Happy New Year - I’m hoping it will be an interesting one for all of us…As it’s still so fresh and clear, laid out before me, I’ll say my aim is to tread carefully on 2012. Enjoy it, be good to it, achieve in it and continue the mission to live each day with happiness on my mind.
On a smaller scale - this photo makes me happy. The styling - just…wow.
xBlanaid
A couple of ‘blue but not in that way’ snaps from that time I went to Lovebox. The actual Lovebox photos are now waiting to be put up this week.
From the top clockwise, Notting Hill doors and displays, a slick car, an amazing vintage jewellery shop near Portobello, and one photo from Lovebox - the beautiful Nico getting thrown in the mud.
xBlanaid
Our store Shutterbug will feature on TV3’s ‘Xposé’ tomorrow (Thursday) at 6pm. The fashion slot, presented by the lovely Angela Scanlon, will feature some of our stuff modeled by Lauren Bejaoui, who we use on our Asos boutique too.
We’re very excited here in the studio, and very grateful for all of the support that we’ve received. Honestly, it sounds disingenuous but it is genuinely very overwhelming.
xBlanaid
Image by Ciúin Tracey.
1. Signage for one of the cool shops on Melrose, Hollywood.
2. ‘a’ from the Neon Graveyard, Las Vegas. $15 for a 20/30 minute tour and well worth it…
3. Billboard on Venice Beach, for Rob Cordry’s new TV show. (Venice Beach is akin to a permanent Electric Picnic.)
4. Decoration in lobby of the Tropicana hotel, Las Vegas. (Great pool, good location, power shower, comfortable beds, expensive food.)
5. There was a biker’s rally at this place in Las Vegas when we passed, not sure what it is…
6. Red Velvet cake in Downtown. Crazy huge portions here. We buy everything one between two for the win!
7. Flying in to Las Vegas from L.A. - $53.00 return each, including check in baggage. 45 minute flight. 15 degrees celsius hotter.
8. Restored signage on Freemont. The Neon Graveyard fixes them up and puts them back on the streets of Vegas as it’s a non-profit organisation…
9. A painted gate in Downtown Las Vegas. Good vintage shops around there too, including the fantastic Gypsy Den.
More to come - I am snap-happy over here it seems… : )
xBlanaid
What a hectic week last week, my apologies for the absence! Part of that week involved my last appearance on RTE 2’s TwoTube, and the lovely presenter Sinead helped me be a better blogger by taking some shots of my rigout. Confession - I had also worn this exact outfit to a very cool wedding a few days before, so it’s a kind of double dose. Second confession, a lot of this is from my own store, Shutterbug, in Kilkenny. This is not a marketing ploy, just that the only time I get to shop now is for the store so eh…well - it proves I only buy what I’d wear myself.. ; )
Vintage top and skirt : Shutterbug
Ear cuff : Anni for Shutterbug (available soon!)
Silver cuff : €7.95 for two in H&M
Ram ring €13.95 Shutterbug
Vintage silver and pink stone ring : Shutterbug
Peach ring : €4.95 H&M
Thanks also to Aoife, Sinead, Eirinn and Christina from TwoTube - they made an otherwise very nervous situation (going on the telly), a very enjoyable and exciting time altogether.
xBlanaid
We did a quick shoot with model Karen Fitzpatrick in Langtons today, to launch the ‘Style Panel’, which takes place at Absolut Style at Set at 3pm on Saturday 23rd of April.
Karen, who is with Assets modelling agency, has created her own make up artist business called ‘Sculpt, by Karen Fitzpatrick’, and she will be joining us for the ‘Style Panel’ along with RTE’s Brendan Courtney, from ‘Off the Rails‘, and renowned hair stylist Kieran O’Gorman. I’ll be the host, and the event will be an informal and approachable chat about the panel’s personal experiences in style and beauty, answering questions, offering advice and doing twenty minute master classes. Brendan will take us through a style tutorial, Karen will show us a makeup look, and Kieran will create an effective up style. We will also be discussing shopping and selling online, following my recent addition to ASOS.com marketplace and setting up my own site etc etc.
Entrance to the Style Panel is part of the €8.00 Weekend Day Pass. Places are limited so come early! For more information see www.set.ie or call (056) 7765133
Photographer : Ciúin Tracey.
Stylist : Blanaid Hennessy
Model : Karen Fitzpatrick
Clothes and Jewellery all from my shop.
xBlanaid
Here are some little iphone photos of the shoot we were working on over the weekend. I’ll post some of photographer Mosele Foley’s shots from it soon - hers are sliiighty better than mine!
The shoot was for an interiors company in Ireland - lots of lovely products…we designed the cabin from scratch to suit the style of the stuff - and even built a fake kitchen for the set. More info soon!
xBlanaid
I am always putting my work images up on ‘the facebook’ and neglecting to share them on this blog, which really defeats the purpose to an extent! Here are some images from a shoot last year, on which I was the Art Director. (I’m sure there’s a better way of constructing the last sentence, but it escapes me right now…) The photographer was Moselle Foley, and the shoot was for Rosemarie Durr and her quite iconic pottery. We had a loose concept of ‘pottery as part of my life’, showing it used in work/home situations. This shoot remains one of my favourites, and not least because the client was wonderful to work with…
I hope you like it, see more from the shoot >here< and please do visit both Rosemarie and Moselle’s lovely sites too.
xBlanaid
Some images from the shop launch day - by Ciúin Tracey. We had a lovely day and have been incredibly busy since Saturday, hence the lack of posting! Thanks so much to everyone who visited, purchased and said nice things…we look forward to seeing you in the New Year! For all the other thank yous, and there are so many, many heartfelt than yous, please see the post below. : ) Oh and Kay from K Kajoux will be back in January, for those of you who fell in love with her jewellery!
xBlanaid
I’m very excited and tired - this Saturday, at 11am, we’ll open our new little second-hand & hand-made shop. It’s not full of crazy prices or scariness, just nice and pleasant…like most of the lovely shops down here in Kilkenny! So if you do come down this Saturday (I’m making mulled cider!) - take some time to visit Butterslip, Smoking Lily, Rebekah Patterson, Bridies, the Made in Kilkenny pop-up shop, the charity shop, Yesterdays, the lovely book shops - and so much more! That’s just the city centre - venture to bennetsbride, Castlecomer, Thomastown etc for more lovely craft stores. I’m like an advertisement for Kilkenny, but I do love this town. I mean city… ; )
Hope to see you on Satutday - I want to say a huge thank you to Rhona Nolan for the poster! One of my favourite bloggers, I also love her graphic skills. She’s also been a great help this week. Thanks also to Brid Leahy, Ciuin Treacy, Aisling Tobin Christina Byrne, Aran Hennessy, Moselle Foley and Frances Long for all of their work over the last year. Phenomenal people, really. A special mention of course to Eoin Hennessy, the unsung hero who works seven days a week and all the hours he can say yes to, just so we can stay going on this adventure.
While I’m on my thanks roll, my parents don’t read my blog, but they’re incredible. Really. My sister Roisin for making me far much more cleverer about some things.. ; ) and Dave for listening very patiently and calmly when I realise I’ve let myself in for even more work. Sometimes there are even tears. No bother to him, he’s a very good listener!
Also, genuinely to those of you who comment, and mail, and just say nice things, whether you’re a friend or a stranger of sorts - well, you’re lovely.
Mostly though, even with the odd tear, and late night, and frustrated phone call - I love it all, and I am very, very happy. I hope you are too, for any and every reason at all.
xBlanaid
See more images of the making of our shop on our facebook page > here < x
It’s photos like this that make me itch with yearning. Insane and amazing, all at the same time.
Ooh and by the way, tomorrow will see one of the longest posts on the blog EVER! It’s the post version of my new column in the Irish Independent Weekender, featuring 16 images of Tom Watt’s eclectic home, courtesy of photographer Dylan Vaughan. Hope you’ll like it!
xBlanaid
image via knightcat
I was asked to style Rosanna Davison for a shoot, to appear in the Evening Herald’s ‘The Dubliner’ magazine. It was their ‘SEX!’ issue and the inspiration was Marion Cotillard’s shoot with Interview magazine. The direction was that ‘the idea is to be as alluring as possible without overstepping the boundaries of decency.’ Alluring…I do love that word.
Anyway - to the details!
The clothes are from Bolero boutique in Dalkey, Co. Dublin (Iris from Bolero was just SO helpful and lovely), Topshop and Zara.
The photographer is the quite incredible Kip Carroll, he really is just feckin’ TALENTED. I like his use of lighting, the set ups and also how friendly he was - nice to work with pleasant people! Speaking of which, Rosanna is so easy to work with - she knows what she’s doing and is just naturally quite a lovely person to be around.
It was shot on location at Mahaffy House, 38 North Great George’s Street, Dublin 1, owned by the phenomenal Desiree Shortt. Words can not describe…just try and meet her some day. Amazing.
Anyway as you can see from my many adjectives - it was just one of those shoots that ends up being a NICE experience. Thank you to The Dubiner’s dapper editor Eoin Higgins for having me on board…and thanks for the chocolate!
Finally, it was interesting to dip my toe back in to the world of fashion styling again - you remember just how much work is involved on these big productions! You also realise that, as deadlines loom, people will be either incredible helpful, or not. I was lucky that everyone I encountered was the former!
xBlanaid
SEE ALL OF THE IMAGES AFTER THE JUMP.
So with this post I get to kill three Irish birds with one stone, athough I don’t mean birds in the Cockney way…
Here is one of my favourite Irish bloggers Rhona from Rose Tinted Uncertainty, photographed by us in Shutterbug and wearing a tulle skirt by Bonzie. Oh!..and my friend Laura Cunningham (Irish) had used this skirt in a shoot she styled for MTV’s Laura Whitmore (Irish) so I held on to it for a shoot before Bonzie collected it….well now this post is veritably made of Irish.
How beautiful and like a young version of Julianne Moore is Rhona? Very is the answer I would give anyway… : )
xBlanaid
See more photos on our facebook page >here<
I’m currently working on a couple of completely different projects - and above are some inspirational shots from one of the bedrooms….I was heading towards colour, now I’m toddling back to neutral.
xBlanaid
Images via ffffound.
This may not seem like a big deal to most people - but I have never, in my life, found a pair of jeans that fit me properly. Ever. To the point where, around 6 years ago, I decided to stop wearing jeans altogether. I still dabbled with the boyfriend jeans thing about two Summers ago, and last year found a nice pair of slouchy and comfortable cropped jeans. Still didn’t love either though.
I’m not sure that I’ll ever really be a jeans girl. I feel very eh…normal in them. It’s not that I dress to impress or shock or anything like that, I just like playing around with stuff, and I think there’s only so much you can do with a pair of jeans. (I mean this for me personally, I’ve nothing against jeans in general…) Also shape wise, I have a long back and short legs so have to be careful with the old proportions, and jeans can be pretty unflattering on me.
Anyway, rambling on, I stumbled upon this pair in River Island on Saturday while out shopping with my friend Alison. Due to work it was a ’smash and grab’ shopping trip so I took ten pairs of randomly sized and shaped jeans in with me, and ended up buying this pair. Still wondering if I actually like them, it’ll be interesting to see if they appear in an outfit post ever again… : )
Jeans - €48.00 River Island
T-shirt - vintage, free! (gift from a friend..)
Jacket - €30.00 vintage
Rabbit Hair Hat - €5.00 charity shop
Ankle boots - €80.00 Zara
Studded bracelets - €1.00 Charity shop
Cuff bracelet - €3.00 Accessorize sale.
xBlanaid
After a serious lack of outfit posts, I seem to be on a mission to make up for it in one week. The shoot with Ciúin gave me a bit of a kick to get in to my clothes again - not just shoot wise, but the day to day stuff. Also, after my encounter with the navy polka dot dress versus the scissors, I can’t stop cutting stuff up. I like the raggedy hemlines and altered shape. I may be addicted.
I bought this dress in Penneys’ yesterday, and started by cutting the unflattering ruffled bib from the front, then cut about an inch from the bottom. Also cut off unflattering ribbon tie thing. Had to put down the scissors before I was left with a floral cravat. May change blog name to www.howsshecutting.com
Dress - €13.00 Penneys
Parka - €20.00 ish Penneys
Belt - €10.00 Vintage
Boots - Bought them in the River Island sale around five years ago, I think they were around €60.00.
xBlanaid
This is actually a reeeal outfit post, as I was wearing this today, although the image is from the shoot with Ciúin on Saturday. Saved me trying to get an even remotely half as daycent photo of the rigout on the mac. Must sort out the camera situation. I really have absolutely no excuse.
Hat - €4.00 charity shop, Kilkenny
Tartan bralet - €25.00 Topshop
Belt - Vintage
Skirt - By Malene Birger (the creased look of it is part of the design, which suits me and my ironing laziness just fine..!)
Shoes - Gil Carvelho for Faith
Cape - €4.00 Sue Ryder charity shop, Thurles
Briefcase - €8.00 - Mulberry bag I found in a charity shop around five years ago, love it but it’s falling apart..
Didn’t wear the hat though, as I was in work, and also added the navy and white mandarin style top from the tattoo shoot a few posts below. Really wish this weather would sort itself out - I blame the volcanic ash. Not sure why, I just do.
xBlanaid
Photo by Ciúin Tracey
First shoot in our new studio Shutterbug! Ciuin Tracey came down from Dublin to photograph me for a project she’s working on - which yes, involved underwear being out on show…but not in a racy way! : ) So happy with the lighting in the new studio, and the cyclorama - I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy working on all of our shoots - which is a very good feeling indeed!
I also love working with Ciúin - we have a very similar end product in mind so we don’t even need to rabbit on at each other, just let the other do what their doing and have fun - great day’s work! There are lots and lots of set ups from yesterday’s shoot - but here’s the first one - a kind of ’Russian Aristocrat Forgets Their Trousers While Getting Lots of New Tattoos.’ Well, obviously I photoshopped the tattoos in, but I kind of want them in real life now….
Turban - Christmas present from my sister, from the second hand shop in front of George’s Arcade in Dublin - help, what’s the name of it…!? apx €20.00
Veil - Bought in ‘Tempted’ around 2 years ago. €38.00
Feathered hairband - Penneys - €2.00
Blue bikini - Penneys - €6.00
Navy and white top - €18.00 H&M
Scarf around waist - Penneys €2.00
Wrap on chair - H&M €7.00
Stockings - Penneys (I didn’t realise how much of this was from Penneys..) €3.00
Jewellery - left hand little finger: two rings from Daisy stacking rings, green jewel ring from K Kajoux. Ring finger: red ring from Dirty Fabulous. Right hand : Turquoise ring from Accessorise, diamond ring from ex.
* * *
Photography : Ciúin Tracey
Styling & Digital Art. : Blanaid Hennessy
* * *
Hope you like the shots!
xBlanaid
We have received so much coverage for the Absolut Style at Set event, so I just want to do a post to say thank you so much to everyone for their support. I’ll link to all the online coverage too, so please do check out their blogs! You might just discover a new internet love…
Please click ‘read more’ for the full list and links!
A huge thank you to….
Here is the official timetable and information on the stands for the ‘Absolut Style at Set’ weekend which we’re organising for the ‘SET’ theatre, Langton House Hotel, Kilkenny. It takes place this Easter Bank Holiday weekend!
CLICK BELOW FOR THE LONGEST BLOG POST IN THE WORLD! ; )
Photographer Moselle Foley and I did a shoot last December in my apartment, with my miniature collection of ballgowns. To be honest, apart from the excuse of getting to work with Moselle, I just wanted to give the dresses a day out. They were feeling a bit neglected. I need to wear them somewhere…anywhere!…hmmm - Coppers?
I’m a huge fan of Moselle’s creative approach to photography, really looking forward to working with her again soon! See her website >here<, and her flickr page >here<.
The dress is by Ema Savahl. Thanks again Moselle!
xBlanaid
P.S - Part 1 of the shoot with the green dress is>here< if you missed it and fancy seeing it! x
Here it is now, only a week late - the second part of the shoot with photographer Andrew Clancy..
All the clothes in this shoot are from the Savida collection from Dunnes Stores. I’m quite in love with the ruffled lace top and the leggings, both Savida. I picked up the cropped floral t-shirt in Dunnes for a tenner the week previous, I’m not sure if I’ll ever take it off. Maybe to wash it. For that money, I could get a few more and rotate….My next purchase shall be the skirt below, which is just €25.00…good deal!
Thanks once more to Andrew for his photograph-taking abilities. You’re a legend Clancers x
x Blanaid
*skirt below, €25.00, Savida*
Here’s our second episode of ‘All of This’, shot on location in Oxfam in Rathmines. In this episode, we showed a black lace number, a sliiightly demented office wear look, and a host of retro dresses that they are bringing down to the shop floor for Hallowe’en..unless you don’t need that excuse and like yourself some retro…
This was SUCH a lovely shoot, with the very beautiful model Naomi Casey, the brilliant production team; Helen and Emer, and our very special assistant on the day - Zarah Casey, who you can hear at 1′59″! You can kind of tell from the out takes at the end that we spent much of the time larking about, it was a fun day at the office!
You can WIN the black lace dress - it’s very simples - all you have to do is ‘cast your guess’ (yeah, I don’t know why I said that either…) as to how much YOU think Oxfam in Rathmines were selling the black lace dress for. You can do this over on >> Style Nation<< ,on >>Twitter, <<or on>> Facebook<<!. Click on the links to join in the game! It’ll take about two seconds and you could get yourself an elegant black lace dress for nada…good deal!
x Blanaid
I wish I knew where the first image is from…sorry! The rest of the images were found on …fffound…
The image of the boy being thrown in the pool is from ‘Square America‘, an image blog about family dynamics.
Lots of children in this Fancy Friday - which is odd, as I couldn’t be described as particularly broody.
Have a lovely weekend!
x Blanaid
Part of the absence from the blog last week was due to the fact that I was filming my very first piece for Style Nation.ie. In a new programme entitled ‘All of This’, I travel to charity shops around the country and put together a few outfits. Then YOU have the opportunity to win one of the outfits by playing the ‘All of This’ guessing name on Style Nation! Simples.
This week, we travelled to Oxfam on George’s Street and put together three or four outfits…and out of ‘all of this’ (!) we chose the H-AMAZING Karen Millen gold sequinned, drape back, long sleeved mini-dress as the prize of prizes. Watch the video above and get over to Style Nation.ie to guess the OXFAM price of the dress, not the original price, and you may just have a shiny, sparkly new number in your wardrobe for Christmas!
A HUGE thank you to the producer - Helen O’ Reilly from Straywave, who is a seriously multi-skilled multi-tasker, and made me feel incredibly at ease on this, my first time presenting to camera on my own. She’s a Burlesque dancer too, legend. And also to Dawn, our model, who was very patient and kind, and gorgeous! Which is handy…!
VISIT >> STYLE NATION.ie << TO ENTER THE COMPETITION OR DIRECT MESSAGE THEM ON >> TWITTER<<
My outfit :
Vintage red fringed leather jacket : €45.00 Oxfam, George’s St.
Black Double U neck dress : €38.00 American Apparel
Shoes : €80.00 Topshop
Hope you like the video!
x Blanaid
P.S Here’s a hint to the price : it was a seriously expensive dress to buy originally, so remember that Oxfam wanted to get the most they could for it, as it is a ‘future classic’… think less than a hundred euro but….;)
I won’t DIE if I don’t get this YSL ring (sold out everywhere), but I would probably feel a little faint on the occasions when I catch a glance at my fingers and realise it isn’t there. That amount of fainting could do me harm, for instance, I may bang my head on something during one particular faint, so technically, I MIGHT die if I don’t get this YSL ring.
x Blanaid
I love this classic letterpress poster ‘Work hard and Be Nice to People’, by Anthony Burill…although I prefer to read it as ‘Work Hard AT being Nice to People’…!
It fits perfectly into THIS Ribba frame from Ikea. (I went for the oak veneer)
Click here to buy print for £30.00 from Soma.
x Blanaid
Welcome to my blog! Allow myself to introduce myself, my name is Blanaid Hennessy. I used to be the only Blanaid Hennessy and then some other Blanaid bird in Waterford married a guy called Richard Hennessy (no relation, to me, or her…) and now there are two Blanaid Hennessys…but! I have devised a cunning plan to beat her in google, and that is to type Blanaid Hennessy a lot in this post. Take that Blanaid Hennessy (2)!!! I’m not saying that I hope they get divorced….(joking!)
At this stage in internetting history, there is no real need to go into a big boring spiel about what I intend to do on here, save for the fact that it is expected of me to do just that in the very first post…so I shall.
I’ll be posting on: outfits, shoots, interiors, design, media, photoshop tutorials, stuff I’m selling, a song I like, shoes I fancy, boys that are nice and other randomness and frivolity that is completely and totally unnecessary.
Sometimes I’ll post on an outfit I’ll be wearing, other times on a shoot in a magazine I liked, or I’ll feature a house I’ve been working on…as I said - randomness and frivolity, randomness and frivolity. Good times.
I’ll be updating most days, so please, add me to your bookmarks and come pay a visit every now and again.
x Blanaid
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