Nifty Napkins

I remember one of the first times I visited my great friends' parents' house on the coast of North Carolina during college.  We ALWAYS had a great time there, and the food was always fresh and delicious.  When we set the table that first night, there were beautiful and funky cloth napkins at every place around the table.  "Tonight must be a special occasion," I thought.  Well, it was special, because we were all together, but I later learned that those napkins weren't just for special occasions.  They use them every day!  This was a novel concept to me back then.  Growing up, we always used those thin white paper napkins that you buy in packs of 500.  Nothing wrong with that, but now I prefer to go the cloth route for lots of reasons:

1) They are pretty and fun and make me happy.
2) They are much better for the environment.
3) They don't take "extra" work - they just get tossed in to loads of laundry I would've been doing anyway.
4) They are cheaper than paper napkins in the long run.
5) They are better for cleaning up spills and messes at dinner (more absorbent).
6) They make every dinner (even a lean cuisine and popsicle) seem a little more fancy.

Another friend gave us a set of cloth napkins we registered for from Crate and Barrel as a wedding shower gift - they are definitely one of the most-used wedding gifts we received.  And for Christmas this year, Jayne gave me an awesome set from Anthropologie - they're my new favorite things in the kitchen!

If you don't already, I highly recommend using cloth napkins - who couldn't use a little more fancy in their life?

Some fun choices from around the web:

From Anthro (of course they no longer have the set Jayne gave me, dangit.)

From Crate & Barrel

From West Elm - I want these for Easter and for any other day too!

From Etsy shop, Nicole Porter Design (I highly recommend searching for cloth napkins on Etsy, there were tons of cool options at great prices!)

Here's to dinner tables full of good food, wine, laughter, and awesome napkins!