As I get older and more sure of my taste in design and decor, I am ready to surround myself with things that make me happy and represent my style. And I'm pretty sure that in the kitchen, that doesn't mean old stained tea towels.
Here's the thing about a home for one to live well in - a truly graceful home has beautiful (I don't mean expensive), meaningful and useful items in it...and the small touches count. And so I have just explained my predilection and passion for the plain old tea towel. Because tea towels are not plain anymore!
I think it started with one we bought in Antibes, France. It's spectacularly "South of France" and is alive with colour - a yellow border with a green pattern on top, and a Mimosa branch in the centre. I don't just want to use it to dry dishes, I want to display it and see it when I walk into the kitchen. It sets a bright and cheerful mood for the room - which is exactly what is needed to help make those tasks we don't always feel like doing, just a little bit more palatable.
Here is a little sampling of my current favourite tea towels, most of which are from designers with etsy shops.
New Zealand-based designer
shakyisles has a few that I love in her
etsy shop.
Her $25 towels are 100% linen and emblazoned with beautiful designs from NZ, like this Manuka flower one:
I also love her Pohutukawa flower design:
You can also buy three of her designs for $65 and five for $110. It's a deal! It's a steal!
flyingrhymes is from Denmark and I am so digging the designs in her etsy shop! "Sky Friends" satisfies two of my current obsessions - birds and towels.
I also love the design of her "Miley" towels:
and who wouldn't want her "Poppies with hearts" towels for Valentine's Day?
Her towels are made out of "flour sack" cotton and are $17.50 for two. I'd also contemplate her four towel "whimsy pack" for $34.
dizzydezign hails from South Africa and I am in love with her Spring tea towel, $10 on her etsy shop.
I am also infatuated with Cape Town, South Africa-based skinnylaminx's Borrowed Spoons natural hopsack towel:
There's just one problem - it's sold out! I am hoping that when she returns to her etsy shop in mid-January that she will be making more of this design. Then again, based on this one, I'd probably want an towel she makes!
I haven't been so drawn to a tea towel in my life, until I saw this one (Is that weird to say? Whatever! I love kitchen decor!) from Portland-based etsy designer elisabethbentz (who lives with her husband, dog, cat, two finches and four chickens. Is seriously love her.). The Colander tea towel ($11) is made of linen and screenprinted with her original colander design. (I am also seriously coveting an apron of hers, but I'll save that for an apron post).
I also must have these last two towels. They're from UK-based site The Manicule, and I am not sure whether I'd use them or frame them, but they must be mine.
The You Wash, I'll Dry towel is a perfect reminder to share domestic duties.
My very favourite towel of all though, is this AWESOME If You Can't Stand The Heat one. I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!
Each towel, as well as their other designs, cost £8.50, which is just under $13USD. The towels are actually available on Canadian e-shop Up To You Toronto, for $21 (tax free for the month of January!). Click here to go to the towel's page.
No word as to whether these will actually make me do more dishes.
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Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself. 
