A Fine Frenzy...Quite

Listen up - Go and search out A Fine Frenzy if you havent already, this girl is outstanding!
All of her songs are awesome, the lyrics are so simple yet to the point, sweet and somewhat naive. I discovered her about 3 years ago I think, when her song "Almost Lover" was being played in relation to Twilight, but only really took the time recently to listen to all of her stuff. Her voice is enchanting and folksy, I could listen to her all night, the ideal voice to drift off to sleep listening to...and she looks exactly how she sounds if you know what I mean!

I've had "What I Wouldn't Do" playing this evening and its such a lovely slightly bittersweet song, its hitting a teeny tiny nerve for me!



If we were children I would bake you a mud pie
Warm and brown beneath the sun
Never learned to climb a tree but I would try
Just to show you what I'd done

Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe

If I were old, my dearest, you would be older
But I would crawl upon your lap
Wrap a blanket round our frail little shoulders
And I'd die happily like that

Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, if I had you

So lace your hands round the small of my back and I will kiss you like a king
I will be your bride, I'll keep you warm at night
I will sing, I will sing

It was now and we were both in the same place
Didn't know how to say the words
With my heart ticking like a bomb in a birdcage
I left before someone got hurt

'Cause it was what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
It was what I wouldn't do
When I had you, babe, when I had you




Its totally one of those songs for when you're thinking back on something and realising you should've done things differently or how if you had that time again how different you would do things now...well for me anyway.

Happy Listening :-)

New Ventures

Well well well its been a busy few weeks! Summer time is always a busy time for me but usually just because of work but this Summer is shaping up to be quite an interesting one!

The biggest thing recently is my 2 new purchases:

Canon EOS 1100D

Apple MacBook 2011

Quite possibly my most exciting purchases ever!!! For a while now I've been looking for something, as in job wise because as much as I love my job now its not where I'm meant to be forever, I just know! So I looked back to what I wanted to be before and photography was always something Id wanted to get into, but when I left school 8 years there wasnt much in the way of courses on this solely so I kinda gave up on it. Now though I have purchased the new camera, a funky new laptop to work off of and enrolling a photography course starting in October as well as doing a few days with a professional photographer so that I can learn all I need to know. For now Im looking at it an intense hobby but would love if someday photography was my full time work....all in good time! So yeah I've been really excited about all of that and its been taking up pretty much most of my time as well as work...the Summer is going way too fast!!
I also have something exciting in the pipeline that I can't wait to share but I need to finalise a few things first but I'll keep you all in the loop :)
Its not been all work and no play however! Theres been the regular nights out in both Cobh and the city, I love trying out new pubs and stuff like that! There's been a few other things going on too but I need a whole new post for that (ranting about men would just take over from the important bit of this post..and its not so much a rant more musings if you will!!)

So I hope everyone is doing good and enjoying our Summer...pfft some Summer we're having I know! I am going to allocate a day each week to blog because I hate leaving it go for so long!
Sending positive vibes to everyone :-) xo

I'd Like To Introduce...Miss Norton

I am on a super happy proud buzz as I type!! I spent this weekend at the 13th Midleton Tattoo Show. I've been going there over the last 10 years and decided that this year I would get something done there...and boy am I glad I did!! 
What started out as a smallish pin up girl on a motorbike design turned into an A4 sized half zombie half original pin up girl on one hell of a motor bike, a Norton I was told, hence the name. I'd been looking at the work of my chosen tattoo artist for a while because I'd seen him tattoo before and he came highly recommended, so once I''d gotten an idea together I dropped him a mail and alas Robbie Coventry of Red C Tattoos Utrecht / Dublin took on the job! He came back to me with his idea of how to do the tattoo and it sounded awesome so I said to go for it. I only saw the stencil on Thursday, 2 days before hand and was blown away by it. So off I went on Saturday just gone, down to Midleton all excited :) We expected approximately 3 - 4 hours to do it, however this was not the case! It turned into a 9 hour session from start to finish including a few breaks in between. All was going good until about 3 1/2 hours in I felt a bit faint and sick so took a break to get something to eat. This was only because I hadn't had a chance to eat breakfast and my sugar levels had dropped, won't make that mistake again! With it being done at a convention I was a bit unsure about how I'd feel getting it done in full view of everyone but it was actually fine. In fact it made me excited because people were commenting on it about how cool it looked. I didn't get a proper look at it until a picture was taken once it was done. About 9pm anyway we were done, it was a joyous moment involving a bit whooping, cheering and hugging!! 
Myself and Robbie then decided we'd enter into the competition the next day for Best Tattoo Done at the Show and Best Tattoo at the Show, I was hoping and praying we would win because the piece is so amazing I really wanted Robbie to get the recognition for it! (it helped that there were a lot of bikers around admiring it!). So about 5pm the results were out and.....WE WON!! We both got an award for Best Tattoo at the Show. I was so extremely happy and proud, I still can't quite believe the tattoo is mine. I've never seen anything like, the detail is amazing, Robbie really brought it to life and I love how awesomely original it is. I can't thank Robbie enough for his amazing work. 
The show is general was fantastically run, the atmosphere was great and even though the weather wasn't on our side yesterday, it didn't dampen anyone's spirits. Sticking around for the whole weekend meant I got to meet some really cool people and fellow tattoo lovers especially some of the crew from Tattoo TV. There was crazy good work on show from other artists too especially from B of New Roses Tattoo, Portugal. He won 2 awards, his dot work is outstanding. 
My award has taken up its proud place on the shelf at home for all to see and I'm whipping down my pants every few minutes to look at my thigh and remind myself that its all mine!! :)
Already looking forward to the Christmas Show in Midleton :) 

It started with a stencil...

Yes my eyes are closed! The awesome Robbie Coventry in action

After 9 hours we're about done 

Our award - Best Tattoo at the Show, Midleton 2012