Over The Hilda

Hello, my friends. I am late with my post ‘Wear your Greens’ for March’s ‘Style Not Age’ challenge.  I have a wonderful excuse. GG and I were enjoying ourselves at a wedding over the weekend. And it has taken me a few days to get this together. Back to reality now and this month’s challenge.

I love leather: real leather, faux leather, I love it all. So lovely leather is my choice of prompt for this month’s ‘Style Not Age’. And I decided to feature my Italian-leather cream coat purchased in Oxfam in Malahide. I saw it in the window and popped straight in to put my name on it.

I have been lucky enough to be able to try out some incredible treatments over the years. And I have put my trust in a variety of wonderful therapists, nurses and aestheticians.  I heartily recommend all of those I have written about. SOUTH WILLIAM CLINIC In 2024, I started my journey with Clinical Director of

Books can be an escape from the real world as well as a reminder of it.  The books I recommend here will enlighten, frighten and enthral. My love of reading has encouraged me to start a book club on Instagram. What does that mean? To be honest, it just means I review a book on

Well, we have had some turbulent weather recently with Storm Eowyn causing havoc in both Ireland and Great Britain. Ireland was basically shutdown. Schools, creches, shops remained closed and there was no public transport. Unless absolutely necessary, we were advised not to go out. We were lucky in Malahide even though we are beside the

“Golden Girls” is our ‘Style Not Age’ theme for December, chosen by Emma. And my friends have really outdone themselves in their outfits, embracing the golden girls prompt in spades. I went for a less full-on approach as you will see. How are you all doing after Christmas? It can be a stressful time for

Hello, my friends. Maybe some of you have noticed that I have been slow about posting recently.  I guess life has got in the way. The world is in turmoil. One of my best friends has been very ill and I lost interest in the blog. But recently, I had a lovely email from a

It was Jacqui’s turn this month and she chose ‘Full Skirts’ as her prompt.  I guess you either love them or hate them. I love the full skirt on other people, but I feel they can be tricky to style. If you are neither tall nor slim you might need to wear high heels and

The Merchant Hotel is perfectly located in the heart of Belfast. There is so much within a short walking distance of the hotel: great shopping, a variety of pubs and restaurants such as The Crown Liquor Saloon and plenty of iconic/historic landmarks e.g. City Hall, The Albert Clock and the Titanic attraction. But to be

Hello my friends. ‘The trees are in their Autumn Beauty’ and so I decided that Autumn Hues might be an appropriate prompt for ‘Style Not Age’. Can you believe that we are heading into November? In Ireland, we have changed over to our winter time and we all had an extra hour in bed on

I have always wanted to visit Istanbul. There is something exotic about the name which conjures up images of past civilizations, beautiful palaces, mosques and emperors. And divided by The Bosphorus, it is the only city to span two continents. The city has had several names throughout its long history, each reflecting a different period

Let me tell you why I ended up on a tour around the George Horn . a few weeks ago. I met co-owner Gerard at the launch of Helen McAlinden’s autumn/winter collection. More on that later! I had taught Gerard about thirty years ago. He had been living in New Zealand, but returned to Dublin

Second-Hand September was Gail’s idea!  And I knew it would be a challenge for me. I used to shop in second-hand, charity and vintage shops when I was in college! But I got out of the habit in recent years. My favourite was Jenny Vander, which opened in George’s Street Arcade in 1974, the year

WHY DID I HAVE A CO2 LASER TREATMENT? I want to look as good as I can for my age. That’s the truth.  I eat healthily, I walk and I ‘do’ yoga. I go to a physical therapist regularly to look after my aches and pains. So, when it comes to my face, I have

Hello friends. Lovely linen is our Style Not Age theme this month. I wore a linen dress from Whistles which is about eight years old. But a shirt dress never goes out of fashion. Right? I might not have worn it much recently, but this gave me the perfect excuse. The weather has really changed

GG and I have been eager to explore Ireland more and Derry has been on our must-visit list for years. One of the advantages of getting older is that we both have free travel passes north and south, so we took the train to Belfast first and then another one on to Derry. It was

Festival Finery is Emma’s choice for July. And, of course, summer is festival season. I am thinking of music festivals, flower festivals, literature festivals and so on. I have actually been to two fabulous concerts locally in June, but was more concerned about keeping dry and warm than dressing in any festival finery. So what

Jacqui chose our ‘Style Not Age’ theme of ‘Dreamy Dresses’ for June! Perfect, I thought, I will have had plenty of opportunity to wear my summer dresses and take lots of photos. But, in reality, summer (and therefore dreamy dresses) has been a bit of a non-event until this weekend. While in Derry/Londonderry last week,

Have you had a HydraFacial?  I had attended an information event at South William Clinic a few weeks earlier, so was excited to head to their clinic in Clontarf for my first. WHAT IS A HYDRAFACIAL? A HydraFacial is an award-winning multi-step facial treatment from America, performed using the handheld wand of a proprietary machine.

Gail chose this month’s theme French Girl Style.  What is French Girl Style 2024? Well, it depends on what magazine or which blog you read? But I think we can all agree that it is effortless, yet sophisticated. The French girl/woman is chic. What they all have in common is a strong sense of personal

The Dublin to Pisa flight with Aer Lingus on our Travel Department Holiday to Tuscany was pain-free and on time. We were met in Pisa by our guide Claudia and were in our hotel by 11 am on day 1. Our first impressions of Tuscany were that it looked very much like Ireland. Its terrain

Are you aware that one in five people will develop at least one skin cancer in their lifetime? Do you get regular skin cancer checks? Have you a dermatologist? GG and I go to Australian Dr Steve Karagiannis (a.k.a The Skin Doctor) at SkinCheck in Bayside Medical Centre. For some reason, we missed our yearly

Hello, my friends. It was my turn to pick the theme for our ‘Style Not Age’ gang and I chose ‘April Showers’. Well, let’s face it, we have had more than our fair share of wet weather here in Ireland. A new trench coat has been a priority for me for a while. I have

I love going on holiday but I dislike airports. Remember when travel used to be fun, but now airports are so stressful, particularly until you get through security. And then there is the packing. I nearly always get it wrong, returning home with half of the clothes never seeing the light of day. But last