Categories / Food and Drink

Urban Graphic retro mugs from Big Tomato Company

Big Tomato mugs

Each mug in the Urban Graphic from the Big Tomato Company features a different stylised object. As well the anglepoise lamp and retro radio pictured, the ten designs also include a dalek, a shoe and a teapot meaning there's something for every taste and interest. And to make it even more of an ideal gift, they each come with their own matching gift box too. 

As with all of the Big Tomato mugs, they are manufactured in Stoke-on-Trent from creamware. The metallic decoration which works so well here is created using 24ct gold and platinum. Each mug costs £13.95. 

See them online

Categories / Food and Drink, Homeware

Gemüse by Graziela China

Gemuse%20mugs%20as%20on%20co

The Gemüse designs by Graziela date back to 1975, but has now been added to a collection of fine bone china.

The iconic images are all of vegetables, namely a radish, cucumber, onion, sweetcorn, pepper and asparagus. The mugs all feature a large picture of one vegetable while the dinner plates feature three small images of the vegetable on the rim. There is also a serving platter which has one of each of the vegetables around the outside.

The mugs cost £12.50, the plates £19 and the Serving Plate £39, all available from Thorsten Van Elten.

Categories / Food and Drink

Coca-cola cafe chair from After Noah

Coke-Coca-Cola-Chair
After Noah have some of these classic 1970s French style folding chairs for sale, each featuring the distinctive branding of coca-cola. For me, it conjures up some happy memories of sitting on something similar, somewhere on a school exchange, while supping a bottle of fizzy drink. 

If that's the kind of atmosphere you'd like to replicate in your own garden, there are 52 available, each costing £65. And cruelly, though they look French, the website reveals that these chairs were actually made in the USA. 

See it online
Categories / Food and Drink

Rice lunch plates

Lunchplate

These old fashioned looking lunch plates look like something you would happily unearth at a car boot sale, rather than something that would be produced today, but they are contemporary and part of the collection of Danish company Rice

Each plate is hand painted in beautiful muted colours and features botanical illustrations. The designs vary from item to item given them even more of a unique feel. This timeless piece of investment will cost you £14 a plate. 

Buy them from the Chest of Drawers website
Categories / Food and Drink, Music

Salt N Pepa shakers

Salt n pepa

It's a simple idea but one that's guaranteed to raise a wry smile every time you flavour your food: salt and pepper shakers in the guise of the world's best female selling rap act, Salt N Pepa

The illustrations, which are digitally cut out of vinyl and hand applied to traditional shakers, show them in their finest 80s fashions. They are the bright idea of  Addie Gartland who sells them through her Drink and Dream Etsy shop for $30 a set.

Sadly no sign of Spinderella though. 

Buy them online
Categories / Architecture, Food and Drink

Esther Coombs council block cake plate

Coombs council house plate

Esther Coombs illustrates modern architecture onto ceramics, such as in this council block cake plate. So far, so People Will Always Need Plates. However, Esther's emphasis is much more about the stories behind each item. Each illustration is hand drawn or transferred onto a second-hand ceramic found from car boot sales and charity shops. Her Etsy store then reveals the story behind each item: for example she used to pass the council house pictured on her way into Waterloo Station in London every morning. The layers of meanings and associations created add some romance into the straight lines of the portrayed buildings. 

This plate costs $75 and she also has cake stands and several other ceramics available, featuring various buildings. 

Buy it from Esther Coombs' Etsy store