We had a private birthday party for our daughter and it was perfect way to spend a couple hours…read more They went way beyond our expectations. Zoey and her daughters have a really passion for the art and the house in W. 6th is a great spot. Filled with a lot of heart the team there really enjoyed it as much as the kids did. Probably one of the best hidden gems still left in Austin!

Austin Creative Art Center is a long standing educational space that inspires all who walk through…read morethe door! If you want to be a better artist look no further than ACAC!

Anna was an amazing teacher! We took a "try it" pottery class. Talk about patience, she was so…read morethorough but with very clear with easy instructions. I'm leaving with a piece that I was hoping to make!

Very patient and caring teachers , had a wonderful time for our first time and made lovely pieces !read more

This review is for the ceramics course offered at Dougherty!…read more First off, I loved my instructor H.R, she was super knowledgable and eager to help everyone. She honestly made the experience great, and I would give her 5 stars any day. We were allotted a few open studio hours during the course to come in and work independently. These were pretty strictly monitored, and the weekend time slots tended to fill up quickly (understandably) For the price that I paid, I was pretty pleased with taking classes here however I would add some caveats: 1. There are a lot of restrictions here (glazes are pretty limited, you cannot make pieces larger than 8 in, can't bring in most outside glazes that are runny) 2. There were a lot of different skill levels in my class. A majority of the students seemed to be repeating students from the previous cycle, and had a lot of wheel experience. There were only 1-2 people in my class who were beginners. If I hadn't already had some exposure to the wheel, I think I would've been completely lost as most of the class time was spent on demos that the class requested instead of set lessons. If the cost wasn't almost half of what other studios in town were charging, I would probably go to another studio because of the above reasons, but honestly the deal is too good to complain. If you're able to get off the waitlist and get a class here, I'd recommend trying it out if you have some experience already! Otherwise I would try to take a more beginner friendly class elsewhere first

We came here to see a local theater company put on a musical comedy about the Servant Girl killer…read morefrom Austin in the 1880's. It was quite fun and pretty clever. Murders and Moontowers is the name. The center is clean and well lit. Welcoming is the term I think of, inside at least. It's a bit hard to see if you are not paying attention and parking is not great. Not the worst but crowded. Inside had interesting local art, I have some pictures, and a few benches. The theater room is decent sized and you can see and hear pretty well. We were in row 3 or 4 to the right if on stage. The troupe was good and there were some clever songs. It is about an hour and while the murders do factor in its mostly about the growing city and political dealing. I know it's an art center first but two quick things. The chairs are awful. They took me out of the play several times as I could not get in a position that didn't cause pain. Two: I can go without a snack or food but I need liquids. Water, soda, something. If you don't want to sell it allow us to bring lidded bottles or Yetis. Yeti like cups wouldn't leave trash and would allow for less issues. But that said I really otherwise enjoyed this. Shana, the woman who married me, agrees place is very cool. The cast signed a book we had on the killings which was cool. The songs were mostly fun and entertaining. The cast did a good job and told a fun story in just an hour. There were a few things that felt a little out of place but overall it was a good time.

I absolutely love, love, LOVE the painting I did with Kimberly Keller!! I had so much fun and she…read moreis a hoot to work with! The cool thing about the paint pouring is that you can do the same colors each time and get a completely different painting each time!! 5 stars for sure! She is also excellent with the kiddos!

Looking for fun and a way to completely relieve the stresses of life? Then sign up for a "Paint…read moreWith Me, Kimberly Keller" class! She's fun, entertaining, and let's you be you, with your creativity! She's a local artist and will give you tips and instructions to help you create your own art masterpiece in an unintimidating way! Bring your friends, family, grandmas, grandpas, children, co-workers or neighbors and you'll discover how fun being an artist can be! Melanie Anderson, Georgetown, Texas

I cannot say enough good things about our experience with Petra. She is an absolute delight to be…read morearound, first and foremost. But, you're looking for an interior designer, not a best friend (though, I'm sure, she'd make a great one!). We hired her to help us choose new flooring throughout our house, as well as redecorate our living room. Petra was incredibly perceptive, and was able to design our space to really meet our tastes. When she was finished, we really felt like we were "home." Thank you for the warmth you brought into our home, Petra!

My husband and I recently downsized into a one story new build in Lago Vista. Leaving behind 95%…read moreof our furniture, Petra pretty much had to start from scratch, which was exciting for both of us! She made a promise from the very start that her goal was not just to create the environment we wanted, but to make the entire process as stress-free as possible. She (and her wonderful assistant Tess) did just that! From providing multiple options for each item we purchased, to handling all deliveries and returns, to answering my many, many questions along the way, Petra remained always available, always responsive, and always unflappable and professional. On the final styling day when they put on all the finishing touches with accessories (including several of her beautiful art pieces), we came home to everything we had hoped for. If you are redoing one room or a full house, get in touch with Petra and Tess and enjoy the experience!

I saw Crafty Girl Austin at an event making cute bookmarks for children. I Co-Chair a festival and…read moreoversee all the children's activities. The festival draws in about 600 people and is a free event for an Austin neighborhood. This year several City Council Members and Mayoral Candidates attended as well. I thought Crafty Girl Austin would be a good fit and asked if they would like to be a part of it which they agreed. I told Crafty Girl that I would provide and set up her table, tent, and all supplies needed for her booth. I also said I would put her logo on our website and print her business name in the local newspaper. She would be able to hand out information at the event for free publicity of her business. All she would need to do is provide four volunteers for the event and the special paper faces that would be glued on the bookmarks. I used neighborhood funds to purchase supplies for her (roughly for about 200 children), set up the booth as promised, and marketed her business all with no cost or obligation to her. On the day of the event as I was setting up I received a text message about one hour before the festival was to begin saying she had morning sickness and was not going to be able to attend. I understand that things come up and people get sick. But not only did she not attend but no one from her business did either. If she was going to provide four volunteers then why did none of them show up? Through text message she said she was going to have someone bring the paper faces to the festival. As you can imagine they never arrived either. After the event I never received any follow up from her to see if we were able to cover the booth and no apologies were given. Crafty Girl Austin was a complete disappointment. I feel this business owner is very unprofessional. I will never ask her back and I would suggest anyone else who plans to use the business in the future to make sure you have a backup plan because you absolutely can not rely on them.

Crafty Girl is terrific. I've been to a few Crafty Girl events now and made some really fun…read moreitems--aromatherapy necklaces, recycled map trays, and I[heart]HOME string maps. I look forward to attending many more. I had just moved to Austin and hardly knew anyone in town. Crafty Girl was a great way to get out of the house, make something fun, and meet really friendly ladies. Anna is a such a warm, inviting, and fun person. It was such a pleasure to meet her and feel instantly included. She's also a great teacher--helpful and patient (which is excellent because I sometimes struggle with tying knots and stuff, heh.) The crafts are usually about $20 a piece, but that includes instruction and all the materials. The meet-ups I have been to have usually been about 2 hours long. I feel like it's a good value, but I'm also a little choosy about which I sign up for. ...great, talking about this has made me want to go sign up for another Crafty Girl meetup...

They did a great job framing my art. very happy! I thought their prices were reasonable also.read more

Dan and Melissa thank you so much!! You guys did such an awesome job framing my art piece print…read more The quality and experience was A+++++++++

This school is amazing it's one of the best in the state I love it. The staff is amazing and…read morethere's so much history this school is amazing sending your kids here would be the best. Vchoue

My two kids have been attending Eanes for several years and it's the best school ever! The…read moreteacher's all seem to love the kids and the students. I've been on many school field trips and everyone is very nice and friendly! Both of my kids have learning challenges and the school and the staff have been wonderful! I want to thank all the special needs teacher's and all the teacher's at Eanes Elementary!

It's difficult to find adult dance instruction in Austin geared towards the older dancer, but…read moreSynergy's Silver Swan ballet program does just that. Theoretically, one should be at least 55+ to enroll, but exceptions can be made! The instructor, Maureen Slabaugh, is certified by the Royal Academy of Dance to teach under their Silver Swans model and does an outstanding job of making the class work for both absolute beginners as well as dancers with some level of experience. Currently classes are offered two days a week. I enrolled two years ago and really wonder why I didn't find out about Silver Swans years ago!! I hadn't taken a ballet class in at least 25 years and I simply love it! Highly recommend.

I've been taking adult ballet (Silver Swans class) for 2 years and it has been a fantastic…read moreexperience all around. Maureen is a phenomenal teacher - encouraging and nonjudgmental when you need it, excellent with technical details and technique when you need it. It's not just a good workout, it's also REALLY good for our brains! Every class has something a little extra challenging to work our memory and keep us on our toes. The classes are structured like the ballet classes of my childhood - first the barre, then the center. Maureen is great at giving options for newcomers and experienced students, and making sure everyone is both comfortable and challenged. She is also really good at helping people modify if they are injured or need to take additional care. Synergy itself is staffed with cheerful friendly people and it's always a pleasure to be there.

I had joined the 2nd cohort at MakerSquare in fall of 2013. Prior to MakerSquare, I had tried…read morelearning Ruby and JS on my own, through countless books and online tutorials. Having completed a few guides, I realized that my ability to learn "how to code" was hindered simply by my style of learning. I love interactive q/a style learning, which is what led me to MakerSquare. Of the different programs out there, the one thing I would urge others to consider is that they place a heavy amount of weight onto prework completed (how much work you've done ahead of time) and community-fit. If you're a solo worker and not a fan of collaborative environments, you may want to consider other programs. Anyways, long story short, I would whole heartedly recommend this program. As classmates, I had former programmers, retail store workers, a professional photographer and even a former elementary teacher. Out of the program, each of the students were working as professional front-end engineers (junior developers) within weeks of graduating. So safe to say, MakerSquare has a great professional network, and they know how to teach code. The classroom environment (the location on Congress ave) was a bit cramped at times. But from what I've heard the class size is now capped at 18, vs. 30 or so when I went through. All the 'issues' I had (space constraints, less than ideal student:instructor ratio, and focus on advanced concepts (algorithms and data structures) has been completely addressed. According to the staff, Cohort 5 is operating on an almost night/day difference of curriculum than what I had. So not only do I give the program 5 stars, I would (and likely will) retake the course to take advantage of their newest curriculum.

In short, I'm very happy! Though I'm not programming on a daily basis, I was able to get into the…read moreSt. Louis startup scene which was my main goal before enrolling at MakerSquare. I've also built a really awesome network of programmers and startup gurus in St. Louis and I believe that's thanks to MakerSquare! :-) I joined in Winter 2013-2014 (Cohort 3 Represent!). My reason for joining originally was not initially to become a software/web developer. Rather, I wanted to be able to communicate better with programmers that I worked with. I wanted to gain better access to the startup network. And most importantly I have a lot of ideas that I wanted to explore on my own - I didn't want to have to rely on finding a developer to build my ideas and turn them into a reality. I came out of the program having learned web-development with a strong emphasis on solid software development skills. Here's what I loved about MakerSquare: Curriculum: I was impressed by how much I learned. I literally had no experience in programming and I can now build web applications that ACTUALLY work. Not just simple interactive sites, but fully dynamic applications that work heavily with javascript on top of a rails framework. Moreover, all of this was taught with a very clear emphasis on test driven development (from the beginning) and solid software development principles. Instructors & Culture: They actually cared about the students and our progress and they were just all-around cool people. The culture at MakerSquare was actually a huge focus in the organization. I think what I loved most was learning how to learn all over again. I gained a new confidence that I've never had. The energy was also great, everyone had awesome ideas - from students to staff. Feedback: I would have liked to have more experience with Ruby and really learning how to code w/algorithms and such vs. w/Rails which is just teaching you the framework. From what I gather, Rails is now being treated as a detail vs. a core of what we learned. When we learned rails, it was about utilizing the framework for its ActiveRecord and quick-to-web functionality. MakerSquare still teaches web development (rails/mvc, http, javascript, etc) but now only after teaching other concepts that are applicable not just to the web, but to all software (test-driven development, SOLID principles, application boundaries, decoupling, databases, interfaces, software architecture, etc). I would have loved a deeper problem-solving skillset through exposure to algorithms. Looks like I was one cohort shy of that. MakerSquare now integrates algorithms and algorithmic thinking from day 1. Finally, MakerSquare was split into two nearby locations (Congress & Brazos). The extra space was nice, but it felt disconnected and I think it kept our cohort from being as close as some other cohorts have been.