Time to Refresh and Restart.

January 26, 2026January 25, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but I do find that I fall into the habit of always putting people first and making more time for them, than they would for me. You know the kind of thing. It’s always so lovely to catch up with friends and I am always happy to make time and re-arrange my schedules, workflows, and meetings in order to find a mutually convenient time to get together. I have no problem with that all, except, it usually turns out to be me that is putting my work on hold, or changing my arrangements in order to align with someone else and I do appreciate that at times, that cannot be helped, we all have busy lives.

When I was reviewing my song writing for 2025 I realised that I hadn’t written any new songs at all. I still have partially written ones in my various notebooks and voice memo’s but nothing new. Looking through my note books I found a list of the singles I had hoped to release in 2025 and I didn’t release any of them. None! It was a shock to the system I can tell you. Now, I do admit that last year I did perform at a lot of open mic nights and I really enjoyed that. Over the Summer months I was singing at at least one a week, sometimes two. I suppose you could say I concentrated more on performing than writing and that has been of huge benefit to me confidence wise.

I have also discovered that getting things done such as video’s, emails and messages within this new career of mine is very different to life as it was in the corporate world and I do struggle with the laid back, no deadline or timeline approach but I suppose it is one I will have to learn to deal with. A light bulb moment for me was when I sat there one day, frustrated at the lack of progression and action, and I realised that I am in control of this career of mine and instead of not getting things done because I am waiting on others, I should find other ways of doing what I want to get done. I shouldn’t be waiting on others, they have their own workloads and priorities to take care of and I need to take care of mine.

If this music career is going to work for me, I need to really start to work at it like a full time job. Not dip in and out and procrastinate over decisions and getting things done. I need to focus, to diarise and to actually make the things happen that I want to happen. I have learnt a lot about singing, song writing and performing over the past two years and I know I have a whole lot more to learn and I’m eager to do so.

So this year, 2026, I’m putting me first. I have to look after myself, earn for myself, work for myself so I need to focus on things a lot better than I did last year. As always I have my notebooks, journals and spreadsheets (I’m still a nerd) and I’m not overwhelming myself with the daily tasks. I’m learning that things take a lot longer than I estimate. I’m re-scheduling the single releases for 2026. I’m picking up my guitar and practising and I’m signed up for more open mic nights in the next month. I will of course still meet up with my friends and colleagues, but I realise from my errors of last year, it’s down to me to set my boundaries, as they set theirs. I won’t be coming home after a coffee date or a dinner and thinking about the work time I have missed. I’m a very social person but I understand that this year, I need to knuckle down and work to achieve the things I want. It’s all about balance. It’s about not feeling overwhelmed because you haven’t looked after your own needs. It’s about sharing your sparkle when you have acknowledged that you need to look after your own sparkle in order to share it. It’s about writing the next chapter with love, contentment, focus and peace.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

2026 – A New Era.

January 19, 2026January 18, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.5 Comments

2025 has been quite a year, from the highs of happiness to some sad losses, the circle of life and the paths life takes us down. Once again I have been very lucky to have done some travelling and have visited some beautiful places; Sorrento, Costa del la Luz and Ireland. I have met some wonderful people some of whom are now good friends and are as crazy as I am about singing, dancing, music and having the craic. I’ve also achieved things I thought would be impossible for me to achieve.

None of the above could I have done without my amazing friends and family. I know there have been times over the past couple of years where they must have looked at me and wondered what on earth I am doing and no doubt there will be more of that in the coming year. In the past few years I have found some new confidence, new strength and new power to try things out and push my comfort zone. It’s been scary but so worthwhile.

I’ve been very lazy with my blog and at times I have thought about giving it up. As if the universe is pushing me, almost as soon as I have these thoughts to end the blog, I receive an email from WordPress to inform me about people visiting my site and that spurs me on to keep it going and actually start writing again. I always found writing my blog very therapeutic, it helped me through the darker times in my life and from the messages I received, it helped others too. I also connected with some wonderful writers on here and to sit back with a coffee and read a blog post was very relaxing.

Thank you for all your support, your love and kindness, for giving me confidence to follow my dreams. It’s still January so I’m not too late to wish you all a very happy, healthy, peaceful, love filled and totally sparkling 2026.

With love and sparkles and more to follow xx

The Music Sparkle.

I’m really doing this…

June 7, 2023January 13, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

Well it’s been a while, three months I think. Once again the time is flying by and there never seems to be enough of it. Of course I do have my lazy days where I lose the momentum to get the laptop open and get writing although the laptop is open most days as this is where all my music is stored. My musical journey is the subject of today’s narrative and what I’ve been up to.

It’s been an exciting time, I really pushed the comfort zone and started to do some open mic nights. It’s one thing to sing into the phone and post it online but quite another to stand in front of an audience with actual musicians, not backing tracks, and sing. Nerves? I was wrecked with them but I did it and I loved it. A totally different experience to singing to the backing tracks and even just doing the singing with some quite honestly amazing musicians, I’ve learned a lot already. I lost my way in one song (as usual) and they completely covered this up and I was able to re-join the song quickly. On another night I had a total brain fog moment and forget the lyrics of a song I’ve more or less been singing all my life and once again, those amazing musicians were able to seamlessly guide me back to the chorus and end.

The last time I did open mic I was a little less nervous and more forthcoming, I sang The Carpenters classic song ‘Superstar’ https://youtu.be/ddZ8Pa9I1Ko I have posted all my open mic videos on my socials, good and bad. It’s all a journey and I want to share the up’s and the not so up’s.

It’s been very exciting with my single releases also. My second release is a traditional Irish song, ‘The Old Bog Road’ and it has done very well being played on various online radio stations. I’m learning a lot about the power of social media in promoting the music. Facebook has been instrumental in sharing the posts and music whereas I am more of an Instagram woman where I do get a lot more engagement but without the facility to share links, most of the music, be it online radio, DJ’s and open mic groups, all appear to be on FB. My first single release, my self penned song ‘Fade to Grey’ is still doing very well and only last weekend did I discover it is number 7 in the Strabane Radio charts. Delighted was an understatement.

To hear myself being played on the radio was just incredible. Hearing my song being introduced and then played was an out of body experience. I couldn’t help but think back to 2019 when I sat on my sofa, strumming my guitar and started to write Fade to Grey and here I was, sitting on the same sofa in 2023 listening to it being played on the radio. It’s unreal. To be included on a Nashville Country Music radio station, well, I’m sure you can imagine the sparkle levels – off the scale!

A few things I have learnt over these past months is that this is a full on occupation. From the social media side of things to practising the songs, strumming the guitar, putting myself out there, pushing myself and my comfort zone, planning ahead and keeping the momentum up until I am established. I’m totally unknown at the moment and I’m so happy and pleased with how things are going so far, better than I had ever dreamed possible. Thankfully I am meeting lovely, trustworthy and knowledgeable people and most importantly I am gaining the confidence to be myself and not follow anyone else’s path. I’m doing things my way and although it’s hard work, lots of learning, lots of keeping up with things and lots of planning ahead, I’m loving the process and loving this journey. Dare I say it that after four difficult years, I’m happy and at peace.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Welcome March

March 1, 2023February 28, 2023 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

March, already? Is your year speeding by like mine? Honestly, I don’t know where the time is going and at times I sit here feeling like I haven’t really achieved much of what I wanted to do. Here we are in the third month of the year and I’m wondering whether procrastination has taken hold of me, or periods of lack of self belief or even the old faithful visit to Instagram or TikTok for a ten minute break and find myself still there half an hour later and yes no doubt I’m watching cat video’s. My newsfeeds usually contain posts from people who are working hard on their dreams, their careers or a change of path in general and I love to see these posts. How their hard work finally starts to pay off, or they get a lucky break and even when things don’t go their way it turns out to be for the best. Even whilst I am reading these posts I’m thinking to myself ‘get off the social media and stop watching other people work for their dream and go work on your own’. It’s hard work, sometimes I’m just not in the mood to put the time in and these are my ‘why bother’ periods, where I doubt myself and my ability to actually transform the thoughts and spirit that make my heart and soul sparkle into reality.

Don’t get me wrong now, I’ve not spent the last two months sitting around pondering, day dreaming and not actually working on my dreams. I’m working away steadily behind the scenes. I read a few weeks ago that being an independent artist is just amazing because you are in control of everything, no managers or labels telling what to sing or where to sing, what to release, how to work on your social media etc etc. However the downside of this independence is that you are in control of everything and you have to do everything yourself. The article stated that independents spend 80% of their time on the associated work behind the actual music and 20% of their time on the music. I can believe it. I spend far more time on the associated work than I do actually singing, writing songs or practising guitar.

Perhaps the Winter months made me a little slower in getting things done, I may have been in a kind of hibernation mode and the days flew by so quickly, or appeared to because of the darker evenings. Already it is lighter in the mornings and the grand stretch to the day has begun in the evening. The daffodils are gracing us with their beauty, the shoots from our bulbs are pushing through the soil and the trees are starting to bud. March gives us an abundance of new life, emergence from the darker Winter days and perhaps it’s time we emerged also and starting to burst forwards with energy into these wonderful Spring days.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Signs of Spring

February 20, 2023January 31, 2023 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

It may be early February but there are definite signs of Spring in the air. Have you noticed the slightly lighter evenings arriving? The mornings are not quite so dark early on and there are daffodils for sale in the shops as well as their shoots coming through in the garden alongside the tulips. Spring is such a lovely time of year, the period of rebirth, regrowth and renewal after the hibernation and self care of Winter.

I love this photo of my cousin’s cat sitting pretty on her windowsill.

These first signs of Spring have inspired me to do some more decluttering. I still have a lot of my parents possessions at home and in fact all the furnishings are theirs. It’s homely, it’s comfortable, I love it so much but it’s not me. It’s not my style and although I am in no rush to change things, there are the smaller items that can now be donated to charity. This year it will be four years since they both passed away and it’s now that I am feeling that I am really starting to emerge from the darkness and make my own way in a happier frame of mind. So decluttering feels good. I have to do it when I am in the right mood and it lightens my mood to think that someone will purchase the items and have the benefit of them and that the charity will also benefit. Time to start moving on.

Spring is a time for growing, rebirth and renewal for us all. We appreciate the beauty and kindness around us, we let go and move on from that which can be left behind as we continue to grow. We look forward to the full bloom of Summer but let’s not rush ahead. Have gratitude for this period of renewal both for the earth and ourselves, this is a period of real beauty and to appreciate it takes time.

With love and sparkles xxx

Travel Sparkles.

Carsington Revisited

February 16, 2023January 22, 2023 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

Before I became a full time carer one of the places I used to love going for a walk is Carsington Water. Owned by Severn Trent Water it is a wonderful area of beauty set in the Derbyshire countryside. The circular walk is just about 8 miles and it takes you around the reservoir, through countryside, through a small village and back to the visitor centre. It’s a lovely place to go. The visitor centre has lots of information on local attractions and places to visit. It also houses a rather good restaurant where they have the most delicious cakes, snacks and main meals. The restaurant overlooks the wildlife centre, views of the reservoir and also the small shops and snack bar. There are extensive grounds, a barbeque area, boating and cycle hire and therefore it is a great place to visit for families, couples and singletons. I love it there. We used to go at least twice a year for the circular walk and it was lovely to see the changing seasons as we walked through the various areas. I often said I would love to go there and walk four times a year and experience the four seasons on the walk. We’ve not managed this yet due to the various caring responsibilities but we will, one day.

After the trip to London last October https://atouchofirishsparkle.com/2023/01/13/the-london-trip/ we had returned home a day early due to the rail strikes so we had a surprise additional day together to do as we pleased. Saturday morning was chilly, bright blue skies and sunshine so we decided to go to Carsington Water and do the walk. Something we hadn’t done since 2015. We did things just as we did before, baked potato for lunch in the restaurant and then off on the walk returning for the post walk shortbread biscuit with smarties and a cappuccino, well I have just walked 8 miles…

As you can see from the photo’s the water levels are not as they should be. We were told that the reservoir was at 41% capacity and that that particular week was the first week in eighteen months that the water level had not decreased. A very different picture to what we were used to seeing albeit seven years earlier.

It was a fabulous walk and I admit I had to stop a few times to catch my breath on the uphill stretches and it felt so good to be there, in the fresh air, looking at nature and the two of us talking about everything under the sun. This was a completely unexpected bonus day out for us and we savoured every second of it. When we get to do things like this, you escape for a while from real life and you can be free. My caring journey is over however himself is a full time carer and like I used to be, rarely leaves the house. This was so good for him to get out, get exercise and experience some free time which is so important for carers to do.

If you find yourself in Derbyshire or indeed in the Midlands of the UK, I would recommend Carsington Water as a day out. https://www.stwater.co.uk/our-visitor-sites/carsington-water/ and if you do ever go, let me know how you got on and if the shortbread biscuits with smarties are as good as ever. I can also recommend the fresh baked scones with jam and cream. I used to buy those and take them home to my parents as a treat so I bought one for myself as a treat. As I said, I had walked 8 miles…

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Ok Monday, I see you!

February 6, 2023January 22, 2023 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.3 Comments

I really am such a Monday nerd, I love the feeling of Monday morning, the fresh week lies ahead, new opportunities to be grabbed, goals to work on, ticking off items on the to do list. That first cup of coffee in the morning always tastes that little bit better on a Monday for me.

There are so many different people in our lives, whether at home, at work or socially and we need a good mix of personalities to enrich our lives, to talk with, have shared experiences with and have a good laugh with.

Have a wonderful Monday, a truly blessed week and a fabulous cup of coffee, or tea, whatever beverage makes Monday morning amazing for you.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

February

February 1, 2023January 31, 2023 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

January has flown by for me this year. Quite a few of my friends and colleagues have commented on how slow January has been, that it has felt so long, that it would never end. I’ve always liked January, I never found it a flat or long month (except waiting for payday of course). I suppose in the way I am a Monday nerd I must be a January nerd too. Perhaps time is flying because I’m getting older or perhaps because I am now so focussed on new career goals, engaging on courses so that I am learning to do things myself rather than have to pay someone to do social media marketing or even decorating my music room at home. Maybe I am taking time to utilise my time wisely although I admit, there are days that speed by and I really don’t seem to have achieved anything at all and I wonder what I have been doing all day.

It has taken me until the end of January to get my exercise goals started and I’m feeling good because I have been out for a walk two days running. I have downloaded the C25K app once again this year as I intend to start running again. I’m attempting to build certain habits into my days and weeks. Drinking water, guitar practice, singing practice, reading my collection of books on healing, manifesting, quantum physics and the universe (yes you read that one correctly) plus this year I have a diary/journal which I am so far loving.

January also gave me a wonderful surprise when I logged into my music distributor account and discovered that since October my debut single ‘Fade to Grey’ has been streamed almost 7K times worldwide. To say I was excited and hyper when I seen that is an understatement. Talk about delighted. Now I realise that 7k streams worldwide isn’t that much in the grand scheme of music distribution but for me, a totally unknown artist releasing a self penned single, I think that’s pretty awesome and it’s has spurred me on in leaps and bounds confidence wise.

So January, it’s time to say goodbye and thank you for another year. You’ve been exciting, peaceful and I am full of gratitude for you.

Ok February, let’s see what you’ve got.

With love and sparkles xxx

Travel Sparkles.

Pre Christmas Lights

January 26, 2023January 10, 2023 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.2 Comments

Lichfield in Staffordshire is such a beautiful city. Surrounded by countryside with an olde English city centre and yet a mix of the modern blends in so well. Steeped in history and with a wonderful cathedral, Lichfield is a lovely place during all seasons of the year, to wander around, visit places of interest and stop off for a coffee or something stronger.

Just before Christmas I visited Lichfield to see the Christmas lights and visit the cathedral. It was a chilly, frosty evening which felt perfect for the season. As you know I’m all about the sparkle and there was sparkle everywhere.

I also visited my usual parish church before Christmas as the priest, who used to visit my parents very often, was saying a mass for them during Advent. The church looked so beautiful and again, a gorgeous Christmas tree with loads of sparkle.

And in keeping with the church at Christmas theme, I have a picture of the Christmas tree and Advent candles from the church I visit when I am over with himself to care for his Mom. As you can see, I packed in the Christmas sparkle during the Advent season.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Good Morning Monday

January 23, 2023January 10, 2023 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.2 Comments

Sometimes, on a Monday morning, with that first, fresh cup of coffee, you just need that positive, uplifting affirmation to get your day and week started.

You really are capable of doing anything you want. Yes it takes work, it takes planning, setting goals and achieving them but think about it. How much do you really want to achieve your dream? Follow your passion? Make a start, small steps lead to huge progress. You know the saying ‘You’ve got this’!!