I've made several tabletop fountains for various events. One was a teapot fountain. I started with a big basket and a plastic basket liner to hold the water. Yes, you need to drill a hole in the bottom of the teapot. Then, run tubing from the pump through the hole in the teapot. You have to wire the teapot to a stake or something and wire the stake tightly to the basket so it doesn't tip over. I put a piece of oasis in the basket liner and put a saucer and teacup on top of the oasis lined up so the water would pour from the teapot spout to the teacup. As the teacup filled, it overflowed into the saucer and then into the basket liner below. I hid the pump behind the oasis and twined artificial greenery around the stake, the edge of the basket and all the mechanics. I added fresh flowers to it as well. It was really pretty. Oh, I used cold coffee as the water that was pumped...it is more colorful than tea. Another one I made was for a friend's wedding. Her husband was a fisherman in Alaska. I also did it in a basket. I cut some bare twigs and spray painted them white and then sprinkled them with glitter. I put some white Christmas decoration leaves around the top edge of the basket, then spray painted the basket, the white leaves and basket edge with artificial snow. I attached battery-operated white lights to it, hiding the wiring in the white leaves, then also sprayed more artificial snow to help hide the light wires completely. I attached the twigs to represent the tree line along the back edge of the basket. I had some big frosted glass chunks that I put in the basket liner. When I added the water, they looked like icebergs. I put 2 tiny ceramic polar bears on one of the icebergs. Water was pumped like a waterfall over the icebergs. I put some dry ice in the back, so it had a foggy mist over it. Their wedding colors were siver and blue, so I added a big silver and blue bow to the handle of the basket with long "tails" hanging across the snow scene. I've had a lot of fun with indoor fountains, and they're really easy to do once you've figured out the simple mechanics of it all. Just be sure you have a basin deep enough to cover the pump with water or you can burn the fountain out. I wish I had photos to share!

The thing sitting there with the pointed top is where the goblet sat. Don't know a reason for that, probably to look more impressive pouring water!LOL People were nuts about their tea also. Gold tarnishes just like silver, not as fast tho & gold either wore off with use or someone started using silver polish on it & "wore" the gold off. If you have a jewelry cloth could rub it a bit on the tube going up over the top to see if it "turns gold"(shiny gold) I've had stuff from yard sales I bought in a Ziploc bag for $5 or less & discovered that some of the best pieces were the stuff I almost threw away. A "piece of copper pipe" or so I thought proved to be most valuable piece I had. It was just very dirty tarnished gold with nothing on it, no design & really looked like edges would be rough but they weren't. Friends owned jewelry store & I took several pieces in & that sad looking piece cleaned up beautifully & was worth more than all the other pieces put together. I thought it was copper because of pinkish color-rose gold. I had washed it & taken it as I thought they would have a good laugh. Laugh was on me! So if you find something weird in bunch of old jewelry or button box or jar, it might be valuable-old diamonds,rings, gold. My jewelry cloth cleaned up several gold chains that were marked & I still wear not real fancy but work well with some things I had minus the chain. Mut. you might call & ask if the auction house ever gives "free appraisals" or if you take a magazine that has free appraisals in it you could send them pic. that way you don't have to spend any money. If the gold is truly all worn off there would not be that much value,inside was supposed to be gold too so would think you could see some left in there unless acid ??? or some kind of drink or wine might have leeched it all off.

We're talking about tea, right? The water temperature to make the tea depends on what type of tea you drink (ie, green, oolong, black, etc.) In general, like Cotehele mentioned, you want barely boiling water to brew your tea. Overheating the water reduces its oxygen content and causes the tea to taste flat. This is the reason that these devices shuts off once reach a near boiling temperature. That is if the device is manufacturer to make/brew tea. It is also a thermo and able to keep the tea warm for a long period of time. An inexpensive way that my family uses for years is we brew tea a bit stronger in a teapot and keep hot water in a thermo on the side. During the day, we pour some tea in the cup and add hot water to it. The combination would make the cup of tea at the right temperature throughout the day. As for choosing a teapot, chose ones that is made from material that retains the heat for long hours. One such is the Yixing teapot. These teapots are made of a special purple clay that only exist in Yixing, China. This special clay retains heat well for hours. My sister had given me a beehouse teapot that I found it retains heat for hours also. Using a tea warmer is effective too.

if you think the smell of coffee is bad...you ought to be on my deck when hubster is cooking the beans...it smells awful...I don't know how something that smells so bad can taste so good...When he first got the roaster he made the mistake of using it in the house...it took us days to get the house aired out...now he cooks the beans out on the deck! I'll drink coffee on a rare occasion...tea is my hot drink of choice...with milk and a little sugar!