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What do you call it when you get down, things aren’t going your way and you just can’t get out of it?

Are you just down? Do you feel a depression coming on? Are you in a pit?

For me, any one of these starts as — a funk.

Funks always start the same way. Life is overwhelming for one reason or another. Life gets stressful and it gets to be too much. I stop doing the things that help keep me calm and unwound. Then I am not feeling productive and it all starts to snowball.

One would think that I would have this figured out by now. I feel these things coming on and I know a funk is on the way. One would think that I would be able to see it and pivot. That’s the thing about funks. They can be so slow to develop or just make sense why the things that are needed to keep the funk away are justified on skipping.

• “Oh I slept too long to have enough time for quiet time today.”
• “I don’t have time to draw right now, I have 7 designs that I have to get done.”
• “Oh, Riverdale’s latest season is on Netflix! Okay maybe tonight after I have this, this and that done.”
• “It’s okay that I am not painting my nails right now, I am in the middle of moving.”

Without fail it starts with falling out of a daily habit starting my day in the word and getting up early.

I caught this funk early. And I am not going to lie, we have some big things hitting our personal world right now. I mean moving – yeah that will knock you the hell out, even when you take vacation to get the bulk of it done. Anxiety from all fronts, from those of all ages. Oh and just the fact that it is 2020.

Sometimes it is important to just step back. Remind yourself that life is a journey. We are here for a finite number of days. We are all moving toward the time when Jesus calls us home. Our hope as Christians is to have left the world a little better than when we started by pointing the light on The One who is our light.

While I take a step back today to remind myself that this is a journey. I am bringing to you a new cut file.

You should be taken to the download page if you click the picture.

This is free for now and available through the PDF/download store.

Moxie (Free Coloring Page)

I know that this is a rough time for many of us. We are safe inside. Our loved ones are safe inside. WE ARE ALL INSIDE.

I figured I would tell a fun little story and create a coloring page. Sometimes these are going to be adult coloring pages. Other times they are going to be simpler pages for the littles in your life.

Without further ado – Moxie the Fortune Teller

Moxie knew what was coming, but she dares not tell anyone. See she had already been banished from her village. She missed her family so. Maybe they will listen to her. Maybe they will come and find her. Maybe they will see that the leaders are wrong.

The spirits have blessed Moxie with the ability to see the future. When she saw the end of time, she knew the leaders of her village needed to know. Entering the leaders tent she told them what she saw. Not wanting fear to spread, the leaders banished her, immediately.  The problem, Moxie’s predictions have never been wrong. Not one time. This seemed so important she needed to tell. But now she was not so sure.

Finding him is what Moxie must do. He will be able to help her. He will be able to help her reunite with her family. He will believe her. She will just have to have the jade, lots of jade.

As she moves from place to place looking for him, she is reading fortunes. Her predictions are so accurate, so detailed, so precise. People want to pay Moxie top dollar for her blessings. People are so confused why she will only be paid with jade. Jade is such a common jewel and so worthless, her blessings are worth so much more. Moxie knows something they don’t, currency is going to mean nothing at the end of time. Jade is where the power will be. Jade will get you your way. Jade will reunite Moxie with her family. She dares not tell a soul. She is on a mission. Now, where is the man with the hook?

Your free coloring page is here: https://payhip.com/b/FMQq

Please show me your finished work! I would love to see it. Just tag me across social media.

Coloring … where do you stand?

Where do you stand on the whole adult coloring trend?

Let me start by going back in time … here stands a college student at the store with her younger brother and sister (10 and 6 years younger) buying a coloring book. The cashier could safely assume that this coloring book was being purchased for one of these children. Little did she know that the coloring book was being purchased for the college student.

At that time in my life coloring was a way to clear my mind, de-stress, step away from the stress of college and recharge. Mind you these were children’s coloring books. The whole adult coloring craze was not to come for many years.

Fast forward to 2012 — adult coloring books are released and for many, they laugh at the idea.

Fast forward to 2015 — adult coloring has gone from a niche hobby to a full-on trend.

Fast forward to 2019 — adult coloring seems to be on a downward turn.

So what is adult coloring?

Typically you will find mandalas (circular spaces with geometric designs inside) and artistic intricate designs. They typically have very small spaces to color. Or you find images with TONS of tiny spaces. I mean seriously who can stay inside those lines!?! Then the creative person in me screams — who is meant to stay inside the lines! Create your own lines, but I digress.

What can the benefit of coloring be for adults than?

It can help with stress and anxiety in some people. It stimulates the brain and allows you to focus only on the moment, not all the thought rolling around in your mind. The relaxation that coloring provides lowers the activity in our brain that creates our stress emotions. It is very similar to mediation in this respect. So get out the crayons, markers, and pencils and refocus — even just for a moment. When I hear the words come, “Mom, I am going to go color.” I do not take this as a simple I want something to do. I let the coloring happen and make sure to poke in, “Hey, looks like you had a long day? Do you want to talk about anything?” We had our first year of big state testing, we colored the night before.  This is perfect for kids of all ages BEFORE and AFTER those big tests. Let them destress! 

Not only does the physical act of coloring let you focus on the moment, but there are also psychological effects. Coloring taps into your imagination. It can take you back to a time where you (more than likely) had less stress, childhood. 

Here is a fun little tidbit for you. Carl Jung was one of the first psychologists to use coloring as a form of therapy. I would like to point out that although coloring has therapeutic attributes, it is not art therapy as some may claim. 

If you want more about the benefits of coloring there are TONS of articles and blog posts about it. 

Let’s go back to the question I posed at the beginning of this post – where do you stand on the adult coloring trend? 

I find myself in an interesting place. I gravitate to the coloring books at the store. I open them and I breathe them in. Just looking at them I feel that stress lift. 

I think about actually coloring them in and I feel my stress rise. Here is why — color schemes. If the colors don’t work together I need to start over. Once you start coloring you can’t just start over, it doesn’t work that way. 

I am in a complete minority when it comes to the research. Research actually showed that doodling had no stress relieving properties. I find drawing the adult coloring page way more relaxing than coloring it! Maybe it requires more focus at the task on hand.

In my household, there is an additional benefit of coloring — connecting with my children in a low stress, no screen way. We are creating memories with that box of crayons. Not to mention how we are developing our confidence, imagination, and creativity.  

So where do you stand on the coloring trend? 

Colorless Blending with Tombow Dual Brush Markers

Now that we have watched the Tombow Dual Brush Colorless Blender in action. Let’s take a little deeper look. 

When I first got “better” markers, or really started playing with markers I heard about these colorless blenders. Now when you think about the word blending – one would think that you can take the “blender” rub it over the two colors and it would create a gradient or “mix” the two colors.

THAT IS NOT WHAT COLORLESS BLENDERS DO.

Colorless blenders should really be called marker erasers, well no, because they can’t always remove all the color, FADERS! Yes, they should be called colorless faders.

A colorless blender is used to take the fully saturated color and REMOVE THE COLOR. As you can see in this video, I only put color where I wanted to the gray to be the darkest. The blender is then used to fade the color, spread it out and attempt to lift it to paper white.

Also, Tombow markers are water-based markers. This same effect can be achieved with a paint brush and water.

This same concept also applies to alcohol-based markers.

Happy Coloring!