Gal Pal Day: Painted Pottery, Movies & Burgers

Yesterday, I had the sweetest friend date day with my bestest pal Ashleigh! It was a rainy, icky, blustery day and all of the antique stores were closed, so we spontaneously decided to go to Color Me Mine in Ghent and paint pottery! I've never done that before, believe it or not. I always thought it seemed kind of corny; somehow I got it into my head that everyone paints garden animals or piggy banks and I just had no interest in that. But I've recently seen some of my favorite illustrators creating beautiful painted pieces at similar paint-your-own pottery spots and was intrigued. It was so much fun, and now I'm inspired to do so much more!

The best part? They let you bring your own wine.

We opted to created a marbled effect, so with a little help from the instructor, we drizzled our glaze colors onto a bed of shaving cream, then used the end point of a brush to swirl the colors.

I then dipped each side of my bowl in the shaving cream swirly mess and rinsed the shaving cream off in the sink. Amazingly, the colors stuck once the shaving cream was gone!

Ashleigh decided to make a butter dish and guys, it is going to be Anthropologie-cute.

How gorgeous is that?!

Once you're done, they overglaze the pieces and fire them; they'll be ready for pick-up in 7-10 days. I can't wait to see how they turned out!

 After our pottery adventure, we went to the Naro (a great old movie theater that is legit my favorite thing in Hampton Roads) and saw The Grand Budapest Hotel. It was fun and kooky and beautifully art-directed, bur Rushmore will always be my favorite Wes Anderson movie.

For dinner, we opted to give 80/20 Burger Bar another shot. Both of us have had so-so experiences there in the past, but all of our friends insisted it's the best and we were wrong. I'm glad we did, because this time everything was perfect and delicious! The fried mozzarella is even revelatory (served with alfredo dipping sauce, too...mmmmmm).

We picked two different burgers and types of fries and then shared everything. I ordered the Steel City burger, with pepper jelly, grilled onions and meunster cheese, with a side of house fries smothered in parmesan, garlic and rosemary. Ashleigh got the Heritage, with thick-cut bacon, caramelized onions and gruyere cheese. The burgers ended up tasting quite similar, but I might give the Heritage the edge.

All in all, it was a perfect date...now I'm just dying to see our finished pottery!