irishdaisies

My name is Catherine and I live in the north west of Ireland. My husband is Sean and we have 2 sons and 2 very cute little grandsons. We have a very funny English Bull Terrier called Alf and a little black & ginger cat called Minimee.

I love photography, as does my husband, and we spend many weekends travelling around Donegal photographing the scenery.

I also enjoy reading, writing, cooking, entertaining, and dining out.

We have a big, close family circle and often have parties for occasions - I love throwing parties!

I love handbags and shoes and I have quite a collection of antique handbags, a particular favourite is the boxbags of the 1940s/50s.

I found swap-bot today quite by accident. But once on the site I was intrigued and stayed on to read. And I thought it sounded good fun so joined up!

THINGS I LOVE: dolphins, English Bull Terriers, cats, sparkly stuff, pretty glass beads.

FAVE COLOURS: turquoise, scarlet, black, white.

I have a very eclectic taste when it comes to music: Ella Fitzgerald, Amy Winehouse, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Iggy Pop, songs of Cole Porter, Marilyn Manson, and so on.

I particularly favour Irish authors and have just finished Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt and am reading his follow up book, 'Tis. I love Edna O'Brien and Frank O'Connor. I also enjoy reading thrillers.

Top of the list: Silence of the Lambs

Then in no particular order: All of Me, 1984, Pryor/Wilder comedies, Hostel (terrifying but brilliant!).

I love house improvement programmes, documentaries, forensic programmes (Henry Lee is the best!), programmes on Ireland, and so on. My current favourite programme is Dragons' Den.

I don't often get time to make things but when I do I enjoy jewellery making, particularly earrings. Occasionally I paint, nearly always abstract.

I would love to start making handbags and am collecting lots of nice material and bits and bobs for the day I actually get around to making one!

We are currently renovating our holiday house in south Donegal. This is very exciting as we have owned it for 2 or 3 years but have not had the time to do it up as we have been working on our own house at home.

I have started a blog on the renovation work to our holiday home, www.daisycottagedonegal.blogspot.com and although to begin with the blog was to be solely about the renovations I enjoy writing it so much I have now done posts on things we see on our travels around the county - we actually saw dolphins in the sea near Daisy Cottage recently and that was VERY exciting!

I have also extended the blog with things to do around Donegal. It is something I have long intended to do but now that we are working on the house and will be renting it to holiday makers I have to get it done because I am making a folder for the house so that our future guests can see what's available without having to do any searching themselves.

I enjoy thinking about decoration (NOT doing it - someone else can do that part!) and for Daisy Cottage I am want to keep it simple, country style and to this end I have started hunting for some items of antique/rustic furniture which will suit the age of the house.

Although of course the beds will be brand new, I have managed so far to find one old style metal bed which I think will be perfect for the house. I don't particularly like pine beds, which would probably fit the style, so will continue looking to find more metal beds I like.

But I'm rambling ... see what I mean about the blog being addictive to me? :-)