365 / 159 - Building up my Collection, plus: Tea Things

I continue to be working on little batches of my designs - yesterday I finished a batch of pansies, and started sewing together a batch of red teapots. As well as helping me build up a stock of items for sale, the batch-making process is helping me build up my own personal brooch collection as I've finally got enough of certain designs to be able to keep one for myself. Here's the collection so far, including the newest addition (the pansy) ...
As you can see, there are plenty of designs still missing - ie lots of batches still to make!

In non-crafty news, I have stumbled upon a shop selling excellent mugs for your tea. Discovered via Hazel Nicholls' blog (in turn discovered when she left me a comment), SuckUK sells a drink selector mug enabling you to display your tea/coffee tastes and also a colour-matching mug to help you make perfect-strength tea or coffee. The latter reminds me of the Pantone mugs and the work of Onkar Singh Kular, who also designed a charming "pair" of three socks (the 3rd for when one gets lost) and a picture frame with a built-in spirit level (as I'm preparing to frame some pictures this one appeals to me particularly strongly!). While I'm on the subject of mugs, if you've never seen the Dunk Mug it's really worth a look. A mug with a built-in biscuit holder? Just genius, although as a friend of mine commented "it doesn't hold a whole packet though, does it?" (I do eat rather a lot of biscuits...).

Back to Hazel Nicholls for a moment though - what lovely things! This image particularly caught my eye:
It seems in my mind to be a sort of biscuit-obsessed version of Anthony Burrill's Work Hard and Be Nice to People. A copy of "Work Hard" is waiting to be framed and hung up somewhere in my house once I can work out where to put it... probably somewhere near my cheap-as-chips Keep Calm and Carry On poster (in my kitchen and much looked to during times of culinary crisis!). To continue with all this going-round-in-circles I'm doing today, checking out the fancy screenprinted versions of the Keep Calm poster (handprinted, lovely soft colours: delicious!) I found that Keep Calm Ltd now stock one of Hazel Nicholls' pieces and also (wonderful, wonderful) this completely cracking tea-themed poster:
- you've gotta love that little teacup inside the A! One last bit of tea-obsession before I sign off: a Crafting 365 photo from Seaurchin of a spilled drop of tea photographed for glazing inspiration. A quirky image in itself, I think this photo is a great example of finding inspiration in the everyday.