The Ever Growing Mug Collection

Hi Everyone,

Ever since @livinguktaiwan introduced me to the Hive Collectors community and @mipiano showed her collection of mugs I decided to dig out all the mugs that I have in my house and it's safe to say that it's an every growing collection. I'm not sure what it is but I absolutely love mugs!

Family Mugs

The first group of mugs is the family mugs that live on my worktop all hanging on a mug tree. I bought these mugs purposely for the new house as it’s not only practical but they make a great feature in the kitchen. These mugs are our day to day mugs as we love using them, the kids are too young to use theirs at the moment but when they’re older they can use them for their drinks.

My Personal Mugs

This set is all my personal mugs that I have collected over the years, I find that K mugs prove to be popular and they sell out quickly in the UK. Majority of them I bought myself but the Disney Mum mug was bought for me for my birthday last year for my 30th from my children’s godfather as he knows how much of a Disney fan I am. The other mum mug was bought for me on my first Mother’s Day from my son and the Mama mug was bought for me for Mother’s Day by my daughter last year. The snoopy K mug was actually bought from the Snoopy Museum I visited in Tokyo, Japan. I have always loved Snoopy and my son has recently started watching Charlie Brown; he’s also enjoying the cartoons!

Emma Bridgewater Mugs

My next set is a beautiful set that I haven’t used at all but it’s from the brand called Emma Bridgewater. It’s a UK handmade pottery brand whose factory is in Stoke-on-Trent and as a lifetime member I have been meaning to visit the factory. The mugs are beautifully made and they create mugs to mark special occasions such as Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles Coronation. They also do city mugs in different seasons as well as seasonal mugs such as Christmas & Halloween.

His Lordship & Her Ladyship

This is a novelty set that I bought from Palace House in Beaulieu which I visited when my children's uncle came over from Saudi Arabia. The Palace House is built in the New Forest, part of the Beaulieu Estate (which is know for the motor museum) and has been the Montagu family home since 1538. The house still has all the original calling bells on the wall in one of the rooms where the shop is located. This is where I found the mugs and we were served by a lady who was dressed up how the maids use to dress back in the day. It's a set that I may use if I ever become a Lady of the Manor, I can always dream can't I.

Recipe Mugs

I bought this set of mugs when I was in Australia and I was visiting a Wildlife Park on Philip's Island for my birthday. We had just spent the day feeding kangaroos and wallabies by hand in their enclosures, it was such a fun experience. I wanted to buy something to remember my visit but instead of buying a soft toy of a kangaroo or wallaby I ended up buying this set of mugs. I have never seen a set like these and I was very close to giving them away to charity before my move. Each mug has 4 recipes printed on the sides which you can make using the mug itself, stick the ingredients all into the mug, place it in the microwave, cook and viola you have a meal for 1. I haven't used any of these because I'd be worried that the writing may fade or the mug may break.

Starbucks Mugs

This collection only started recently, I do love my Starbucks and some of these mugs were bought a while ago but I had no intention of making them a collection until recently. Now, I purchase a Starbucks mug from every city that I have been to as they have You’ve Been Here series mugs which I display on top of my cupboards in my kitchen. It’s another touch that I have added to the house and I’m hoping to create a proper display case that sits on top of the cupboards (if I have time this year) so that they are dust free.

Disney Mugs

As my profile says, I am a Disney fan so what fan would I be if I didn’t have my collection of Disney mugs. I don’t have many but these have either been bought by myself from Walt Disney World in Florida or from charity shops over here. My favourite are the 3D Mickey & Donald both hugging the handle, I've tried to find if there are any others such as Minnie Mouse or Daisy Duck but no luck.

Travel / Day Trip Mugs

These mugs are from my travels whether that be in the UK and it’s been just for a day or from abroad. My favourite travel mug has to be the one with the bee sat on the handle. I bought this mug from a honey farm when I was travelling in New Zealand. I was walking round the shop, tasting all their different types of honey before I stumbled upon this mug which I had to buy. When I came back from New Zealand is was the only mug that I would use because every time I looked at the bee it would make me smile and I remember the scenery of the honey farm.

The day trip mugs aren’t anything special apart from the Grand Pier mug which I actually won playing a two pence machine when I was last at the seaside town of Weston Super Mare. We decided we were going to have a day where we just spent some of our change that we had lying around and I ended up winning this mug.

Miscellaneous Mugs

These are various mugs that vary from being used a lot to not used at all. My shop mugs are just mugs that I've bought from some of the shops I've enjoyed visiting such as M&Ms World, Carlos Bakery in the USA who has a TV programme about his shop as well as Tim Hortons which a few years ago opened a restaurant in Somerset.

My gifted mugs have all been bought for me for various reasons. The first mug on the top which has multicoloured VW vans was gifted to me by my children's uncle from when we went to Beaulieu as we own a VW van. The 'I'm not Normal' mug was gifted to me by my best friend when I left my job several years back and we have been best friends ever since we have worked together. She always seemed to think I had a screw loose somewhere but I think it really was her who had the screw loose. The last mug, which is difficult to see the pattern, but it has Wallace, Gromit and Feathers McGraw which are from the Wallace & Gromit Animation. This mug is special because purchasing anything from the Wallace & Gromit Children's Foundation supports the special charity including Cots for Tots. If you've read my previous post you'll know why Cots for Tots is a special charity to my family.

So there you have it, my ever growing collection of mugs which currently stands at 78! I didn’t realise I had this many mugs till I started taking photos of them but I have to confess, there are more which didn’t make the cut such as my Harry Potter mugs. I think I may have an addiction to buying mugs but I do know someone who has A LOT more than me which is my mum. She purchases a mug from every place she visits and displays them on top of all her cabinets, we guess that she has over 300 mugs! Maybe one day I’ll count them.

Until next time, stay tuned.