What’s Pallet Night at the Wilderness?: A fun and creative ‘Girls night out’.

The few people I have met since moving away from the city to live my new ‘farm dream life’, have become the the most cherished aspects of my growing comfortable in a strange environment. Living and learning the ‘ dos and don’ts ’ of a lifestyle so uniquely different from city-living can at times make me feel like a social misfit. I often feel like the outsider that just doesn’t get the joke when everyone else is laughing. So when my friend Sara asked if I wanted to go to Pallet Night with her at the Wilderness… I absolutely couldn’t resist. It was to be a ‘girls night out’ with dinner, fun, and meeting new people. It did NOT involve feeding, watering, and wading in chicken poo, NO cooking, NO cleaning, and NO kids. But what is Pallet Night and just where on Earth is the Wilderness?

(This is not a sponsored post. As always…I give my own and honest opinion on everything. I have not received any form of gratuity for my opinions expressed within this post and all persons/entities have expressed their permission to be included/featured within.)

The Wilderness…

“The Wilderness” as local’s call it, is a bar and restaurant in the woods near Milroy just South of State College in Central Pa. Close to Reeds Gap State Park (a local camping, hunting, and hiking hot spot) it had been a lunch stop for us last winter while out snowmobiling on the trails. Officially named the New Lancaster Valley Wilderness Lodge, they have great food and good prices. Their menu has something for everyone and includes Classic, California, and Philly cheese-steaks, New York Strip, and Delmonico Steaks, Shrimp, brisket, ribs, and even build your own burgers. I especially give the “Railroad Gang” club 5-stars. You can hardly get the triple layered slow roasted beef, ham, and turkey with Swiss and American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on Sourdough bread all in your mouth without coaxing… and there is no way you’ll leave hungry. No wonder this club sandwich is a Wilderness favorite. You can see their full menu at The Wilderness Lodge bar and restaurant menu.

When Sara and I got there, I wanted something lite so I ordered the Spinach Artichoke Dip with toasted pita bread, a house salad, and a Malibu Bay Breeze cocktail. Sara also ordered a salad with the house dressing (she said it was REALLY good) and she got an order of wings for her husband who was at home watching the kids. Yes folks… this was truly a “girls night out”.

Pallet Night –

Pallet Night was being held in the dining room so we grabbed our food and joined the group of 26 others picking out their colors for the night’s activity. We were there to have fun and to express our own creativity painting our own signs…. Hey….we make it… we take it… and we were away from the kids, having a cocktail or two, and playing with paint and stain… now who couldn’t love that?… 😊

aMuse Uncorked…

Addie was our local artist instructor from “aMuse Uncorked –  Central Pa’s #1 Wine and Paint Party Company”.  She traveled from the aMuse shop in Mechanicsburg to play with us and the event was hosted by the Wilderness. 

I was looking at the aMuse website at www.amuseuncorked.com and I was impressed with everything they have to offer. They have corporate and team-building events, birthday and bachelorette parties (for you own girls night out), and they do events at their shop in the Harrisburg area or just about anywhere someone is willing to host one of these fun little parties. Right now I wish I had an excuse to host one… I’m thinking is anyone getting married?… having a birthday?…

What we did….

Everything we needed for the night was provided for us at the beginning of the party. Addie first had us sand our sign, then we distressed it with a number of tools that looked extremely Medieval… but fun. We painted then stained using a technique that starts off the wood then gently strokes accents onto the paint layer we had just applied. After another quick sanding, we lined up our stencils and was shown the best ways to apply the stencil and paint so that there is no bleeding. We lightly dabbed our paint using the technique for holding the brush that Addie had demonstrated. This left our paint lines crisp and beautiful and it was easier than I ever remembered stenciling could be.

Addie did a great job of keeping all of us entertained, focused, and doing the best job we could on our signs. After 2 hours that absolutely flew by, we all had these amazingly unique and hand-crafted signs that we can each be proud that we did ourselves.

What we created….

So in the end Sara and I had a really great time. No, this backwards, kinda quiet social misfit didn’t go out of her way to be the social butterfly and make a huge number of new friends. I didn’t get toasted on cocktails, wasn’t out of control, unruly, or regretful.  I did however come out with a great memory of a ‘girl’s night out’ with Sara and we already scheduled to go again to the next aMuse event nearby.  We had such a great time we just can’t wait to do it all over again.   

My suggestion…

If you haven’t been to a Paint Party, you probably know someone who has. I highly suggest it for some time away to recharge your batteries and to do something different. Life can get comfortable doing the same thing everyday and although most times we prefer that sense of comfortable stability, change it up, and be a misfit – just keep it responsible…lol.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time….

~Enjoy life

~Sue 😊