Date night // The Paint Factory

Happy Wednesday, friends! I hope this week is treating you well. 🙂 We’re gearing up for Christmas break in about a week and a half – in exactly 10 days, not that anyone’s counting! 😉 You can just feel the energy and anticipation in the air at our elementary school, and I’m sure it’s that way in your neck of the woods! Kids everywhere are just really looking forward to the holidays – and it serves as a good reminder for us adults to just revel in the joy of the season and what the true emphasis should be.

 Last weekend was a whirlwind. I got to accompany my husband to his monthly army drill weekend up in Buffalo, MN, because Saturday was Family Day! It was fun to see where he drills once a month and to meet some other soldiers in his company.

Bjorn surprised me Saturday night with a date he had been planned 2 weeks beforehand – a couples’ night class at The Paint Factory in Hutchinson!! I wanted to share a few snapshots with you to give you a feel for what a date night at one of these places is like. Basically, I’m trying to persuade you to go. 😉 It’s such a great idea for a date night – my husband completely surprised me with this unique, thoughtful idea. Neither Bjorn or I consider ourselves to be artistic in terms of drawing/painting, but we still had a great experience and produced some decently quality work! We agree we haven’t had THIS much fun on a date in a long time! Our evening at The Paint Factory was a blast and we definitely plan on returning.

^^ the studio. our class was pretty full – about 20 people! ^^

^^ our instructor’s stage – aka, the place from which she demonstrated techniques and color mixing for us AND chose all the awesome pump-up music to blast while we painted ^^

^^ the studio is decorated with a huge collection of examples of past paintings! many of them can be split across 2 canvases if painted by a couple ^^

^^ sooo excited to get started!! note the happy sun on Bjorn’s apron. made my day. ^^

^^ I love this picture because it captures the upbeat, fun-loving personality of our instructor! Tara is the owner of The Painting Factory. She has other instructors who teach there too, but Tara was our instructor on Saturday. She was patient, encouraging, hilarious, and so energetic! Oh, and she took song requests 😉 ^^

^^ we signed our work with our nicknames 🙂 see? I wasn’t lying when I told you my nickname is Bee! ^^

^^ Bjorn put the cabin on his canvas and I opted to attack my scene with extra trees. Our goal was to put our canvases together at the end. ^^

^^ done with our 2 hours of painting, and pleased with the result! ^^

^^ and a little mandatory Bob Ross! …Bjorn’s happy little painting… ^^

^^ …and my happy little painting! 😉 ^^

^^ our class for that night! (I took this from The Paint Factory’s Facebook page) ^^

All in all, it was an amazing, relaxing night out – one with a lot of laughter and creativity! This is one date night idea I think just about anyone would love! If at all possible, I encourage you to find a painting place like this near you! 🙂

What unique, creative date nights (or nights out) have you been on? We’d love to hear!