Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Cupcakes…

Yesterday our church youth group made and decorated cupcakes in the morning and then spent the afternoon ripping out ceilings and demolishing walls! A fun service project!
However the cupcakes looked so gorgeous Caitlin and I decided to make more today…


Simple recipe, 4oz sugar, 4oz butter, 4oz self-raising flour and two eggs…we made a batch each and I added chocolate to mine…we made normal cupcakes and bitesize mini cupcakes!

Then came the fun bit!

Decorating! We discovered the loveliest Frosting at Morrisons…unfortunately they were sold out of Chocolate, but we used Strawberry and Vanilla frosting…and lots and lots of sprinkles…sugar glitter, silver sugar balls, chocolate swirls, strawberry swirls, chocolate crispies, white chocolate stars and lots more!

We had fun! The cupcakes looked gorgeous and tasted just as good!

Mmmmm…

Mermaids and Fairies…

Warning to Sailors everywhere…
Mermaids have been seen 
off the coast of West Wales…
Photograph by Charley-Lee Allen (Please do not use without permission)

Photograph by Bekah Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)

I think it comes in the wake of discovering 
cute little fairies in the forest behind our garden a few years ago…
Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)
Bekah and Charley-Lee on a Mermaid photo-shoot and Fairy Cait…

A Childhood Dream…

Caitlin asked me the other day when I first dreamed of being an author… I’ve been drawing and writing ever since I could pick up a pencil, and I used to staple ‘book’ pages together when I was a little girl. I even have a little notebook containing a long story and my own illustrations written at 12 and treasured, though I cringe when I read it now!
Writing has been my life…my escape and my fantasy…I adore words and love exploring my imagination.
Eleven years ago, when Cait was a baby I began reading ‘Harry Potter’ and thought I could do this…so I began putting pen to paper. Within a year I had written my first novel, a dragon filled children’s adventure, my own children listened intently and loved it, four years later and two sequels had been completed.
Then I spent several years getting rejected from publishers and agents. I even paid for a highly recommended critique service to help hone the novel. We worked well and the changes I made were well received, but ultimately they told me most publishers had closed lists and weren’t taking on any new authors, (despite their advertising) and that book reading was taking a downturn…Agents told me the same thing, they loved the book, but couldn’t take anyone on.
It is a completely demoralising process…where the only way to succeed is if the book is sent at the right time, to the right person…and how do you know when that is or who that is?
I’m not blowing my own trumpet…the books may just not be good enough, but I can only rely on the feedback I’ve personally had, and the old adage…don’t give up!

So a couple of years ago I put away my fantasy adventures, (for now) and worked on a new idea…out of it came ‘Beneath the Rainbow’:


Death is an inevitable fact of life, indifferent to whether you are seven-years-old, or an old age pensioner who has lived a long fulfilled life. This is the heart-breaking and uplifting tale of Freya. Freya has to come to terms with her own untimely death and the impending death of terminally ill Old Thomas, who has but one dream left to achieve… Freya’s story of grief, hope, ultimate fulfilment and joy.’

The first line of the book invaded my head and I had to go with it… ‘Freya was seven-year-old when she got hit by the car. It was a 4×4 with a bull bar.’ The book goes on to deal with grief and bereavement on both sides of the veil. Freya has to adjust to death and the life she finds after it and her family have to accept and learn how to deal with the loss of their oldest daughter. 
When Freya and members of her family discover Thomas, dying of cancer, they learn that dreams are important, they learn that we must live life to the full and dreams help us do just that…
‘Beneath the Rainbow’ came from my heart and spilled into my life and it was suggested that I try Amazon’s Kindle publishing. 
And remember you don’t need a Kindle to buy and download it…on the right of the Amazon page you can download a free Kindle program to your PC…
So here we are in ebook form…
It is, technically, a dream come true to see the book available to purchase…but my greatest wish is for people to enjoy the story, to escape into Freya’s world and share time with her…
I am both elated and terrified to see it in print…I love the book, my husband cried when he read it to the children, but the true test is how it is received by the general public…
So I would love to know what you think of it…and maybe, just maybe, one day it will end up in paper print on a bookshop shelf…
That is my dream…


Another Time, Another Place…Bekah’s Art

Today we saw Bekah’s Art Exhibition at school…some of the work there was very impressive, and I am obviously biased that my daughter’s was pretty good too!

The first theme she worked on was Mental Health. She took photos depicting six areas of mental health: Depression, ADD, Anxiety, Tourettes, OCD and Insomnia. She then made a strait jacket, tea-dyed it and attached the photos. This became her installation in a black curtained room with an abstract video playing alongside:

Her second theme was ‘ Explore Another Time, Another Place’ and she began with retracing iconic ‘looks’ of the past century: She recreated their make up and portraits:

She then moved on to recreating the character theatrical looks for Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’:

Cait, Dan and I allowed Bekah to make us up as Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, she made herself up as the Knave.

She designed a pair of shoes to indicate ‘stepping into another time and place’, and decorated them with period jewellery, keys and watches to match the theme. The keys also showed being locked in another place…and this took her to nightmares and the ordeal Cait endured being made up as a Zombie:

There’s a funny story attached to the zombie look…Bekah completed the make up and she and Cait ran down the front garden steps to take photos on the road outside the house. They took the pictures and Cait overacted as a zombie would. It was only moments later when they noticed a bemused family sitting in a car behind ours watching the scene with astonished expressions! They were next door’s family visiting…didn’t expect a zombie invasion when they arrived! When they saw Cait, un-made-up the following day they commented with a smile that “she looked alot better, much more healthy!”

All images and content by Bekah Shambrook (& Lisa Shambrook) (Please do not reproduce without permission)

Her installation and display is to be photographed by the school and sent off to the examining board, as requested, as an example of A* work… so there we are.

I love art, I love painting, scrapbooking, sketching, photography and any other art, so I have loved watching Bekah’s talent develop and look forward to seeing so much more!

‘Sometimes I drive so fast, just to feel the danger…’

I want to drive fast today…I want to sit behind the wheel and let the gears slip fluidly through my fingers as I charge down the road…I want to find myself speeding round the Nurburgring race track in Germany…think I’d need a better car though!

I’ve always been a bit of a speed freak, a bit of a boy racer…My favourite line in Avril Lavigne’s ‘Anything but Ordinary’ is: ‘Sometimes I drive so fast, just to feel the danger…’ maybe that’s why I like the motorbike so much too!
The bike gives me freedom, the elements feel so close and you feel at one with the bike as you move with it, love it!
Cars are different. As a child I loved being a passenger, I liked going for drives and just sitting staring out of the window as the world goes by…
Then I went out with John, who professed to be a rally driver…erm, not sure about that…but he did race through the country lanes with disregard, and I loved it! Foolish, yes, but fun, and with rock music blasting out of the speakers we had lots of it! 
Then I passed my test and bought my first car. A black (Inverness midnight blue, actually, black with a sparkle!) Honda Prelude. I didn’t even care when Mum frowned and asked whether it was too powerful for a new driver…From that first test drive, I loved it, the purr of the engine and the thrust of the accelerator. 
Okay…I crashed it the second day I drove it…and put myself into debt getting it back on the road, but I loved that car sooooo much! 
I was lucky, can you imagine an 18 year old trying to get insurance on a 1600 engine these days? What was under £300 twenty years ago would probably be ten times that or uninsurable today! Mind you, considering I wrote off two cars (the Honda was a financial write off too) with it the second day, that’s probably not a bad thing…
I’ve had a few cars over the last twenty years…none new, what’s the fun in that? Besides, I’ve never sold one of my cars either…my husband points out that I drive  my cars into the ground before they get scrapped! 
Anyway, I’d like to note, that I’m not a bad driver…maybe a bit impatient…and I’ve got way more careful since having kids, and a speeding ticket! 
I love driving. I loved my Prelude, until it died…Our Maestro was a mistake, very boring, but I was eight months pregnant when we bought it, seemed like a good idea at the time. I soon learned that cars below 1400cc were just not for me…I loved our Cavalier 1800turbo, until it died…the Rover was a nice family car, until it died…and I enjoy driving my Vectra, which is slowly dying…I don’t know what I’ll have next. 
Bekah is learning to drive…will I have to relax my driving methods and drive a small engine car and share it with my offspring? I might kill it before she does! 
So soon I’ll have to watch my daughter step into a car and disappear into the distance…on her own…am I ready for that? Recalling my own early driving history…I’m not sure…   

Brighton Rocks…

Oooooh, after a weekend in my hometown…I have to admit I really miss Brighton!

I’ll tell you what I miss most…the seaside, I used to live one mile from the ocean and now I’m many more miles away from it.
That’s not to say I’m not happy with the welsh beaches I live close to, I adore the sandy shores of Pendine, Pembrey and Llansteffan…miles and miles of broad sandy beaches, perfect for walking the dog, splashing through the waves and soaking up the sun. They don’t get as busy as Brighton beaches and they are my favourite places to be.
But, and it’s a big but, I miss my childhood beaches of Brighton and Hove. I don’t understand why, but I even have fond memories of climbing up from the sea, across the pebbles ‘ouch’, hopping and stepping carefully to find your towel, placed strategically far up the beach… I remember wandering, again stepping carefully, across the beach trying to find the patch of sand that you know is there…but where? Then you find it… A metre square patch of golden sand…what a find, a real treasure! And sitting on the pebbles, throwing stones at drinks cans lodged ten feet away! And I love the ‘plop’ of stones as they arc and plunge into the sea as they escape your hands.

I love the big stone groynes placed between the beaches, I can remember spending warm evenings sitting on the end of these watching the sun go down and enjoying friendships and romances! I loved late evenings watching the sunset with the ocean stretching out in front of me…
I remember the magic of walking on the Palace Pier as a young girl, and staring down through the weathered wooden boards at the green ocean twinkling and sparkling in the sunlight below. The salty smell of the ocean and the wind rippling through my hair…I relived all these last week!
So I miss Brighton…I think there’ll always be a magic in your place of birth that you won’t find anywhere else!

Peace within myself…

I am finally learning how to be at peace with myself…

It has a great deal to do with my faith, and somewhat forgetting myself.
Spencer W. Kimball once said: ‘My life is like my shoes, to be worn out in service,’
The British government recently began a study into what makes people happy, ‘a Happiness Index to gauge Britain’s national mood’…it turns out the answer is compassionate acts of service. Their think tank decided that doing random acts of kindness makes you feel better…
Is that a surprise? Not really, my church, and many others, have been expounding this for years.
Happiness is many things, but making others happy is right up there with winning the lottery for me, higher actually because I don’t do the lottery. We all feel happier when those around us are content.
The other answer for me is forgiveness.

We’ve all been hurt before…but I have finally managed to put my previous pain behind me. A couple of years ago I read: ‘You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.’ At that point, I couldn’t do it, there were still people who made me feel bad in the pit of my stomach. Not wanting to feel that way anymore I made a concerted effort to put all hurt behind me. Not easy, by any means, I’m not talking about mild hurt here, we’re serious with this one…but I decided not to let anyone else have any control over my emotions.
It took a great deal of soul searching and time on my knees (and anti-depressants) but I have now released my demons…I’ve let them go…and I am so much better for it.
Yesterday we spent the day at the Temple and recently Vince and I have begun attending the Temple regularly…and I have finally reached the place I wanted to be…at peace…
The Temple gave me what I was looking for… We walked through the grounds, surrounded by beautiful rhododendrons, and I was at one with myself for the first time in a very long time.
I am happy, really happy, and I want to stay that way!
‘All of the most beautiful influences are quiet,
only the destructive agencies –
the stormy winds, the heavy rains, are noisy.
Love of the deepest sort is wordless,
the sunshine steals down silently,
the dew falls noiselessly
and the communication of spirit with spirit
is calmer than anything else in the world…’
(Edna Lyall, author of ‘We Two’)

…Must be talking to an angel…

So let’s be open-minded…do you believe in angels?

I do, but only in the ‘those who have lived and those who are yet to live’ sense…I don’t hold with old fashioned, Valentine style, cherubic babies with wings who adorn our Christmas cards, or the huge-winged, haloed, grave-yard dwelling divas, no matter how much I like the latest ‘Lynx-Fallen Angels’ advert!

I believe in beings who are just beyond our sight, who have either died or are waiting to be born…

I think these are our celestial angels.
Given my beliefs, I had an interesting experience just the other day…
I was scoffing a little at a phone-in on a morning magazine show about guardian angels. I listened with half an ear as I worked, as I don’t believe we have a specific personal guardian angel, (though I do believe we are perhaps surrounded by ancestors and others who watch us,).
Anyway the conversation turned to white feathers…apparently when you see or find a white feather it means that your guardian angel is watching over you…I grinned as I listened and spoke out loud to anyone in any realm who might be listening…
“Hey, angels, here’s one for you then! You need to show me a white feather, come on, it’s all yours..!”
Thus, I threw down the proverbial gauntlet!
I chuckled to myself and carried on with my task, sure that there were no white feathers anywhere close by (the only ones in the house were packed up in my scrapbooking box).
So imagine my surprise when moments later a teeny weeny white feather dropped and landed by my side!

It was truly tiny, just over 1cm, as you can see from the photo… but it fell as if from heaven itself!
I picked it up and my mouth broke into an amused smile. As I examined it I laughed and laughed, I knew exactly where the feather had come from, and I leaned back and picked up a lilac cushion. This cushion is filled with these tiny feathers, I shook it violently and attempted to shake out a feather, but no, nothing left the cushion! I shook my head and gazed about the room. I was impressed, and I told my ghostly visitors so!
Guardian angel? Ancestors with a big sense of humour?
Whichever, they couldn’t have picked a smaller feather to prove a point, or let it waft so delicately to my sceptical side…
Someone in the hereafter (or the herebefore) heard my challenge and thought, “No probs…let’s have a giggle!”
Next time I think I’ll ask them for something bigger!
‘Make yourself familiar with the angels and behold them frequently in spirit;
for without being seen, they are present with you.’
St Francis De Sales

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow…

I need to wake up from this long sleep…I feel like I’m hibernating!
I know it’s the right time of year for hibernation…but I’m not a grizzly bear, well not that bad, yet…
It’s time to take myself in hand and try to get out of this funk. I need to realise that instead of waiting for the clouds to clear I need to get up and blow them away myself!
I need to start small and do it, instead of staring at the big picture and procrastinating. As we all know ‘Mighty oaks from little acorns grow’.
Start small…
My plan will be to do one thing each day in addition to the basics that have to be done. Just one thing, it might be to do a scrapbook page, or update albums, or I could edit my writing…and regain the courage to print out my book again to send away…maybe commit to a list of agents or publishers, I might paint a wall, or sort a drawer, or shelf, or clear the table so we can eat or work on it again! I could swim, or take Roxy to the beach…both things I’ve neglected lately. I might even brave the cold and get back out in the garden again, or write a poem…maybe I’ll paint or sign up for an art course.
That’s just for starters…now I just have to do it.
One foot in front of the other, little by little and maybe, just maybe, I’ll recover my inspiration and motivation…

Waiting for the clouds to clear…


How long do you wait? Life has a habit of catching up with you and you learn you have to accept the things that you have been dealt. There is no escaping…
So I am waiting patiently for life to begin again.
It’s not as bad as it sounds…I suffer from Clinical Depression and can go years with no real problems then everything clouds over and I sink into a deep depression. This shows itself in constant anxiety and panic attacks.
The remedy for this is therapy and anti-depressants. Seven years ago therapy worked small miracles, but this time it’s anti-d’s on their own as the NHS don’t offer therapy and we can’t afford £35 an hour at this point!
The downside is fatigue…my family couldn’t believe how much I slept when I began taking the tablets. At first it frustrated them, but they soon admitted they preferred me tired and dozy to stressed and panicked! It has, though, left me with constant exhaustion and the need for afternoon naps, and I have zero motivation. I have lost interest and am struggling just to get the basics done every day.
Everything is an effort and I feel as though I have entered a thick fog. The clouds have descended and I have no ability to lift above them…

So now I’m just waiting for the clouds to clear and the sun to shine through…then perhaps I’ll find the impetus and energy to get moving again!
I’m waiting for my rainbow…

‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.’