New Shop! Summer has also arrived! ✿

Hi everyone!

So sorry its been 6 months since I last posted!  I've been busy setting up a new Etsy shop and I really, really hope that you'll drop by and have a leisurely browse around!  And here it is:

The shop is filled with magical Spell Bottles and, hopefully in the next week or two, lots of other magical goodies.  This has been in the pipeline since last year and I'm so excited about it.  

Also, I'm now on Instagram.  To be honest, I will post  something nearly every day over there as I find its a lot more relaxed and spontaneous than putting together a blog post.  So, if you're an Instagrammer as well, please drop by and say hello!  You will find me at  here.

I hope you're all having a lovely, magical summer so far.  When I'm not working, I'm pretty much obsessed with our forestry which has suddenly transformed into a fairy-like place of moss and trees and birds.  It is my haven for sure and re-energises me when I visit.  I snapped this little tree in a beam of light the last time I was in there (yesterday evening!):

Please do visit me on Etsy and Instagram and have a wonderful summer!

~Siobhan xox

Magical Moon

We're at the tail-end of a Full Moon now and my darling other half took this photo just now of the most peachy, creamy, magical Moon, it is so beautiful.  I sat out just gazing up at it, taking in the lunar energy, it is so enchanting tonight.

Hope you have a lovely weekend wherever you are...we are all looking at the same Moon.

~Siobhan xo

Blog Award!

Wow! My first Blog Award!  Thank you so much to Emma over at Little Gothic Horrors  - a really lovely Blog-Friend and mood-boosting person.  When I happened on Emma's blog I was totally charmed and felt so at home!!  She loves the supernatural and the spooky, as do I (of course!) and brings all sorts of creepy-wonderful to her posts such as the Addams Family (swoon), Delightfully Dark Finds and other such ghoulish emphemera.  Please do pay her blog a visit!

Liebster ("Dearest" in German) Blog Award

The Rules
1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link to their blog.
2. Pass the award on to 5 blogs with less than 200 followers.

Thanks again Emma and here are my nominees for Liebster Blog awards:

1.  Petra's Blog  -  Delightful and pretty blog of Petra Brown, illustrator.

2.  Tales from the Dryad Forest - Magical blog of Natalee May who lives the Enchanted Life in Cornwall.

3.  A Pretty Book  The most  delightful blog for all book-lovers.  JT's pictures and posts will have you enthralled.

4.  Art of Virginia Lee The wonderful artist Virginia Lee's blog. Ethereal art.

5.  Dream and Vision The truly dreamy blog of artist Susan Sorrell Hill.

Please do visit these lovely bloggers!  ~Siobhan xox

Happy Christmas!

Wishing all of you a most magical and wonderful Christmas.

And I hope that 2011 will bring you everything you wish for.

Love and hugs,  Siobhan xox

(and yes, that is me, about 3 yrs old with my very best friend, Maggie)

June has arrived!

The weather has been amazing this first week in June! I've been lucky in that I'm working from home and can dash in and out between jobs to soak up this early summer sunshine!

I had a really lovely day yesterday.  First my cat Charlie came in through the kitchen window for his morning saucer of milk, which always makes me smile!

Then we decided to drive into Wexford and have a mosey around the shops - who doesn't love a good mosey??  On our way out, we met these two babies who wouldn't move forward, backward or sideways and took a great deal of sweet-talking to get them to move!

After a yummy cappuccino and a spot of people-watching, I headed over to one of my favorite shops - Barkers -  to buy a birthday present..  And they have purple Le Crueset on display! My favorite color!

And these super-sweet egg cup holders -

So, I got my friend's birthday present, headed home and sat down to do a bit of sketching.  My creativity is slowly coming back after being dormant for months and when it makes an appearance, I grab my sketchbook and let my imagination take over.

I hope you had a wonderful start to June as well!  Enjoy your weekend and see the magic in everything!

~Siobhan xox

The Long Month of May

It's been quite awhile since I posted, but I have good reason!

I had to go into hospital a week ago for a little procedure (all is well) but I knew about this upcoming event since the beginning of May and I was terrified!  I happen to be the biggest coward in the world and all I could think about was this hospital trip.  As this blog is about happy moments, pretty things and lovely times, I just wasn't in that head space!

I'm back now and this week has been one of discovering that I can face my fears and come out the other side.  Of looking with fresh eyes at the simple pleasures of life.  Of daring to dream and setting goals.  In other words, an inspirational week.

These are the simple little things the last couple of days that made me happy, made me smile:

A scarf from Joules, ordered before I went into hospital, in the most delicious shade of blue!

Organic, Peruvian coffee beans, ground in our new grinder and steamed off in our Bialetti coffee machine - yummy!

Looking over an antique clock face we had in the attic and wondering what I can do with it:

Finding time, and enthusiasm, to start sketching again:

And finally, watching our 2 rescue dogs,  Boots and Heidi, chase each other through the buttercups:

Hoping you have the most wonderful week ahead, filled with magic and happiness. xox

The Inaugural Post

My first post!

This blog is intended to be about the magical, whimsical things of life, in Ireland, where I live.

Just to get a little snapshot of me, I live in the southeast of Ireland, on the coast, in a 400 year old house with forestry all around.

These are the things I like:

The whimsical, the magical, the fairy-ish










Green, dark, luscious trees











Sprawling museums










Mocha coffee, any coffee

Old Cemeteries

Chocolate













and my orange cat Charlie

Here's what I don't like:

Gossip
Bad manners
Fish
Avocadoes
Dried flowers
The cold
Trips to the dentist
Moodiness
Vacuuming

Like everywhere in the world, Ireland is proving a challenge to live in. Everything is way too expensive (for what you get), people are in a bad mood constantly, the roads are....indescribable, and everyone whines constantly about how bad everything is.

So, what you won't find on this blog is negativity, or complaining or whining.

There's enough of that around already!

What you will find are things/people/moments that inspire and uplift me, that make me smile, make me laugh, make me go weak at the knees (in a good way).

Wishing you happiness and a delightful week ahead!