I’m quite fond of this serving bowl. It’s got this cool variegated blue glaze, with swirls of grays and blues with bits of browns and whites. (I’m sure that someone with more knowledge of pottery could tell me what it’s called.) It has a nice shape, and it’s a great size for mixing up a salad or whatnot, or serving chips at a party. It’s also dishwasher safe, which means that I don’t avoid using it. It’s beautiful and sturdy, an object that gracefully nods towards both form and function.
A woman I worked with gave it to me at a going away gathering when I left my job as assistant manager of a bookstore, before starting grad school, which was now 9 years ago. I think the occasion for the gift-giving was my civil service wedding, which was a couple of weeks or so before. It was a totally unexpected gift, as the coworker and I were more friendly acquaintances than friends. I haven’t seen her since then, but her gift became one of my favorite household items.
That bowl has become a sort of gold standard for me for gifts: an item that is both useful and aesthetically pleasing.
collecting tokens 
I love giving bowls as wedding gifts, and one of my favorite gifts from our wedding was a huge ceramic bowl. Bowls rock.
Those berries look delicious. I thought the bowl was bigger, but that’s probably because I make HUGE salads.
Oooohhhh, I love your bowl.
And the berries –my favorite!– look yummy in it.
Mmm, berries.
That is a lovely bowl!
useful and pleasing is indeed good.
Loved your super bowl post. “Both useful and aesthetically pleasing” reminds me of my favorite William Morris quotation: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Still working toward that ideal myself…
Omigod, I am so jealous of those berries.
oh, how lovely! the best gifts indeed are things that we never would have bought for ourselves, but intensely love (and use!) once we have them.
rima-
Bowls rock! Especially if they don’t have flat bottoms.
de-
The berry picture makes the bowl looks smaller than it is. I’m not sure whether that means that the berries are flattering. Does a bowl want to look bigger or smaller?
ewe-
Thank you, from the bottom of my bowl. Which no longer has any berries in it. Because they were tasty.
Kyla-
See above.
magpie-
More things should be that way.
Christine-
So nice to get a visit from you! That’s a great quotation, and a great goal to aspire to. (It’s sadly far from the case in our house, where we still have just too much stuff.)
antropologa-
We had guests, so I splurged. (Also, I love berries, so I used company as an excuse.)
fireweaver-
If only such gift weren’t so hard to shop for…