Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone is spending the day with friends, family, and jelly beans.

For me, Easter wouldn’t be complete without giving and receiving little baskets filled with goodies. But has anyone noticed how hard it is to find real baskets for easter? I refuse to give throwaway gifts to anyone, even casual acquaintances, so those little plastic baskets at the grocery and drugstores which can only go to one place–a landfill–make me shudder.

A good basket is functional, reusable reusable reusable, and aesthetically appealing too. I went looking for little containers with all those qualities and found them in the flowerpots made by Tempe artist Tom Budzak.

I first came across Budzak’s work at the ASU Ceramic Studio Tour earlier this spring, and the only thing that stopped me from buying a whole kitchen’s worth of dishes was the incontrovertible fact that I have no kitchen. In addition to the kinds of pieces displayed in his portfolio, he does fun dishes with Star Wars characters and bright, graphic kitchenware.

Having an occasion to buy several of his flowerpots made me so happy–they are really delightful little things. Elegant but sturdy (read=hard to break), the flowerpots are glazed in rich, complex colors. The size is just right for a few small treats, but these pots will all do just fine fulfilling their intended function, too. The saucers are built-on (huzzah for fewer pieces to break!), and each pot has a drainage hole so you don’t drown your plants.

There is a downside, however, to finding such perfect “baskets”–now I don’t want to give them away!