I do not drink coffee; I am just going to get that out of the way. I am one of few individuals, that I know, who seems to dislike the everyday cup of Joe.
The Navy referred to coffee as a cup of Joe originally when President Woodrow Wilson appointed Josephus Daniels Secretary of the U.S. Navy. Among his numerous reforms in the Navy was the abolition of the officer’s wine. From that point on the strongest drink aboard Navy ships was coffee, and over the years a cup of coffee took on the name, “cup of Joe.”
Approximately one hundred million people in the U.S. drink coffee daily which amasses to over half of our population, and the U.S. spends around four billion dollars importing coffee each year.
I am actually the only person I know that does not enjoy the dark brown to black, piping hot beverage. In fact, I absolutely cannot stand the taste of coffee. However, since all the cool kids always go to Starbucks for their coffee fix, I did manage to find a drink there that I love, although it’s tea instead of coffee. My husband would love for me to harbor hatred against that too, though.
That being said, I will have to admit to all of my readers that I have an obsession with coffee mugs. I am not really sure why. I guess because there are so many variations to them. You can really show off your personality with a coffee mug.
I tend to buy my husband a coffee mug every single time I come across one that reminds me of him. Funny part is, we have to constantly purge them because, obviously, we end up having too many. Rest assured though, as with everything else I buy, I will only buy one if I find an incredible deal.
There are many tutorials on how to personalize your own coffee mugs floating on the web, but I came across one that I could just not stop thinking about. It was very cheap, especially if you already have most of the products on hand, and very easy to follow.
Items needed:
• fingernail polish, minimum of two colors but up to five
• plain white coffee mug
• bowl deep enough to submerge mug
• water
Once I finally decided to try my hand at these coffee mugs, I darted to my Dollar Store, because they always have a great selection of white coffee mugs, for a dollar a piece, and you can’t beat that! I already had plenty of nail polish, but this was going to be for my husband and his favorite color is green, which is a color I did not have.
It just so happened that the same day my next-door neighbor brought my daughters about twelve new bottles of fingernail polish and low and behold, there were two different colors of green within the selection. Perfection!
First, you will need to grab the bowl you are using and fill it up with water deep enough to submerge the mug you have chosen. Secondly, take the different colors of fingernail polish and drop some into the bowl, one color at a time. The colors will begin to spread out.
After you have the colors in the water and they have spread, you will simply submerge the mug into the water. The fingernail polish will adhere to the mug in a marbleized pattern.
Once you have dipped the mug, set it to the side and allow to fully dry. I actually baked mine in the oven at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes to allow the polish to cure, but even with doing this the mugs are not dishwasher safe.
A few tips:
• Move quickly. The fingernail polish will start to dry and create a film on the water, so have all the materials ready.
• Use a toothpick to swirl the colors.
• If you end up not liking the design the first time, you can simply wipe it off with acetone based fingernail polish remover.
• This will not ruin the bowl you are using.
• Only dip the mug in the water deep enough to cover outside of the mug.
These will make incredible gifts. The color options are endless, and white mugs are not necessary. You can use any color you would like, just make sure to use fingernail polish colors that will accent the color of mug you chose, not blend in.
Mug on my friends!
April Sherrill is a staff writer for the Hamilton County Herald. Contact her at april@dailydata.com.