Colouring on a Sunday Afternoon

Last weekend, D had some PHD work to do that just wasn't happening (something complicated to do with actor network theory that just won't lodge itself in his brain!) and I was getting a bit cabin fever-y after having a day off work on Friday (back injury - again!) and not leaving the house apart from to collect a prescription.

So, on Sunday morning we packed up a few books and supplies and went to the library. Outside would have been preferable as these may be some of the last really sunny days of the year - but he needed wifi...and I wanted a comfy chair. I do love this city.



It felt rather like being students again, we whiled away a lovely relaxed few hours, writing, reading and in my case colouring! I have a few of the ever popular grown-up/relaxation/mindfulness/meditation/art therapy (ick) colouring books, but haven't ever found one I loved, or even one that I find especially relaxing, which is supposedly the point. The pages are often too thin, or they're too fiddly to be 'relaxing', or in the case of one, it's Christmas themed and I can't quite bring myself to look at baubles and reindeers outside of December! Also, I find myself overthinking it, wondering which colours look best together, trying to blend the colours together or adding more patterns.

I think I've found a solution though, colouring by numbers!


This is is 'anti-stress' apparently! It does require zero brain power though which is quite joyful. It's similar to the joy I feel when putting flatpack furniture together, or building a lego model, following instructions to the letter and ending up with something that looks like it's supposed to (which is odd because it's the very antithesis of creative...but hey!)

I picked the colours that were most similar to the ones in the key, laid them out in the right order on the table and set to work.




Typical lefty smudges there! How does that happen with colouring pencils! 

I asked D to take a couple of pictures of me...and after taking a million of himself and thinking he was hilarious he managed to get these...




What a disaster! Mine aren't much better...though that's more down to him being daft...




We had a really lovely afternoon. It's nice to just be able to relax somewhere different, to do something mindless and just for the sake of it without thinking about how you should really be doing the ironing or noticing the windows are smeary. We're now on the hunt for more places to go for similar Sundays, preferably with comfy chairs and a decent coffee, and perhaps more of this...


Grown up colouring and grown up chocolate - so good!  

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