Five Months Till Forty. The Blog is getting an overhaul!

Actually it's more like six months till the big day but I'm currently very influenced by my almost ten year old's obsession with Five Nights at Freddy's and everything 'Five Nights at..." thereafter.  Plus it sounds better.


It is blatantly obvious that blogging most certainly isn't my forte (ha, pun?  Help me out here)  but it's not because there is nothing to say.    If you could somehow stream my thoughts onto a page,  I'd have a millions posts by now.    Actually, maybe that's not such a good idea.

What started as a lifestyle blog took on a life of its own and became primarily a writing and book blog after I released my first novel.  It was great for awhile but very soon all the other parts of my life were pushed aside and when it came time to write about other aspect of what was happening in my life, thoughts, and opinions it just seemed a little too contrived.

So this is the introduction of my overhauled blog.   And what better time than to coincide it with my fortieth year which includes a child starting high school, an overseas trip, some work to the house and garden, and of course more books.

Looking forward to the chat :)

My Writing Life... and Cake Decorating

It occurred to me last night when I was trying to get to sleep that writing isn't actually my life. Should it be? Probably not.

My life is like a cake. We'll call it a nice, rich, moist chocolate mud cake. It includes my family - my husband who is also my best friend and with whom I get along with quite well on a daily basis and my three kids who, as kids have their days but really don't give me as much grief as they probably could, my friends, my other immediate family - mum, dad and brother, extended family, my house and how I'm trying to make it into a wonderful home.

Writing for me as much as I love it - I love using my imagination, creating stories and scenarios, developing irrational attachments to people I made up - is just the icing, and the decorating is what I could do with it. Now if there was no icing and decorations, if for any reason I stopped writing, it wouldn't affect the richness and goodness of the cake, but I'm sure it will be missed and eventually it will be added again.

If for any reason the icing doesn't quite work out as planned, for example, it doesn't quite come together, the end result still needs work, someone doesn't like it and gives it a bad review (wait, what?), or it simply just isn't right, other than the surface (loosely translates to me swearing and crying for a couple of days) the cake isn't really affected. It's still a pretty awesome cake.

Now my goal is to make that icing and decorating so beautiful and wonderful that it can only enhance the enjoyment of the cake. Because lets face it, who doesn't like a cake that has been presented as the best it can be.

Now I want cake.

*The above analogy really has nothing to do with cake decorating. In fact, I'm really shit at it. The cakes I make are usually quite yummy but the top is almost always either domed or sunken and the icing is just spread on and that's the end of it. I have tried but soon realised I'm much better off paying someone who is good at it to do it instead. I may one day try to gain some cake decorating skills but at this point in time don't have any solid plans to do so.

Case in Point

Mindcraft cake I made for Mr Paleo 2011

Plants Vs Zombies cake I ordered for Mr Maker 2012  (Diddlyscrumptious)

Brain cake pops to go with the Plants vs Zombies cake, also made by Diddlyscrumptious.  I'm sure they're a metaphor for something too but who cares?  They were amazing!

Hello from Buff Cosmetics and The Lazy Pagan

Hi There

I've created a new blog to encompass the ones above and much more. As much as I love talking about beauty and paganism I found the subjects to be way too limiting as I had so much to say about other things and, if you have read the other blogs, so little to say about those particular topics.

So A Broom With a View has been born and is much more personal. There will still be a lot of beauty and makeup talk and much Earth friendly chatter, but truth is, I don't walk around with a makeup brush in my hand nor do I constantly try and find new ways of building spirituality.

I'm a mum of three boys which is an experience in itself, housewife (love using that word - it's kind of unPC), writer, bibliophile (or maybe just a bookworm), music enthusiast, business owner (albeit a pretty crappy one - more of a business planner) film lover, dog owner, Nigella-in-training and enjoy a myriad of other things.

If anything, it's probably more of a way of putting off things to do like get on with my novel or the housework!