I've Got That Button Feeling

A couple of years ago I was visiting my Mom and Dad back in Maine, and hanging out in their shop. My Mom was showing me these really beautiful bracelets that she had been making out of old buttons she has in her shop. She has tureens FILLED with buttons of every kind, material, color, you name it. She said I should try making one.

I spent the next couple of days sitting on the floor in the shop, combing through buttons like I was hunting for Easter eggs. I would pull a button out and say "Can I use this one?" I would get a "Sure, that's fine." or a "No, are you crazy? That one is so rare!" or a "Mmm . . ., well, I GUESS so." Let me tell ya, those rare "Well I guess so's" are the BEST buttons on my bracelet!

Here it is:

I love the color palette, mostly greens and purples, and the exquisite buttons on it. Every time I wear it I get compliments, and people want to know where it came from, so needless to say I have made a few since that first one. But of COURSE, this is my favorite!

I have been thinking that it is time to make another one. I have been CRAZED with this desire to make something lately. I have always been interested in drawing and painting, and some amateur sewing. I think my need to make something is my version of what some pregnant women call nesting. I am pregnant with our second child, and I am just compelled to create.

When I was pregnant with James, I took up knitting. On another trip back East, I asked my Mom to teach me how to knit. She did, and then later that same vacation my SIL Kimmy refined what I had learned (and spottily remembered) from my Mom. Kimmy is a pro-knitter, and has made things that I could never even dream of attempting, like actual sweaters and cable throws.

After that, I spent months knitting baby blankets, (5 of them) baby hats (6 of them), baby booties (1 set, those were HARD), and three lap throws. After I had James I struggled thru a blanket for my husband who was a slave driver. Every night I would show it to him and he would say "NO! It must be LONGER!" and I knitted until I couldn't stand knitting anymore. I haven't picked up the needles since then.

Pregnant again (but flatly refusing to knit) I have considered taking up sewing. I have been talking to Mom about what would be a decent beginner's sewing machine to purchase. I used to help her sew quilts in high school (I know, I was SO COOL). That reminds me of a time when we needed a really big space to finish a quilt and so we went to my high school to lay it out outside the gym, and there was cheer leading practice going on right next to us . . . OMG I felt like such a DORK I would way rather have been on the top of that pyramid then sewing. Oh, the things you take for granted. At 34, I don't imagine I would be doing any cheering, but I could definitely be sewing my ass off. Thanks Mom, I do love you for that. Really. You are the best.

SO-I think it is time to make button bracelets again. Until I find a good sewing machine and start making my new baby's crib bedding. (I have to find out the gender first, and that won't be for another month, so I've got some time.)

* * * *

Hmmm . . let's take a look at what I've got.

Should the bracelet be blue?


Yellow?


Brown?


Pink?

Black?

Red?

White?

Sparkly?

I am leaning toward blue and brown, or white. What do you think?