SPARKLES & CRUMBS HAS MOVED

See you there!

www.sparkles-and-crumbs.com

So long, farewell, are we to say adieu!

Hello, darlings.

Well, this is a pretty important post, sweet things.

Sparkles & Crumbs is moving.

And, I hope, improving!

Yep, Sparkles & Crumbs is moving to its own domain, on a new platform, with a new focus.


 


 After graduating this year, I found myself adrift in the gloomy, grown-up world of job-hunting, council tax and electricity bills. I managed to get a 9-5 desk job in my beloved Cambridge to cover my rent - but that leaves very little room for creating new content here at Sparkles & Crumbs. After all, after staring at a computer screen all day, I don't feel much like logging on to blog for an hour when I finally get home. So, I've found myself posting less and less. My need to write and share something fabulous is as strong as ever, but logging into Blogger didn't make me feel inspired anymore. Instead, I felt stifled and stuck - like I needed a fresh start.


"You will find that is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them."

-C. Joybell

I found my inspiration again when I happened to glance at my site stats. Hundreds upon hundreds of readers from the USA, from Australia, from India, from Italy, from Brazil, from Russia... just this month!

I was blown away by you all, my dear, dear friends.




And you got me thinking: if I could inspire so many wonderful readers with what has been simply a hobby on the side, what wonderful things would happen if I invested serious time and moolah into my writing? Into building a spectacular international Sparkles & Crumbs community?




And I noticed that the posts that attracted the most comments - the most "Me too, this helped me!"s - were the ones where I had started to share some of my own musings as well as the snippets that inspired me. I feel it's high time to say something new and all of my own - to talk to you, my sweethearts, in my own voice, alongside the glorious tidbits I discover. [And you can find out exactly what I want to say over at my brand new home!]

It's high time to practice what I preach, darlings.Time to take a leap, put my money where my muse is, and do what I love whole-heartedly.

So, this is to say thank you, thank you a hundred times over for reading...

And to invite you to carry on reading, and to join in at the new improved Sparkles & Crumbs circle of fabulousness for your daily dose of  magic, frivolity and fairy tales!

remember you are not you, now.
you are you a year from now.
how does that woman walk?
she is not sick or sad.
doesn’t even remember today.
has been to Europe.
what song is she humming?
now. right now. that’s it.

-Marty McConnell

I feel a bright and beautiful future is on its way, beloveds.

I'll see you there!

Love, thank you, and good night xxx

I never really knew that she could dance like this, she makes a man want to speak Spanish

Shakira, shakira!

OLA, chicas!

I am really, really loving that Latin American attitude lately. The passion, the joyousness, the sensuality... in fact, my two biggest inspirations this month hail from clinquant Colombia!


 

First off - ZUMBA, baby!

Now, you all presumably know by now how averse I am to severe physical exertion. Organized sports of any kind bring back painful memories of P.E. at school, running is boring, going to the gym brings on an existential crisis [those treadmills! You're running, but you're going nowhere!], and the steps in traditional dance classes are usually too tricky to follow.

In short, I've spent most of my life as the poster girl for anti-exercise. But not anymore, mis amigos!

From my very first Zumba class in the utterly unglamorous surroundings of the university gym, I knew I had found a way of moving around that I absolutely adored. Our incredible Colombian instructor led us through some bosom-jiggling, derriere-shaking, hip-swaying moves to the Latin beats of Beto Perez, Pitball and Shakira, encouraging us to whoop along to the music! It is the only exercise I have ever done that encourages you to let your lady parts wiggle away in all their glory rather than strapping them down or trying desperately to tauten them up... that lets you imagine you are a fabulous spy seducing the enemy with your exotic dances in an Arabian marketplace, or Catherine Zeta Jones in The Mask of Zorro... and that feels like such pure, unadulterated, exhilarating, energising FUN!





It really is like being part of a fabulous carnival!







And no one encapsulates the Zumba spirit quite like Sofia Vergara. Have you seen her as the fabulous Gloria Pritchett in Modern Family? I think I'm in love!

She's a smart, successful businesswoman, an amazing mother, and a hilarious comic actress...






She dresses like a dream...

She takes trips to Mexico for super-size cocktails and big-ass burritos...

She oozes sex appeal...







And, best of all, she knows how to party! As the LA Times wrote of her Emmys after-party antics: "From Fox to HBO's bash at the Pacific Design Center, Vergara stole the night by dancing at length on an elevated platform, accompanied by bongo players. She even crowd surfed. This woman is a hero. Following HBO, Sofia popped over to the Jimmy Kimmel's Soho House bash for a nightcap. As she entered with her crew, DJ Samantha Ronson was packing up her equipment. But wait! Not on Vergara's watch! She pleaded for one more song and, MVP style, Ronson obliged." 

Her Tweets from the night absolutely brilliant, as well:

"Jajajajja. I luv my life!!!!"

"I partyy Like a mermaid!"

"This is how the Colombians partyyy at the Emmys!!"

In a world where we are all increasingly inhibited about letting loose, giving our emotions free reign, and owning our fabulousness, we could all use a little bit of Sofia in our lives - and I think there's no better place than Zumba to start!

"I use Spanish dancing as a way to exercise. I've done that for my whole life."

-Sofia Vergara

 Love, home-made hot chocolate and helping gentlemen pick out the perfect jewellery for their lady loves xxx

Wouldn’t it be powerful if you fell in love with yourself so deeply that you would do just about anything if you knew it would make you happy?

Ola, chicas!

Just a little food for thought at the start of the working week...

Have you ever had that feeling that life's fabulousness is simply passing you by? It usually strikes when one is broke, burned-out, or the only one without an invitation to a glittering event. There you are, curled up in your pajamas and a mug of hot cocoa, forlornly checking your Facebook feed - and all you can think about is how everyone else in the whole wide world is out on the town, having more fun, frolics and excitement than you!

I came up with a simple, 100% certified Sparkles & Crumbs solution to this malaise a long time ago!

My mantra?

I am where the fabulous is!

Whether you're dressed up to the nines and hinting the tiles at a swanky cocktail bar, studying in the library solo, or snuggled up with your best buddy, a box set and some oven pizza...

Do it whole-heartedly, in the full knowledge that not matter what you may be doing, you are where the fabulousness lives! Your very presence alone simply fizzes with the promise of merriment and magnificence!

 We all know those people who feel compelled to prove to the world what an amazing time they are having 24/7 - repeatedly needing to be seen in the chicest of places having the wildest nights out... even if what they're really craving is a cosy evening in.

 Rather than fretting about all the other things you could be doing and all the places you should be, just go with what feels good for your mood right now - and own it, girly!

It's like a fabulous version of Zen-like 'being here now!'

Love, swagger and moves like Jagger xxx

If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful...

"I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed to trap them before they escape.”

-Ray Bradbury

Heeeeey, girlfriends!

Guess what?

I just published my five hundredth post! Can you believe it?





 Here's to the Sparkles & Crumbs philosophy, darlings - to big dreams and small pleasures. And here's to you, O sweetly returning readers. I am still over-the-moon in love with, and overwhelmed by, every single one of you. Thank you for stopping by, staying around, and sharing your insights. I hope we make it to a thousand posts together!

"I love the idea of the big life - the life that matters, the life that makes a difference. The life where stuff happens, where people take action. The opposite of the life where the girl can’t even speak to the boy she likes; the opposite of the life where the friends aren’t even good friends, and lots of days are wasted away feeling bored and kind of okay, like nothing matters much."

-E. Lockhart

So here's to sandcastles and ice cream chandeliers and champagne by the Seine and kisses in the rain and declarations of love [preferably in Italian!] and deckchairs and dining al fresco, here's to red berets and heart-shaped ruby necklaces and Rock Hudson and poems by Rilke, here's to you and here's to me and here's to Sparkles & Crumbs!

All of my love, chiffon and sequins xxx