Photography: @mermaiidmairead
Dear Readers
It has been such a long time since I have written a piece on here, just from me to you. I am really sorry for this. I have discovered that I am not good a multi-tasking, dipping between book and blogger writer mode, but I am learning lots through this!!! I hope though, that you are enjoying the Magic Mondays posts and Fabulous Ones stories- more to come soon!
Recently, I have been reminded by others about the importance of honesty and to tell your whole truth. With this I have learnt that in order to grow you have to let go or let people in. This is something that I am not good at and palm off any struggles, usually with “No worries, its fine” I think that is maybe a ploy to myself to think I’m all ‘a-okay.’ But going down this stream is a little unhealthy and instead of knocking down walls, I am protecting them. One of main messages that I tell you is to keep going and you will overcome your obstacles, but with this I am not sharing why this is to believed, nor my struggle not to give up, so how can I ask you to really believe in my words? And how can I really convince you that it is not some lines I nicked from a good old Disney classic-I have nothing against Disney btw in fact I am huge fan and up for a re-run anytime, just say when!!! I know I have told you parts of my story but I have always tried to put a positive spin on this and even though I have been honest with my words, I have not told you the other parts of my truth, so here goes.
We live in a world, especially here in the west, whereby the pace of life is so fast and we seem like we are forever catching up, take for example waiting for the internet to load on our phones/computers for a few seconds is just a little thing to get us fumed up. We are always planning our next step and not fully considering what we’re doing at a particular moment. And don’t get me even started on how, somewhat isolated we are also becoming with self checkouts being nearly everywhere now, ‘self’ depicting the way in which we are going. A few years ago I watched a documentary with Joanna Lumley (who I think is indeed absolutely fabulous) where she visited a hotel in which staff were replaced by robots- has life become that busy whereby people would rather check-in, go up to their rooms without passing the time of day with a stranger, or greet a familiar face when coming down to breakfast? ( I know we all race to the coffee machines in the mornings, but that is besides the point) yep, I am waffling again!
The thing is, I am also one of those people who lives or want to live in the fast lane sometimes, I think writing is the only time I zone out,,, I guess for me it almost a meditative-like thing. Cerebral Palsy means my muscles are a little uncoordinated and reaction times are a little slower –science in school did therefore did come in handy if it was to only clarify that, yes I do have delayed responses!!
I know life is not a race and we are all meant to go at different paces. I even posted on my Instagram a few months ago about just taking a breathe and being be present and I do stand by that, but sometimes I can lead myself down a rabbit hole and forget this. So for example writing out a text or an IG post may take me a bit longer to write out then hoped or being the last person to finish a meal (now this gets on my nerves for a whole other reason- I have the biggest sweet tooth but like mumma says ‘you gotta eat every last pea first’). Sometimes I get really irritated by my pace and wish could go a little faster. Even though my love affair with writing is forever, sometimes I get so frustrated if I am having a day where I am even more slow than usual, but in my mind I am two paragraphs ahead and also this laptop is meeting the wall, I have a feeling that won’t be helpful in the slightest!!
Verbalising these struggles is not the easiest thing to do and I think writing these as been one of the first times I have explained my thoughts. Perhaps subconsciously I have thought this would be complaining or just a bid to excuse myself, telling myself I am just being lazy. Thinking about this though acknowledging difficulties, is a form of acceptance and a way to not let it be so much of a battle that we are fighting up against.
The point of this post is to say that it is ok not to only show a smiley face to the world, we all face challenges and sometimes by sharing these we can help and encourage others as well as ourselves. Keeping a lid on our thought and emotion will only create an unwelcomed explosion.
All my love XX
?✨? Happy Magic Monday my Fabulous Ones ?✨?
From time to time we all have experienced that feeling of not doing enough. Thinking that we are not where we thought we would be; that we are so far behind that we’ll never catch up and then we see other people doing the similar thing to us that we believe to be miles ahead of us. With all these thoughts, catastrophizing the situation that we find ourselves in, we forget our differences and that it is these differences that makes us so beautifully unique. These diversities will see every one of us go on different paths and face our own challenges. So we will naturally do things in our own way, at our own speed.
If you feel like you going too slow or too fast, remember that you are doing things your way and you can’t compare that to anything. Look for the Frank Sinatra in you and be proud in saying you “Did it…(your)…way”!!! ??❤?
Dear Reader,
Let’s talk about Girl Power!! Girl Power is hugely important and something every female should have FULL STOP!! It’s the start of freedom. It’s a start of standing up for your rights. It’s about going after the things in life the makes you fully awake and not listening to that out-of-date, never-in-date, record that you can’t do something because “you’re a girl”!! It’s about supporting other girls and together accomplishing goals. It’s about living and breathing your worth because, my fabulous one, there is no other way to be alive!!!
Artwork by Confetti Crowd’s illustrator @ameliadeacon
And who better to represent the true essence of Girl Power?? None other than the inspirational Confetti Crowd!! The Confetti Crowd is made up of four beautiful ladies: Heidi Pettie, Helibells, Lulutrixabelle and Tiger Lilly, who promote female empowerment and work to encourage girls to be their own boss and ultimately just be themselves, collectively and individually (through their own brands)-basically everything that makes my heart sing!! Plus to say they love rainbows would be an understatement-they embrace every inch of living life in colour and wear just exactly what they want, always looking fabulous!! I have been following these women for quite a while through their social media platforms and just love what they stand for, so meeting these ladies would be a dream….
Cut to last month, Mermaid, my sister (an amazing lady who I first introduced you to in my post Mermaid and I) said that she was taking me to lunch, we always like to do something together whenever we can, so this was very normal. We got ready arrived at the carpark near the restaurant,, okay still very normal, I was then told by Mermaid to look down- my weirdmometer scale comes out as this was a tad weird- but I just went with it. Then we went into the restaurant and were taken to our table however the table had more than two seats around it, the weirdness on the weirdmometer goes up slightly. Mermaid then told me just to look at the menu, ok now the weirdness on the weirdmometer went up quite up bit. AND THEN… I heard a hello! I looked up and it was three of the Confetti Crowd, Heidi Pettie, Helibells and Lulutrixabelle, along with their lovely videographer Alicea Lewis!! Now the weirdness on the weirdmometer was off the chart!! I was completely shocked, to say the least! I did not know what to say or do a first. I was beyond excited!!! A quite lunch turned into something extraordinary!! After a chance to try and take all that was happening in everyone sat down, order some yummy food and chatted all things Confetti, empowering and just life!!!
What I love about these girls was how incredibly supportive they are- just the way girls should be but for whatever reason these qualities get left behind, or they get blinded by something else that stops them embracing and spreading Girl Power. The Confetti Crowd are true living example of what it means to encourage other girls and together conquering the world!! I felt this throughout our time with them, sharing stories and dreams, with the ultimate message being “Go get it!” As I mentioned before three of the four girls, was at this exciting lunch date. This was because Tiger Lilly is on her annual trip in Thailand working on new fashion lines for her brand. This, right here is why I am so inspired by these girls-they have dreams and they go and accomplish them e.g. Tiger Lilly’s dream of designing festival fashion clothes continues to come true, this is everything and more that makes me do a happy dance!!!
Thank you so so much Confetti Crowd for you constant motivation and have made me more determined than ever to go for my dreams. A huge huge thank you also to my beautiful Mermaid for making the dream of meeting the Confetti Crowd come true along with Alicea!!!
All my love XX
Dear Reader,
Wishing you, my dearest fabulous one, a very Happy New Year!
The start of a new year has a tendency to connote expectations and in turn induce pressure to live up to these. This is where our friend fear makes an appearance and dances upon joy, which should be soaring at the prospect of a new year! We hear chatter of ‘new year resolutions,’ spoken half-heartedly not because they are lying but because somewhere deep inside they are questioning themselves: “Will I be able to fulfil this resolution?” “How long will this resolution last?” I have done this. I have done this sooo many times. I said I would do this, this and this and by the end of the month most of my aims, if not all, would be inactive. I then might feel like a fraud to myself and go down that rabbit hole for a while. Then I might think ‘oh new year just sucks.’ This is a sequence of events that have been repeated several times, until one year I this skipped to the last part and completely forgot the beauty of a new year!
I recently read how we get a brand new year totally for free. A- HA! YES! BINGO! Finally it has clicked I thought! I interpreted this as going back to being grateful and thankful for the opportunity of seeing a new year! We have a whole year to fulfil our wishes, create our own magic and evolve into the person we want to be, developing in our strengths! We can do all this without setting New Year‘s resolutions and chiding ourselves for not doing the thing that we think we should be doing! So what if you have a bad day; as much as it would be a brilliant to be a go-getter every day, we all have dips of motivation. But that does not mean that you have failed, or that you should give up, or that your spark has gone forever, it just means you need to rest and retreat in another love to reset your mind for a while.
If you resonated with my first thought of the idea of New Year, thinking it was something to be feared doing a negative introspection, please I ask you now to stop this. Stop wishing your year away and remember the beauty that maybe uncovered in the year ahead. Who knows what this year could bring you?
All my love XX
Dear Reader,
It is so unbelievable that I am writing a Christmas post to you again- I am sure Santa’s sleigh just touched back down in the North Pole! Ok, you got me, I might be a bit of a secret believer – but I did think that that last time that we spoke we established that the possibilities were endless?? 😉
Anyhow!! How are your festive preparations going? Are you ready? Have you done all your shopping yet? Have you got many things crossed of your list? What’s left? Do you know where or how you are spending Christmas? And what is the dish of that day? Wow that time is ticking so fast, are you sure you will be prepared in time?..Oh, and how are you??
Mmm, sound familiar. This is the sound of panicked voices, voices that cries the need for perfection, voices that are carried by the wave of Christmas mania, voices the have not learnt to breathe yet! This time of year can be a complete carousel of emotions, thought and behaviours, all feeding into and maintaining one another only speeding up more and more; the vision of everything else becomes blurry, or is seen in only one way. This can be also applied to anytime of the year. These voices have been listening to this tune and anything else that has made them participate in pass the parcel; they have yet to listen to themselves and the things that really matter. I think we are all guilty of this at one point or another, whether we meant to or not- you included so put down your ego hat, it’s not that warm anyway. I know I have been caught in this trap; I have moments where I think won’t get things done on time and spend an equal amount of time thinking how I can work around it and in the mix of it all, I forgot what I should rather be doing. If we were all to take a breath lose focus on what we are focusing on and find our focus in what our intentions are, how would this change?
My focus would be to make sure I am doing things with happiness and pleasure, without pressure- being wholehearted in what I am doing will have more of a positive impact, rather than doing things just because-. My focus would be to participate in things that would only aid my development and allow me to feel alive. My focus would be to be grateful for all and who I have in my life- life is far too precious, do things and speak with love-.
This Christmas remember the true meaning of this season, of goodwill. Think of others who may be less fortunate without judgement as you do not know their story; even if you are not in a position to help, just by thinking of them and wishing that they will seek comfort can go a long way. Smile at a stranger who you pass by, it might be the only smile that they will receive today. Go forward with gratitude and allow yourself a moment to enjoy your own company!
This year my lovely Sister is running a campaign to raise awareness of Mental Health, a cause which is close to our hearts. My sister has designed and made chokers, which can be found on her online shop, with 50% of the profit of every choker sold going to the U.K. charity, MIND. This time of year can be hugely challenging for those with poor mental health and can trigger lots of negative thoughts and feelings. MIND work tirelessly to provide resources to support those who are struggling with their mental health, which can be even more testing over the Christmas period. Each and every penny that is donated will go towards helping maintain their fantastic services they provide and will allow them to reach more people who are in desperate need of help. More information about this cause and how you can get yourself one of these chokers will be can be found here.
I sincerely wish you peace and happiness this Christmas.
All my love XX
