Mamma Mia!

One of the mainstays of The Artist's Way is to go on what Julia Cameron calls Artist Dates. "What is that?" you ask.

An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. In its most primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you pre-plan and defend against all interlopers. You do not take anyone on this artist date but you and your inner artist, a.k.a. your creative child. That means no lovers, friends, spouses, children—no taggers-on of any stripe.
~ The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

On my first Artist Date last week, I danced. I put on some music by the Bee Gees and danced around my living room for about 10 or 15 minutes (volume up, window shades down!). That was fun and wore me out. I hadn't danced around like that for quite a while.

Today I had an Artist Date at a local thrift store. I wandered around soaking in inspiration. In the craft room, I got an idea on how to decorate my new journal cover using a gift bag. Over on the knick-knack shelf I found this happy dude. It was enough to take his picture; I didn't have to take him home with me (even though the entire store is half off on Wednesdays!)

He reminds me a little of growing up and working in the Italian restaurant that my family owned.