Wine & Palm Trees

I feel like a few of my blog entries have been focused a bit more on some one-off adventures that pretty much only concern me.  But when we're not jet-setting to see friends and family all over the country, I've very much been devoted to investing time and energy into being a good wife!  This means getting up off my hiney on the weekend and doing something fun with my sweet husband.  Luckily, New York has no shortage of creative things to do for a date night.  I have a list of "different" things I have to convince my husband to do with me, but this one has been on my list for a while now.  I'm not sure how I came across it, but there is a wonderful paint along studio in the neighborhood that I was dying to try.  The school has daily classes, and it's BYOB!  What a fun way to spend a Saturday night in the city.  Sipping wine and channeling your inner Picasso....or in Mike's case, Monet.  He likes to think of himself as a French Impressionist.  

Paint Along NYC posts a monthly calendar online that shows which painting will be the feature of the class, so you can look at the artwork to decide when you want to go.  Mike told me that he would only do a paint-a-long class with me if he could "paint a metal version of whatever they are doing in the class".  And, he refused to do anything with "flowers and sh*t".  Naturally, we waited until there was something tropical, nautical, festive, and/or haunted to paint.  And we found exactly that when the featured painting was a palm tree!  What a way to be festive while enjoying some rose on a balmy Saturday night in the city. 

This little activity taught us both a few things about each other.  For one, I learned that my husband is a perfectionist when it comes to these types of things.  I was on my second glass of rose before we even finished sketching on the plain canvas....and Mike would have none of the booze for fear that it might affect his artistic senses.  I was definitely the one not paying attention to the instructor, and taking the class a little less seriously.

Second, I learned that I'm actually a pretty talented little artiste, if I must say so myself.  I've never been the creative one growing up.  And Mike has tons of books and notepads of his sketches growing up....like REALLY good sketches.  So I was expecting my husband's artistic ability to blow me away with this little activity.  But let's just say....my palm tree was definitely more... luscious.

Our evening took us to the Shack after the paint-along so that we could continue our tropical themed night with some delicious seafood & shellfish. It was really fun to get get creative on a date night and try something different. Sure, we could do dinner at a restaurant, and yes, there are quite a few summer movies out that I still really want to see, but this was more fun!  Sometimes it's easy to fall into a routine of hitting up the same restaurants and bars when you get a rare night in the city during the summer.  There will come a day, where we will move out of Manhattan and have a very different life in the burbs.  It makes my heart happy that we continue to find new and fun ways to entertain each other on our city excursions.  I hope to share many more date night ideas (for New Yorkers and non-city dwellers) with my followers!  Stay tuned for more & have a great week!