Cupcakes and Cadenzas

As you know, about two weeks ago I signed up to do the A-Z Blogging Challenge and for two weeks I have racked my brains to come up with a theme, but to no avail, and so I decided to go with general posts about things I like. A is for Apple, B is for Blogging, etc. However, this morning I woke up with what I think is a great theme. Bearing in mind that the challenge starts tomorrow - the 1st April - and this theme needs a fair bit of research it looks like I really have my work cut out. But hey!! What's a challenge if it isn't...well...challenging? And so my theme is going to be Nursery Rhymes and their origins! It doesn't stop there though. Oh no!! There are four letters that, at the moment, I can't find nursery rhymes for. If I can't find a rhyme by the day the letter comes around, I'm going to write my own nursery rhyme. In for penny in for a pound I say. So, to find out all about the first Nursery Rhyme 'An Apple a Day' and yes, it is a Nu

This is the first time I've ever taken part in a Blogfest and it has been great fun! Thank you to Diane for organising it. You can find Diane's blog by clicking here  Check out her list of inspirational, sad songs. I have had a ball going through old cds, trying to pick out my top 10 sad songs that inspire me. I have to admit that I could have come up with way more than 10 but I decided to give myself a limit. These songs hold no particular memories for me but they are songs that tug at my heart strings every time I hear them and if I'm ever feeling down and wanting to wallow in self-pity, then these are the songs I would put into my playlist and play whilst drinking a bottle glass or two of wine. Are you sitting comfortably? (click on any of the titles to hear the songs on youTube) Hello by Evanescence . The haunting piano accompaniment and the striking voice of Amy lee make this (in my opinion) one of the most moving songs this band have ever released. All O

Today I thought I would share some photos of my garden. I am lucky enough to have my garden in an old wood and I try to keep it as natural as possible. There are proper paths and lawns but around the edges I leave as it would have been in the wood. This makes a lovely habitat for all the wildlife in the garden including the dogs who often turn feral whilst they check the boundaries. (Click on any of the photos to enlarge them) If you just go through this little path between the trees you will find the most beautiful area under the trees where the dapples hit the ground. I'm convinced that faeries live there. The flowers are so abundant on the Pieris Japonica that they almost touch the ground. Daffodils hide everywhere. Leading through to the bird feeding area. I can't for the life of me remember what these flowers are called but they are so beautiful! Maybe someone can enlighten me. There are so many little paths through the trees there'

Ipad My mum always said I was an advertiser's dream. I only have to see an ad or a product that I like and I fall for it, hook, line and sinker. I have always been like that.    About a month ago I treated myself to an iPad. I had wanted one since the day they were launched and finally decided to bite the bullet and get one. I got an iPad2 only to discover, of course, that two days after I ordered it, the 3 was being released a week later but - such is life. I am aware that the display on the 2 is completely inferior to the 3 but, to be honest, I don't really care. I love my iPad! It's the best thing I have bought in years and I now can't imagine life without it. It took me a few days to get used to the iPad. I don't have an iPhone - yet - so I hadn't seen the layout etc.  but what I quickly realised was that it can do just about anything you want it to. The app store is huge! You can find things in there that you could never have even dreamed it might h

Cacophony This morning I was woken up at 3.30am with a terrible cacophony of music going on in my head! I couldn't understand why this was at first. There was a Bon Jovi song mixed in with the duet from The Pearl Fishers; REM was definitely in there somewhere along with Tarja and several songs from Les Miserables and gradually it started to dawn on me... A couple of days ago I signed up to take part in the Sad Songs Blogfest on the 30th March. I had been thinking about this before I went to sleep and the result was that at 3.30am every sad song I have ever heard had started playing in my head and the noise had become so loud it woke me up. It doesn't end there though. Oh no! When I realised that it wasn't going away, although it did seem to quieten down once I was awake, I decided that the only way to get rid of it was to write the names of the songs down. So, I put the light on and dug out my notebook which lives beside my bed just in case I wake up in the middl

I'm not sure that this would be everyone's cup of tea but I think this is a great idea!!

Well, I have decided to take the plunge and join the April A-Z Blogging Challenge! I love a challenge and I am so excited about taking part in this one. If anyone is unsure about as to what the challenge is, it starts on the 1st of April (this year) and runs through to the end of April. You can find out all about it and sign up if you want by clicking on the banner underneath my blog header or by clicking on the button on the left hand side of the posts under the heading 'A-Z April Blogging Challenge'. The point of the challenge is mainly to get your blog out there; to find new readers and followers for your own blog and to find great new blogs to follow. I'm really looking forward to finding lots of new and interesting blogs but I'm also looking forward to the challenge of writing a post every day for a month (apart from Sundays because you apparently get them off for good behaviour). The other exciting part of the challenge is the fact that you have to stick t

Last night I discovered that Cupcakes and Cadenzas has been given an award! I love blogging awards. I think they're a fantastic way of showing people that you appreciate the work that they put into their blogs. This award is The Liebster Award.  Liebster is a German word meaning 'dearest', 'beloved' or 'favourite' and the award is given to bloggers that you feel deserve it and have less than 200 followers. The idea is to help them finds more followers and I have to say - I'm all for that! As with all blogging awards if you accept the award then there is a set of rules which must be followed. 1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. 2. Nominate up to five other blogs for The Liebster Award. 3. Let the nominated blogger know via a comment on their blog. 4. Post the award on your blog. 5. Consider signing up for the A-Z Challenge - a great way to find new and interesting blogs. So, firstl

Happy Mother's Day Happy Mother's Day to all the great mums out there and to those of you who no longer have your mum around, I know how you feel, but let's celebrate it anyway and think of the great times we did have with our mums. I wanted to share with you this lovely poem that I found in a book not long after my mum died. It's very poignant but so true. THE RUSTY OLD WHEEL by Richard Wilkins This short tale is how I feel about my Mum and the Rusty Old Wheel. The hub of the wheel is what Mum was you see, we were the spokes, my family and me. There are many spokes that criss-cross in a wheel, just like a big family - don't you see it's so real? At the rim of the wheel the spokes are apart, yet so close at the hub, where they all start. We all stayed together, whatever the pace, like the spokes of a wheel, we all had our place. There were times when the wheel travelled bumpy ground, but the hub held the spokes as the wheel went round.

Over the last few days there has been a real change in the weather. The sun has been shining and the skies have been blue and cloudless. Dare I say it...I think spring has finally arrived. Autumn is my favourite time of year but I also think spring is a lovely time of year. It's a time of hope and looking forward and so I thought I would share with you the 10 things that I love about this season. These are in no particular order. Enjoying the sunshine BABY ANIMALS. I love to see the little lambs and calves frolicking in the fields at this time of year. My two favourite things with lambs are when you see them standing on their mum's back and also watching what I call lamb racing. That's when all the lambs get together and race as fast as they can from one side of the field to the other. Then they all turn round and race back again. Hours of endless fun! It's just such a shame that they have to turn into sheep. SPRING FLOWERS. My garden is full of spring

At last!! I've made my decision regarding blogging and I'm now going to stick with it. Two days ago I wrote that I was going to turn Cupcakes and Cadenzas back into a motivational/inspirational blog as more and more general posts had been creeping in and that wasn't what I wanted it to be about. It was originally set up to be a blog about anything and everything but through time more and more motivational/inspirational posts started creeping in and so I thought that I should put it into the motivational niche. However, having given it a lot of even more thought over the last couple of days I have decided that I really do like having a nicheless blog where I can write about anything and everything including Filofaxes, iPads and book reviews to name but a few topics. The result is that Cupcakes and Cadenzas will go back to what it was originally - a blog about anything and everything. For those of you who are following or visit this blog purely for the motivational/inspir

Somehow I seem to have got really off track with this blog. When I started it I was going to write about anything and everything. Then gradually it evolved into a motivational and inspirational blog which I really loved but over the last few months I seem to be blogging mainly about books I have read and Filofaxes and although I enjoy writing about those two topics it's not really what I want Cupcakes and Cadenzas to be about.So, I'm going back to writing motivational, inspirational and self-development posts (with maybe the odd Filofax post thrown in). Keep checking back and hopefully you will see Cupcakes and Cadenzas morph back into what it used to be but this time - even better!!

I bought this book (Kindle Edition) last year sometime and, for whatever reason, I just never seemed to get round to reading it. I don't know whether the title put me off or whether it was the thought of a 'chick-lit' type of book about a man but I would look at my list of books to be read and pass over this one for something else. When I started my reading challenge this year I decided that I would just make the effort to read it and get it out the way. I started it, fully expecting not to enjoy it, but how wrong I was. This is one of the funniest books I've read in ages! It's basically a diary of William Walker's first year of marriage. It's very readable, with many 'laugh (or snort) out loud' moments which I don't often find in books. In places you can clearly see what's coming next but William doesn't see it and that's what makes it even funnier. The story did become a little far-fetched towards the end but because the rest