well for the potted plant i'd make a pot, then with a poly plane or cube i'd create a (slightly uneven) surface to represent the soil, then you can either model your plant or look at paint effects.

for the coiled rug, i'd start with the cv curve tool and make a spiral, then make a nurbs circle and extrude with the options tube, at path, closest end point, and path direction (profile normal doesn't seem to make a difference here). if you want a more oval rug you can try scaling the spiral curve in one direction and then tightening the cvs so there's not a gap at the ends.

edit: or you could just use a flattened, scaled cylinder and just texture it well.