Blogtoberfest Day 31 and Love Fridays…

I do love me a good Friday, and to share some of the lurrrrv, I’ve joined Pay it Forward ~Craft Style~  after visiting Linda’s blog (via Marian’s blog).

 

 

3 easy steps:

I will send the first three people who leave a comment on this post a handmade gift within the next 365 days.

I will happily post anywhere in the world.

The only catch is you have to have a blog and be willing to do the same thing.

So if you’re interested, committed and would like to receive a handmade gift from me, all you have to do is leave a comment with a link to your blog!

 

And another reason to love Fridays: I can say goodbye to this for a couple of days,

And say hello to this -

and this  – mmmmm… yummy bakelite….

For more Love Fridays hop over to Big Cat’s Emporium!

 

 

 

 

Blogtoberfest Day 30 and Vintage Thingies Thursday….

I just received a lovely lot of vintage buttons which I’d like to share with you this Vintage Thingies Thursday.

This is so adorable; it’s vintage celluloid, c1920s. I call it my Esther Williams button because it reminds me of those floral caps that ladies wore when they went swimming:

  

This is a little clear celluloid button; it’s a hollow dome over a base that has sweet little floral decorations – just gorgeous!

 

These two beauties are celluloid ‘end of day’ buttons. Rather than waste the leftover plastic at the end of a working day, it was often swirled together with other leftover colours to produce these gorgeous buttons, c1920s.

 

For more Vintage Thingies Thursday visit Confessions of an Apron Queen!! And for more Blogtoberfest fun visit Big Cat’s Emporium!

Blogtoberfest Day 29: On my desk….

 I’ve been reviving some of my crochet skills from years ago – just little bits and pieces that only take a few minutes to complete. I bought a book on crochet motifs which has all kinds of lovely patterns  – hexagons, circles, squares, triangles etc. I’ve been making little flowers and sewing them onto felt circles with a vintage button for the centre. Not sure what I’m going to do with them yet – brooches perhaps?? But they’re fun and easy to make while I sit in front of the telly in the evenings.

 I also made these button flowers, but I’ll have to be less sloppy with the glue. (I don’t mind gluing craft buttons, but I don’t like to use glue on good vintage buttons – I always sew them so they can be re-used).

So I cheated a bit because that was the kitchen bench, not my desk. Here is my desk (or at least, one of them). It’s waiting for me to be on holidays after Christmas so I can clean up all the crap!

For more desks, visit Kootoyoo!

Blogging about buttons every day in October for Blogtoberfest!

Blogtoberfest Day 28 and Ruby Tuesday…

Welcome to Ruby Tuesday, hosted by Work of the Poet. Some red buttons from my collection today, coz I’m blogging about buttons every day in October for Blogtoberfest! First there’s a cute little vintage wooden Mexican hat, with cotton thread embellishments – painted red.

This adorable red duck is vintage 1950s.

An unusual chunky celluloid button with a black bow on the top…

Vintage Czech glass pierced flower button with gold lustre…

And a gorgeous Czech glass button in blood red with a gold dragonfly design…

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Oh no! I’ve joined another meme!! (aka Blogtoberfest day 27, Blue Monday and Veg about…)

I found this newspaper clipping generator and thought I’d have a bit of fun (I really do have a degree in Horticulture BTW)! Bellgirl has a meme going called veg about, where everyone can blog about their home-grown veg / herbs. A few years ago I had myself quite a collection of scented geraniums. Sadly I only have a few now, but I will make it a point to search for some in nurseries over the next few months. The variety of scents is amazing – there’s even a coconut scented one, and the lemon balm scent is to die for! This beautiful velvety one is peppermint scented. You can use it in cooking. It’s apparently wonderful if you bake a chocolate cake, then line the cooling rack with these leaves so the peppermint flavour infuses into the warm cake. I’ve never tried it because I don’t like the taste of peppermint, especially with chocolate.

My Kaffir lime tree in a pot, getting ready for all those lovely Thai meals…

Pineapple sage – how can a leaf smell so wonderful?

And bay….

And for Blue Monday and Blogtoberfest (blogging about buttons every day in October), heres some blue button flowers I made last night…

Blogtoberfest day 26: Sunday at home…

 

Some of the things happening around home today: The roses are beginning to bloom…

Looks like there’ll be a good crop of limes in a few months…

The Aussie stingless bees are happily foraging for pollen…

A boy who didn’t fancy having his picture taken…

 

And some more button flower posies I whipped up during the week….

Visit  Big Cat’s Emporium  for more Blogtoberfest fun!

Blogtoberfest day 25 and Pink Saturday…

Well its been a lovely spring day in the Blue mountains, and I’ve been outside in the garden doing some pruning and some weeding. The trees have their new flush of leaves, and many of our Aussie trees get this beautiful pink new growth. It’s lovely to look at but also serves a purpose, acting as a sunscreen to protect the new growth:

 

Todays buttons for Blogtoberfest are these cute kids buttons from the 1950s. I bought them (and about 4 kilos more!) from a lady whose mum and grandmother used to sew them onto shop cards to raise extra money for the family during the 1950s.

 

 

These sweet little flowers have a pearly lustre.

 

For more Blogtoberfest goodies visit Big Cat’s Emporium. For more Pink Saturday visit How Sweet the Sound!

Blogtoberfest day 24 and ‘Love Fridays’…

Well who wouldn’t love Fridays! The weekend’s coming up, I’m on study leave today, so working on my PhD (after I finish this post!) and a luvverly bunch of buttons to make me happy!

(Click pic to enlarge)

Oh there’s so many gorgeous things amongst this group – it never ceases to amaze me the variety of designs and materials used in vintage buttons and buckles (I collect those too).

Top left is a fabulous bakelite buckle with three clear spheres in red amber and green. Naturally I call it my traffic light buckle.

Underneath that is a vintage Chinese brass button, c 1920’s – it may have been a bridle button for a horse.

To the right of that, the large pleated brass button with the red centre is a Gay 90’s button (not the 1990s – the 1890s!)

Above that is a beaded button in blue iris.

A marbled butterscotch bakelite buckle with celluloid ’stitching’ – so much fun!

The black button with the red triple-swirled centre is antique bakelite, but the centre is glass.

The large brown carved button with the yellow centre is marbled bakelite. The centre is reverse carved applejuice bakelite. Unfortunately it has a little chip, but nevertheless it’s a real stunner!

There’s a little clear celluloid button with real shells attached, c 1920s.

A green plastic button with a bunch of grapes in brass.

A beautiful antique filigree brass and enamel button.

Two carved cinnabar buttons.

An extremely fragile and lacy stamped celluoid button in palest green, c 1920s.

Various celluoid wafer buttons in lovely muted tones.

A victorian era passementerie button – black glass pieces on a fine wire frame – amazing!

A stunning cream casein buckle with red accents.

Well, off to do some PhDing – hope you’re all loving Friday too!

Blogtoberfest and Love Fridays brought to you by Big Cat’s Emporium!

Blogtoberfest day 23 and Vintage Thingies Thursday…

Blogging about buttons every day in October in celebration of Blogtoberfest!

I’d like to share a couple of pieces of jewellery with you. Both of these brooches are made from vintage buttons. The first one has a glass button at the centre surrounded by eight little pink plastic buttons. It’s glued onto what looks like a poker chip base – very sweet! The second is made from two celluloid wafer buttons with an antique cut steel button as the focus. It’s a beautiful piece of jewellery and always gets compliments when I wear it.

Jewellery was often made from buttons, especially during the Depression when such luxuries were unaffordable. In a way, these are similar to patchwork, in both design and philosophy -repurposing something  functional to make something new and beautiful. However, I can’t quite bring myself to put glue to vintage or antique buttons unless they’re damaged and have lost their value. Yet I don’t like to throw away damaged ones, as they can still be very lovely.

 

For more Vintage Thingies Thursday visit Confessions of an Apron Queen!

Blogtoberfest day 22 – some fun buttons…

Here are some fun buttons from the 1930s post-Depression era. They’re made from a natural plastic called casein. Casein is the main protein in milk – it makes up most of the milk curds. Curds can be molded into shapes then soaked in formaldehyde for months to harden. Casein, being a natural protein like wool, can take dyes very easily. I love these bright colours and fun shapes – they must have been very welcome after the dark days of the Depression.

 

 

 

 

For more Blogtoberfest check out Big Cat’s Emporium.