Someday soon, I have to tell my grandmother how much we enjoy the tin of buttons she gave me a few years ago. We use it for far more than its original purpose. Sure, if a button is needed for a pair of pants or a shirt that has suddenly gone lacking I go straight to the button tin. But the button tin is more than that.
It's provided eyes for stuffed and crocheted animals. It's made a few necklaces and even a ring once. It makes a great game of tiddlywinks in a pinch. But most of all, we enjoy separating the buttons into little piles. We see how many of each is in the tin and we look at them closely to see if we can guess what type of garment they were on. Sometimes there is clue; a scrap of fabric on the back of the button where it was cut off before going in the tin. Maia likes to giggle and imagine one particular set of buttons with scraps of blue and red flowered fabric clinging to their backs as being one of her PapPap's shirts when he was a little boy. We get a good laugh pretending he wore a flowered shirt and trying to make his brother wear it instead. Another set has tiny anchors on it and of course that could only adorn a creek-playin' shirt. We've made up so many stories about the different buttons that some of them have names: Gardening Buttons, Little Boy Blue's Scuffed Buttons, Grandmother's Pink Dancing Dress Buttons. Sometimes buttons we've added have turned up in our rummaging and then there are Tristyn's Halloween Buttons and Maia's First Jammie Buttons.
I like to wonder if my Grandmother's children played with the button tin in the same way. Do you have a button tin to play with?
August Baking....
- HONEY WHITE BREAD
- CHOCOLATE CAKE
- DONUTS
- PEACH PIE
- PB COOKIES
- HONEY WHITE BREAD
- WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
- HIDE-A-SQUASH VEGETARIAN QUICHE...sometimes you have so much summer squash that everyone vows not to eat another despite there being still more, and more, AND MORE. It's time to get sneaky.
- BEIGNETS
- BLACK & WHITE COOKIES...a little out of order here..
- ORANGE LOAF
- HONEY WHEAT BREAD
- DOUBLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES
- SOURDOUGH BOULES...not bad, Chuck. Not bad.
- VANILLA CAKE...baked by Maia!
- BAGELS
- CHERRY SHORTCAKE
- BISCUITS
- ITALIAN BREAD
- ROUGH CHOP CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- BLUEBERRY BOY BAIT
- GIANT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE
- BURGER BUNS