Getting my art on...

Dude. I'm an arteest!

I've heard through my awesome friend April about this place in The Woodlands called Painting with a Twist. She has said for a while now that we need to get some girls together and go, and she's been several times. So when Trey came home with an invitation to the VIP Grand Opening of one in College Station, we immediately RSVP'd. It was last night, and it was awesome!

Here's the concept: You sign up for a painting class, get some friends, some wine, some munchies, and you show up. All of the supplies and materials are set up and ready to go for you, and there is an art teacher who guides you through making your very own work of art.

Now, I don't consider myself to be very artistic, and I am most certainly not a painter, but I was happily surprised to learn that I could totally do this!  The teacher demonstrated a step, and then he cranked up the music and we completed the step on our own while chatting and munching and laughing. The teacher was ever available to help, and the process was just downright fun!

Here's my painting after step one:

In order to let this dry, we hung out and chatted and munched and laughed.

Here's step two:

Drying and chatting and munching again (See a pattern here?), and then step three:

It was really unique and fun and I loved it!

Here are my favorite things about Painting with a Twist College Station:
1) You can personalize the painting with your own colors and flair or whatever. The lady across from me used blues and turquoise colors for the background, and her work was beautiful and different from everyone else's. I was a little afraid to do this my first time out, but I definitely will next time.

2) The owners were so incredibly super-duper nice. They wanted everyone to have fun and be happy. It was like being a guest at a paint and canvas party thrown just for me. They were great!

3) The teachers were funny and helpful. They made jokes and gave great instructions and demonstrated everything. They kept our paint refilled and our confidence up with lots of "That looks great!" comments.

4) According to the web site, they have some family days. For a slightly lower price, we can take the boys and our whole family can make paintings together. My boys will LOVE this!  (We've already told them they can't have wine during family time, though.)

5) Date night!  I guess I can't imagine Trey and his man friends getting a case of beer on happy hour night and going to get their art on, but I CAN imagine fun date nights there. It's way better than a movie because we actually get to talk to each other. I also like the fact that we're doing something instead of talking about kids or schedules or something like that, which often happens when we get time to go out together. We laughed and painted and had a late night stop at Taco Bell after we were done, and it was awesome fun with my hubby. It could even be a fun couples shower or something. Men, take your women!

6) The price - a 2 hour class is $35 according to the web site, and that's comparable or cheaper than buying canvases, paint, brushes and/or going out for dinner and drinks with the girls. Plus, you get to take home your art work!

7) Maybe my favorite - all the fun without the clean up. Let's face it...the worst part of any project is cleaning up after. At Painting with a Twist, you paint, you take your art home, and someone else cleans it all up. Yay!

Here's the web site, and you can also like them on Facebook. On the web site, you can see which paintings they're doing at which times and sign up for the one you want to do. I'm especially excited about the holiday ones - I think it will be fun to add those to my decorations!

I can't wait to get my girls together and schedule a session!