Coloring Craze

I like to be on the cutting edge with this blog.  Well, not really-- but today I'm (sort of) going to be!

I've always enjoyed coloring.  When I was going to have my first child, one of the things I wondered about was when she would be old enough to color; because then I would have an 'excuse' to color, too.  You can tell I took motherhood seriously!  

Here's my oldest daughter with some early refrigerator art.  (This is from around 1986 - yes, we had a Harvest Gold-colored fridge).  We collaborated... I think I was vainly attempting to teach her about circles.  She was probably a little young for that.  But you can tell she is happy and proud of her art.

Fast forward a few years, and now I'm old enough that I don't care about having an 'excuse'... I can color if I want to!  And anyway, now it's quite the thing-to-do.  Parade Magazine even had a feature article about adult coloring in their July 10th, 2015 issue.  Click here to read it.

As it turns out, coloring is not only fun, it helps to reduce stress and unwind.  Having trouble falling asleep?  Try coloring before bedtime.  I might add, you can also learn things by coloring.  I'll get to more about that in a bit.

Here is my craft table with some of my coloring books and supplies.

I use crayons or colored pencils, not usually markers, though it depends on what I'm coloring.

Dover Publications has over 150 coloring books on every subject you can think of.  Of course, you can see my favorites are nature ones... wildflowers, birds, and scenes from the woods.  I've had all of these for quite awhile.  In fact, the daughter whose photo appears above gave me the "A Walk in the Woods" one several years ago for a gift.

This double-page from that book was done with good-old crayola crayons.

This particular book has text which goes along with the pictures (hence the learning!) and reading it is also helpful for deciding which colors things should be.  

Pink ladyslippers, a brown wren, and common blue violets in this close-up...

 and a Common Yellowthroat with nest.  Then, a little surprise...

a Red-bellied Woodpecker peeking out from behind a dead tree.

The wildflower book has small pictures on color plates at the front and back of the book to help you with color choices.

I used color pencils to do the New England Asters.

The bird book also has color plates.

It's a fun way to learn more about birds.

I chose to put some blue strings in the nest, since our Orioles usually find pieces from my husband's blue tarps to weave into their nests here.

You can find adult coloring books now at many stores, order them online, or simply search on the internet for free pages to print at home.  

Anyone else like to color?  If not, I suggest giving it a try.  You'll be right in style!