A couple of new books - one for Halloween, one for special needs...

So, I’ve spent the last few years working on various books, but never managing to finish them. This year I have finally completed several! My children’s book about verbal dyspraxia and a Halloween planner/activity book.

 

Well, it's been a while. A long while. Life just gets in the way of creative stuff, but I have managed to reopen my Etsy shop. I'm not sure where to put my time into right now. I sell on a number of different online platforms, but it's something that takes up so much time. We'll see how it goes anyway.

I'm only selling downloads now, which should free up a bit of time. Takes forever getting each item set up and listed, but once it's done, it's done.

Anyway, lots of lovely items for you to look at...

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Are you the parent of a child with special needs?

As you may know, my daughter has verbal dyspraxia. My son is also being assessed for a couple of things. The frustrations and despair frequently experienced (amongst many good things I must add!) have led me to choose a particular topic for my psychology MSc dissertation.

I'm looking at the life satisfaction and coping in parents whose children have either a speech disorder or a behavioural disorder. I'm also investigating the effect that volunteering may have on these groups of parents.

If you're interested in taking part in my survey (10 - 15 minutes and the chance to win an Amazon voucher!), then I still need:

• parents of children with speech impairments (e.g. verbal dyspraxia, CAS or a stutter)
• parents of children with a behavioural disorder (ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, although not ASD), who also do some kind of regular volunteering, such as helping an elderly neighbour with their shopping, helping at your child's school, working in a charity shop...

Please click here if you'd like to take part. Your help is very much appreciated. I hope the results will prove beneficial to parents.

Back to the crafty posts next time:)

My first book!

Well, I mentioned quite a few years ago that I was planning on writing and illustrating a children's book, which is a lifelong dream. I'm still working on that (it's nearly there!), but my first book has actually turned out to be a journal. It's a journal for people interested in the concept of journalling, but are perhaps unsure where to start. So here it is...

Click on the photo to go straight to Amazon.

Here are some pages:

And the back!

Short post on Brexit

Wherever in the world you're reading from, you've likely heard about last week's UK referendum. Although I voted Remain, I'm dismayed at the hatred coming from some of the Remainers. It is clear from my Facebook feed and other social media sites, that they seem to think everyone who voted Leave is uneducated and racist. I know people who voted Leave and I know they are neither; they simply want what's best for our country. The hate coming from some on the Left is rather ironic.

Those of us who voted chose what we believe it best. Ultimately, we all want the same thing, but none of us really know if that's to leave or remain, I now hope it's to leave, I really do.

Let's just all get on, please.

Would you like to take part in my short psychology survey?

My art is taking a backseat at the moment. I'm halfway through a psychology MSc. It's going well, but is an amazing amount of work. If you would like to take part in a short survey I'm doing, I'd be very grateful. Just click on this link:

https://derby.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8Jk6YrVdC3VReYt

It's about silhouette and outline perception.

Hopefully I'll be back with the art side of things soon. I've made a start on my children's picture book and will be picking up the paintbrushes again once this module is finished. I've even taken some photos of works in progress. Just need to find time to get them on here...

Children's picture book underway!

So, life happens and blog posts don't... Nearly a year since my last post and a few years I guess since I said I'd write about the process of getting my children's book published.

I've come up with countless ideas for books. I write the drafts, I draw the pictures for some of those drafts, I paint a few pages, make dummy books, send them to publishers... But now I've decided to self-publish. While it would be wonderful to see my book in a bricks and mortar shop, at the end of the day, if people buy and enjoy my book then that's what matters. How they purchase it really isn't that important.

The story I've decided to go with is a more recent idea. I've learnt an awful lot in my research, one being how difficult it is to come up with a good idea that will hold children's attention, be enjoyable for adults to read multiple times and to actually make sense in very few words. Anyway, I hope this idea will appeal. It's a fun rhyming story (yes, I know, they say don't rhyme! It just kind of came to me though without thinking about it; I never intended it to rhyme!). It teaches that we're all essentially the same although we may look different, while also celebrating cultural differences.

A couple of pictures of the storyboard and practice drawings:

I'm not sure how much painting I'm going to get done over the next couple of months, as my next psychology module starts on Monday, but hopefully I'll be able to fit a bit of painting in.

The next update definitely won't be so long coming, I know that much!