Nature journaling page. On bank holiday Monday myself and Mr Blue Door took a trip to Far Ings. We've just joined the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and it was our first trip to one of their places. What a great place, alongside the River Humber and near the bridge. We took a picnic of homemade bread and scones and enjoyed our first bittern boom!

Colouring sheets and the certificate. If you've been down by the River Freshney at Grimsby in Bloom for the last few Mondays you might have seen James - the Canoe River Cleaner taking children on the water in his boot while I've been on the bank doing some nature journaling and colouring activities, all with the aim of raising awarenes about our river and its wildlife and its vital part in our local ecosystem. The weather was a bit gloomy this week so we were able to shelter

Part of the complete Love Your Town mural. This year's event took place in March, rather than February and the equinox sunshine made all of the difference with my community mural being created in Grimsby Minster under sunlight flooding through the stained glass windows. Thank you to everyone who took part - we had little scribbles to confident drawings and it all came together to create a brilliant love note to Grimsby! x

A drawing workshop at Scartho Junior Academy. In February I was asked to deliver a drawing workshop to Year Six students at Scartho Junior Academy I always enjoy my visits to this school as art is a really important and integrated part of their curriculum. The theme for their project was chocolate and sweets - I showed them to ways to improve their confidence with drawing, talked about how paper and pencils were once new technolgies, and how simple tricks like drawing upside

A new piece of artwork for the chalet. When I first started out with the House with the Blue Door as a business that combined my artwork with my heritage chalet on the Humberston Fitties one of the first paintings was called the gap in the dunes. When you walk across the cliff path over to the Yacht Club heading towards Tetney the chestnut fencing and sea buckthorn create a view across to the fort on the horizon. An iconic view for people who know this area well. I thought I'

One of my first pages from January 2016. This month marks the 10th anniversary of when I started my illustrated journal journey. I've just begun my 100th book. The first books took 3-4 months to fill, and now I get through a book a month. Making that decision, 10 years ago was one of the best decisions I've ever made. If you are thinking of trying something new this year, then taking up drawing, writing, illustrating or art journaling is something I can recommend. I look back

I delivered a calligraphy workshop at the Black Gull cafe for Creative Start CIC in November, this was a lovely day-long session with people creating some lovely lettering and making some amazing pens from lolly sticks and tin cans! x Participants at my calligraphy workshop.

Calm colouring based around the River Freshney. I've finished designing my River Freshney Calm Colouring book. It's 20 pages long and A4 in size, printed on card so it will take different artistic media. £10 each and available to order through my Etsy site Handmade River Freshney colouring book Grimsby/Cleethorpes x

The window at Cleethorpes Library. I was very excited to receive an email from Art UK to say that my window at Cleethorpes Library has been listed on their directory https://artuk.org/.../cleethorpes-library-window-752077 This website is a great place to view artworks all over the country, giving free digital access to artworks so do take a look x

This Nature Noticing pack is designed to give you a start in nature journaling. Each pack contains a handmade A5 20-page booklet full of prompts to get you out and about engaging with nature, a pencil, a small accordian paper book to draw in, a paper ruler and focus box as well as a nature-inspired postcard. The booklet is full of my illustrated prompts, created originally in my sketchbook using pen and watercolour. £15 each. Nature Noticing pack order through my Etsy page.

Gatherings nature journaling page. Gatherings, endings and beginnings. I try to honour November now, rather than join in the headlong rush to Christmas. To savour the subtle pall and sombre mood that drapes itself around this month and embrace the end-of-year feeling that seems truer to this season than the harsh severing of New Year's Day. In Sunday's sunshine I picked the last of the apples, cut back the laurel for an autumn/winter door wreath and tucked some spring bulbs i

This weekend brought the first of my winter rituals. Bringing in my pots of pelargoniums from the garden. Although we haven't had a frosty start to November for a few years, these plants aren't frost hardy, so each year they see out the winter in the garden room, forming a backdrop to the midwinter decorations. They are still in flower, such dense pinks and reds that they resist any attempts for me to commit their gaudy beauty to my sketchbook. In five months time when the wa

My third newsletter. I sent out my third newsletter, A Slice of Niceness, at the beginning of October. I was inspired to do these as the world can seem a bit grim at the minute, and I wanted to send something bright and cheery to people's inboxes. Each newsletter is designed to give an overview of what I've been up to, what's happening with the chalet, and what workshops or activities might be available. If you'd like to add your email to my list then please email colouroutsi

Nature journaling page about leaves in my garden. This week I've been drawing a lot of leaves. There are lots of leaves around at the minute, but by drawing them and learning about them their individual stories can be told. Stories about what tree they are from, what might have been nibbling at them, what chemical reaction is going on. This page was about seemingly ordinary leaves in my very average garden, but the process of drawing them provided a couple of hours of mindful

Endemic by James Harding-Morris For much of this year I've had a base on Freeman Street Market, and as a result I've had lots of lovely and informative chats with Nick who runs an independent book shop, called the Rabbit Hutch. I read a lot of books, and I've tried to include them in my journals by writing little reviews about what my takeaways from each book has been. My takeaway from Endemic has been to never look at wild plants growing on path or roadsides again. I'm also

Display at the Fishing Heritage Centre. I've got a dynamic display up at the Fishing Heritage Centre from now until Christmas. This is after months spent reseraching into Grimsby's watery past and I'm now working on the illustrations to go with it. It's exciting to be able to share this work after all this time!

Nature noticing. Yesterday was something a bit new. Going out with a lovely group of home schoolers and their mums, as well as River...

An eye spy sheet based around Cleethorpes. I get used to last-minute requests from my mate James ( Canoe River Cleaner ) to create some...

Mr Blue Door doing a great job. The blue door is a pretty important part of the chalet - not just because it keeps the rain out, but...

Autumn colouring sheet. Last week I did my first Colour and Calm session last week on Freeman Street market. I'm running these sessions...