Colouring-in the January Blues

It’s a depressing time of year. Obviously. Dealing with work-related emails that didn’t magically disappear over Christmas, facing up to the fact that the resolutions haven’t even lasted a week and battling the freezing cold weather all takes their toll on a person. Not to mention arguments over deposits with ex-landlords and rows with current landlords about having no running water. Early January is horrible and I plan to spend it tucked up in bed with the electric blanket turned up all the way (mainly because I squandered all of last month’s salary in a devil-may-care Christmas spending extravaganza and can no longer afford to venture outside).

At least I have my lovely Christmas presents to keep me company. I can pore over my beautiful Stylist The Interpreters of Fashion book, a present from the boyfriend. Or look forward to my mini-break at Bellinter House thanks to my mum. Most therapeutic of all though is my Colour Me Good colouring book that comes courtesy of my other The Portmanteau half. Colour Me Good – Kate is a lovely little colouring book full of pictures of Kate in various magazine poses that I can colour-in carefully, thereby forgetting about the larger problems in life. The terrifying bank statement is left unopened as I endeavour to not go outside the lines of Kate’s lovely hair or the fancy crown that she wore on the cover of December 2001's Vogue. Colour Me Good comes from the talented Mel Elliott, a London-based artist who is almost as obsessed with magazines and celebrities as we are. She has created colouring books and paper dolls based on all of our favorites – Kate, Aggy, Cheryl, Grazia, etc, etc. She is stocked in Artwords in London (there are more outlets in the pipeline) or you can buy from her directly through her blog.

Picture from Mel Elliott (because I am not nearly as good at colouring-in).