"Carded" buttons. . .

I'm in love with buttons.

As a child I would play with my grandma's buttons, safely stored away in the green Kathryn Beecher mints tin in her pink bathroom closet, high enough so that the grandkids couldn't reach them.  I spent a long time in the bathroom at grandma's house back then.







When Grandma died I inherited the button box.  Most of the buttons are still in there.  A few of them went on the back of my sweet daughter's blessing dress. 

Nowadays I collect vintage buttons myself.  Get them at yard sales, estate sales, from friends & aquaintances, and online.  It's always a thrill to buy some buttons, get them home, dump them out, and paw through them for an hour or two.



Recently I was going through some vintage carded buttons, and had some loose ones that had come off the cards, and some more that had never been on cards in the first place.  A friend mentioned that it might be a good idea to copy some of the vintage button cards and sew the loose buttons onto the copied cards.  I too, thought it was a good idea, but my printer wasn't working too good at the time, so when I got home I searched throughout the home to see if I could find something that would do the same job but without needing the use of the printer.

And. . . voila!  I came across these vintage children's playing cards that I found ages ago at an estate sale.  Perfect.  Just funky enough for the project. 


And here they are!  Some of them at least.  There are lots more at Treasures Antique Mall and I'll be taking some to flea.o.logy too. 

"Earth laughs in flowers. . . "

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that.  And I used it in a book of flower photographs that my dad took.  It was a hobby of his, taking photographs of flowers.  My mom has his photos all over her house, literally.  And in a few photo albums, along with quotes about flowers.  He truly loved flowers, and recording them on film.

I love them, too.  They are among God's most perfect creations.  Have you ever explored a flower ultra-close up?  Their organic shapes are something to behold.  Simply beautiful.  And perfect.

 

So when Paula and Jenn and I went to the Southern California Flower Market a few weeks ago while on a buying trip in Los Angeles, I was photographing while they were shopping.  And oooh, it was delicious. 

 

Hope you like this garden of visual delight. . . .