Aishling's June in Review - 2014

It's been quite a while since I done a month in review (December actually!) so I decided to do one today and hopefully try and get one up again at the end of this month and keep it going for every month! If you like this please let me know and we'll definitely try and make it more frequent!

First up is, what I've been up to on Instagram!

At the beginning of the month the weather was amazing! It was super warm and the sun was out all day. We decided to get some lunch at Red Earth, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath which we have been to many times because the food is just so delicious! This time though we got to sit outside in a gazebo type thing and it was just lovely! We both ordered the Open Chicken Sandwich which is homemade bread, chicken, lettuce, mayo and sun-dried tomato. Sounds pretty simple right? But for something so simple it's ridiculously delicious! The homemade bread is particularly tasty :)

For something nice afterwards we got the amazing Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake. It was so delicious, obviously! :P

Back to Red Earth again and this time for dinner! This was around a very stressful time so we needed something nice. In the evening Red Earth dims the lights, brings out the candles and sets it up as a lovely evening restaurant. We felt quite underdressed in our jeans and t-shirt but soon some families arrived with their kids and we felt less underdressed then. More families and couples turned up but luckily the kids were super good and didn't make much noise at all which was great!

On to the food! The food! First up they brought us a baguette with a tomato and garlic spread which was the most amazing delicious spread I've ever tasted! You can also see a green one in the photo but I'm not sure what that one was as I was too busy with the tomato spread!

I got an 8oz homemade minced Mullingar heifer burger on a Waterford Blaa, beef tomato, lettuce, pickles and red onion. *drooools* I need it now!

Steve got the pan seared corn fed chicken breast, mushroom risotto, Tournafulla black pudding Madeira jus. It was delicious! I had some of course :P I will, for sure be getting that next time we go which better be soon! Do you hear that Steve? ;)

Top left: Cute leopard print duvet cover I bought in Penneys! I was actually looking for something light and bright coloured but unfortunately unless you really like pink there isn't much of a selection in Penneys. I couldn't pass on the leopard though! ;)

Top right: I bought myself some very pretty Lilies that took ages to come out but when they did they smelt amazing! Unfortunately they were a bit big for my window and I rubbed off them a few times and some of my clothes is now stained. Damn!

Bottom left: The amazing weather we've gotten to wake up to here in Ireland lately. (You can also see the massive lilies which weren't even in full bloom yet.)

Bottom right: Henry Rollins new book which he signed, yay! He signed 1500 of them and my book is number 614 :D I have yet to read it but maybe I'll have a review in future.

I haven't got to wear much makeup lately which has been annoying me. It's mainly too hot and I hate having something on my face that I just sweat off anyway. I have many things I want to review for you guys so I think, hot weather or not, I'm gonna put something on mah face soon!

The makeup in these photos is my grungy look which I'm loving at the moment. (with and without glasses.)

The weather has been ridiculously unpredictable. We've had a serious heatwave with lots of sunshine, thunderstorms, rain non-stop somedays and then back to the heatwave and sunshine! So the sky was changing a lot and I got some photos of it :)

Merle ♥

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movies I've watched this month (that I remember):

We mainly rewatched a few films! The stupid World Cup has been taking up most of the month so we haven't gotten to watch much films or tv shows. It's Steve's fault :P

• ParaNorman - is about a kid that can see ghosts and it's amazing! It's all stop motion and looks beautiful. I've seen it many times now and it doesn't get old. 

• Whip It - When I'm feeling down this is the best thing to watch! Girls kicking ass. 

• Moonrise Kingdom - Oh Wes Anderson! His films just get better and better. Bill Murray steals the show but to be honest everyone is so good in this movie, from the kids to Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and the perfect Frances McDormand. 

• 13 Assassins - This one isn't a re-watch, both me and Steve hadn't seen it before! It's a Japanese Samurai epic directed by Takashi Miike. It's a pretty good film but I was expecting it to be a bit better than what it was. Still a great watch though!

• Inception - Can we call Inception a classic now? Hadn't seen it in awhile, which is the best time to rewatch a film so you can kind of experience watching it for the first time again!

• The Lego Movie - We saw The Lego Movie in the cinema when if first came out and I have to say, I was so surprised at how good it was! I just love it now! Everything is awesome!!! :D

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tv shows I've watched this month (that I remember):

• The X-Files - We've been re-watching the The X-Files for awhile now. We're finally onto Season 8 so only one more season to go. I have to say I'm not enjoying this season as much and I do think when Mulder decided to feck off for most of the season and Robert Patrick's character comes into it, maybe they should have thought about ending it then. I will still always love The X-Files of course but do think it should have ended a couple of seasons short. Anyhow we're nearly done and even though it's not as good as other seasons, it will be sad to see the end of it. But then I can start re-watching it again hahaha! :D

• Fargo - Fargo the TV series is of course based on the film of the same name. It stars Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Colin Hanks and Allison Tolman. Oh and you can't forget Better Call Saul! Everyone in this, everyone, is so so good. The whole story had me on the edge of my seat and I couldn't wait each week for a new episode. Definitely one of my favourite shows and I'm sad it's over.

• The World Cup - Is it over yet? Can I have my TV back now, Steve? :P

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music I've been listening to:

I've made a June playlist of all the songs I've been listening to over the last month which you can play here. I will post some of my favorites below!

Wolf Alice - Fluffy

First up is a song I've had on repeat all day everyday by Wolf Alice. Just love this song so much! They have a great 90's sound and I just love the singers voice. Moaning Lisa Smile is also a fantastic song by them which is in my playlist too.


Killer Be Killed - Wings Of Feather And Wax

Killer Be Killed are a supergroup made up of Grey Puciato from The Dillingar Escape Plan, Max Cavalera from Soulfly, Dave Elitch from The Mars Volta and Troy Sanders from Mastodon. If you're fan of heavy metal or just music in general, this is one you need to hear!


Drunk In Love - Vintage Big Band - Swing Beyonce Cover


My boyfriend's wonderful sister Michelle linked me to this amazing YouTube channel of old timey covers of popular songs. It is just wonderful! This is one of my favourites! A cover of Beyonce's Drunk In Love. You wouldn't think this would work so well! I love Beyonce but that song is just terrible and one of my least favourites by her but now I can enjoy it with this swing version! :D Be sure to check out all the other amazing covers too!


Summer Camp - Better Off Without You


I'll leave you with a band that I have no idea how I came across but they're made up of just two members. I love this song! It sounds very 80's and super catchy! :D

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That's all for June but I'm already busy starting this months (July) post!

Watch any good movies or find any good music lately?! Let me know in the comments below! :D

Thanks for reading!

Aishling's December in Review & Happy New Year!

To start the new year off I decided I'd do a month in review of December to say goodbye to 2013! I would do a year in review like some other bloggers but that's a lot of effort and I'm lazy :P

To start it off all the instagram photos I took in December!

I got some new lipstick so why not take lots of photos of myself (with Steve and puppy Merle making an appearance!). The lipstick is by Rimmel and right now I cannot think of the name but as soon as I find out I'll put it in here. I'm also wearing my new Dinosaur earrings that my Aunty got me and they're so amazing!

Click for a better view of the above photos!

The first one is of those awesome Dinosaur earrings I was talking about. The second is some awesome toy dinosaurs my boyfriend gave me on the eve of my birthday. The third (and this you have to see up close so click for full view damn it!) is my amazing awesome birthday cake that Kerrie made me. It was a Piñata cake of awesomeness! It was amazing. Super super amazing. The fourth is a candle Kerrie got me for my birthday, its from Bath & Body Works and smells fantastic! Pumpkin Pecan Waffles! Oh my. I actually want to eat it. And lastly an amazing little bat purse/bag that Steve got me! Isn't it just amazing?! And so cute. Just perfect!

Me, Steve, Merle and Bailey went on a little walk around Legan to see some of the awesome lights! There is a Christmas tree in the middle of the village and it actually looks super nice. Up another road some people put lights all along the sails of their boat! Best idea ever! It looked amazing! :D

Steve got me that amazing brooch. Some super cute bags I got for Christmas! Top one is from my mother and the bottom one is a makeup bag from Steve. Then the most amazing Christmas card my parents got me! Quint! Drawn by PJ McQuade on Etsy. I will definitely, in future, be buying lots of his artwork!

Steve was super happy with all the awesome presents I got him :P 

Then he wasn't super happy about getting his photo taken hehe!

Steve in his very festive Fucking Hostile Christmas jumper and underneath with his Texas Chainsaw Massacre t-shirt. Oh and his Friday the 13th pendant.

Kerrie got me a wig! Hahahaha! :D It actually looks pretty amazing and makes me miss having hair :P

Why not end the month with creepy and weird photos of yourself? I do love these though. I was messing with the filters on my iPhone's camera and the setting Noir makes my eyes look possessed or very demonic anyhow and then with the other two photos I used my jelly lens that I got for my phone and need to use more of!

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movies I've watched this month (that I remember):
• Star Wars Original Trilogy - Down through the years I've seen bits of Star Wars but never sat down and watched them all because honestly I wasn't that interested. I'm a huge fan of movies and Star Wars is always something that is mentioned by movie buffs and has an incredible nerd following. So anyhow me and Steve decided to watch the original films and I want to say "something" about it but the films just left me feeling meh. I wanted to like them, to love them even like so many people do but really they're ok films but nothing fantastic. In my opinion. I'm quite disappointed! Should I have seen them when I was a kid or something? Oh well!

• Elysium - I loooove District 9 so was very excited about Neill Blomkamp's next film. It stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley (I would watch him in anything and I mean anything.) and is about Earth getting over populated and the rich go off into a big space ship where they have a great life and then Matt needs to get up there and stuff happens :P Tis really good and I enjoyed it a lot.

• World War Z - This got some very mixed reviews when it came out but I have to say I really enjoyed it. It wasn't terrible but wasn't mind blowing either. But then after looking up about the differences compared to the book I see why people got angry with it. It is NOTHING like the book. It is a completely different story so if you've read the book you really need to look at this film as something else just with the same name. I still think its pretty decent though and would recommended it. Oh another thing is, if you haven't seen the trailer DO NOT WATCH IT because it pretty much shows every single good thing that happens in it. I have no idea why films do that.

• Man of Steel - Meh. It was ok. I really just think I'm not a fan of Superman. I also do not understand why it needs to be made so many times. Just like Spiderman. But it's an ok film and the guy would plays Superman is pretty good and kind of looks like Christopher Reeves which I liked. I did feel like there was no point to Lois Lane though. Michael Shannon though!

• Wreak it Ralph - I saw this in the cinema when it first came out and watched it again just at the end of the month. I love it so much! It has to be one of my all time favourite animated movies.

• The Wolverine - I had low expectations for this movie but ended up really liking it. I love Wolverine and all the X-Men films but the spin off Wolverine ones just don't seem to be as brilliant as the X-Men ones. This one comes close but it just gets too over the top in parts. But overall it was pretty good and be sure to wait till the end for the awesome ending clip.

• Tangled -Another animated movie I saw ages ago and loved and still love and its so lovely and awesome and go watch it.

• Pacific Rim - I saw Pacific Rim with Steve in IMAX 3D and it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. We watched it again this month and even though it wasn't in IMAX 3D it really is an amazing film about robots battling monsters and has a snazzy Ron Perlman, Charlie Day, a kickass Japanese woman, what more could you want?!

• The Guard - Black comedy at its best. I've always liked Brendan Gleeson but this is by far his best performance I've ever seen. Its hard to explain what this movie is about because of its humour. It's one you just have to watch for yourself. Also, Mark Strong. Just saying.

★★★

tv shows I've watched this month (that I remember):
• Bob's Burgers - Bob's Burgers is an animated tv show about a family that run a burger restaurant. This has been pretty much the only tv show we've been watching. This show grew on me real fast. I love it so much! It is just so funny and weird. It has the oddest humour but so good. When I catch up on this season, I'll be very sad.

★★★

music I've been listening to:
Rather than list some out here is a YouTube playlist of some songs and artists I've been loving over the month of December. It's quite a mix! Hope you enjoy! :)

★★★

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and beginning of the New Year! Be back soon with a Lush review so keep watching!

Thanks for reading :) 

PS. My boyfriend runs his own blog where he reviews music and movies (maybe more in future). He is ridiculously good at writing reviews, well with just writing in general and he just recently put up an End of Year Awards: Movie Edition and if you know what's good for you, you'll go read it :P

Aishling's November in Review - Instagram, Movies, TV, Music

Hello December! I do hope this month is lots better than November. I've pretty much been sick for the whole of November and just want it to be over now! I'm so glad December is finally here! My birthday is on the 5th and then I have Christmas to look forward to (after all the finding gifts for everyone stress is over)!

Even though November was so bad I thought I'd still do a little month in review.

First up is all my Instagram snaps over the last month. Most are of Merle but he is super cute so I'm sure you don't mind :P (click to full view and you can follow my Instagram here!)

1. Watching Are You Afraid of the Dark with Steve! It was very nostalgic!  

2. Chocolate Pumpkin with Smarties inside! 

3. Halloween Decorations and Pumpkins outside 

4. Pumpkins! Which are now rotten :P 

5. White Chocolate Ghost 

6. Merle watching Death Becomes Her 

7.Merle sitting like a human and keeping warm under our duvet!  

8. Merle fell down off the couch, got back up and won't look at me out of embarrassment! Aww! 

9. Steve with Hades! 

10. Merle and his amazing face  

11.  Merle again and his amazing face 

12. Merle again with his crazy face :P 

13. Merle and his very long legs that he doesn't know what to do with  

14. Merle being all human again 

15. Merle is so impressed by our new DVD  

16. Yankie candle melt things that smell AMAZING

movies I've watched this month (that I remember):

• Thor: The Dark World - I wish I had of seen it more than once in the cinema. Safe to say I loved it!

• The Avengers - Because we loved Thor so much we watched The Avengers again for the millionth time. No seriously, I've seen it too many times.

• Monsters University - I didn't get too see this in the cinema unfortunately but it was still excellent and as good as the first which...

• Monsters Inc - ... we also watched!

• Blackfish - This is one of the more serious ones on the list. Its a documentary about Tilikum a killer whale that has killed 3 people. I should mention that Tilikum is held captive at Sea World. He is a wild animal used for human entertainment. It is very sad and shocking but well worth the watch. Probably one of my favourite documentaries along side West of Memphis.

• The World's End - Edgar Wright can do no wrong. Hilarious, excellent, awesome and surprisingly sad.

• Despicable Me 2 - If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

tv shows I've watched this month (that I remember):

• Modern Family/Parks & Recreation - Two of my favourite comedy shows. I love them to death! I can never watch enough of them.

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - I didn't think I would love this show as much as I do. I hear it is getting a lot of negative reviews (even though I think its doing well) and I seriously do not understand how it could be getting negative reviews cos every time an episode ends I'm dying the whole week until I see another. Coulson <3

• Doctor Who - Sheer awesomeness.

• Sleepy Hollow - Another new show that I'm really enjoying! If you're a Supernatural fan or just like spooky shows you should be watching this!

• 10 Things You Don't Know About with Henry Rollins - If Henry Rollins is involved, I'm in. So far we've been learning things about America's presidents while looking at and hearing Henry. Its a win win situation. 

music I've been listening to:

• Muse - I started to revisit Muse over the last month. I started with Uno which is one of my favourite songs of theirs and then moved on to Sunburn. I just love all their stuff up until The Resistance. I really wasn't too fond of that album at all. Even though I'm pretty sure I know the song off haha! Still they're very different to what they sounded like a few years ago. I haven't even listened to anything off 2nd Law. Only one song that I didn't like very much. Oh well they're still one of my all time favourite bands.

• Amon Amarth - Amon Amarth was one of my favourite bands that I seen live. I really want to see them again. They sing about Vikings and Thor and Loki and awesome stuff like that. Johan <3

• Queens of the Stone Age - I got to see QOTSA this month! They played an amazing gig! I just wish I hadn't been so sick. Oh well. I am really loving their new stuff and the animated videos that go along with it. 

I made up a playlist quickly of songs I've been listening to over the last while. It includes what I've mentioned and some more. It's quite a mix so I hope you find something you like! :) I ended it with QOTSA's 15 minute animated video with songs from their newly released album. It's excellent so do be sure to check it out!

Well that is all I can think of to share with you this time! I'm hoping soon to have a new video up. I'm thinking of doing a small haul and maybe a music tag! So watch this space...!

Thanks for reading (& listening)!