Tag: Sparkle

Life Sparkles

Sparkle On Cowgirl

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May

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

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April

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.

The Obligatory Selfie

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

The Music Sparkle.

Dreams are made of this.

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Well, March turned out to be a fairly exciting month for me on the singing front. We have here in the West Midlands area of England, a very well know Irish singer known as Little Jimmy. He has played so many venues it’s unreal. He does his own gigs and he support the Irish music stars when they come over to play at the local venues. He has supported some of the now huge Irish stars, when they were starting out and he has so many stories to tell about life on the road. Little Jimmy is a wonderful person, so kind and thoughtful. He and his wife foster children and give them a good home, a taste of family life and a good start on their own journey though life.

I first met Little Jimmy a long time ago, when he played at a dance I was attending and every time I seen him at a dance, a gig or a concert we always had a chat. He was very surprised in August 2024 when I told him I was singing, he had no idea at all. Fast forward to towards the end of last year and we bumped into each other again and he asked me if I would like to sing at a charity event he was hosting. Although I was scared stiff I said yes, because this is what I want to do, sing. I was very nervous at the event but the people in the club were lovely, very supportive and got up and danced and that was just wonderful.

This year in March, Little Jimmy offered me a slot at the St Patrick’s Day event, the Sunday before St Patrick’s Day, at a local social club. Still nervous, I said yes and I had a lovely time. Himself was with me and he took some video footage which I have posted to my socials. I have quite a few more to post, I’m quite slow at getting things posted up there. Little Jimmy also asked me it I would like to sing on St Patrick’s Night at the social club and this is where the dreams came true. I stood on the stage, wearing my Galway GAA top singing ‘Home to Aherlow’ and I realised that I was doing something I had dreamt of since I was a little girl. I was standing on a stage, on St Patrick’s Day, in and Irish social club, singing Irish songs. I hoped and prayed that my Mam, Daddy and my Sister could look down and see me, finally, living my dream. I gave thanks to God with blessings and gratitude at that moment.

Happy St Patrick’s Day

It’s four years since I starting to get out there, push myself and sing. It’s three years since I started to do the open mic nights and I would stand there, frozen to the spot, like a rabbit in the headlights. I’ve come a long way since then and I intend to keep pushing myself and go a whole lot further.

With love and sparkles xxx

Image is my own design with my friend Chat GPT – scary how well it knows me!!

Life Sparkles

Time to Refresh and Restart.

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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.

A New Era.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Welcome December

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A most magical month full of happiness, joy, friendship and what can I say about the amount of sparkle that will be around – I’m in heaven.

Winter is here, Christmas is almost upon us as is the New Year. 2022 seems to me to have gone by in a flash. I think that’s what happens as you get old, the years speed up so fast it’s untrue.

Wishing you a truly magical, heart warming, love filled month.

With love and sparkles xxx

The Music Sparkle.

I have branding…

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With a touch of Sparkle

Also in Black

Fade to Grey

I know it’s been a little while since I updated my blog. There has been a lot going on the past few months and I have been working hard on the music although not getting much of an opportunity to actually sing. The preparation for releasing my music has been a lot to deal with. Having no experience in this particular industry it’s been quite the learning curve and at times I have found it difficult to get my head around things, but I’m getting there.

I have learned about copywrite, music licensing and music distribution. I have read so many blogs, terms and conditions, do’s and don’ts’s and also watched YouTube videos on those subjects and then I just had to take the plunge and sign up for things. I worked with a lovely lady on the social media branding. Her brief was to look at my Instagram account so she can get a feel for who I am and the colours I tend to post with and also we had a chat about my love of country music, sparkle and the look I was going for. I’m thrilled with the finished product and I look forward to using it in the future. The photo shoot was great fun, very different to just doing a quick selfie on the phone. It took me quite a while to get used to posing and I admit, I was a lot more comfortable when I was wearing my jeans and t-shirts than the floaty dresses.

So, we are well and truly on the way now on my musical journey, it’s all coming to fruition. It’s taken quite a while but I’m almost there.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Perfect Time To Be Happy

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At last, with vaccinations, restrictions being lifted at various times and a new normal way of life happening it has been just lovely to get out and about a little more. I have to admit that I personally think I was very lucky in the lockdown period. Caring for my parents meant that I was more or less in a lockdown situation for four years. I had just started to venture out and about again when the real lockdown arrived. I was more or less used to not going anywhere socially or even shopping although as usual the minute you are told you can’t do something, you want to do it even more.

Anyway, back to this year and things getting a little easier and days that the sun has shone so brightly and it has felt warm outside. I had a lovely afternoon catching up with my cousins in their garden and it felt like a holiday. So good to see them in person rather than on video calls. Yes, there was Prosecco.

There were a couple of birthday’s amongst the neighbours so I set to baking some cakes. My Mom and my Sister were fantastic cake bakers and I was always just awful. The sponge never rose for me, more like a biscuit base than Victoria Sponge. However in the last couple of years my cake baking has improved. I like to think Mom passed it to me. One of these days I’ll have to bake one of these for himself so that I can have the odd slice. Not even I could finish a whole cake!!

Between the global pandemic, losing my parents and helping himself to care for his Mom who has Vascular Dementia I have realised that what my Dad used to say to me on a regular basis is so true. Life is for living, don’t take life too seriously and the time to be happy is now. I am at peace with my choices, I am free and I have been told that I make people happy with my music, my posts and my random Instagram chats. This makes me happy. I know we all have duties, obligations and worries but we also have life and we owe it to ourselves to be happy and make someone else happy if we can.

Be Happy.

Do something everyday that makes you happy. Now is the perfect time to be happy.

With love and sparkles xxx

The Music Sparkle.

Here it is!

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I wrote in my blog post yesterday that I would share my cover version of the Randy Crawford classic “Almaz” so here it is…

https://youtu.be/G89N3onMDJY

I’m both excited and nervous about sharing this, there is something a little scary about putting yourself out there but I love singing and I just wanted to share this beautiful song. I really hope you enjoy it.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Happy New Year 2018

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I hope that you all enjoyed Christmas time immensely. Yes it is busier than busy, we are stressed out shopping, wrapping gifts, visiting friends and family or having them visit us, school plays, pantomime’s, cooking…the list goes on.

Ours was a quiet Christmas. Family came for the usual “Fizz and Nibbles” on Christmas Day which is a busy, funny, crazy few hours when our usually quiet house comes to life and it is wonderful. Mom and Dad loved having the family around, catching up, singing songs and everyone talking at once. Mom coped very well with it all, took it in her stride. From 4 pm onwards it was back to us three, I cooked dinner and we settled down to watch the Christmas Irish Music shows.

Over the week we’ve had some visitors, my b/f made it over for the New Year and things were slow and steady. Two all nighters which isn’t bad going at all. We didn’t get to open our gifts until New Years Eve, Mom just wasn’t interested at all which both surprised me and made me feel so sad. Mom always so enjoyed opening the gifts in the past. One gift I bought them was two calendars; one from Knock Shrine and one Nathan Carter. Well, Mom took a lot of interest in the Nathan Carter calendar which was very funny, she just wouldn’t put it down. He is one of our favourite singers, it was so sweet to watch her with her calendar.

I’m quite happy to stay in on New Years Eve, I’m not too bothered about staying up until midnight although we did this year as my b/f was with us. I do love January. Winter in all its glory. The evenings start to get a little lighter as each week passes. The promise of the year ahead, opportunities, challenges, plans, dreams…it’s as if we feel we can make anything happen if we just put our mind to it now we are in the New Year…and we can.

I wish you a fabulously happy 2018, full of health, love, peace and sparkles galore.

Picture via Pinterest

I bet you can’t guess what one of my gifts was? Oh yes he was in the bad books!

He did redeem himself somewhat when I opened this…I love Nashville.

My cousin and I being silly on Snapchat. Laughing is such a good feeling.

I was after some flat ballerina pumps and ended up with these. Not practical at all, not sure I can walk in them but I couldn’t resist the sparkle. Oh well, they were extremely reasonably priced and sometimes you just have to let your inner sparkle take charge.

Happy New Year Everyone 🌟

Life Sparkles

Ramblings.

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Once again it has been a while. Far too long in fact. It has been so busy but then when isn’t it busy?!! The amount of times I’ve sat down with the intention of updating my blog, of posting the latest thoughts, happenings and general day to day of life and yet for one reason or another it just doesn’t happen.

After my “Leap of Faith” blog post about giving up the day job to care full time for my parents, things took a decidedly, let’s say “unfriendly”, “unsympathetic” turn with my manager at work and I experienced a very stressful, pressured and upsetting three weeks during May. After a fight back from me, things during my notice period have settled back and my final working day is Friday 30th June.

I have mixed feelings about this. After all, it is the end of an era for me, the end of the “day job”, the end, for now, of my career as a “City Chick” in the corporate world. Yet there is something quite liberating about this change. I thought I would feel sadness at training someone to do my role and handover tasks and I haven’t at all, I’ve enjoyed doing it. Time to hand the baton on so to speak. 

I’m enjoying looking after my parents, being “Mom”, although I’d much prefer not to be having to do this, this is where I am, I love them and I’m going to be as positive as I can about my new chapter in life with them and caring for them. Thankfully we are still at a stage where I can have a little me time to spend on my music, more studies, a little voluntary work from home and yes blogging, expect to see lots more blogging!

This particular post was supposed to be me, owning up that I had fallen back into awful unhealthy eating habits as I recovered post op and how with the hot weather this week I had redeemed myself…that one will have to wait for another day, soon…I promise, soon.

So I’ll say bye for now with a photo of my hanging basket which I am so proud of. Not known for my green finger prowess I cannot believe I managed to grow this from scratch. I might make a domestic goddess of myself yet!!

© @aurorasparkles 2017 🌟