Kitchen Kitsch: Family Geography Tea Towel

I’m a sucker for sentimental kitsch. I’m slowly coming to acceptance that I will never have Pinterest-worthy, clutter free existence. Don’t get me wrong, i’m all about organizing, but there’s just so many cool things that (as the cool kids say) bring me joy.

What brings me joy, however, is the interaction. The get-togethers my ice bucket shaped like an old timey diving helmet remind me up, the feeling I get when selecting thread out of my little old bright blue sewing table that I cut my furniture painting teeth on, the frame above my desk/sewing table that holds the first ever check I made consulting that proved to myself my career is my own…

I’m a hopeless sentimentalist.

I was at my parents’ over Christmas and Pops, The Boyfriend, and I toured our local brewery (shout out to Schells Brewery ). While I got a Red Wing beater bowl (that is used daily, seriously another thing I got weirdly attached to) and The Boyfriend got a souvenir t-shirt, I saw the kitschy-est tea towel ever by Primitives by Kathy.

Of course I bought it.

I have a whole bunch of siblings and I thought it might be neat to embroider where everyone is/has lived, send to my Mom in Minnesota, and update it as necessary.

Home base is a gold yellow star. Everyone else is assigned a color and gets a tiny star.

As the black sheep of the family, I’m not in Minnesota. I put myself – the places I’ve lived – with a dotted line connecting both.

Lastly, I used the original yellow/gold color to fill in the family name and the established date (cute, right?)

Lastly, I recorded the colors I used for each person on a card and put it in my embroidery thread box for future updates.

What will the map look in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? If it holds up, it could be a pretty neat keepsake. See? hopeless sentimentalist.