Our visit to Tropical World in Letterkenny

There is nothing better than getting the kiddies out and about on long boring days, and a little road trip is our favourite way to entertain the wee ones.
Yesterday we decided to take a drive to Letterkenny to visit Tropical World butterfly house and mini zoo

Having heard so much about it from family members who have went before we felt that we were missing out. Being so close to home Im suprised that we hadn't heard more about it to be honest,  Can I just start off by saying what an amazing place this is, for children and adults alike.

Our first stop off was in the new Dino Den, this was a room set up to look like a scene from Jurassic park, filled with dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes, along the side were cages with nests inside filled with dinosaur eggs, it looked sooo realistic. There was even a mini excavation site set up for the children to dig up and discover there own dinosaur bones, such an amazing place for their little imaginations to run free.

This then lead us through to the Butterfly House and for anyone that knows me personally will of course know that I am obsessed with butterflies (hense the Little Painted Lady Blog name) so I felt right at home inside the butterfly house, such a stunning array of species of all shapes,sizes and colours, and to be able to walk through their own little butterfly haven was just fantastic, although my youngest had a little freak out as one of the butterflies took a little shine to him and kept trying to perch itself on top of his head, which i found hilarious of course (bad mummy). Poor child.

After exiting the Butterfly house, we were then lead  into a mini zoo, in here the children were able to see a tonne of different animals,  from Monkeys to Owls, Prairie Dogs to Meerkats , Snakes to Scorpians , Parrots to Tortoises, the list goes on,there were just soo many to mention , the Parrots though had to be my childrens favourites, the colours of them alone were just stunning

.
Needless the say after troopsing the kiddies around for an hour , they were getting hungry,we brought our own picnic and we were able to sit in the seating area just beyond the gift shop, but if you do visit and forgot to pack goodies then there is a gorgoeus vintage Cafe/tearoom situated inside the premises called Thyme Out, they will cater for everything from Tea/coffee to homemade lunches, definately 10/10
our last stop was the childrens soft play area, great for a final little pitstop to finish the day off, my son loved the obstacle course , while the girls loved the giant board games on the tables.

I honestly cant praise this place enough, if you ever need a day to you wind with your children then I urge you to pay Tropical World a visit, you wont be disappointed!! Below I will list their web address/twitter , admissions fees and opening hours for you to have a look over.

WEBSITE http://tropicalworld.town.ie/app/index.php/page/home
TWITTER http://twitter.com/tropicalworldlk
I hope you all have a fantastic day but for now its love , hugs and kisses from Little Paintedme xxxooo

Realising how special family holidays are.

Having just come back from our little family holiday I have had time over the past few nights to sit down ,relax and go through the holiday pictures .
This year we went back to Log an tSeanti,

a holiday home in Derrybeg county Donegal in the west of Ireland,and even though this is just a mere hours drive from where I live it feels like a whole different part of the world. The house is situated so close to the sea and has only a handful of houses dotted around it

. I am so used to the hussle and bussle of living in a big city, so when we go there on holiday it feels so peaceful. The air is filled with the smell of the turf fires and sea air, such a homely place to stay, its hard to put into words just how I feel when I'm there
 This year we brought our extended family with us, children, mums, dads, sisters, aunts the whole works, we wanted to share this amazing place with them in the hope that they would love it as much as we did . They weren't disappointed, in fact my aunt cried as we were leaving (big softie) I think it was just the fact she could come away from all of her stresses for a week, leave all the worries in Derry, plus the fact that our phones or internet didn't work down there was a major bonus in my eyes, I don't know about you guys but I struggle to get a conversation from my crowd at times because they have there noses stuck in there phones scrolling through Facebook ,Twitter or Snapchat! don't get me wrong I'm as obsessed as the next person is with social media, but for them few days to be able to actually have proper conversation, oh my god ,it was bliss!
Thankfully while we were there we didn't have our typical Irish summer weather, we actually had some scorching sun shine,

The kids loved it because we could go to the beach every single day as it was practically on our door step, plus the sea air knocked them out at bed time so it was happy days for mummy as-well.
I have never seen such a stunning place, granted I have never travelled any further than England for holidays in the past .I know, I'm 31 and never been on a foreign holiday, but in all honesty why would you need to when we have absolutely amazing places like this in our own country, with stunning views to match I may add.
From our beach front we could see a number of little islands across the water,

 It is so breath taking just being able to see it all really, and the fact that we were spending precious time making memories with our family, made it all the better. Needless to say I took loads of holiday snaps, most being of my kiddies making sand castles, making my daughter a mermaid tail from sand

,my mum hunting for shells with my two youngest children, and our family just being together, having fun.

words cant explain how happy and content that makes me feel.it really is the simple things in life.
what is your idea of an ideal holiday? do leave me a little comment and share.
I hope you all have an amazing day, whatever you may be up to, but for now its love, hugs and kisses from Little PaintedMe xxxooo.

Easy Peasy sweet potato , ginger and lime soup

Hi my lovlies

         I tried out this delicious recipe a few months ago and just had to share it with you all, this has to be the nicest soup I have ever tasted ,So fresh and suprisingly filling.

First of all you will need..

4 sweet potatoes (peeled&chopped)

3 tbsp of olive oil

2 onions (peeled&chopped)

Roughly 5cm of root ginger (peeled&chopped)

1 clove of garlic (peeled&chopped)

1.1 ltr of chicken / vegetable stock

Juice and zest of 2 limes

225ml of creme freich 

Method

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the chopped onions and cook until soft and slightly see through. Next add the ginger and garlic and cook again for a further few minutes. Add the chopped sweet potato , cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally to ensure the ingredients don't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Stir in the stock and allow to simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then liquidize and add the lime zest, juice, creme fresh and serve.

It is as easy as that and takes around 30 minutes and thats including prep. 

Hope you all enjoy, but for now its love , hugs and kisses from littlepainted me xxxooo

filthy velvet ( it makes perfect scents)

After browsing through Instagram's discover new people page one night I came across a company called Filthyvelvetgram, me being the nosey so and so that I am I was intrigued to say the least, when looking more into the page I discovered they were a local business close to where I live that sold scented candles (scandles) , and being as obsessed with scented candles as I am I HAD to get to know more about them and there brand.

While on browsing through the product range and the different scent of candles I came across all the candle names, and let me tell you they are Hilarious, for example there is camel toe, busty blonde, pot head... the list goes on.

I had this idea in my head that i would be burning these candles and my visitors would come in and say ohhhh whats that lovely smell, and that's when I would reply ohhh that ohh it's just  "camel toe" or "busty blonde" (hehehe) the thought just makes me laugh out loud.
I knew instantly that I would fall in love with these products so I didn't hesitate in getting in contact with the company owners  Karen and jeremy and asking for permission to do a blog with the products that I purchase. Having received permission I placed an order for the busty blonde candle (coconut and vanilla musk) this was £10.50. i lovvvve lovvve coconut scents so this was a no brainer , and I also ordered two boxes of the filthy bits which are little wax pieces to melt on a burner, I got lime,basil and manderine and the cotton fresh scents, these were both £4.50 each for a 6 piece box

. When placing my order I chose to collect in person , that way I could meet with Karen,get a little chat and possibly see more products as well and i could use it as an excuse for a road trip for myself and my partner.
Guys I cant begin to explain how lovely Karen is and how welcome she made me feel in her home, while I was there Karen showed me all the different scents herself and her partner jeremy produce and all from their beautiful home, from the very first step to the last I might add

! I was just besotted with the range of the scents and if I could I would have taken them alll home!! I am just in awe of this pair and I want you all to get to know them too so I did a little Q&A while I was there to allow you all to get to know karen,jeremy and there fantastic company, so here it is......
when was your company set up?
I set the company up in February 2015 with the help of my partner.
Where is your company based?
All our products are hand made from our home in Portrush.
Where can your products be purchased?
You can purchase our products on line www.filthyvelvet.com and through selected retailers in Northern Ireland ie Studio Souk, Belfast, Preloved by Patti & Frank, Portstewart , Memento Portrush, Touch Beauty Spa Coleraine and Sarah Butcher Make Up artist Co. Mayo. We are attending one of London's leading gift and lifestyle exhibitions in September and hope to be trading with more retailers throughout the UK and Ireland.
Who was the brains behind the company and product names?
I worked as an Interior Designer and owned my own Design Boutique for 15 years, I'm also a qualified aromatherapist which gave me a great understanding of scent combinations.. I decided to combine my skills and love for secnted candles and create my own unique range. My primary aim was to create a quality product but It was also wanted the range to reflect my own personality - fun and a little bit cheeky.
How many different scents are there?
Currently we have 14 Scandle scents available and 7 different Filthy Bits (wax melts) available but have many more in the pipeline. We would like to extend our product range to include scented oils, perfumes and room sprays.
How much does your products retail for?
Our products retail online for £10.50 & £4.50
Can your products be purchased through wholesale so that other companies can feature your candles?
Yes our products can be bought wholesale
If you had to choose a favourite scent , what would it be and why? 
I have so many favourite scents and they tend to change with the season. At the moment I am really enjoying our Pot Head  - Freshly Cut Grass Scandle but I think our WTF - Winter's Traditional Fragrance has to be my firm favourite. Its so hard to choose - I like them all!!
Where do you hope your company will be in 10 years time.?
We hope to be a real contender in the home fragrance industry wholesaling throughout the Uk & Europe and perhaps further a field.

I couldn't wait to get home to open my purchases, and I wasn't disappointed , the candle comes in a rustic little tin with company logo and candle name, these would fit in beautifully with any home decor,  and the filthy bits come beautiful wrapped in tissue paper inside a little cardboard parcel.

Its times like this I wish that there was such an invention as smellavision because Ohhhh Myyyyy F#@king God these candles and filthy bits smell out of this world!!! I have purchased other brands of scented candles / melts before but dear jesus these are not even in the same catergory  when it comes to comparing smellls! I had the wax melt burning for 2 minutes and my whole house smelled AMAZING!!!!

I cannot recommend this company enough guys, I mean if you're to do one thing today then please make it be adding these guys on facebook/twitter/instagram and placing an order of your own because I can 200% assure you that you will not be disappointed!! I am now their number 1 fan for life, I will never be buying from any other scented candle company ever !! In fact I can assure you that I will have Filthy velvet bought out of stock by the end of this year for sure!!
 I will link all of there social site pages down below,so you guys can check them out for yourselves . I know you will become a fan too.
I hope you all have a "Filthy Velvet" day lovlies but for now its loves, hugs and kisses from littlepainted me xxx ooo

1. https://www.facebook.com/filthyvelvet
2.  https://instagram.com/filthyvelvetgram/ 
3. .  https://twitter.com/Filthy_Velvet 
4. https://www.pinterest.com/Filthy_Velvet/

gorgeous hair with no hassle

Hi my lovlies
A while back I watched a video on instagram of a lady using a magic little gadget on her hair,it was like a guide she used to french braid her own hair. I thought this was a fantastic product and decided to try it out for myself because there is times I see demos of products on t.v and think ohhhh that looks so easy then i receive it and I might aswell blindfold myself and tie my hands behind my back, like come on its just ridiculous.
 It almost looked like a little plastic wriggly worm, (great description) so I Googled and found out its called a Shang Du and it was on Amazon for 89p with free postage and packaging, this is buttons like so what had I got to loose .

It was delivered a few days ago, it was really fast postage considering it came from china. I couldn't wait to test it out for myself but I wasn't pro enough to trial it on my own hair just yet as I thought it would be sooo awkward. So instead I used my little 8 year old daughter Amelia as her hair is super long and really thin, my way of thinking was I needed to try challenge the gadget in some ways to try and find its faults , and what better way than thin hair. Well wasn't I wrong!! Oh my god this was soooo easy even my daughter could have done her own hair!! Each little loop holds the hair perfectly in place without any hassle what so ever and her hair looked like it took me hours, I was sooooo pleased with myself I was showing everyone. (Such a show off) .below is a before and after picture of Amelias hair.

The Shang Du did slip a little through out the day but I think this was down to the fact her hair was freshly washed this morning. I would suggest maybe 2nd or 3rd day hair. It would be an amazing little extra to slip in your luggage to take on holiday for them lazy sunny days by the beach sipping on cocktail. I would highly recommend this little product to everyone Its just FAB!!!
I hope you all have a fantastic day but for now girlies its love , hugs and kisses from littlepainted me xxxooo.