Pages

Monday, July 26, 2010

A shout out to Aunt Karen

For years now, I've been wanting to tackle a project that I knew would bring me great joy once finished. Before I tell you what that project is, you get a story from my childhood. (surprise, surprise!)

My name is Kari. You all know that. But what you may not realize if you have a name like Mary, Kate, or any of my siblings (Christine, Adam and Brian) is that no one spells my name like I do. Or at least not enough people to warrant your typical pencils, key chains, mugs, etc. I don't think it would have been as big a deal to me if my siblings, friends and cousins all had unique names like me or even if they didn't have items with their names on them. Every year when we went school shopping, my siblings were able to choose items with their names on them and I chose Lisa Frank items (although I would have chosen those items as well because they were so cool). I'm not saying I have a complex because of it, far from it. I love my name and have always thought it a wonderful way to spell it. Not to mention I named my children far from 'plain jane' names, so I'm not too butt hurt over it. But every now and again (as a child) I would find something with my name on it and I would be elated. My mom always gave in to buying said item because it was so rare. (I can only think of two things that she bought for no reason other than it was the correct spelling of my name: a magnet and a license plate key chain)

Which brings us to my beach towel. Each of us (including cousins) had a beach towel made for us with our name on it. I loved my beach towel. I still have it, it's sitting on the couch right next to me and is banned from use for fear that it will get stained. It's a keepsake of mine that I cherish and will always cherish because of the paragraph above.

Which then brings us to my project. I've wanted to make beach towels for my children and their cousins for years now, probably since the oldest cousin was born (2002). And for some odd reason this is the year I'm starting all of my projects I've wanted to do for years but haven't. It seems odd, since I'm probably the most busy I've been in my life, two children, two dogs, an active social life as well as a great marriage. But here I am, at least starting projects that have been marinating in my mind for years now, tweaking them and re-doing them until I get it right. This towel project will be no different, I fear. After seeing how my aunt Karen made my towel, I realized that I wouldn't be able to do the same, she used a machine and the towel I bought seems too big for the machine. I may end up having to try anyway, depending on how this version holds up. I guess we'll see!

I didn't explain above, but recently I asked my mom who made the towels for us. She told me my Aunt Karen made them. So I want to say thank you, Aunt Karen from the bottom of my heart for giving me a present that brought me so much joy as a child. I have many happy memories of using that towel and being so proud that it said my name, spelled correct. :)



The towel that Aunt Karen made. It's quite faded, but it used to be purple.





The towel I made with Glenn on it to show size. I used the same fish fabric from his sun hat.

1 comment:

  1. What a great story. It was very nice of Aunt Karen to make all of you guys beach towels. Don't feel bad about having an uncommon name. As you know, I have what was the most popular name the year I was born. I hated having 5 other people in all of my classes with my same name. That is the reason I named my children what were suppose to be different names. Not working all that well but we have never found anything with their names on them.

    I am sending this under Anonymous because I do not know anything about blogs or any of the things they list under Comment as:

    I hope all is well with you and your family.

    Love,
    Your cousin, Jen

    ReplyDelete