Button, button

Earlier this week I did a post on my infatuation with craft supplies, in particular jewelry making items (though it doesn't stop there).  Anyway....

My friend Mary Ann likes to show me things that she has made.  So on one of our quilting dates she showed me this bracelet she had made.  It was gorgeous!! - looked almost like a charm bracelet. She explained that she had made it from some buttons (who knew!), but they were special buttons she had gotten them from her aunt and the aunt had recently passed away. hhhhmmmmmm..... so, it got me thinking....

One of my fondest childhood memories was going to my grandma's house.  In one of her closets, she had a big glass jar that was full of buttons.  Where she acquired all of these buttons I don't know (but trust me - I inherited the hoarding gene somewhere) - many of them she cut off clothes that had long since worn out.  That jar was a source of fascination for me.  I often asked her to get the jar out of the closet so I could play with the buttons.  I would dump the entire jar out and sit on the floor and play for hours with these buttons.  It'd try to match them up and find as many of one kind as I could, I'd even make up games with them.  I'd pick out the pretty ones and just spend time looking at them.  I'd run my fingers through them just to feel them. There were plain ones, sparkly ones, even ones that looked like flowers. For some odd reason I loved those buttons. 

When my grandma passed away in 2000, I asked my grandpa if I could have the jar of buttons.  I brought that jar home and have used it as a door stop for the past 9 years.  But it has always been out where it could be seen.  Right now it is proudly displayed in my craft room.

So, that very night after I saw Mary Ann's bracelet, I hauled out that big ole jar and I started going through the buttons, finding ones that I could use to make my own bracelet.  OK, so I'm a copycat - and pround of it!!  It took about 30 buttons in all, but I now have a button bracelet of my very own:

I really love this bracelet - I wear it frequently. All of the buttons I used in the bracelet came out of that jar. So all of the buttons are antiques - well I played with them over 40 years ago and I know that may of them are older than that.  But everytime I wear the bracelet I think of all the fun I had playing with them at my grandma's house and I just think of her in general.  I am sure she would love it knowing what I did with some of those beautiful buttons.