ManicMammy's Blog

Reviews, news, family, wine and me

Schoolbook shopping made easy

My 3 primary school going kids got their book lists for next September a week or so ago and having learnt my lesson from previous years of leaving their purchase till August, I decided to get it all done and dusted now. Our local bookshop will eventually get all the books in, but it usually [...]

Green with envy

Today my sister has been torturing me by sending me the following photos from her phone: Yep, she’s in Wimbledon and I sooo wanna to be there too. Its been years since I’ve played tennis but most of my teenage years were spent doing so. I loved it. The McEnroe vs Borg years of Wimbledon [...]

Indiana Jones and Lego – a match made in heaven?

One of the presents that Oscar received for his recent 9th birthday was the Indiana Jones and the Lost Tomb LEGO set. Thanks to Auntie Emer, this was perfect as it combined his love of LEGO and the hype of the moment that is Indiana Jones. I love LEGO Indy. As soon as the after [...]

Yummmm

What are the dishes and food that you remember from your childhood? As the eldest of 7 children, with only 10 years between me and the youngest, I recall there always being a mad rush around mealtimes when we were younger. The main meals I remember are fried liver on a Thursday (my mother had [...]

I did it Mum

Since Sibeal inherited her brother’s repackaged, that is, case changed to a pink one, Nintendo DS, we have been on the lookout for a game that would suit her. As she can’t read yet, many of the console games out just didn’t work for her. I bought the Imagine Fashion Designer initially, as she loves [...]

Little Caesars Pizza

On Wednesday afternoon, we were driving from Bandon to Ratoath in Meath when we decided to stop at the Midway food court in Portlaoise as both adults and the 5 kids were hungry, tired and in need of a break. We have stopped there previously and enjoyed a decent meal for us all at Tapenade, [...]

Mad Men

Just 3 episodes in and I’m really looking forward to the next instalment of this drama series. Set in an advertising world of New York in 1960, it centres on Don Draper, the creative director of the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. Initially we see the facade of a suave, goodlooking, stylish man working in this [...]

Fun in the sun

Just been messing about this morning with online photo editor PIXENATE. Its excellent. I used it to upload, crop and Warhol-esque this basic photo taken at the playground recently. It was really easy and straightforward to use and I love the end result. Coolo, am really looking forward to using the wordpress plugin to enhance [...]

? ? ?

When I was a kid, I used to LOVE to read the Three Investigators series of books. Though set in California and the three investigators being three 14 year old or so boys, Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews, they really caught my imagination and I devoured book after book. Book cover image along [...]

Legs Eleven

Its Summer time yeah, at last and legs all over the country and being let out to see the sun after their Winter hibernation. photo credit: frischmilch For over a decade now, the husband has been a fan of the King of Shaves shaving oil products so when I recently spotted the woman’s version I [...]