An Easely Amusing Afternoon

Last week was full of celebrations! My little sister graduated from college and turned 22 all in the same week! To celebrate her birthday we chose to join a little painting class at Easely Amused.

This new local joint features paint-with-instruction classes, there are a few locations around Austin. I chose this location because they had an amazing deal off Groupon. And they did not disappoint! The staff was amazing, the studio was so inviting and it is BYOB. If you are an Austin local, I definitely recommend Easely Amused for a nice and creative afternoon.

Following is my attempt at documenting this fun time!

There’s my perfect blank canvas alongside a bottle of sangria to help the artistic juices flow. In all honesty, we hardly drank any of it (or the other bottle we took) because we were so busy and enthralled with the instructions and our paintings. We chose a simple white and red sangria so my little sister could reminisce of her Spain days from last summer.

My little sister almost looks angry when she is concentrating.

Here we are with our finished masterpieces! I wish I could keep both! Also, I am pretty obsessed with the new A Beautiful Mess photo app! I am sure you will be able to notice my obsession with all my upcoming posts.

I am not going to lie, this was a very frightening and stressful experience at times. The feeling of uncertainty and not having a tutorial printed out before was definitely making me sweat. But I just love and thrive on feeling vulnerable. I felt more accomplished at the end knowing I was proud of my hard work.

“I feel there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” -Van Gogh

I have never heard this quote but I can assure you this is now printed up and posted in my cubicle at work. As a domestic violence advocate I feel no words are more true than this statement here. Staring at this inspirational wall while painting was definitely a plus!

This was such a fun experience, I hope I am able to continue doing fun things around Austin just like this! Besides all the fun I knew the class was going to be, I did have a hidden agenda the entire night. I am so excited to announce that the Ikea Lack shelf I have been battling for the past 6 months was finally defeated by my dad! Pictures are coming soon, spotlighting my new mantel decoration created at Easely Amused. Stay tuned for the reveal!

Til then, I hope everyone is off to a great start of the week!

Through My Lens: April

April definitely flew past me this year. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not but I know that it was a good and fun month. Started off with a long drive back from New Orleans and has ended with a lot of time to relax. Here are a few pictures documenting the month.

This entire year has been devoted to trying new things and finding new ways to live the life I want. With that I have been trying to change my eating habits and my relationship to food. I am so lucky to be surrounded by helpful people at work everyday that share the parts of their life that may help me in my journey. A good friend of mine shared a paleo cookbook to photocopy some yummy recipes. I stumbled upon this whole chapter on BACON. I love all things bacon and thought it was really funny that the book made certain to mention that turkey bacon is not real bacon.

I know I just talked about my journey towards a paleo diet but I strayed a bit last week during a lunch date with one of my favorite co-workers. She is travelling to Honduras next month to see her family and found a restaurant close to her house that serves authentic Honduran cuisine. She invited me along for the taste test. I am so glad she did because the food was delicious. All the delicious plantains reminded me of my trip to Guatemala from a few years ago. We washed all the great food down with some banana soda, which was definitely a first for me. It was so sweet but so delicious and perfect on a spring day.

I was able to watch the Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler this month for the 6th year in a row, it never ceases to amaze and surprise me. To be surrounded and entertained by so many people who care about raising awareness on violence against women is definitely inspiring. This year was no different. On the way out I found this hilarious vagina doll laying on the front table as a forgotten prop I can only assume. I hope everyone has the chance to go to a performance next year, all the proceeds benefit local organizations working to help girls and women in need.

Just in case I haven’t made it clear with my last few posts, I love wildflowers. Especially bluebonnets. Bluebonnets are possibly my favorite thing about Texas. I dragged my best friend to search for a bluebonnet field earlier in the month and we found one on the beautiful campus of Saint Edwards University. Right beside my old residence hall. It reminded me of simpler times when I would sit and read a book for hours on this very hill. I am glad I was able to visit it this year.

Speaking of relaxing on a hill…my little sister and I took advantage of the beautiful weather this past Sunday and had a little picnic at the Capitol. The Capitol is one of my favorite buildings in Austin and I really do not visit it enough. It’s free and has a ton of trees to provide shade, I can totally predict this as my summer spot this year.

I hope you have enjoyed this little peek into my life as much as I enjoyed remembering it all. Feel free to follow along on instagram: @soniaisag The link is next to my bio, for more pictures of my month. I’m sure May will will be full of interesting photos with my family’s visit for my sisters graduation. I can’t wait to show y’all those.

Til then, I am hoping to share some awesome DIY’s I have been working on.