Pretty Shabby Chic Tea Towels

I love pretty things as all of you who have visited my blog or have seen my home know. Not only do I buy for beauty but for function also. "Form follows function" is one of my favorite sayings. It first must function in that capacity for which it was bought. (An example is my wrist watch. I call it my Nancy Nurse watch. It's a very plain Timex with black numerals and hands but with a red second hand. I'll never buy any other watch. I just keep purchasing another one just like this one when it finally bites the dust. Have for years and will continue to do so. It's not especially pretty but it is "functional" and that's what a watch should be first and foremost........and they're inexpensive! But it's form is not displeasing to me at all.)

But let's talk about another common thing that just about everyone in the world has in their home and that's tea towels. Yep, the common ol' tea towel.

Tea towels have been know to wipe away boo boos on kids, dry their eyes, carry flowers and veggies into the house from the garden, ice cubes (don't ask!), carry a child's doll like it's a blanket, dry our hands - or hubbies, which is how they get so dirty in the first place if you've noticed, as I have, that they wash their hands, but dry their hands and arms!, trust me on this one.

BUT they don't have to be ugly or plain. Above are photos of some of my kitchen towels. Some have been bought at garage sales for 10¢! (I once bought a brand new canvas butcher's apron for 25¢ and absolutely love it for it generous size. It almost totally wraps around me to the back!) If I buy something to sell and there are 2 of them and I like them, then I buy 2 - one to sell and one to keep. ;-)

Some of the above towels are older and been washed many times but they are all pretty and not just "kitcheny" towels. I buy ones that have roses on them. Plus those towels in the bath dept. of a store don't have to be used in the bath; the hand towels can be used in the kitchen also. That's where I get some of my kitchen towels. I'm not into kitcheny types of towels with fruits and such on them (although, I'd buy some with cherries on them in a heart beat!), so much as roses or flowers. So in my home this is what the kitchen, as well as the bath, towels look like.