CHEAP CHIC Bargain-hunters know that this is the time of the year - even before the January sales - to strike lucky.
They'll be making a beeline today for the Central Hotel, on Exchequer Street in Dublin, where Sian Jacobs has gathered together samples from Irish designers and agents. Between 10am and 5pm there will be up to 70 per cent off current retail prices. It might be a good place to pick up a winter coat, something for a Christmas party or even a gift or two. Labels include Imitz, Glass, MoMuse jewellery, Michelle Molloy and Eilis Boyle, a promising new fashion star. Deirdre McQuillan
MY HOME IS MY CASTLE "I am a maniac about perfection," declares the architect Maria Alice Plunkett, creator of the Dunsany Home Collection of floral displays and table-top accessories, in her boutique at Dunsany Castle. Each room in the boutique, which is in a wing of the Co Meath castle, is decorated accordingly: a diningroom has a table set for Christmas; a hall has dramatic floral and porcelain decor. The floral imitations, perfect replicas of their natural counterparts, are stylishly arranged in everything from metre-high Italian black-glass vases to simple centrepieces. Prices start at as little as €15 for a mistletoe hoop tied with green organza. If you are looking for Christmas gifts, you'll find embroidered tablecloths from Portugal, ebony-handled cutlery from France, shaved wooden mango vases from Asia and lovely glass from the Czech Republic. The collection also includes porcelain vases by her husband, Edward Plunkett. Dunsany Home Collection is open every day from 10am to 6pm, including Christmas Eve. See www.dunsany.com. Deirdre McQuillan
WICKED WAYS The Angel Kiss line of scented candles, drawer liners, incense sets and soaps is so seductive that you'll often find it in the lingerie department rather than in homewares. Well, that's according to Roy Donaldson of Fragrance Boutique, in Malahide,
Co Dublin, and he would say that, as he sells the range. Angel Kiss was named Gift of the Year by the UK Gift Association, however. The range is designed by his daughter Sarah, a graduate of the National College of Art and Design, who has adopted a "Greta Garbo" theme of dusky pink, black suede, feathers and flowers. It's girly all the way. From department stores or see www.fragrance-boutique.com. Nicoline Greer
PATHS TO FREEDOM Unlike a maze, a labyrinth has no cul-de-sacs, so following the twisting path will always lead you to the centre. If you make your way to the centre of Cork between December 15th and 21st, you'll find it overrun with labyrinths. As part of Cork 2005's Solas Festival of Light, community groups, schools and artists have been invited to create them around the city. There will be indoor, outdoor, daytime and night-time labyrinths, made with a variety of materials and in all sorts of sizes. Dancers, poets and musicians have even been asked to perform in them. You can get a map from www.cork2005.ie or from the Cork 2005 Information Centre, Patrick's Street, Cork. Eimear McKeith
BOOK OF FRIENDSHIP Most of us will probably get a few books in our Christmas stockings, but what might you get a serious bibliophile? How about a special edition that the Irish Writers' Centre published earlier this year - although it is far more than a stocking filler? Called The Door Stands Open, it features two poems and an essay that Seamus Heaney has written in memory of his fellow Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, including the previously unpublished Saw Music. The striking book has stainless-steel covers and is printed on hand-woven Polish paper. Signed by Heaney, it is limited to 250 numbered copies and costs €350 (postage and packing is an extra €20, if you need it). You can buy it from the Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, 01-8721302, ian.oliver@writerscentre.ie. Eimear McKeith
FLASHY PRESENTS Children who get This Is My . . . Christmas in a fortnight's time will barely get a chance to stop and eat a Brussels sprout on Christmas Day. The pack consists of a reusable, loaded camera and a photo-album-cum-diary with headings such as "The time I woke up on Christmas Day", "My favourite present" and "The best thing about Christmas". It was designed by Sarah Watts, who tests her ideas on her three children. When they go into a shop that sells her products, she says, "my kids think I'm famous". It's available from Brown Thomas and Love Everything, in the Powerscourt Centre, Dublin, where the first batch sold out in less than a week. You can also buy it, for £14.99 with £5 post and packing (about €30 in total), from www.2littleboys.co.uk. Nicoline Greer
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND Mixing fashion and homewares in noLita, their new shop in Carlow, friends Suzanne Cummins and Reiltin Lacey (left) drew on retail ideas from New York for the 90sq m (1,000 sq ft) space (imagine rough-around-the-edges charm) and the clothes on the rails. "Look cool without trying" is the overall vibe. Cummins studied fashion in New York (the shop is named after the area of the city north of Little Italy) and worked for Louise Kennedy on her return; Lacey has a background in marketing. Their furniture is a combination of restored pieces from the 1950s and 1960s alongside 20th-century classics from Charles and Ray Eames. There are silk-screened quilts and cushions, blossom-etched glassware, Moroccan tea sets; coffee-table books and hand-printed blossom-motif mirrors and ceramics. They're at Cathedral Close, Tullow Street, Carlow, 059-9140231. Eoin Lyons
CHRISTMAS WRAPPED UP You may have bought the perfect present, but getting wrapping paper that's just as perfect can be a challenge in itself. If you want your gifts to stand out under the tree, check out the range of Irish-made seasonal wrapping paper designed by Jenny Keogh of
the Gift Wrap Shop, in the Powerscourt Centre, Dublin 2. Keogh has photographed holly, baubles, ribbons, Christmas cake and more to create interesting designs on high-quality paper. Individual sheets cost €2.50; a set of 10 is €20. The shop also offers a gift-wrapping service. See www.giftwrap.ie. Eimear McKeith
FEATHER YOUR NEST Deborah McLaron Riches makes these dramatic pheasant-feather wreaths whenever there's a driven shoot in Co Meath. "I'm known as the feather woman," she says of her seasonal search for raw materials. The wreaths have been popular ever since she first made one, some years ago in her native Lancashire, from feathers given to her by her father. Some people even use them around mirrors, as spectacular permanent fixtures. "They are eye-catching," she says, "and look particularly good against stone." The former biochemist, who is enjoying developing her creative side, exhibits at the annual Loughcrew Christmas Fayre, where her order book is kept full not only by her feather wreaths but also by beautiful winter wreaths that she makes from dried hydrangeas. The feather wreaths cost €80-€100, depending on availability; the flower wreaths cost €65. Contact her at 049-8541064 or mcriches@eircom.net. Deirdre McQuillan
WINE BY THE CASELOAD! We have three mixed cases of wine from Mitchell & Son Wine Merchants, on Kildare Street, Dublin 2, to give away to three readers with the best responses to that old classic: "All I want for Christmas is . . ."
Answers, please, no later than next Wednesday, December 14th, by e-mail to wineprize@irish-times.ie or by post to Irish Times Magazine Wine Prize, PO Box 6094, Dublin 2.