Sunday Reflection—On Cups
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” —CS Lewis
The gift of the Korean teacup prompted a never-before-pondered realization. I reach for a particular cup depending upon the mood. I wonder if I am alone in this? Hmmm…. I don’t know what it says about me psychologically, but I am sure that the drinks taste all the better for the lovely cup they’re in!
My daily cup of morning cappuccino bliss reposes in this cheerily, daisy-ed, oversized cuppa. It’s a friendly start to each day.
In the evening, however, the cappuccino-shared-with-Husband-Will reflects the warm and pleasant aaah-end-of-the-day-and-the-kids-are-in-bed ceremony.
If it’s going to be a day at home with many cups of tea in the offing, I naturally reach for this, whose mate sits in Holly’s kitchen in Dublin.
If I’m feeling under the weather and need a more medicinal treatment, this warm-yet-down-to-business-striped-nurse stands bedside.
When I’m rather blank and need a dose of inspiration, I find I pass other cups by for the more elaborate Irish artisan pottery cup.
And if ever the Queen or some other royal enters my cottage, I will naturally pull out the fancy Russian fine china cups.
So, after reflecting upon my own palette of cups, I wonder what your favourite cup is? Better yet, why not send me a pic of your favourite cup and I’ll post a mosaic of them! And even better yet, as we’re entering the festive season, I’m spontaneously thinking as I write this that I’ll give a 100gram skein (which is about 192 yds) of Irish Kilcarra aran weight yarn, randomly number generated, to one owner of a cup photograph, anywhere on the globe! I’ll accept emails with pics until 6pm EST Thursday, 4 December, and pick a number that evening. The result will be posted on Friday, 5 December, and the pressie will be enroute that day to beat the Christmas rush! Photos can be sent to cheryl@asimpleyarn.net.
I can’t wait to see your personalities reflected in your cups!
How fun! I’ll be taking some photos later today and email them right over.
I like that your cups aren’t all matchy-matchy.
That Irish pottery cup is breath-taking!
My tea always tastes better out of a hand-made cup.
30 Nov 2008 at 8:41 am
Thanks, Cheryl, you’re on. I love having various cups that fit mood and occasion. A melange of cups are also in my cupboard and stand out among my otherwise matchy-match dishes.
30 Nov 2008 at 12:12 pm
You’re definitely not alone with the cup thing. I have a cup collection going in my cupboard. I have my large 0.5 litre cups for when I want lots of tea or sometimes I drink soup out of those, then there are my regular mugs for tea/coffee and my small cups for kids or for when I or my son want hot cocoa which we never want much of.
Then there are the “Sammeltassen” I inherited from my great-grandmother and my grandmother, which I don’t dare use but love to look at, there’s a shelf in my workspace that holds my grandmothers “Better than just us but not really posh” set of cups/saucers/plates/Coffee Pot/Cream and Sugar Bowls which is white and blue and totally un-fancy but very pretty, there’s my great-grandmothers posh set that I have never ever seen used which has beautiful red roses on it, I have cups stowed away in boxes in the attic because there’s simply no room here for them but I’m not ready to throw away perfectly usable cups. Yes, I may actually have a cup-problem, except it really doesn’t feel like it. Oh, and there’s the two-cup-set my best friend and I bought on our vacation this spring, they stack and have a lighthouse printed on them, my cup has the top part but he hardly ever uses his cup “because it’s on the bottom and I’d have to move the cups around to get it” I usually tell him “you wouldn’t have to if you made _me_ a cup of tea when you’re making yourself one”
Yeah, cup problem…
30 Nov 2008 at 2:35 pm
My mood always determines which cup I choose for my coffee (not so much a tea drinker here), as well as the glass I choose for my ice-water, which I drink all day, every day.
I’m rather embarrassed to show my cups after having seen your’s, mine being more of the dime store variety.
01 Dec 2008 at 12:10 am
I posted a pic of my fav cup..although at heart i am a thick pottery mug girl though. Lol, but then again when you grow up in a house and your only heat is a wood stove and the tea kettle is atop the stove…i would have so broke many cups!
01 Dec 2008 at 11:19 pm
My cups suck big time hehehehe
Ok they are pretty in there own way but they are kind of plain.
Yours are so pretty and reflect so much. I have been eyeing off these very pretty mugs and tea cups from Royal Doulton of late. Ah well one day soon!!!
02 Dec 2008 at 5:39 am
Oh, a husband to drink coffee with! Alas mine drinks only tea that “tastes like wood”.
I love how your cup descriptions give them each a personality, as though they are speaking to you. Which makes me pause and wonder whether or not they each secretly have a name yet to be shared.
02 Dec 2008 at 4:37 pm
I love your cups, they are beautiful.
02 Dec 2008 at 5:10 pm
what a delightful array of cups, each with its own personality. will email a picture of my cup, which i love dearly, but would like to be out of the contest running since i already have some beautiful kilcarra from before! thanks for sharing your cups!
03 Dec 2008 at 4:24 am