Gem and Jo's Irish Pride Guide

We were both born and raised in Ireland, which means that it's pretty much mandatory that we celebrate St Patrick's Day in some shape or fashion. So whether you were born in our fair Isles or you are just a fan of us Paddys and our green country, we are gonna share with you guys some ways to get your pride on this St Patrick's Day.

1.  Wear something green! It really couldn't be simpler. Don't worry you don't have to wear clothing that a leprechaun would be jealous of, just swap some of your staple accessories for some festive green ones. Plus no one wants to be the only person that get's pinched because they aren't wearing green. We love this over sized scarf from Asos and this cross body bag from Parfois. Who says green can't be stylish?

2. Ditch your normal black eyeliner for some green eyeliner. You'll get the same intensity but with a bit more festivity. Too afraid to go all green? Layer some black liquid eyeliner on your top lashes over the green, leaving a bit peaking out. A little less out there but an equally festive look. We love Rimmel London's Soft Khol Kajal Eye Pencil in Jungle Green for this look. 

     

3. Paint your nails! Who doesn't love getting creative with nail polish. If you're super adventurous you could try painting shamrocks or Irish flags on your nails. For a simpler look just go for a straight up green shade. We love Barry M's Nail Paint in Racing Green for a slightly vampy St Patrick's day look. 

4. Watch an Irish movie. Ireland has produced some great movies from The Commitments to Once. You could even get really into the spirit of things and watch Darby O'Gill And The Little People. If all else fails, throw on P.S. I Love You and have a good ole laugh at Gerard Butler's really terrible Irish accent. For those of you not from Ireland, no one in the country speaks like that at all. 

IMDb

5. Use your cúpla focal. If you're from Ireland, make use of your Irish sayings that you probably haven't uttered since the leaving cert. If you're not a native speaker, try out some of these common Irish phrases that are sure to wow your friends;

Dia Dhuit (deea gwitch) - Hello

Conas atá tú?(kunass a taw two) - How are you?

or the ever so eloquent,

Póg mo thóin (pog mo hone)

6. Take a walk in the Irish country side. We are pretty much famous for our green landscape so what better a time than St Patrick's Day to go out and experience it. 

If you don't live in Ireland, take a look at this picture of a cow, you'll achieve a similar affect. 

What are you doing this St. Patrick's Day? 

Until next time,

Gem and Jo's Festive Holiday Nails

Well hello there! Welcome to another unusual edition of polish picks, this one not so much polish, oops. Instead we're gonna show you guys there crazy cute false nails from Primark, which were only €1.50! 

We decided to wear these bad boys for our university Christmas day which was way back on the 15th of December. Basically Christmas day on campus is an excuse for people to skip lectures and wear festive clothes for the day. It's a great tradition and this year was great fun for our last year on campus *sadface*

While we put on the mandatory festive jumpers and santy hats we also went that step further and put these uber festive falsies on. 

When we first got them we were like "these will not last long" however they pleasantly surprised us! The majority of the nails lasted all day and we made sure to bring the glue that came with them just in case, but it definitely wasn't needed!

Jo went full on Christmas and used every design in the pack, which turned out super cute as you can see in the picture above!

Gem went for a more subtle look (mostly because the majority of the nails were a little too big) but it too turned out quite cute, as seen below! Gem also used Primark's PS Love collections pink shimmer nail varnish which was on sale for 50c!

There you have it! Our super festive, cute nails for Christmas day. We are definitely going to try more of Primark's false nails range and we shall let you guys know how we get on with them, as usual!

Which is your favourite look? What did you do on your nails for the holidays? 

Until next time,

Gem and Jo Take on Camping

So this weekend we went camping! We apologise for the lack of updates but we had zero signal where we were! 3 whole days without internet or phone, it was truly shocking stuff!

We went to a place in Athlone, County Westmeath, called Lough Ree (East) Caravan and Camping Park, where Gem's parents have a caravan and boats to use during the summer. You can check out the park Here. It's a really pretty little place with direct access to the lake, which leads onto the River Shannon and isn't too far from Athlone town. 

Here's views of the lake from the park:

There's a beautiful, unique sunset there every night! It really is a gorgeous lake!

And there's always some ducks hanging around! 

When we arrived we set up our tent, which we bought from Halfords for an absolute steal, it included 2 airbeds and 4 sleeping bags and even torches!! If you're thinking of going camping you should check out their selection of tents and camping equipment Here.

We spent all of Saturday swimming and kayaking, occasionally getting rained on but we didn't care as long as the thunder and lightening stayed away!!
Saturday night we took a trip to the local pub called The Dog and Duck! This place is an absolute gem! It is great craic and serves AMAZING pizza! (Pizza and a pint for €10, you wouldn't get that anywhere else!) Check them out here.
The awesome thing about this pub? It is literally right outside the campsite, no need to pay for a taxi!

Sunday, of course we went swimming again but we also took a trip into Athlone town via the River Shannon!
Here's the course we took:

We followed the red line seen on this map!

And here's Jo driving us to Athlone:

The route from the campsite to the town is beautiful, full of scenery and there are plenty of ports to stop in before you get there if you wanted to and there are almost always people water-skiing so you get to watch that too! 

In Athlone we stopped for some lunch from a local take away called Genoa Cafe, which has been in Athlone since the 1940's!

The food was delicious and there was plenty of it so we decided to share some with a few ducks that were hanging around! We ended up having about fifty seagulls, ducks and swans surrounding the boat! We figure ducks must have some sort of telepathy because they were arriving from all over the place, it was kinda nuts!

This is only some of them, there were so many!!

Before we left the town centre we had a bit of fun, pretending to be part of the Titanic! 

And because it had finally become sunny, we took some pretty pictures of the town!

It was a brilliant weekend full of laughter, rain, swimming and brilliant people! If you're looking for a campsite to pitch a tent or park a caravan in, you should take a look at Lough Ree (East) Caravan Park. The manager's name is John! Pack some wetsuits and you're guaranteed to have a great time!

Or if you prefer to stay in town, the Radisson Blu hotel is right on the River Shannon (Gem stayed there before and says it is gorgeous!) and there are plenty of different river cruises you can take to see the area:

River Run Cruise

Viking Tours Ireland

You can also rent a cruise boat for a weekend and travel the Shannon yourself, there are plenty of companies to choose from: take a look here!

P.s. we're pretty sure we weren't camping, we think we were 'glamping' (glamorous camping'). 

Thanks for reading! Until Next Time!!