2021 Highlights
After a year of Covid fear, 2021 returned strong! We continued to have record attendance and people happily gathering with friends and families to create memories and support causes. I added homeschool art classes that were well received. One of our parties even had a real horse attend! A new addition was ceramic tea cups for a Mother’s Day party (loved this party at the JV Winery). I also added tall skinny wooden welcome porch signs. Art Camp at our church is an annual highlight. This year’s fish theme for Art Camp brought out so much creativity in the children. Fairy Gardens at Sweet Frog were a blast but they were quickly followed by some of the saddest news I received during my Painting Party years. Sweet Frog Burnham would be closing in August. I quickly put together a last-minute Mommy & Me party that instantly sold out. We celebrated having had 54 parties and 1,175 projects painted in Sweet Frog since 2016. Our summer was surprisingly busy and successful during a normally slow season. For our Christmas in July, I added Ceramic Trees for the first time. The party was well attended and I planned to offer the trees again. We only did a few fall themed paintings since our hosts were drawn to Christmas themes. In mid-November I decided to post a Ceramic Tree party. I put the event online and went away for the day. When I returned, I nearly had a heart attack. My family will tell you they never saw me so stressed. I had sold over 100 tickets in 4 hours!! I quickly shut down my website ordering and announced it was sold out and some seats would be refunded. People were upset about missing the party. I soon scheduled 3 more parties and those sold out quickly too. Ceramics were a HUGE hit for us. We painted over 440 ceramic trees this year! I was thankful for my family that helped check and sort the ceramics in our garage. We ended the year with beautiful Christmas parties. During the Ice Festival in downtown Lewistown, we were blessed with the location of painting in the historic courthouse gallery. Wow, that was special! At my last party of the year, Bob Ross showed up to surprise us. I always marvel and feel very underserving of the many blessings from the past year. Giving each party and each day of my life into the hands of my loving Savior Jesus Christ helps me realize that we are all valued and loved and we can appreciate the joys set before us. Thank you for painting with us in 2021.