Sunday 7 October 2012

The beautiful and the useful

I've been a bad blogger recently, for a multitude of little reasons I will not bore you with. Suffice to say one of them was having a lengthy, annoying flu that took away much of my mojo for anything but watching sci-fi TV series. (Hello, Doctor Who! Hello, fellow Whovians!) Which threw me more into a fangirl mode than a blogging mode, obviously.


Anyway, to get back into blogging mode, I'll show you two little things that are both beautiful and useful; this inspired by a quote by William Morris Jodi posted some time ago.

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

I must say I would not let some of William Morris' own designs into my house (way too busy and dark), but his principle is very helpful. Even though I still struggle with living up to it.




On the top is a flour scoop. We've had this thing all my life; it disappeared for some time, I think, but was unearthed again and is in wide use. It is mostly useful: larger than a spoon, but about as narrow, perfect for scooping flour into your measures (ordinary cups in this house) or the container you use when you weigh it. So yes, I know this to be very useful. But I also believe there is some practical beauty about it; it's so balanced.


On the other hand, there is this China spoon I got on a bazaar because it was beautiful. (You know I love blue & white, don't you?) I thought it could be useful as well, though in the end it sat in the back of the drawer, not being useful and being only a little bit beautiful because it could not be seen.
Until I got an idea, and measured how much water it took, and found out it was 25 ml, a highly useful number.
It's still sitting in the back of the drawer, because there is not much "display" space in this house, but I know it to be not only beautiful, but also very useful. (Today, I used it to scoop soda.)

Some time ago, I took photos of things I like around the house that are mostly useful, but also beautiful. Like dishes. I may show you more of these one day, but I will not promise anything, because my blogging is highly random. But if, after reading this post, you will look at the everyday things in your life with new eyes and see the beauty in a tool or dish, I'll be happy to hear about it.

4 comments:

  1. Hana, the china spoon, as you call it, is really a spoon rest, isn't it? You stir, then have a place to put down the spoon. It's beautiful! I also love blue and white. We've had spoon rests in the past, but I confess I now use a clear plastic container top; it's larger for more than one utensil, and seems more useful all around.

    My flour scoop is bright red plastic - we've had it ever since I can remember - I'm so used to it.

    Taking pictures of pretty things around the house is what keeps my blog going! :D It's a good thing!

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    1. I guess it could serve as a spoon rest, but those spoons we use to stir would not fit to it... so I just put them wherever it's best at the moment.
      I love how the pattern on it is simple, yet comes out as intricate.

      And of course I don't think I've come up with the idea of taking photos of beautiful and useful things, and am sorry if it came out sounding that way. ;-)

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  2. Oh, no no - I didn't mean anything by it! I just meant that's my M.O.

    I just discovered that my kitchen scale has metric measurements on it, too - now I don't need to be 'annoyed' when I read cooking amounts on blogs like yours because I have to look up what it means. I've had this scale for years - what a dope! :D

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    1. I was just kidding, a bit. ;-)

      Well, that must be a handy kitchen scale. I'm not sure if ours is as handy as that... off to check!

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