A Mug and a Jug

Two new ceramic items entered the house a couple of weeks ago. Firstly there was was this mug.

 

 

Picture me sitting at my computer working hard a few weeks ago when up on Facebook pops a little message from Starbucks. Did I say I was 'working' when the message appeared?; well, you know what it's like when you 'work' from home...

 

Anyhoo, back to this important announcement from Starbucks: apparently they had collaborated with Emma Bridgewater to jump on the 'Isn't Britain fantastic at the moment what with the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics and all that kind of stuff' bandwagon and bring out a limited edition mug. Well, obviously, as soon as I saw it I had to have one. Firstly, I loooove Starbucks (disown me if you want, but I can't deny it) and secondly, I quite like Emma Bridgewater's wares. So, add the two together and you can picture me getting a little frantic about when/where I'm going to get my hands on one of these mugs before they sell out. Over to the Starbucks website I head in order to check which of the stores are selling the mugs; cue disappointed weeping and teeth-gnashing when I discover that, of course, Starbucks are going down the 'let's sell these to the tourists' route and only stocking them in London, Bath, Cambridge, Oxford, Heathrow Airport and a few other places - none of which are anywhere near where we live. Booooo. And that's where lovely hubby comes in - I told him about the mug and then queried whether we knew anyone who lived in London who might be willing/able to pop to their nearest Starbucks to look for (and hopefully buy) one; he had a look at which London stores were stocking them, announced that one was just around the corner from his company's office, messaged one of his colleagues, and said colleague popped out in his lunch hour and bought me a mug; simples. YAAAAAY!! This all happened a few weeks ago, but it was only last week that hubby went up to the London office and was able to bring the mug (which I had completely forgotten about) home.

What do you think? It is quite nice, isn't it?

 

Moving on to the jug. Last week I went to our local auction room for their weekly general sale viewing and spotted this jug. I loved the shape and the colour (sort of a stone/putty/cream), plus it's made by Royal Doulton so has some pedigree. Also, admittedly, it has a small chip inside the rim, which is probably why I was able to secure it with my relatively low bid of £12 (the jug front right plus a matching sugar bowl [from Poole Pottery] were in the same lot, but I'm going to try and sell them on eBay to recoup the cost.)

 

Here's the jug sitting in my car waiting to make its way home.

And here it is on the hall table, complete with some old twigs from the garden. I was trying to recreate a look I'd seen in BBC Home and Antiques magazine (or possibly Country Living, or some such - you get the idea) where some branches had been effortlessly popped into a jug and made to look very chichi indeed. Mine looks more like a mess; but two weeks on, they are still there and will remain there until BBC Homes and Antiques tell me that this is no longer a look to which I should aspire.