Celebrate your inner Irish! #StPatricksDay

I've said it once, and I will say it again - I am part Irish. But I am proud of the Irish part in me! I may have other heritages (like German and Polish) as part of my ancestry, but the Irish side seems to come out more. So when St. Patrick's Day rolls around, you can bet that I get excited!

But how does someone celebrate their Irish side? First off, drinking until you're drunk does not make you Irish. It makes you drunk. But there are plenty of cocktail recipes made from authentic Irish whiskey that will make any Irish want to celebrate in moderation! The Michael Collins Honeysuckle from Liquor.com brings out the Irish whiskey's sweetness. It looks so good, I might have to try it. If it's still cold by the time March 17th rolls around, you could always try out this Hot Toddy recipe!

Gammon (Ham) Steaks with Whiskey Sauce

Every celebrate needs food - or at least I thought so. Instead of dying everything green and calling it a St. Patrick's Day feast, why not give actual Irish dishes a shot? Forget the corned beef and cabbage - it is usually reserved for Halloween in Ireland. If you want to try a really good Irish dish, I suggest the Gammon (Ham) Steaks with Whiskey Sauce, Irish Champ, or Irish Apple Cake (if you're wanting something a little sweet).

Create a "LUCKY" pennant banner made from paint chips!

What's a celebration without decoration? This year, I plan on my wearing my new clover t-shirt and putting up a nice big green shamrock I picked up a few years ago. If you don't want your decor to appear tacky, I would skip the leprechauns, pots of gold, and rainbows. Go with clovers/shamrocks and the Irish flag instead. It looks more authentic.

The Quiet Man feat. John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara

Not into the whole St. Patrick's Day revelry thing? I don't blame you! Since St. Patrick's Day is kind of a religious holiday, you could always go to Mass, spend the day watching some Irish movies, or listening to Irish music. Here are some suggestions for Irish movies and Irish music.

No matter how you celebrate your inner Irish (or your Irish heritage), be safe, have fun, and do everything in moderation!

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Lucky Pennant Banner Tutorial

I know St. Patrick's Day isn't for a month, but I saw something on Pinterest for a Luck Pennant Banner made from paint chips/cards and the Irish in me wanted to make it immediately! So when Dad went to Walmart, I had him pick up a variety of various greens. Unfortunately, they didn't have much of a selection so some of the "white" pennants and letters/shamrocks are actually lime green. It's just hard to get that kind of green to come up in light.

Anyways, I decided to share with you how to make this Lucky Pennant Banner!

What you'll need:
10-15 paint chips/cards of various greens (You can get them for free at many stores. Just ask beforehand.)
Pencil with an eraser
Clear tape or glue (We used tape. I couldn't find the tacky glue. Oops!)
Scissors
String or ribbon (We used fishing wire, since that was all we had at the moment)
Shamrock template (I cut one from a catalog.) You may need to resize them so they can fit on your pennants.

1. First, assemble all of your supplies. Then figure out how you want it to look before you start tracing and cutting.. You can do dark green, light green, dark green, light green, etc. Or you can do it the other way around.

2. Using your pencil, draw a pennant shape on one of the paint chip/cards. Start from one corner, and draw a straight line to the bottom of the other side. Use the picture below as an example.

3. Continue drawing pennants on 10 of the paint chips/cards. Once you're done, cut out the pennants and set them aside.

All 10 pennants

4. Using the other 5 paint chips/cards, write or draw "L", "U", "C", "K", "Y" in block letters. Be sure to save some room for your shamrocks! Cut out your letters.

"L" is for the luck of the Irish! :)

5. Now trace your tiny shamrocks and carefully cut those outs. We decided on 6 shamrocks. Our poor fingers!

Tiny little shamrock!

6. Once you have cut out everything, be sure to erase any pencil marks on your cut items. You don't have to, but it will look better.

7. Tape (or glue) the "L" to the first pennant of your choice, then tape/glue a tiny shamrock to the next pennant, and so on until you have a letter/shamrock thing going on. Depending on how many shamrocks you are willing to cut, we used 2 shamrocks on the last pennant (after the "Y").

Put the shamrock pennants between the letters, creating a spacer.

8. Arrange the pennants how you want the banner to look. Don't put away the tape yet! Flip each pennant over and loop the tape over your finger and place the tape about 1/2" away from the top of the pennant. This will allow whatever string or ribbon you have to pass through the tape loop. 

9. Starting with your last pennant, string whatever string or ribbon you have chosen from right to left. Otherwise, it might read backwards. Unless you know what "YKCUL" means, start stringing from right to left. If any pennants sit crooked, just re-position the tape until the pennant sits straight.

10. Hang and enjoy!

Now, hopefully your green colors are not as varied as our was. I promise you, there is NO white in this banner. They are all green, just some are lime green and some resemble pea soup.

We might have another paint chip craft in the works, but this time, it will make Easter a little brighter.

By the way, do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

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Decorating Irish for Cheap!

I will be the first to say that I am proudly Irish! Some ancestors on my Mom's side came from Ireland, which makes me excited that I have a reason to celebrate St. Patrick's Day (March 17th)!

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