Painting Birds, Drinking Beers

Bridget, Daylon, Dre and I ventured to yet another Corks and Canvas Event.  Daylon and Dre were first timers; that's always nerve-racking and exciting.  This event was unique because it was held at a brewery instead of a winery; Pyramid Alehouse to be exact.  They said we could have wine and I told Bridge that if she ordered wine I would judge her, knowing full well she would never do such a thing.  We're beer girls.  I WON!!  They do a drawing at every event, and my name finally made it into Lisa's (the owner) hands.

Freaking Dre got new fancy brushes with grippers!  Advantage much?

Bridge and Daylon enjoying the moment.

Paintings in progress.  Dre gave his bird a little blackbird friend.  All the painting ladies were so impressed.

Posing with our final pieces.

After Party on the Choo Choo Train - The Orient Express has the most amazing red chicken curry ever!  It's one of my favorite happy hour, pre-party, after-party and whatever occasion spots.  The bartenders are always super cool, funny in fact.  And there are always worse singers then you belting out Karaoke from one of the private rooms; and you are never the drunkest person in that place.

Loves at the Orient Express (my favorite Seattle hangout) .

In the next frame Bridget totally slipped me the tongue...

Mom already has dibs on this painting.  She said it reminds her of both my grandmas.  Yay.  They were bird lovers.

I still can't believe I won!  What a fun night.

Vineyard Painting with Kathleen and Stuff (Baseball Stuff)

Painting with Kathleen
I bought a Living Social deal for Canvas! Paint & Sip in Kirkland.  As you know from my blog, I do events like this quite often these days.  I've been raving about it to Kathleen and she was definitely interested in joining.  This company and venue is a stand alone studio, based on my last experience I was nervous it might suck.  Oh no, it was actually a really great place to paint.  The environment was just right, lots of drink options, friendly staff, appetizers, really upbeat music and the freedom to create.  Unlike the other companies, the artist showed multiple steps and just let you go for it.  It's nice because you have free reign to put your own touch on it.  The Living Social deal came with a bottle of wine, yay us!  The painting was a bit confusing, still not sure what the yellow/orange thing is but oh well, it's pretty and colorful.  I'll definitely go back to this place, especially if I can snag more deals.  It is funny the difference between the painting options here and at Corks and Canvas the company I'm more familiar with.  They are more bold, where as Corks and Canvas are more blendy and less defined.  Yup, I love making up words.

The masterpiece.

I told Kathleen how wild it usually gets, so she spilled in order to not let me down.  What a great friend.

 After finishing painting around 9:30 I realized I had signed up to make a dessert for my company's potluck today.  So I had to stop at the store and then go home and make it.  As a consequence, I'm a zombie today, especially because I had to be in at 6am for a test.  Perfect dessert success, well I'm assuming.

Paula Deen's Pumpkin Bars (w/ buttercream frosting)

Getting to Know Alicia

21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
My super power would be to compel people to be self aware, even if it's as simple as making them realize they are stupid.  I would definitely abuse this power.  No one would be safe, bwahaha.

22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?

• 5 Years - Pretty much the same, although I will have finally figured out my love life (shut up friends and mom!)  I know certain people in my life think I'm hopeless, have too high of expectations, am a little too crazy, etc.  But, I don't agree, so there.
• 10 Years - I will be snuggling with my cute kids, one adopted, one biological.  I will be working part time in order to spend time with my babies (a girl can dream right?)
• 15 Years - I think again, more of the same.  Having fun with my family, still loving my career.

Sorry, that was kind of boring.  It's really hard to say where I'd be, but I do know I love my current life.  I really love my career and it provides enough variety to keep me entertained, and really to move up I'd have to stop doing technical fun things and be a manager and sit behind a desk.  No thanks!

Linking Up Linking up with some Friday Chaos, I'm hoping it wakes me up.

Painting with Jesse, GOURDS

I got a Living Social voucher for painting at Uncorked Canvas in Tacoma.  It was a great deal, and I was pretty excited that it's close to home.  I also was excited to try out a different company than Corks and Canvas.  I adore Corks and Canvas, I just thought it would be fun to see how others do it and perhaps have a different experience.

Jesse actually paints, but he wanted to get out and do a painting to rekindle his passion for it.  We met up at The Mix, which is a super cute gay bar, for a pre-painting beverage.  At Corks and Canvas, you mingle, drink, eat at the beginning of the event; painting doesn't actually start until an hour into it.  So, I assumed it would be the same but when we walked in at 7:05, everyone was quietly waiting on us.  It was uber awk-duck with everybody waiting on us and it was eerily quiet.  When I do these events I like to have a good time which often equates to being a bit loud, giggly, and vibrant.  The teacher asked us what we wanted to drink and poured us a glass of wine.  My wine was terrible, it tasted like it was old.  Which we came to find out, you get one glass of wine for a 3 hour class and you can't buy more.  I feel like calling the company uncorked canvas is actually hilarious, because you will not be drinking much throughout the night.  Maybe it's called uncorked because the wine sits uncorked for long periods of time.  There was no way we were even going to go through an entire bottle because the class was only 6 people and I think Jesse and I were the only ones that opted to have wine.  I could go on for a while on how disappointing this experience was but I'll get on  and leave you with my final complaint.  They drew in the pumpkins for each student!!!  The nerve of them to assume I can't paint a freaking pumpkin.  This just takes all of the creativity out of it for me.  Oh and don't get me wrong, Jesse and I had a blast despite all the crap. We were noisy and got lots of dirty looks, it was amazing.

 I had to take a picture of Stink for Jesse and Daylon, since they are both vegans.

The Mix had skittles at the bar for the customers enjoyment.  This place won me over immediately when I walked in.

They gave us lots of paint, look I can give compliments.  But would you just take a look at the brushes we got?  What am I supposed to do with these monsters?  I'm a detail girl, I need my small round and flat brushes, okay...

My masterpiece.  My mom actually said it's my best painting yet.  I do like it a lot, but I was too busy being miserable about the experience to enjoy the process.

Jesse, much like Bridget always does, went rogue.  Ha ha, he just did his own thing.  This picture doesn't do it justice at all.  It was truly amazing.

So I will not be giving any more of my time or money to this company, however I definitely want to paint with Jesse more.  I think he needs to teach me blending and layering and techniques for painting on my own. Can you learn creative from someone? 

Announcing My First Guest Blog Post @ The Charming Blog

I'm so excited about my first guest post, check it out here.  Amy over at The Charming Blog is so sweet for giving me the opportunity to share on her very classy blog.  She is an animal lover, nursing student and an overall very bright, positive person; definitely take some time to check her out.

Blog you later friends!

Painting the Seattle Waterfront

It's that time again, time to sip wine and paint!  Corks and Canvas had an amazing painting planned.  My usual painting partner was unavailable so I invited Tyler.  He was intrigued by the idea, but you could tell he was a bit nervous, much like my first time.  You ask yourself, "What if I suck?"  But, truth is, it doesn't matter.   Their motto is, "If you don't like your painting, just have a couple more glasses of wine and you will."  But, honestly, their instruction is so good that they make it so easy, breezy.  

Tyler and I met up at one of our favorite places for food and drink, Orient Express (Seattle).  It's a restaurant, bar and karaoke lounge all in a train!  How freaking cool is that.  Not to mention, they serve THE BEST red chicken curry ever.  It's always super spicy just like I like it.  Also, the drinks are bad-ass.  The bartender, Carrie, is pretty cool as well.  I even talked her into doing a Corks and Canvas event soon.

Orient Express train

Tyler, getting his painting face on.  Trying to shed his stressed, work face.

We arrived at the wine bar, Urban Enoteca, and grabbed our first glass of complimentary wine.  I sat down and noticed that my brushes were super stiff.  They always warn that if you don't store your brushes in water the acryclic can harden and ruin a brush.  So I had to sneak and trade my brushes with the empty seat beside me.  I know, I know, I could have asked for another brush.  I thought it was more fun to take them and make Tyler uncomfortable.

My brushes, all inspected and healthy, ready for some painting.

 This picture tonight, of the Seattle waterfront, is by far the most detailed.  It was really challenging, with all of the lines and windows.  I ended up getting filthy.  Maybe this is my norm, but it's the first time I was touching up with my fingers.  I think I still have some paint on my elbows, he he.  I felt bad for Tyler because it was his first time and it was a super hard painting.  Oh well, he did great.

Dirty Girl!

 Drum roll please...

Alicia's Masterpiece

Tyler's Masterpiece

Isn't it great how we painted the exact same thing and they each have their own character?  I'm so addicted I'm going to have a whole wall of these paintings.

Pioneer Square at Night (Kind of)

Bridget and I did it again.  We tried our hand at painting once again.  This time we headed to Vino at the Landing, in Renton.  I'm truly obsessed with the Corks and Canvas concept.  Painting while sipping wine; they make it so straight forward even us science nerds can do it.

Final products, we look pleased with ourselves.  The hardest part is to put the paint brush down, but if you don't you eventually ruin it.

Bridget's masterpiece.  I love her branches.

Tasty platter to snack on.  The Beecher's No Woman cheese was my favorite.

Alicia's masterpiece.

Bridget pre-partying in the car on the way over.  By partying, I mean being silly.

After painting eats at The Rock.  Always a good time.  And it was late night happy hour.

 If you've never done this, you must try it.  It is so fun.  I plan on going a couple of times a month.  It's only $45, which I think is so worth it.   We've decided we are going to go to a couple more then start having them at our places.  So stay tuned.

-Alicia

Two Science People Attempting Art…

My friend Bridget and I decided to take a leap of faith and attempt to paint.  There is this business in the Seattle area called Corks and Canvas that I’ve been hearing about for a while.  The concept is that you go to a local winery or wine bar.  They have a canvas that an artist painted, which serves as the focus for the evening.  While you are sipping wine and getting tipsy, an artist walks you through step by step how to recreate the model painting.  They teach you color mixing, brush techniques and so much more.  You can try to completely copy the original or give it your own twist.  At the end of the night, everyone’s paintings look unique and surprisingly good.  I was shocked that I could actually paint.
Our experience went down at Corks and Canvas, which was a beautiful establishment.  They had various bars set up featuring different wineries.  The food was a little to uppity for me; or perhaps I just don’t have a sophisticated enough palate:)  Dishes like salt cod fritters, pork belly croquettes and roasted cauliflower.  I had an interesting bathroom experience.  The words were in Italian (I think) and it was not clear which was the women’s.  I just took my chance and then hoped that there were no men; I guess right and I wasn’t the only one that had that experience, whew.
                                                                   Bridget and I with our finished piece  
                                                                        Alicia’s rendition of the Seattle Skyline
                                                             Bridget added water, which was an excellent touch
And we just signed up for another wine sipping and painting session for next week!  Okay maybe not sipping.