Sip & Paint Party

Ever heard of a Sip & Paint? Or getting drunk and painting a picture?

I guess the newest thing is to get a group of friends together to go paint and drink some wine at the same time. Sounds fun right? In theory it is. Maybe I just had a bad experience with this business. But over in Germany we're limited to the things we're able to do. So when this new business came up, it sounded like the perfect thing to do for a girls night! 

I went to a party with Paint & Canvas, and it was fine. Being a guest at one of their parties, perfectly fine. But being the host, DO NOT EVER DO IT! Honestly I will never go to another one of their parties, and I hope none of my friends never go to one either.

From the very beginning it was a nightmare. First thing's first, I couldn't book a party until I put down a deposit, how could I put down a deposit when I didn't have have a date to tell people about? When she finally agreed to hold a date for me, that was like pulling teeth! Then trying to decide what painting to do. HA! "It's on my Facebook site." I feel like if someone will tell you it's on their website that details should actually be on their site! I had to go searching for it, on another completely different website.

I also had a problem trying to figure out how much to pay, because on their website it says that if you have a party of 8 or more people the host gets their painting for free. Which I had a party of 11. But apparently she had forgotten to update her website and they were no longer doing that special. WTF! I let it go, they still had a 1/2 deal for the hostess. BUT here's the kicker, because I live more than 15 minutes away from Netzaberg, she was gonna charge me $20 to come to my house! Again WTF! So when I asked, she responded with "Send me your information and I'll fill it out for you." Um. No. If you know me you know that I don't do well with someone taking the reigns when I'm planning something. That should've been my indicator to stop. I honestly thought about stopping, giving everyone back their money and not doing it. (All of this was happening around when Seamus was sick.)

But finally everything that needed to be done was done and I had people coming and it was going to be a good time. I planned to have the party the last weekend of May, Drew would be gone by then and I would need something to keep me busy. This definitely kept me busy.

But then something else happened, one of my guests got sick, and couldn't make it. Which, it wasn't a little sick, it was a major issue, she was in the hospital! Being a part of a military community, you would think she would be understand, nope. I basically got told tough shit. So the last couple days I went searching for someone else to come to the party so I wouldn't be out $35. I was lucky to find a friend who was interested in coming, so everything worked out.

The day of the party. I had 2 guest not show up. A friend had her husband come over and gave me the rest of her money and apologized for not showing up. The other guest just never showed up or said anything to me. But I was still expected to pay for their spots, which was fine, because I signed a contract, but because I was paying for a product, I wanted something in return. I asked for canvas and the transfer paper (Because it's stencils, their whole business is reading off of a paper, she's not even a real artist!) and through gritted teeth she decided to agree and give some to me. But double checking with prices I was met with attitude and rudeness. But enough about how horrible this person was.

The party was a success! My friends had a fantastic time, or so they told me and for the most part, it was nice to have something to do while the hubby was gone.They said that they did feel rushed and that when they asked for more paint to paint they felt like they were an inconvenience.

Food Spread ;)

Top View

Drink Station, with all my fancy cups

Any who, I made some great food, parm-crusted tortellini, wine grapes, fruit tray, brownies, sangria, Brenda made chicken dip and Jalapeno dip, Brenda was such a major help, she came over early to help me set up and bring some furniture from downstairs to the main floor (Bringing it down stairs was a pain, I smashed my foot in the process. :/)  I'm so glad to have her in my life. We've been very blessed to have known and been in each other's life in 2011. I don't know what I'll do when it's time for us to go out separate ways. 

Almost ready to start the party!

 We started off by tracing the image onto our canvas, everyone totally got into it.

 Some of the girls getting the hang of the painting.

My final Product!

I made a green boat

I just like to be different!

Some friends even spent the night with me. It was nice to have a slumber party. Now I'm just slowly putting the house back together. Drew think's I'll just wait till he gets back to do everything, and maybe I will, but then again it's going to be a long summer. haha