A Few Random Things

I keep meaning to do a Thursday 13 post to catch up on a few random things, but that hasn’t happened.  So, here’s a random catch-up post. 

Our hyacinths have bloomed!  I planted them a few years ago, and I don’t always have the best luck with bulbs, so it always makes me very happy to see them bloom.

The daffodils have also bloomed.  We didn’t plant these, but there are tons of them.  Fortunately, whoever did plant them has much better luck than I do with bulbs.

I love it when everything starts blooming!  We’re not beyond the possibility of more cold weather, or even snow, yet, but it definitely feels like we’re getting closer to enjoying warm weather every day.  We’ve even had a few days of perfect hammock weather.  I absolutely love spending part of a gorgeous day reading in the hammock.

Last weekend, Nick and I did a paint-and-sip event in Greenville, SC.  We have wanted to do one for a long time, but the timing has never worked out.  Lately, we’ve been trying to plan our weekends ahead of time, so we were finally able to find one with a painting we liked and get reservations for it.  It was so much fun! 

I’m not sure how much it varies from state to state based on liquor laws, but at this one, you bring your own beverage (I’m not positive, but I think it had to be beer or wine, not hard liquor), and the venue provides cups and napkins.   The event we did was adults (18 and over) only, and anyone drinking had to be 21.  Most people brought beer and/or wine in a cooler.  We opted for non-alcoholic drinks.  I love the mango sweet tea from Quick Trip, and we don’t have one near us, so I always get that whenever we’re near a Quick Trip.  You can also bring snacks, but I don’t see how you would have time for snacks.  I also kept getting paint all over my hands, so it would have been a pain to try and eat like that.

It's assigned seating (you’re supposed to let them know how many people are in your group when you make your reservation).  The easels, canvas, brushes, and paint are all set up, with a nametag and a picture of what the painting is supposed to look like.

Then they guide you through the whole thing.  This was a couple’s picture, so each person painted one half of it on their canvas, and they’d tell you when you needed to line certain parts of it up. 

You had to mix some of the colors, but they walked you through how to do that.  Then you had to dry the painting with a hairdryer before you put the leaves on the tree.

I’m almost as messy when I paint as I am when I cook!  It’s a good thing we didn’t bring snacks because I probably would have gotten paint on them. 

Here’s our finished painting hanging on our living room wall. 

I think it’s safe to say that neither one of us has a future as an artist!  But we’re both fairly happy with how our painting turned out, and it was a lot of fun.  We definitely want to do another one sometime.

We opted to go to Greenville in time for an early dinner and ate at Pita House.  The food is amazing!  I had the kibbi and grape leaves plate, and a pistachio baklava.  Everything was so good!  It’s right across the street from the main campus of Greenville Technical College, which is where I went for my Associate’s Degree, so it’s always a little nostalgic to go there. 

Lastly, I finally updated my Blogger profile and profile picture.  We were dressed up for something a few weeks ago, and I remembered to take a picture, so I used that one.  The last one was from 2007 when I had short hair and sometimes wore contacts instead of glasses.  I decided it was time for an update since I have longer hair, haven’t worn contacts since 2008, and am definitely not thirty-something anymore. 

So what have you been up to lately?  Does it look like spring for you yet?