Thursday, December 23, 2010

norway

We took a short weekend trip to Norway, and thought it was a quaint little city filled with awesome brownies and upgrades to 5 star rooms. Though for anyone who has not been to norway......they LOVE to take your money in every way they can. Now, I am not a scrooge, but having to pay 15 euro for your sheets in a 5 star hotel, and then another 20 euro to have cutlery in your FULLY SELF CATERED APARTMENT is just a little to steep for my liking. We solved the cutlery problem by going next door to the 7 11 and getting free cutlery.

The city of oslo is a very interesting little city full of art gallerys, little cars, snow, and moose. We went along to The munch art Gallery, and saw the painting "The scream". I have fond memories of this painting, my dear, hippie, art teacher, Miss rackham gave us so many essays on this painting.

We went to some markets on Sunday, a very ary crafty market that was in an interesting part of town, and we also had the best brownie in europe....it was amazing. Better than the cheesecake that Kierans sister, siobhan makes, and Better than the chocolate slice that my mum makes, and even better than the muffins Kierans Next door neighbours , Karen Makes. Thats right, it beat you all hands down.

The people are nice, the city is clean, it was bloody freezing, but it was a good weekend trip. Here are some photos.

The sculpture park in Oslo

real snowflakes!

a product called "Bog"

do we look cold?

The Scream painting


Wicklow way for a birthday party

Kierans Birthday suddenly crept up on us, and we managed to book a little cottage down in county Wicklow..... somewhere down there, we had no idea. We jumped in the car on the Friday night before his bday, ( powerkite and board in tow, the new toy) and set off in the dark to find our cottage. Thankgod for our american talking sat nav, (after 18 months of travelling we still haven't named it), it got us there in one peice, with alot of tiny bumpy roads inbetween.
Wicklow is a beautiful county, we did a tiny bit of sightseeing, and Kieran got to have a go on his powerkite at the beach.
Here are some snaps






.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Halloween

It was Halloween night, and we went out and bought ourselves a pumpkin and decided to join in the celebrations, as its quite big over here.

This is our pumpkin, and some kids out on the street



International rules


Last year we organised all of our flights over to Ireland to land here in time for the international rules series (Australia vs Ireland). We found out just before we got here that they cancelled it due to the 'recession'. Alas, Ireland is in the thick of the recession at the very moment, and this year they decided to go ahead with it, so Kieran had a smile from Ear to Ear.

We got dressed into our aussie gear, and headed into the city to meet a friend at the Aussie pie shop, Bonza Pies, and had a meat pie before the big game. We were decked out in an australian flag, a Wallabies jersey, and Adelaide crows beanies and scarves, so we were impossible to miss. We had people yelling at us from every which way, " Ireland are gunna win"......yeah yeah we thought, to scared to yell back as we were clearly the minority.

We got to the game, found our seat, watched the opening ceremony, and the game began. It started to get extremely cold, but we cheared as loud as we could the entire time, and sung the national anthem at the top of our lungs.

here are some photos




We are happy to add that we walked out of the stadium pretty proud of ourselves......the Aussies spanked them, winning by a mile, and not one irish fan talked to us, let alone looked at us. But thankyou Ireland for such a good game!


Sunday, October 24, 2010

While he sleeps....I do alot of stuff


While Kieran sleeps during the day (he is on night shift), I get up to alot of things. This week I have been lino printing alot of robots, but drawings and finding little tags and cards while out shopping is also a little activity I have done alot lately.

Here you can see my wall is getting abit full...I may just have to start filling some more walls.....

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Together at Last

I am sure many peopes lives are exactly like Mine and Kierans.....you work work work, have different scheduales, don't spend alot of time together, and some days, you feel like you don't even have a partner.

Moving over to Ireland has given Kieran and I a better chance to get to know each other, and travel and see new things.

Kieran has been working nights, so at 7:30 in the morning, we play tag team, he walks in, I walk out, and at 7:30 to 8 at night, I walk in, and he walks out at 9:30. I didn't know how much it meant to actaully wake up to someone you loved beside you every morning, or be able to debrief at the end of the day to someone. Us not having the same scheduale, made me wake up and realise how much he does actaully mean to me, and how the little things in your relationship mean alot more that what you thought!! Why and I telling you all this? Its a year of adventure, I never thought it would also be a year of self discovery! Alas, it has been both. Soppy soppy, I know, so last weekend, we finally got a night together, and went out to
dinner. We started out at this cool bar called market bar, that was once an old market in the city of Dublin. My friend becc introduced me to this bar, so I thought I would take kieran there.

We also saw this cool cool thing in the mall. A guy was walking around with a tv screen on his head. It was built into a mask, and had a tiny camera at the side of it, so you were on the tv screen.

We ended up at this italian restaurant that served some of the most delicious italian I have had.

Here are a couple of photos
Sorry, the photo jut wont turn up the right way. But this was the cool guy with the tv screen

Market bar.


Offset Design conference

While Kieran was away in Germany, I went to a 3 day Design conference in Dublin.

I adored it. I want to go back again and again.
There were alot of illustrators there, mixed in with graphic design, photographers, and alot of other creative talent. It went from 10pm till 7pm for 3 days, and I lapped up as much as I could.

One of my Favourite speakers was an illustrator from London, Emily Forgot. She reminded me alot of myself. She wanted to do things, just because she loved what it looked like. There wasn't alot of concept to the beginnings in her work, though it evolved and changed into a concept.
She hated clients limiting her, which is my pet hate. But without Clients, there would be no industry.

She taught me to put your personality into your work. If we didn't put our personalities into our work, we wouldn't have grpahic designers. All design would be the same. I may have been doing this, but realised I could be doing it alot more. Let youself evolve and change, don't think you are just one thing, and you should stick to it. A good designer/artist/illustrator explores as much as they can.

She talked about being stuck in a commercial rut. You do things because you need the money, but the work really isn't what you love. Which means you really need to go and find youself in other work, maybe art classes maybe just your own art diary, but make sure you have that outlet.

She was up on stage, flicking through slides, and up popped some slides that she could not explain. Her reason for it "I put it in there because I liked it". FINALLY, I realise, its ok to do that. Art school, along with the 4 art teachers that I had, taught me I have to have a concept for everything, I need to find the meaning behind it all. I can't just 'like something' . Well sorry art school, but your wrong.

Some of her work, I loved, some of her work, I didn't. I loved her as a person, more than her work. Alot of people come into our unit, and look at my little art/office space (this consists of a table, a chair, and 2 bits of wall covered with things I love) and ask why do I have things like robots on the table, and drawings up on the wall. Simple answer, because I like them. My boss asked a couple of months ago, why do I draw pictures........I know her mind is not one bit creative, (I discovered this after she told me she didn't like toy story 3, and thought the short movie at the start of it was rubbish.....which is totally ridiculous) so I knew I wouldn't get anywhere with explaining anything to her, so I answered, "because i like to". Emily forgot made me feel its ok not have try and have a concept behind everything. The 3 words "I like it" are ok to use.
Here is a link to her site

Nate Williams was also another illustrator I loved. He lives in Remote Argentina, where he has to drive 1 hour to trasnfer a file to a client, then drive back again. His work is very much inspired by his sourroundings. and he has a distinct style. He is also colour blind, and has dyslexia......he inspired because, because even though he was 2 HUGE things against him as an illustrator, his work is awesome. He taught me the best way to come up with ideas is to create experiences. Get out there and do things. Take you camera every step of the way.
Here is a link to his site

I could go on forever about the speakers, but here are a couple of photos from the conference.


Emily forgot and some illustrations she did on some plates
The stage


An Irish Affair

A couple of weeks ago, We jumped into the car early morning, and headed to our first Irish wedding! We didn't know what to expect.......but we knew it would be alot of fun!

The wedding was in a little town called Bridgetown, 1 church, 1 pub, and a couple of cottages make up the town. The Reception was just 10 minutes up the road in Killaloe, a little quaint town set on the River Shannon.

And whose wedding was it? NORMAS!! Norma is Kierans cousin, and she married a nice young fellow by the name of John. They live in a tiny old irish cottage, they have a well, a tractor, a fire, and a bed that they always put 8 blankets on whenever we stay there. We love going down for a quiet weekend, and staying in their little cottage. But this was no quiet weekend! This was HUGE!!!

The wedding started at 1:30pm, and both Bride and groom looked stunning. We saw all of Normas extended family, and all of Kierans other cousins. We met a couple of new ones, and everyone made us feel very welcome!

After the wedding, and, I mean, straight after, we started drinking at the reception place. Guiness, cider, shots, punch, you name it, it was there. And everyone was having a marvelous time. Poeple bring along their instruments to irish weddings, and have a music session in the middle of the wedding. Its great, very laid back, and as the irish say, good craic!

We ate dinner, we danced, we sung, we chatted, 3am we fell into bed. 3AM!!! that was 12 hours of straight drinking! We were out of practice, the only times we had done that was once in Singapore with Kierans Aunty, who is incredibly talented at showing you a good time, and a couple of times at race-day in Brisbane! Now 3am was an early finish, everyone else left at 5:30am.

Now not only does an irish wedding involve alot of drinking, it also involves another session after the reception. So, the next morning we woke up, cured ourselves of our hangovers, went on a tiny 1 hour roadtrip, and went back to the hotel for a sleep. We then went back to the pub at 5. That night ended at 2:30.

Big weekend, good laughs, and something we will never forget. Thanks Norma and John for such a good time, and thankyou to the rest of the family for making us feel so welcome!!

One of my close friends in Australia, Erry, also got married on this weekend, and all weekend I was thinking about her! So a big shoutout to Erry, and her Husband Dan. We wish you every bit of happiness!!

S0rry guys, this one won't go up the right way. These are Kierans relatives, and the old lady in the front is Kierans Grandmas sister. She was so cute with the Bow in her hair!
Some more of Kierans cousins.

Me and one of kierans cousins, Mary. Sorry about the clevage
These are kierans cousins children. Our favourite is Courtney, the girl on the far right. We love going and staying with her mum Collette, and having a chat to Courtney.

And last, but not least, Norma and Kieran!

Monday, September 20, 2010

work, freelance, cork, work, freelance, sleep work

this is what our lives are like at the moment, one big workathon with a little bit of sleep and travel thrown in there somewhere....but we are loving it.

Our little apartment has suffered from our hectic scheduale, with plates and glasses sitting there with a big frown on their not so shiny surfaces yelping out "please wash me"....and our clothes building up in baskets around the house....ok maybe not baskets, maybe just random piles on the floor.

Kieran is currently working for ryan air, travelling around The uk. He has no idea what day of the week it is, now which city he will fly to next. Its very exciting and so is the paycheck at the end of the week.

I am still working as a nanny, and freelance is coming out of my ears...and sleep is on an average of about 5 hours a night....but I seem to love going full speed and wouldn't have it any other way.

We got away from our messy apartment and working lives, on Friday, and travelled down to Cork. Its a quaint little city, and we loved our little getaway together. Here are some pictures
of our overnight trip

Me walking down the stairs at Blarney Castle

WE FOUND GLORIA JEANS!!! kieran was a happy happy man
us in front of Blarney Castle, and Kieran with his new Munster jersey on
me in front of the cork goal
cork at sunset.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

The hills of tara





Last weekend we got out of our little house while it was raining, and went to The hill of Tara in county Meath. Many many moons ago, it was a burial site, in which many rituals took place. Today it just looks like many mounds of grass, as you can't go underneath the earth and take a look. So kieran and I hid behind the hills, and took silly photos of us jumping....

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Lots of Pints

Last Saturday saw the win of Kierans football team, and it also saw alot of pints go down the throats of many young lads...and one little lass

Kieran and I got our drinking hats on and went down to meet his football team to celebrate, and we had a great night. We had some great irish music , which you can see the video on kierans facebook, but here are some photos. We both had sore heads the next day, topped off with sausage rolls, 2 minute noodles, and chicken nuggets.

Kierans football team
Um...forget their names already...but the readheads name is conner

conner showing everyone his tattoo of the lochness monster "nessie" he got on his bum while in scotland.....yes, he was drunk and he told me it was the worst decision of his life.....but it is funny.
conner pretending to unzip my dress while kieran takes a photo.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

An arty Weekend

Kieran and I have a stroke of creativity in us both, and we have always loved doing creative things together. This weekend we brought an old chair back to life with some new material and a paint job, and we made a cardboard deer head. We named him Hunter.
take a little peek!


Sunday, August 1, 2010

crazy sisters


We had some Friends from America come and Stay with us for while, (Erica and Nicole) and after we dropped them at the airport, we realised we may have to talk to each other again.......the house was empty.

We had alot of fun with them, alot of Laughs, and alot of pizzookie! Thanks girls for coming and visiting us! We hope you make it home saftely!

Croatia dreamingl

I have already done a little post about croatia and how much fun we had there....but I have to tell you all again. We loved it. Some of our best holidays are beach holidays, put the towel around your neck, jump on a bike, go to the beach, have a couple of drinks, do some swimming and sunbaking....theres nothing more relaxing.

We were on the little island of Brac, and we had alot of fun.
Kieran did some Kitesurfing, I did some Sunbathing, and we both did some relaxing. I had my 25th Birthday there, and we had a great day topped off with a traditional Croatia Dinner that was very yummy. The Locals are some of the Nicest people we have met, everyone was very welcoming, and healpful. We met one lady from Bosnia who helped us out on the first night trying to find our hotel, and the owner of our apartment couldn't do any more for us, including cooking us a barbeque one night.

Here are some photos

The tip of the beach with some Kitesurfing going on

The Traditional Croatian Houses. Lots of Rustic looking windows with Vines choking every pole and lattice in their yard. It was very Italian looking.

The Double Blow up air bed that we bought and floated around in. It has an esky in the side of it........Siobhan and Brad, if you are really nice to us, we may send it over...
This is us on my 25th Birthday! I now get to Drive Hire cars!

The little light house type thing in Bol



The Hills are Alive

Ok, so lets backtrack a little bit. This post is BEFORE croatia, when we were in Salzburg, Austria.

I remember always watching the Sound of Music when I was a little girl, and my dad walking past the tv muttering "not this one again". I remember all the songs, and can sing them on cue, and also remember my mum telling me that when she was a little girl, she went and saw it with her Aunty in Sydney, so the Sound of Music tour was a must....basically there was no other choice.

Much to Kierans disinterest, I booked the Tour.....for BOTH of us (he loved it...secretly loved it).

We went to many locations, (all the locations are very far apart, in the movie you get the feeling everything is filmed within one location, but alas, very far apart.

Here are some photos of the places we went to.

The Fountain that the kids sing and dance around

The church where Maria and the Captain got married

The Rotunder that Lesle and Her boyfriend sung in on that wet wet night......it was pouring rain when we were there...its a nice raincoat isn't it?

The house and lake where the children and Maria were in the boat, and fell out of the boat. Aparently little Grettle couldn't swim, so during that scene she was literally pulled out of the water by her hair.