Sorting buttons

Thank you for all of your notes yesterday. It definitely cheered me up to hear that some of you have had contractors PEEING off your roof (so gross, but also so funny) and to know that many of you have found yourselves sitting in the same place I currently find myself.

I spent this morning starting to pack away my pottery so I can make room for Halloween stuff. It feels weird to actually "pack" it up and not just put it in a rubbermaid bin for awhile, knowing that the next time I see it we won't be in our little house here anymore.

But life goes on and my little boy wants to put a sign on our front door that reads "Halloween Headquarters", so I figure I had better get to gettin' on the Halloween front. (He's cute, isn't he? LOL)

He and Daddy spent Saturday morning working on the golf holes for his rapidly approaching number five burfday (mini golf in the yard this year), so I went yard saling by myself.

The pickings were slim. I was standing at the last sale when I saw a woman carrying around two strawberry containers full of buttons. I overheard the conversation, which went something like this:

"I have all these buttons and I don't know what to do with them. My girlfriend said someone would buy them."
"Yea, I think someone will."
(Insert me waiting patiently for her to drop the buttons already!)

As soon as they were on the table they were mine, all mine!

So, what did my $2 buy me?
A LOT of really, really, really filthy stinky buttons. Even Dave commented on the stench*.
See anything good in there?
This is only part of the trash I took out of them. Corks, popcorn, needles and needles and needles galore. (If you buy a big container of buttons do be careful. There are ALWAYS rusty pins and needles in there.)
This is my keep pile.
Just some of the extras that were in there. Somehow I think the "extra" stuff in button collections is more interesting than the buttons themselves. The skeleton keys are cool. Belt buckles are useful. Inside the red belt buckle is a tiny thing (no clue what it is?) that has a real opal on it. There were also some other small clip type things that are 14K gold. (And have been added to my scrap gold box to be sold.)
There were thimbles galore. An advertising thimble, an aluminum thimble, two old plastic thimbles, AND, drum roll please, a solid sterling silver thimble. (The darker one near the bottom. I haven't cleaned it yet, but it has a gorgeous design on it.)
TONS and TONS of mother of pearl buttons. And other white buttons, including old bone underwear buttons.
These are also mother of pearl, and my are they gorgeous.
These might be my favorite. Sorry the photo is not great. They have little bluebirds on them. Pity one is discolored.
I also have a weak spot for glass buttons. If you look closely you can see a clock face in there.
I managed to dig out a mega tiny pair of mother of pearl dice.
And just a few of the more interesting colored ones.

Now why didn't I take a photo of my button jar for you? Silly me. It is completely full now!

Not too shabby for $2, eh? (Sterling silver, 14K and opals more than cover the cost of the buttons.)

*Old plastic buttons can degrade. They become discolored and look crazed like old pottery. They also get brittle. Some of the older plastics really really smell bad when buttons are "diseased." (DO NOT confuse that smell with the smell of bakelite.) If you have buttons like that you should throw them away and not keep them with your button collection. I have heard it can spread to the other buttons. Googling isn't much help, but they ladies who told me that know their stuff, so I believe it. :-)