Bliss and Mayhem

 The music industry has lost another legend this week, David Bowie. I remember where I was on those days where iconic people left us such as Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, I'm sure you do to.  Bowie, was iconic and a real mover for his times. Some may even call him the father of punk. He exploded onto the scene well before I was born but my admiration for his craft and love and passion for his art transcends age. It transcends eras of music too. There is something about his music that strikes a core.  What an honour he has left us with the legacy of his work.  RIP David.     

        The beautiful Jupiter. Image via Pinterest  I promise it will make sense at the end of the post     With the recent ending of 2015, I hastily and excitedly made a grand announcement here on the blog that “Sweet 2016” will be the year that I would be writing my book. I have been toying with this idea for many months now and in the grand plan of a brand new year starting, I thought why the hell not! Apparently I’m looking at writing over 120,000 words in the next 12 months. That’s 10,000 words a month. Sweet. Lord. Jesus   So whilst most of you were probably relaxing over the Christmas break, soaking in much needed down-time – I stuffed my face with food, wine and trifle with the ever present hang of the “book” on my shoulder. Its still happening people! I promise you – there is a book in me! And I’m sure that once the creative juices start flowing there will be no stopping me. I have a start. I have an ending. I now...

 As a blended family, our Christmas' consist of running around usually dropping off and picking up kids during the main days. We haven't still, created our own "tradition" as such and usually by the end of the Christmas week, I'm tired and my belly is full.  We also celebrate birthdays. Before Christmas, Molly turned 18. Again, 18! Time flies people. In the blink of an eye, kids grow up. Our littlest also celebrated a birthday and turned 4. So as well as trifle, spreads of food to die for and lots of wine and get togethers, we have CAKE!  I also was really, really, really tempted to buy some tickets and just "pop" over to Bali for a few days, because... Bali. Alas, my head was smart though and while looking at the flight websites to find the cheapest deals, flights were disgustingly expensive. I'll just have to hang the 145 days till the next trip!  So here's the McLean wrap up kiddos! Merry Christmas everyone!  Epic Trifle - I must say!   ...

  Image via Pinterest   Our renovations are so nearly complete that I’m just bursting to take photos of the place and put a post up here on the blog about the process, how it looks and crack open the champagne to celebrate the completion of a 7 year project. The final touches are being made. Steve has worked countless nights after work, putting the little finishes on. It’s so getting there. I’m so excited! One of the best bits of finishing this renovation, was FINALLY pulling out all of my books and also my treasured green depression glass collection {it’s my thing} that was all carefully wrapped up and stored underneath the house over 5 years ago. With walls coming down, sanding, painting, nailing, drilling and oh a new baby, they were all tucked away. The other week, we went to Ikea and bought some bookshelves for our display. Steve has an ubber collection of model classic cars that were also stored underneath our abode – time was here to dust it all off and make our s...

 I have friends that revel in the time that is Christmas. You know the type, that have their Christmas decorations all laid out ready for the 1 st December with the anticipation of have the tree up on the first day of the silly season.   I am. Not one of those people. Last year I wrote a post how I may be the Christmas Grinch . Not a fan really. But for the kids, every year I lug out the McLean Xmas tree and we decorate in our own style. You know, when you throw the tinsel and shove the lights on and put every single bobble and bit on randomly? It looks glorious in my eyes! Circa 2014..........       We had success this year with a visit to Santa. There were no tears and even though the look can be mistaken as a friendly connection between the two, it was infact a “I’m just checking that your still next to me and not getting any closer.”   Clearly, mum was having a great time!   But there is one thing that I have enjoyed every year at Chri...

 2015 has been a massive year for us. We have had some really huge highs as well as epic lows. It’s also been a year of growth, of re-confirming what is really important in life and ensuring to savour moments, family and friends. I have always known that this mother-hood gig would be a journey, especially with the experience that I have had with my first, Ethan. For many years in the early days it was really, really hard. It felt like a never-ending day, with no break of trying to work out how to mother him the best way I could. My little boy was diagnosed with Autism when he was two years old. He screamed for hours on end. He would smash his head against the walls in his bedroom out of frustration. He flinched when I tried to console him or cuddle him. He would look at me but through me, doing anything possible to avoid eye contact. I was, at the best of times an exhausted mess trying to just, do it. Looking back, I’m not sure how we did get through it. How he got through it. H...

     Image via Pinterest   I’ve been blogging now for nearly 2 years. I've been writing as a hobby for over 15 years {mind you with an 8 year hiatus from it – you know, kids}. I’ve mentioned here before how the main purpose of this blog was an outlet for me – to rediscover my love of the written word and also to have something for myself, which is mine. I know it sounds soooo cliché. But it’s true. I have always hoped that as well as doing this for the love, it would be an extra bonus if I would be able to gets some rewards, monetary wise by writing here. And I’ve had some great opportunities come my way. Some sponsored posts where companies and businesses have reached out to me to review a product and write about it in exchange for its use. It’s been great. But I’ve always, always known that I would only do sponsored posts if: If it was a product that I was actually interested in A product that my readers, YOU would be interested learning more about Stood...