Uses For Random Buttons

It's the rare day that I have to buy buttons. My mother came from a family that followed the tradition of saving the old buttons from your clothes when the clothes were worn out and went in the ragbag. She got further infusions of buttons when older people she knew passed their button collections on to her. She has button boxes, I have button boxes...there are a lot of buttons around.

Of course the small problem with saving buttons is that sooner or later you wind up with a lot of buttons where you only have one or two of a kind. Hate to throw them out, but what do you do with them?

Some of my mother's random mother-of-pearl buttons have gone onto ornamental pillows, which it seems a lot of people have done. 

Some of them end up in other crafts - I have a hair clip my sister made years ago that has the same kind of overlapping look as this picture frame.

Knitting projects that take only a couple buttons, like slippers or hats, are another notion, and a good one if what you have is larger, ornamental buttons - the kind that used to come off coats. I've done that a few times.

But I learned of another, apparently trendy, use a few weeks ago, which is the reason I've been picking through my collection for lone buttons in specific colours today. Brides are making (or buying) button bouquets! One of the knitters I know has requested buttons for her wedding bouquet, and I had to go search online to see what she was talking about. 

Kind of a neat idea, (and appropriate for someone crafty)! Buttons either stacked or wired into flower shapes, or sewn in a dome shape, and set up as a bouquet. What'll they think of next?

June is…

June is the month of roses, as the poets have sung. The rugosas are out all over the city, and my roses are out, pink and yellow, single and double, and all smelling as a rose should smell. I like the look of the hybrid tea roses, but for scent you can’t compare with the old, ruffled, short-lived roses.

June is the month of weddings, and I had my cousin’s to attend last Saturday. She had a lovely day, which was both a good thing, as the reception was in a tent on her parent’s front lawn, and a bad thing, as they (and many of the guests) are farmers, and given all the rain we’ve had, the loss of a whole day of work in nice weather for the wedding must have been an annoyance.

As with many weddings, a few things occurred which will furnish amusement for a while. The one leaving the biggest impression was probably that the poor groom was misnamed twice – once when the priest used the wrong name during the ceremony, almost marrying the bride to the assistant priest, and once during the speeches after supper where someone used the bride’s mother’s name instead.

June is the month of sheep shearing and school trips, which two got combined last Monday at Upper Canada Village. I was helping with demonstrating spinning that day as part of their Fabulous Fibers weekend. It’s always fun demoing, but this was the first time I’d done one where the audience was mostly school groups, and it felt odd, as there were always either 20 kids around or no-one. Harder to do the one-on-one stuff, and they want something to do or they move on, so a lesson for next year. What went over great with them was the Kool-Aid dyeing across the hall from us.

And finally, June is apparently the month to spring-clean, if you’re as lazy as I am. I felt inspired to clean Saturday morning (shock!). It happens so rarely I had to take advantage of the mood, and washed the windows and the dishes, and vacuumed and mopped, and sorted papers and project bags. I feel very pleased with myself!