egg cups — Page 47

Scout, The River, Geese & Egg Cups 2015, Part One.

March 25, 2015 at 8:49 am by Claudia

I woke up early this morning. Calculating when Scout will need to be let outside has become a part of the fabric of our days. We keep a chart on the chalkboard, right by the kitchen door. I knew that I had to get out of bed by 6 am at the latest and when I woke at 5:30, I hoped I could go back to sleep for a half an hour. But you know how it goes. Thoughts start to intrude. Will I wake up? Should I go downstairs now? Has an accident occurred? And pretty soon it’s almost 6. So I got up. She was on her perch on the sofa, awake, watching me as I came down the stairs.

Just in time.

She’s such a good girl. Most of the time, the three of us somehow manage to make things run smoothly and Scoutie can rest easy. Sometimes we miss the mark. But it’s a guilt-free zone here at the cottage. We love our girl.

We took a walk the other day, down the road to the river.

3-25 Canada geese

Those are Canada Geese. There are hundreds of them on the river this time of year. All the way down to that bend and up and down the river beyond the range of my iPhone camera. The sheer number of them is astounding. Such beautiful creatures.

It’s time for egg cups!

There are all sorts of egg cups. When I started collecting about fourteen years ago, I was drawn to figural egg cups because of their charming and whimsical designs. They are the bulk of my collection. But I have others, as well. Figural egg cups are getting harder and harder to find. Fourteen years ago, there seemed to be a lot to choose from, especially on eBay. I could be found on our computer, day and night, sneaking in a bid or two. It was a lot of fun, this new collecting obsession of mine. It still is, but finding the sort of detailed figural egg cup I love is much more difficult these days. I’m picky and I like vintage. Newish egg cups aren’t as well made or as inventive. There are exceptions, but not many. So I’m branching out and extending my collection to include other shapes and types of egg cups.

In terms of a basic egg cup, there are two kinds: double and single. A single egg cup has one cup, usually the perfect size to hold a hard-boiled egg – or a soft-boiled egg – right in its shell. The double egg cup has that same sized cup and another larger cup used to eat a soft-boiled egg.

Almost all my figural egg cups are single egg cups, but I will highlight them separately. Here are my basic single egg cups:

3-25 egg cups single

From left to right:

1. One of the very first egg cups I purchased – a lovely lustreware egg cup made in Japan. I love the blue green band on the rim.

2. Don brought this egg cup home to me from Prague. That’s the skyline of Prague, and the word Praha (Prague).

3. Unmarked. A more recent find. It’s very heavy, which makes me think it might be ironstone. The scene depicted is Asian, not sure if it’s Japan or China. I think it’s quite old. I found it last summer in Chautauqua.

4. Another egg cup, this time square in shape, from Prague. Thanks Don!

5. A Delft egg cup from Holland, marked with the number 28. It was a gift from my mom. When Mom heard I was collecting egg cups, she would look for them wherever she went. I have several from her.

3-25 egg cups double

Double egg cups:

1. One of my earliest acquisitions. I call it the Rooster Egg Cup. Marked: Holt Howard 1961. Japan. This egg cup was in pristine condition until I dropped it one day. I wanted to scream. But instead, I glued it back together.

2. Another early acquisition – a basic green and white double egg cup. Unmarked. It probably was part of a set of dinnerware.

3. A red transferware double egg cup. It’s unmarked, but it’s made by Johnson Bros. I love that pattern.

4. Brown transferware double egg cup, made in England. Marked Mason’s Vista. One of my favorites.

5. Flow blue double egg cup. Vintage. (Well I guess most of the egg cups are vintage!) Unmarked.

More tomorrow. If you have any questions, fire away! I love talking about my egg cups. We’ll start on the figural cups tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday.

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To Egg Cup or Not to Egg Cup

March 14, 2015 at 9:46 am by Claudia

3-14 studio

I’m never quite sure when Easter is, but I made sure to check the calendar yesterday and it’s not all that far off, is it?

Which brings me to egg cups, specifically, my collection of egg cups. For the past few years, I’ve highlighted the collection right around Easter. Many of you may be very familiar with it by now, which brings me to my question of the day. Should I share them again this year? Or is it a case of ‘been there, done that?’

I have a lot of them and I love them, but don’t let that influence you!

Happy Pi day on this March 14th! Coincidentally, we happen to have some apple pie in the house. So it stands to reason that said pie should be consumed today, don’t you think? We will sacrifice for Pi day.

It’s a rainy day here in the Hudson Valley. Go ahead rain, melt the snow! We have quite a bit of snow still on the ground but it’s definitely melting. We watch as the chairs on the funky patio start to show more of themselves. Oh, there’s the seat! I see some legs! Look, I see one of the pavers beneath the chair!

These are the kind of things that make us happy. The birdbath thawed. I hear the constant drip of running water from the gutters as the ice melts. There are even patches of grass emerging. It will take a while, as we had over three feet of snow on the ground, but it’s definitely happening.

The other day we heard birds singing.

Be still my heart.

I don’t kid myself about when I can get outside and do some garden clean up. That will be a few weeks away, at the very least. But it’s coming. It’s coming!

Don’t forget to answer my question of the day in the comment section.

Happy Saturday.

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Small Stories

January 28, 2015 at 9:05 am by Claudia

1-28 denview

Gosh darn it. I love the fact that this den is sunken. Just two steps down, but those two steps create a separate little world. A cozy, smallish world. Since the kitchen and living room are essentially one big room, the den would be part of that expanse save for those two little steps. All the difference in the world.

I’ve been under the weather for the past day or so. The barometer that is my head went off like an alarm the night of the storm. Boom. I felt terribly congested and achy and almost like a cold was coming on. I was pretty sure it wasn’t a cold, merely a reaction to the barometric changes going on outside. I felt fairly crappy yesterday but am feeling a bit better today.

Oh winter, you are trying my patience.

1-28 asian lamp

Several of you have remarked about some of the smallish lamps I have here at the cottage and if we’re talking small and charming, I have to highlight this one. We found this little lamp several years ago when we were still renting a place across the river. It was in a little shop in Millbrook, that town we recently visited that has the great diner. I don’t know about you, but there is something about a little lamp that allows for more detail, more charm. Look at those sweet faces. They never fail to make me smile.

How could we resist? Eventually, I found the red shade, which just seemed made for this lamp. Although, have you ever noticed that there are some shades that are just impossible to keep straight? This is one of them. That adorable egg cup was a birthday gift from Linda.

1-28 stellarjay

After almost ten years of sitting on the windowsill in the bathroom, where it was constantly in the way of the blinds and fell to the floor more times than I can count, this little guy got moved to the bookshelves. It’s a watercolor of a Steller’s Jay and it’s on the small and petite side.

When Don and I were first courting, we took our first trip together – a trip that was fraught with misunderstandings, emotional craziness on my part, miscommunication – all the things that can happen when you are first getting to know each other and are still unsure as to where the relationship is going. We had planned to go to Yosemite, but the weather was terrible up there so we switched our destination to Lake Arrowhead, where we stayed in a sweet little cabin. There was a picnic table outside the cabin where a fascinating little bird would hang out. I was absolutely smitten by this bird. So was Don. Turns out it was a Steller’s Jay.

Years later, when we were trekking across the country to our new home out East, we spent the night in Flagstaff, Arizona. Actually, we spent two nights there because we were so exhausted after packing up the truck, saying our goodbyes, and not arriving in Flagstaff until the wee hours of the morning. We ran across a little art gallery and there we saw this watercolor. It reminded us of our beginnings. So, we bought it.

There’s always a story behind everything here at the cottage.

As I write this, I hear some snoring.

1-28 scootie

Sometimes, the tunnel is just not very comfortable for Dame Scout and she walks to the sofa and looks at me. That’s my cue. I lift her up, place her on the sofa, and she settles in for a comfy sleep. And I can gaze at her all I want.

Happy Wednesday.

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Scout, The River, Geese & Egg Cups 2015, Part One.

To Egg Cup or Not to Egg Cup

Small Stories

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Lambs Like to Party

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