Meet our eldest Son - Aran

Today is a VERY special day!! It is our eldest son's 20th birthday!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARAN!!!!

It seems only yesterday that I held my new born baby son in my arms and he winked (yes winked!! as his new baby eyes couldn't keep both open at the same time - it was sooooo cute!!)  up at me with those adorable big blue eyes!!  Oh yes, from the word go he was a charmer!!

The night of Aran's graduation 

 They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!!  Aran has just finished first year in College - guess what he's studying???  Furniture Design & Manufacture!!!!  The College had an exhibition of the all the student's work at the end of the year, we had a great night and I was SO excited to see Aran's pieces having seen the work in progress throughout the year.  I LOVE them!!!!!

Aran's Floor Lamp (it's about 6 foot high) - isn't it cool!!!

Aran's side table - sycamore with walnut inlay and bentwood legs . . .  I LOVE how this piece turned out as I saw how much work went in to each step of the process . . .

Aran working getting the new shop ready . . .

Twenty years has flown by and that little baby has matured in to a wonderful young man.  We are SOOOOOO proud of him, he is a loving, caring, mature, loyal, dependable and hard working. I won't embarrass him by gushing any more but our family has had a tough few years and Aran has been a rock through it all and has gained respect and admiration from everyone who knows him.  So, hope you have a VERY Happy Birthday Aran - you deserve every happiness Life has to offer!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Love Mama Bear
xxxx

Meet Criostoir - .Our youngest son

Today is a VERY special day.  It is our youngest son's birthday!  Today Criostoir is 4 years old!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CRIOSTOIR!!!!!!!

You haven't been introduced properly yet so Criostoir meet Mama's blog friends . . . 

 and blog friends meet my baby Criostoir . . .

A little bit about our youngest son . . . 

Criostoir loves snuggles, stories, songs, his tractor and farm animals.  His favourites on TV are Peppa Pig, Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom, Timmy Time and In the Night Garden!

But Criostoir's greatest loves in the whole world are his books and songs!  - he's just like his Mama!!

I've mentioned before that Criostoir has Special Needs - (special needs are needs that the majority of children don't have therefore they are called Special Needs).  Criostoir was born 4 years ago with significant special needs.  The Doctors didn't know what was wrong with him and our journey with Criostoir began.  He was very sick at the start and required frequent hospitalisation for chest infections and tests to try and obtain a diagnosis.    The main problem was that his muscle tone was very weak which has significantly delayed all his development, (Criostoir can't talk, sit or walk - YET!)  Then at the age of 3 because of advances in Medicine and genetic testing a diagnosis was discovered.  Criostoir has a genetic disorder where there is a small deletion in his genetic code.  Criostoir is the only person in the WORLD with this particular disorder so there is no data on this condition.  

Our precious son is truly UNIQUE.

The reason I'm sharing Criostoir's story with you is that someone facing a challenging situation may read the following and it may help them.  When Criostoir was born we loved him instantly but we were devastated to find out that he was very sick.  Like all parents you want a perfect, healthy little baby to arrive.  All we knew was that our son was extremely sick, the Doctors didn't know why and we were walking in to the unknown bringing a disabled child home who required 24 hr nursing care.  A few days after Criostoir's birth, my husband took me for a walk around the hospital grounds and we sat down to talk.  My husband Niall, is my rock, he's an amazing man.  Niall said something very special to me that day that I will never forget.  He said that we could not change the fact that Criostoir was very sick, I said true, then he said we didn't know how long we would have Criostoir with us, I said true, then he said that the best possible thing we could do for Criostoir and for our family was to love Criostoir and make him as happy and as comfortable for as long as we could.  He also said that we shouldn't dwell on the negative aspects of our son's ill health or all the things he couldn't do but instead that we should put every ounce of energy that we had (which wasn't a lot at the time!) in to focusing on making him happy and enjoying every precious moment that we had with him.   So that whatever lay ahead for Criostoir and us as a family we would make the journey together with as much love and positivity as we could find. And that's what we did from that moment on.  

Four years later, Criostoir's health has improved, albeit slowly but there has been significant positive improvements.  The Geneticist has said that Criostoir has a normal life expectancy and as we have seen he will continue to improve but this improvement will be slow.  This is Good News.  As you can see Criostoir is a loving, happy 4 year old full of fun and mischief and I am convinced that our positive outlook has had a huge impact on his physical improvement and mental development and we hope that one day he will talk and walk.  It's not that we are in denial of his condition it's just that we choose to focus on the positive things he CAN do rather than focus on the things he can't.  We celebrate the small things and revel in his happiness.  All we want for Criostoir, our eldest son Aran and for each other is to feel loved, happiness and contentment.  The older I get the more I am convinced that the happiest man on earth is the man who is content with his lot - whatever that 'lot' may be.  

This is just our own personal philosophy - to focus on happiness, the positives, the good stuff no matter how small - it's not easy and some days are harder than others but it has helped us on our journey and I hope that it may be of help to one of you.  There is of course another phrase for looking at the world in this way, it's a french phrase . . .

La Vie en Rose . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Love Mama

xxxx

Easter Sunday

 

Hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend!  We had family staying with us over the weekend and Niall cooked a beautiful Easter Sunday lunch.  I did a post last week on some stunning table settings as I was looking for some ideas.  There were some great ideas that I just didn't get time to try out, like the dyed eggs from the Dreamy Whites blog - definitely going to dye some eggs next year, Maria's are stunning.  As I used tulips on my table last Easter I wanted to try something different but as there were no wild flowers in abundance around my hedges this didn't happen either and of course I ran to the shops at the last minute there was only one bunch of tulips left!  Mental note - next time buy flowers early in the morning!!  the reason my Saturday was thrown out was because I had to collect something I'd ordered a few weeks ago.  It just arrived in time for the weekend . . .   my new French mirror!!!

I was so excited it had arrived I dropped everything and drove to collect it - from a shop that has a very special connection to me.  When I moved back to Ireland from France I set a shop up with my sister, (we sold French style furniture and accessories)  and called it Boulevard Interiors.  After a few years I left and got married and had a baby.  My intention was to open a home and garden store but life had other ideas!  My baby's health was very delicate and the downturn in the economy meant having to shelve my plan, so my dream of having my own home and garden store is still a dream, that I hope, one day, will become a reality!

But I digress - back to Easter and my special delivery, my sister still has Boulevard Interiors, (same name but a new shop in a new premises).   I called in a few weeks ago and when I spotted this beauty in the showroom - I just had to have it!!  The one on display had actually been sold so I had to wait four weeks for this baby to come from France.  I didn't mind - it was worth the wait!  I ADORE it!!  It's actually for my living room but the fireplace has to be sorted out before it can go to it's new home so for the moment it'll have to stay here.   (I also have my eye on another large white mirror for the dining room).   So, to cut a long story short, I kind of ran out of time Saturday to do everything I wanted for my Easter table but it worked out ok. . .

 

The dining chairs are Camargue chairs which is a traditional French farmhouse style chair from the Camargue region in France.  The chairs and the weathered oak table are all by Flamant, a Belgian interiors company.  I went with a plain linen tablecloth (well, it's a linen/cotton mix - easier to iron!!) as it goes well with my pride and joy French dinnerware. 

We set up a little drinks table to the side which looked cute . . .

I just love my French white dinnerware when it's all on the table . . . I kept it simple with all white ware, white linen napkins and Waterford crystal.  For the napkins - I just tied them with string and put a little sprig of rosemary from my garden on top for a little greenery . . .  frilly, frilly china . . .

To add a little sparkle I also used some pewter egg cups and candlesticks . . .

yes, the theme was kind of egg -ey!!




Niall cooked up a storm - I was too busy helping the chef to take any pictures of the starters and mains but things calmed down towards the end and here are the desserts nearly ready to go.  The menu was lovely, for starters we had baked egg in parma ham nests, for the main course we had rack of lamb with a herb crust with minty potatoes and for the finale - Niall's speciality - a trio of desserts - this year it was strawberry shortcake ice-cream, ginger snaps with vanilla cream and a surprise pot!! (all homemade by Niall).

The surprise pot is a becoming a bit of a tradition now . . . take off the lid and . . .

SURPRISE!!!! a little mini egg in a nest of white chocolate shavings on top of a rich chocolate mousse - mmmmm!!!

Isn't the little egg so sweet . . .

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend and enjoyed the break!

Home Sweet Home

It's good to be home!

I've been away for almost two weeks as my baby was in hospital with a bad chest infection but I'm happy to report that he came home last night and is much better and well on the road to recovery!  It is sooo good to have him home safe and snug where he belongs and I am glad to get back to my bed and my creature comforts.  So, today Saint Patrick's Day we're celebrating Criostoir being home and us all being together again.

I hope you're all having a good Paddy's Day wherever you are in the world

Sláinte!

Sharon
xxxx