MY MONDAYS!

One thing I learned a long time ago, is that you HAVE to make time for yourself. I'm a mother, grandmother, Business owner, Graphic artist, Blogger, Author, teacher. employer, Military officers wife, volunteer, board member and the list goes on and on...

So I will go absolutely crazy if I don't get some "down time". One way that I do this, is sometimes is on Mondays. My good friend Steve taught me about MY MONDAYS about 10 years ago. If you take time to yourself just one day a week, you will be amazed how your creativity will renew itself (Sometimes I loose my creativity and its not a good thing, so I have to stay refreshed)

I can't afford to take a whole day usually, but usually I can take a Half a day. I also teach photography classes on that day sometimes (one-on-one private instruction classes)

In additon, that's also my day for my Dr's. appts, dentist appts, a Mani, a pedi, etc.

So I try to take at least 4 hours to go out and refresh myself as far as creativity goes. Sometimes I go to a museum, which is great for artistic types like me! Sometimes I browse bookstores and buy books on art, painting, sculpture, watercolors, etc.

Sometimes I go on photo safaris for myself. This is one of my favorite things to do. I will make a theme. Such as "Textures, or "Pattern" , or as I did yesterday "COUNTRY LIVING".

This safari was just for me. No students went along on this. I took 4 of my favorite things. My Dog Ginger, My truck Lucille, and 2 of my cameras (My 5D and 40D)

I decided I was only going to photograph LIVING OBJECTS in the country. (I cheated a couple of times)

So here are some of the results. A girl cant be creative on an empty stomach, so first I hit the local SONIC for a foot long hot dog and some cheesy Tots and Diet Dr. Pepper. (Ive lost 9 lbs and I eat more now than I used to! I used to skip breakfast and lunch and never could loose weight, now I eat 5 times a day and am loosing like crazy!

So here's the results as you will see Ginger and I had a BIG ADVENTURE. Once my transmission got locked up and I couldn't get it out of gear. A nice elderly gentleman stopped and showed me how to fix it if it happened again. Only took him 3 seconds! I wish I would of gotten one shot of him!

Thank you Mr. Good Samaritan. I think Ginger had a good time! She got to see Horses (and they came over to her and were interested in her! She wagged her tail and wanted to play with them. She is a Sheltie and they are known for herding sheep and cattle. So I bet she wanted to herd or play with them. haha They seemed to like her! Then the Donkeys came over (and a burro i think.) and they too were very interested in both me and Ginger.

Look at this beautiful horse with the BLUE EYES! I had never seen that before! He was gorgeous! Or was it a she?

I love this shot of the bird with the little catfish! (click on it to see it larger. I used my Canon f/2.5 300 mm lens for that one.)

It was a great day and Ginger and I came back home and I got a lot of graphic work done afterwards. We were both relaxed. She took a nap and I worked.

Hows that for a day off?