In The Middle

I had an idea a few weeks ago to replace my old kitchen curtains with vintage tea towels hung on a cafe rod.  My mom and I went looking at antique shops for tea towels, but we couldn't find anything just right--everything we found was too long or too short or the wrong color or there was only one and I needed two.  Then I decided to start in on the laundry room and forgot about the tea towels.

Until my mom called me today when I was in the middle of papering the laundry room to say, "You know, I think I made you a set of tea towels when you were little."  That sent me to my cedar chest to dig around and see what I could find.  Sure enough, folded neatly and wrapped in tissue paper in a plastic bag (a Harzfeld's Petticoat Lane bag, for those of you who know Kansas City) was a set of six linen tea towels.

When I saw them, I suddenly remembered being about ten years old and going to an old general store out in the boonies somewhere with my mom.  (I can remember the plain wood floor without stain or varnish, and I also remember the tin ceiling, the big storefront windows and the way everything smelled of cinnamon and tea, but I can't remember where the store was.)  Mom bought six yards of Irish linen toweling, and I still recall how beautiful I thought that linen was when the store clerk rolled it off the bolt to measure it.

I read someplace that anything more than 25 years old is considered vintage, so these tea towels qualify, since Mom made them about 36 years ago.  Choosing which two to use for curtains was a big decision, made easier when I realized that since I'm using clips to attach them to the cafe rod, I can switch out the towels whenever I want.  I settled on Parsley and Sage for now.

As luck would have it, the tea towels are the perfect length and width and the perfect color to go with my red and yellow kitchen.  Best of all, they're out where I can see them and enjoy my mom's neat handiwork every day.