Our Fabulous Day Out in Powerscourt!

I love Summertime in Ireland but one thing you can't rely on too much is the weather. I heard predictions of horrible rainy weather but that wasn't a problem today as it turned out to be a scorcher out. Seeing as it was so nice out, Paddy and I decided to take a bit of an adventure and headed to Powerscourt. We both hadn't been in years so we couldn't wait to go. Considering neither of us drive yet the best way for us to get to Powerscourt was on one the City Sight Seeing buses. If your ever in Dublin you won't miss them as they are bright red in colour and there pretty easy to spot from a mile away. The route to Powerscourt was great as it took you through Dublin and showed you different landmarks, even though Paddy and I are born and bred in Dublin we still find things like this really interesting as you can miss out on small little things like this when you live in a city all the time. The journey to Powerscourt took roughly 30/40mins which for me personally is time well spent as the views once you get there are breathtaking! On the driveway up to Powerscourt, we passed the Powerscourt Hotel Resort which is the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen! I'd love to stay there sometime but I'm guessing it would cost an arm and a leg.

Our tour guide was such a lovely lady and super friendly, we arrived in Powerscourt at 3.30pm and she let us wander around for two hours taking in all the sights. I put all my favourite pictures from the day up above as you can see we definitely had a beautiful day for it! My highlight from Powerscourt has to be hands down, the Japanese Gardens which you can see a bit of in the top picture! It was so nice and peaceful, I could of sat and sunbathed there forever! I also got to pull out my sunnies for the first that Paddy bought me, there pink and yellow what's not to love! There was actually a wedding taking place while we were there so there was alot of well dressed people walking around the gardens and lovely classical music playing. By far the weirdest thing I seen was the pet cemetery, soo creepy I couldn't deal!! It's hard to believe that Powerscourt used to be somebodies house and gardens, unreal if you ask me! I thoroughly love the place and I'll be heading back soon to check out the waterfall, apparently it's seperate to the bus tour so another day out to Powerscourt is certainly on the cards. If your looking for a place to go on a day out to if you ever visit Dublin, I'd definitely recommend hopping on one of the City Sight Seeing buses, Paddy and I are already looking into our next trip!

Did you get up to anything nice over the weekend so far??

Laura<3

Parklife!

Who doesn't love the gorgeous weather we're currently having? We've been having an heatwave in Ireland at the moment and I'm loving every last minute of it. A couple of weeks back Paddy started an internship, he'll be working away there until the end of October. Having a bit of free time on my hands on Wednesday I hopped on the bus and met him after work. With the weather being so nice lately we decided to get some lunch and sit in the park. Whilst Paddy opted to get Supermacs, I went for pad thai noodles from Diep. I've never heard of this particular food chain before so I wasn't too sure on it at first. In the end it was really good, kinda expensive but the fact that it was yummy was the main thing.

Here are a couple of photos we took, Paddy's offices are right beside the sea so he has this beautiful view to look at on the way to work everyday. I never do outfits of the day post for some I don't know why as it's always been something I've wanted to start doing for a while. My dress below is from Dorothy Perkins whilst my cardi is from New Look. My Mum bought me a gorgeous bag from Penneys when I was going to London not too long ago. It's not pictured below but I may feature it in an upcoming post. I love it, it fits absolutely everything into it whilst still looking smart. My favourite nail polish for Summer is Cake-Hole from Butter Londons new Autumn/Winter collection. It's such a fun shade that I can see a lot of people loving, I don't think the picture below does it justice plus my nails are a little chipped. The collection itself consists of  five neon polishes and a white base coat, I'd definitely keep my eyes peeled for these. The only downside of the day was that I broke my sunglasses. This is the second pair I've broke in the last month, thank god they weren't expensive. I want to get another pair of aviator style sunglasses, have you guys seen any nice ones around?

 I'm hoping this gorgeous weather sticks around for a while. It definitely makes people seem in better form that's for sure. I still haven't managed to get a tan but I hear the weather is supposed to be amazing over the weekend so I think a trip to the beach is in order.

What have you been getting up to while the weather has been amazing??

Laura<3

Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Duo

Yesterday I spilled water all over my laptop which was certainly not on the agenda. I've only had my Sony VAIO for a little under two years but it has definitely seen better days. My laptop is working at the moment but the keyboard itself is on the blink, I don't see it lasting that much longer. From now on I'll be mainly blogging on my Dad's computer, I can't imagine myself using the On-Screen Keyboard on my VAIO it would take me months! So if my posts are far and between you'll know why, my Dad's computer is a dinosaur, it takes forever to load up. After giving you that heads up on the old blogging front let's get back to the beauty post!

When I was shopping with my Mum on Friday these two gorgeous products made there way into our shopping trolley. Being on special for less than €10 each I couldn't say no, considering they were almost €20 a pop in Boots. Hawaiian Tropic's Silk Hydration Sun Lotion and After Sun are definitely not what I needed with the current weather we're having in Ireland. Let's just say I have a sneaking suspicion that we're going to have a scorcher this Summer, I hope. As I bought these two products with my Mum I got the Silk Hydration SPF 30. I do use SPF 50 on my face daily but I know my Mum is a little different and likes getting a bit of colour so I went for this one even though it does indeed come in SPF 50. First off both of these products definitely live up to their name "Silk Hydration", the sun screen is a gorgeous rich lotion that contain hydrating ribbons that leave my skin feeling so soft.  Even though the sun hasn't made an appearance yet, I've still been using the sun lotion regularly. It smells amazing just like coconuts which reminds me of holidays! It's making me want to start planning a sun holiday as soon as I'm back from London. On the other hand I haven't been using the Silk Hydration After Sun Gel at all as I've had no need to. Off the bat though like the sun lotion it smells amazing, just a little bit fruitier than the sun lotion. It also has an instant soothing effect on the skin as it contains Aloe gel. Both products also look so pretty in the packaging like ice cream swirls.

My Mum, Dad and brother are heading off on holidays to Spain in September for a couple of days, not going to lie I'm pretty jealous. When we bought both these products my Mum and I had a deal that she couple bring them with her on their trip but I do have a feeling they could be gone by then. There's both so nice! I'd definitely recommend picking these up in Tesco while they're still on special as you'll be saving about €16 compared to Boots prices.

What do you think of these products? Will you be trying the Hawaiian Silk Hydration range over the Summer?

Laura<3

My Fair City

This post is a bit delayed, it was meant to go up on Wednesday. My internet access is acting up for some reason and I have no clue as to why it's so annoying. Everytime I went to put up a post in the last few days, I just couldn't get online so I hope that's finally sorted now for good. We've been blessed with gorgeous weather over the past week or so in Dublin, clearly we couldn't let it go to waste could we? Paddy and I met in town and decided to have a wander around Stephen's Green which is one of my favourite parks, it's beautiful. The last Luas station is right outside which is so handy, it means I don't have a long trek when I get off the tram. I was super happy this week because I got on brilliant at my Slimming World meeting. I'm not going to mention how I did but  you'll be able to read about it next week in my update post. Let's just say I can't believe how well I've done in a space of under five months, it hasn't properly registered yet. We enjoyed are time in town, taking in the nice weather and strolling around the park, before we went to Hodges & Figgis. This is by far my favourite bookshop. The staff are so friendly and if there's any book you want they can order it for you which is great. I don't think many shops have this service and if they do you have to pay prior to ordering which can be a pain. I ended up picking up two books, while Paddy bought me one also. I sure have lots of books to read now, which I can't complain about as there's nothing I like to do more. When I got home, I had a few packages waiting for me, I made some online orders over the weekend which arrived in no time. I'm going to a post featuring everything I bought, I did pick up some bits from ASOS but I ended sending alot of stuff back cause they were too big. I kept my new denim skirt though which I'm rocking in the pictures below, it was on sale and I love it. It fits perfectly and I was finding it really hard to find a plain old nice one in stores here. Something I wasn't expecting in the post were these iHOME studio headphones, there beast. I won these as a part of a Meteor Goodie bag promotion and I forgot all about them. The amount of phone credit I topped up by in the space of two months determined what prizes I could choose from. There was nothing that tickled my fancy so I settled on these. I don't know if I'll use them as I'll probably look like a goof walking around in these so I may give them to my brother. He's starting college next week and I'm sure he'd love these for the bus. I was so jealous of him today, I got wristbands to see Two Door Cinema Club in HMV and unfortunately it clashed with work so I ended up giving them to him. He said the acoustic set was brill and there was such a good atmosphere. When they finished they met the fans and signed CDS, Ger got mine signed which I couldn't be happier about. I haven't listened to their new stuff yet but I'm expecting good things as I loved their first album.

How have you been enjoying the lovely weather?

Laura

Another Dublin Dart Adventure

It doesn't take long for the horrible rain to show it's face again. Earlier today the weather was lovely, of course I didn't want to take it for granted so my boyfriend and I headed off on the dart. We decided to go on a long walk like the last time but instead of walking from Dun Laoighre to Dalkey, we walked to Killiney. I'm not going to lie it was a bit of a trek for me it took a good two hours or so. I really enjoyed it though and the scenery on the way was gorgeous. A few pit stops were taken, one in particular to get lunch as I came into town straight from work at 1. Paddy opted for a chicken burger and chips while I stuck to the healthier option, plain chicken and lettuce wrap. I also popped into Unique, a gorgeous little shop in Dalkey. I picked up a really nice cardboard bookmark for €3. I read alot and never mark my page so I thought it was a good idea. The shop also stocked a French skincare brand called Durance which I've never heard of. Some of their products looked lovely all be it a on the pricey side. The lovely sales assistant gave me a few sachets and a booklet to read through, I'm looking forward to reading up on the brand. Walking to Dalkey wasn't difficult at all, I just wasn't expecting the long walk to get Killiney. Oh lord it took forever but we did see some incredible houses along the way, one had a gargoyle for a letterbox, like who does that? We also passed Bono's gated house which I'd never seen before, quite odd as I've lived in Dublin my whole life. The street sign outside his house is so cool it has like messages from fans, mostly quotes from songs and stuff. I'm pretty sure we found Narnia, all round Killiney there were gates like a foot high that led to nowhere, looked odd to me. If you are ever in Dublin you should definitely go to both places, the views are amazing and you won't regret it!

Well the walk has certainly taken alot out of me, I'm so tired. I'm off to read the second book in The Secret Circle series, I loved the first one!

Laura<3

Sunny Days in Dublin

The past few days in Dublin have been scorchers. We don't usually get the nice weather here but when we do it's amazing. There's so many things to do in Ireland but with the weather being terrible pretty much all year round, your not really given much time to take it all in. I've been making the most of it, my boyfriend and I have been going on so many Dart trips. I can't say I got a tan or anything to show for it but we had an amazing time.

Here's a few pictures of our travels to Dun Laoighre, Dalkey and just around the town in general. I hope we get more nice days like these so we can get out and about more often. Dun Laoighre was such a contrast to my birthday were there was nothing but horrible grey skies.

What have you been doing to enjoy this beautiful weather?

Laura<3