It's not goodbye...

Say hello to my friend (and also work colleague) the lovely and entertaining and not quite all there- Ms O'Loughlin- as she will be referred to as from now on. She leaves us (most importantly me) to go off teaching. I'll miss you Nivo, who else will I have to fight with over too small dresses left over from shoots. I trust you will continue to raise fashion standards (and hemlines) in the staff room. And always remember to conceal the crazy

Auld Irish postcards.

I took this shot on my way home this weekend, it reminded me of those old Irish postcard's my Granny used to sell in her shop. I thought I'd make my own version using this shot. I've included the original so you can see what I've done. I think it looks quite convincing I think. I think there's an idea in this somewhere... watch this space.

HEADLINE: Snow Patrol caught smuggling cheese

That headline could be an innuendo for a fart joke but instead it's a lead in to a concept for Coleraine cheese campaign (see more on previous post). Can you tell the client didn't buy any of my ideas. It's somewhat worrying but I'll encourage myself by showcasing it here instead. So my family and friends and perhaps a random surfer might smile. It think it could be a potentially funny campaign. 

Here's the science bit- In order to motivate affinity with Coleraine cheese and Northern Ireland consumers, Kerry foods set us the task of making Coleraine cheese synomous with Northern Ireland.  Who better to choose the NI born n' bread Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol. The campaign would take local celabs (as the say in NI) and show them feeding their Coleraine addiction. "Part of who we are" sign off further enforced the heritage of Coleraine cheese in NI culture. 

For all you no advertising/marketing type... just eat Coleraine. It's yum. 

Free idea-er's.

Concept thoughts for local cheese, Coleraine cheddar. The thinking behind it involved looking at sub-cultures within Northern Ireland and reflecting these in a photographic campaign. Northern Ireland has a proud heritage and an insular mentality so all countries have very much their own identity. For example Derry girls are notorious fashionista, similar to what North England (Liverpudlian and Manchunians) would be famed for. My favourite of the three is the ice-cream van. It's such a typical irish scene. It was a potentially sweet and funny campaign, but at the minute it's still just thoughts :(

Deception

So.... went to see Inception last night. Yip. Lots of questions. None of them answered by the way. I'm in a confused state. I was glad to see this from college humour. They didn't answer anything but I did enjoy that someone shared my bewilderment. Upception (above) on the other hand makes perfect sense. 

Montgomery Burns stars as Yoda

This post is dedicated to the loveliness of Monty aka 'The best dog in the world'. Poor wee man has arthritis which is a shocking reminder that he's getting old. He's twelve in human years which makes him about 196 in dog years. I hate to hear this. Anyhow I don't want to dwell on it and at least it's not anything more sinsiter. I just wanted to share this sweet pic of Monty doing his best Yoda impression. Posting this could be his big break into celebdogdom. Lassie watch your tail, Monty has more talent in his (slightly arthritic) left paw. xx

Upular

I just came upon this (get it, up-on). Scoff, scoff. Whatever, it's super cute, don't judge me- just watch it. I'm a big fan. I have no clue that they're saying. I hope it's in a foreign language otherwise I'm turning into my mother and I think it all music sounds like they're singing in foreign. Personally I like to think they're singing in Irish. Carl sounds like he's rapping "Go raibh maith agat" , so you're welcome Carl and you're awesome. Or as we say here in Eire, Ta tu go maith, agus an bhfuil cead agam dul go dti an leithreas.


Slan

Toy Story 3- epic

We've just seen Toy Story 3 (3D) and I'm not afraid to say EPIC. I intentionally capitalised this too. It was an emotional rollercoaster, I was laughing, I was crying, I was happy, then sad, then happy again. At time's I had to consciously relax my cheek muscels as I sat like grinning at the screen like a deranged lunatic. It's really super. I won't put out any spoilers here yet it's still a new release but you should definately see it. Look how happy it mad Fergal. Bonus happiness points due to the fact that he matched everything. 

Sneaky-da-boys

When my youngest brother was very little he christened our two dogs, Homer (Simpson) and Monty (Montgomery Burns) collectively as "Sneaky-da-boys". They always seemed to be constantly up to something, sneaking off together, sniffing round somewhere they shouldn't, chewing on something they shouldn't and generally up to no good. My Mam is very house proud so neither dogs have ever been allowed past the utility room ( as far as she knows anyhow) and certainly never on any furniture.

Lovely Homer has since passed a couple of years ago but Monty is continuing to fly the flag for sneaky-da-boys. I got this email from my brother this morning with attached pic:

"Monty stayed over in ours last night on his holidays unannounced. Therefore he did not have his overnight bag or any stuff with him. We let him sleep on the sitting room floor as it was warmer than the tiles in the kitchen and he was fast asleep. Evidently he decided that the leather couch suited him better. This morning we spotted him through the glass. When he heard the kettle boiling (and realised we were up) he gingerly got back off the sofa and lay back down on the floor again. All the while we were watching him. When we came into the room he was full of affection and innocent as you like "

This pic is evidence of the guilty perpetrator carrying out the sinful deed. Wait till Mam see this. Good on ya Monty. Long live sneaky-da-boys. 


ps: Myles, you could do with cleaning your glass. 

My secret husband

We went to see the wonderful Josh Ritter last night, otherwise referred to as "my secret husband"**. The 'secret' part of that phrase is key, Josh himself is completely unaware of my undying love. I like to think this makes it all the more romantic- shakespearean type love- the unrequited kind. 

Anyhow, it's rather tragic the amount of Josh's gigs I've been too and up until now I've cunningly avoided taking Fergal (my actual manfriend) with me- I couldn't risk him cramping my style if Josh spotted me. This time however I voluntarily offered him a ticket. What can I say, I must be getting kinda fond of him. 

As usual Josh crooned and I swooned and although Fergal typically doesn't pay a blind bit of notice, he did himself admit to actually questioning his own sexuality a few times that night. Josh Ritter, a man who can whisper sweet nothings into a crowd of hundreds and make everyone feel like it's solely directed at them, men and women alike. Now that's special. 

**reference only ever made by me. 
ps: check out the unimpressed expression on the randomer behind Fergal. I may or may not have been singing along too loudly. 

Cruising (for a bruising)

Today I went cruising with my homeboy- well my wee bro to be exact but he loves it when I use cool terms like 'homeboy' and 'chill-laxing', 'dude' and what not. Of course he plays it cool and pretends he feels really uncomfortable. Kinda like we do when our parents dance, or sing, or talk to other people. Anyhow, I'm sure he'll also love me posting a pic of him on the pink princess for all the world wide web to appreciate. I should mention that Johnny's only back from a year living in Amer-ika. So his tolerance for me at the moment it quite high. It's great, I feel kinda special, maybe even loved. In other news we discovered a chicken nugget the shape of Ireland. Can you imagine how interesting this was after one or two (hiccup) glass of vino. Good times. Welcome back Johnny.

Gone fishing

This is one of my boyfriends boats. This weekend we're going fishing in it. I'm concerned about how structurally safe this vessel is, however he assures me it's fine. This could be a clever and elaborate ploy to get rid of me, I've been doing inordinate amounts of nagging this past while. I'm writing this as my insurance policy should I go missing never to be found again. Pin it on him. He doesn't read my blog so we'll be safe in the anonymity of the web.


You may notice also that rather than focusing on the actual parts of the boat that concern me I took a pretty pic on my iphone instead. What can I say, I'm an artiste 'till the end.

Now is good

98fm Now is Good from Niall Flynn on Vimeo.
Check out this lovely spot from Irish advertising talent, Rotcho, created for 98Fm. Sweet spot and some lovely art direction. For such a lovely idea and execution above the line it's a pity they let there below the line and digital work fall into a checklist. Twitter, check. Facebook, check. Web banners, check. Given that their campaign is about embracing the moment ('Now is good') wouldn't an online site set up to encourage others to submit their own experience of embracing the moment be engagement and interactive. Just a thought. Lovely campaign though. Jealous.com

The Kool kids

I had to blog this post, not because I'm getting broody and desperate to reproduce (although how cool would a nappy wearing samba dancing clockwork orange milk drinking boy be?) But because I've finally found out where my boyfriend has got his moves from. It was an epiphany, and I have to admit, slight relief to know that he's not been having some form of minor convulsions. As you can probably tell his moves aren't as well received as this tots, though credit where its due, they are equally as funny. The other difference is that rather than recording it with pride to share with the world I tend to back away slowly and deny all knowledge of our relationship. Good times. Good times.
In other news you can find more fun images if you're feeling a little broody yourself on: www.babiesmakingfaces.com

How I remember American Advertising...

I remember watching advertisements and infomercials* in the states and wondering how the hell these people sold anything! Medication infomercials, in particular, really amazed me. How anyone could swallow even a headache tablet upon learning side effects of possible death, spontaneous combustion and/or immediate blindness** fascinates me. I love this spoof Family Guy version of typical American Sale commercials. Those guy's are geniuses. It always has me in stitches. This ad for 'wacky waving inflatable tube arm flailing tubeman' is fan-fricking-tastic. Enjoy.
*Witness my use of american terminology here.
**maybe or may not be slight exaggeration.
Disclaimer:
Apologises for the cruddy youtube link. Only watch till 42 secs in... or don't and be mesmerised by how much time some people have on their hands.

Follow me and create the illusion of popularity.

Check me out, two blogs. Bling bling! Look at my pretty screen grab of my tumblr blog archive above. I have to admit my creative blog gets the most attention. I constantly bookmark and add stuff there sooooooo... you should follow me! I promise to reblog other peoples work at my own leisure and upload work I wish I'd done often. I'm also getting sucked into the hype of posterous. I hear it's what all the cool kids are doing and being awesome (reference previous post) I need to get in there. Watch this space. 
By the way I also tweet and shamelessly self promote daily. 

Being awesome

Just wanted to let all the peeps out there know that I’ve read this book and I am now awesome. Fact. I've had the market cornered on ‘cool’ for awhile, but I’ve been trying to figure out how to break into ‘awesome’ - who knew all you had to do was practice! Of course having some hip threads, questionable hair cut and some multi-cultural companions won't go a miss either. Right on dudes. Peace out.

A few of my favourite things

I had to share these fab lights from Swedish based design house Chen Karlsson. You can place all of your favourite pieces inside to make each lamp an individual. How sweet is that.

Follow my blog with bloglovin

Donegal ablaze

When out for an evening stroll at home I felt like I was featuring in an episode of Lost and the smoke monster had come to get me. But alas no, fame and fortune doesn't await me and thankfully no black smoke engulfed me and dragged me underground. Something similarly disturbing was happening though in that the local Rednecks had just given a new meaning to the term burning rubber. It's bonfire night. It's a real shame to see huge over the top fires lit in the middle of the countryside- especially as it's a poor excuse to rid of their old waste. The wee cows didn't know what was going on either. 

Stuff no one told me, but I learned anyway

I love these fun illustrations from the wonderful spanish illustrator Alex Noriega. He adds a new thought everyday to his blog. I highly recommend checking him out. Included are examples of three of my favourites but there's loads of other little gems in there. You'll love too.