The Clothesline

A Baby No More

The Clothesline — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:51:57 +0000

Thie time two years ago my baby girl arrived fast and furiously into the world. Early. Loud. Beautiful and with a remarkable ability to need little or no sleep, a mini super human.

Within minutes it was like she had always been here. We fell in love instantly. Her big brother and sister too. She took her place as leader and dictator of our home within days.

Today she is two. A baby no more. I have never had a child celebrate a 2nd birthday without having a newborn/small baby so this one is particularly poignant and marks the end of babies in this house.

My breastfeeding career ended a while ago. Our beloved and trusty buggy is getting cleaned for my new nephew. The cot is gone, nappies will be soon. So one chapter ends and another begins.

Happy Birthday Esme x

Nationwide Collection Points- January 21st/22nd

The Clothesline — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:38:20 +0000

We have a number of collection points this weekend around the country. Get in touch if you’ve had a wardrobe clearout and would like to submit items for credits- info@theclothesline.ie

Cork – Sat 21 st 3pm- B&Q Mahon Point.carpark

Kildare Sat 21 at 11am Clane Rugby Club

Sligo Sat 21 at 2pm – Carroroe Retail Park 2p

Limerick Sat 21 at 3pm Dunnes Jetland Ennis Road

Waterford Sun 22 2pm – B&Q

Longford — please email for times.

Dublin Sun 22nd – Dundrum Town Centre

The Silver Lining……….

The Clothesline — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:09:03 +0000

So yesterday was a bit bleak.

Back to work. Broke. Woke up to a stack of bills in the letterbox after finally falling asleep at 3am as the gales kept me awake.

Read the papers online which were full of that dirty word, I think should be banned from Irish media, AUSTERITY ( I hate that word).

Wrote out my NY resolutions to help enforce them. Drank loads of water whilst looking longingly at the coffee machine.

It was a grey day.

And then………………

There they were sitting innocently at the end of the aisle in the supermarket.

The day suddenly got a lot brighter.

The Evils of the Digibox and The Remote Control

The Clothesline — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:04:10 +0000

The Remote Control. How much stress does it cause in your house? Or is it just here?? And why does it always go missing? It’s caused the most arguments here over the festive period. Admittedly very much a first world problem but a problem nonetheless.

Then comes the additional stress of the digibox thingymibob. Yes it was wonderful, at first. Pause and rewind live tv……WOW. Then came the stress. You pause something, watch it,halfway through you accidentily press a button by mistake and its gone. You record things and then halfway through you get that message “Your digibox is full”- que mad panic to delete random things off the box, whilst your heart races to get there in time because its recording the one thing worth watching on tv in the last three months.

You get a spare hour to yourself and decided to catch up on something but generally when you sit down its been deleted to make space for a series link of Top Gear or Grand Designs.

Then your five year old works out how to use it and your tv has constant flashing memo’s that Barbie in The Nutcracker is about to start.

Then to add to the confusion. NTL or Upc or whatever they call themselves have now brought out an app that lets you record things even when you’re not in the house. I discovered this when watching and recording something at the same time last week only to discover my husband was out but still managing to control the tv.

Its technology gone too far. Bring back the VCR and a remote that could lower the volume and allow you to change channels. Life would be less stressful.

Little Hands and Christmas Trees- A Solution

The Clothesline — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:07:48 +0000

Firstly I would like to state, I am not one of those who has a “good room”, nor do I make people take off their shoes when they come into my house. My house is a mess. It varies in different degrees of messiness but it is always in some form of mess. This is fine, I’ve learned to live with it. However, I am very very very particular about my Christmas tree.

It must be real.

It must be fat.

It must be tall.

There will be no flashing lights nor tinsel.

Once it is decorated it is to be enjoyed from afar.

Herein lies the problem. I have three children under 6 years of age. They have a constant need to touch, change , rearrange the Christmas tree. Resulting in me spending an age every evening rearranging the tree once they are asleep every year.

After several years of Christmas tree stress, I have found a solution! Homebase are selling “Chirstmas Trees in a bag” for €11 ( currently a further 20% off). The bag contains a 3ft artificial tree, lights, baubles, a star. I handed my three “their” tree, they have decorated and redecorated it 8 times in 24 hours. “My tree” has been resplendent in all its cranberry and champagne glory ( not red and gold, are you getting the idea?)and untouched in 24 hours. Result!!

Brace Yourself the Binary Budget is on the way…….

The Clothesline — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:22:56 +0000

The 2012 Budget is almost upon us. This year instead of the 90 minutes of budgetary gloom, the gloom shall be spread over two days preempted by a “state of the nation” speech by An Taoiseach this evening…….Im going to nail my colours to the mast and predict that Enda’s speech is not going to be good news either.

The papers this morning are full of predictions, none of them optimistic. My personal favourite is the proposed cuts to Child Benefit. Latest indications suggest Child Benefit will remain the same for first and second child but cuts are on the way for third and subsequent children. Now I distinctly remember Micheal Noonan, loud and confident when in opposition last year, asking Brian Lenihan was he beaten up by a third child on his way home from school……….. What a difference a year makes.

So we have two options for the next couple of days. Deep breathes, panic, terror as we digest Budget 2012 or find our happy place and block it out! We’ll be here updating on how the budget will affect families but in our heads we’ll be singing this

Holidays are coming , Holidays are coming…………

The Clothesline — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:53:32 +0000

When do you get the Christmas feeling??

For me, it’s the first time I see the Coca Cola ad

So you can imagine my excitement when I found out the real live Coca Cola trucks are coming to Ireland this week!

They will be in Galway tomorrow and Dublin on Monday………..

http://www.cokezone.ie/home/assets/xmas11/trucktour.jsp

The excitement!! Holidays are coming!

Anybody want a VIP Family Pass to 7UP’S Winter Wonderland?

The Clothesline — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:32:14 +0000

7UP Winter Wonderland is Ireland’s newest and biggest FREE-to-enter Winter Park, taking place from 8 December 2011 to 8 January 2012 at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin (only 5 minutes from Heuston and with dedicated shuttle buses running throughout the event!)

7UP Winter Wonderland features Ireland’s largest Ice Rink, a Christmas Circus, cosy continental bars & cafes, rides & attractions for all ages, market stalls and much more!

Would anybody like a VIP Family Pass to opening night on Dec 8th?

Everybody who places a order on The Clothesline this weekend November 25th – November 27th will be entered in to a draw for the VIP Family Pass…..Easy Peasy!!

We will notify the winner on Monday!

Three months in………A big thank you to you all

The Clothesline — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:22:10 +0000

A quick update!

Three months in and all is going great at TheClothesline HQ!

We finally have a good system in place and the uploading items to the site is moving along at a nice pace. We continue to be blown away by how quickly things sell….The fastest record being 2 minutes! Literally two minutes after a pair of trousers went live on the site, they were sold!

So we are working hard and have literally thousands of items to get up in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out!

We now have agents in Sligo/Leitrim, Meath/Kildare and Limerick/Clare who I will introduce properly to you shortly!!

So just a quick post to say thanks for all your orders and we have lots of new items on the way for you.

If there is anything else you would like to see on TheClothesline, do drop us a line and let us know, we’d love to hear from you.

Deborah

Magical Morrocan Oil at a Magical Price

The Clothesline — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:50:47 +0000

Here at The Clothesline, we love bargains, all bargains! This is our recommended bargain product this week!

So it seems Morrocan Oil is the latest must have product. I had heard mumblings about this magical oil but was not convinced until my hairdresser used it on my hair……Oh my, the shine, my crappy hair looked like it belonged on the red carpet. I was sucked in, instantly. However, the tiny bottle cost €38.00……… Now after shelling out for highlights and a hair cut an additional €38 was just not a possibility.

I left wistfully and had been thinking of the magical oil since. Then whilst queueing in Penneys I saw small little bottles of oil at the till. I picked one up and a couple of days later gave it a try………It is even better than the hairdresser’s fancy ass €38 stuff!!! The cost : €2.50!!!

Its called Hask Argan Oil. The bottle holds 18ml but you literally only use a tiny bit. I would imagine it will last for months. It truly is amazing. I have gone from having hair Def Leppard would be proud of

To hair like this:

ALL BECAUSE OF THIS BEAUTIFUL LITTLE BOTTLE!!!

It has helped resolve one of the biggest causes of strife in our household…….Hair brushing. My daughters have stunning hair. Its thick, has a slight curl and is truly lovely but my how it tangles. The roars and shouts after they have their hair washed has to be heard to be believed. Last week, I used the magical oil after they were out of the shower and lo and behold, there have been no screams when hair brushed since and their hair looks amazing, shiny and healthy.

Magic oil, I salute you!

Get thee to Penneys now and get your hands on some. If you cant, let me know, I have big plans to buy out the remaining bottles in my local Penneys tomorrow.