How to Saint Patrick's Day

We are 5 days out from St. Patrick's Day! I thought I would share a little about how I celebrate this particular holiday. 'Cause the world needs more of my particular brand of crazy, right? Hopefully.

How I St. Paddy's Day!

**not at all grammatically correct

First: Decorate
The key here is green, obvs. I don't have a ton of decorations for this holiday, but what I do have I love very much. A lot of what you find in stores for the 17th is kind of gaudy and I prefer a subtler touch for the decor, so here's what I have slowly accumulated over the last couple years.

         Coasters we made at Color Me Mine                       My favorite thrift store find of all time yo  

              A subtle homage to my heritage                           A lovely banner from this etsy shop

     Shamrock's planted in an Irish vase I got as a         A sign from the Target dollar section circa 2011
         wedding gift from my cousin Margi

Food:  
Get a big ol' corned beef, chop up some potatoes & cabbage, and cook it all day in the slow cooker. Corned beef and cabbage. Uggggghhh so good. I've added Irish Soda Bread and Colcannon to the mix the last couple years: recipes here (I like to add raisins/currants) and here.

This year James is also going to make Shepard's Pie (recipe from this cookbook) and I'm adding a variation of this beautiful cake for dessert!

Films/Television:
I consider myself a fledgling film/tv aficionado... so in no way take my recommendations seriously.

Around this time of year I have a few films I like to enjoy purely based on their Irishness, I will also watch anything thing that is any combo of historical/sweeping epic/medieval/fantasy AT ANY TIME, and also Daniel Day Lewis is the greatest actor of all time andilovehimforeveramen.

Just so you know a little more about my (questionable) taste and to prepare you for this list:

1. In the Name of the Father
2. Circle of Friends
3. Far and Away
4. Gangs of New York (LEOOOOOOOO)
5. P.S. I love you (Don't you judge me!! Okay you can judge me for this, I deserve it.)
6. Titanic (See #4. Also, I could probably find a way to put this movie on any movie list I ever make. See here for Irishness)
7. In America
8. The Wind the Shakes the Barley (Oh, Cillian)
9. The Quiet Man (full disclosure, I haven't watched this for a long time. But I feel it needs to go on here cause, yea.)
10. Gone With the Wind (Hellooo! Scarlett O'HARA, I can put this on here because of that.)

Honorable mention: Return to Me, Secret of Roan Inish (a friend just reminded me of this one. SO GOOD), and Waking Ned Devine.

SUPER Honorable Mention: Braveheart. I know, I know, it's about Scotland...BUT there is an Irish guy in it, and the British try and make the Irish fight for them, and it's just the best movie and I love it so much.

As far as TV goes, there was a short lived series called The Black Donnellys which I enjoyed. Also, I just started Peaky Blinders on Netflix and it's real, real good (Oh, Cillian).

But the real TV winner is Moone Boy. It's aired in Ireland but you can get it on Hulu and Chris O'dowd is my fake second husband. That is all.

Music:
Do I have a St. Patrick's Day spotify playlist you ask? Why yes I do! It's an eclectic weird mix, but I love it. Enjoy!

Books:
A few I have read and would recommend. Do you know of any other good ones? I always search for book recommends:

Activities/Fun:
Mostly I just try to speak in an Irish rogue for most of the day and yell obnoxious things about how terrible the British are. But, you know, those little leprechaun traps are pretty cool too.

More of my St. Patrick's likes here on Pinterest. Erin go Bragh!