Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Got any good ideas?

So, I was cleaning house today, and I opened an canister I thought was empty, and came across these inside (which tells you something about my housecleaning skills, I suppose).  They are tops for tea mugs.  Along with them, as you'll see in the photos at the end of the post, are tea strainers that fit on the top of the mugs.  I've got six of them as well.  They were a grand idea for brewing fresh tea in your mug.  We got them (the mug set) as a wedding present almost 25 years ago (yup, my 25th is coming this February) from someone who knew I loved to drink tea.

But...  The mugs were very small, and I like a big cup of tea; ditto for my husband's coffee.  So after the novelty of having a mug with a cover and strainer wore off, we stopped using them and packed them up.  In our cabinets instead are more than a dozen mostly mismatched mugs.  There's the dragon mug and handmade pottery mug, both with big volume, that I favor for my nighttime cups of tea (gifts from art teachers, both!).  There's the public radio mug that is perfect for a hot cup of cider, the mug that I use for tea in the morning, and another mug that I call the 'cocoa mug'.  And my husband has his own batch of mugs with old cars on them, that he uses for coffee.  And there's the Christmas mug, the Chanukah mug... you get the idea.


So when I came across this stuff today, my husband hunted in the basement for the mugs they match, and realized we must have handed them over to a rummage sale many years ago, totally neglecting to remember to include the matching tops.

Which leaves me with what I now have: pretty covers too small for any mug and mini ceramic strainers.  I'm looking for some ideas.  The covers, I thought, might look nice mounted somehow on some sort of surface, in a shadow-box frame perhaps?  I don't know.  I thought maybe I could inlay them in plaster, but my husband thinks they won't stay put.  Or perhaps I could glue them to cork to make coasters, but they'd be rather slippery I suppose.  Got any ideas?

And the strainers - I don't have a single idea yet, but I'd hate to throw them out.  Please, when you make suggestions, remember I'm no longer teaching, so I don't necessarily need art class ideas.  But I'm open-minded.  I'll be curious to see what you come up with!

3 comments:

  1. I just got my first good idea from a facebook friend! He suggested I use the strainer in a pan of boiling water, for poaching eggs. I'm trying it out tomorrow! But I'm still open to more ideas...

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  2. Whenever I find little "treasures" that have been tucked away and I can't think of a way to use, they go straight to our local Assistance League. They say there is always someone who will think it is the perfect thing got them and best of all, I end up with a little empty space on a shelf that I can later fill!! A win-win!!

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  3. For the straner what about a flower pot, or putting 3 in a clear container and putting water in the clear container and then flowers or cacti in the 3 strainers so when the plants need water the roots can get it fromthe big container? Plus it would look awesome!
    I like the ideas of mounting the lids.

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