ManicMammy's Blog

Reviews, news, family, wine and me

Jigsaws just got a whole lot more complicated

This is what infuriated, challenged and entertained Oscar on Christmas day, a 240 piece 3D jigsaw. He loved completing it, though it took him longer than he anticipated and it now is displayed proudly in his bedroom. Great fun. He’s looking forward to trying more complex and intricate puzzleballs. Would definitely recommend as an alternative [...]

Top notch service in Clonakilty’s Aubergine Cafe

Last Saturday, myself, Oisín and Sibéal headed to Clonakilty for a few hours. We were on a mission to get knitting needles and wool for Sibéal and a new book for Oisín. Whilst there, it started to rain and the kids declared they were hungry so we decided to have lunch in the Aubergine Cafe. [...]

Cupcake calamity

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Sibéal spotted an ad on tv for Girl Gourmet Cupcake maker and was instantly hooked. It was top of her list and no amount of persuasion was going to shift it. Santy duly obliged, it arrived and she was delighted.  With all the festivities and travel, it was a [...]

Life is too short to drink boring wine

Over the Christmas break, I finally managed a sneaky visit to Karwig wines in Carrigaline. Its not the easiest place to find, as I’m not that familiar with Carrigaline, but I diligently followed the directions on their website and arrived without too much hassle. Joe Karwig, originally from Bremen in Germany, arrived in Cork over [...]

Fantastic Fish

Sibéal received this fabulous Sticky Mosaics kit from Auntie Emer this Christmas and she thoroughly enjoyed completing it. Previously I had purchased smaller one picture versions but this kit contains 5 different, more complex designs to complete. As before you start with the design laid out on cardboard with each rectangle numbers and then sheets [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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