Things to Do in Pinole

Peruse and sample the flavors of five chocolatiers, five breweries, and two bands. Chocolatiers include Bittersweet: the Chocolate Café, Galaxy Desserts, , TCHO, Vice Chocolates, and Teeny Cake. Brewers include Trumer Pils, Drake's Brewing, Triple Rock Brewery, Napa Smith, and Linden Street. Bands such as The Beehive Spirit and Tornado Rider will entertain during the festivities. Also featured at the event will be a booth accepting charitable donations for Saffron Strand Inc., a non-profit dedicated to finding employment solutions for the local homeless.

Unless the ceramic-robot coup d'état comes to pass, fine pottery isn't going to paint itself. In order to become a decorated hero of ceramic lore, all artists pay a modest studio fee ($7.50 for kids under 18, $9.50 for adults) and then pick from a dimensionally diverse range of pottery shapes, priced from $3 for small ornaments to $60 for platters fit for a king who loves to host royal potlucks. Creatively stymied artists can either browse the samples for inspiration or mimic the enthusiasm of the nearest euphoric child lost in a paint-speckled universe.

Color Me Mine puts paintbrushes and pottery in the mitts of customers old and young. Budding Toyozo Arakawas will follow six easy steps to craft beautifully painted ceramics, first choosing a ceramic piece (most cost between $12 and $70) from Color Me Mine's selection of hundreds of seasonally changing items. After charting out the desired design from individual imagination or Color Me Mine's idea gallery, painters will select an underglaze from a cast of more than 50 colors, then apply paint with the focus of a peregrine falcon occupied by a Rockwellian spirit. Color Me Mine handles all kiln-firing work, allowing clients to take home their final products within three to five days.