St. Patrick's Day Prep!

St Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays! My grandmother was born and raised I. Ireland and still has her adorable accent and wit!
Fun fact: I'm actually a dual citizen of the US and Ireland! (Thanks to my sister for figuring it all out for us!)
My parents are coming over for dinner and leprechaun trap making! Setting traps for the leprechaun was one of my favorite traditions as a kid and I'm so excited to start the tradition with John Rex and Bridget.
My mom is making this deliciousness:
Corned Beef Sauerkraut Reuben Braid

I will post our finished product but I thought I'd share some ideas I found via the ole Pinterest machine!

 

And my favorite Irish Blessing: (Would also be a great toast!)

Don't forget to wear your green tomorrow!

Barcelona and Dublin Trip

So I know I totally slacked on posting about our Barcelona/Dublin trip last March... We had SO much fun and saw so many great things I thought I'd share my scrapbook that I just received in the mail so I don't leave you all hanging. I absolutely LOVE the book and am so pleased with MixBook.  I'm already working on my next MixBook for Napa/San Fran!

Note - you can't see it in Google Reader - you'll have to click over to my blog. 

| Learn About Mixbook Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Let me know if you have any questions about our trip or about using MixBook!

Teaser iPhone Photos

We took over 1000 photos on vacation and it's quite a daunting task to go through them all, I plan on getting them up sometime this week but until then...

I took a pic of my airport/8 hr flight outfit because I'm a total nerd and tried my best to copy an outfit that Bethenny wore on Bethenny Ever After. I'm SO glad I decided to wear my Hunter boots b/c it ended up raining a few days and they were very necessary! I just took put them in the overhead bin on the plane and wore socks and my Tory Burch's (when I had to hit up the nasty airplane bathroom).

 We watched The Kings Speech on our overnight flight and ordered a glass of wine to help us fall asleep, only to find out that wine is free on Delta flights! Score! I had 2 of the biggest pour glasses of wine and passed out before the movie finished! Don't worry I woke up and finished it, Loved it! Colin Firth totally deserved the Oscar.

 We enjoyed a pitcher of Sangria followed by a liter of wine on our first night... Don't judge, we ordered paella and it took forrrrever to cook and we were thirsty!

 Our hotel was right outside of the beautiful Barcelona Cathedral! It was the perfect location!

 We had a Blast walking the streets of Dublin on St. Paddy's Day!

More pictures to come, I promise! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Dubin!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
We're headed to The Official St. Patrick's Day Parade through Dublin today!

In honor of the holiday, I thought I'd share a little linky love:

Living Luxe For Less picks out some great whiskey decanters that are sure to make any Irishman happy!

A Party Style shows off some St. Patrick's Day snacks!

 

Strawberry Swing and Other Things shows us some adorable DIY cupcake flags!

 And in case you weren't following or reading last year, please check out my posts about how I'm more Irish than you, and just to reiterate that, I am in Dublin right now... where are you? That's what I thought. I win. #winning!

How are you celebrating the holiday?

Busy Planning

I'm busy busy planning our spring break trip to visit my sister in Barcelona. When I first started looking for our trip I realized we'd be there over St. Patrick's Day, which prompted me to see how much a flight from Barcelona to Dublin would be... low and behold RyanAir (the Southwest of Europe) had flights for around $125 round trip. Score! Now we're making spring break a 2-parter.

Part 1: Barcelona!!!

City skyline

{image via}

Las Ramblas, "possibly the best street in all of Europe to people watch" - Rick Steves

{image via}

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia:

{image via}

Picasso Museum:

{image via}

and Part 2: Dublin!

Pub Food and Drinks:

{image via}

St. Patrick's Day Parade:

{image via}

Guinness Brewery:

{image via}

Jameson Distillery:

{image via}

Cliffs of Moher: (where Princess Bride was filmed)

{image via}

I couldn't be more excited! I've seriously got 25 pages bookmarked of things to see, eat, shopping etc. If you have ever been to either of these places please let me know of any suggestions you might have!

Think you're more Irish than me?

Doubtful.

This is my Grandma Kate at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Houston.

She is from Ireland, still has her accent and makes the best Irish Bread ever.

And these are shoes that my Dad made and wears every St. Patrick's Day.

Top that.

Update: Cooper found my shirt!

In case you were on pins and needles about me finding my Paddy's Pub T-shirt, don't fret! I was searching the guest bed closet when Dave called out "Cooper found it!" When I walked in Cooper had tried it on! What a silly guy!