How was your week? Mine was another week of mad variety…
When the latest edition of the RNA Romancematters magazine came through the letterbox I settled down with my coffee… and spluttered!
Standing in between the lovely Liz Fenwick and great friend Mandy Baggot, I recognised that face! It was the annual RoNA awards that we attended in February and my first time at an RNA event, so I was very glad to accompany the talented Lady B. There were faces I recognised and the atmosphere was amazing. Of course, Richard and Judy were there presenting the awards and Jane Wenham-Jones was the enthusiastic compare for the evening. The wine did flow and the nibbles were mouthwatering – but it was all about the award winners and Sophie Kinsella received the RNA’s Outstanding Achievement Award. A night to truly remember!
It was a week in which I joined my great friend and fellow author, Richard F Holmes, for Cultural Cocktails on Blog Talk Radio with the bubbly and wonderful host, Janice G Ross. It was two hours of fun and I love listening to Richard’s life story, which is uplifting – aside from the fact that he’s an amazing medium and healer.
Janice is, herself, an author and she writes about social issues and personal experiences. Her debut novel series is entitled Damaged Girls.
It’s about the type of life many of us might not know exists, and which many of us might not WANT to admit exists. Find out more about Janice on her website: Cultural Cocktails and follow her on Twitter: @JGRWriter. We covered astral travelling, spiritual growth, psychic experience and much, much more! There was a LOT of laughter and two hours flew by… Janice is threatening to invite us back!
If you have two hours spare, here’s the link to the show : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/culturalcocktails/2013/04/06/saturday-cocktails
Not quite on a par with the RNA event, but still huge fun is the Arlingham ‘Love My Books’ club, which meets once a month in the local village hall. Julie sent through her wonderfully penned piece about it for me to forward to the local parish magazines. We don’t read set books but instead talk about a ‘topic’, which was ‘a fictional character you either love or hate.’ It ranged from Hercule Poirot to James Bond … One thing I will say is that if you don’t have a local book club, do start one up as it’s a great way to meet people and you won’t believe where the conversation will take you … I’m still recovering from the meeting in which we discussed the Vagina Monologues – the laughter almost raised the roof!
A week of very diverse emails – from an unexpected offer of a ticket to The London Bookfair, to should I ‘paint or varnish’? The answer was paint of course. It’s a small space within an old cottage and keeping everything white will ensure the space doesn’t feel closed-in. I discovered a previously over-looked email from Linked In congratulating me on being in the top 1% most endorsed in United Kingdom for Creative Writing. I immediately felt an ‘oh dear’ moment as my conscience tells me I don’t spend enough time getting to know my way around many of the social media website I’m on. I might have a presence, but that doesn’t mean I really understand how it all works or use it to its full effect. So thank you to anyone who endorsed me and sorry if I’ve left someone out… I try to reciprocate and hope I’m doing it right, but one day I will sit down and suss it out properly!
Time with the little ones? Well this time it was three of them – aged 4, 2 and nearly six months. It’s a mega 7 hours travelling time so we have to set off early – 6am, as we make the journey to North Wales and back in a day. Whilst we had seen a few snowflakes in Gloucestershire, we were very surprised to see large areas of the countryside covered in what must have been quite a snowfall. It made for some wonderful sights, but as we drew closer to Rhyl it petered out and the sun appeared! We had a fabulous day – chaos ensued of course, but everyone managed to get fed, played with, and passed around for cuddles. With two boys and a girl, I think Lily (being in the middle), is going to be a tomboy. As you can imagine, with that age-span it’s toy heaven with everything from rattles to a fort. So plenty of crawling around on the floor. And a heavenly lunch of homemade beefburgers made by four year-old Charlie! Seasoned to perfection.
Guilty pleasures? I cut back on the chocolate again, well summer is coming, and concentrated on some late night pinning on Pinterest. Two new boards – Great things to buy:
Following an exchange on Twitter I found a great website offering some colourful and fun storage solutions. You choose your design and your style – try it, it’s fun and a great solution whether it’s for the kiddies rooms or to pretty up your office space! Check them out on Twitter: Stakk Home Storage @Stakk2012 and their website: http://www.stakk.co.uk/shop/ . Get the kids to choose their own!
Then there was Naturally… I’m a great believer in having crystals in the house for their healing and calming properties. I recently purchased two new ones to put at the head of our bed. The master bedroom is a converted hayloft and a beam literally runs the length of the room directly above the bed. Now Feng Shui followers will know that’s not good karma. So the crystals help divert any negative energy created by the fact that the beam more or less ‘divides’ the bed lengthways. I’m happy to say it’s working and there’s no negative energy at play! That was my inspiration for my ‘all things natural, beautiful and uplifting’ board – so check it out if you like crystals, herbs, healthy and natural things…
I thought I’d also reflect on ‘life lessons’ I’ve learnt this week:
Lesson 1: Saying ‘no’ isn’t a bad thing if saying ‘yes’ means you can’t do something properly because you are over-loaded. People who care about you will understand.
Lesson 2: Children look at life quite simply; maybe there are times when we need to do the same.
If you want to tell me what you’ve learnt this week, maybe we can share the advice – this is my year of working smarter and not harder and I have a LOT to learn…
