buttons – Loving Sixty Five

I’m back!

May 3, 2018 lovingsixtyfive

I’ve been buried in wool, thread, buttons and whimsy. Just completed four commission pieces. What fun!

The client, Rosalie. Her mother worked in the NYC garment district and was a phenomenal seamstress. Rosalie brought me a silver and black knit suit her mother was working on shortly before her death. Her mom would likely cringe at my stitchery.

I’ve been taking sewing lessons, so my skills have improved…sort of. The three little purses below include mom’s knit and her jazzy buttons, Grandma’s “funeral sweater”–a black wool sweater she always wore to funerals, and cashmere Rosalie chose from my vast collection of shrunken sweaters. One bag is for Rosalie, the others for her cousins.

The bumblebees had to go on the back so as not to compete with the blingie buttons.

The big purse below includes the same stuff as the little ones, but I added shirred seams from the shoulders of the suit jacket. That is the “wrong” side of the fabric.

Again, bee needed to be hidden, so it’s on the pocket under the flap.

The back of the bag gets really wild. Rosalie gave me a blue cufflink that had been her dad’s. He sounds like a marvelous dandy. He put on a smoking jacket each evening after work!

Rosalie wanted me to incorporate some argyle from my collection. This purse got pretty wild.

Now, on to clean up my workspace and get back to coloring all the illustrations in Shel Silverstein’s “Falling Up.” It’s a Christmas gift for grandkids. There are one-hundred-seventy-nine pages. I’m on number twelve…

Knit Wit

September 5, 2017 lovingsixtyfive

We’re home! Our long car trip from Palm Harbor to Waco, Dallas, Liberty Missouri, Chicago, Nashville, and Atlanta resulted in lots of listening to books on discs and tons of knitting!

I found three new victims to foist my scarves upon. It’s getting harder. All my new friends live in Florida. They don’t need warm scarves.

The first I completed was one I’d started on our last road trip. I only knit on the road, so it’s been living in my big yellow Banana Republic knitting bag for months. I gave Jim’s sister Eileen the completed funky patch and button-laden item. She lives in Chicagoland so her neck will need warming in a couple of months.

My original plan was to give it to Lynn. But she will get the next one I finish.

The second piece is for our friend JR’s Aunt Nancy. I was working on it when we visited them in Liberty, Missouri. She liked the colors and made the mistake of telling me. I just packed it up. It goes into the mail tomorrow. Surprise, Nancy! A weird scarf on the way.

20170905_111043 — This photo is too blurry, but I’m not ripping open the package to take another picture. You get the idea. All my pieces come with a bumblebee attached.

The third scarf is for JR’s girlfriend, Melinda. She lives in Boston. It gets cold there too.

Melinda specified the colors she would like.

While in Chicago I spent two hours digging through buttons at an Andersonville resale shop. I discovered the place last summer and made a beeline there as soon as we got settled in our rental. Jim and Bronson waited for me patiently at Starbucks while I was in my happy place. I’ll go again next summer too. Not that I need more buttons, but it’s delightful to find unique ones.

The view from my perch as I dug through buttons.

I’ve already used the bright blue diamond studded button. It found a home on Melinda’s scarf.

These two containers are the tip of the iceberg. I looked at every single button in this bucket as well as five ancient cookie cans. Yes, I am obsessive/compulsive.

20170819_151658 — The forty-eight dollar’s worth of buttons I just couldn’t live without. They really needed a bath.

I’ve begun another scarf, but packed it away until our next big car trip. My poor arthritic hands are happy for the break.

Now we are home again. The locals are stocking up on water in case Irma hits us hard. We bought two cases. When those are gone I guess we’ll be reduced to swilling wine.

Hopefully, we’ll only have another month of hot and humid. It’s truly oppressive here in the summer. It rained so much our neighbors very kindly crossed the street and drained water out of our pool. I’m happy they still like us in spite of my many post-cards bragging about the awesome Chicago weather we enjoyed.

Counting Down the Days

How knitting saved my marriage

On the Road with Team Shepard

Road Trip!

Such Joy! We’re in Illinois.

August 15, 2017 lovingsixtyfive

I am so behind on my blog. We had excellent adventures in both Dallas and Liberty, Missouri. But those will take more thought and energy to write than I have in my weary fingers tonight.

Instead, I’ll give a quick rundown on our arrival in Illinois. We left Liberty Missouri this morning. We had our first ever Denny’s breakfast experience. Shame on me, I’ve been a lifetime Denny’s snob.

Denny’s was convenient and inexpensive, so we checked it out. Who woulda’ thunk they would have gluten free English muffins? I have been avoiding carbs. But GF English muffins were irresistible. I ordered mine “buttered in the kitchen.” The waitress, upon delivery, said, “The cook has never had anyone ask for a gluten free muffin buttered, only toast.” Huh? Butter is such great food group. Number two only after cream cheese.

Then we were on the road. We listened to Devil in the White City. I read it when it first came out. Jim rarely wants to read anything I read. Maybe he thinks I like “chick lit?”

I’m enjoying this book as much the second time around as the first. While absorbing the 19th century Chicago Worlds Fair and a whole lot of murder, I finished a scarf and began another.

We had to stop at Michael’s in Liberty for more yarn. This new scarf is for our friend JR’s girlfriend, Melinda. Plum, blue, cream. I’m looking forward to vintage button shopping in Chicago’s Andersonville and adding plum buttons to my collection.

We drove. We listened. We crossed the “mighty Mississippi” for the second time in one road trip. Pulled into our hotel about three p.m. We hadn’t had lunch, so we planned an early dinner. At about five I said, “Honey…can we eat soon?” Jim glanced at his self-winding watch and suggested we wait until closer to dinner time.

The self-winding had run down hours earlier. Jim was unaware of the time. I pointed out it was, in fact, dinner time. I’m not a happy hungry person so Jim grabbed our “Miss Mamie’s” 10% off coupon ( after first checking out reviews) and we headed to dinner.

It was yummy, and I have enough left over for tomorrow’s lunch. I have put a note-to-self on top of the cooler to remind us to take the chicken out of small frig in the morning. Along with Jim’s wee-teeny cinnamon bun. The pre-dinner bread basket included two. He gobbled the first before his meal; the second will be breakfast.

Jim’s ribs. He said mine are better, but I suspect he’s buttering me up.

Our waitress, Elaine, has celiac sprue. She felt my pain at missing out on the bread basket. But I had the marvelous morning GF English muffin, so for a celiac that’s splendid. She loved our service dog!

The weather here is a fabulous 80 degrees. The grass is soft, not the saw blades of Floridian lawns. I adore living in Florida. But not in the summer and never the lawn.

Tomorrow Chicago! We already have two Tate babysitting gigs lined up. Life is stupendous.

Tag: buttons

I’m back!

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Knit Wit

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Such Joy! We’re in Illinois.

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