Summer playtime

As you may of gathered I was going to be away for a few days this weekend which was a part the reason for posts being a tadge rushed.

 
But as ever and increasingly more so, I had do everything like pack everything I was going to take away with me, sort out transportation and remember to take some with me a biscuit  as I'd be travelling across midday with two friends.

This tends to be easier than sorting train connections and the almost inevitable issues these days of cancellations and delays due to weather, industrial action or no driver turning up.

Seasoned readers of certain forums will know, the last few weeks haven't been good with me with family health worries not least dads cancer, diabetes and related complications so a large part of being away was to get away from that and play more.

We've been finishing a few bits of collections off such as my Blue Peter annuals most going back to when I was younger and our television wasn't colour.

There will a more frilled mode of dress going on as you all know really that's me but in a relatively subtle more Little way given the setting - it always makes sense to "Read the room" - and keep within the events expectations.

I not usually much for short sleeves especially dresses as that's one area where body image connected dysphoria is strong in me (not feeling comfortable in your skin is so not funny) but thought this was a good setting with people to try it.

Plus it's so it's so middle/little and that above all was where I wanted, nay needed right noe.

* Picture NOT brought to you Associated Rediffusion but as I has no smart phone and selfie stick (dangerous given my computer usage issues) this is as close as you're gonna get AND see, I is for real.

Colour therapy

You may of noticed a few comments around how the present situation in this country is having a adverse affect on me and I think a few times I have mentioned coping strategies.

Recently I was given this unique product, part of whole series of small books with various inspiration quotes and things.
Although in so far as the general public goes, they see colouring as a relaxation technique as fairly modern although the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung prescribed it as far back as the nineteen twenties and today many medical practitioners and occupational therapists are suggesting it has widespread benefits across many issues.
Personally I've always found colouring  relaxing apart from just fitting in well within my younger than my years frame of mind but moreover because using colouring as a therapy uses parts of the brain that enhance focus and concentration, it helps too with organization skills, memory which is something I sure struggle with and positivity.
What this book has is small selection of drawing to colour but included with it is a cd of relaxing music that is designed to listened to in tandem with the colouring to enhance the relaxation and lead toward a meditative state of mind.
It is something I would suggest trying out.

A spot of colouring

The weekend was not particularly conducive to going out with strong winds on Friday so with even bigger and strong people than myself struggling I needed to stay indoors which as you probably aware isn't something I like at all, being an outdoor girl.
One thing you can do when it is like this is colour and so I had my colouring book out on Friday.

 Normally when I colour I use Staedtler colour pencils available in the Noris Club 36 colour pack as they respond well to different pressures for shading and don't easily break in the way some cheaper ones found in convenience stores do
They also sharpen well.
That illustration is from the Jacqueline Wilson Colouring Book published by Penguin UK and illustrated by Nick Sharratt who does the drawings in her stories.

New and improved colouring

As you may be aware I do colour quite a bit and I did mention not so long ago I really did need to get a new colouring book  having finished off my "Coloring book for girls" one I had since last year.

It also is the case I do love Jacqueline Wilson's stories  so when I found out there was a colouring book based on the characters from them, that to me seemed just perfect as that just married up two likes in one.
I bought it because I was looking for something a little more of a challenge when it comes to neatness and having smaller areas to colour compared to my other ones so it would hold my interest being more for Tweens which as far as my regression goes is more where it is at.
I'm enjoying this one heaps.

May bank holiday report

This week we're talking about something a bit different, mainly colouring as that's what I've been doing a fair bit of across the weekend to relax as sometimes I get rather anxious apart from find it helps with my hand-eye co-ordination and leaves me feeling more in my natural little space.

Before I'm off again I need to remember to get a new colouring book as I've almost finished this one.
This does lead into the area of things that can only happen in littlespace which occurred with me which is of course pencils do wear down for which we have pencil sharpeners but with my grip having to sharpen most of them I struggled.
While doing that I had friction burns and a nasty blister that stung for hours making hard to do stuff like eat.
The other thing was connected with the tv as most programs come via a massive roof top antenna and it goes to box that boosts and sends out to all the tv sets.
On Sunday we had as many did here in the midlands torrential rain, thunder and lightning and it blow up the box that distributes it resulting in partial loss of tv with only the stronger signals coming through.
Repairing that, the person who looks after it falls with a loud scream and sends a glass object flying at speed from the loft space to the floor that naturally enough breaks into thousands of pieces to sweep up.  
Trouble is I can't actually get in their to rescue them so I was relieved he managed to get out by himself so I'd have to get someone to climb up to get them.
 I also had my annual tax statement as my social insurance payments are potentially taxable although I don't earn enough year on year to get into the income tax bracket or rather I had two which seems rather odd as I see no difference between them. I've fled that away for future reference.

The lead makes the colour...

Yeah I know, Tuesday isn't it but the groan ups mess my routine up yesterday that left me super tired  so yesterdays post comes a day later than scheduled and I might of gotten it done before bedtime had it not been for Marmalade playing hide and seek over over half an hour, tearing the lower floor of house apart trying to find him. Grrr.
Anyways, as you know Colouring is a pretty big thing with me and a large portion of us too but one problem I have is gripping and pressing on to pencils due to my disabilities.
It's no lie I can sometimes struggle to write me own name  at a times which makes colouring difficult as with most childrens pencils you need quite an impression to get darker shades and they can break real easy.
At the suggestion of Poppie, I decided to get some more pencils.

 

For one thing my pencils came in 12 colour pack so some of the colours I may need aren't there although I'm pretty good at blending colours to create say Fawn -some packs have different colour shades in them too - and these don't break so easy.

They're also designed  so you don't need to press much on them which is a very real boon for some of us and easier to blend.

Frozen colouring

On a bright sunny not as warm as it was yesterday morning I went in to town, which is almost a history trip in  itself in our district and ventured into the local branch of McColls, the newsstore group in Cheshire passing the weekly outdoor market with the fashion and fruit stores with the store holders engaged in sales patter.

Well with some of my up and down emotions of late I felt the need  to have something to do  that would be enjoyable so I picked up this  Frozen colouring book I could work through armed with my stack of coloured pencils.
I so need this.

Junior Art

Most of us encountered art either around us on maybe on the things people bought us such as books, packaging of toys and so on.
As you slowly and for some of us definitely slowly developed your fine motor skills  you may of started to doodle on pieces of paper, done some colouring before doing art in the nursery or infants class usually around the things you know starting say with faces of siblings and so on.
Later on in juniors you'd of had lessons where you might be given a subject to interpret and draw which in my case included drawing things like branches, pussy willow, acorns and flowers that we'd seen in nature study. In my case we went outside to draw them too!
A while ago I did draw some Canada Geese in pencil as I'm a bit of a techophobe when it comes to using tablet and computer software and here is the picture.

Yes that's a Hello Kitty pencil I used to draw it with!

Christmas 2012

If you have just come to this site you probably did not expect me to publish a Christmas edition as I had said elsewhere I wasn't doing one before Christmas as I was going to be very busy organizing stuff for other peoples Christmas's, visiting and the like.

You might be thinking what is a Joanne Christmas like?

A Joanne Christmas is unapologetically a little affair, simple, very childlike wrapped around some groan up parts such as being with relatives so while they may do sophisticated things and talk about groan up stuff, I don't cos I'm the child.

I woke up, got dressed and spend most of the morning  in full uniform and I see I wasn't the only one in our community that spent at least some of our time like that today.

We went out for Christmas lunch where apart from having some lovely well cooked food, I played a small springy man with a sucker that holds it down for a minute before it goes pop and jumps up in the air landing all over the place. I had loads of fun doing that and Mommy was okay with it too. Having a Mommy that'll let you do this in public is so awesome.

Below is my present pile with an unexpected present on the top.

Hmm I wonder what it might be cos it came from a borderline lg colleague of mine who really knows what makes me happy.

Oh look, she bought me a Hello Kitty selection box with chocolate and other candy in it because when she saw it, it reminded her of me. It was so sweet of her as knows all about my little side.

I had some money cos really most groan stuff doesn't really do anything for me at all so I bought this years super annuals by Jacqueline Wilson who writes lovely children's books and yes a Hello Kitty annual with games,activities and other really fun things to do in them like colouring.

 As well I had this the 75th Anniversary annual of the British Comic the Beano with special stories, jokes and other things in them that make me happy.

In a Joanne Christmas, new childrens books feature as I love reading about people and their adventures so there's Emerald Star, a follow up to Hetty Feather and Four Children and It by Jacqueline Wilson in their hardback editions.
Mommy bought me some pastel pink super soft slippers that's she's happy for me to wear around her, a pair of soft snuggle socks and Scottish shortbread. I had a tin of chocolates to share cos well sharing is a 'very good thing tm' although Ill have to change some gloves as my hands are small, the fingers are smaller than Mommy's even and these are way too big.
I have record coming just after Christmas too as it was in the Christmas Eve sale too.
Now the funny thing is people this is so similar to the Christmas's of of the past and you know what? It just feels so right.

Online colouring

Just while checking this photo program out, I went over to a colouring book site site that links to online colouring books where you can can  click onto virtual paint and colour in.

 It's listed on the favourite sites page on this blog.

Here's one I did earlier:

As you can see the tools are well laid out so you just click to load your brush (cursor arrow), move to where you want and click to paint that part.

It's also the first post entirely made from the laptop as I've had to learn where everything is stored!