Ahh, Saturday was so amazing, it deserves its own post, not just a few bullets on my weekend highlights post!

On Saturday I taught “Learn to Paint Rocks with Cats” in the cat lounge at Sip & Purr Cat Cafe in Milwaukee. I’ve been donating cat rocks to Sip & Purr to sell since June (216 so far!) and Rachel had the brilliant idea for me to teach a class there! Thank you, Rachel!

I was so excited the class was in the lounge with the cats. Since we were using paint pens and not open trays of paint, there wasn’t a risk of cats stepping in paint or paint tipping over… just a risk of cats sitting right in front of your face and pawing at your pens! Or running off with a pen in their mouth (ha, one cat tried that!).

The class was at 2:00 pm, and we had two hours in the lounge to paint rocks and hang with the cats! I got there 45 minutes early because I had so much stuff to unpack and wasn’t sure how close I could park or if anyone would be able to help me. I was SHOCKED to pull up and get a spot RIGHT IN FRONT OF SIP & PURR. Amazing luck!

So I hung in the cafe and scrolled Instagram and talked to some people and got a lot of questions about Sip & Purr since I had one of their shirts on (oops, not doing that again – I will wear something over it until I teach, ha). At about ten to 2:00 I got up to start bringing all my supplies in WHEN MY PARENTS WALKED IN!!!!!

WHUT!!!!!!

Those stinkers! I saw them the previous weekend and was all “hint hint, nudge nudge I have spots in my class” but they are so busy and said they couldn’t come, which I totally understood. But that same day, my snister and Mom got the last two spots in my class! And my snister even emailed the founder/owner, Katy, to make sure I would not see that they registered! They are so damn thoughtful!!!! And look at the shirt my mom wore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It says Kim Hides the Rocks Fan Club!

It absolutely made my freaking day that they drove FOUR HOURS! just to take my two hour class. I felt so loved. My parents have been like this my whole life – they’ve always shown up for me, and the older I get, the more grateful I am for it. I am so thankful and appreciative that they came. And grateful for my snister for setting it all up and making the shirts – she was actually going to come instead of my dad, but couldn’t make it. I love that she was going to try to come. She’s always there for me too, and it means the world to me to have my snister be my best friend.

Okay, sappy part over (maybe?)!

So since my parents were there I made them help me bring my stuff in and set up, muah ha ha. Suckers!

It took a while to set up (something I want to streamline for next time – oh yes – there will be a next time) but that was okay since there were cats to pet, and one cat to observe destroying the table cloth. He went to town and was not satisfied until it was completely shredded!

I started teaching around 2:10/2:15. I introduced myself and talked about the Kindness Rocks Project, then showed them how to draw the pumpkin patch cat scene. I brought a big dry erase board to show them step by step. I had practiced this SO MANY TIMES to make it as easy as possible – I didn’t want anyone to feel overwhelmed by having to draw something, then paint it.

And it worked out great! Every student sketched it out (some on paper, some right on their rock) and I explained how to use the pens and which colors I recommended and they went to town! I wanted to have a lot of color options for them, and I wanted them to look cute in little cups, but I think it was a bit overwhelming since it was new to them. Lesson learned. (No one said that, just a thought). About half of the pens were donate by Tooli-Art, my favorite acrylic paint pen brand, and half were mine. Thank you, Tooli-Art!

Everyone was able to paint one rock, and most painted two or more! They did such an amazing job! Check out their work below! So so so good!!!!!

I mostly floated around seeing if people needed help (I helped a lot with picking out colors – everyone was painting their own pets) and to comment on their work and sometimes, to sketch out a second rock for them to paint.

The time flew by! I think we all would have been happy to stay in and paint for another hour, but there was a 4:00 cat lounge time we had to get out for!

So everyone helped me pack up, and we took our group pic, then went into the alley for me to seal everyone’s rocks. All of the students seemed so pleased with their work and had such nice things to say to me (my dad even said “enjoyed the class a lot more than I expected”! Ha ha ha ha ha). It was definitely a success! I was on such a high from everyone being so happy, and from my parents surprising me!

Me and Cassie, a friend who came to the class!

After everyone left I donated some rocks for Sip & Purr to sell (we used them for ideas during the class, which I think really helped – seeing the finished product and other ideas for what to paint!),

talked to Katy about doing a winter holiday class, chit chatted a bit with Cassie (a friend who came!), got a chai and a pack of cards (all my time was donated and Katy insisted I take something, which was so sweet), then took an usie with Mom and Dad,

and hit the road! Mom and Dad came back down to Illinois with me and we got dinner with Steven at El Famous. It was so so so nice for Steven to get to see them too, and to treat my dad to dinner the day before his birthday!

I loved teaching and sharing my joy of painting with the students, and I loved showing them how easy it is with acrylic paint pens (instead of using brushes). And I love that they all discovered they are talented artists! Quite a few said they were going to get some pens to paint at home. And they were also very interested in a second class, so yay!

Getting ready for this, teaching it, and unloading at home was a lot of work, but so worth it! I can’t wait to do it again!!!!!