Recovering With Adult Colouring Books

Recently my sister got an adult colouring book and I was insanely jealous - especially as she had some brilliantly bright colours that brought the pages to life! I also saw this post from Three Little Buhos about them, which just furthered my need to have one in my life. While I was perusing Amazon and deciding which one to go with, my lovely mum bought me one as a treat for some of the work we've been doing together - I love my fam!

I'm not the only one with colouring envy - upon hearing that mine was on its way Tom said he wanted one, so now he has his own too. :)

I've had a number of people respond with skepticism, asking if it really is that relaxing and some have barely hidden their belief that it's a little childish (I know who you are! :p). But I've also had plenty of people asking where I got it and for recommendations so I knew it would make for a good blog!

In Annie's post (Three Little Buhos) she concentrated on how the books aid with managing stress and depression, but I've found them useful for helping with another health issue: recovering from surgery/chronic pain and fatigue.

As some of you will know I recently had my gallbladder out and it's been taking much long than anticipated to recover. Aside from working, I've not had the energy to do much and it can get very boring when your body can't do as much as your mind! Not only has the colouring been relaxing, it's also been perfect entertainment for when I wanted to do something but wasn't feeling up to a lot.

It's cheered me up to be creating something pretty and colourful when I've felt rubbish and I've been showing everyone my pictures with pride - a bit like a 5 year old really, haha!

We have 2 colouring books at the moment, both of which are nature/animal based as they're perfect for bright colours and creativity. Mine is Millie Marotta's Animal Kingdom* which is full of exotic animals and patterns. The pictures in this blog are from this book. Tom's is Birds & Butterflies by Alice Chadwick* which is exactly what it says! I've been sneakily colouring in some of the butterflies in there and Tom's been working on a masterpiece of a mother bird with all her chicks.

The books are less than £10 each and offer hundreds of hours of entertainment (the tree took me the best part of an hour alone!) so they're well worth the money in my opinion.

Have you got any colouring books, or other hobbies that are similarly restful and relaxing? Let me know in the comments below - and feel free to share some pictures that you've been working on!