My Collection of......by (Angela) Jean

Tea Towels.

I have a confession. I'm a hoarder collector. It's a fine line, isn't it?
I can't remember how long I've collected tea towels....ever since I've lived on my own, I guess. I have a deep love for textiles of all kinds, but to me, there is something special about the tea towel.

I love the way mundane tasks like drying dishes or mopping up spills are elevated by using a cheerful tea towel. I love the way a bold graphic print catches my eye from across the room. I love the way the thick cotton feels in my hand. I love the way a stack of tea towels looks, freshly laundered and ironed. I love rotating my collection with the seasons, getting out the Christmas favourites, the Halloween and Easter ones. I love bringing a pretty tea towel with my contribution to a pot-luck and leaving it behind for the hostess. I love wrapping wedding shower gifts in tea towels. My little brother is getting married next year, but I've been saving tea towels (ones for every season) for them for years.

I have many, many tea towels. I just counted....drumroll please......287. Ludicrous, right? But wait! Let me explain....I have categories (seasonal & non-seasonal), and tiers (1,2,&3). The categories are obvious, but the tiers go like this: When I get a new tea towel, one that is special, it is kept as a Tier 1. These are my beauties, my most prized. They are ironed and neatly folded and kept in the bottom drawer of my buffet.

But it's full, you see, and so when a new towel comes into the fold, it's time for relegation. Which brings us to Tier 2. Tier 2's are my worker bees. They get ironed too, but they are the tea towels that we use every day.

If you came to my house right now you'd see a couple of Tier 2's hanging on the oven door. Once a Tier 2 gets a nasty tumeric or tomato sauce stain, he gets retired to Tier 3. Tier 3's are kept under the sink in the kitchen and in a cupboard above the washing machine in the laundry room. These unfortunate souls do the dirty work: scrubbing floors, washing cars, cleaning various bodily fluids off of...well....you get the idea... Tier 3's often get tossed after particularly ugly jobs.
To get your mind off pee and poo, let me show you some of my hoard collection.

I have a thing for stripes. They make me happy.

And fruits and veggies. They make me hungry.

I have some kitschy, touristy ones that I love.

Who wouldn't love to dry their dishes with Bill or George?

But my very most favouritest of all? MAPS!

You might remember from this post, that I don't get to travel very much, but I have friends and family that do, and they often bring me back beauties. Like this.

Or THESE!

The London Tube map. Awesome.

I have one special friend who is my dearest enabler contributor. She brought me these two last week which inspired the writing of this post.

scenes from Firenze

Habit de Parfumeur, Museé Carnavalet, Paris

The best thing about my collection? They can take me to Sorrento, Paris, Germany, London, Florence and St. Lucia...all while standing at my kitchen sink.