12 June 2008

Laura Ingalls Wilder - Beautiful Buttons


I've been putting off posting this weeks blog-a-thon post mainly because I don't have any pictures. I went to look out my buttons, but couldn't find them, I think they're in the shed, goodness knows where. I'll see if I can find them tomorrow, and if I can, I'll add a picture then.

Like many of the posters on this topic, my sister and I loved playing with my mother's button collection as a child. We would pour them out into a metal biscuit tray, and sort through them, searching for the few special buttons that were hidden among them. Ones shaped like a flower, or a clown, or pretty colours. Good for hours of entertainment.

Obviously this lead to a love of buttons, because many years later, when my mum found an add in the trading post for the stock from a store going out of business, and purchased it, we ended up with a whole stores worth of buttons! My sister carefully pulled every button out of their little plastic tubes, and emptied the lot into a chest (and several boxes!), just to see them all mixed up. She still has all those buttons! I'm sure her little one when she arrives will enjoy playing with them as much as we did!

And me? Well, we made a deal you see. She has the bulk of the buttons, but I claimed the 'special' ones. The rocking horse buttons, the ducky ones, the flowers, and many more. My own daughter loves sorting through them and picking out some special ones to put on the front of her dresses, or just for her own small button collection.

I am going to have to ask my sister for a bottle from her collection (and maybe swap a few special ones to hide in her collection for her daughter to find), so that when DH needs a button for his shirt I have one. I don't think he'd be too impressed with a blue duck on his work shirt!

4 comments:

Sandy said...

What a wonderful button story! I'd love to peek into your sisters button chest and I agree no DH I know would appreciate a duck button on their work shirt! Thank you for sharing your sweet story.

Linda said...

I can relate to the tubes and the ducks.
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Anonymous said...

Oh, my, what a treasure that purchase of buttons would have been! Your odea for trading with your sister sounds great to me. Smiled at the ducky on the work shirt idea. :-)

Vee said...

Ahhh, you hit the mother lode, eh?! That's great! Yes, I think a little trade-off is probably in order. This was a fun post...very pleasant to read. Thanks!