Artist’s Date / Recovering from My Long Weekend Away

As Globetrotting Cacti pointed out in her comment here, my trip this past weekend involved a lot of driving and activity. Therefore, I was very grateful to return on Tuesday night but still have Wednesday off to recover from the trip. And what better approach than to play with my purchases from Michaels and have an indulgent Artist’s Date {a concept from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way where you take time to nourish your soul}.

But first, some background. Starting a couple of years after college, I always tried to have some down time between returning from a trip and going back to the office. That habit fell by the wayside when husband and and I were living in separate cities and traveling weekly, but now that we are finally in one city, I am reconnecting with this buffer approach between travel and the office. This time, though, I decided to really take the day off, instead of my erstwhile approach of using the buffer to catch up on errands.

That last part was key to making my day successful and artist date like. I also went with a little less structure than I generally do when I take a creativity day just for me {which is usually on a weekend, involves a yoga class or workshop, absolutely no TV, multiple activities, pre-designated time at a coffeeshop}. I purposefully broke all those rules. I did not plan what workout or yoga class I would do until the morning of, I ate lunch while watching the Food Network and I did not strive to maximize every last minute the way I usually do.

In some ways it was like any other moi days I have taken. But in other, more subtle ways, it was different in that I was breaking my patterns even for my usual moi days.

So what did I do?

* I went to the gym and had a longer, slightly less intense workout that I would on a regular day

*I ate lunch while watching Chefs vs. City, DVR-ed from the Food Network

* I took a spa shower

* I put on the world’s comfiest pants ever, a.k.a. the TranquiliT palazzo pants,with a TranquiliT 2 in 1 long-sleeved top

* I finally finished organizing my vanity/creativity area

* I played with Modge Podge, foam brushes and acrylic paints. I decided to make backgrounds that I would then use later for either collages and/or journaling. I would have liked to collage but realized that my habit to give away magazines caught up with me – I had very few I wanted to cut up. And the layers and layers of paint plus Modge Podge really absorbed me. The idea of making backgrounds for later journaling was from Revisionista’s post on her all day artist’s retreat. I now have 2 double pages of backgrounds to work with:

Pictures by moi.

Disclosure: while I purchase all my TranquiliT items and have done so for a long time, as of last month, I am both a member of the TranquiliT Tribe and an Affiliate.