Painting Class and a Bike Ride

My Labor Day weekend is off to a great start and it isn't even half over yet. I heart 3 day weekends.

Last night my friend Breezy and I went to an art class at Artascope studios. I have zero artistic talent when it comes to painting or drawing, but it was cheap thanks to Groupon and BYOB so it couldn't be all bad. The studio was very cute and our instructor Sarah, was fun and knowledgeable. There were 4 other women in our class and they brought some yummy munchies for us all to share. Breezy and I were oh so classy with our cake vodka and Crystal Light in a Nalgene!

 

We were making a painting of poppies, which is nice because there was some room for interpretation. Sarah suggested when sketching out the design to do it upside down. It helps you to focus on the shapes and lines without worrying too much about the overall result. It really did help! Once we had the outline sketched, we pained in the background. I obviously went with blue, since it is the best color ever. Then, we started with our darkest colors and worked to the lightest colors. It surprised me how much fun it was, and that my result wasn't totally embarrassing!

After painting we decided to drive out to the beach to see the full moon. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so the moon pictures were a fail. Oh well. It was still a nice night for a walk on the beach.

This morning I hooked up with the Casco Bay Cycle Club for a ride. Since I moved back to Maine I have been running and riding alone. I have also been doing basically small variations of the same ride. And while it is beautiful, I am pretty darn sick of it. I was excited to ride with a group again and check out a new area. On the schedule today was a 36 mile ride from Yarmouth out to Pineland Farms. I x-c ski at Pineland, but have never been there in the non-winter months. It was a perfect day, sunny but crisp, on nice rolling hills on country roads. The miles just flew by with people to talk to. I definitely pushed myself a little more than I do on my own, but I didn't ever feel like I was working uncomfortably hard. We stopped at Pineland about halfway through. I love their little market. I wanted to buy everything. Luckily, I only had $2 so I bought a banana and coffee. I wished I had gone for the giant chocolate chip cookies after I saw everyone else eating them.

 The coffee must have been really strong, because I felt awesome on the second half. I was riding up front with the big boys.

Now I have some packing to do. I am leaving late tonight on a boating/camping adventure. My Mom, her boyfriend, my boyfriend, and his dog are going to try to take our boat all the way up the coast to Islesboro and camp for the night. If you don't hear from me by Tuesday, call the Coast Guard!