My love affair with cornishware

I first discovered cornishware in all it's blue and cream stripey goodness back in 2005.

At our leaving party in Scotland we were gifted 2 'I heart Scotland' mugs from a lovely lady G used to work with. They came in a pink and silver stripey Victoria Secret bag which I'm sad to say I didn't keep as I'm sure it would have been lovely cut up and used on a scrapbook page :-)

The mugs were so precious that they came with us in our suitcases to NZ (we stored a lot of stuff and got it shipped later once we'd decided to stay and Immigration decided to let us) and were probably the nicest 'house' things we owned for a while.

These are my favourite mugs ever. Perfect for drinking hot chocolate on chilly days. Guests are not generally offered the cornishware mugs. They get the boring white ones instead. Because that way I do not need to get upset with them if they accidently break the mugs!

I often see glimpses of Cornishware around the internet and even found a group on Flickr dedicated to it. When I've seen it in antiques shops around NZ I've always gasped a little at the price and I've never found anything on Trade Me at a price I was happy to pay.

But then my 1st Mothers Day approached and with it some fresh Cornishware inspiration and I decided to do  another search to see what was available in NZ. The prices were scandalous. But it was my 1st Mothers Day. I sent a couple of links to my hubby. Declared that I would be happy with an egg-cup (with thoughts I could use it as a tiny vase for tiny flowers) and waited.

Hubby said he was expecting a parcel and I secretly hoped.
Mothers Day came and went with no parcel.

And then this morning, a courier knocked on the door with this box (I photographed it next to the mugs for a size comparison)...

Under lots of shredded paper and those foamy nuggets was this box (wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap). I may or may not have squealed at this point. I mean, come on, the box has the lovely stripeys on it too :-)

Can't resist another photo of the box from another angle...

And here it is - my lovely little pudding basin...I say little because hubby and I were both expecting something larger - especially given the size of the box it arrived in.

Isn't it gorgeous? Size doesn't matter - I may not be able to whip up muffin mix in it as imagined but it's the perfect size for popcorn or other lovely nibbly things for movie date night.

And here's a final picture...this one of my Cornishware collection :-)