Lockdown things that didn't go so well

Last week I wrote a rather smug post all about my lockdown successes and achievements, so now here is the follow up post that I promised about all the things that haven't gone quite so well!

Like most parents across the country I started off with very good intentions when it came to keeping the children fit and healthy during lockdown. 9am on the first morning we were there in front of the TV in our exercise gear ready to work out with Joe Wicks. I enjoyed the workout myself, but the children made such a fuss about it (to be fair, they were about to come down with the dreaded temperature and cough) that I couldn't bear trying it again. So I compromised and counted their exercise as playing in the garden, occasional strolls around the block and longer family walks at weekends.

I've become far too relaxed about screen time. They do their schoolwork on their iPads, and they are very good about separating work time from playing time. But the amount of playing time has crept up and up, especially since they found they could play Minecraft online with school friends. They are so happy to have contact with their friends that I hate to stop them, but they really do spend far too much time on their tablets.

Bedtime is another thing that has gone out the window. I've always had quite a strict routine for bedtime, with them tucked up and reading nice and early in the evening. But both children are having trouble getting to sleep. Harry stays up far too late at the weekends, and we take him out in the garden to watch the ISS or satellites go over. Mia needs more sleep than he does, but she gets jealous if she thinks that he is still up. Neither of them want us to go to sleep before they do, and if we shut our bedroom door while they are still awake they'll come and find us.

At least I'm managing to keep the children on a fairly healthy diet, but my own diet is terrible. It's possible that I'm at the heaviest I've ever been apart from when I was pregnant. I went on a diet for our holiday at Easter, but when that was cancelled along with the reasonable chance of our summer holiday I gave up. Easter came with bags and bags of reduced Easter eggs, and I've been indulging in far too much lockdown baking.

My blogging pretty much stopped for a couple of months. I'm hoping to ramp it up a bit now that things are starting to look more positive and my anxiety isn't quite as bad as it was, but it's a lot harder to find the time, when I'm trying to keep up with school work and am surrounded by demanding people all day.

Along with the blog went the chance of doing any other kind of work. I managed a little bit of transcription work when it was available, but it's very hard to work during the day as my husband works long hours from home and all the childcare and other household duties fall to me.

A few days before lockdown was announced I filled up the car with petrol, in case there were shortages and we needed to visit family or friends in an emergency. It went round the corner to Asda about twice, then two months later when the lease on the car ended we had to return it with a full tank.

I put my cucumber plants out in the vegetable patch too early as I was taken in by the warmer weather, and they died.

Despite having fairly well stocked store cupboards, I had hardly any yeast for making pizza dough as we don't normally make it over the winter.

And most disappointingly, after my excellent start to the year in breaking up with my phone, as soon as the situation became critical I couldn't be parted from it. I'm constantly checking for news updates and scrolling through Twitter, even though I know that it's bad for my mental health.

"why can't i sleep" he said whilst staring directly into the light up nightmare rectangle that held the anxieties of every person on the planet

— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) May 2, 2020

As the coronavirus stats continue to improve and restrictions slowly begin to be lifted, I'm hopeful that I can call some of these things a blip, and start to get moving again in the right direction!

My 100 day project - halfway through

This blog post contains affiliate links.

I can't believe that I'm halfway through my 100 day project already! My intention was to fill a page in my sketchbook each day with either a drawing or watercolour painting. I'm really pleased that I've kept it going, and I've definitely seen my skill and confidence improve.

I found that I've been working a lot with blue over the last few weeks, so much so that a few days ago I published a blog post featuring some of my favourite blue watercolour paintings! So here I'll share some of the other pages from my sketchbook as I reach day 50.

First here are some of my tulips. I like drawing these tulips, they are really quick and simple and I like trying out different colour combinations.

I began trying out different ways of painting a background before going over with the tulips. I've done lots of dabbing on with various colours wet paint and then splattering on top. I think that the way I draw the tulips has improved too with practice.

I always intended to take my sketchbook down the beach, which unfortunately hasn't been possible yet due to the lockdown restrictions and the restrictions imposed by needing to take small children with me wherever I go. So I worked on this one from a photograph of Goring beach. I particularly like the way that I painted the waves crashing along the shore, although unfortunately I wasn't able to replicate it when I tried it on my other versions!

Then I tried a quick painting of my vegetable patch . I know that neither of these paintings are particularly skilled works and there's plenty of room for improvement, but I like to think that they capture a moment, which is what I was always aiming for. 

Then finally this week I pulled out a favourite book which I've had for years -The Decorated Page by Gwen Diehn. I was also pleased to discover that there was a sequel - The Decorated Journal by Gwen Diehn - and I currently have an eagerly anticipated second hand copy winging its way to me.

I've loved looking through this book over the years and seeing examples of some beautiful illustrated journal pages. I've always longed to start an illustrated journal, but I got stuck because I never knew what to write about. But then it hit me that we are currently living through such strange times that I would like to keep a record of, and this would be a great way to do it.

So I found a small sketchbook that was lying empty, and I intend to make it my illustrated journal of this coronavirus crisis. I've made lots of notes, and I intend to continue my daily pages in this book for the time being. My first page which marked day 50 - a record of this very project which has been filling my lockdown time, along with miniature versions of some of my favourite pages!

My lockdown successes and achievements

I can't believe that it has been over two months since the children were sent home from school, followed by the lockdown a few days later. Those two months seem to have gone so quickly and there is a scientific explanation for this, it's to do with the fact that when every day is the same you aren't creating new memories, so when you look back you feel as though time really has flown (you can read more about the science here!)

However despite my anxiety being pretty high for most of that period, and finding it difficult to concentrate and get on with anything, I have actually been quite productive within my home and garden boundaries. So I thought I'd share a few of my lockdown successes and achievements!

* I have kept us all fed. I plan meals and can now keep us going easily on one weekly shop instead of popping to Asda every few days. I generally do keep our food cupboards quite well stocked, and we bulk buy when the food that we eat is on special offer, so luckily I was quite prepared when the initial food shortages happened. The lack of flour and yeast did catch me out though!

* I have upped my exercise. My husband was already working from home when the schools closed, so we had got into the habit of going for a daily run together. We have continued this over the weeks, and have recently been going out on our bikes which had been gathering dust in the garage.

* As well as this exercise, as a family we have explored the local area, going for walks on the golf course nearby, to the beach (only once, it turned out to be 40 minutes walk away), up the nearby hill and out into the fields around our village. 

* I have set up the vegetable patch and garden by myself, as my parents haven't been able to come down and help me with it. I've grown vegetables and other plants from seed as the garden centres were shut.

* With the lovely weather we have all spent lots of time in the garden, playing, keeping the weeds under control and enjoying pizza from the pizza oven, barbecues, and our fire pit. 

* I have been homeschooling the children. Some days go better than others but thanks to a comprehensive programme of work from the school I don't think we are doing too badly.

* I have been reading a lot. I've turned to comfort reading, I've worked my way through both the Anne of Green Gables and the Little House on the Prairie series of books!

* I started a 100 day project of drawing and painting and I'm enjoying setting aside half an hour a day or so to paint with watercolours and create some pretty pictures.

* I've also made some excellent progress with my other craft projects, including a large diamond painting of Starry Night by Van Gogh which is almost complete.

* I've managed to keep up with the housework. In fact having a housework plan has helped me with my weekly routine, as I know that certain chores need to be done on certain days!

So although the last two months do feel a little bit like an empty space with nothing to fill it, when I look back I am actually not doing too badly!

And in case this blog post sounds just a little bit too smug, look out for my post in a few days where I'll be sharing all my lockdown failures!

My latest watercolour paintings - I'm going through my Blue Period

I am taking part in a 100 day challenge to draw and/or paint a page in my sketchbook every day for 100 days. I'm up to day 45 now, and I'm really enjoying taking a few minutes every day to play with watercolour paints and water. I like to think that I'm improving too! For the last week or so my paintings have been following a bit of a theme and so I thought I'd share some of them here. I'm definitely going through a Blue Period!

I've been experimenting with various different ways of using the paints - dry on wet, wet on wet, wet on dry. I've been using washes, splattering, painting with different sized brushes, working quickly while the paper is wet and working slowly with different areas drying in between.

I've always been drawn to blues and purples, I'm not sure why. I don't think that it's a reflection of my current state of mind! I'm so glad that I decided to start this challenge, it's definitely given me something to focus on during this strange time, and my confidence at drawing and painting has really increased. I'll enjoy looking back through the pages in my sketchbook in the future and it will definitely act as a reminder for this period in my life.

My blue tulips are heavily influenced by a print by Scott Olson that we have on our bedroom wall. We bought it from Ikea years ago when we were first setting up home, and I'm sure that it has since been displayed on walls across the country!

My 100 day project - a quarter of the way through

One of my goals for 2020 was to take part in a 100 day challenge. This is an official challenge, but I always intended to pick my own time of year to take part. I've been put off in the past because we are often away at regular intervals and I didn't want my challenge to be interrupted. So with one holiday cancelled and the next very likely to be, lockdown seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a go!

I decided that I wanted to do drawing and painting and complete a page in my sketchbook each day. More specifically I wanted to try watercolours. I have a box of good quality watercolours which were bought while I was doing my Art A-Level a long time ago, and they are still in excellent condition.

It took me quite a while though to find the direction that I wanted to take. I was very inspired by this lady's sketches of her daily life during lockdown, but after attempting to draw my own children I realised that I wasn't at all pleased with my results.

So I moved on to trying to do some realistic drawings of the things around me. I was quite pleased with my paintings of the colourful leaves that fall on our driveway, and the blossom from a beautiful tree which overhangs our garden.

Then I spotted these lovely illustrations by Penny Neville-Lee on Twitter. The brightly coloured, abstract flowers in the final drawing really struck a chord with me, and for a couple of days I had a go at my own versions.

I decided that painting more abstract flowers was something that I wanted to continue, and so I turned to Pinterest for some watercolour flower tutorials. I found this tutorial for painting wild flowers with wet watercolours, and I used the technique to make first my own copy of the painting and the next day my own version with different colours. I was really happy with these paintings, I like the scribbled style of the drawing even though it doesn't really fit in with my own, neater style. I also enjoyed trying the splattering over the top of a painting with wet paint, I really like the effect.

So for the last few days I've been trying out some different ways of painting my own style of flower, and that's something I'm going to be continuing for a bit. I find it easier to just paint from my own head, and I'm experimenting with different colours, different styles of flower, and different layouts. I'm trying not to get too hung up on perfection and just treat it all as a learning process.

It's really interesting to see how much my style has changed over just 25 days! I find the painting really relaxing and it's nice to set aside a bit of time for myself everyday to work on it. Mia has also been enjoying painting with me, it's so nice to sit down together and paint. I'll update on my progress when I'm halfway through!

In the meantime, here is some colourful painting inspiration from my new Pinterest board: