April A-Z Theme Reveal

I’ve been holding off with my April A-Z Theme Reveal post, as it seems instead of being firmed up and properly formulated by now, my initial tentative plans for this year have by necessity been constrained by this global corona virus pandemic. So I’ve been thinking about how to adapt my ideas to better fit the new restrictions imposed by practicing social distancing and avoiding non-essential trips outside the home.

I’ve decided my basic theme will be the same – an everyday photographic and textual journey through ‘My Inverness, Past and Present’. But photographs will now have to be a mix of some new images, some archive images and more than a few mobile phone shots, and inevitably some letters will have to have alternative subjects or topics than I’d originally intended. Still, the alphabet will be adhered to one way or another, perhaps slightly more creatively than I’d have liked, but I still hope to have fun with it.

Thankfully blog-land seems to be the perfect environment to see us all through this temporary international lockdown, providing the perfect blend of physical distancing and emotional connectivity, and so the timing of this year’s April A-Z Challenge feels rather more poignant than usual. So I’m looking forward to it as an added challenge within a challenge – finding things that fit close to home and away from too many other people 🙂

Weekly Smile: April A-Z Challenge Sign-Up!

My weekly smile this week comes in the form of signing up today for the 2020 April Blogging from A-Z Challenge! I really enjoyed taking part last year, and have actually joined in on three different occasions before that on previous blogs long since gone, in 2015, 2016, and 2017. So this is only year two for me on this blog, but year five altogether!

If you haven’t ever joined in before, the idea is simply to follow the calendar and the alphabet, posting on given days throughout the month of April. You can choose to follow a specific theme, or you can be as random as you like. You can pre-plan every post in advance, or wing it at the last minute, or do both as the need arises – the choice is yours.

Next week brings the proper theme reveal, but I’ve already formulated a few ideas in my head as to what I plan to do for this year. As we moved from London to Inverness at the end of last summer, I’m going to share a photographic journey of ‘My Inverness, Past and Present’ highlighting my new life back home in Scotland.

Personally I always find it easier to decide in advance what I’m going to post for each letter and take it from there, so even though some of the pics may be taken at the last minute I find it best to have an idea plus a back-up in my head, just incase. It’s great fun to complete this challenge, and is such a great way to meet new bloggers.

If anyone is thinking about joining in this year, please do give it a go – there’s always a variety of people signed up and it’s open to everyone. And then we can all share a huge collective weekly smile at the end of the month for having survived the 2020 April Blogging from A-Z Challenge – woo-hoo! 🙂

A-Z Challenge 2019: Reflections

I honestly had such fun completing this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge, and I think for me it was partly to do with my chosen theme – colouring my way through the alphabet.

I really love colouring in, and often post regularly, so the challenge for me was more in choosing creatively which particular designs could go with each letter, rather than the concern about posting something every day. And the beauty of posting images is that they can almost stand alone so you don’t need to worry too much about having to find too many words if you’re in a rush and stuck for something to say.

Also, although I posted each day’s letter in real time, many of the designs included had been coloured in beforehand, but some were completed just in the nick of time! I successfully finished the whole month on schedule too – woo-hoo!

I found other bloggers completing the challenge through the master list (where my blog was also registered), and did my best to check out as many as I could but to be honest I really struggle with commenting, even on those blogs I follow regularly all year round. I’m simply not extrovert enough to feel 100% comfortable just ‘talking’ to strangers out of the blue. So as the month progressed, although I continued to post on my own blog I found I visited fewer and fewer blogs towards the end of the challenge and commented less and less.

I’ll definitely be taking part again next year, though, and will continue to join in as best as I can with whatever format or means of contacting others is used by the team – I might not be your most prolific joiner-in, but I do appreciate all the effort that is put in to setting up this challnge year on year – thank you! 🙂

Z is for Zen

Z is for Zen

Colouring in certainly helps me feel zen, I focus mindfully and creatively on what I’m doing and just let the rhythmic swish swish swish sound of the coloured pencil on the smooth page soothe my soul. I truly enjoy the peace and quiet it brings me, allowing me to slow down my heart rate and just breathe… ❤

Well here we are at the end of this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge! I’ve really enjoyed my daily posts, colouring in through the alphabet. And thank you all for joining in with your many likes and comments – hopefully it might inspire one or two of you to pick up a few pencils (or pens) and a colouring book and get started again yourself! 🙂

Y is for Yacht

Y is for Yacht

I loved the square design of this little boat in a sea of wavy shapes – I’m not in any way a water-borne person so I do appreciate it is probably not actually a yacht at all, but it fits in so well with my penultimate post for this year’s April A-Z Challenge of colouring my way through the alphabet that I just had to include it anyway! 🙂

X is for X-Bones

X is for X-Bones

OK, so not technically a word starting with X, but there is nevertheless an X on the page! My skull and cross-bones from the bottom of the sea, all covered in green slimy weeds… to be honest I’m really disappointed I was in such a plain green mood that day, it looks way more dull and boring than if I was to start colouring it in all over again today 🙂

Almost there with my colouring my way through the alphabet in my 2019 April A-Z Challenge – only Y and Z to go!

W is for Words

W is for Words

Hmmm… I found a self-styled swear-word colouring-in book for sale online a while ago so decided to order it and give it a go… All I can say about it is, much of what counts as ‘swear words’ in the book designer’s lexicon are no more than cringingly embarrassing playground name-calling words I’d never EVER use in a month of Sundays – not at all sweary, just childishly stupid! Anyway, I’ve coloured in a few of the most applicable words just because they’re there, but I won’t be falling for that con again… You could say in my humble opinion most of the so-called ‘swear-words’ were absolutely shit! 🙂

Almost at the end of my April A-Z Challenge of coluring in – only three more letters to go!