buttons

One of the most fun parts of summer around where I live is going to yard sales... yay! Today, a neighboring town had their "town-wide" yard sale. It would have been possible to spend much of the day there poking around and hunting down some great buys. Of course, I didn't have all day, but I did have time to wander down a few streets and look things over. I generally scan the tables and boxes and head for anything that looks craft related since I never know what I might find. Today it was all about buttons!

As a child I was always fascinated by going through my mother's big green sewing box and looking at all the odds and ends of things in there and wondering what on earth one did with some of that stuff! She had a small plastic box she kept in her sewing box that contained buttons, cause, well ... you never know when you might lose one and need a replacement!

I use buttons myself from time to time, and had been running low lately, so I decided I might see what I could find at today's yard sale and.... here they are:

These containers all had buttons (and few other sundry items).

I find it interesting the various containers people use for their buttons. This was a great collection: a margarine tub, little plastic box, whipped topping container, old pill bottle and a couple generic plastic containers. I thought they warranted a picture before I sorted through them and added them to my own button box.

Buying things like this always make me think about the people who owned them, what they were like, if the contents of these little containers met much to them. Of course, I wonder if someday someone will be going through my button box.

This one was my grandmothers. I'm not sure what the original purpose of the box was, maybe some type of butter box.

 

 

And ... here's mine ... overflowing after today's purchase:

project containers and such

A favorite pastime for many of us fiberholics ( I use the word many cause I hate to think that I'm alone here!) is collecting usable bags/containers/gadgets to store and carry our craft and crafting tools around with us ... it's a big part of the fiber addiction! I must admit that a certain percentage (not as yet determined mathematically) of my fiber studio space is taken up by various kinds of bags and such.

Of course, the size of the project will dictate the size of the project bag needed. Back in August I blogged about a great bag I picked up at the CGOA conference.. compartments and pockets and zippers .. oh my!! Here's a couple pics of what I'm using right now, which means ... for this week anyway:

The little cloth covered, wooden framed, foldable thing looks like what my grandmother used to use when she crocheted. This one, however is much smaller. It's only about 5.5" in height, with a width of about 4.5" x 3.5". I can't remember exactly where I bought it. I think it was in a "dollar store" when I was living in Spain. It's just big enough that I can fit the filet scarf into it, fold it (somewhat anyway) and slip it into my work bag for my commute to work. I like that it sits on a table and is just big enough to hold the few things I often need at hand, in this case: a ball of thread for the little filet crochet scrarf I'm working on, a couple tatting shuttles, assorted needles, scissors, bobbins, tape measure and (if you notice the little bag hanging off the side) smaller things like a couple needle threaders (I'm good at breaking them!), stitch makers, paper clip, and a button or two.

Here's the inner view:

I'll save mention of my handbag collection (blush - yeah, like you couldn't guess) and my collection of little bottles for beads (woohoo for hotel condiments served up in those little glass bottles) for another post! And... just to set the record straight... I own fewer than ten pairs of shoes!!