Button Heaven

I went to a magical place a couple weekends ago with my wonderful friend Polly. We decided to take a little trip and visit the legendary Exclusive Button store in Albany.  This place is a true diamond in the rough. It also has any button you can imagine and if you are looking for vintage buttons, this is the place to go fo' sure. So if you are in the Bay Area, make a trip. You won't regret it I promise you.

Things to keep in mind if you decide to visit this little store. It is only opened on Friday and Saturday for about 4 to 5 hours each day. Mary is the wonderful lady behind this establishment and it is a true blessing that she keeps this store open. Her husband was the one who originally got into the button business by trading with an assortment of people and building connections to start a massive button collection. He passed away a year ago and now Mary is the lady keeping the buttons flowing. And she knows her stuff too.

They also only take cash and personal checks. No plastic here so bring the green. Prices are totally reasonable. I got my stash for $20 which is great considering that the majority of these buttons are vintage jewels you will have a hard time finding at commercial stores.

Cutest little old sign.

 A cabinet full of rare vintage buttons from pretty much everywhere.

 Polly looking in one of many drawers filled with buttons!

  

Love these brown buttons with little floral details. Perfect for a dress. 

 

My button stash. I think the orange buttons with the little stars in the middle are my fave.

New Items

New paper garlands in the Shop. Guaranteed to make your winter days more cheerful!

 

 

Recently Thrifted

 I'm loving my new vintage hand embroidered table runner. I tend to look over embroidered linens but this one stood out to me. The stitching is so wonderful and it will be in near perfect condition after a few little repair stitches.

My favorite part is the fact that the lady did a running stitch on the edges instead of sewing the seams with a machine. Look really closely in the photo above and you can see her brilliant handiwork.

One things leads to another . . . .

This week, I stopped by my favorite embroidery blog Feeling Stitchy and discovered a mourning embroidery; something I had never heard of before.

This of course provoked a google image search of mourning embroidery, which led me to discover this image.

Which in turn reminded me of this new embroidery show opening in Seattle this week called Dwelling in the Past.

embroidery by Dixie Darling

I started to peruse the artists participating and discovered  Dixie Darling who crafts some amazing sculptures/jewelry.

photo by Dixie Darling

I nabbed this awesome old electrician book out of a box on the streets. It has definitely seen better days but the diagrams inside and the front cover are pretty amazing.

 

 

Bulls look better in pink camo

On Christmas eve 2010, at 2am in 20 Degree weather, the astounding crochet artist, Olek, took on a bull. An inanimate bull that is.

I was so sad to hear that Olek's crocheted bull outfit  for the Charging Bull sculpture in NYC was torn off only two hours after she completed it. Guess the wallstreet giants can't handle a good dose of pink yarn. So yeah, covering a bull in yarn is technically illegal but so is all that purty graffiti you can find on the Lower East Side.

She said it was her christmas present to NYC. How awesome is that.

More about Olek and her crochet art and installations HERE.

One things leads to another . . . .

We all know how distracting the internet can be. What I find even more interesting is how one distraction can lead to another and another and another. Often times I lose track of where an idea or a new discovery came from so I decided to create this post to help me remember where one creative journey began.

Yesterday, I wanted to know how people, like Giant Dwarf, created their own felt, which lead me to a pretty image of her rosette hair piece.

Image from Mark Wagoner Productions

which lead me to a delightful blog called Charming Ink.

Image from Charming Ink

which lead me to DecoyLab's Etsy Shop where you can find the cutest wooden pins.

Image from DecoyLab

which reminded me of my mom and her love of hedgehogs.

 

Image from Scherenschnitte

 

Vivian Maier: The Invisible Woman

I was so delighted to learn about the recently discovered street photographer Vivian Maier from Chicago. Who knew a young nanny from the 1950's spent all her weekends capturing some of the most amazing street photography seen in decades! It's a shame that her talent went unrecognized for so long and that she can't enjoy the credit she so highly deserves. At least the young man who bought her work from a storage locker is making sure she gets the credit she is due.

Photo Blog HERE

Great news clip HERE

V-Day

It's hard to believe that V-day is just around the corner.
Which is why I stitched up these cards so quickly. I decided to keep it simple and sweet this year.

 

Buy cards HERE.
Lovely paper heart garlands to decorate your abode will be arriving shortly.

After a nice long two week hibernation, I am ready to spring back to life! I was hoping to use the two weeks I had off from my day job to do some necessary work and start new projects. Didn't happen and that's okay. The holiday fairs were great but more taxing than I expected. A break was due. I am refreshed with new ideas and can't wait to share all the new projects and products I have swirling around in my little head.

Also, a big thanks to Marianne for sharing a fan photo of her gingerbread man ornament.
I was so busy that I didn't take a single photo of these ornaments or my table at the fairs.
I still can't believe that I sold 60 of these eaten gingerbread characters this past month. Whew!