Colouring with Cats #15 ~ Getting Your OM on with Mandalas on Mondays! The Top Five Reasons To Colour!

Supurr Monday greetings beautiful furriends

We do hope mew've had a pawesome weekend and are feeling all calm and nicely chilled fur the next few days, but if not we know we can assist mew in getting your Zen Harmonies happening and that fuzzy feeling of zen-ness back.

 Let's begin with our little breathing exercise, we're sure mew know what to do but if mew've furgotten: purrlease take deep fulfilling breaths; counting to five on the inhale and five on the exhale:

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out

Let all your frustrations go on effury exhale. Furget about all those little iggly piggly little niggles that pop up to test your calm, just throw them towards the sky like mew're throwing dandelion heads into the wind and watch them magically disappear.

Today Parsley is sharing a little bit of zen-ness with us, so purrlease read on...

Tabbies of Trout Towne, we suggest mew avert your eyes NOW and quickly scroll down to the next video purrlease

Parsley says, "There's nothing like getting out and about in woodland or nature to feel invigorated and rejuvenated, and if mew can't get to real woodland or nature there's always YouTube!" MOL

"That Robin was so close, yet so far... and I almost had him... but at least the P.A. didn't run screaming into the room like a wailing banshee telling me not to eat the burds like she does in the garden all summer - seriously anypurrdy would think I was doing something wrong!"

"And after taking some fresh air and patting a little burd or two in a nice and furriendly manner on the head, it's always nice to have a little massage, I purrsonally like to massage my blanky, mew can see just how zen I am!"

Many thanks to Parsley fur sharing his wunderpurr tips fur finding zen-ness.

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This week we thought we'd tell mew about why colouring is good fur mew and your mind, just in case mew didn't know.

We live in a terribly busy wurld, where effurything is NOW NOW NOW and GO GO GO.  It's an endless hamster wheel of activity fur our minds and one that's quite hard to get off, leaving us feeling that we have to do effurything instantly, immediately and it has to be purrfect - THIS IS A LIE.  

Sadly modern life has indoctrinated this mindset into us offur the last couple of decades, this NOW Culture where mew can't wait and savour things because effurything has to be instant is so bad fur our Zen Harmonies, it is a crushing, debilitating way of existing.  Notice we didn't say living, that is because most of us aren't living, we are just going through a set of protocols that we have been led to believe are correct.

They aren't correct, they are the harbingers of anxiety, stress, fear, panic and a multitude of other feelings that leave us feeling empty, unfulfilled, unworthy and meaningless.  We have become disconnected from effurything since the internet revolution began and each of us is searching fur some kind of fulfillment, whateffur that maybe.  We can tell mew this much though; fulfillment, joy and happiness doesn't come from what mew can buy or what mew have, it comes from a conscious choice to be fulfilled, joyous and happy.  Chose to be happy and mew will be.  Choose to be sad and that's what mew'll be.

Mew may think we are a bunch of flower-power hippy-kitties dancing around in our flares, peace sign t-shirts and wearing flower headdresses.  We're not, we're a Heathen Hoard of tech loving Commando Cats, but we've learned that to find balance in life mew must take time out from tech, TV's, the news [which is always bad news], newspapers [more bad news] and social media [streaming bad news].  We do not watch the news ever, we never buy a newspaper and we stay away from anything political and have found that since cutting out this propaganda offur a decade ago life is so much better and frees up time to do things that make us happier and brings us more joy. It is that simple.  

The P.A. says this: 

'Life is simple, people make it complicated'

This is why colouring is so good fur mew, because while mew're sat there with your coloured pens and filling a blank page your mind relaxes, it lowers your blood pressure, creates feeling of harmony and self love because mew're doing something just fur mew, taking the time fur yourself.  It makes mew a better thinker, and even the late, great  psychologist Carl Jung was an advocate of this 'colouring prescription' as a calming tool and as a means of relaxation. 

So if mew want to get off the hamster wheel and free your mind from an endless diatribe of internal dialogue, get your pens out and get your OM on.

The Top Five Reasons To Colour:

Helps Mew Purractice Patience

Proven To Reduce Stress, Anxiety & Boredom

It Increases Your Ability To Focus

It Awakens Your Creativity

And Brings Beauty Into Your Life

Who doesn't want a bucket load of that?

There are endless more reasons to colour, but we think those five are enough, don't mew?

And now it's time to share this weeks mandala, so let's get our OM on and those Zen Harmonies happening dudes, and dudettes of course! 

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If mew have missed any of the previous mandala's and feel the need to colour, here's the links:

Mandala #1  Mandala #2  Mandala #3  Mandala #4  Mandala #5  Mandala #6   

Mandala #7   Mandala #8   Mandala #9   Mandala #10   Mandala #11   Mandala #12

Mandala #13  Mandala #14

All the mandala's featured are designed and made by us, unless otherwise stated.

So without further adieu here's this weeks Mandala:

Just right click the image to save and print it...

Here's the P.A.'s finished colouring, she was really feeling the neon vibe this week, we think that it has something to do the days being so dull and grey and she wanted a total colour immersion! MOL

Coloured using metallic and glitter gel pens.

*    *    * 

If mew'd like to share your peeps pawesome artwurk feel free to post it on our Facebook page at:

Bionic Basil & The Heathen Hoard @Facebook

as we'd really, really love to see your interpretation of today's mandala.

So on that note we'll say bye fur now and see mew on Wednesday when Amber is here sharing this weeks top book pick!

Until then

Keep Calm and Colour OM!

Bestest chilled and most soothing purrs

Basil & Co xox

The Pet Parade Blog Hop No: 180 ~ Rascal & Rocco Co-Hosted by Basil & Love is Being Owned By A Husky & Barking from the Bayou

Friday greetings wunderpurr pals

Furstly we must apologize fur not posting yesterday, only the computer monitor decided to go to Silicon Heaven - how selfish of it!  And then we had to wait 24 hours to get a new one... it was so pants on so many levels, so mew'll have to wait until next week to get the answers to last weeks crosswurd - sorry! 

Anyhoo our week apart from that has been fairly uneventful, except fur Amber's monster hissy-fit earlier in the week caused by Audible's inability to let her purrchase more credits fur more books, mew can read all about it on her Wurdy on Wednesday post - see link below - and it was a hissy-fit to end all hissy-fits!  Since then she has been drowning her sorrows in copious amounts of primo nip to dull the reality of not being able to purrchase any new books fur the next two weeks - OH DEAR! MOL

The rest of us are feeling a little bored, we've got itchy paws as this time of year it's too cold fur anything and outdoor time is limited and then the temperature plummeted a couple of days ago and we can smell snow in the air... not good.... in fact we're so desperate fur a new adventure, if one doesn't come knocking soon we're going to get the Hummer out and go look fur one.  But don't tell the P.A.!

How's your week been, and do mew need The 'B' Team to come help with anything at all? Seriously anything at all, we can be there in a jiffy! MOL 

If mew missed anything this week, here's the latest links fur your purrusal!

Sunday Selfies ~  But I Like it Here!

Mandalas on Monday ~ Colouring with Cats #14

Wordy on Wednesday with Amber #26

We'll be back with our usual Selfie Selection on Sunday, so hope mew can join us then.

In the meantime we wish mew all a truly terrific weekend!

Happy Hopping

Sweetest purrs & nose bumps

Basil & Co xox

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Wordy on Wednesday with Biblio-Kitty Amber #26 featuring The Cat, the Professor and the Poison

Welcome To

With Amber ~ The Self-Appointed Biblio-Kitty

Wunderpurr greetings fellow book lovers 

I do hope mew've had a great week, mine was progressing well until I went to buy a new book from Audible and saw that I had no credits left.  Well mew can imagine my utter horror at this discovery.

Now mew see I'm on the 24 books a year package, which I probably eat through in the furst 2 - 3 months.  I wish they did a '52 A Year Book Package + Extra Credits' as this would be much more to my liking.  Anyhoo, so once I've used all my 24 credits, Audible allows me to buy another 3 credits fur £11.99 at a time. So that was fine until Monday evening when I thought, I really need something new to listen to, so I got my ipad out and found a book I wanted knowing already that I had used my last credit last week, but I thought oh it's no purroblem I'll just get 3 more credits - wrong!

It would appear that I have reached my maximum credit limit and there's no more until my subscription renews on the 12th of February.  Can mew imagine I have to wait 2 more weeks before I can get anything new - it's SHOCKING, A COMPLETE TRAVESTY in fact!

 I feel sick... light headed... dizzy in fact... with palpitations... hot and cold sweats... the room is spinning...

What on earth am I going to do????

SHOCK!

DENIAL!

I raced into the kitchen and found the P.A. 

"I can't get any new books!" I blurted. "And I can't buy anymore credits!"

The P.A. stared at me as she was dunking a double choc chip cookie in her coffee while sat at the kitchen island.  The coffee-sodden cookie broke and splashed into the cup.

"Oh flipping flip Amber, that's terrible!" she said using a teaspoon to fish out the soggy cookie.

I stared in horror as she ate the now really soggy cookie off the spoon and thought, she's really not taking this critical crisis seriously. 

Taking a deep breath, I said as calmly as possible. "What are mew going to do about my desperate dilemma?" Then added. "This is a DEFCON 2 situation!"

The P.A. dunked another cookie and ate it before she replied. "Amber you have probably more books than anyone else I know, also you have your very own private library and I don't know of any other cats that have that facility, go find something to read among the stacks and don't forget there's more boxes of books in the shed that we still haven't unpacked yet, so don't tell me you haven't got anything to read." She sipped her coffee and then continued. "You have over 500 books on the kindle too, read one of those!"

That was so NOT the answer I wanted!

Then to add insult to injury the P.A. said whilst eating another cookie. "You should have managed your credits better!"

Jeez, what does a kitty have to around here to get some sympathy and some new books????

 Anyhoo enough of my book buying issues, let's get stuck into this weeks book pick.

This week on book reviews with Amber, I'm sharing

The Cat, the Professor and the Poison 

Cats in Trouble Mysteries Book II

by

Leann Sweeney

Here's a little snippet of the book blurb::

Between her kitty quilt-making business and her three beloved cats, Jill has her hands full. That doesn't stop her from wanting to solve the mystery of the milk cow that's gone missing from her friend's farm. But imagine her surprise when a stolen cow leads to the discovery of fifty stray cats and one dead body-a victim of cold-blooded murder.

*     *     *

Mew may remember that a while ago I reviewed the furst book in the series, 

The Cat, The Quilt and The Corpse

Click the link fur a quick recap if mew need it! MOL  

Anyhoo I thought it was about time that I shared the second one with mew.  Quilter, Jillian Hart and her three kitties, Chablis, Syrah and Merlot are back in the midst of a new murder mystery, this book is equally as entertaining as the furst, if not more so because mew already love the characters!  It has endless plot twists and turns to keep mew listening right to the furry last wurd.  When I start one of these novels I usually listen to it in a day, let's just say I'm a binge listener and probably get through at least 6 novels a week.  It's true I am a book'a'holic! MOL

If mew enjoyed Book I, mew'll certainly enjoy this too.

Paperback copy:  275 pages

Audio Edition: 10 hours 33 minutes

The Amber Biblio Rating System Fur Offurall Enjoyment:

Ratings of:

The Cat, the Professor and the Poison

Plot

Characters

Story

Narration

Offurall Enjoyment

I hope mew enjoy this book if mew do take the plunge and get it... and if mew've read it already, tell me what did mew think?

Sadly it's time fur me to say BFN or bye-fur-now as mew know the drill, so many books, so little time and don't furget to stop by tomorrow fur Basil's Brain Training!

Happy reading or listening

Bestest biblio purrs

Amber xox

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Colouring with Cats #14 ~ Getting Your OM on with Mandalas on Mondays!

Supurr Monday greetings beautiful furriends

We do hope mew've had a truly fantabulous weekend and are feeling all refreshed and supurr zingy fur the week ahead and if not, well we think we'd better assist mew in getting your Zen Harmonies happening and your chill zone to that purrfect temperature to keep mew cool, calm and collected.

 Let's begin with our little breathing exercise, we're sure mew know what to do but if mew've furgotten: purrlease take deep fulfilling breaths; counting to five on the inhale and five on the exhale:

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out

Breathe in

Breathe out

Let all your frustrations go on effury exhale.

Today Smoochie is sharing a little bit of zen-ness with us, so purrlease read on...

The Wurld according to Smooch

As we go through our day to day lives, none of us knows when that proverbial curve-ball will strike, sometimes mew can catch it in your mitten and it's all ok, yet others mew fumble, miss and the ball lands in a big pile of icky kack and suddenly things start to spiral out of control.  Then we get so caught up in the situation we can't see wood fur trees and end up reacting rather than thinking.

So if mew fumble the ball and find yourself in a stink-pit of a mess, stop and breathe fur a second rather than get swept away with the tide. Then...

"Try to look at things from another purrspective, it's amazing how different a situation can seem if mew take a moment to view it from another angle."

Thanks Smooch fur your most profound, yet stunningly simple wisdom.

Who knew that the little Heathen Widdler could be so ZEN - AMAZING!!! MOL

And now it's time to share this weeks mandala, so let's get our OM on.

*    *    *

If mew have missed any of the previous mandala's and feel the need to colour, here's the links:

Mandala #1  Mandala #2  Mandala #3  Mandala #4  Mandala #5  Mandala #6   

Mandala #7   Mandala #8   Mandala #9   Mandala #10   Mandala #11   Mandala #12

Mandala #13

All the mandala's featured are designed and made by us, unless otherwise stated.

So without further adieu here's this weeks Mandala, which is the second freehand kitty we've done, this one is a little more busy in the pattern but we think it's purretty cool:

Just right click the image to save and print it...

Here's the P.A.'s effort this week, she said she really enjoyed colouring this one!

Coloured using metallic and glitter gel pens.

*    *    * 

If mew'd like to share your peeps pawesome artwurk feel free to post it on our Facebook page at:

Bionic Basil & The Heathen Hoard @Facebook

as we'd really, really love to see your interpretation of today's mandala.

So on that note we'll say bye fur now and see mew on Wednesday when Amber is here sharing this weeks top book pick!

Until then

Keep Calm and Colour OM!

Bestest chilled and most soothing purrs

Basil & Co xox