Inspired by the prolific art of Gary Scribbler and the charming illustrated diary of Sam Stoner (both of whom I follow on Instagram) I wanted to try illustrating my week. I am amazed at how both artists manage to consistently post a new illustration everyday, perhaps it becomes quicker and more of a habit but I set my sights on a week because I felt that it was manageable for me.
I purposely chose Half Term week because honestly most of the time we have the same routine of school runs, painting and lots and lots of naps. I wanted to draw the week where we had plans not only to have seven different images but also as a little diary for myself of the fun that we have had over half term. Believe me our usual week is not this exciting, there are less fireworks and swimming is an incredibly rare treat!
The Webblings stayed with Nana while we went to Tesco, I genuinely bought Halloween decorations and Christmas treats. It made me feel like I need to really crack on with my Christmas shopping.
OK I know I said we had an exciting week and so far it has been a trip to BIG Tesco and now a whole load of washing but it did have to be done! Also at this point in the week I was a bit too scared to draw anyone besides myself, it is totally OK to butcher an image of myself but I was wary of messing up images of other people. It gets more exciting I promise! (I secretly did enjoy the empty washing basket at the end of the day, it was a little bit exciting!).
I know lots of people go swimming regularly and some of my crazier friends go sea swimming a lot! I am not that brave. This is the first time that I have been swimming since my accident in 2019, the thought of slippery floors and lots of children running around scared me off but we managed to book a private pool so all I had to worry about was looking like a hippo in my swimwear, luckily hippos are cute! I even braved drawing the Webblings who had a great time finally getting to swim again.
I don’t know about you but I absolutely love to nap. I have fibromyalgia and the busy days and entertaining the Webblings took its toll so I dozed while we watched Sonic The Hedgehog and other movies. I am lucky that Lilly and Harry are so understanding of my limitations, they enjoyed reading and drawing while I gained some much needed energy for the weekend ahead. I secretly think they were happy to have a day at home too.
Domestic Goddess? Hahahaha so far from it, my poor husband does 90% of the cooking and just as much of the cleaning, he is my rock! But when it comes to baking I am not too bad really, if you keep it simple! I do love to decorate cakes and cookies though. Harrison wanted to make Halloween cookies for the tea party at his Nana’s house on Saturday so we made chocolate chip eyeball cookies and they tasted pretty good.
Saturday was jam packed, we went to a Halloween tea party, arms full of yesterdays eyeball cookies and then we were invited to join our friends on a trip to Lappa Valley Steam Railway to see the end of season fireworks. It was hard to choose what to illustrate for Saturday but this here was my favourite moment of the entire day. I was finally brave enough to draw Jamie too and although he hasn’t seen it yet I really do hope he likes it. The fireworks were beautiful and the spooky train ride was magical too.
And as if by magic we were transformed into a kangaroo, a hippie, a wolf and red riding hood! Mr Webb does not like to dress up but he got in the spirit of it with some fluffy wolf ears to be the wolf to my red riding hood! Harry wanted to be the most scary of all animals, a kangaroo!!! Lilly is 13 so she played me like a fiddle and chose her costume around the outfit that she wanted which was nothing to do with Halloween! The pumpkins were carved and we spent the night watching The Mummy movies and eating pizza.
Half term was crazy but magical. Drawing your day really helps you focus on the happy moments in a day and even when you have a bad day or a painful day if like me you suffer from chronic pain there is some part of your day that you can look back on and smile. It is not something that I will be doing on a regular basis because it is a big commitment but there will definitely be more doodles of my day in my planner from this point forward.
If you would like to see how it is done properly take a look at
Gary Scribbler – http://www.garyscribbler.co.uk/finding-joy—doodleaday.html
Sam Stoner – https://www.instagram.com/talking_scribble/
Thank you so much for reading my blog,
Samantha x
By Samantha Webb 