On Friday, the 9th of September, I attended the final of Ms Gay Ireland 2011 which took place in Dolan's Warehouse as part of the Limerick Pride Festival 2011. I went along to judge the competition (being one of a panel of five) which saw women from all over the country competing for the title of Ms Gay Ireland 2011.
Limerick Animal Welfare is a registered charity which was founded in 1983 and is dedicated to
caring for abandoned and neglected animals in the Limerick area. Over the last
five years alone they have saved more than 2000 animals. The aim is to promote
the humane treatment of all animals, working towards a more compassionate
society.
The event saw pieces being modelled from shops such as The K Boutique, Adare and The Ivory Closet - Designer Dress Hire, Limerick (two of my fav boutiques) by models from the Holman-Lee Agency.
My sister and I at the Fashion Show
What I wore
I wore a dress from the Ivory Closet Designer Dress Hire, Limerick. I also debuted my new hairstyle (ie my Hotloxs Hair Extensions) which I wore straightened. I paired the Rachel Gilbert dress from the Ivory Closet with some knee-high socks and black heels as well as a black clutch.
As you've probably noticed by now, I recently underwent a bit of an image overhaul in the form of my new long, luscious locks! My new look is thanks to the wonderful team at HotloxsHair.com who provide superior quality long-lasting humain hair extensions.
Before
I opted to have a full head of permanent extensions installed using Pre-Bonded Virgin Remy Hair. Before I spoke to Anna from Hotloxs, I had never even considered getting hair extensions (despite really wanting long hair ever since I cut off my waist-length hair and dyed it dark when I was sixteen). I always thought that because my hair has so many different tones in it- as a natural strawberry blonde, sometimes I appear blonde, other times extremely red - that I would have to dye the whole thing in order to get extensions to match it and I didn't want to lose my natural colour. So I was delighted to find out that Hotloxs can match absolutely any hair colour. The extensions can also be dyed and highlighted as you please.
After!
The entire installation only took one hour and Anna cut the extensions so as to match my own hairstyle and to achieve the length I wanted. The colour match is absolutely perfect! The extensions will need to be replaced after 3 - 4 months but do not damage your hair at all as they are no longer glued to the hair like they used to be!
I was so impressed with my hair that I recorded a video the first day that I got the extensions styled, which you can view here (and is on my new Youtube channel - "MissSamiSushi"):
The Hotloxs Studio is located above the Dublin Tourist Information Offices just off O'Connell St. Be sure to "like" their facebook page here and visit the website http://www.hotloxshair.com/ where you can buy clip in's as well as contact the stylists about arranging your Hotloxs Hair Installation and view all the price lists.
On Saturday, the 13th of August, I attended the final of Miss Ireland 2011 with my good friend and author of Miss Red Blog, Ali Ryan.
The final took place in the D4 Berkley Hotel and saw girls from all over the country compete in the hopes of winning the title of Miss Ireland 2011.
Upon arrival, guests were treated to a drinks reception before the four-course sit-down meal.
The competition itself then commenced and included a swimsuit round, eveningwear round and a fashion show in which the contestants modelled the lastest A/W trends from Debenhams. Following the selection of the top fifteen and then the final five, each finalist was asked a question by one of the panel of judges which included Sarah Morrissey, Paul Byrne and Sophie Anderton.
Miss University Ireland 2011 Holly Carpenter was crowned Miss Ireland 2011 by the beautiful Emma Waldron (Miss Ireland 2010). I was delighted by the choice as I had been at the final of Miss University 2011 back in April and knew that Holly would be a great representative.
The after party took place in Buck's Townhouse and provided a great end to an amazing evening.
A huge congratulations to Miss Ireland 2011 Holly Carpenter and to the organisers of Miss Ireland for putting on a spectacular show. I know Holly will do us proud when she competes at Miss World 2011 in November.
Catwalk to Kilimanjaro is a charity climb being undertaken by Irish models Roz Purcell, Georgia Salpa, Daniella Moyles and Louise Johnston to raise funds for Make-A-Wish Ireland, which is dedicated to granting the wishes of children aged three to eighteen living with life-threatening medical conditions.
The climb itself will take place in October but, before then, the girls will be running various fundraising activities which you can keep up to date with on the facebook page here.
One of these activities was the fundraiser launch party which I attended with the author of Miss Red Blog. Highlights of the night included Paddy Cullivan's role as presenter (who you may remember as the host of the Gooseberries which I presented an award at back in January) and two comedy sets.
What I Wore
Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to pick out a dress at my fav boutique, the Ivory Closet but I did have time to get my hair done in an upstyle at The Salon Hair & Beauty, IFSC as well as a French Manicure.
On Tuesday, the 19th of July, the official launch party for the Dublin Zombie Walk 2011 took place at Lockdown Dublin in the Lost Society on South William Street. I was invited as the Guest of Honour (and Grand Marshall of DZW).
The event saw three floors of the venue transformed in order to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society and the RNLI with collections taking place throughout the evening while make-up artists transformed the staff and party-goers into brain-craving zombies.
What I wore
I opted for not being made up as a zombie and instead wore a fab Rachel Gilbert black sequinned dress from the Ivory Closet teamed with a half-upstyle done in the Salon Hair & Beauty IFSC and make-up by Harriet Clerkin.
The amazing photographer I worked with for the shoot that subsequently appeared in Flawless magazine (which you can check out by clicking here), Jason McDonald, was there to capture the night which was a great success and raised much-needed funds for both charities.
On Tuesday, the 19th of July, I helped launch Aware's Daisy Days Campaign. Daisy Days is an annual national fundraiser which this year takes place on the 15th, 16th and 17th of September.
Proceeds from Daisy Days go to maintaining and developing Aware’s vital services for the individuals and families affected directly or indirectly by depression. These include the network of support groups, both nationwideandonline, the loCall helpline(1890 303 302, open 365 days a year), the email support serviceand the'Beat the Blues' nationwide secondary schools awareness programme.
Daisy Day Bracelets
I did some collecting for Daisy Days last year and, this year, when I was told about Aware's regional launch, I couldn't wait to take part. I was asked to help recruit some familiar Limerick faces and so I asked my good friend Madeline Mulqueen. We were joined by Munster Rugby players Denis Leamy and Mick O'Driscoll and Jeremy Perrin and Sandra Hogan from Aware who traveled down from Dublin to attend the photo call which took place in UL Sports Grounds. Pat Browne & Theo Kennedy from MunsterImages.ie were also good enough to come along and snap some shots.
Photo by MunsterImages.ie
What I wore In keeping with the Daisy Days theme, I wore a turqoise shift dress from the Ivory Closet along with my Carol Shaw Jewellery crown and my sash (in some shots).
To get involved in this year's Daisy Days Festival, click here.
On Friday, the 15th of July, I attended the 1st Birthday Bash of SoSueMe.ie - the blog written by Suzanne Jackson which includes showbiz, fashion and gossip features. The party took place in the Grafton Lounge and I wanted to go along and meet Suzanne as I had featured on the blog a few months previously as the "Hottie of the Week".
Upon arrival, guests were welcomed with the new sparkling alcoholic drink "Eve" and a goodie bag which included beauty products from Dove and Bourjois as well as vouchers for the Ivory Closet and MakeupFabLicious, among others. The event also saw boyband "On The Edge" performing.
What I wore
I wore a Rachel Gilbert peach dress from the Ivory Closet with silver stud detailing. The Ivory Closet were also sponsoring the party in the form of money-off vouchers in the gift bags. I had also gotten my hair highlighted and trimmed earlier that day in the Salon Hair & Beauty IFSC.
On Thursday, the 14th of July, I attended the Mustang Jeans SS2012 Collection Preview in the Lost Society with Ali Ryan, showbiz reporter for the Herald and author of Maggie Red Blog.
The event's main feature was a fashion show which saw former Miss World Rossanna Davison, Miss Universe Ireland 2010 Roz Purcell, Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model Contestant Hannah Devane and Pippa O'Connor modelling the collection. Nikki Hayes was also there to DJ the afters.
What I wore
Ali and I both wore dresses from our favourite designer dress hire boutique - the Ivory Closet on Shannon Street in Limerick.
Check out Miss Red's Seriously Social segment on the event here.
Most recently, I attended the Bruff Summer Festival which took place on the 2nd and 3rd of July. The Festival is an annual event, a feature of which is the selection of the Morning Star Rose. I was honoured to be asked by the 2010 Rose, Eibhlin O'Sullivan, to judge the competition along with PJ O'Gorman and invited my friend and model Madeline Mulqueen along to join us as a third judge.
Madeline, Elvis, PJ and I at the Bruff Summer Festival
The Morning Star Rose Competition involved a sit-down interview with the eighteen contestants in Clancy's Pub on the Saturday, followed by a meal before we moved down the village to the stage area where half of the contestants were interviewed on-stage by Edel McEniry, the original Morning Star Rose. All four of the past Roses were involved in the event which was a very nice touch and they were so accommodating. The other contestants were interviewed on stage the following evening. Friday evening saw a parade which featured all of the contestants.
Aoife, Madeline, the former Roses and I onstage.
Madeline, PJ and I had great fun meeting and chatting to the contestants. We had such a tough time picking our winner but decided to choose Aoife Power, an absolute stunner and Pharmacy student who impressed the crowd with her violin playing. A huge congratulations to Aoife.
Some beautiful flowers I was presented with
What I wore
On Saturday, I wore a summery, orange dress with gold embellishment and rope detail from the Ivory Closet. On Sunday, I wore another dress from the Ivory Closet - this time, a white and sequinned number teamed with my Carol Shaw Jewellery crown.
On Monday, the 30th of May, I made the journey to Killiney Hill in Dalkey to model for a photo shoot with photographer Jason McDonald, MUA Amy McGuire of Peekaboo Make Up Artistry and hairstylist Chrissie O'Farrell.
You may remember that Amy McGuire did my make-up on two separate occasions at the Dublin Festival of Fashion back in October and I also enjoyed a night out with her at the launch of Daddy or Chips in the Good Bits during the same weekend. I had never worked with Jason before but had heard great things about him and had seen some of his amazing work on his facebook page. The shoot was Chrissie's first so well done to her on a great job, too.
The shoot gave me the chance to model a full-length gown from my favourite boutique, which I'm sure you know by now is the Ivory Closet on Shannon Street in Limerick.
Although the weather did prove a little problematic and necessitated a forty-minute hide out in our cars while the torrential rain passed, it really was a fantastic location and Jason, Amy and Chrissie were a pleasure to work with.
On Thursday, the 26th of May at 16:55, I turned twenty-one years of age!
I had hoped to reach my goal of 1,000 fans on my facebook page by that morning. I was absolutely thrilled when I did in fact pass the 1,000 "likes" mark. A huge thank you to everyone who has liked and shared my page to date.
After I attended the Monster BBQ that evening, it was back to the Pier Hotel for a quick outfit change into a gorgeous, gold sequinned party dress from the Ivory Closet and make-up application by Claire Kelly before heading down to my birthday party in the hotel's bar, Pier One. I had made the decision to have a very small gathering and to keep it quite low-key, but nevertheless the Pier Hotel pulled out all the stops and provided me with an exquisitely decorated party area (remember the amazing venue for my homecoming party? Now you get the idea...) They even had a special cocktail named after me - The Sami Long Island Ice Tea!
Photo by MunsterImages.ie
I would like to thank everyone who surprised me a wonderful present and all of the guests I invited. I had an awesome evening! Also, a huge thank you to Rich Lynch and the ILoveLimerick.com crew.
Check out the great deal Pier One is currently offering when you book a party for 50+ people with them:
On Saturday, the 21st of May, I travelled back to Limerick from Dublin to attend "This is Limerick" - the networking event by www.ILoveLimerick.com which took place in the Georgian House. The Georgian House & Garden was restored by the Limerick Civic Trust during the period of 1996-1999. www.ILoveLimerick.com is dedicated to highlighting the positive about Limerick and the afternoon certainly did exactly just that.
En route, I stopped by the Ivory Closet to pick up a dress to wear to the event. I wasn't the only one - almost every where you looked, you could see one of the boutique's gorgeous dresses.
Photo by MunsterImages.ie
The invite-only event was designed to encourage the organisations of Limerick to come together and work together as well as celebrating the ordinary people who do extraordinary things for their communities. Representatives from Special Olympics, Friends of the Elderly,
the Parkinson’s Association Mid-West, the MS Society, the Northside
Learning Hub, Polish Youth, Doras LuimnÃ, Pieta House Mid-West, Limerick
Youth Service, Insight Magazine, Limerick Regeneration, St Munchin’s
Area Centre, PAUL Partnership, Southill Area Centre, Limerick
Communications Office, Red Ribbon Project and Creative Limerick were all present. I was there on behalf of the Cliona Ring Foundation along with Tom Tierney, a trustee of the Foundation and the gentleman who played the role of MC at the Fourth Annual Cliona Ring Foundation Commemorative Night.
Photo by MunsterImages.ie
Key speakers included Maria Byrne, Mayor of Limerick and Senator David Norris, who I was absolutely delighted to meet. The ILoveLimerick crew was there of course to capture the day and representatives from the various organisations were invited to speak about their own. Flawless School of Dance also performed.
Photo by MunsterImages.ie
For more information on the afternoon, check out the Limerick Leader Article here or watch the www.ILoveLimerick.com feature here and see Tom talking about the Cliona Ring Foundation at 22:37:
Until Next Time,
Sami Long
Miss UN Ireland 2010
Miss UN Europe 2010
"Look dead, the Zombies are coming!" Or at least they will be on the
23rd of July...
I recently wrote a blog post about Dublin Zombie Walk 2011, an upcoming event which I am very excited to be involved in. In that entry, I mentioned an upcoming promotional photo call and shoot.
The Dublin Zombie Walk is a fundraiser which was first brought about in
2010 in order to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society and the RNLI.
The Irish Cancer Society works towards providing world-class prevention
and treatment of cancer in Ireland. The RNLI saves lives at sea and in
the last 150 years, has been responsible for saving over 139,000 lives.
Needless to say, these are very worthwhile charities which make an
incredible difference to many peoples' lives each year.
So on Friday, the 20th of May, I could be found on Temple Bar's Upper Exchange Street being carried around by giant Zombies while all dressed up in my sash, Carol Shaw Jewellery-commissioned crown and hair and make-up perfectly done by The Salon Hair & Beauty, IFSC. All the while, a sunflower was trying to save me. Photographers Ian Keegan and Shay Murphy were there to capture the terror on my face as I attempted to flee the scene.
Photo by Shay Murphy
Once I was finished being harassed by the giant zombies and the plant had successfully saved me, it was off to get zombified in the collective arts centre, Exchange Dublin. CosmAddict Make-Up Artist Sara Kelly and Terri Pinnell were on hand to transform approximately twenty-five volunteers, my friend Rachel (Miss Sunday World 2010), Adam and I into the disintegrating, brain-craving undead. WildCat Ink was also kind enough to donate contact lenses to complete the look.
Finally, it was time for the shoot and we shuffled our way to the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral... Check out the results below:
Photo by Shay Murphy
Photo by Ian Keegan
Photo by Ian Keegan
Photo by Ian Keegan
Until Next Time,
Sami Long
Miss UN Ireland 2010
Miss UN Europe 2010
