Sunday Morning Rain Is Falling

I don't know about you, but there are times when I get so bored that I don't know what to do with myself. There are days when I get bored or I'm trapped indoors because I live in Ireland and the rain likes to take a notion that it wants to pour out of the heavens with no intention of ever stopping - which has literally been my life for the last three days! There doesn't seem to be anything on TV worth watching as I search through the channels for the twentieth time. I've caught up on all my web haunts and nobody has tweeted a single thing of note in twenty minutes and I've just refreshed that web page for the sixtieth time. What could I possibly do when I'm bored, uninspired, and trapped indoors? Let me tell you what I like to do to pass the time...

o1 - Play with Photoshop.

Or any graphic design program. I learn so much about Photoshop when I'm just playing around with a graphic that initially has little significance, that is, it doesn't matter if I screw it up or it doesn't go the way that I want it to do. It could just be a random photo that I have saved to my computer and I'm playing around with the composition of the photo by toying around with the colouring, adding textures or learning how to sharpen it and brighten it. You learn a lot by teaching yourself and I taught myself everything that I know. 

Additionally, you can look for the resources that you might need for furture projects. You can look for textures to use, custom shapes to add to the library, photos to use or fonts to have. There are countless websites out there that offer you free textures, shapes and fonts. You just have to look and that will take hours! 

o2 - You and YouTube.

YouTube. Beloved YouTube. Where would we be without YouTube? Where to even start with YouTube when bored? Type something in and take it from there? You can go to an account that you're subscribed to and look back over their previously uploaded videos; instead of having them listed with the most recent first, have them listed with the oldest first and look back through all of their old videos - there could be a couple of years worth of videos there. Pick and choose which ones to watch. I do that all the time with the beauty channels that I follow.

Go through the VEVO accounts of your favourite artists and watch/listen to their music videos. You can watch one video and jump to another artist through the suggested videos. As I typed this post up I listened to Maroon5, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry all by linking from suggested videos. Most of these artists wouldn't be in my iTunes library but through YouTube I can listen to them without having to pay for the song. 

o3 - Marathon something.

Netflix, LoveFILM, Amazon Instant, there are so many streaming sites available for you to look through and you will spend a good chunk out of the day just looking through what is on offer. Do you want to watch a thriller, horror, funny, something sci-fi, a Disney movie, cartoon, TV show? Since you watched this you might like this, or this, or this, or that... The choices are endless. You can marathon that TV show that you haven't watched yet but have been meaning to because everyone tells you that you should or you thought it looked good from the trailers or re-watching a favourite. I started re-watching Battlestar Galactica and got to season 2 when the license for it ran out at the start of October. Rage. I do have the show on DVD but there was something so convenient about hitting that 'Next Episode' button on Netflix and not having to change a disc every few hours. 

o4 - Read.

Pretty self-explanatory. Pick up that book that you've been putting off starting/continuing/finishing and turn those pages. Also, you can look for fanfiction of that TV series that you can't get enough of and read the mountain of stories on offer. Which reminds me, I have to finish that book.

o5 - Lost in Instagram.

Once caught up on your feed, go to the Explore feed next to it (that little star like icon). It will have images that are popular in your country, images that a related to accounts that you follow, images that are similar to ones that you've previously liked. There is a a never-ending scroll there! If you like an image, tap it and see who it is by, then go to their account to see if they have anything else of interest. You may end up liking their feed enough to follow them. Also, you can investigate specific tags. I can't tell you have many hours I have spent just looking through tags and seeing if there is anything new on those tags. 

o6 - Stalk your favourite actor.

It's not as bad as it sounds! Don't go getting a restraining order. I'm not hiding in shrubs with binoculars with somebody in my cross-hairs. It's nothing as gruesome as that. Mostly because I'm lazy and do you know how much those shrubs poke you? Back to the point...

We all have our favourite actors and we all follow them in some manner or another beit their social media or their website or fansites. When I'm bored, I like to find a good website gallery of an actor that I adore that has a mountain of images that I can look through. They gallery can have red carpet appearances that go back years, photo-shoots, their TV work that encompasses screencaps, episodic stills, promotional images etc, etc, and film work that have the same categories and miscellaneous things that don't seem to fit anywhere. Catching up on all of that will take hours, trust me!  

o7 - Make-Up Mayhem

Go to your make-up collection, take your face and have at it. You aren't going anywhere and you don't have to have any kind of idea in mind, so why not? Just do it. Suck at winged eye-liner? Practice it now instead of five minutes before you're supposed to be out the door because you know you'll mess it up and you won't have time to fix it and it just won't look good. Practice it now when you have the time. Take that eyeshadow palette that you've only used two colours from and experiment with them all. Try to re-create a look from your favourite show/movie or even cartoon. Experiment with looks. Your canvas is yourself and hey, it'll wash off. No worries.

o8 - Play with your pets.

If you have one. I have two dogs and they are such playful creatures. One always wants a ball thrown for her because she loves to play fetch and the other loves a cuddle. There is nothing more I love than putting everything aside and just playing with them and giving them my undivided attention. 

o9 - Go for a drive.

Go for a drive? Are you mad? There's a reason why they're called 'Sunday driver'! People drive stupid when it's raining. Trust me, I haven't lost it. Get in the car and just drive. Go down those country roads or explore that scenic loop that is sign-posted. Even if it's raining, you can still explore the countryside. My brother and I have gone for drives on rainy, Sunday afternoons just to pass the time and the sights that we've passed by are awe-inspiring. We've seen how far the tide has come in at the beach, how the waves crash against the shore and how the ferry sits in wait until the weather clears up. Yes, there may be an odd puddle or too, but you're in no rush to be anywhere, so take it easy. Besides, it's a great way to catch up and have a wee chat.

10 - Fantasy shop

Look through that online shop that you love and look through every category and see what takes your fancy. Sometimes when we shop online we're looking for something in particular and ignore everything else that is on offer. Well, I tend to do that. So, go back and look at those coats and jackets, look at the skirts, look at the flat shoes and check out those accessories. Get inspired for new looks that you want to try out for the upcoming season or get ideas for things to source at other places for a cheaper price.

These are just a small amount of the things that I like to do when bored. What about you? What do you like to do when you're bored, uninspired or stuck indoors with the rain pounding on your door?