The things you can do on a lathe are just about endless.  Here are a few of the things that I have made:

Suspended Bowls

The bases of these are made from a single piece of wood.  It includes the legs and the bowl.  The lids are turned seperate.  Both of these are Maple.  The front bowl has a Juniper lid.  It was turned from a tree a local man had to cut down.  The back bowl has a Cherry lid.

Birdhouse Ornaments

The birdhouse ornaments were a blast to make.  There is no limit to what you can do for shape and style.  They are made from a variety of woods.  The styles vary with each one.  No two are alike. 

Segmented Vase

This is Maple and Mahagony.  It is made of 97 individual pieces of wood.  It is about 8" tall and 5" wide at the widest point.  The finish was a shellac/wax friction polish. 

Ironwood Cane

The cane was made for my mother.  It is made of one of the ironwoods, there are hundreds.  It is about 30 inches long.  The ironwoods are (usually) a dream to work with.  Most of them turn well and finish well.  The finish is linseed oil.  It was hand rubbed.  The linseed oil finsih was selected as opposed to to lacquer because you expect a cane to take alot of abuse.  It will be easy to fix the bumps and scratches that you expect with a cane.