Meraki Creative NE

17/08/2025

WAG duties this morning at Newburn Leisure Centre ⚽

While the Mr runs around in the sun, I am writing a new blog right next to an open window 🪟

Just the right amount of 🌞 and a little breeze to keep it comfortable.

Have a fab Sunday whatever you get up to 😘🫠

16/08/2025

Abuse can make you question your worth — but your value is not defined by what you’ve endured. Your existence matters. You matter.

When life feels tough, what’s one thing that you can turn to to remind you that you are worthy of love, respect and time? 💜

15/08/2025

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Safety planning can include everything from having an emergency bag packed to memorising key phone numbers. It’s not about expecting the worst — it’s about being prepared to protect yourself.

We will be going into this much deeper in the future but if you’ve seen or shared a good resource on safety planning, drop the link below so others can benefit 💜

15/08/2025

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14/08/2025

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Healing rarely happens in giant leaps — it’s the quiet, consistent steps that build a new life. If today feels heavy, focus only on the one thing you can do. It’s enough.

What’s one small step you’ve taken lately that’s made a difference? 💜

10/08/2025

Life is very loud right now. Between packing to move house, podcasts, school holidays, work and looking after websites, I'm a little overwhelmed so I'm having a breather just for a few days.
Not disappearing completely, but definitely giving myself a time out before my body forces me to!

It won't be long and all things meraki will be back in full swing again but in the interim Musers, enjoy the peace and quiet 🤣

07/08/2025

The Dating Diaries has officially been started. A no holds barred, raucous chronicle of the last three years of online dating before I met the Browell!

Thought you might like a little sneak peak...😉

So, let me take you back to a time long, long ago.

Before the internet.

Before mobile phones.

And before the horror that is - (scary music playing) - ONLINE DATING!!!

A little bit of history before we begin in earnest dear reader so that you will hopefully understand me a little bit better, because the reality is, when I tell you my stories, you will begin to wonder why I didn’t just give up and retire into spinsterhood, bitter, jaded and full of man hate!

I grew up in a happy home.

Like most homes with four kids, three of them with only a year apart between each, there were stressful times and manic moments, but for all that we didn’t have a lot – we had more than most because the value lay not in toys or expensive holidays, but in the time that was spent together as a family.

Some of my most treasured moments from my childhood are the ones that cost next to nothing, and I would love to think that would be the same for my kids.

Anyhoo, I digress.

In amongst the chaos and busyness of four kids, jobs, school, clubs and everything else that famiy life brings to the table there were my parents, and they had something that money would never be able to buy.

They had love. A love so deep that it has defied time itself.

We talk about love as something that chooses you, but the reality is, for those who truly understand it – you choose love.

Love is not flowers, chocolates or expensive dinners. It’s not grand gestures or beautiful jewellery.

It’s those small moments when someone looks at you and says everything in their gaze that you need to hear.

It’s the gentle touch on the small of your back when life feels just a little too much and you need to know you aren’t doing it alone.

It’s the moments you share a secret smile that nobody else notices, but that speaks volumes without having to say any words.

Love is being comfortable enough to be you completely and never feel like you must hide who you are, no matter how much you have been made to feel that you should in the past.

Love is making a choice to never walk away because things got tough.

It’s refusing to go to sleep on an argument and understanding that being right isn’t important.

None of us have an infinite amount of time and when you choose to love someone – body, mind and soul – you choose to let those small wins go for the bigger picture because the bigger picture is so much more important than tiny, irrelevant victories that hours later will be forgotten.

Love is choosing to stay even when you want to leave. Even when it all seems too much and you can’t see the road ahead.

It’s understanding that you don’t have to like the person they are every single moment of every single day, but that you are choosing them because you know that they are your heart and soul, no matter how difficult things may seem.

You see – true love is everything. It is all encompassing, and true love was what we were brought up with every single day.

From the tiny moments where a small smile would play across my dad’s mouth as he watched my mum preparing a meal from the corner of his eye to the way my mum would always reach for his hand when they went anywhere.

It was a quiet love. Private, yet passionate, and with it came a couple who were a force of nature.

Don’t get me wrong. They had their issues like every couple.

Those issues brought with them moments where we began to wonder if they would make it, but even through the worst of times they clung to each other because they had made a promise. They had seen eternity in each other's eyes from the first moment they met, and no matter what - they wouldn’t be torn apart.

Every day they made the choice to continue loving each other, even through the most difficult moments and today, they are only a handful of years from celebrating 50 years together.

That is what love was from the very beginning and what it still is and always will be.

It is making that choice every day no matter how tough some of those days may seem to be. In doing that, they managed to set the platinum standard for what love should look like.

Sorry fella’s! Most of you were knackered before you even started thanks to them!

So, as you can see – we grew up watching a love that not only embraced decades, but has defied the odds, continuing to build and grow with each passing day.

Even when their physical bodies are dust in the ground, that love will echo throughout eternity and carry them onto wherever and whatever comes next.

I was also not allowed to watch any horror films as a kid, so being brought up on Disney movies left me with the misguided notion that there was a handsome prince out there just for me who would swoop in and save me from my humdrum existence.

What I have learnt as I have gotten older is that the humdrum existence is kind of okay, and that the handsome prince doesn’t have to ride in on a white stallion and slay a fire-breathing dragon to be a Prince.

He can be the most normal bloke on the planet but when the stars align just right, everything will just fit, and the choice will turn out to be the easiest one you ever made.

That’s something we will come back to though!

01/08/2025

Hey you guys....! 🤣🤣

29/07/2025

My underwater sister Katie has just published her latest article for the Northumberland Wildlife Trust and it's fab.

Check it out Musers and give them a follow ❤️

“So might we ourselves look down into some rock-pool where lowly creatures repeat with naïve zest dramas learned by their ancestor’s aeons ago.” – Olaf Stapledon

27/07/2025

For those of you who are wondering - something strange, unexplainable and magical happens when you hit your 40's.
Believe it or not, it isn't a sudden urge to buy wrinkle cream, write bucket lists or panic over the fact your body is doing its own thing. What happens can only be described as a quiet rebellion. A shift in your soul. A spark that begins to burn with a fire so fierce that it becomes almost impossible to ignore.

Suddenly, you realise life is actually for living, and that all the surviving and playing by someone else's rules? Absolutely no more!

Check out my new blog all about discovering yourself at 40 and learning to make the rules instead of living by them!

Discover the magic of your 40s where confidence blooms, joy is reclaimed, and life truly begins. This honest and uplifting reflection celebrates breaking free, embracing who you are, and living unapologetically. Lets all be fabulous at 40!

19/07/2025

Check out the new resources page on the STS website.
With hints and tips on all sorts of self care including meditation, mindfulness, journalling and grounding techniques - it's not just for people struggling with abuse.

On top of that, for those of you who may want to - the links for my first two books are on there. Exciting!

Shatter the Silence is a support network and podcast that gives a voice to everyone affected by domestic violence. We share real life stories and campaign for action that will help to change perceptions. Every voice deserves to be heard and we should all be listening.