When @mipiano said she was hosting a Mug Collection in her Hive Collection community I didn't think I'd have anything to contribute as I gave away a lot of my possessions in the past few years when I was moving around. I rummaged through my cupboards today and luckily found a few, with stories attached of course. "Things" may be dead but they never really are as they can be bought back to life with stories. Here are my Mug Stories.
Little Twin Star
Little Twin Star is my favourite Sanrio character and this mug is part of my Litle Twin Star collection. The mug comes with a lid to keep the drink warm. It's an Asian thing, we like hot drinks, it's good for health 😊. There used to be a ceramic spoon as well and you can keep the spoon inside the mug with the lid on. That's why there's a little opening in the lid. Sadly the spoon broke recently. I've had this mug for years and normally I tend not to use things from my collection unless necessary. This is my daily use mug now, a happy mug makes a happy person!
Villeroy & Boch one big mug
This used to be my daily use mug for well over 10 years. I like a big mug of tea and this is perfect. This year I gradually noticed my tea gets colder quicker, which is quite odd given I've used it for years. Blame it on climate change 😁. As I mentioned earlier on, I like a hot drink, so this year I've retired my loyal V&B mug,and replaced it with my happy Little Twin Star mug.
Villeroy & Boch three small mug
For those who haven't heard of Villeroy & Boch before, they're a well known European ceramic company that dates back to nearly 300 years ago. They make things from dinnerware, to tiles and bathroom items like washbasin, toilets and bath. Their products aren't cheap but luckily I used to live near their factory outlet many years ago. Occasionally I would pop in and pick up some very good deals such as these mugs, and the big one above. They're part of a range that illustrates a colourful countryside life. I deliberately bought all different illustrations as they are all very bright and colourful. Two of these mugs have a strainers for when I drink loose leaf two, and there's also a lid to keep my tea nice and warm 😆
My husband's mugs
This used to be my husband's daily use mug. It's from his alma mater, the London School of Economics in UK. He's had it for many years and it's showing its age from the chip on the rim. Now he uses the other mug shown below.
This mug has got some sort of famous chinese painting on it, and hubby's name on the other side with what it means. I think these type of name meaning mugs are quite cheesy but they're great as gifts. I can't remember who gifted this to him. Not me!!
Christmas mugs
These are the newest additions to my mug collection, not that I am actually building a collection. I got these from my recent trip to Germany. I've been using them a lot last month but now they're in storage. See you in 11 month's time!
Visitors mugs
Next up are these are box standard practical mugs great for visitors. The different colours ensures people won't mix up their drinks.
I particularly like these two sets that stack up in a holder, it saves a lot of space and I can easily move them around.
Mugs from friends
And finally, I have some mugs which are very dear to me as they were gifted to me from good friends.
Last Christmas @zirochka sent me this from Ukraine. It's a relatively short mug not big enough to drink my tea, but perfect for drinking hot water in winter. (Do you notice the recurring hot drink theme 🙂?) The small cup encourages me to be more active at home, forcing me to get up and put the kettle on more often. I'm sure @zirochka didn't have this in mind when she got this mug, but sometimes things just fall in place naturally.
And last but not the least this is my Marimekko teapot and mug set, gifted to me by two of my old university friends. We used to share a house together back in those days and had a fun year that year. A few years ago, they came to visit me in Taiwan. It was like a girls holiday without their husbands and kids, and we had a great few days together. Frankly speaking, before I got this I'd never heard of Marimekko but it was the favourite brand of one of the girls. I can understand why. It's so colourful and happy, and the Nordic minimalistic design is so chic. This is the only teapot I have at home and it sits beautifully on the table. It gives me a perfect excuse to use the beautiful mugs more often.
Wow! I count 24 mugs at home! I didn't realise I had that many at home, nor did I think a simple mug can evoke quite a lot of yesteryear memories.
