A very "moving" teapot gift

Have you ever come across a present you weren't supposed to get until later? I did on Saturday, but I was helping my parents pack to move into their new house, and it's certainly not my fault this gift wasn't hidden better!


I don't mean to be a teapot snob here, but I normally don't care for figural teapots. With display space already at a premium, I just can't spare the space for a teapot shaped like a television, or an elephant or a squash. I want my teapots to be round, English and have flowers on them, and that's about it. But this one? Well, this one I loved! So I was quite amused when my mom confessed it was a thrift store find she had intended for my birthday next month, but I could go ahead and take it now. "You'll have to find the cream pitcher yourself," she said. Will do!

The teapot is marked 40 oz., OCI, and when I researched that mark on eBay, I came across a number of OCI teapots made by the Omnibus division of Fitz and Floyd. I hope that one day I'll come across the matching piece, though I'm delighted with the two I received on Saturday by happy accident!

Flowers have been my obsession all spring, and on Saturday I explored the grounds at the new house and took a few photos I thought I'd share with my fellow flower lovers here. (I must confess I'm hoping to beg a few cuttings in the coming days, so hopefully some of these lovelies will be in my own garden eventually!) In order of floral appearance are camellias, above, and flowering crabapple, dwarf pink flowering almond, flowering quince, a redbud tree, jonquils, periwinkle and muscari, which is appropriately enough held by my niece Cari. Thanks for humoring me with my "moving" story from the weekend!