Doodles

I am at home with my kids every day. In between school runs and school collections, feeding them, changing them, playing with them and doing all the other jobs that come with being Queen of my Castle, creativity is a big part of me and my children. We are no Mozarts or Picassos (yet!), but they have definitely inherited the creative gene that runs in my family in some shape or form. A day doesn’t go by where we don’t turn up the music as loud as we can and dance our little hearts out, where we don’t paint, colour or make snails out of play dough. A day doesn’t go by where my second born doesn’t magic a little piece of art out of snippets of printed paper, an empty toilet roll, glue, glitter and whatever she can find. I admire her creativity, focus and determination. Give her a pair of scissors, a glue stick and a stack of paper and she will sit for hours on end cutting, colouring, gluing.

Creativity is a wonderful way of expressing oneself. It is a great outlet. In the weeks coming up to Christmas I was in my element doing arts and crafts with my kids. (While I have to admit, it can be a headwrecker all the same trying to do arts and crafts with smallies. Glitter everywhere, paper snippets everywhere. Sharp Scissors. You see where I am going. And I like my house clean and tidy, so I tell myself, relax woman! And Enjoy!) And so I did. There is an artists living deep inside me, too. There are so many forms of art through which to express oneself. Over the years, I’ve tried a number of things. Oilpainting, playing the piano, colouring, soapstone sculpturing, scrabble art, photography and making things out of timber. For a lot of these things though I need time. Uninterrupted time, away from the kids, as some of those activities are messy, require concentration or tools that aren’t suitable for kids. So as time away from the kids is far and few between, more often than not, I find myself sharing in the colouring fun. Grabbing one of the kids colouring books and leaving my inner artist roam free. And it seems that for just a few moments, the world stops around me. I am in a world of my own. Just me and the pencil, neatly in between the lines. All the tension and stress seems to be falling off me as I doodle and dream, just for a moment………..Wow, what just happened? Am I relaxing? Would I dare say that this is therapeutic? Yes!
So I happened to come across these colouring books. Santa brought them. He knows me well. Colouring books for adults. Anti-Stress colouring. Art Therapy. Colouring Therapy. If you are, like me, creative in any way and are looking for an artistic outlet, or if you find colouring / doodling relaxing and de-stressing, then this is the things for you! Pick one up in Eason or Amazon. Give it a try! It’s a great way to get a little head space, leave that creative flame in your belly flare up while joining in the kids’ fun.