ManicMammy's Blog

Reviews, news, family, wine and me

This Christmas I have been mostly reading…..

I read this autobiography over Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed it. Its merely part one and covers broadcaster, producer and media guru Chris Evans’ life till the 1990s, just after his majority shareholding purchase of Virgin radio. As I currently have the attention span of a goldfish and get constant interruptions whilst reading, its usually difficult [...]

Mince Pie Magic

One of the many reasons why my mother in law, Rose, rocks. Top notch mince pies. Tastastic.

Happy Christmas

Wishing you all and your families a very merry Christmas and a wonderfully brilliant 2010. Huge thanks for all the comments and views this year, its been great fun.

Stunning shorebreak art

I really love these photographs. Having grown up in Wicklow for most of my childhood and adolescence, I love living near the sea. Its definitely my ambition to live adjacent to a beach someday. For my birthday this year, my family got together and bought me a print of  one of Clark Little’s amazing photographs. [...]

Mr Stink

Having previously read and thoroughly enjoyed David Walliams’ The Boy in the Dress, Oscar (aged 10) was looking forward to reading Mr Stink. The story centres on 12 year old Chloe who has an annoying younger sister named Annabelle, a domineering mother and a sympathetic but ineffectual father. She’s unpopular at school and a bit [...]

My latest favourite podcast

Am currently really enjoying the Simon Mayo book review podcasts. Each week a couple of authors attend and have their books reviewed by each other, Simon and 2 or 3 others. So far, since I’ve been listening, its been really interesting and resulted in my buying books and book genres that I otherwise would probably [...]

Gorgeous Glittering Gifts

What’s not to love about these? Ok, I’ll admit I am very partial to silver, white gold, platnium jewellery. I spotted these delicate, beautiful fuchsia earrings on the Enibas website and thought they would be perfect as a Christmas gift. They remind me so much of West Cork. I must admit to really liking loads [...]

Personalised Santa message from Portable North Pole

via @famron: My kids are loving this: Portable North Pole – PNP. Take a few minutes to upload some information and a photo of them and watch Santa tell the story and their reactions. Class!

Aaaaand we’re off

Yup, the Christmas shopping has just begun. As I’m averse to trawling around the shops, I started my search online.  I do want to keep my dosh relatively local so was particularly interested in Irish online shops. Our eldest is mad into skateboarding at the moment. So his Santy request was for a new skateboard, [...]