My newest addition

There’s a new addition to our living room that is something I’ve wanted for a long time – a skull. While my family and I were wandering around St. Macdara’s Island last month, my dad found this beaut of a sheep’s skull and I squealed with glee like a little girl, coupled with clapping of the hands. Don’t worry, I got some weird looks so you’re not the only one. I just really like skulls. It might have to do with my undying {and secret / embarrassing} love of pirates.
I did some research on how to keep and best show skulls and it’s quite interesting. From removing the teeth and sticking them back with glue {to make sure they don’t fall out and go missing}, as well as giving them a coating of clear nail varnish to make them look fancy. 

He looks a bit sad at the moment. Maybe he needs to be propped up on more books, but I was thinking of kicking him up a notch. I quite like this mounted version below, although my sheep isn’t so well endowed, or there is the emo-alternative of painting him all black. I’m leaning towards lefty at the moment … What do you think?

I feel I should say this sheep {more than likely} died of natural causes on an isolated and uninhabited island in the Atlantic, roaming free and smiling and bleating all over the place and eating grass to it’s heart content, until it’s unfortunate demise quite some time ago. I didn’t attack this poor creature with a hatchet. In case some of you were wondering.

Image cred 3 and 4

Thrifty things – vintage vases

Yesterday I hit the charity shops in Dublin, and I hit them hard. I’ve been a bit depraved of thrifting since I’ve been busy with work and life. So I made up for lost time by visiting close to ten charity shops – an all time best. The first shop I went into I struck gold with these beautiful {and I completely admit, kitschy} pink vintage vases …
So awesome. I swiped these up for €10 for the set, from Age Action
The tall vases have found a lovely home on the shelf over our tv, but I’m not sure what to do with the smaller vase type thing. Alas, it will come in handy. I’m seriously considering incorporating these tall vases into our wedding. Overstuffed with flowers, maybe for the ceremony. We’ll see. 

Hopeful makeover – living room

I’ve been sick for the past week, and in an attempt to find the silver lining, all this time moping has given me time to mess around on Photoshop, yay!
I’ve wanted to revamp our living room for a while, and to get the ball rolling I did this little mock-up of the focal wall in our living room I want to tackle. At the moment it’s a massive blackboard wall, which is cool and all, but our apartment doesn’t get much light, and I’m really feeling it drag the room down. Considering I love dark colours, I think the addition of depressing Irish weather is encouraging me to brighten it up. So I tried my hand at an ‘after’ image of what I’d like it to look like, and I’m quite pleased with the result!

This is what I came up with, and I’m pretty stoked. A fresher look that’s a little brighter, more uplifting, a little more grown up, but still has the same major elements, and some existing items we already own – 

I kept a smidgen of the blackboard wall, offset from the white shelf, and coloured the rest of the wall to what we already have – Swan’s a Swimming. I’ve had a knot in my knickers to invest in an orchid, but that mother is going to need to be faux since I {unintentionally} murder every plant that enters my care. Spruced up with a Stockholm Rand rug, an unattainable Gun Lamp {a girl can dream}, some crates to balance the scales, and one musn’t forget a hydrangea. 
There are two elements I can’t change in our living room – the white IKEA shelf and TV stand. We’re tenants, and we don’t own these items. Yes, I paint a small amount of our apartment, but I would never have a problem re-painting before we leave. Another item that will remain but haven’t included in the second image is our massive regolit lamp, which is needed, but would stuff up the image. I’m pretty excited about getting started, and can’t wait to give our living room a little revamp! Happy Saturday, everyone 🙂