Art Night

It's the end of July. It's that time of summer where I take stock:

Weight loss: same 3 lbs. over and over again. I don't think I'm going to return to work looking like a new person for, what is this, the 6th year in a row?

Organizing: DIY Maven Ann fixed my closet, and I organized the laundry room, so that's a win!

Family Album 2017: Once again, the good folks at Shutterfly did in 3 days what would have taken me 3 weeks.

Fried Chicken In-Take: the glorious journey continues! Hmm, perhaps a connection to the Weight loss?

It's the lull part of summer for me. The boys are done with camp. I've a little more time before In-Service starts up again. So, what better time to try something new!

Hand Lettering!

I'm fascinated with handwriting. I'm not very good at handwriting, but I love it all the same. When I was a child, my Handwriting grades usually ranged between Needs Improvement and Acceptable. There are some days when my writing looks really nice, and other days, it's like my hand has silent cramps, which is the only explanation for the scrawled output. Both of my boys have terrible handwriting. "Don't worry," I told them, "It's genetic." On the other hand, they don't strive about their awful penmanship, like I have always done.

When I was in college my roommate studied handwriting as a means to inspect people's inmost thoughts.

"You really want your father's approval, don't you, Bustle?"

"Wha?"

"It's all there in your S's."

The upside was that my lack of round, bubbly cursive that I had always admired meant that I was a deeply deep person of substance.

Anyway...

My boys' art teacher posted about this Hand Lettering class on the Facebook, and that is how I found the Honey Art Cafe. Are you familiar with this place? I've driven by on my way to Trader Joe's and have often wondered, "What is that place?". But now I can tell you that it is in fact a Cafe that serves food and coffee drinks (natch!) and hosts art lessons. Okay, sure, it seems so obvious now.

I arrived about 15 minutes early, which is how I do. Vim and I both struggle with punctuality, just from different ends. I can't tell you the sighing and eye rolling emitted from my family when I say, "Let's go ahead and leave now."

But when you show up early, you have time to order lattes like this:

The last class I took was one for Continuing Education for Early Childhood Development. These sort of classes consist of paper handouts and singing songs in a mock circle time.

Hand Lettering was taught via a cell phone camera that hooked up to a sort of light projector.

So, as the girl wrote and demonstrated, her phone camera recorded and reflected it up onto the wall. Very Millennial.

The phone also glitched twice and blinked "low battery." We're so close to the future...

So, that's the teacher's work. Here's mine:

Mine and Melissa's. Melissa is my dear friend, and she's very keen. Which means I don't have to do my wild hair missions alone.

Later, discussing how much fun this evening was, Melissa noted that it was interesting to look up from her work and see how this room was filled with all different kinds of folk. At our table was a lawyer, someone who worked in HR, a college counselor, and 2 teens. "I think people really enjoy this brain break, and a chance to concentrate in a totally different way." She is right. Most of my creativity is spent thinking of words that rhyme with my preschoolers' names for the songs I sing to them. In the summer, I blissfully zone out reading Agatha Christie mysteries. This was a really nice opportunity to learn something that isn't necessary, but feels useful all the same.

Check out the Honey Art Cafe's calendar online and see if there's a brain break for you.