Her feet are aching after a long day at work, the dog is doing donuts, desperate to be walked and Mum knows she will end up cooking two separate meals tonight because the kids are having their super fussy friend over for tea.

The kids squabbling over the TV remote is the last straw.

ENOUGH! Mum pulls the plug, ignoring their pleas. If they can’t watch TV nicely they won’t watch it at all.

“I’m bored” “It’s not fair” “There’s nothing to do”

Mum removes the schools bags, a half-eaten apple and an odd sock from the kitchen table and replaces them with colouring books and pens.
“There! Come and do some colouring while I make a start on tea”

Another five minutes won’t hurt…  Mum pulls up a chair, picks up the purple pen and starts colouring in the cat. Who says cats can’t be purple?

One purple cat with a very detailed collar and a few background doodles later, Mum realises she is the only one still sitting at the table. The kids have snuck back to the sofa and are quietly watching cartoons and the dog has peed on the rug. But it’s ok…. Mum is feeling soothed and relaxed and really quite amazed at what a calming effect those few minutes of colouring has had on her.

 Adult Colouring is Rising in Popularity

Swap Mum for Dad, Gran, Grandad, Auntie, Uncle….. How many of you can identify? While colouring might be largely aimed at children, adult colouring is rising in popularity and I can’t say I’m all that surprised.

For some, colouring brings back fond memories of childhood and a reminder of what it feels like to be carefree and content.

Others enjoy colouring for its therapeutic qualities, using it to help them to cope with stress, anxiety or depression. They might give colouring their all, thinking of nothing but colours and patterns and the task at hand, escaping reality, just for a while. Or they might use it as an opportunity to organise their thoughts, coming away with a clearer head and a more productive and positive mindset.

Colouring is a fun way to maintain those hand eye coordination and fine motor skills that as children we worked so hard to achieve yet thanks to technology require less and less. Keyboards might be quicker than pens and sewing machines may have triumphed over the humble sewing needle but colouring will never be the same without good old-fashioned colouring books and coloured pens.

And then there are those who love to be creative and find that colouring in books such as the Millie Marotta Animal Kingdom book helps to stimulate their own imagination and creativity.

Adult colouring is often a guilty pleasure, one people are reluctant to reveal until caught red handed and red faced. Well, we say embrace the colouring book. Tell the world about the benefits of colouring and re connect with your inner child. And if nothing else, colouring is fun!

Get Colouring! It’s making a comeback!

Still not sure? Take a look at the Millie Marotta Animal Kingdom colouring book. It is bursting with pages of stunning doodle style line drawings of mammals, birds, reptiles, plants, trees and more. Immerse yourself in the beautifully detailed drawings, just waiting to be personalised with your own style and colour interpretations. If this doesn’t get you itching to whip out those colouring pens, I don’t know what will.

As for pens, the Point 88 stabilo rollerset pens, with their vibrant colours and fine lines are perfect for staying inside the lines of the smaller sections of the drawing in this book.

You may also want to try the Stabilo 68 Colouring Pens, these colourful pens have a cap off time of up to 24 hours, perfect for those frequent colour changes. Don’t be afraid to go neon with a Stabilo Boss highlighter or two.

Berol have a wonderful selection of both fine and broad tipped coloured pens well suited to larger blocks of colour or perhaps you’d like to try the Papermate Flair colouring pens, which are quick drying, smudge and smear free, removing the need to pause while you wait for the ink to dry.

 COMPETITION TIME

We wouldn’t be so cruel as to introduce you to this amazing colouring book without offering you the chance to get your hands on one.

We’re giving away 5 Millie Marotta Animal Kingdom colouring books and 5 packs of Point 88 Stabilo rollerset pens for you to enjoy. All you have to do is download and print the picture and show us your best colouring

So to ENTER complete the following steps

• Follow us on twitter @eurofficecouk and Like our Facebook page EurofficeUK
• Retweet our competition tweet on Twitter and Share our competition post on Facebook
• Download & Colour in one of the below Millie Marotta Animal Kingdom book extracts and Send it back to us via Twitter or Facebook

Ends 31/05/15 @ 5pm T&Cs

Good luck and happy colouring.