Creating Sparks That Last & All Things Relationships

And a Little Bit of Writing July’s edition has a few surprises. Let’s start with the icing on the cake! ALL my family joined me for my birthday weekend, which was tons of fun and a rare get together with everyone present. There was cake, of course, homemade Victoria sponge which was the second time I’d made that recipe, and store-bought chocolate mud cake, YUM. We played giant lawn games which I think the neighbours enjoyed as much as we did, given the shrieks of hilarity that accompanied our games; we built a wood fire for s’mores; gazed at our sparkling starry sky, and now my heart is filled with so much love. ☺ Next up, I unexpectedly started writing a new story I’m jumping up and down about. I couldn’t sleep one night last week and a story idea came to me so I started making notes. Soon enough it started flowing into a story and I kept going until 2am! Here’s the premise: Veda is a 30-something data analyst not looking for love. She receives a gift from a random stranger that chan...

And a Whole Lot of Living There she is! Introducing my book baby, which, just by the way, hit the No.1 Best Seller list in it's category on launch day! The category is One-Hour Relationships Short Reads ! That's it - in just one hour you could be on your way to a whole new way of life. Imagine how good that will be. You and your partner can be reading TONIGHT, together and start living your best lives as a couple madly, deeply in love. Grab your chance  HERE ! Wake Up Tomorrow Morning With a Clean Slate https://unsplash.com/@matheusferrero Here's how my book, Creating Sparks that Last,  has helped other couples just like you: Don’t you just LOVE that this reader is so inspired to create new sparks, new memories and renewed connection, in her marriage? I do! This next reader just blew me away with her enthusiasm for her husband to read the book: You’re just an hour away from living your romantic dream, and at just $.99c, I’d say that’s real value. Don’t delay:  Grab it tod...

The Way to a Man’s Heart Image credit to Unsplash by Raissa Lara Lütolf Armed with a glass of velvety smooth Merlot and James with an ice cold beer we joined the hustle of talking, laughing guests standing around bar tables with our behinds perched on wire barstools. While it was fun to blend in with the loud and raucous customers around us, James and I longed for a space to sit comfortably where we could talk to each other instead of shouting at each other, albeit kindly. “Should we find somewhere else to have dinner?” James yelled at me. “Sure,” I screamed back into his ear. So much fun. Leaving the warmth of those cozy blankets behind, James and I headed for a restaurant with a water view on Darling Harbour. One of our favourites is Bungalow 8 and to our delight, they had revamped their eatery into private booth spaces.  Ours was particularly intimate with a sign that implored, “Please, no sledding.” Let me emphasize that the courtyard in question was no more than a two metre sq...

What Is Love? 'Writer seeks 'wife' for a year on a tropical island.' The other day I asked for you, the reader, to define love in one word. I got some thoughtful answers which I'll list below. But before I do that, I want you to ask yourself what love means to you, firstly as an individual and secondly in a partnership. Years ago, when my marriage was still young, I read an autobiography by Lucy Irvine called Castaway (NOT the Tom Hanks movie). This was an intentional project to live on Tuin Island, an uninhabited island off the northernmost coast of Australia, for a year. It began with a male writer advertising for a female to live with him and test their mettle of survival on Tuin Island.   The catch, by Australian Officials standards, was that they had to be married in order to stay on the island. This did not please Lucy as G (as she calls him) expected more than just survival tactics from her. This caused deep introspection on both their parts, making for a del...

How do You Stay Married Until “Death do you part”? Note: Today's post is an extract from @mrshillaryvance via Instagram. She is a Therapist, Coach & Educator. With her permission, I have paraphrased some poignant thoughts about long-term relationship commitment: So many people don’t really weigh the gravity of the FOREVER part or consider what it really means (or actually looks like) to love someone forever. A lot less people would probably get married if they did! But in all seriousness, marriage is pretty awesome and it’s totally worth it with the right person (but potentially disastrous with the wrong person).  I think it’s time more people weigh the seriousness of forever and start talking about the glossed over realities of what most marriages look like day in and day out (it’s definitely not always G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S). All this to say, marriages will have their ups and downs...the good days and bad days, the “I think you’re hot” and “I think you’re not,” days, but what rea...

 What do your relationships look like? 💗 Romantic? 🎉 Exciting? 🌺 Spoilt? 👣 Grounded? Essentially we want our relationships to be all of the above and more. Evolving, growing, openly sharing our thoughts and dreams. If we are to make a long term commitment with the person we have chosen for life, we need to be able to evolve with the ever-changing environment of growth in our relationship; to be able to adapt and strengthen our bonds. ~ For an in-depth look into ways to grow with the changing landscape of love in your life, you can subscribe to receive a free ebook of my tried and tested strategies to improve my 35 year marriage remarkably.