Proud to be Irish

Today the Irish people's spirits have been lifted by this great man! What an inspirational speaker, and he made it seem so effortless too!

President Obama's speech can be watched here..

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0523/obama_live.html#video

I feel very proud to be Irish today, and homesick too after I watched this...

Summer is a coming in................

After a long cold winter, from Dec to Apr it snowed and a practically non-existent spring, summer finally arrived this week-end in Toronto. Yippee! It was Victoria weekend, which means a long weekend and there was a sense of holidays and fun in the air. Hope the rest of the summer is as just good as this weekend was. The sun just seems to put everyone in a good mood. Here's some pictures I took of the start of summer
in Toronto..........

Even the ducks and squirrels were sunbathing and seemed to love the sun!

Engagement announcement

Once we announced our engagement, that’s when people wanted to get into the detail and asked questions like will the wedding be held in Canada or Ireland. Who will be going, when it will happen and of course who will be in the wedding party. We got plenty of lovely congratulations but with each one came more questions and comments, and the more questions we were asked the more stressed I began to feel. I felt under pressure to come up with the answer to them all and to find the perfect wedding location immediately. I started surfing the web furiously for ideas and began to forget about the true meaning of our engagement and what it means to me. 

When I told Ben how I was feeling stressed about planning the wedding, his reply was that we should just saviour the moment and enjoy this warm fuzzy feeling we have for as long as possible. Once he said that I knew he was right and began to realise that it’s time to forget about what people said or what they want and to focus on enjoying every moment of our engagement. 

Because what matters most to me right now is that I get to share the rest of my life with Ben, who knows me at times more than I know more myself and who I love more than words can say. I love his sense of humour, his beautiful and kind eyes combined with his sexy smile, and his easy-going and gentle manner. I know he is a real genuine, strong, intelligent and capable man, who is my rock, and with him by my side I feel we can accomplish anything.

My Birthday Surprise

Wow! What a weekend, after years of imagining what it would be like to be proposed to, on Friday the day of my birthday my boyfriend of 3 years proposed to me! 

To say I was shocked was an understatement, I had no idea what was going on. The proposal happened during dinner with my parents at the CN tower in Toronto. My parents had just arrived to Toronto to visit us from Ireland and my boyfriend Ben unknowns to me had asked for their blessing to marry me just a few hours before. The waiter placed a dessert dish in front of me, he opened it up and inside was a box with a ring inside. At that point with about 5 waiters and my parents looking on, Ben said he thought the world of me and asked if I would marry him. I accepted and now we’re engaged! Being a secret romantic at heart I loved the way he done the whole proposal though and wouldn’t change it for the world.

I had no idea this was going to happen. The thing that shocked me the most was that he bought the ring himself and planned it all without me knowing. I never even suspected a thing. He’s such a laidback and easy going sort of a guy so I never thought this would be his style.  I believed I would always pick out my own ring myself and wanted a certain colour and design, I imagined it would be like Kate Middleton’s but with a black stone to match the necklace Ben bought me last Christmas. The ring I actually got is perfect, it is so simple but sparkles like you wouldn’t believe. Each time I look at it I feel so happy and can’t help but smile. I just know I've finally met my Mr. Right.

Already we’ve started to talk about our wedding and what sort of day we would like to have. We don’t know when or where it will happen yet, maybe somewhere abroad like Italy.  We do know that we don’t want to have a big showy wedding that costs a fortune. What matters most to us is that we get to have the people that we love around us to celebrate and share in our special day. It’s all going to be very exciting to plan....I can’t wait!

Publish Post

Have you ever been proposed to? What sort of wedding did you have? I’d love some ideas to help plan mine. x

A life less Ordinary

Welcome to my blog! 

I read in the paper recently that Jack Osbourne has finally kicked his party habits and has been sober for some time. In the Documentary GOD Bless Ozzy Osbourne, which was produced by Jack, Sharon his mum says, Jack being sober meant he was dealing with ‘life’ for the first time. I found this statement interesting, and as Jack is now 25 it made me think back to my life in my twenties. 

In my late teens and early twenties I wanted nothing more that to go out clubbing, I would sit in work from Monday to Friday dreaming about my Saturday night out on the town. Back then there might as well of been only one day/night of the week, as Saturday night was the only one that mattered to me.  It was the highlight of my week! On Saturday night I wasn’t Grace who hated getting up early each morning to go to a dead-end job. The make-up and clothes I wore combined with the copious amounts of alcohol I drank made me feel totally transformed.

Preparations for the night were like a military operation, which involved myself and my ‘side-kick’ Tina getting together in one of our houses at least five hours before we were due to go out accompanied by loads of wine/vodka. We really believed we needed this much time and alcohol to get ready. With plenty of music, wine and the right look I felt like I was a cross between Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce! In the nightclub in my drunken state I really began to think I could dance and sing just like them too. As I was also single for most of my early twenties, Saturday night always held the possibility of meeting ‘Mr. Right’ and then who knew what would happen. At the same time there seemed to be so many parties and new people to meet, and everyone at the time seemed so lovely, I didn’t really want to be in a relationship as I felt it would only hold me back.

As time and the years went on, my hangovers got worse and worse, the outfits didn’t look as good anymore and I began to feel so unlike J Lo./ Beyonce on the dance floor. Staying in bed all day ‘recovering’ from the night before no longer seemed so appealing, nor was trying to avoid people I had made ‘my new best friends’ or  told all my secrets to in my drunken state. Although I still haven’t lost my love for doing my hair, clothes and make-up, I eventually realised that there was a whole lot more to life than my Saturday night party life and began to focus on enjoying more of my life when I was sober instead.  As for my quest for meeting Mr. Right, well that could take some time to explain so it’s probably a story for another time.

What was your party life like, did going out to nightclubs hold as much enjoyment for you ? What do enjoy most about going out ? I’d be interested to know.