"Lazy, Sunday Afternoon, I've Got No Mind To Worry..."

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Every time I have looked at my blog in the last week and a half I have been reminded of yet another memory from my oh so colourful childhood. The last card I posted was of a young lad in front of a wall with graffiti on it and it reminded me of the time I myself experimented with the urban art of self expressionism.
As I have previously said, my mother had me labelled as 'he who must not be trusted' after daring to slow fry a frozen sausage in front of a three bar heater. As I was never allowed to stay in the house unsupervised as both parents worked (and if I'm honest, even when mother was at home I wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms!) I spent a LOT of time either outdoors or when the weather demanded it, stuck in the only library Redcar had, which in time turned into my favourite place on earth. When you are not welcome in your own home, you look for places where you are welcome and the Library in Redcar became my safe haven. Whilst not exactly welcomed through the doors (the staff were like something from a Dickens novel), nobody ever told you to go home as long as you were reading something and I read everything in that Library, from Enid Blyton right through to Peter Benchley, my reading really matured in that Library and I showed my appreciation to it in a very special way!
When I wasn't inside the Library reading I was outside playing in 'my tree'. It grew right next to the front wall, the wall that faced the main road and the one wall that was on view to absolutely everyone passing, whether by foot or vehicle. My tree was so easy to climb and through the Summer and early Autumn it was covered in enough foliage for you to be quite anonymous should you decide to climb up to the higher limbs, something that the Library staff actively discouraged and something that all boys just had to try, like it was hard-wired into our DNA!
On one particularly chilly, early Winter afternoon, I turned up to tree only to find a full can of black spray paint on the grass. 'How exciting' my 13 year old brain screamed 'what's the harm in having a little play' I thought, after all it washes off with warm soapy water, doesn't it??
My gaming tag (i.e. the name I used whenever I played an arcade game) was Antz (I still have no idea why to this day!) and had I written that I would have walked away scot free but me being the idiot that I was at that age decided to write
ANDREW BRINSLEY!
Yes, I wrote my full name in three feet tall black letters for the entire world to see. Looking back I am surprised I stopped short of writing my home address too!!
Unluckily for me, it took the Library janitor about ten minute to work out just who this master criminal was! He just looked for my Library card and voila! he had my home address and my Mother's work address too. Needless to say, I was severely punished and a valuable lesson about identity was learnt!!

OMG! What must you think of me? It feels like ages since I last posted anything. I have been meaning to do it but I kept forgetting to take my photographs so had nothing to post! But that has all been remedied and here is a new card for you to peruse.

Stuck for something to colour I went for a surf and discovered the rather fantastic DeviantArt, there were loads of amazing images (and sooooo many for free!!!) and all they ask of you is that you credit them and put a link back to their art, so here it is, thank you so much Yampuff for your beautiful images and here's the link to your images (Honey & AnaBelle/UmberellaGirl).

As for the card, well I decided to try and keep it as clean and simple as possible because the image itself was quite large to start with and I really wanted my colouring to be the thing that really drew your attention, colouring these three girls took me a couple of days to make sure that they were the best I could do and for the first time ever I was actually proud of something I had done.

So there it is my lovely, hope you like it.
If you managed to read all that, well done! I will be back soon, have a great week and
take care,
Hugs 'n Stuff,
Andy
xxx

Entered Into: 2 Sister Challenge #158 - Square Cards
A Gem Of A Challenge #94 - Anything with a B (Bird and Birdhouse)
Colour Me Creative Challenge #75 - Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges #200 - C4C200 - Animals
Drunken Stampers Challenge #138 - A Party Planner
Totally Gorjuss Challenge #198 - Bows
My Creative Moments - Wordplay Satuday Challenge - Childhood
Sketch Saturday Challenge #273 - Sketch
A Creative Need Challenge #10 - Lazy Days Of Summer
Card Crafter's Circle Challenge #89 - Bright Colours
Challenges and Candies Challenge #15 - Colours, Smells and Tastes of Summer
Digitally Sweet Challenge #50 - Summertime Colours
Inspire Me Friday's Challenge #117 - Anything Goes
Patti's Creations Design Challenge #74 - Anything Goes (Must ALWAYS Use An Image)
Polkadoodles Challenge week #34 - All Things Bright And Beautiful
QKR Stampede Challenge #53 - Anything Goes
Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #30 - A Summer Theme
Sister Act Card Challenge #21 - Anything Goes