peace Dr Patrick Burke MBE xxx This post is taking part in Tara Cain’s Gallery – This week’s theme is Books! There’s hundreds of books featured – hop on over to take a look
Yellow Wedding Cake – Cake of the Week/The Gallery
Regular readers will know that every now and then, I like to take part in The Gallery. A photo sharing linky devised by Tara Cain where we all ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over each other’s pics. Every week, Tara gives us a theme to follow – sometimes they are hard, sometimes they are downright impossible. When it was the week of the ‘Green’ theme, I entered a cake. This week the theme is ‘Yellow’ so I’m entering another cake. A bright, chirpy colour (Its my 3rd favourite colour you know! Tell me everyone has ‘favourite colour chats’ with their kids?) I made this cake for my last ever wedding cake. I wanted the stall to be bright and happy and not too cluttered. I also LOOOVE gerberas (I think I might have mentioned it once or twice!) What you can’t see in the rubbish picture is that the board has got brush embroidered gerberas in white – they took forever to do but looked really nice and the cake didn’t look half as plain. Never mind. I’m also adding the Cake of the Week linky, so you can share any of your creations. I know Janine is itching to share some more »
The Costellos Go Surfing – The Gallery – Sport
Well, its been quite a week for sport putting it mildly. Although we are still in France, Olympic fever is still strong here (except for French TV not showing Tom Daley in the diving tonight but I won’t harp on about that!) The beginning of the week started off with our Olympic adventure from Biarritz to London and back again within 36 hours (blog post to come soon!) and by Wednesday we were all back in the sea. Even Tara has developed a new obsession with the waves. A long time ago you may remember me posting about my list of things to achieve before I’m 40 (53 weeks tomorrow by the way!) Having a go at surfing was on the list – I have to admit I’m not sure why, I’ve never been THAT desperate to have a go but on the list it was. I was having a rare moment alone in the sea (anyone who has ever been on holiday with a 10,6 and 1 year old will know that you don’t get an awful lot of time alone) when Derm joined me complete with surfboard telling me I was having a go. Tara was being looked more »
Rose Wedding Cake – Cake of the Week & The Gallery
It is an absolute miracle that this cake made it to the reception, never mind that it was fit to eat. This cake was a wedding last Friday, yep, the rainiest day ever and I had to deliver it to a reception where the car park is nowhere near the door. There may have been some running and a Peppa Pig umbrella involved. We were actually guests at the wedding (and we were child free for most of it!!) – the dire weather didn’t spoil the day. It was lovely and relaxed. Laura and Mark are gorgeous and their 5 boys (!!! All 5 and under) looked and behaved beautifully. Unusually both tiers were fruit with a polystyrene middle section on the cake to insert the flowers into. This was definitely one of those cakes where you think you need so many flowers but actually have to treble it. It tooks hundreds!! My new favourite flower to make is a tulip type bud – they dust up wonderfully. I’ve attached a photo of the new Mr & Mrs Molyneux (pinched from Laura’s facebook page) along with their 3 eldest boys – the 6 month old twins were asleep at this more »
Easter – The Gallery
It may be my fault that we’ve had all this rain. Sorry about that. I bought the girls a rain gauge last week and it hasn’t stopped raining since. This picture was taken on Easter Monday when the heaven’s opened. Our Easter was slightly different this year. We went away in the van as usual but ended up coming back on Saturday, 2 days early as Violet was ill. Sod’s law then dictated that she was perfectly fine as soon as we got home. Things turned out for the best though, as we had the best of both worlds – A short break and then some lovely time at home. We spent time with family, the girls had their first ever joint sleepover (not at our house – I’m not that mad!) and I even did some baking. The weather hasn’t spoiled a thing – its been great! But I’m ready for a bit of sun, playing in the garden. I’m entering this post into Tara Cain’s The Gallery – she has asked us to sum up our Easter in just one picture – Why not head over there to check out the rest of the Easter pics? P.S. What more »
Me Right Now – The Gallery
Yes I’m in bed. It’s 9.02 and we’ve been up what feels like a million times in the night with various children. None of them ill but not asleep either. I do know that I haven’t had 2 solid hours of sleep together so when the school lot have left I’ve crawled back to bed. Baby T is now awake though so up I am for the rest of the day, hoping tonight is one of those blissful nights where I don’t move, speak or think for 8 solid hours. For Tara Cain’s Gallery we’ve been asked to send a pic of what we were doing when we read the prompt of ‘Me Right Now’ – so here you go! You didn’t think I’d actually show a photo of me in bed did you?
The Gallery – Home
People make a house into a home. Well, they do in my world anyway. I believe that a home comes alive when it is full of people. Our house has a constant stream of people running through it – The 5 of us are loud enough but when friends and family pop by it goes mad. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Home is this week’s prompt for Tara Cain’s Gallery. I have chosen this picture because 1. It was a great day full of visitors and lots of chatter and 2. The rest of the house looks tidyish (if you ignore all the toys at the back of the room) The picture was taken 3 days after Tara was born which was also the day Dermot went back to work – A day I had been dreading but one of the nicest days ever. I felt really looked after and relaxed and it was a lovely introduction to how Tara’s new home works (My Tara, not Tara Cain!) If you look closely you can see me hiding at the back looking pale and tired – not my finest moment. I’m looking forward to seeing what the other Gallery more »
Shoes – The Gallery
I didn’t think I was going to enter this week’s Gallery but I accidentally came across this photo and couldn’t resist. Little Violet trying on her Dad’s shoes. I flippin love that kid. We also quite frequently have sugar shoes in this house. Here are a couple of examples … The Mini Slippers and the good old sugar shoe!
Chilling out – The Gallery
How ironic that this week’s theme for Tara Cain’s Gallery is chilling out. Ironic because I’m having one of the least chilled out weeks ever with Tara’s christening preparations in full flow for Sunday. If I ever suggest doing a buffet for 100 people again along with the cake and a new baby, tell me I’m off my trolley! I have chosen this particular picture of Violet as this is how she chills out best – Violet runs around everywhere at 100 miles per hour but when she chills, she really chills. I can guarantee this was lying in our bed on a Sunday morning watching Peppa Pig. Nobody can rush our V when she is not ready to get moving. As I’m sure most parents of a 4 year old can appreciate, getting ready for school is a NIGHTMARE!
April at a glance – The Gallery
This weeks for Tara Cain’s The Gallery, we were set the task of summing up the month of April in one photo. This April has been a funny old month this year… The children were off school for Spring Break for the first 2 weeks, then back to school for 3 days then off for Easter. Much to the horror of a lot of small business owners there was another bank holiday on Fri 29th April for The Royal Wedding which fitted in with Mayday bank holiday – My Mum has spent 37 years trying to convince me that the bank holiday at the start of May was in honour of her birthday on 1st May. All these days off school and Bank Holidays (are they supposed to have capital letters?) meant that we were lucky enough to spend lots of time with family. My picture for the Gallery this week is a family photo that is a replica of one that was taken exactly the same time last year. This also coincided withe the first anniversary of our Dad passing away. We have already started a tradition of getting together at this time and this year’s photo includes 2 more »
