Animal Kingdom Colouring Book | Review

In a previous blog post, I mentioned having an adult colouring book and after colouring in it yesterday I decided I wanted to tell you all more about it :) I purchased the Animal Kingdom Colouring Book by Millie Marotta after one of my lovely friends recommended it to me; we both love wildlife and with this book being filled with beautiful, intricate illustrations of different animals, it was perfect for us! I've always enjoyed colouring books, using them for much longer than my friends who seemed to grow out of them as we got older, but like with many other things I still enjoy much of what I did as a child (watching cartoons, always buying teddies & plushies, etc). Am I ever going to learn how to adult?!

This book is truly, as the author says, 'a celebration of the animal kingdom'. Each page contains a lovely creature or plant for you to colour in & decorate however you wish and due to the small details on some of the illustrations, it can be quite therapeutic and relaxing taking the time to slowly fill them in. I find that when I'm stressed and constantly overthinking, using a book like this requires me to concentrate as I've never been the neatest colourer and I'm always going out of the lines. Having to focus so that I make my pages look pretty does distract me from my thoughts, even if only for a little while. These types of adult colouring books are now being used as mindfulness therapy, so as someone who has anxiety disorder I find them beneficial to use sometimes to help calm myself and I think everyone who enjoys art or needs a new relaxation method should try one of these books! 

Here are some of my completed pages....

I absolutely love this colouring book and I think the illustrations are perfect enough to frame. I'm definitely now really curious about trying some of the other colouring books from Millie Marotta because I'm sure they will be as beautiful as this one. I really can't recommend this colouring book enough.

 I hope you've all had a great day!

♥  

Which is your favourite adult colouring book? 

If you've got one of these gorgeous Animal Kingdom books, what's your favourite illustration?  

 

Fluffy Bunnies!

We've had such a lovely, bright day in my hometown! It was 16°C for most of the afternoon & felt more like summer than autumn, but my bunnies were delighted because they could play out in the rabbit run and sunbathe on the grass. I thought it would be great opportunity to introduce you all to my adorable baby bunnies! There's 5 of the little cuties, and today they are 11 weeks old :)

How gorgeous are my fluffy bunnies? They are double-maned lionheads ♥

I've given them all nicknames with an 'F' theme. This little poser is called Fifi. Her sisters are called Fae, Fuchsia & Foxy, and Fern is her brother ♥

 Here are Foxy & Fuchsia. Foxy has such a cheeky and curious personality, and Fuchsia is a really sweet bunnie who loves cuddles :)

I hope you all enjoyed reading about my baby bunnies!

I'll post more about my other rabbits in the future.

♥

Who else has a bunny? 

I'd love to hear all about yours!

  

I've got mail!

I love receiving mail ♥ 

When I'm expecting something to arrive with the post, it makes me so excited to get out of bed in the morning to go and check! There's nothing I love more than finding a pile of mail waiting for me in the living room, which my mum kindly arranges according to who it's addressed to. I've always enjoyed surprises so receiving snailmail is so fun for me! I've been writing to penpals for almost ten years now & love writing letters on pretty paper and using adorable envelopes and stickers :) It's even more delightful when letters I receive have gifts in them or I'm sent packages from my penpals on special occassions. 

As well as writing snailmail, another hobby of mine is postcrossing (swapping postcards with people all over the world) so I usually get a bunch of postcards every week, too. Online shopping has become another love of mine, especially whilst I was at uni as my campus was in the middle of the countryside so it was easier to order online than to travel to and from the city every time I needed something other than food. So here's what I received through my letterbox over the last two weeks...

I kept seeing this book by Zoella (Zoe Sugg) all over instagram. It's not a genre I'm usually into (my favourite books are fantasy) but I thought I'd give it a read because I managed to get it on Amazon for only £3.85 VS the £7.99 retail price. The overall appearance of the book looks lovely; I especially like the pale blue colour of the cover. 

I also bought two books that I've wanted for ages now! I really enjoy 'art journals', such as 'Wreck this Journal', and love how anyone, even if you're not the best at drawing or painting, can still enjoy art with these books. The book is filled with fun ideas and gives creative instructions on each page. I purchased my own copy in June 2014 after spotting people sharing their Wreck this Journal artwork on tumblr & instagram, so I decided to join in :) 

Through following the Wreck this Journal posts, I was introduced to the 'Anti Journal' by David Sinden & Nikalas Catlow, which is similar to the Wreck this Journal and a product I recommend for anyone who enjoys being creative. On the authors instagram page dedicated to Anti Journal, I spotted that they had created another book so I couldn't wait to get my hands on one. 'Don't eat this book' is available on Amazon for £5.24. It looks a lot more aimed at children so would be a great christmas present idea, but I know I'll enjoy filling it in myself! The other book I purchased is by David Sinden & another author, Victoria Kay. It's a mini-version of one of those adult colouring books that are really popular right now. Since I liked David's other books and I, too, have an adult colouring book, I was interested in trying the 'The Little Book of Calm Colouring' (& considering my love of Amazon, I also purchased this there at £3.85).

Postcrossing is a great hobby for anyone who enjoys receiving postcards as much as I do. I have always loved postcards and remember sending them home to myself when I went on holiday as a child and asking my friends to send me postcards from their holidays. Before I was 15 and went on a school trip with my history class, I'd never been abroad and other than Wales, Yorkshire and  Lincolnshire, I'd  never travelled much around the UK either so receiving postcards was exciting. I loved seeing what other towns and cities looked like and hearing about what my friends had done whilst visiting. 

Around 4 years ago, I started swapping postcards using an official website called 'Postcrossing', where you are randomly provided with an address, along with the users profile, to send a postcard to. Some users list the type of postcards they like, which is handy and it's interesting to read a little about the people you're going to write to. For every postcard you send, your address will be randomly sent to another user so you will receive a postcard in return. Not knowing where in the world you'd be sent a postcard from made it more interesting; I received mail from so many different countries! You could also view galleries on the website and message users to organise direct swaps with them, which was fun. I don't use postcrossing anymore and I do all my postcard swapping through instagram, which is full of fellow postcrossers!

Here are some of the lovely stamps used on my incoming postcards: 

 I hope you all enjoyed reading  

♥  

Does anyone like postcrossing or snailmailing? 

Do you own a Wreck this Journal or Anti Journal?