"Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk."

Day 106-110:

I've really not felt myself over the last few days so I decided to skip a few days, I've not felt very inspired and if I'm honest 'getting through the day' has been as far as I have got. I feel like this whole Covid thing has changed me and some of those changes I really don't like. I think part of this unmotivated feeling is because of the news, I do my best to avoid it but for some reason a few nights back I ended up sat in bed reading and the ridiculousness of this country hit me hard. I'm hoping for a relaxing, creative few days to get me out of this funk. 

On a plus note we found another female Lesser Stag beetle, which made us both smile.

"Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time."

Day 104:

For many of us the last 100 or so days has forced us into seriously changing the speed in which we are living. Ive always been fairly chill but I've seen the people around me have to adapt to this new way of getting through the days. I had high hopes for the lockdown period, I was going to learn new skills and pick up things that I had put down a long time ago, and although I definitely have learned some new skills and have tackled some new projects, this time at home hasn't been as productive as I had invisioned because of concentrating on our emotional wellbeing. I lay in bed tonight thinking about how much creative fun we have had, I have really been empowered by the things we have been doing and Its been awesome watching Opeie get into his drawing too, I've been putting a lot more thought into how his home education is going to be going from this point and I'm really excited to see where it goes.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

Day 90:

Homeschooling (in our usual way) went out the window pretty quickly when all this crazy started. For most of us the days have all just merged into one big oddity, Ive lost all track of days and time and in my foggy head I'm now stuck at 'before Corona (BC)' and During Corona (DC). It's get harder and harder to motivate Opeie in the way I would have BC because he misses his friends so much. So I now just fully focus on what makes him happy. His latest idea for a comic has been keeping us busy in the LEGO department, focusing on set designs and letting our brick creativity flow. This should be a pretty awesome project, stay tuned.

"Insomnia is a vertiginous lucidity that can convert paradise itself into a place of torture."

Day 87:

Life is really starting to get me down, It seems like the only thing I can get right these days is being a dad, which to be fair is a pretty good job as I love that kid to bits. It doesn't look like I'm going to be sleeping tonight as my head is so busy and I'm struggling to clear the noise, so I decided to paint, because it's one of the few things that seems to calm me these days. I'm so thankful for this creative brain of mine, I feel like I'd be a wreck without it.

Struggling to sleep yourself? Heres some handy information from Snoozy Monk about insomnia to get you through.

"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."

Day 86:

Ever feel like you are living Groundhog Day over and over? I wake up some mornings thinking 'well here we go again'. I'm so used to being spontaneous, jumping in the car and driving wherever in search of adventure, This whole lockdown thing is slowly sucking the life out of us. So In order to combat the ever growing rutt we are trying to add a little crazy back into our life. With the weather looking like it's turning a little, we decided to bring the trampoline indoors and use it to build a den in the LEGO room. It's partially filling that void but we are definitely desperate for our lives back.

"Treat your friends as you do your best pictures, and place them in their best light."

Day 85:

Ive distanced myself from FB since all this lockdown craziness started but today I signed in and was greeted by this and it really perked me up. This smug face (because of that amazing boy of mine) hasn't changed in the 9 years he's been with me. Becoming a dad was my defining moment and it has shaped everything I have done since that special day. Ive been through happy times, Ive been through heartbreaking times but he's been there next to me through it all. Theres not a person on this planet I could love more, my best friend. 

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it."

Day 83:

I don't know what we'd do if it wasn't for all the creativity in the house, it seems like we are always drawing and painting these days. Since becoming a single dad the evenings have always been the hardest for me and this whole lockdown thing has just magnified that. That feeling of being alone and disconnected is horrible. sketching has been a huge way of taking my attention off of that and has helped to keep me in a much more positive headspace. It's been great to look back on all the things we have created and I look forward to putting it all into a fun photo diary for Opeie to look back on. 

"Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self."

Day 82:

I never really understood why people created self portraits? It always seemed like such a bizarre thing to do. Currently though we are living in a pretty bizarre world so as I enjoyed creating the picture of Opeie  earlier in the week so much, I thought I'd give it a go. Its definitely not something I could see myself doing again but I'm glad I had a go. I'm really loving this new style of drawing, we may be mid lockdown but this limited life that we are all living has definitely unlocked my creative side and given me a real hunger to keep those creative juices flowing.

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul."

Day 81:

We've been out and about taking photos of Opeie's LEGO minifigures for an upcoming project of his. I really love how we've managed to get through these bizarre months by being creative every day. I like to think that by the end of all this Opeie will come out of it a lot more confident with his creative abilities and even more open to trying new things.

“The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.”

Day 80:

I have absolutely loved cruising around Telford with Opeie on the Raleigh choppers over the last few days. It''s not only been us with the smiles on our faces either. We've had people honking at us, giving us thumbs up and a few people stopping for a (distanced) chat about how they owned one when they were younger. It turns out that these little beauties are happiness on wheels. 

'A project keeps the wheels of creativity spinning'

Day 72:

After talking about going out on bike adventures it was clear we needed to get everyone on board with our plans, so today we went and picked up a bike for the female member of our posse. Both Opeie and myself ended up a touch jealous of said bike (especially after I had sold my custom pink one when Opeie entered the world). Im sensing our future bike adventures may have just taken a more retro path, watch this space, I feel a project coming.

"“Somedays you eat the bear, somedays the bear eats you”"

Day 69:

After a pretty crappy few days I started to feel myself again today, Opeie clearly picked up on that too which really made all the difference to our day. We went for a really long walk around Jackfield and sat in the sun... with Mr.T and talked about everything. Turning my phone off really helped too, I'm finding it really distracting at the moment and need to remind myself that its not something I need to check all the time. Today has been a good one and I'm going to hold on to that tightly.

"The creative adult is the child who survived."

Day 68:

One thing that I have loved about this lockdown period is the projects, tackling those little jobs that I'd either been putting off or just didn't seem to be able to make time for. Last year when Opeie was deep into his beetle project I decided to up-cycle a bureau for him, beetle style. A place for a Coleoptera enthusiast to keep his entomology books, research material and beetle hunting items. Typical individual homeschool kid never used it and kept all his bits in various sections of the house, so today I thought I'd reclaim it for myself and use it for all my painting and sketching things. Opeie helped me repaint it, the feet had been waiting to be done since I painted it and we found all the creative bits we needed to really make a fun space for me to create. It was the perfect little project to start pulling me out of my funk and it was great getting my sidekick helping too.

"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight."

Day 61:

As I lay in the woods today staring at the lush blue sky through the gap in the trees, I concentrated on my breathing and really took some time to think about how lucky I am. I have an amazing little family and they really make me smile. The last 60 or so days have been a rollercoaster of emotions and although we're still here in the midst of this madness, we're still smiling and that's so important.

"A hero is somebody who voluntarily walks into the unknown."

Day 59:

Todays #creativelockdownproject word is 'Hero' and there is no one more heroic than the people out there risking their lives so that we can all be safe in our homes while this awful virus is taking so many lives. These people are just getting on with keeping the world turning and taking everything in their stride. I for one feel so grateful for all that they are doing for us.

"Adventure is not outside man; it is within."

Day 55:

Over on the #creativelockdownproject that we have been taking part in, the days word is adventure. At first it made me think of the adventures that we've been missing out on, the trips to the beach and all the places we like to pull up to and paint. Then I reminded myself that 'adventure' is what you make it. So we grabbed our Minifigures and went for a good stomp for a couple of hours, the perfect mini adventure for a lockdown day. 

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."

Day 51:

I'm feeling really grateful for little projects recently, Its always good to have interests because it can keep you active and I always find that if my hands are busy my mind is calm, During this lockdown period its been these projects that have kept us occupied, which is probably why, despite not being able to go anywhere the days still seem to be flying by.

"All is connected... no one thing can change by itself."

Day 50:

Me and Opeie have been playing Unravel two over the last few days and I can't help but feel like the two characters are exactly like us, permanently tied together, but doing whatever they can to make life that little bit easier for each other. Opeie's latest contribution to the house is bringing me coffee and breakfast in bed on the days that we don't go out early for a walk, I'm feeling like a pretty special dad at the moment. 

We decided to get our crafty hands to work and made our own Unravel characters for Opeie to play around with and take photos, this lockdown isn't all bad.

"Peace begins with a smile."

Day 49:

Todays #creativelockdownproject word was 'Peace', obviously a fitting word for this day but for me it made me think of how much slower life has become since this lockdown period. I sat in the garden today and painted with my favourite peeps and it was perfection, we had nowhere to be and didn't leave the garden all day, LUSH!

"We live in a rainbow of chaos."

Day 45:

My laptop desktop is always full of inspiring images for future projects that I'd like to get stuck into. Not all projects make the cut and sometimes those images just sit there collecting virtual dust. Being stuck at home though has given me the kick up the bum to tackle these little projects and they've been perfect for getting us through these strange days. A few months back I spotted a LEGO rainbow made from a mismatch of parts, so today while the sun was out and I was feeling super happy, I opened up the back doors and sat in the sun and built. It ended up coming out a lot better than I had hoped and was one of those builds that really made me smile. 

I also felt that the build was really fitting to to our current situation and a grateful nod to our NHS staff and all the amazing work they are doing during this testing time.