My mother has come to visit and brought with her the most wondrous treasure – her button collection! Some of these buttons date back to the 1950’s and 60’s and I remember playing with them as a child. Now my chicks are at the kitchen bench poring over them, expressing amazement at their finds and, in the case of the eldest chick, squirrelling away the ones she likes the most because ‘I can think of presents I want to make with them’. Ah yes, that is how it begins!
Generational joy at vintage treasures is a thing to behold! The stories coming out are rich and meaningful and are building the next layer of our family history. One button was a removable button from my grandmother’s hospital uniform that she wore for packing sterilised dressings. Some were collected by my grandfather who was a ‘carrier’ for lingerie and clothing manufacturers and ended up with left over lace, elastic, buttons, etc!
What a treasure trove!
What a gorgeous treasure! Lots of wonderful colours going on. Lots of project fun ahead I think with your chicks.
I might do some button sorting this weekend…
I have decided that button sorting is good therapy for anything that might be ailing you!
I LOVE buttons. Your definitely like to get these
I know! I have suggested to Mum that we only take part of the collection because I feel a bit guilty having all of this treasure but she is happy for us to have them all!
Love!!!
Yep!
I have a pretty good button collection of my own that I have been “collecting” since the late 80’s. And this past summer when I was visiting my mom she gave me hers! I was thrilled to say the least as hers is definitely older than mine. I love them already and can’t wait to use a few. I am sure my growing button tin will end up down the road with one of my girls. 🙂 ~Laurie
That is lovely Laurie. I have always intended to have my own collection but it has never grown in any consistent way. Now that I have Mum’s I know that I will keep adding to it so that my girls can have this joy, and hopefully share with their children one day.
We recently helped my parents to downsize and we came across Mum’s button stash plus my late Aunt’s button tin that Mum had rescued from her things many years ago. We all love old buttons 🙂
What treasures! Sharing a love like that helps build beautiful family memories!
Ooh how much fun is that?! I can remember playing with my grandmother’s button collection…..teehee hee!
So much fun! My mother has been telling us how she had a small selection of these in her bag for my then 4 year old sister to play with as a way of keeping her occupied on our first international flights when we moved to live in PNG. When I think of all the electronic gadgets that my children travel with I am impressed with my mother’s ingenuity all over again!
A treasure trove to be sure! I have my grandmothers, my mothers, and my mother-in-laws button collections. They are all mixed in together now. In more recent history I went through and pulled out my grandfather’s work shirt buttons. I can’t say why, but somehow I didn’t want them to be lost in the shuffle. They are a non nondescript, khaki color and quite plain, yet pulling them out and looking at them does bring a flood of good memories.
Thank you for visiting me and for the reminder that I need to go visit my own collection of memories again!
And thank you for the return visit! I am really enjoying hearing everyone’s stories about their own button collections too! Enjoy reminiscing with yours!
How special! I have a big button collection that I love to play with 🙂