Girl's Night: Painting with a Twist

 To maintain sanity in the house, every mom needs a regular Girl's Night Out.  And I really have a hard time doing dinner and drinks.  I need an activity!  Luckily, so do some of my mom-friends.  Payton organized a GNO at Painting with a Twist.  It's advertised as Art Entertainment, because it is not to be taken seriously, and wine is strongly encouraged.

Here's how it works:  You check the local calendar for the featured artwork you want to create and gather your friends.  It's BYOB, so you can bring dinner, snacks, sweets and your favorite beverage.  An instructor walks you through the painting step by step.  You leave with a (shockingly) nice piece of artwork.

Before I left for the class, my husband went through possibly locations for the painting.  I was a little concerned we were setting our expectations too high.  I'm just looking for a good time and not to humiliate myself.  But, off I went, champagne in hand.

Our featured artwork is Austin Starry Night.  It's a twist on Van Gogh's Starry Night with the Austin skyline.  Here's the class sample, not mine.  

 We pop open the champagne and the instructor walks us through the painting in baby steps.  About halfway though, Aimee and I start worrying about our finished products and comparing ours to other attendees.  I swear, the guy behind us is a professional artist.  But, we are having a great time, so we just keep painting.

As we wrap up, I'm pretty impressed with my painting and think it might possibly find a place in the house.  I think all the paintings in our group turned out pretty good.

And we had a really, really good time.  I think Painting with a Twist definitely makes it on to the GNO rotation.  If you are not in Austin, don't worry, there are 63 Painting with a Twist locations across the country.  So to all the moms out there, be sure you're getting a healthy dose of Girl's Night Out.  And maybe try painting something.  Who knows, you may be the next Van Gogh.