19 January 2012

Nenaghgal is Inspired

On Monday, it was Martin Luther King day in the United States. Many of us are familiar with his famous " I Have A Dream" speech that moved so many to a call of action in 1963.
To my delight, Sophia's teacher at St. Mary's Convent Primary here in Nenagh- used this day to teach the girls about the power of speech and indeed the power of famous quotes. Their assignment for today was to write their own speech.
Last week Sophia had to bring in in two famous quotes to school so I explained to here what a famous quote was and how to find them on the Internet. For those of you that follow Nenaghgal on Facebook- or indeed my personal FB page, you know that I too am a big fan of inspirational and motivational quotes. I was thrilled to introduce Sophia to the power of these messages and how you can use them to guide and encourage you through the ups and downs of life.
Last night, as I prepared dinner, Sophia sat at the kitchen table with my mother, who had arrived from the States yesterday morning. She proceeded to talk about and then write down ideas for her own speech on the importance of education.
Here is what she wrote.

Hello. I'm here today to talk about children's education.
Do you know how much education is important? Well do you?
I found a quote on the Internet that inspired me about children's education. The quote is "A child mis-educated is a child lost." by American President John F. Kennedy.

Education is a great opportunity to open up our minds.
I was also inspired by our teacher Ms. McClune who is helping me to embrace Irish. So I'm trying to work harder on my Irish even though it's frustrating to me.

Girls in my class, you better listen up! I need to say something important you might want to hear.
Do you want to work hard or do you want to slack off?
Well do you?

Education, Education that's all we need! 


It was an amazing experience watching and listening to my 11 year old daughter express herself so beautifully.
She has inspired me to keep inspiring her with quotes and messages motivate and empower her.

03 January 2012

Nenaghgal Shares 20 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs

Happy New Year to you all. I'm really excited about all that 2012 will bring so to kick things off on that positive inspirational note I was talking about, I thought I'd share these 20 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs that I came across in December. Perhaps you can use some of them to influence your life, your job, your business!

Lesson 1: Don't Wait - If you want something done, go straight to the source.
Lesson 2: Make Your Own Reality - Steve Jobs learned early that when you don't like how things are in your life, your world - change them, either through action or through sheer force of will.
Lesson 3: Control Everything You Can
Lesson 4: Own Your Mistakes
Lesson 5: Know Yourself
Lesson 6: Leave the Door Open to the Fantastic
Lesson 7: Don't Hold Back
Lesson 8: Surround Yourself with Brilliance
Lesson 9: Build a Team of Players - "By expecting people to do great things, you can get them to do great things."
Lesson 10: Be Yourself
Lesson 11: Be Persuasive
Lesson 12: Show Others the Way
Lesson 13: Trust Your Instincts
Lesson 14: Take Risks
Lesson 15: Follow Great with Great
Lesson 16: Make Tough Decisions
Lesson 17: Presentation Can Make a World of Difference
Lesson 18: Find a Way to Balance Your Intensity
Lesson 19: Live for Today
Lesson 20: Share Your Wisdom

It's a wonder why he was so successful!!
Happy New Year again, hope it brings much success to you all and most of all health and happiness.

Lisa

31 December 2011

Nenaghgal Wishes You a Happy New Year


 Today is the close of another year. I know many of you have had a particularly tough year and we've certainly had our share of hiccups along the way. But as a whole, it was a pretty good year- and we have a lot to be thankful for. 2012 promises to be very busy and January for me will kick off with a bang so I'm relishing the downtime I'm having now at home.
 My blog has suffered a bit due to my new job but I am re-focusing on that and plan to blog about all the positive things happening throughout Ireland in 2012 - from food producers, to travel destinations, to artists and crafts-people and entrepreneurs Ireland continues to inspire me and I for one know we are going to pull ourselves out of this recession and bounce back with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
 So for this final post for the year I wanted to post some simple inspirational photos of this beautiful country. The one above was taken on St. Stephen's Day on a walk up in the Silvermines outside of Nenagh. As you can see where we were standing was shaded in clouds but back down in Nenagh - it was bathed in sunlight. I found this a very hopeful image.
 And of course rainbows always inspire me- and a double one well that's even more valuable- this was taken just outside my office in Bennettsbridge.
 Looking out across the fields in Lorrha (from the porch of Old Farm).
Lough Derg on Halloween Day- very over cast but the lake was like glass.

And as a final goodbye to 2011 an incredible sunset on my way home from work one evening - before the clocks went back.
Happy New Year to all of you and thank you so much for all your support this year. Thanks for reading my blog, Liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter. It's been great meeting so many talented and interesting people throughout the year. Looking forward to another inspiring year ahead.

23 December 2011

Nenaghgal Writes To Santa

It is the Eve of Christmas Eve and for the first time I feel quite organized. I've just wrapped all the pressies so there will be no rush tomorrow night. My daughter, who is 11, and thankfully and magically still believes, has written her letter to Santa - which is certainly handy as I will have some idea about what I'm responding to this year. My husband has made a cheesecake today and will be making his yule log tomorrow, we have in all the veggies and free range pork mince for our stuffing, the turkey is ordered and only has to be collected and we are in good shape for having 11 of us for Christmas dinner on Saturday. I just pulled out my Christmas Tree Spode plates for Christmas dinner and getting out my linens to iron.
I wanted to wish all my followers and new blogging, Twitter and Facebook friends a very Happy Holiday season however or where-ever you are celebrating. But I especially want to wish you all the best for a Healthy and Prosperous 2012. It's been a tough year for so many people all over the world and I hope that it gets easier for everyone next year.
Last weekend in the Irish Times there was a competition to write to Santa - as as I was mad busy, I missed submitting an entry so I just thought I'd write him a letter now.

Dear Santa:
To be honest I have everything I need this Christmas. I have a loving husband and a beautiful daughter who are both in good health. I have two nutty but wonderful Labradors, Frida and Sugar, who drive us all a bit mad but they are family. I received great news yesterday that my kidneys have not deteriorated more in the last 7 months- ( I have kidney disease but things are holding steady) which is good because I have big plans for 2012 and I'll need all the energy I can get!
I have an amazing group of friends here in Nenagh that have helped me through those rough spots and celebrated all the good ones too. I also have many new friends I've met via Twitter and Facebook throughout the year. It's been quite a year. 
I've got a wonderful family in America- my parents, a brother, a new niece, sister in law, aunts, an uncle, and cousins that keep in touch and are close to my heart even though we are far away.
So why am I writing to you?
Well, it's simple. I want the people in Ireland to recognize that as a country we have so much to offer the world. Through my blogging and job I've met many amazing talented people who believe in themselves and have set out on a mission to create beautiful product or start up innovative new businesses despite the recession. 
Ireland needs to believe again. Believe in the country, believe that we can change the future, believe that we have the strength and courage to move forward and change for the better. We need to celebrate small victories, small steps in the right direction, we need to start saying... We Can and We Will. Put your mind to it and in time, step by step we'll get there. 
Give everyone hope and persistence and the stamina to get through this recession so we come out fighting on the other side. Oh, and please keep them healthy too because without our health we can do nothing.
Thank you Santa and God Bless.
Nenaghgal



22 December 2011

Nenaghgal Mourns the Loss of Erica Wilson

I was saddened to hear that on Tuesday, 13th December a legendary lady passed from this world. Famous for her needlecraft - she helped it's revival and I was lucky enough to know Erica and meet her on many occasions. My initial introduction to her was on Nantucket in the late 70's when my family moved from England to Nantucket in 1976. Erica had her shop on Main Street and the shop is still there today run by her daughter Vanessa. My mother worked on some needlepoint designs for her and my brother and I were friends with her children. Many years later when we lived Connecticut and I attended Pomfret School, her son Illya Kagan was in my class.
Through my various roles in shelter magazines in New York, I often met Erica and her husband Vladimir Kagan whether it was at the High Point Furniture market or at the 100th Anniversary Party of House Beautiful. And I recently heard that they would be attending the Maison show in Paris this January, which I'll also be attending- I was so looking forward to seeing them once again. Alas, this will not happen now.
I found both these images on-line and you can read her proper obituary there too. The one below was taken by a wonderful Nantucket photographer, Beverly Hall, and I just love it in black and white.

I am honoured to have known you Erica.
I'll be thinking of your family at Christmas especially this  year.