Content/Sidebar/Sidebar

 

I generally amass things with the intent that I am actually going to use them but I may have a hard time parting with any of my buttons. 

I've actually increased my glass button collection about fifty times over since I last posted about it.  I found a couple lots on Etsy.  But now that I have them I think I'm going to have a hard time parting with any – or using them in my intended project. 

 

As far as collections go buttons do have the advantage of not taking up very much space.  It's not like I'm trying to collect turbine engines or totem poles.

Isn't this lady pretty?  Kelly gave her to me – she appears to be the top to a bottle.  I was trying to figure out something to do with her but I kind of like her just hanging out with the buttons.  Her patina matches the mother of pearl ones.

 

So no one got the spider web reference on my Maine scrapbook page.  Charlotte's Web takes place on a farm in Maine.  The honey bee is the state insect (who knew states had an official insect representing them?).  Blueberries – obvious.  Lobsters – obvious.  Beach – obvious (although Chris who has a Maine cottage says is doesn't look like a Maine beach.  I think the Maine tourism board was taking liberties and may have borrowed a picture from one of their southern neighbors).  The house is Stephen King's mansion in Bangor.  Oh and the cat is a Maine Coon cat.  

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.  It is supposed to get up to 106 degrees here today.  Good day to stay inside and count buttons.

 

I have an online friend that I've known for several years.  Karen and I met on a message board because of a shared interest.  We would chat on the board and eventually one of us emailed the other and what do you know?  We adore each other. 

We email daily and she makes me laugh like no one else can.  She also is constantly sending me great stuff.  I try to reciprocate but she is just naturally more generous than I am.

She says I'm craftier than she is but I don't know about that. 

We were talking/fantasizing about how it would be fun to meet in person.  She is way the heck over on the other side of the continent, battling palmetto bugs and hurricanes so it's not like we can just hop in our cars and meet for lunch.

We thought it might be fun to plan a weekend trip – somewhere we would both like to go and meet up for a long weekend.   If we get along as fabulously in person as we do virtually then we could make it an annual event.

From this a crafty idea was born.  We are both going to come up with our top ten places we'd like to go.  I am taking it one step further, because I'm craftier and all, and make a scrapbook of my top ten.

 

My first page is on New Orleans.  I'm still trying to talk Karen into it and I think she is warming up to the idea.  She's still mad at how the whole Katrina thing was handled and I can only think about Beignets and Jambalaya.  

Seriously Karen – beignets and cafe au lait in the French Quarter?  Can you think of anything that sounds better than that? 

  

So back to the scrapbook/wishbook.  I will make a page for each place, made up of images and objects that represent the location.

The scrapbook came from Kelly – The perfect starting point.  It comes apart easily so I can take out the pages and work on them individually. 

 

Each component of my New Orleans page is very specifically related to New Orleans in some way.  Can you figure them out?  Some are easy – the other a little more obscure.

So what page should I do next?  I haven't actually figured out all the top ten but I do know that Paris, Maine, Savannah and Charleston are on the list. 

 

Quick post – I went to an antique store today on the search for some clear buttons and I found this bag of glass bead trim.  Yards and yards and yards of it.  It looks like it was cut off of the palest blue chiffon.  The chiffon is so old it is rotting but the beads are gorgeous.  It's a huge tangled mess but I'll figure out something to do with it. 

I'm envisioning beaded table runners.  Sara got me all hooked on the idea of sparkly accents on table runners after I saw the beautiful one she made.  She sprinkled clear glass buttons along the borders. 

So now I'm on the hunt for clear buttons.  I have small collection.  The glass ones can be kind of pricey.  I'm not opposed to plastic ones but they do have a tendency to yellow – at least the old ones do. 

These are the ones I found today.  All of them glass:

 

When I was checking out the woman in the antique store said she had a big glass button if I was interested in seeing it.  Ummm – Yeah.   It was locked up in a case.   And it cost about the same as the rest combined but it is especially pretty.  

Sara – sorry I stole your idea and now I'm buying up all the clear glass buttons in Northern California.  I'll share some of my vintage bead trim with you, if you like.