Cottage in Clare - part I

Its been a while since I posted and I now have a bunch of catching up to do. Last month the kids were on Spring Break for 2 weeks. So we were able to take a nice little week-long vacation to county Clare. Then, the week after Spring Break, there was a "bank holiday." There is a bank holiday every month! That's basically a Monday off, so you get a three day weekend. Every month! For the May bank holiday, we took a little trip to Wexford. So, we had two trips in a row and I was itching to blog about them. I really wanted to do so while I was immersed, but I had no internet in either location. Grrr. There's always a lot to catch up on after a trip, so I am only getting there now.

I won't try to cram everything into one post because we did a lot of touring around while we were in Clare and that would be too overwhelming- for you and for me!

We chose Clare for our trip because DD wanted to celebrate her birthday with a banquet at Bunratty Castle. I also have friends in Clare and generally love visiting the Shannon region. There is also The Burren, caves, Cliffs of Moher, beaches and plenty of "touristy" things that we love to explore. I had a little trouble finding a cottage for us to rent. Though cottage rentals are abundant around Ireland and generally pretty cheap in April, it was hard to find one that allowed us to start our vacation on a Friday. The standard turn-over is Saturday. Bringing the dog was not problem, but starting on Friday was. I looked on vrbo, airbnb, a whole bunch of cottage rental sites, but ended up using sykes as they were really helpful and found me a cottage at a great price, that allowed me to start our trip on a Friday.

Clare is a county on the west coast of Ireland. We rented a cottage that was somewhat central in Clare and would allow us to tour around. It took about three hours to drive there. The cottage was a small, traditional two bedroom farm cottage, just perfect for our little family.

The cottage was in a rural area, near the village of Kilmihil, mostly surrounded by farms. The day we arrived, the weather was beautiful, so we were able to take a nice walk around our new hood.

On the second day, we decided to drive over to the beach. It was about a half hour drive to the town of Kilkee. Again, we had lovely weather and a really nice day at the seaside.

Next up, Bunratty castle!

Small space design on a budget- kids room

As I've mentioned in other posts, part of moving to Ireland encompassed a choice to downsize. I have been happily embracing this choice and have been enjoying the process of maximizing the use of our 700 square feet, making it a space that I enjoy visually (very important to me) while doing so on a strict budget.

I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (of boxes.) Our little home is starting to come together.

The first room that I chose to tackle, was probably the most challenging- the kids room. My kids each had a room of their own in L.A. and they had WAYYYYY too many toys. Not only were each of their (pretty big) rooms full of toys, but they had toys scattered all over the rest of the house too. We had storage ottomans in the living and family rooms dedicated to coralling toys, and that was not the full extent of it. It was obscene! Very happily, we whittled the toys down to what seemed like a minimum, in order to undertake this move.

That said, they are now sharing a very small room. Not a box room, but close. Also, a room in a home that we rent, so there is not a lot we can do to the space. They still have too many toys as far as I am concerned, but thanks to Ikea, we are trying to give them all a home in their new, teeny, tiny space.

This is what design-on-a-dime for a small space is looking like for our kids' room:

I like this room so much, that sometimes I just come and hang out in here!

Mother's Day at the Dublin Flea Market

Today, for Mother's Day, I insisted we all go to The Dublin Flea Market in Newmarket Square.

I really like this maket, because its small and accessible (well at least compared to The Rose Bowl or even Pasadena City College Flea Market) and has a lot of fun stalls to browse. Its easy to pop down for an hour and see the whole thing. There are a few stands with mid century furniture, but mostly bric a brac and clothing. 

There are coffee and food stands and the Dublin Food Co-op is housed in the same building. The co-op is a pretty amazing source of organic and Fair Trade food and household items. I am blown away by the selection and prices here. SO not missing Whole Foods! Anyway, this was how I wanted to spend Mother's Day. I am in search of the perfect chair for my living room and didn't find it today, but I still had a nice time.

After the market we visited my lovely Donnybrook Fair and The Natural Bakery to get a lazy dinner that I don't have to cook.

Glendalough

Today we took our first real outing in the car. We decided to go to Glendalough. Glendalough is in County Wicklow, which is just to the south of County Dublin. Wicklow is known as the garden of Ireland and is a popular destination for tourists, hikers and triathletes. Glendalough is an ancient monastic site in the "valley of two lakes." It is only about a 40 minute drive from our house. There are lovely ruins to explore and many trails to take walks along. It started to rain about an hour after we got there, so we headed to a local pub for some lunch and a Guinness.We are already planning our next trip back, bringing Pepper and a picnic, some rain gear and a map of the trails.

Here are some photos I took on today's excursion: