Christmas

I can't believe how quickly Christmas has come and gone this year! We've had a lovely time, the preps started weeks ago with cake baking, pudding steaming, gift wrapping, visiting the Christmas markets, seeing the boys perform in their various concerts and shows and everything else that pops up at this time of year.

Here are my baking efforts for this year...

I got cookie-cutter happy with my Christmas cake this year and some lovely blue icing and was really happy with how it looked, cake decorating is not a strength of mine so by my standards this was fabulous :-) Another 6 hours of my life were spent steaming the pudding, personally I hate Christmas pudding but it means a lot to my hubby to have a homemade one so I persevered!

Last year we went with very traditional colours for our Christmas tree, red, gold and silver so this year I decided to go with a lot more colour...

The boys helped me decorate as always and everyone was very happy with how it looked.

Can you spot the cute little Disney ornament from our trip to Paris?

Elsewhere around the house were a varied assortment of baubles, ornaments, fairy lights and candles...

We spent Christmas day with my husband's side of the family at his brother's house, 9 adults and 7 kids in total! They have just had an extension put on their house so it was a fabulous space for so many people, eating, drinking and dancing the night away. Everyone took on a cooking job for the day so it was pretty easy going and everything was delicious. We all slept over and the boys were so excited with it all and got to stay up will 11pm! In fairness the adults were all a bit tipsy or we may have remembered to put them to bed earlier ;-)

Feeling a bit delicate on Boxing Day morning we managed to recover in time for another big meal at our house with my parents and little sis. It was another great day, the boys love having family over and were spoilt all over again with presents and treats and we had a lovely evening relaxing and playing board games.

I was pretty spoilt myself this Christmas with really lovely presents from my hubby and boys, tickets to see Adele (I LOVE her!!!!!!!!!), a fab new smartphone, goodies from L'Occitane, a manicure station and some new books! I'm like a big kid opening my presents at Christmas and I was thrilled with these :-)

I have loved every Christmas our little family has had but I have to say these last 2 Christmases we have had back in Ireland have been my favourite, it's just so special for the boys to be surrounded by all their family and we all love being back :-)

Three in a row

My "baby boy" turned 8 a couple of weeks ago!!! The perfect excuse to bake some cupcakes...

My boys are now aged 8, 9 and 10. A lot of people think we were insane to have our kids so close together but I am so glad we did. Yes there are crazy days where I think "what were we thinking???" but then I look at them playing together, enjoying the same toys, movies and games and just know how blessed we are :-) Other days when they're all wrestling and being totally feral I think maybe we should have spaced them out by about 10 years each :-D!!!

Rut

I'm in a bit of a blogging rut.  I know this happens to all bloggers at one stage or another. I think maybe my blog needs a new lease of life, a redesign, a new name, something!!!

I came up with the name "Thrifted Treasure" back when I started this blog because it was originally just about my vintage finds which were frequent in the fab Sydney op shops. Then bits of everyday life and snippets about my kids started to sneak into my blog and I kind of started regretting the one-dimensional aspect of the name I had chosen. A couple of years ago I made the decision to completely remove my kids from the blog, something I don't regret, I never wrote anything personal about them anyway and was always careful to protect their privacy, names, location etc but then I missed the little rascals being on the blog so of course they have started to creep back on here occasionally, albeit photographed from angles not showing their little faces etc.

So now, here I am in Ireland, absolutely LOVING being back!!! That's a whole other blog post but it leaves me wondering where to go with this blog. I definitely want to keep it up but the charity shops here are pretty poor when it comes to bric-a-brac, I've heard carboot markets are good but with our weekends always filled with kids' sports, parties, outings etc I don't get the chance for much vintage shopping anymore.

So here we go. I think the future of the blog is going to be a mishmash of different topics; life with my boys, redecorating our new home (we are currently on the hunt for our forever home), features on vintage kitchenware, recipes I love, inspiration from the web, cute purchases for my boys and our home (in lieu of good charity shops I have become addicted to the homewares section in TK Maxx, I literally find something fab every time I go in there!!!) and places we love to go.

Now I just have to think up a good name to reflect this new direction. Of course I want to keep the original vibe of my blog going too, I am going to make more effort with my vintage shopping, there are some great vintage shops in Dublin, obviously the prices are higher than in charity shops but they have some seriously fab stuff. I AM going to make time to visit some markets and of course there is always eBay France for some good Le Creuset bargains :-)

So please bear with me while I get my inspiration back!

If only I had the energy of these three little explorers...  :-)

Fraggle

Yesterday, after school and homework were finished with, I heard an excited little shout coming from the back window "There's a FOX in our garden!!!" There was huge excitement amongst the boys as this was their first fox sighting here in Ireland.

I looked out and sure enough curled up in a little ball was this beautiful creature, fast sleep...

I stared at him carefully to make sure he was in actual fact breathing and thankfully he was :-)

The boys stared at him for ages, D had an Attenborough-like narrative going "and now the fox is stretching, and waking, now he's asleep again...".

This went on for an hour or so and I started to feel a bit worried that even though the fox was focussing on us through the glass he hadn't moved away, I was worried he was sick and went out to the garden and walked right up to him, he just stared at me and stretched again, of course I went and got the camera to take a snap, still not a bother on him.

Eventually he got up and prowled around the garden, had a chew of the various toys out there and then climbed up the back bank and over the neighbours' wall.

We have named him "Fraggle" and hope he comes back to visit another day :-)

Tapas with the folks :-)

One of my absolute favourite things about living back in Ireland is being able to see my parents whenever!! After 14 months back it's still a novelty being able to phone them and say "Call over for lunch"!! I love cooking for my parents, they love food as much as I do and I love getting their positive feedback on my dishes (something you don't get so much from kids eh?).

Yesterday I decided to do Tapas. I really love all these delicious little dishes and decided to try to recreate (without any recipes) some of my favourites.

Here's what I made...

Garlic and spinach prawns and scallops with black pudding in a garlic butter sauce.

"Patatas Bravas" and chorizo with char-grilled peppers in a spicy onion and tomato sauce.

Mushrooms and onions in a garlic and flour coating and a little dish of mixed olives and peppers (the stuffed peppers were from Aldi).

Serrano ham and lovely cheese and onion bread (from Supervalu)

Everything looked so lovely and colourful laid out on the table and I was really happy with how everything tasted.

I served all the tapas up in these cute dishes I got at TK Maxx.

It's a real treat to do a bit of cooking like this while the boys are at school, it gives me a chance to have a few hours to sit and really chat with my parents before I collect the boys who love coming home to find their Nana and Grandad there :-)

I'm hoping to try and make churros for dessert next time, this time there were cream cakes :-)

More Le Creuset!! Again!!

I'm long overdue a Le Creuset update! I haven't been lucky enough to find any in the charity shops here at all (some hope!!) but Ireland's proximity to France has meant I have been able to pick up some bargain pieces from the French eBay site and have them shipped to me at very reasonable rates :-) So firstly here are my latest vintage additions...

I was super-excited to add this fabulous turquoise oval Enzo Mari designed "Mama" cocotte to my collection!! There are a few little chips on the handles but the interior is pristine!

Another Enzo Mari designed "Mama" this one is a brownish orange colour.

I have built up quite a collection of various sized "au gratin" dishes in oranges, browns and yellows so I was delighted to add these fab turquoise dishes to my collection :-)

Finally!!! I have been holding out for this fondue set FOREVER! The fondue pots themselves in orange and brown crop up on eBay occasionally but I really wanted this turquoise set and wanted it complete! I still can't believe I got this set for a buy it now price of EUR 30!! Complete with the forks and box and all!

This gorgeous deep blue 26cm oval casserole is in such pristine condition I am wondering if it may be one of the re-released range of "Heritage" dutch ovens, they retail at Williams and Sonoma for hundreds of dollars, I got this for 20 euro!

I got this from the same French seller as the turquoise Enzo Mari piece. 

And now for my brand new additions...

This gorgeous green bell pepper has been on my wishlist for ages too, it's not a vintage piece but has been discontinued making it quite hard to find. My patience finally paid off and I can't wait to use it!

I may have squealed aloud when Le Creuset finally released their gorgeous "Chiffon Pink" range here in Ireland! I knew straight away the lovely 27cm oval casserole and 26cm shallow buffet needed to be in my kitchen pronto!!

This 16cm casserole is from the new "Cool Mint" colour range, it's just gorgeous and a really cute size!

And finally, a gorgeous teal blue Bouillabaisse pot!

I have also added various bits and pieces of the Le Creuset stoneware range to my collection, but will save those for another post. Any other Le Creuset addicts out there? I would love to hear from you :-)

No Food Stylist

As you can see I am no food photographer/stylist. The instant I am served or have cooked a meal I just want to eat it. If something looks particularly nice I may occasionally (twice I think, one being the chowder in my previous post) take a snap with my phone but other than that when I have food in front of me I get stuck straight in!

The same can be said for my presentation skills, when my meals are ready I just like to heap them onto a plate and get going, case in point - this risotto...

I made this last week and if I do say so myself it was DELICIOUS! Really earthy and intense and mushroomy, exactly what I wanted. I had eaten the most amazing risotto ever one evening on our trip to Paris and had been having cravings ever since. I looked up lots of tips on how to get it just right and using dried porcini mushrooms in hot water, homemade stock from a soup I had made the day before, heaps of fresh mushrooms fried in truffle oil and some good Arborio rice, I got it just right!

So it may not be beautiful but it tasted pretty damn good and I just thought I'd share :-)

Don't worry I won't be sharing too many of my repulsive looking food photographs here in the future, I'll just continue to swoon over other people's work on all the foodie sites I love :-)

Goodbye Summer

My boys went back to school last week after an 8 week summer holiday. I'm always sad when the holidays end, they're such carefree times, no routine, freedom to do whatever we like, lazy mornings and fun outings. We did a lot this Summer, as well as our holiday in France, we spent 10 great days at my parents' house near the beach, took day trips to other counties such as Co. Down and Galway (still can't believe Galway is now only a 2 hour drive from Dublin on the motorway!), had fun at parks, playgrounds and beaches when the weather was good, did indoor stuff like museums, cinemas, bowling, play centres etc when it was raining, saw lots of our family, ate out, played, and generally had a lot of fun.

It all sounds so idyllic doesn't it? Well, keeping it real, there were mental days too of course, with the boys bickering and wrestling (I grew up with 2 sisters, boys are crazy!) and I must admit to enjoying a little bit of quiet in the house (even though I missed them) once they were settled back at school. It's amazing how quickly 8 weeks can pass when the days are full of the mischief and energy of 3 little boys.

I won't bore you with a million photos, I don't have the energy to go through them all even but here are a few little snaps from my phone...

S inspecting the displays at the Natural History Museum.

We love Malahide Castle, a great spot for a day out with kids, beautiful grounds, great playground and delicious food at the Avoca Café.

Buying ice-cream from the van at Bettystown Beach is one of my favourite childhood memories, now my boys do the same :-)

Making the most of the sunshine, the boys spent hours in the sea that day.

Really delicious seafood chowder at Nan's Café in Laytown.

Totally random photos, but then Summer holidays are totally random aren't they? That's what I love about them most :-)

Awwww

Trawling through my photo backups the other day I rediscovered this photo from a post I did about 5 years ago. My boys' lovely little playroom in Sydney. At the time my eldest had just turned 5 and his brothers were 2 and a half and 3 and a half.

This was such a happy little space, where we all hung out together, playing Lego and trains and running out to the garden.

I'm so happy I still have this photo, I have other pics of them playing away in here which are precious too but this is what it looked like freshly tidied before the chaos descended upon it each morning.

My boys have outgrown most of the things in this photo but we still have the bunting so lovingly and painstakingly created by me over a 2 year period ;-) and some of the other little bits and pieces. I love the stage they're at now, witty and full of ideas but I do feel a little ache when I think of how tiny they were playing in this room and how quickly 5 years can pass.

If you never saw the full post and would like a look you can see it here.

Paris with the kids :-)

Well, we finally did it! We brought our kids to our absolute favourite place in the world for a week and it was the BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Yep, we brought the boys to Paris! We reckoned they might finally be at the age where they could be brought on the long walks we love taking around the city, into the little bistros and cafes we love to eat at and of course we knew it was definitely time to bring them you know where ;-) Yep Disneyland!!!

Here are a few snaps of our holiday...

We used airbnb.com to rent a lovely 2 bedroomed apartment in Montmartre for the week, it was just gorgeous, really quirky and French with floor to ceiling windows looking out at the buildings and rooftops across the road, we were on a nice quiet street yet a couple of minutes from all the cafes and restaurants and a 15 minute walk from the beautiful Sacré Couer which is where we brought the boys on our first evening. Our middle munchkin, who just loves buildings of every sort, was particularly impressed, and we had beautiful views all over Paris from the top of Montmartre.

The following morning we got the train out to Disneyland. The train journey is only about 40 minutes from the centre of Paris. We decided to get a "4 for the price of 3 day park pass" which had to be used within the week, it gave us the flexibility of going to Disney on the days that suited us and breaking up the holiday with sightseeing on the days we felt like chilling a bit more.

These are just a random selection of snaps of our 3 separate days at Disneyland, we spent the first day at Disneyland Park, the next time we visited we went to Disney Studios and the last visit we revisited our favourite rides in each park aswell as trying some of the few rides we hadn't already been on. The big hits were Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, Crush's Coaster, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the Studio Tram Tower, Ratatouille the Adventure (absolutely brilliant!!!) and of course the brilliant cars and motorbikes stunt show!! 

We went on pretty much everything else too, the weather was amazing while we were there and of course at this time of year Disneyland is really busy but because we have a child with special needs we were given a Priority Card which gave us instant access to all rides and attractions, i.e. NO QUEUEING!!! This was a godsend for us, it meant a really relaxed time, just being able to amble up to attractions stress-free and take relaxed food and drink breaks when needed. Considering the wait time for a lot of the bigger rides was 40-75 minutes this was amazing and very much appreciated, thank you Disneyland!!! 

The days we weren't at Disneyland involved lovely relaxed mornings at the apartment, my eldest and I would go out to the local Boulangerie and bring back pastries for everyone, I loved food shopping in Paris with my biggest boy, he is a fellow-cheese lover and loved browsing all the "smelly cheeses" at the local fromagerie before we decided on a nice mixed platter :-)

It was so much fun showing our boys all the sights, they were thrilled to see the Eiffel Tower and to visit our favourite sweet shop "La Cure Gourmande" where we stocked up on goodies to bring home. My middle son, as I mentioned, is obsessed with buildings and was in awe of the Notre Dame Cathedral and all the other stunning buildings around Paris.

Our boys were fantastic along the long walks we took, interested in everything we showed them and we even found a favourite restaurant with a lovely waiter the boys all got on great with :-) As my eldest said "everyone here is so nice", this just after the local baker gave him a free donut!

It was a really lovely week and I just can't wait for our next trip!