Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Buttons Galore

Well fancy that. Blogger flipped all of my pictures, with the exception of family. At least they were kind enough to leave us on our feet!

Over the weekend I visited a few Estate Sales. At one, I bought a Lot of Grandma's stuff - crochet thread, ribbons, tatting, etc. for $9. I thought most of it would be passed along, but Grandma had good taste. I will be keeping much of it.

But now I have to organize it. These are some of the buttons that were in the bag. Should I keep them on cards? Or remove them?

I inherited my mom's button box. I've sorted through much of it, but this is how the bulk of the "leftovers" are stored. Do you have an unsorted button box? Is it just for fun? Or do you try to actually use the contents?

I've also got some "special" buttons, which have been sorted into boxes by color. But I find that they are a pain to get to, and then I just play with them. I feel bad about using them.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to make my button collection "user friendly." I know a lot of you don't do buttons...I don't do them much either, but sometimes I just gotta have them. ;)

Finally, here is a picture taken this weekend. All of the kiddies gathered from various parts of CA and met in Fresno for 7 hours. Then it was home again, home again, jiggity jig. oh well. We treasure the time we have together, knowing that it is scarce.

(This was taken in a restaurant, an hour from home.)

And I guess that's a wrap. Button comments? Anyone? Help? :)

5 comments:

Deborah said...

Wonderful family photo! Buttons are so much fun! I do use them but most often just play with them. If they are on cards I tend to leave them on cards. Through the years I've acquired a few button boxes or tins and once when I was going through a particularly stressful time, I went through most of them and started organizing the buttons by color and type by stringing them on wire and storing them in glass jars.

Sherry said...

Glad you all stayed on your feet! ;o)

A friend worked in a clothing bank. She did the sorting and throwing away. But first, she cut off buttons and ripped out zippers. Then...she gave them to me for Christmas! I was in button/zipper heaven! As she cut the buttons off, she strung them together! What a dear.

I sorted them into 3 quart jars by color: white and whitish... blue/black/brown/metal/wood... red/pink/yellow.

The zippers are just about gone. They were fantastic to use in craft projects, purses, bags in graduated sizes for traveling.

I'm a button girl since my grandmother let me carry her button jar around shaking it. One time the whole bottom fell out! Glass jar! After that I just carried the new button jar around marveling at the colors and shapes.

Bonnie said...

When I was teaching Kindergarten the kids loved to sort the buttons. I've got to get going on a more colorful collection for my grandkids to play with.
Bonnie

Del said...

I don't use the buttons for 'decoration' in my house, so I leave those on cards on their cards. The loose ones I string together by colors on heavy thread and store in a plastic storage box. I rarely use them, but sometimes it is a comfort to take them out and just fondle and admire them. I've always wondered why they give me (and many other women I know) such pleasure. Del

Brenda said...

I have a friend who is a professional story teller. One of her stories is about a button jar and always being able to get into it and finding just the right button. Part of the story is about how shocking it is that women (younger generation) don't have button jars anymore. That surprised me, and I guess I'm the tail end of the generation that still has and loves them.
Brenda