Mind Field of Bubbles

Hello there! I thought I would get some cards printed up of the artwork I did for myself so that other people can enjoy it too.  I wanted to see how it turned out before deciding if I would get some of the others printed up as well.  I'm quite happy with them so I might get the butterfly, bee and ladybird done up.  I only have 10 of this one at this stage and due to the price of printing them up, they may get used as giveaways or thank you cards if anyone purchases an artwork.  Otherwise they will be about $4 AUD each, which to me is a bit expensive. Ok, now let's get down to some Blogging! I was laying in bed not able to sleep at some ungodly hour this morning and I was thinking.... Mainly about the fact that I had to go to my old work today and that I needed to tell my boss that I need to move on for my own anxiety etc and that once I had done that, my bubbles would just about be back to how they should be.  With the BIG bright sparkly ones at the forefront of...

Can you tell I worked in a Corporate environment in another life with a heading like that! I couldn't think of  anything better to call this one.  Basically, I've been overthinking and I wanted you all to know something. It's not all bad.  It's not all negative.  It's not all making excuses.  I'm writing this blog primarily when I'm having a bad day or I really have something to say and I'm just being honest.  This is to help others feel like they're not alone but mainly to help those who don't understand mental illness to try to get an inkling into what it is like. Trust me, there are good things, even on my worst days.  Like my son yelling out "love you Mum" about 10 times a day, coming up for random hugs, friends checking in on me, so many good things. So, what am I up to now? Well, apart from wanting to just sleep all the time, I'm actually doing OK. I'm at that point now where I've realised myself that it's time to ...

Hello there. I'll start this one by sharing my latest bubble artwork.  This has been drawn from a photo taken by Vicki from Wonky Pot Pottery and the quote is from Kermit the Frog. This to me ties in with this quote and beautiful art by Jennifer Wagner: I don't know about you, but when I was a little girl, I had a vision of how my life was going to play out.   I am the youngest of 4 children (and very spoilt, but that's for another time), and there is a 7, 10 and 12 year gap between myself and my other siblings.  The 10 year gap is my sister, and she got married when I was 9 (she was 19) and had her first child when I was 10.   So in my mind, I would be married and have children by the time I was 25 because it's what my sister did, and I would stay home and look after my babies.  My back up plan was I wanted to be a secretary, but later in high school decided I wanted to be a school teacher because I really enjoyed teaching little people things.  ...

I believe that this is what we need more of... 'People need to be encouraged. People need to be reminded of how wonderful they are. People need to be believed in told that they are brave and smart and capable of accomplishing all the dreams they dream and more. Remind each other of this. Stacey Jean Spear' HOWEVER....  I am in a few mental health support groups on facebook.  Sometimes I am not in the right headspace myself to say the right thing to someone else to help them so I just hit the love or care emoji and scroll on. Last night I felt I needed to give some people a bit of a lift and so I was commenting on a few people's posts.  This particular one touched me.  The person had written:"I'm tired of pretending to be normal. I hope this mental illness will go away so I can be normal like the others". My comment was: "Normal is overrated, we are all unique, try to focus on the good stuff and maybe write your thoughts down x" The majority of the co...

Well hello there.  I designed a logo for my facebook page, it's far from perfect and that's how I like it.  I will probably do one on black canvas one day too.  This one is just on some scrapbooking paper. I had a bit of a shit week last week.  In fact I didn't even get my boy to school on Friday.  I just couldn't wake up.  I got a phone call from the school at 11am.  I'm feeling like such a bad parent at the moment but I just have to remind myself I'm doing the best I can with what I have.  This week is shaping up much better so far and I'm feeling a bit more human. "Being a parent" is on my list of things to write about but that's not for tonight.   I just thought I would do a quick recap tonight on why my blog is named as it is for those who don't want to read through everything. Basically, in trying to explain how someone's mind works when they have a mental illness, I use bubbles.  Imagine you are sitting in a bath full of...

Hello there! I've had a shit day, but we won't focus on that, we'll just move on and share the good things that have happened this week. Oh who am I kidding! This blog is about me getting this off my chest and being real. This morning I slept in, I woke up nearly half an hour after I was supposed to have my child at school, then just after I'd finished making nearly all his lunch and snacks, I walked away to get the last thing and his whole OPEN lunch box ended up on the floor. Hence he was nearly an hour late.  My day then got much better as I caught up with a gorgeous friend for coffee and told her all my woes and she told me all hers and it was great. I had then organised to get my son's haircut at my friend's house and had 4 large hot drinks in a cup tray that started spilling before I even got to the car because they were too full, and then stupid me didn't put them on the front seat properly and the WHOLE LOT tipped over on the seat.  My car is going t...

I talked a little bit in my last blog about how lucky I am to have 5 best friends. Now lets talk about when keeping a friendship with someone just seems like hard work for both of you. When I say that, I'm not just talking about the little upsets we all have from time to time, I mean when it just seems to be hard work ALL THE TIME. I have a friend whom I met through a knitting group about 8 years ago and we became quite good friends.  We both loved crafting, we related through mental illness and formed a bond because it is what we both needed at the time.  She is a straight shooter, like me, and for our whole friendship I don't think there has been a catch up where I haven't felt offended at least once. The thing is, I knew she didn't mean it to come out the way it did and I was just taking things the wrong way.   It is possibly because I see myself in her that I get offended easily... have you ever noticed what you hate about yourself you hate in others? I digress, ...

My week has continued to be great.   I am lucky enough to have at least 5 "besties".  I have one from my home town (who I went right through school with), one from the town I moved to when I left, and I have 3 best friends here where I live now.  You may be of the belief that you can only have 1 best friend, and that is OK.  I could not choose just one from the 5 I have as that wouldn't be fair to them, they are all equally important to me and I love them all to bits.  One of these friends has her own mental illness to deal with and loved the artwork I did for myself and so asked me to make her one.  She didn't tell me what she wanted, but she's a little bit obsessed with succulents and so I came up with this one.  She loves it 😍 I would also like to talk again about why I am writing this blog and drawing the art I am.  Apart from the fact that it has calmed my mind and is a great coping mechanism for me - my thought was that I wanted to use...

I've started the week off really well! I've finished my original drawing and it is hanging up in my room so that it is the first thing I see every morning. As previously mentioned in another blog, my aim is to look at this and remember one positive thing every morning to try and help with those nasty grey bubbles. What I'm really excited to show you tho is this one I am so very pleased with how this one turned out, and I found the perfect quote to go on it. The backing paper is a scrapbooking one by Kaszazz and even the leaves have been "doodled" and have little bubbles in them.  That and the little butterfly in the corner just made this the perfect backing.  I textured the butterfly itself with some ink and a sponge to give it a bit of depth.  This one now hangs in our entry way so that I see it every time I leave the house. Apart from this, I think I am feeling much better after talking to my partner about a few things that had been bothering me.  It doesn't...