My Art Endeavours

22/05/2108 - .... because I didn't have enough colouring books I bought a new one.

This one is all about fairies! It's lovely, can't wait to make this book full of beautiful, colourful, fantastical fairy creatures. This is my first go. She is a sort of floral, natural, forest dwelling nymph. I'm really happy so far.... just need to finish her headdress.






















16/8/17 - Finished piece! Lots of colour! Happy with how it turned out - took a while to get all of the flowers done!

New page with no colour yet - let's see what it looks like by the end of it. This page is a double spread. I'm going to do one page in pen and then one in pencil and see the difference. Pen first! There's a lot of hidden detail in this one - could take me a while.

12/8/17 - So not updated this as regularly as I had hoped to! Or at all for that matter. I've done quite a lot of colouring on and off over the last 2 years, collecting way too many colouring books and letting sit in a drawer for months! I've taken up colouring a lot more in the last month. I've been doing it in the evenings to keep my fingers and my mind busy to stop me from snacking.

I recently visited a friend, who is also one of my bridesmaids and a fellow colourer... and she was systematically colouring through her adult colouring book.... page after page...... which is a weird concept for me. As I'm a flicker througher and pick the picture I like best to do next, but her book looked AMAZING! All the colour and creativity was stunning and the fact that it was every page - a feast for the eyes! I had serious colouring envy. So, I have taken the first book that I ever got to colour.... the book that all the pictures in this blog post are already from and I'm going to work through it a page at a time..... it will probably take me forever to finish..... if I ever finish it but I do find it really relaxing and it stops me from creeping to the kitchen for naughty snacks. Helps with my anxiety at times too..... when I'm stressed - my colouring book is a God send!

Here is the first page of the book...... nearly completed. Just a few more sections to go.

I also completed the picture in the post below from 2 years ago! I must have finished it just after posting and then never got round to posting it. So here it is!

This book will be a challenge and I'm going to try and not skip pages.... even if they don't really take my fancy. Stay tuned for more arty pics.

Megan xx

14/06/15 - I'm putting the date as I will hopefully be updating this entry regularly with progress pictures. I will be posting the updates at the top of the page so it will read chronologically down - most recent post at the top. Hope that makes sense. 

I don't know whether to do all the flowers the same colour of to have them all slightly different? Any advice anyone? I love how this is coming along, the pencils make the picture look really soft and natural. Very pleased so far.

06/06/15:

I finished it! It took me bloomin' ages but it's done. I love it! So much detail in there that at times it made my head hurt colouring it in. 

Now to do a design in my new colouring pencils that I've mentioned before! 

Which out of these two designs do you lovely readers suggest I do next? 1 or 2?

1....

2....

25/05/15 How I spent my bank holiday....

I spent it colouring! Wahoo!!

....and I got a new set of pencils for some of the designs which need to be a little be softer than the pens. Hoping to use them on my next design maybe - will be posting a decision blog when this one is done. 

09/05/15 - Enjoyed a Friday night in with hot chocolate and Tim Minchin on the telly.... oh, and my colouring book! I've said it before and I will definitely say it again! I have a 40 year old soul instead of my actual age of 22.

My Wild Night In! 

05/05/15 - Got a few more little bits done yesterday. Still wasn't feeling brilliant and was finding it hard to concentrate. Think I've recovered properly now so should be able to get more done this week.

I love the difference between the two halves of this page! Can't wait till it's all done. 

Really coming on, I think. Still a long way to go though

02/05/15 - Not been feeling well today. Sometimes haven't even had the concentration to colour. Got a little bit more done though. Nearly half way - need to hit the sheets. I am SO tired!

01/05/15:

More colourful fun! Second project already more fun than the first! This design is so intricate! I love it. 

30/04/15 - So, after chatting to a colleague/friend today about my next project and having a flick through the book we came the decision that I should start a completely different, third, design. This is it:

There is so much detail in this one but I am going to leave the background white so that the individual sections stand out even more. 

Love how this flower is put together, there are so many sections that it allows for really intricate colour work. The only thing is, it throws my OCD out of whack as all the petals have an outline (that is pink) apart from one. It really wound me up for a while but after adding some more details around the flower, it isn't so noticeable. 

Got some of the surrounding detail sorted whilst waiting for Ballroom to start. It's such a gorgeous pattern! I love it. Can't wait to see how it all turns out. :D

29/04/15 - FINISHED! What do people think? Any good?

DONE

So, which one do people like more? Left or right? I can't work out which one I like more? 

I was away with the school this week so got to spend some down time with my art book. This is how far I got. I'm so close to finishing. Tomorrow I think I'll post two new designs that I'd like to do and ask which one my lovely readers (yes, that's you guys) decide which one I should do.

So close to completion

25/04/15 - Got another 'circle' coloured in all the different squares today. Got one more circle and then the corners to do. I love how relaxed I feel when I'm doing this. It's the ultimate time waster but it's brilliant.

It's getting there!

 24/04/15 - Been doing a lot of doodling this evening! Not feeling 100% so I am tucked up in bed with a movie and my colouring book. Very relaxing. Here is how my current piece is looking at the moment.

Getting there!

23/04/15 - I recently bought a colouring books for grown-ups as a time wasting/creative/therapeutic activity... and it is brilliant!

The Book!

I got it from a company that sell books at my work called The Book People, but you can get books like this online and in some stationary shops.

Seeing as I am now hooked I thought I might post my progress through the book on here, ask opinions on my next page and colour schemes etc. I am feeling particularly creative at the moment and am really enjoying working on my first piece in the book.

The First Piece

I really liked the way these ornate blocks are laid out, there is quite a lot of hidden detail that I hope will really jump out as I fill more and more of it in!

Stage One Done!

All the squares completed and some of the middle stars are filled in to. I love seeing how this is all starting to fit together. Still a lot of white on the page to work through though! Loving this, really glad I bought it.

#100happydays Days 64 to 70

Oooo we are getting very close to the end of this #100happydays project.

Day 64) Another new PB on the run. Feeling great! It blinking hurt though!

Day 65) Not so much happy as it is funny! I was gardening at after school club yesterday in my sandals and got really dirty feet! The first thing I said to Belinda when I arrived at ballroom was 'I need to go and wash my feet.' Got a very strange look in return - obviously! So here is me... Washing my feet in a sink at a village hall....

Day 66) Looking super hot in my swimming hat tonight at Shepperton Lake.

Day 67) Our first strawberry is turning red our veggie patch at school!

Day 68) It's 'Beach Day' at school today! Rocking the floral maxidress. Love the colour and the pattern of this dress. Looks a bit odd with the white top underneath but as I'm wearing it at school, I can't wear anything low cut for safeguarding reasons. But it's still a lovely dress! 

Day 69) My sister painted my nails for me! The are so beautiful, shame that they are already chipping off. 

Day 70) I was absolutely exhausted on Sunday after 2 nights of dancing and getting in after 3am. I spent all day on Sunday switching between napping and colouring. I have not been that tired in a really long time!

A fantastic week! Had loads of fun over the weekend but it did end in a major bed day as I was utterly shattered! Check back in soon for this weeks happy days.

M xx

It Didn't Do What It Said On The Tin!!!

I suppose I should start this post by stating clearly that I am not someone who has must emotional attachment to their hair. If you do, this post may unnerve you slightly - just so you know!

Ever since I can remember, I've had friends and family, my sister especially, who freak out when they have to get a hair cut. They can't cope with getting too much cut off, or changing it's colour. You could suggest highlights but actually asking whether they had considered changing the colour would just tip them over the edge. This is in NO WAY a bad thing. I can completely understand it, people see your hair every day, you have certain 'looks' that you can do which make you feel confident and attractive. Peoples hair can define them. This is well and good.

I am not one of these people. I am someone who has a very short tolerance for the way their hair looks. Since the age of 16 I have changed my hair colour more times than I can count and it's style a fair few times too!

The most radical cut started the whole thing off. I was 16, it was just after prom and I was just really bored of my lovely, long, thick hair.... so I had it all cut off. Straight away from waist length to a pixie cut in one sitting. I gave my hairdresser a heart attack when I presented her a picture from Frankie from 'The Saturdays' and said 'like this please!'. Genuinely, she turned white and asked 'Are you QUITE sure?'
'Oh yes, it'll be great, go on!' So she did!

I went from this...

To this....

And from then, my hair changed a lot. I've been blonde, brunette, highlighted, nearly black, postbox red, plum, purple.... and then back to a plummy red recently. I grew my hair out back to about waist length, had a full fringe put in.... loved that....

FRINGE!

.... grew that fringe out, had a side fringe put in, grew that. You get the picture - I get bored. 

So Christmas 2014 was another of these incidents when I got bored! I got all my hair cut off again (not quite so dramatically this time) 

and then I died it Black Cherry Red..... and today.... I got bored again..... Yeah, I know, I have no staying power when it comes to my hair, it's a problem. I'm working on it. 

Anyway.... I wanted to go lighter because it's the summer and everyone likes to look like they've dipped their hair in lemon juice and caught the summer sun.... all that jazz. Because of this, I picked a lovely light brown colour to start off my summer transition. 

This is the box....

This is the colour my hair went....

I'd forgotten what a hard colour red is to shift! Will have to let this fade for about a month and then re-dye it the same light brown colour again.

Some of you, I'm sure, will be yelling at your computer screens 'just go to a salon, get it stripped, start over'.... there's no fun for me in that! I quite like making a little project out of it. It took some of the red out of it - my hair is more brown than it was but it's no where near the box colour yet. Let the project begin! :D 

Random blog I know but hey!

Check in with y'all soon

M xx

#100happydays Week 5 - Days 29 to 35

Another week come and gone! Can't believe we are in the 30s already! 

Day 29) Bank Holiday Monday. Loads of fun and photos taken at RHS Wisley Gardens. You can read my full days excitement and see more photos in my two blog posts from the day. Post 1. Post 2. 

Day 20) Finished the next book on my reading list! Onto The Hobbit now! Follow my progress on my BBC 100 Booklist blog post.

Day 31) More colouring! Lovely time chilling out.

Day 32) Spent the evening sorting out my room - didn't quite get to the end of the challenge but well on the way. Hopefully will find some time this week to finish it all off so that everything is back in it's proper place. 

Day 33) FRIDAY! Alcohol and movie. That is all!

Day 34) Had a really lovely catch up with Ella, a friend from my 6th Form. Always great to have a good chin wag and then had a social dance with Belinda and Mr. R. So much fun, so much dancing... so much water in wine glasses! 

Day 35) FANTASTIC DAY! First of all I went to car boot sale - my first and one of many! Check in with my blog later this week for a write up of my first awesome experience of the car boot phenomenon. Then it was off to London to see my lovely Lizzie, a dear friend from uni. We had the hugest pizzas for small-ish prices and ice cream made with liquid nitrogen and chinchin labs in Camben town. Check out there website here for there address and more details on what they do. Their ice cream is incredible. We ate it whilst watching a narrow boat called 'Muttley' and another boat go up a lock. It was all very chilled out and I feel like Lizzie and I have put the worlds to right a little bit during our afternoon of catching up. 

So there we go! Another 7 happy days! Only 65 to go until the challenge is done for another year!

Check in soon
M xx