A Crafter's Life

Whiskey Tasting and Coloring?!?!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Back in April after we got our COVID vaccinations and the numbers were starting to significantly decrease, we thought during Autumn 2021 we’d be able to do another Whiskey Tasting party for our friends who enjoy fine spirits such as Scotches, Bourbons, Ryes and Whiskeys.

Perhaps unrealistically hopeful, we scheduled a party for early October.

But as October approached, and the Delta Variant raged, attendees started to cancel for the party; and we realized that a party was not the best idea with the variant raging.

Our friends Michele and Blair who are busy parents, went to great lengths to make attending the party work for their schedules. We wanted to still do something with them that evening. They live on the other side of the Denver Metro area and had planned to stay overnight at our house the night of the party.

So we decided to go ahead and have a small version of the Whiskey Tasting with just Blair and Michele (who we know they have been really excellent with following COVID safe protocols).

A week before this mini-version of the tasting party, my partner John and I had visited the Denver Art Museum (my first visit there, I will do a post on my visit at a later time) and I had picked up a couple mandala coloring pages the museum was offering visitors for free.

So I thought – why not combine Whiskey Tasting and Coloring while we had them captive for the evening!

Everyone was game (or very good sports), I brought out my stash of colored pencils and we each got our own mandala coloring page to work on while tasting various whiskeys. Here are some images from the evening (and we did feed them dinner first before the tasting began!)

The tastings started before we began coloring to get us warmed up:

The men seriously working on coloring their mandalas:

Our completed mandalas – the whiskey tastings did not impair our creativity!

Individual close ups of each of our mandalas:

It was an incredibly fun evening and everyone seemed to enjoy expressing their creativity while sipping on various tasty adult beverages! Plus Blair and Michele got to leave our house the next morning with the art they created (I am sure they ran home and framed them, ha!)

I used to sort of make fun of the “adult coloring/coloring book” trend a couple years ago but then on a whim I bought a collection of “color them yourself” greeting cards at Dudley’s Bookstore when I lived in Bend, Oregon; and some colored pencils and found it to be very soothing and very meditative. (I loved Dudley’s Bookstore in downtown Bend, Oregon and here is a blog post I did on it several years ago honoring independent bookstores – Independent Bookstores (wonderful & magical places))

image credit – zulily.com

Here is a link to an article I enjoyed reading about the benefits of coloring – The Benefits of Adult Coloring: 10 Reasons to Color Yourself to Calm.

We were impressed that we all “stayed within the lines” while coloring and whiskey tasting!

Postscript

Speaking of creativity, Blair and Michele encourage and honor the creativity of their children by the framed art wall/gallery wall they have in their house of their kids’ art. I did a post on this a while back and here is a link to it –An Awesome Way to Display Kid Art!

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

32 thoughts on “Whiskey Tasting and Coloring?!?!”

  1. What fun it sounds like for an evening out or in. I was given a project of coloring a page in a similar coloring book a few years ago. My rules required I:spend 15 minutes a day on it and no more. I set a timer each morning and sat down with a cup of coffee/tea and started my day. It became very much like meditation and I began to look forward to that “me” time. Now that I think of it, I may go back to it.

    Liked by 2 people

  10. We had so much fun! And as someone who has drifted away from my creativity outlets (as a busy parent!) it was very satisfying to complete a mandala that I thought was really pretty! We did not quite frame them, but they still sit around the house and we look at them and taste whisky. And the bourbons were so tasty! Thanks to both of you for the fun evening and hospitality!

    Liked by 1 person

  13. What a great idea, and everyone getting into the swing of colouring and drinking!

    I play with “coloured things” almost every day … well at least since the lockdown in the Auckland region required me to stay basically at home. Now it’s part of my schedule and of course you already know I’d no idea how many pieces of work I had created until I thought that maybe I should set to and sign/date them…

    Liked by 1 person

  14. This sounds like a great way to sample
    And discuss the whiskey!
    Also love the art wall at the end
    And right now I am trying to decide what art to keep from my boys- ha d a lot in the attic

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Oh I have framed so many – and used to ha e so many frames in the attic (i taught art – K-12 for about five years and so people gave me frames and all that)
        But with my own boys work – some of it is hanging now – and those are keepers – then I have some special ones in bins – but have some canvases they don’t want (but might want when they are much older) and I kind of feel like purging them . We don’t have too much left in the attic so it is not a big issue –
        Anyhow – I really like your friend’s wall! She left a lot of space in between frames so we could feel the individual pieces.

        Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.