I have absolutely no artistic ability. None. I can’t draw, paint, make things out of clay, etc. Despite my innate lack of talent, I’ve always wanted to try a sip and paint class where everyone creates the same image. I’ve been waiting to do this until I had a free week where they featured something I thought I could draw. I invited my gal pal Leigh to come with me. This was our discussion on the topic on how to spend our Friday night:
Me: I’ve been waiting for one of the easier looking paintings.
Leigh: I’ve been looking for an excuse to drink wine.
And so our night was planned. For week 10 of my 52 Things we went to a painting class at Spirited Art. We were some of the first people there so we made sure to get a prime spot right up front to watch the instructor. There were about 50 people there, all lined up on long tables full of easels. A lot of people, like us, brought bottles of wine. The ladies behind us practically had a full meal of cheeses and delicious looking desserts. We will be better prepared next time.
The women in front of us asked if they could upgrade to a larger canvas. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and upgrade too. This would turn out to be a mistake as it would take me longer to finish each step of the painting. We collected our art supplies: paint, (black, white, gold, and red), brushes, mixing plates, and a cup of water, and settled down to begin. We were cautioned, more than once, not to drink the paint water—apparently it happens.
We painted in stages. The first step was to mix the white and gold paint to form the wispy background of the painting. This was a little time consuming because I had more space to fill on my canvas than most of the others. Next, we mixed the black and gold paint to create the trees. We started with the trunks and added more and more twigs and branches. Our painting was titled “Spring Breeze” so our last step was to add our blossoms. We swirled and dotted the red and white paint to create multiple shades and sizes of flowers for our trees.
I’ll admit, I spent most of the time painting absolutely hating what I was creating (see my lack of talent discussion above), but after adding the red and pink flowers and filling up the canvas a bit more, I finally started to like it.
This is me with my happy little tress. I think Bob Ross would be proud. Not terrible for a first effort.
When I was cleaning up I noticed this message on the wall. I couldn’t agree more.
Extra New Things
I’ve decided to try out a new section of the blog. Each week I attempt to do a few Extra New Things that don’t get mentioned in my posts. Just little things to give me new experiences. Whether it’s a new restaurant or a new food or just something outside of my comfort zone, I try to add something new to my week. From now on I’ll occasionally mention them here, mainly to try to encourage myself to try to introduce something new to my life every day instead of just once a week.
For example, around Week 5 I had my very first beer. Yes, you read that right, the first one ever. I’ve never liked the taste of it. After my Krav Maga class I went to Union Jack’s with a friend. Since they only sold beer it was either try out something new and hope I didn’t hate it or go thirsty. Usually my instinct would be to stick to my routine of “I don’t drink beer” and just have some water while we hung out. But because of my list I decided to suck it up and try one out.
The bartender was quite nice and suggested that I try a strawberry flavored lambic beer by Timmerman’s. I know what you are thinking . . . that’s not a real beer. I kind of feel the same way. But it says beer, it’s from Belgium, and the Belgians know a lot more about beer than I do, so I’ll take their word for it. It was quite delicious and did taste a bit like strawberries. I actually drank the entire bottle (which is significantly more than the one sip I was willing to give any other beer that came before it). So, my opinion has changed. I no longer hate beer. I just hate all beers except one.
Now that I’ve told you that story I’ll end this ridiculously long post here and try to start the Extra New Things next week.
52 Things 52 Weeks 
You might enjoy chocolate beer too. I was skeptical but tried it and liked it.
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Thanks, Amy! I’ll have to try that out. You can never go wrong with chocolate.
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Don’t worry about not being an artist. You add something of beauty to the world just by being in it.
I will try to remember to check back and see what else you get into.
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Awe, thank you.
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Excellent idea. I love that you are making new friends along the way. Might be interesting to see which new experiences you think are important enough to try again. For instance acupuncture for your insomnia. I was going to suggest SCUBA. Maybe there is some kind of intro to scuba class that you could do, just one day. Only suggestion, make sure the pool is WARM. I hear a lot about a lot of bad experiences in super cold pools. SCUBA is my favorite thing. Or another idea is taking a racing/driving school program. I work a lot with Skip Barber Racing School. They are expensive but maybe we could get you a deal. It’s good to be a better driver, safer.
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So far I have liked everything enough to try it again. I think it will just be a question of when.
I would love to go SCUBA. There are at least two places here where I can take lessons, but I was hoping to hold out until I could do it somewhere fun and go diving in open water.
A driving/racing school is definitely on my list. I am a huge Formula 1 fan and to quote Ricky Bobby, I wanna go fast. However, I think that experience will have to wait until later this year.
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I’ve had lambics and enjoyed them, but only the label and the Belgians call them beer. You might try Newcastle Brown Ale if you want a more baseline beer experience. It’s gentle.
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The lambic really didn’t taste like beer, more like a wine cooler. Hence my skepticism. I’ll give the Newcastle a try.
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You can’t go wrong with the classics when first starting out: Guinness and Boddingtons. Both are creamy and mild, yet substantial, and should not offend. The only offense is if they serve them in frozen/very cold glasses. Ask for a room temperature glass and enjoy.
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try woodworking class. i did it in high school but they don’t do shop class anymore. started with my son. A lathe is a beautiful thing.
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That is a great idea! I will have to figure out where I can do that. I had 6-week intro shop class when I was in middle school. I think I made a basket of some sort (not sure if I ever finished mine).
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Stumbled across your blog this morning and love it. Fun to read how you’re enjoying your new experiences – and yes – please do add the smaller “new things” like beers and holding chickens.
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Thanks! I’m glad you like it and I hope you check back in. I plan to add the little ‘new things’ as often as possible. It’s good motivation to get out of the house.
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I drank beer for 15 years without liking the taste. Mostly because other people drank beer and it gets you drunk slowly. I stopped drinking it because it bothered my stomach. The taste really is kind of gross. Are hops used to flavor anything else?
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Everyone tells me that the taste will grow on me. However, I have trouble seeing the logic in drinking something I don’t like the taste of long enough to become accustomed to it.
Apparently, (according to wikipedia anyway) hops are also used in soft drinks in Sweden and Latin America. I am very curious about these drinks.
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Many enjoyable things in life take a while to get accustomed to. But once you do, you wonder why you never enjoyed them sooner. Food items come to mind. Of course, Red Bull may be the best example, at least for me: “Oh sweet Moses, what the hell is this?!” to “Why am I trying this again?” to “Is it me, or is not too bad?” to “Gimme more!”
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