Saturday, October 30, 2010

Goodwill Treasure

Anna:  I took our younger daughter to Goodwill yesterday, as she was on the hunt for a Halloween costume.  While there I spotted a fascinating treasure, unlike anything I've seen before.  It was so beautiful and unique, I couldn't resist grabbing it.  I'm now posting a series of pictures.  See how long it takes you to figure out what it is - it should be obvious fairly soon.

First, the bowl.

bowl-inside

Starting from the bottom, up!  Here's an inside view of the bowl.  The bowl actually gets covered, so I didn't see that it was decorated until I was standing in line to buy the set.  A pleasant surprise.



bowl-side

A side view; there are three of these little focal points around the bowl. 

tray

Here is the tray, which fits over the bowl like a lid.

cup-side

There are four of these matching, handle-less cups.  It was the cups that tipped the balance in my decision to buy the set. 



cup-top

Looking at the inside, do you notice how strangely thick the sides are?  Yet it's not as heavy as one would expect.  Here's why.



cup-bottom

The cups are double walled.  The liquid tight plug can be removed, revealing the narrow space in between the walls.

pot-side

If you haven't figure it out yet, yes, this is a tea set, and here is the tiny little teapot, barely bigger than my own hand. 


pot-strainer

It comes with a strainer for loose tea leaves. 


pot-lid

I love the little decorated lid.

The pot holds just enough water to fill the four little cups.  No room for seconds!

set

Finally, the entire set put together. 

What I figure is, boiling water is meant to be put into the bowl to help keep the pot and cups on the tray warm, and the cups get boiling water poured into their double walls as well.  The pot and cups are so small, however, I can't see how any tea would have a chance to get cold before it's all gone!

The bottom of the bowl reads "Taiwan Ei-Long Art Ceramics."  I've looked through their website, but haven't found another set like this, though I'm in love with their celadon line.  I've have found some similar sets, though.  

Note the prices at those links?

I got this set for $19.99

I don't know why this set got donated to Goodwill, but to whoever decided they didn't need it anymore, thank you! 

Monday, October 25, 2010

Morning Snow


Morning Snow
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: The snowfall we woke up to this morning. Certain family members were as excited as little kids!

Personally, I could see it holding off for another month or so. ;-)

At least it shouldn't last long.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Bliss

One last photo to catch up...

Bliss

Take one sun spot.  Add cat. Blend thoroughly. 

The Harley-bug is so cute, she makes my teeth ache. LOL

Proud Owner

Proud Owner

My younger daughter decided she wanted an acoustic guitar.  Since then, she's been setting aside half her allowance and any birthday money she got towards buying one.

Yesterday, after almost a year of saving, she became the proud owner of an acoustic guitar.  We know nothing about guitars and will now be looking into lessons. 

I hope she has many years of enjoyment out of it. :-)

Zombie Zone

Anna:  I've been remiss in posting photos here.  Most of my photography lately has been for my craft blog.  I just haven't got around to uploading other photos here. :-(

To make for that, let's start with this one.

Zombie Zone

Not too long ago, the girls and a friend took part in a local Zombie Walk.  My husband was with them taking pictures until he used up both memory cards.  I was waiting at where they were supposed to finish the walk, but ended up meeting them part way through, getting shots of the zombies as they walked past me at an intersection.

I was trying to avoid using flash, so a lot of my photos just didn't work out.  Some of the failures, however, were still very interesting.  Like this one.  It looks so surreal. 

I like it. :-D