So clearly I have a problem updating lately! Don't worry, dear readers. I have been up to lots of fun and exciting things! But I have not been up to a lot of blogging, unfortunately! So I have devised a small plan that will hopefully ensure that I update at least a fair amount more: shorter posts! I know this may seem as a cop-out, but sometimes these blog entries take me such a long time that I procrastinate, and then I put it off so long it doesn't happen!

Still, I'm going to try to do a small re-cap of what I've been up to over the past couple of months (besides working!). Let's see...

Dublin Feminist Walking Tour in March. I was honoured to be asked to design the guide pamphlet to this year's DFWT. The tour was interesting, of course a little depressing, but a lot of fun. You can hear the audio of the tour and see photos by clicking here.

photo by Andrew Flood.

Alternative Miss Ireland! It was a little birthday present to myself, and I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly! I splurged and got us decent seats, so no nosebleeds for us! While I will admit that it wasn't quite up to the quality of 2009's show, it was a really good time. I took a couple of short movies, but of course I have to apologize for the quality (one thing I haven't gotten around to in the past two months is getting a new camera!):
Will St. Leger covers "Don't you want me baby" I stopped filming only seconds before a small man dressed as Satan ran out from underneath this huge ball gown:


The winner performing "Love is a Battlefield."


The winner was a true performer:

photo by Peter Fingleton

And finally, a little clip of a Julie Mandrews act. I think Julie had the best staging of the night:


We had some really nice weather in April. I had a nice time hanging out at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park for the Experience Japan festival. The line was a bit too long for sushi, but they had drummers and harpists as well as people walking around in all sorts of Japanese dress.

We took the opportunity to hang out with some Donkeys, too.

Here's our friends Winty and Laura enjoying the gardens:

A greenhouse:

The topiaries in the formal garden:

We went to Kilkenny for Easter Weekend. I will have to post Mark's photos that he took with his film camera at a later date. Kilkenny is a cute little town! Though I will say that there were a lot of "hen parties" (gaggles of women celebrating upcoming nuptials, aka bachelorette parties) there that weekend! And I don't know if it was just the holiday weekend, or if Kilkenny is like that every weekend, but there was some serious partying going on, let me tell you. I felt like I was at Mardi Gras! We went with Mark's parents and Uncle Billy, and the five of us had a very pleasant time indeed. And I even got to take advantage of the hotel pool, jacuzzi, and sauna, so it was an added bonus. Stay tuned for photos (at some point!).

Big news for my workplace, Rediscover Fashion. We had a big fashion show at the Guinness Storehouse! It was covered on television, radio, and in most of the newspapers in Ireland. The sold-out show was hosted by Brendan Courtney, a presenter from an Irish fashion show called "Off the Rails." There was a lot of stress (and one sleepless night on my part) leading up to the event, which included a pop-up shop and reception, but the show was brilliant and we sold quite a bit of our collection already! Click here for photos of the event. Here I am, walking down the runway with the designer, Carrie-Ann (front) and the rest of the team:

I worked on several of the outfits, so it was a blast to see my handiwork come down the runway. I look forward to someday seeing my own designs on the stage, but for how it's fun to learn a heck of a lot about construction. I have excellent teachers at Rediscover Fashion, for sure. Here's my favorite look that I sewed (on the right, the dress and bolero jacket):

As part of the Mindfield festival, we went to see a discussion on Maeve Brennan and Alice Mulligan.

"Chaired by the novelist Anthony Glavin, and featuring the critic and fiction writer, Dr Angela Bourke, and the recently appointed Trinity College Dublin/National Library of Ireland Cultural Coordinator, Dr Catherine Morris, Rediscovered Women explores how, in each generation, certain women writers can be written out of the narrative of Irish writing. Their conversation explores the lives of two fascinating, radical Irish women writers – who, for different reasons, were forgotten, and are only now being rediscovered." I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, and immediately went to the bookstore and bought a collection of short stories by Maeve Brennan.

But there other cool things afoot as part of Mindfield in Merrion Square that day, including this massively cool puppets, which I just couldn't get enough of!

What else? Picnic in the Park with my comrades from RAG:

For our anniversary, Mark surprised me with tickets to see the band Explosions in the Sky at Vicar Street. I wasn't sure how I'd like seeing an instrumental band, but the experience was quite moving, and I recommend their live show to anyone. Click here for photos of the show (not taken by me). The show far exceeded my expectations, and I was really glad we went.

Last week our friends William and Eilis had a Wickerman-themed party, and it was a really fun time. It was a costume party (they call it "fancy dress" here) and some people really went all out! Here are some of William's photos of the festivities:

But for a real idea, you have to CLICK HERE for video of us dancing around the May pole.

Well this post has taken me over two hours, and my backside is sore! I know I've left out a bunch of cool stuff, like a documentary about Dublin architecture and a panel discussion about the hunger strikes. Maybe I'll post about those later. For now, I'm going to try to update more regularly, if not with as much detail.