Style Treaty

As far as I know (and I am open to correction) Style Treaty was one of the first lifestyle blogs in Ireland (I consider “lifestyle” to be topics you would expect to find in a glossy magazine like fashion, beauty, interiors, food, parenting, travel etc). Two years later and there are loads of lifestyle blogs in Ireland, so many that I think they deserve a category at the Blog Awards next year. However, if there is a Lifestyle category, it will be too late for Style Treaty as I’ve decided to call it a day.

I’ll be eternally grateful to JD who set up this blog for me and fixed every IT issue I had. I’m grateful to Mike for the encouragement. I’m grateful to Margaret and Mary T for their contributions and I’m still flattered to this day that so many people take the time to read my posts, leave comments and link to my blog from theirs.

I’m not finished in the blogesphere by any stretch of the imagination, I’m involved in a few other projects and I have a feeling that a few fashion related posts might appear on Frugal Ireland so please keep an eye out there for my Dorothy Perkins shoe obsession.

Most exciting news of all is that I have a brand new blog and if you enjoyed any of my craft posts here then you’ll love the new blog. It’s called Made Marian, please call over anytime and say hello. I have the kettle on and the tea-pot will be covered by a handmade cosy.

The Internet is a funny old place, a place where you can be friends with someone without ever having any contact other than through a comment box.   I’ve been reading My Wardrobe Today for over two years now but I’ve never even had even an email conversation with it’s creator, Allie.   However, today when I read on her blog that she’s pregnant, I squealed with excitement for her.  I’ve seen every stitch of clothes she has worn for the last two years, I’ve seen photos of her on bad days, good days, sick days and pretty much every day. I feel like she’s a friend who lives down the road.  She has inspired me to wear dresses and skirts again, when only a year ago you could not have gotten me into one.  But mostly she has encouraged me through her blog to develop that elusive “Personal Style” that so many people incorrectly think you can find in a magazine or on a runway!!   For that I will be eternally grateful to Allie.

Well anyway, congratulations Allie. I’m thrilled for you and I can’t wait to see how her wardrobe evolves during her pregnancy!

A couple of Sunday’s ago I was at the Bedford Row market, chatting to Gingergirl and trying not to drool on her produce when she pointed me in the direction of a stall nearby selling natural cosmetics. The products in question were part of the Flourish Health and Beauty range by Geraldine Woessner. Her husband was doing a fine job as salesman on the day and I went away with the vitamin E face cream. I’ve been using it for a week now and I’m really impressed. It’s kind of a halfway house between a night cream and a day cream. I often find that I don’t need a specific night cream in summer but this is just rich enough to give that extra bit of moisture at night, I think it might be a little too rich for under make-up but I usually use a tinted moisturiser in the summer anyway, so i usually just slap that on on top of the moisturiser. Or I’ve found that if I mix a bit of sunscreen with proper foundation that it goes on better. The 50ml is €12 which I think is a bargain given that it has done wonders for my skin and it works as a night and day cream.

The cream is made from mostly organic ingredients and it has a wonderfully natural smell, it makes me feel like I’m in a garden every time I use it. Described on the website as

With a Natural Base of Sweet Almond Oil, Hemp Oil and Olive Oil, this cream is scented with Lavender which is soothing, Geranium Which helps balance Sebum and Frankincense which is said to have Anti Ageing Properties.

The ingredients are

Aqua, Sweet Almond Oil*, Hemp Oil*, Olive Oil*, Veg. Emulsifier, Coco butter*, Cetyl Alcohol, Veg. Glyerine,Vitamin E, essential oils*, Preservative 12 *indicates organic

There are other products in the range, like the vitamin E body cream that are definitely on my “to-buy” list and these lavender and linseed eye pack would make a great present for someone special. They are €12.

You can buy from the Market Stall on Bedford Row on Sundays from 12noon or directly from the website.

I am never sitting another exam as long as I live.

I recently discovered a new blog called Vulgar Moon, don’t be alarmed, it’s anything but Vulgar. Emily is a 19 year old student based in Limerick, her blog is about fashion style and girl cooties. I love her tagline “cynicism and pretty bows” so much that I wish I’d thought of it myself. Anyway, you should all head over there and check it out.

My better half is a weird and wonderful man. Knowing my habit of stealing his pen-knife when I need to do something and don’t feel like getting the correct implement (eg cutting my nails, slicing paper, cutting off a hanging thread… you get the gist), he bought me my own, teeny, hot-pink Swiss Army Knife. And, it’s the best thing ever. Seriously, I might love it more than my laptop, and that’s saying something.

It’s possibly the world’s best travelling beauty kit. A nail file/nail cleaner, a blade, a little scissors, a tweezers, and a toothpick, and it’s only about 6cm long. If you were careful about what you used the blade for, I’m certain you could use it for picnics while on holiday as well.

I’ve used it at work to bust open boxes of paper, deliveries, etc, to open the back of a computer in order to destroy the hard drive. (Don’t worry, my boss told me to.) I’ve used it in the car to fix the dodgy indicator button.

It’s honestly the most useful little thing I’ve ever seen; I only got it a few weeks ago and I’ve used it LOADS already - for all the things listed above, and other, normal, things like cutting plasters. And it’s extremely cute. Needless to say, it’s probably not flight safe, even though the blades are less than 4cm long, so I’d probably pack it in my checked-in luggage.
Go get one now. Seriously. They’re on sale here, also available in plum. Every girl should have one. Now, please excuse me, I have to go find things to cut.

My collegue at work mentioned the other day that she had to go on-line to order her daughters lunches for the week. I was a tad confused but then she showed me the carambola kidz website. Carambola Kidz is an Irish company based in Annacotty in Limerck. I quickly discovered as I watched her sort out her daughter’s lunches that this is a great resource for many busy health conscious parents. In a perfect world every parent would have time to make their children a healthy lunch every day but obviously that’s not possible for everyone. Even if you had the time, I would imagine that buying a different bread and filling for everyday would be expensive and would more than likely result in a lot of waste as you’d have to have a lot of kids to use everything up. I watched as my friend chose breads, fillings, fruits, drinks and snacks for small break. The damage for the week……€13. My friend and her daughter seemed to be delighted with the service. Maybe this is something common that everyone knows about but it was news to me, but then again I don’t have kids.

Apologies to anyone reading the last few posts in an RSS reader, you may have seem some dodgy looking spam links.  Apparently this is a common problem at the moment with older versions of Wordpress.  Luckily thanks to JD (again) the problem has been sorted by a swift upgrade to the latest version!!  Here’s hoping no more spam on my posts, this is supposed to be a “nice” blog after all!!

Not being a vodka lover, Cosmopolitans were always something I liked the look of but never the taste, in fact I never really became a cocktail drinker because most of them include vodka. Lette and Margaret were over the other night and I really wanted to get into the spirit of the girly dinner thing but I wanted to avoid the dreaded vodka. So I did what all self respecting girly girls would do and I turned to the bubbly. Susan at Olio y Farina provided me with the Prosecco and Tesco provided me with some peach slices, and thus Bellini’s were born.

Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture (we were too busy drinking) but here’s a great video I found online that shows you how to make them yourself.

I mentioned on Frugal Ireland that I was making invitations to my friends wedding.   Well, I ordered a few samples from DIY Weddings and this weekend I had great fun making them up.  These will probably be used as wedding cards for the multitude of weddings that I’ve been invited to this summer.  These were super easy to make and I’ve added links to the products I used.

For the Navy One I used this blank card, this gold ribbon and these flowers.

For the Red Ribbone one I used this kit and these flowers as an extra embellishment.

For the one at the back I used this Indian cotton paper (folded in three) these flowers and this ribbon.