"When one has not had a good father, one must create one."

Day 93:

Fathers day has always been one of my favourite days of the year and this one was lush, I got breakfast and coffee in bed, a lovely card and most importantly lots of cuddles. The weather wasn't great but we managed to find a spot by the river in Jackfield where we could park, open the boot and paint in the back of the car while it thrashed it down, perfection.

"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.

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."

Day 71:

Today was one of those days where everything just seemed to fall in to place. A mixture of great moods, fun, creativity and a picnic in the woods. Last year Opeie and I found a really lovely area not too far from where we live which we've used a few times to sit and do home-ed work. This evening we decided to take the garden parasol, a blanket and some art supplies for a relaxing peaceful evening under the trees. Just what we needed to take out minds off the current madness. We took loads of pictures of our paintings but this little guy that joined the party (with his heart shaped markings) really summed up how I was feeling.

"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.

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."

Day 64:

It was one of those rare occasions today where I found myself actually having a bit of time to myself as Opeie happily played with his friends online for a couple of hours. My first thought was 'clean the house?' yeah right! I grabbed a coffee, the watercolours and some music and sat on my bed with the windows opened and painted my do-over for the piece I wasn't happy with yesterday for the #creativelockdownproject word 'bugs'. The word made me think of an afternoon cycling up the Long mynd when we spotted some Bloody-nosed beetles for our ongoing beetle collection. I bloody love beetles!

“This is the way.”

Day 62:

I never really thought that much of Star Wars, always swayed towards the super heroes instead but over the last few days we've been watching the Mandalorian and I'm pretty hooked. So as todays word over on the #creativelockdownproject is 'Kindness' and Mando is so lovely to Baby Yoda 'this is the way' we went with our pieces. I am loving painting, its really keeping me in a lovely headspace and all this creativity is working wonders for Opeie too.

"Well, I, happened to... Find me a buggy Coming out from under a rock in the grass, yeah..."

Day 60:

Im not really sure why but I seem to attract shield bugs, they seem to find me and then just hang around. Todays little chap landed on me while I was painting on the trampoline. He did his thing and I took some pictures and then put him down on the ground and moved to paint over on the garden sofa. The cutie followed me and landed on my watercolour palette before finding its way back onto my hand. I like to think that it knew all about our love of beetles and just wanted to join the club and get a bit of attention. Nature is amazing!

"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!

"If you try to knock me you'll get mocked. I'll stir fry you in my wok. Your knees'll start shakin' and your fingers pop, Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock"

Day 42:

Today Ive definitely been feeling a little more myself which has made the day so much easier. Getting out for a nice walk this morning really cleared my head (which I definitely needed). Todays word on our #creativelockdownproject was 'Intergalactic', Opeie wasn't feeling it so I went it alone today and created this Watercolour galaxy collage. The daily creative project is giving me something positive to focus on each day and its good to have that little nudge to get me creating.

"Don't cry because its over, smile because it happened"

Day 26:

Although all of us in this country are living these crazy times in unison and many of us are feeling hard done by because of it, it's important to remember that we all have our own personal struggles and heartaches on top of all this madness and this social distancing is putting a huge barrier between us and the people we love most. Ive found it really difficult over the last few weeks that I couldn't be there in person for a friend I care about as she has just lost her lovely mom and its been playing heavily on my mind. With the funeral being today, Opeie and I decided to have a painting session in her honour, lots of colour and happiness. I asked Opeie what he wanted to paint and he said 'happy sausages'. Ive no idea whether she was a big fan of sausages (I mean they are pretty special) but I'm  sure she would have loved the sentiment.

So todays picture is for you Carol Ann Beale, I hope you are in a better place.

"A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world."

When we started the home ed back up at the start of the month, I had every intention of having a museum week but sadly something happened and it completely threw me. So last week we decided it was time to start making up for that and decided to visit Derby Museum and Art Gallery. I love a museum that grabs your attention straight away and the Natural history section of the museum was pretty much all we needed for a perfect afternoon of visual education.

We can pretty much rate a museum on the amount of beetles we find there and this one did not let us down. Opeie loves Coleoptera displays where he can see his beloved beetles up close. 

After having a look around we fluttered our eyelashes at the front desk and asked whether they would mind us painting while we were there. We've gone ahead and painted without asking in places before and people can be really funny. They were more than happy to let us get arty so we found a nice spot to get set up and let our creative juices flow. Museums and Art galleries are usually quiet but this place was so peaceful. We were both fully relaxed as we painted in perfect surroundings.

It's afternoons like this that really reinforce the decision to home-ed. learning visually in a relaxed environment and at a Childs pace is what education should be. Opeie can take what he wants from a visit like this and the both of us probably came away learning something completely different from each other. It's always important to end a day of learning on a high and it was all smiles as we left Derby. Time to plan our next museum trip.

"Where oils lumber... watercolours prance."

With the last 15 months being like an emotional rollercoaster, it's been really difficult at times to properly relax and get myself (and Opeie) into a good, clear headspace. When you're dealing with a heartbroken kid its hard to think about anything else. Ive been doing my best to keep us both entertained though and have been really surprised at some of the things we have found to relax.

We've always been an arty pair, always creating something and we've used so many different mediums over the years,  I've always avoided watercolour though out of fear. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous but I was 110% confident in the fact that I couldn't produce something I was proud of and because of that I held Opeie back too (naughty daddy), until now.

With a little creative guidance from someone that knows what they are talking about we found ourself a few weeks back sat at a desk with paper taped down and paints and brushes at the ready. It turns out that painting is one of the most relaxing activities (after LEGO of course) that we could have been doing and definitely nothing to be afraid of. 

There is something so satisfying about experimenting with colours and then turning the experiment into something fun. I can quite easily get a little lost in the activity, which recently I feel pretty thankful for.

Opeie has really been getting into the beetles too but he's also been having fun with colour mixing and creating galaxies (as you can see he's a bit of a Doctor Who fan). I love seeing him get into creative ventures like this, its nice to see him concentrating on something so positive and activities like this are really good for the soul.  

So thanks for the tips, sitting with us and taking the edge off of my watercolour fear, you know who you are. 💜