Color Me Mine

A couple of weekends ago, I had the chance to go on an outing. Isn't that a weird expression? I think so. Of course, I go out all the time: I go to work, shop for groceries, shop for fun stuff, and go visit friends and family at their homes. But, scheduling a day to go out and do whatever, out and about, with the only goal being fun? It's been a while! Ginny was free, she asked me go, and I said of course! Our destination? The little ceramic painting outpost in Eagan!

Before this particular day, I had never been to Color Me Mine. In fact, I had to google it to find out what it really was. Each shop has a wall of plain pottery - in lots of different shapes and sizes. When you arrive, you select the piece you want to paint. I decided not to try to be too fancy for my very first visit: I went with a mug.

I know I've blogged before about how much I love having an enormous mug to put my (huge amount of) coffee in! In the foreground, you can see the two paint colors I was going to use for my design sitting in one the ceramic palettes they have in the studio. The atmosphere in the shop is really pretty relaxed. There are staff who can answer questions and give tips. Ginny was also there, and much less of a novice than me, so she cheered me on as I went about working on my painting.

My plans for the mug were pretty simple: polka dots. Why not, right? Again, I was hoping to keep it simple and avoid disaster. So, I painted and painted and painted until finally I was done. Here's the product ready to go into the oven!

Are my polka dots a little uneven? Why yes, they are! And believe me, I was a little bit nervous about these colors when I left the shop. Sure, there were samples on the wall that showed what each color was going to look like once 3 coats were painted on and it had been baked. But still - burnt orange and weird light blue? Yikes.

Imagine my delight, then, this past weekend when I went to pick it up. Here's what I found!

Yay! It's just as I dreamed it would be! I love these colors!

 I took plenty of photos so you could see my masterpiece from each and every angle ;)

It's harder than it looks to paint polka dots and have them look even moderately consistent. It's much easier to have them look random!

I also took this photo to give you an idea of what the inside looks like. During my painting session, the part that was hardest for me to really imagine was that eventually the whole surface, inside and out, would be perfectly glossy. The paint is, of course, liquid when you put it on, but the ceramic just sucks it in right away. Before you know it, you're onto the next coat. And when you come back for your piece a week later, it's beautifully shiny!

So, once we were done with our painting there was still a little bit of time to hang out before the outing had to conclude. We did some shopping and then we went out for an awesome lunch at SmashBurger.

 Check out these sweet burgers!!

"Gosh," you might be wondering. "That meal surely doesn't look very Paleo-friendly to me!" If you've wondered that, nice work! You've certainly learned something about Paleo. In fact, in order to make my burger (the one on the bottom) into something even moderately Paleo, you'd have to remove the bun, the cheese and the fries and make sure that the not-very-lean beef came from a pasture-raised animal. Did I do any of that? NOPE! Instead, I took a brief hiatus from my healthier eating habits and enjoyed every bite! And then, as I wrote this post to share with you, I got to remember just how yummy it was. So worth it!