One of the best things about having a birthday is getting to choose where to celebrate. A good friend of mine, Lauren (of the very funny blog LaurenVision), chose to celebrate her recent birthday at two central New Jersey spots that I had never been to before.
We started out at The Clay Pot in Spotswood (where I painted a sugar bowl). The promise at The Clay Pot is that you don’t need to actually have any talent when it comes to painting or pottery (which is a very good thing in my case) to wind up with something nice. The owners of the studio even helped me figure out how to apply a very nice sponge technique to my sugar bowl. We were there with a party of about twelve, and I think everyone actually did do a great job with their pottery pieces – and had a lot of fun in the process.
The painted pieces before they are put back into the kiln. (Photo by Erin Amaty)
I’m looking forward to seeing what my sugar bowl looks like after the second firing in the kiln this week!
Who knew that painting pottery would work up such an appetite? But it sure did. So, next we headed over to Mancini Pizza in East Brunswick. There, we had rice balls stuffed with ground meat, steak sandwiches, penne alla vodka, a grilled vegetable panini, and a delicious Italian chicken panini. The service was great too; it really was the perfect place to celebrate a birthday on a snowy January afternoon.
And it looks like even more snow is on its way this week. If you’re in the East Brunswick area, you might want to head over to Mancini Pizza and stock up on some good food before you get snowed in. Personally, I’m hoping to try the pizza alla vodka the next time I’m there…
~Melissa
The Jersey Girl
The Jersey Girl 
Yay me! lol thanks for the shout out!!!! I’m glad you enjoyed it and I can’t wait to see everyones pieces!
I think we need to have a place to paint pottery and eat pizza at the same time… that would make me feel better about my painting skills… i can take solace in a slice… happy new year.
stay adventurous, Craig