I'm not sure about you, but every so often I fall into the habit of doing things the same old way. With no new ideas on what to present or how to present it. It's at times like this when I try to sit down and be creative. Unfortunately, when I most try and force myself to be creative is when I am least likely to be creative.

So I went out and picked up a few things.

I bought the Walls Notebook. This notebook is exactly what it sounds like. Each page has a photograph of a different wall. It's for those who would like to have the creative outlet of graffiti but recognize both the illegality of the act and the damage it does to a building. This notebook is for creative expression of ideas, pictures and concepts in safe, indoor, legal fashion. I'm not sure what it says about me but even though I've had the book for several weeks, I have yet to write or draw anything in it. It's such a beautiful book, I just don't want to mess it up. But I will. Soon. I promise.

I also bought the book 344 Questions: The Creative Person's Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment. This book takes you through various questions and scenarios (on a guess, I'd say there's 344 of them) that are supposed to help you unlock your potential and figure out what you're searching for. As you might expect, I haven't started that yet either.

But I did get a big burst of creativity from two different areas. One was a conference I attended in Victoria earlier this month. The second was from a class Anine Vonkeman and I taught last weekend.

Anine and I were once again asked by the Alberta Museums Association to teach the class on Public Programming and Marketing. There is nothing like spending two days with other creative, expressive museum people to stimulate ideas and help you see new ways of doing things. What made this even more amazing is that we were at the Leighton Centre in the foothills south west of Calgary. The view and setting were fabulous. Both during and after the class I jotted down a lot of new ideas for ways to revamp some of my programs and new ideas I want to try out.

Now I just have to wait for November and a bit of quiet time (now that Flashlight Cemetery Tour and request for hospital tours are winding down). I can't wait...