Booking a private party has some perks such as:

1. You get to choose from ANY of over 1000 paintings – some are 2 hour and some are 3 hour classes.
2. You get a private party room with your own artist.
3. No set up, no clean up – just show up!
4. It’s the same price as a regular class.

Mallory picked Autumn bouquet for the painting.  Wendilynn walked us through it step by step and it was amazing to see how different each of our paintings turned out.  They were very unique to each of us.  See for yourself.

Painting with a twist - try it!

I can’t stress enough how much fun this was and it didn’t matter whatsoever that I wasn’t a painter. I want to go back for a class. You can check out their schedule to see if there is a painting project you may be interested in.  What do you have to lose?  If you hate it you don’t have to hang it.  But keep in mind, their number one rule is “Be kind to yourself”.

I think I can add this to my list accomplishments that isn’t on my 30 before 30 list, don’t you?

Have you been to Painting with a Twist?  Would you recommend it?  If you go, let me know what you think!

*I was in no way asked to write about this establishment, I was just lucky enough to be invited to join in the fun and found it a really enjoyable place.*

Things I’ve accomplished so far:

1. Buying a cottage in Oscoda
2. Taking photos to blow up and frame
3. Visit California
   
   
4. Blogger meet-up 

   
   

5. Run a 5k
   
   
6. Gathering my recipes and making a cookbook
7. Girls getaway
   
   
8. French braiding my own hair
9. Hockey game in Chicago
   
   
10. Build/Refinish something
    
    
11. Freelance - I made money creating some PDF forms, does that count?

Considering there was a lot of travel on my list I think I’m doing pretty well.

I’m currently working on these:

1. Take  classes related to work/career –
   Currently in a Grad Cert Program
2. Visit Toronto & ride the train -
   My cousin and her family lives in Toronto, we keep saying we are going to go.
3. Finish my office space –
   This is a must do!
4. Finish the basement -
   Currently putting up drywall
5. Get my pictures and music organized -
   I’m working on it, should get a new external hard drive

Things that I’ve accomplished that weren’t on the list:

1. Joined a hockey team
2. Traveled abroad
3. Raising a puppy
4. Installed a toilet

See the original list.

Yummy lunch ideas

Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

Double Fudge Irish Cream Cookies

Chalkboard Mugs

Earring/Jewelry Holder

2012 feels like it’s going to be a different kind of year.  It’s probably because there are a lot of things that are about to start, when usually at this time I’m dreading the long month of January.

Breakfast Club Hockey – Chuck and I are attending hockey skills classes on Wednesday mornings starting next week.  I’m pretty pumped since I just bought myself new skates, Easton S-17.  I’m hoping having skates baked just for me, instead of buying used equipment,  will alleviate the problem I was having with my arches. (Thank you year end bonus! The first time I have ever received one because the University did not give those out)

Media Theory – I passed my statistics class with a B so I’m starting my second class in the graduate certificate.  While Media Theory doesn’t sound all that sexy, the correspondence I’ve had with this professor so far leads me to believe that class will be conducted in a much better way than the last class I took.  Thank God.

Dog Training – Chuck and I are taking both Stella (who is 11 months now!) and Scooby to obedience training.  Scooby completed training when I got my dog training certificate in 2007 but since the loss of Nani he hasn’t been the same.  We are hoping the mental stimulation and social interaction with other dogs will make him little bit happier.  We choose a class through Judi, who I met through my externship with for Animal Behavior College and has since opened her own business.

In other little things that are contributing to this new year feeling different from others, I bought a white board and cork board for Chuck and I to keep track of expenses and try to get some things in order.  It feels good to be this productive at the beginning of January, maybe I’ll try and make it a new year’s tradition.

I got a response from the customer service team with an email address.  I was at a holiday party so I waited until late Saturday night to send an email. The next day I went into Barnes and Noble and the staff was super friendly and willing to help.  They had to contact the Nook support line who requested I take the phone to verify information.  She then informed me that their computers were down and if I CALLED BACK in an hour they would be able to issue me a replacement.

Um…NO.  Luckily (well maybe not so lucky), when I informed the gentleman helping me he said he would get his manager’s consent to exchange it for me.  I was just going to return everything then and there but I thought maybe I just had a defective one, because after all, it happens.  They issued me an exchange and I took my brand new replacement home.

Thinking I would be a good consumer I plugged the Nook Simple Touch in to  charge and went about my day.  When I got home I was eager to get back to reading the book I was so rudely interrupted in reading.  The Nook was completely unresponsive.  It hadn’t charged, which means it wouldn’t turn on at all.

I called customer service and tweeted again (because you know most times, if you publicly call out a company they will respond).  The customer service hotline assured me that it MUST be a bad USB cable and that I could go into the store.  By the this time it was too late and the store was about to close.

Monday, I got a response back from the customer service email that had been tweeted to me.  When I explained that it MUST be the USB cord he replied saying he would send me one in the mail.  I got it today.

It didn’t work.

Sorry Barnes and Noble, but 2 defective devices in a row and I’m out.  I returned it tonight with no problems.  For the most part your customer service is great, your products? Not so much.

I’m going to buy a Kindle now.  Hopefully I’ll have more luck.

This weather is pretty amazing. It’s been in the 50-60′s for the past week. Pretty unheard of for the mitten state. It’s been wonderful since we got a late start raking all the leaves and we needed to finish painting the basement with drylock before we put the drywall up. That in itself was a blessing we were thankful for. I’m also loving wearing sweaters or long sleeves with a scarf and being reasonably warm. It seems that this mild weather will be coming to an end the middle of next week though.

I’m not a big Black Friday shopper but yesterday I did brave going to Barnes and Noble to purchase a Nook Simple Touch. I wasn’t sure about the whole e-reader thing at first but when we go up north sometimes I don’t bring enough books or I forget them all together. A Nook would be perfect to bring on weekend trips and when I travel. You never have to worry about not having a book. I decided on the Simple Touch because all I wanted was something to read books on.  Right now, I am not in the market for a tablet or an iPad.  When I got home, I bought a $.99 book and I love it. It’s exactly like reading a book but I don’t have to hold the pages back which makes reading more comfortable. The next books I intend to buy are The Happiness Project and The Joy of Less. Any others you would suggest?

I’m excited for this next week.  The Tampa Bay Lightning will be at the Joe on Wednesday.  Our tickets are behind the visitor’s bench.  I CAN NOT wait!

I know I start a lot of posts like that.  Time flies by and I have no idea where it has gone.  This year we have less pictures to document how we spent our summer, hell most of fall too.  Changing jobs at the beginning of summer may have had something to do with it.

Oh well, it’s November now and Halloween is behind us.  The television is pissing me off showing commercials for Christmas movies when all I want to do is concentrate on Thanksgiving.  I do like to eat, ya know.  And the radio station 105.1 started playing Christmas music before Halloween. Yes, BEFORE October 31st.  That is wrong.  So wrong that Detroit’s “Christmas Station”, 100.3 polled their audience on whether or not they wanted to hear Christmas music now or later.  Granted this was probably because 105.1 stole their Christmas thunder, as 100.3 in year’s past started playing holiday music on November 1st.  Luckily, the D doesn’t have 2 stations playing Christmas music just yet.  Wow, /endrant.

We spent the last weekend taking care not to hurry.  As mentioned above, that ended in a crazy rant about Christmas, Chuck and I have felt a bit rushed the past few months.  Always had somewhere to be or something that needed to be done.  I’m sure every weekend wasn’t like that but we were starting to  feel a bit worn out.  Friday night we made an agreement that we wouldn’t be in a hurry for any reason on Saturday.  The result? We ended up being productive and had fun.

Stella made new friends at the Parmenter’s Cider Mill in Northville, the pet store and 3 Dog Bakery in Plymouth.  Speaking of the cider mill, I learned that Northville has a winery so I picked up some Pink Moon wine to try.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love the label.  I’m also waiting for them to call and tell me that their cranberry apple wine is back in stock.

Sunday brought a slightly faster pace but wasn’t unbearable. My hockey team lost it’s third straight game but I had a pretty amazing skate. I was feeling pretty confident and had 2-3 shots on goal. Pretty good for my third game. My teammates even commented on it.  I was really looking forward to playing in my first tournament this upcoming weekend but because I’m 7 months shy of 30, I’m not eligible. I bet this is the first and only time I’m disappointed at not being 30 yet.

My friend Groupon, sent me a little message. Ok, Groupon sends me alerts everyday, but the preview ad was for a Thai massage institution no more than 5 miles from my house.  Score!  Added bonus? It was only $60 for a couples massage so Chuck got to enjoy the experience too.

I’m not going to lie and pretend that I’m naive enough to think that some places around may be less than professional.  I just crossed my fingers and hoped that since this place was advertised on Groupon that there would be no…dirty sheets.

Body & Soul Thai Massage was a cute little building located on Northwestern Highway in Farmington Hills.  We  were greeted at the door and because we requested a Thai massage and not a signature massage, we were shown to different rooms.  Sandy, my masseuse, was very quiet as she worked.  I was really surprised at how many knots I had in my legs, and believe me I felt every single one.  The only thing I was disappointed about was she spent a lot the hour on my legs and my shoulders are where I carry most of my stress.   I’ve had other therapeutic and sports massages and they focused mainly on my shoulders.  Regardless, she knew what she was doing because there are days in yoga where it is unbearable to keep my arms raised.  It’s been over a week since my Thai massage and at yoga tonight there was no pain keeping  my arms raised in the warrior positions or any other position for that matter. My muscles are loose and my flexibility has increased.

Chuck enjoyed his massage as well with Annie.  If you talk to him he’ll praise everything about her.  She talked to him while she worked asking him questions and pointing out problem areas.  He’s not a huge fan of therapeutic massages and he was really surprised at how much better he felt after this experience.  He’ll talk your ear off about it if you ask.

Verdict : We will definitely be back to Thai Body &  Soul

Scary weather makes for beautiful skies at the Kid Rock concert at Comerica

Our Lady Peace at the Tecumseh Corn Fest

A day at a landfill for work – Go Wings!

A new vanity and floor in the cottage bathroom

Starting a grad class can be a little overwhelming

Relaxing with the pups

Birthday dinner for my Dad

Grand Rapids Art Prize with the bestest friends a girl can have

My puppy is more a dog than a pup at 9 months. She will give her soul for a belly rub

Last but not least, joined a women’s hockey league. My number? 4. Can you guess why I picked it?