White O'Morn Cottage

A Nice Cup of Tea!

This one is specially for Therese, our third of four sisters. We have just persuaded her to start a blog of her own. It is on the sidebar called Beadiva. Her thing is handmade jewelery and she is amazing at it. I will be posting pictures of her creations in the next few days. She is coming home soon and asked us what we would like her to make for us (from Swarovski as she is big into that at the mo') So I said "A vintage style hat pin!" and she said "Can do" and Angie said "Miniature perfume bottle for my dolls's house" and she said "Can do" Is there anything she can't do? She made my website too!

Anyway, this is for you Teeda - to give you a laugh...Here is a postcard Angie found and bought it for me as she thought it was the image of me! I don't know what made her think that - as I'm a real rock chick!

Countryside Scenery

I got snap happy while away last week. Here are some of them.

This little birdie came for breakfast every day. 

Local graveyard in Ballinamore - It is named "Slí na Firenne" - which I think translates as "The Way of All Men" (I'll check it out or am open to correction if anyone knows for sure! )

Dawn breaks over the view from my cottage 

...and later in the day the sun bathes it in yellow light  I love the way the view changes with the light. (more pics of this ever changing view posted on 1st March 2008 in archives)

Lake Camagh, this is the nearest lake to our cottage - about a mile.  I call it Swan Lake as it has two beautiful swans that live there. I intend to get a picture of them. They were being shy that day!

Holidays

I'm going away for the rest of the week. Looking forward to catching up with you all then. Cheers...Angie and Pam

Halpenny Bridge, Dublin & the Iron Mountains, Leitrim

A famous Dublin landmark is the Halpenny Bridge that spans the river Liffey in Dublin city centre. It is so called because it used to have a toll on it of half a penny. It is quite beautiful and at night it is lit up and looks magical. Across the bridge leads you to Merchants Arch and into Temple Bar which is THE only place to be for visitors and cool Dubliners. Sort of like our answer to Paris' Left Bank.

                                                                            

The odd picture out (well spotted) shows me breaking flag stones for the kitchen floor in the cottage. (I don't know why I am smiling..this is hard work!)

They arrived down from the mountain we are located on, in huge slabs and covered with mud.  They have to be split with a hammer and chisel into two inch-ish slabs to be laid down for a rustic floor. The true colour is to be seen on the right of the one I am seen working on. It varies from yellow to orange and some green. The yellow and orange colours are caused by the high iron content in the stones. The mountain we are on is called Slieve an Irreann which means The Iron Mountains. Which brings me full circle to The Halpenny Bridge in Dublin. The iron for it was brought from our mountain to make this lovely bridge.

Paul & Son

Here is my lovely hubby, Paul and my firstborn son, Chris. Handsome devils eh?

The door behind them is the only door in the house that any of my 6'+ sons can go through without bending or OUCH!...getting brained. Seems that 160 years ago Irish people were all much smaller. Even 30 years ago people were smaller (see Paul for proof) Sorry Paul...you know I love the bones of ye'

P.S Chris!...phone yer' mother!

Hand Made Cross Stitched Pillow

This is a wonderful hand crafted romantic pillow made with much love for someone and signed by Liz.  It is brand new never used. Made in a dull satin fabric trimmed with lace and roses and ribbons abound. Perfect for a peach theme. I adore it but never used it as it did not go with my bedroom colours.

I am clearing out some things that don't go with my decor colours so it is for sale for £9 (approx $18) including the pillow pad and postage anywhere in the world. I will have lots more goodies at great prices in the next few weeks due to the big Spring Clean. If you want it just let me know through a comment and I will get back to you re: payment.

Before and After Rocking Chair

There's nothing I like better than restoring a piece of junk into something lovely to look at and even better if it is good to use too. Case in point is my comfy old rocking chair.

I "rescued" (they don't call me "Fingers Flynn" for nothing) this sad looking chair from a skip (dumpster) near my house. I added a little elbow grease, paint , fashioned a few shabby chic cushions and...viola! The cutest piece of cottage furniture you could ask for and my favourite spot for late night reading. Perfect for a cheap chick - rock chick, rocking chick, shabby chic...whatever!

Traditional Irish Half Door

One of the first things we did when we got the cottage was add a tratitional half door and paint it - what else? but emerald green. It looks so pretty and on a fine day I love to hang over it and admire the view!

The reason these doors were used was that the windows were quite small (because there was a tax on daylight and the bigger your windows the more the tax) The top of the door could be opened letting in more light. Also the bottom half kept the chickens out and the babies in! So it was practical and pretty!

Inside this there was often another full door, badly needed in winter. Mine is a repurposed summer house door that I painted and gave a window treatment and is also very pretty.

  I have noticed that in the cottage ...there are no two doors the same! An ecclectic mix of new, old, original and repurposed. I love this kind of quirky design accident.

The two cream narrow hotpress doors in the bathroom used to be the doors to the cellar in the Old Schoolhouse (on left sidebar, blogs I love). When these were removed to make way for two basement bedrooms "Fingers Flynn" (me) was on hand to repurpose them!

Update: Nancy's Scrapbook

Today I did a scrapbook page featuring one of the pieces published about Nancy. This one was in a women's magazine called Woman's Weekly. The article was too big for the scrapbook page so I folded it and popped it into a handmade paper envelope and added words tiles spilling all over the place.

Next I am going to do the page with the photos showing when the president of Ireland, Mary Robinson met our Nancy!

Then I will do the two pages about when Nancy was nominated as an "Ambassador of Literacy"

Here are the details about Nancy and why I am doing a scrapbook for her :

This wonderful lady's name is Nancy and she is very special. She learned to read and write as an adult. Although a naturally shy, sensitive woman she went public with her literacy difficulties to highlight the problem so as to help others who had the same problem. She has been on radio, tv, newspapers, met presidents, stars of stage and screen, has been published and eventually became a  literacy tutor herself. The scrapbook is a tribute to her and her contribution to the literacy service in Ireland and to mark her 20 year anniversary in our scheme. You will gradually come to know and love her as the scrapbook takes shape. Nancy - you are amazing!  

I am so looking forward to it. I bought the scrapbook and all the stuff for it on Etsy -so all handmade.

Here is the link to the lovely lady who made the album http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9531524

Repurposed old suitcases, schoolcases and picnic baskets

I have just picked up two lovely old Irish schoolcases and a very old German, suitcase, trimmed with wood. I used to have a schoolcase like the little ones in the fifties. My oh my, what stories they could tell!

Angie, in The Old Schoolhouse (on sidebar) has a really large old one that she uses for logs by the fire and a picnic basket that she uses to store vintage linens.

Mine are perfect for all my craft and scrapbooking bits and they look great stacked up on top of each other. Practical and lovely to look at!