Creativity boils over at this paint-your-own-ceramics studio, where parents and children personalize housewares and knick-knacks.

This refuge for budding artists is as hot as the ceramics kiln cooking its latest creations. (The temperature inside the store actually is a bit warm; a T-shirt you don't mind getting paint on would be the best choice of attire.) For the cost of paints and pre-formed ceramics (plus a fee of $10, or $6 for kids), novices can create their own butter dishes, serving trays, Asian-inspired dinnerware, fairy flower vases or leopard-print teacups. Just leave your functional masterpiece with the friendly staff and, two to three days later, it will be ready for display to the world (or ready for burial in the back of a broom closet).