I'm Irish but don't kiss me

Growing up, me and my brother always thought we were mostly Irish and Russian. It wasn't until my mom got really into genealogy and tracing our family tree several years ago that things started shifting.. now it seems like we're mostly British and Welsh on my mom's side, with an ever dwindling percentage of Irish (still almost entirely Russian on my dad's side, although Eastern European ancestry is way harder to trace online than Western.)

I grew up with certain traditions --colcannon and Irish soda bread every year on March 17, I got my first claddagh ring when I was like 10, my aunt made a pilgrimage to our ancestral home of County Cork, my brother has the Irish flag tattooed on his arm! -- and even though I'm not quite as Irish as I originally thought, I can't let those traditions go. I feel unlucky if I take off my claddagh (I wear one as a necklace now instead of a ring) for even a second. My mom still quotes Irish sayings that were passed down from her father. And I'm still celebrating the heck out of St. Patrick's Day each year! :)

shirt - threadless | skirt - topshop

shoes - bait footwear | collar - amazon

everything's coming up clover

dress- ruche

cardigan - modcloth

shoes - asos

The post in which I make the transition from cat lady to cah-razy cat lady...

This St. Patrick's Day was the most fun I've had in years! I've been nuts about this holiday since I was a kid-- I used to slip green dye into everything (I mean, everything. My parents weren't fond of the green milk, green rice or green potatoes..) Even though my mom is Irish, we never really celebrated much aside from my food dye craze. But this year she must have been feeling her roots something awful because she went all out! For dinner we had homemade Irish soda bread, colcannon, boxty and burgers (or as my mom insisted we call them, "St. Paddy's day patties" lol)

For dessert we had shamrock shaped cookies -- dyed green of course!! ;D We usually watch The Quiet Man every St. Patrick's Day, not just because it's a household favorite but because John Wayne really reminds my mom of her late Irish father. (He was my grandfather's favorite actor and I swear they looked like twins!) This year, though, I thought I'd introduce my little brother to The Gnome-Mobile, one of my childhood favorites that somehow eluded him growing up. It's not *technically* an Irish movie, but the lead character, DJ Mulrooney, is Irish and the gnomes are mighty similar to Leprechauns! ;D If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend giving it a shot! The stars are the kids from Mary Poppins!

All in all I had a fantastic St. Patrick's Day! Did you do anything fun to celebrate? :)

St. Patrick's Day Potato

I knew I wanted to post something St. Patrick's Day-related today, but I got quite sick this weekend (my throat is still so sore I can't even talk! ugh!) and didn't get a chance to go 'a hunting for Irish goodness until 1am this morning. I sifted through a bunch of videos on youtube before finding this gem, which combines two of my all time favorite things -- St. Patricks Day and THE POTATO!!

Yes, the potato. I love a lot of things in this world, but, if you'll notice, only 8 merit mentioning in the little bio I have under my picture at the top of my blog. Only 8 things in this entire world, and one is the almighty potato. So, imagine my sheer glee when I stumbled upon this video about the history of the potato, and its relation to Ireland (well.. and Idaho, and South America). Wheee!! It's really fun and cute... and it's about potatoes, so I'm a happy girl.

I'm going to stop typing now since I haven't really slept in days, and I'm pretty sure I'm not making any sense to anyone but me... so, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Oh! And in case you missed it, here's my Irish-themed playlist that I posted two weeks ago :)

march o'playlist

It's March, and that means St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon! yay! I'm with George Carlin, in that I don't say I'm "proud" to be Irish since I didn't really have any say in the matter.. but I'm definitely very happy to be Irish! I love hearing stories from my mom about my grandfather's Irish family gatherings.. they just seem to really enjoy life... and beer, but that's another matter lol.

What I love most about Irish culture is the music. It's just so beautiful, even (or maybe especially?) when tinged with some punk. The Pogues are one of my very favorite bands, so this playlist is definitely a bit Pogues heavy, but I don't think that's a bad thing ;-D Oh, and I think that Unicorn song is for children, but come on. It's an Irish song about unicorns.. how could I not include it?!