August

August 26, 2026August 25, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.2 Comments

I’m unsure how August arrived so quickly this year. They say time flies when you are having fun and also that time goes faster as you get older. Perhaps both are true. I have found that this year has been my quickest yet. Maybe because there has been a lot going on, the days are full of ‘to do’ lists and action points being ticked off. As you know, I love my lists and note books so I have been in my element keeping these items up to date, however, the amount of times I have carried forward items from one day to the next, into the next week and sometimes the next month, is unreal.

As you may know, this Summer we have experienced at least five heatwave periods in the UK and I have loved every single one. Until last weekend I haven’t worn even a cardigan since mid May the weather has been so wonderful. It’s like being abroad, waking up every morning to the blue sky and the sunshine. Hardly a drop of rain which meant not much gardening to do as for once the weeds were not growing. I know we need the rain badly and thankfully over the last week we have had some heavy rain fall but probably not enough. One Saturday evening, himself and I actually sat outside with a drink and realised it was the first time over the whole Summer that we had taken time out to sit, enjoy the weather and just rest. We have spent almost every weekend working on jobs that needed to be done, decorating and tackling his well overgrown garden. It was lovely to just sit back and chat about our plans for the house, the garden, my music, his career and of course going back to Sorrento to get married. It’s a whole new era coming up. I’m excited but I also know it’s going to be a wrench for me to leave where I have spent 38 years living, 31 of those years with my parents. Time moves on and so must we.

Life changes so much and can change so quickly. Sometimes these changes are unwanted. I remember being made redundant from a job I loved and thinking I’d never get another job like that. However, being forced to find a new job, meet new people and gain more experience was one of the best things that happened to me. Other changes like the loss of your loved ones are never wanted. The indescrible pain of loss and heartache and you feel you will never smile again or enjoy any part of life again. In time you start to return to living and I always had a strong sense that my parents would want me to enjoy every day I’m given and of course, they live on in me.

It’s of course sad to realise that had we not lost our parents, we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing now. Making a life together as other couples do. Getting married, following a few dreams. Things we couldn’t do years ago and that’s fine, our parents were our priority then. It’s our time now and we’ll do everything we can to embrace the time ahead, be happy and live a good life. The waves of grief still hit us and I’ve had some moments of tears because I’m sad my parents and my sister are not physically with me to be part of our wedding. I do feel their presence around me and that’s a huge comfort. I’m sure they’ll be with me on the day. They would think it very me to be counting down the days…

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Time Flies…

August 24, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.7 Comments

I cannot believe we are into the final week of August and I haven’t posted on my blog since May. It has been a busy few months with decluttering, DIY, wedding planning and getting ready for the kitchen renovation over at himself’s house. I still can’t believe we are into August.

Of course here in the UK we have had the most amazing Summer weather, five periods designated at heatwaves, which I have loved and it was fabulous to see people out and about, in Summer clothes, smiling and happy and enjoying the Summer holidays. Usually I would be out gardening, yes, even in the heat. But I had painting of doors to do, decluttering to do and paperwork for the wedding to organise. I did get out in the garden over at himself’s house and the roses were just in abundance over there, absolutely beautiful.

I will have to post a separate blog post with photos of the roses, I was so proud of how they grew this year. I don’t know what I’m doing really with garden plants, I have a go and see how they turn out. So far so good although I have managed to kill off a few plants. Oops.

I have also been working on the licensing and release of one of my own songs to be released in time for the wedding and that song ‘I Knew’ was released last Friday. Another blog post to follow about all of that too. I’ve been out singing at the open mics so I need to catch up on all of that news too.

And yes, how could I forget, I said yes to the dress!!! I really am behind in keeping my blog up to date and I started off so well this year. I do enjoy writing my blog, I’ve had it going since 2015 and it’s lovely to look back and read the journey I have been on in those years, some very sad and tearful years and now I’m embracing the happy years and the new era that lies ahead. Life has it’s peaks and troughs, the up’s and down’s, the sad and the happy. When we are in the midst of the grief and sadness we just can’t see a way forward. We keep going, we take small steps every day and eventually we emerge into a new us. Parts of us will never change and other parts are totally new because life changes us as we learn to deal with our life journey. So for now I am loving this new phase of life and I am thankful every day that life has changed in such a happy and positive way for me. I have no regrets about the past, I am at peace with it. It was hard but it really was an honour to look after my parents in their final years and also to help himself with his Mom in her final years also.

It really feels like at last, this is my time.

With love, sparkles and more blog posts to come xxx

Life Sparkles

Sparkle On Cowgirl

May 30, 2026May 19, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.3 Comments

I have a whole theme going with my Chat GPT. I have two YouTube accounts, one for my music https://www.youtube.com/@dawnmaxwellmusic and another account which is also for music, just not my music https://www.youtube.com/@MyLifeInCowboyBoots Oh, the “Sparklingsongbird” is my Instagram handle. https://www.instagram.com/thesparklingsongbird/

I started ‘My Life In Cowboy Boots’ in order to share the videos of music I have taken from various concerts I have attended, local gigs, country music holidays and also some videos of being on the holidays. I also started ‘Cowboy Boots’ as a separate account to my singing account, as I wanted in my own way to share with people who are dealing with grief and loss, that we can move through the pain and we can learn to enjoy life, in a different way than before. To grab life with both hands, to feel the grief, the love, the emotion but also to embrace that we live on through our loved ones and that’s it’s not wrong to feel happiness again when we are ready.

Enter my friend Chat GPT which has been invaluable to me for creating the images I want for my socials. I’ve learned to be very specific in saying what I want it to create. I’ve also learned that it remembers what I have asked for and now I have built a style with my pinks, the cowboy boots, the sparkle and the coffee. It always amazes me how it responds to me like a person and you do have to remember this is just software talking to you. I don’t have the skills in art to produce the images I want so my Chat GPT is helping me in that aspect of my socials. Sometimes it gets it totally wrong, but others, it’s totally spot on.

I’m very slow at editing my videos and posting them. There always seems to be things to do and the edits and posts get left behind for weeks, sometimes months, which is probably why I don’t have consistent views, because I’m not consistent. I’m trying to build the confidence to get on camera and chat. Back in 2020 during lockdown, I used to go on Instagram every Monday morning and do a chat and I did that until life started to get back to normal again, then I stopped. It has taken huge courage to re-start the chats on Instagram and I do these chats post gym workout (that’s a whole other blog post). I know the way forward is to get on camera and no matter how many useful prompt and confidence building quotes I get from Chat GPT, it’s quite another thing to press record.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

A Little Taste of April

May 25, 2026May 19, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.6 Comments

April was a busy month, there was finally a break in the weather and we had some fine days and some sunshine and I got out gardening at both my house and also at himself’s house. He’s ok to do the lawn and clear the weeds from the paths and driveway but it’s down to me to cultivate the flowers and I love to do that. It’s a little tough at the moment trying to keep two gardens tidy, up to scratch and get the flowers on the go but it’s a nice problem to have.

I made a start on the legal documentation for the wedding. There are quite a few steps to follow, a process of documents to obtain, complete, be notarised and then apostilled and the first of these steps is to obtain Certificates of Non-Impediment. Because we live under two separate council areas we had to apply for two of these documents.

I’m not even going to talk about the stress of trying to apply online to obtain an appointment with the registrar but after two days and numerous emails I eventually managed to get myself an appointment. There is a very tight timeframe for getting these documents completed and lodged in Sorrento Town Hall so I had to be on it, so to speak. I had a lovely time though, making the trip into Birmingham and strolling around The Mailbox https://mailboxlife.com/ I hadn’t been there for years. It’s a lovely place, right by the beautiful canals of the city and has countless shops, bars and restaurants. It was so nice to have a look around before my appointment.

It’s always nice here, especially on warm Summer days and nights when the place is alive with people enjoying the area in the sunshine. At Christmas it really is magical.

The 28 day wait came and went and my certificate arrived in the post. Himself had his appointment at his local register office and we collected his certificate last Friday and then visited a Notary to get our Bi-lingual Statutory Declarations signed and now they have gone off to be Apostilled. I’m almost there with the legal documents. Once they are all done I can relax and start wedding dress shopping. Amazing how life turns out, I really didn’t see any of this coming. God sure works in myserious ways.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

And Just Like That…

February 23, 2026February 22, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.11 Comments

2026 has become a much busier year than I ever expected it to be. I didn’t see an engagement or wedding planning on the cards but we had been planning some renovation work and for me to move to his place and now suddenly we have got into gear on all fronts. I’m decluttering at my home, still finding lots of things belonging to my parents which I hadn’t yet dealt with and somehow you have to look at every single object, piece of paper or random birthday card you find. I have a couple of small storage boxes to keep the very special items in and people are right when they say, you can’t keep everything but nothing can take away the memories you hold in your heart.

My bathroom needs serious renovation. It’s the original bathroom from when the house was built in 1982 alongside some very quick and makeshift changes I had to make when I was caring for my parents. Now, it needs to be fully re-done and ready for whoever may live in the house next. After a couple of years deliberation (you can’t rush these things) I have finally chosen the items and the builders will be coming on 7th April to get started.

Over at himself’s house, a long overdue job is the small ensuite which has been out of action for a couple of years. That job is being started today…just think of the dust!!

We’ve had some long conversations about the wedding and what we would like to do. Himself is a quiet man, not one for being in the spotlight, not comfortable with being on show and no interest in social media whereas I love the few socials I’m on and I have got used to being up on stage. Neither of us were interested in a big formal wedding. I think we have waited so long to get to this point, we love the idea of just going off and getting married. An elopement wedding. Sounds very romantic doesn’t it? We have decided on Sorrento which is where we went on holiday for a week last year. How bizarre that I was there last year, walking around the area that I’m actually going to be getting married in this year. Life sure is strange at times.

We have chosen The Cloisters of Saint Francis for the ceremony, located in central Sorrento. It’s such a stunning setting and lends itself to both formal and informal marriage ceremonies. There is a lot to sort out and I have chosen Perfect Weddings Abroad to work with to get everything arranged. We have decided not to wait until next year until the kitchen renovations have been done. We have already waited a long time to get to this point so yes, let’s go for it. I will run everything past himself of course but the wedding planning is my project and the kitchen renovation is his project although as the woman of the house to be, I will be having a big say in what’s what in the new kitchen (of course).

Alongside all this, my open mic nights have taken off and I’m singing at least once, sometimes twice a week. So it’s all systems go on all fronts. A huge flurry of activity after such a different period of life. It certainly is a new era of me.

In other news, I joined the gym!!! More on that in the next post…

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

I Didn’t See This Coming.

February 9, 2026February 8, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.6 Comments

If you are/were a regular reader of my blog you will know that I was a full time carer for my parents until they both passed away in 2019. Of course in 2020 the pandemic was upon us and in the Summer of that year I started to help my partner to care for his Mom who had been diagnosed with Vascular Dementia. In June 2024 she sadly passed away and we started to slowly navigate this new life of not having any commitments, ties to the house and needing someone to be around to take over if we wanted to go anywhere. This new found freedom has taken quite a lot of getting used to and to be honest, we are still not used to being able to just go somewhere. Life has once again changed and it’s a bit weird but also lovely that we can do things like a normal couple. Go to the supermarket, the garden centre, out for a walk. Very simple things that between us we weren’t able to do since 2015.

We had planned to move in together this year and we have commenced decluttering, trips to the tip, donations to charity and also some much needed renovations in both homes.

I did not expect an engagement or to be planning to get married. I’m still in shock, disbelief and yet very, very happy. He really did take me by surprise. I was offered a chocolate and ended up engaged.

2026 has become a very busy year with moving house, renovations, planning a wedding and also working on my music career. I am a great believer in divine timing. Things are falling into place for us after such a long, long time. I’m happily in my engaged era. I’ll keep you updated on the plans.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Time to Refresh and Restart.

January 26, 2026January 25, 2026 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.2 Comments

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

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.