I have had a lot of website problems lately and I think in the last repair I lost some posts.
While I haven’t been on many artist dates in the last month, I have still been practicing adding joy to my life in other ways.
The artist dates I have been on:
- Antique shop (really didn’t expect this to work, but it was awesome)
- Walking in the rain
- Sensory deprivation tank
- Sensory deprivation tank with a deep pressure massage
- Reverse coloring book
- How to Draw Cute Animals exercises
- Going to the zoo and walking around (the birds!)
Dates I want to do or do again:
- The zoo for sure. I can’t wait to go to the zoo every morning to sketch or just start the day surrounded by animals.
- I loved all the dates so far so I will do them all again.
- Hikes
- Day trips
- Walks around the neighborhood to sketch
- Experimenting with my art books
One thing I am consciously doing in my life is adding delight into every day. Right now it is fairly easy because I hang out with a couple of 6 yos almost every day. It’s hard not to have delight when one adds a magnetic butterfly to her hair clip or looks in the mirror before school and starts singing about how beautiful she looks. Or the sound of the other giggling at the idea of eating his favorite snack. Yesterday and trove of 6 yos ran up to me to introduce themselves and tell me what their names meant. The level of excitement 6 yos have about life is contagious.
I’m also working on making my living space as calm and joy inducing as possible. I painted my T.V. pink! I guess that could be considered an artist date because my inner artist definitely squealed in delight at the idea of making a late night trip to the store to get pink paint. I hung art that I have from friends on my walls. I have never had a space to hang my collection because the RV had more windows than walls. (Not that that’s a bad thing.)
I brought out most of my art books and put them on bookshelves in my room so I can grab them whenever the mood strikes or just look at them all lined up, waiting.
I’m making sure all of my sensory toys are easy to access, like my oil diffuser so I can smell my favorite scents, my rainbow window tint, the desk top water fountain, weighted blankets, etc. My room is a haven. Everywhere I look, there’s something I love and reminders of people I love.