My Hobbies

As a child I was always very creative, I enjoyed drawing or writing stories and poems and I had a very over active imagination. I also loved making things like Christmas decorations or models of cartoon characters and then painting them. I also used to love taking part in plays at primary school. I have always been a bit of a dreamer and have always liked time on my own to think about lots of things. I love walks in the summer in the country or at the beach and I love holidays in our caravan, getting away from it all for a while, time to recharge my batteries and re-focus and prioritize my life, this is when true lyrics come to be. I enjoy reading, when I get the time and of course I love music. I don't listen to music too much as I don't want to be influenced in any particular way , but I do love Nanci Griffiths, Dolly Parton and Eva Cassidy. I was also recently introduced to an album by Beth Neilsen Chapman, by Bruce and Sandra Davies and the lyrics are very heart wrenching but fantastic!, especially 'Sand and Water'.

I spent more time on my own from the age of 11 when I got my first guitar. I'd sit in my room for hours learning the chords for my favorite tunes. I also took lessons from John Mackay of Kirkcaldy for a couple of years and most of my pocket money was spent on sheet music. I was too shy to play in front of anyone then but I used to dream of being a famous pop star. I feel I'm a bit old to be a pop star now but I would like to think my songs could go somewhere one day.

I met my husband Paul when I was 16, we married at Gretna Green when I was 18 and the guitar took a back seat for a while but I soon got withdrawal symptoms and started practicing again when our children came along. I was also into cake decorating and would make and ice cakes for family birthdays. I also took up machine knitting with Paul's mum, Ellen. I have 3 knitting machines up in the loft and I used to knit jerseys and cardys for my boys Paul and Gary with mutant turtles and dinosaurs on them and I sold a few to friends and work mates. I loved making baby clothes as you could do a whole outfit in half an hour it was great. I also used to do portraits of famous people. I would cut photos out of the newspaper and draw them in pencil A4 size. I was so chuffed when friends and relatives knew who the pictures were meant to be of. Now I don't have time for much, being a full-time finance assistant and trying to keep a house and pay the bills. I would like to write more songs. I have loads of songs ready to record and about 5 new ones that I am working on but the lack of time to do this is very frustrating. Paul and I sometimes feel like just selling up and buying a camper van, giving up our jobs and traveling the world performing, but the house is all we have at the moment and we see it as an investment for Paul and Gary. So my aim at the moment is to get my songs heard as far and wide as possible and maybe someone famous will pick up on one, it's a bit far fetched but everyone has a dream.... and this is mine