I didn't get to actually attend this shower--bummer! I love holding new babies!--but I had the privilege of making the decorations and favors for it. The mom had only given us a color scheme to work from, so I decided to pull it all together with a single stamp I love from the Big News set. I used newsprint-patterned papers from the Typeset Designer Series Paper pack, Tip Top Taupe patterned paper from the 2015-17 In Colors paper stack, Marina Mist blue, and gold and burlap accents.
It was SO fun to pull together. Making banners is one of my very favorite crafting pastimes. I even stamped on the napkins, too! For the "little baby, big news" banner, I used the Banner Framelits for the Big Shot, the 2-inch circle punch, and the Larger than Life stamp set with Archival Black ink.
Ok, now I have a "rest of the story" picture to share... these projects were the ones I was working on when THIS happened...
Untold hundreds of buttons all over the floor and all down the big old-fashioned floor vent in our little 1920's house!! What a mess. Now there's no avoiding it. I HAVE to clean that vent. It's scary down there!!
That vintage red cookie tin was my great-grandma Beulah Jane's button box. I use the buttons on all sorts of DIY projects, and I think she would have liked to know that her buttons bless many, many people's homes on items I made, thinking about her as I sift through looking for the perfect one.
What is it about a button box that is so mesmerizing? I always wonder about the item of clothing that owned such and such a button. Who wore that shirt with the real mother-of-pearl ones, not made by a machine? Whose little baby dress had pale pink duck buttons? What happened to the one out of a set of blue wooden ones, that it's so scraped and dinged compared to the others, so carefully knotted all together with thread? Do I remember this big gold button from the knit cape my mother wore, that I used to stick my arms in the side openings to give her a hug?
I put my great-grandma's buttons on this baby's shower decorations and smile. Our hands are generations apart but I know I have your hands, because I have my mother's, and she had yours. The hands that this button box passed through were usefully employed in improving our world as well as decorating it.
I promise to pass the buttons on to another who follows in the footsteps of the strong and creative women from whose line she springs. I wonder what amazing craftiness she will dream up to put them on.
And friend, if you get an item from me and it has just the right button on it, why, then, you can just thank Beulah Jane.
My sewing tin, (which does not house buttons) is from my grandmother, Bertha Olivia. What a blessing it is to pull it out and remember the moments she taught me to thread a needle, sew on a button, and create beautiful things with needle and thread. I love that it's mine.
I love that you shared this story...and hope the vent cleaning went better than expected.
Posted by: Kristine John | 03/21/2016 at 07:14 PM
The projects are cute, but your button musings are my very favorite part of this post!!!!
Posted by: Brenda B. | 03/21/2016 at 11:35 PM
When my mother in law passed away, I asked my father in law for her button tin. My son would play with the buttons in the tin for hours when we would visit. I've added buttons along the way and used some, too, but it will be given to my son on his wedding day, so he knows that grandma is there with him on his special day.
Posted by: Sharon | 03/22/2016 at 06:05 PM
Thank you for a lovely, loving post. It made my night reading it and remembering my mothers button box.
Posted by: Cindie McDuffee | 03/23/2016 at 10:54 PM
Loved your decor for the baby shower, but the story touched my heart. I used to play with my grandmother's buttons because there were NO toys at her house and that is the one thing she would let me play with. I do have some of her buttons, but they were in a drawer, not a box. I have collected buttons for a very long time and have used them for sorting games in my classroom and with my grandchildren, for crafting, and even for their original purpose. I find it hard to resist a collection of buttons whenever I see them at sales and I have thousands of them. Thankfully, I do not have a floor vent. Happy memories!
Posted by: Karen | 04/04/2016 at 07:17 PM