ManicMammy's Blog

Reviews, news, family, wine and me

Super Skateboarding Shop

photo credit: Manu – mars Myself and Oscar headed into Cork this morning on the advice of his mate Cian. Both the boys are hugely into skateboarding at the moment and its fabulous to see such enthusiasm. The purpose of this visit to Tubes on Cook Street was to purchase new trucks for Oscar’s skateboard. [...]

Irish Blog Awards 2010

Hurrah, its that time of the year again. The Irish Blog Awards are taking place in Galway on March 27th. The longlists of nominations in each category have just been announced. There are a huge number of interesting, informative and entertaining blogs on these lists. A brilliant range with something for everyone. Get thee over [...]

Phonic Fun

My younger kids love this range of Usborne books. The characters and stories are straightforward and fun. Each books deals predominately with one character whether Big Pig or Fat Cat and more. Though often characters from the other books in the series make a guest appearance. The text is extremely simple and the kids love [...]

Wine Grape Varietals – Concise guide

I really love the guide to wine grape varietals that Michael Siegler at www.winemcgee.com has produced. He succinctly and cleverly describes over 35 varietals and blends under the following categories: pronunciation top regions type of food to pair with food dish suggestions cooking method pictorial representation of aromas taste bar graph description notable info Just [...]

Terrific Response from Irish Parents

I was happily stunned on Wednesday to receive the news that Irish parents were responsible for donating a phenomenal 3,678,189 life-saving tetanus vaccines between October and December 2009 as part of the Pampers, Fairy & UNICEF Ireland 1 pack = 1 vaccine campaign. This figure represents a huge 213% Increase on the 2008 Campaign. As [...]

Riveting read

We’re just back from a few highly enjoyable days spent up north with my mother. Whilst there, it was almost impossible to tear Oscar away from this book. Its the first time in ages that he has been so engrossed in a novel. Fourteen years ago, scientist William Fox implanted four babies with the Medusa [...]

Eye catching Wine label design

Via TheDieline.com: Love this minimalistic wine label design titled “The Optimist Wine Bottle”. Is the glass half empty or half full? Once you tilt the bottle to pour the wine the graphic shows the full glass. Designed by Greg Bennett for Siquis, you can read much more, including interesting production details, here in the Dieline [...]

Kidizoom camera makes Síofra a very happy little girl

Síofra was over the moon to receive this cool digital camera as a Christmas pressie from Uncle Brían. She’s only 3 years old but really loves it and gets great use and play out of it. Noone is safe from being photographed in the house now. She’s a one girl paparazzi. She has had no [...]

Where would you go?

Paul’s mention of of wine tours in his blogpost and Ryanair commencing direct flights from Cork to Bordeaux recently got me thinking.  Which wine regions are on my wishlist to visit and tour? photo credit: mescon Gaining an interest in wine mainly in my 30s which coincided with my pregnancy, infant and young children years, [...]

Porcelain Painting Present

Sibéal received this 8 piece painting set from Auntie Orla for Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed completing it. It is a simple kit that contains 3 bowls, 2 candle sticks and 3 vases, all unpainted. 12 mini pots of paint and 2 paint brushes are also included and are then used to apply whatever designs you [...]

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