Buttons & Grandkids

I attended my DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting today - and our program was about BUTTONS! Our speaker was very knowledgable and I learned a lot! She told a story of how buttons were probably invented by cave women who wanted to bind leather around their children and utilized a hole in the leather and a piece of bone. Have you ever wondered about the history of the common button? She passed around cards of buttons and as an artist and craftsperson, I found them wonderful and fascinating, each a little work of art and history! This first card were metal military buttons. Such pretty etched and stamped designs!

A close-up - isn't it beautiful?

Another card of military buttons.

I also learned something I did not know, about "Dorset Buttons" - click HERE to learn more. Buttons were handmade by many and were a good source of income for those in Dorset, until a machine was made to make buttons, wiping out jobs for hundreds.

A wonderful assortment of vintage hand made Dorset buttons. They are gorgeous!

These are interesting satiny buttons.

A close-up.

These are printed plastic buttons with fun designs.

These are "underwear" buttons.. mostly of bone.

A card of pink printed buttons.

A clan button.

There was once a fad of collecting buttons for girls.

This is just one button on a card of buttons - all had been identified on the woman's collection of where the button had come from and which family member it belonged to. This is a MOP (mother-of-pearl) button engraved with pretty design. These are still being made today and I have a small collection of these types of MOP buttons.

These were commemorative buttons - I photographed this one as my Dad was on Iwo Jima during WWII. I think these were made by Wedgewood.

This group of buttons were inlaid with MOP and sterling silver - they were gorgeous! Do you collect buttons?

This is the egg salad we made the other day - I just love the dark yellow yolks from our chickens who are cage free and happy.

My sweetie has spend several days raking up leaves and cleaning up the yard after a winter full of wind and tree debris piling up around the farm. He started a fire in our burn pile. I drove the Dodge pickup - it's a 1 ton, 3500 diesel 4WD dual rear wheels - while he used the pitch fork to load his piles into the back, then he jumped into the back and rode to the burn pile.

Our youngest son, Travis, brought his family out to visit for a while and pick up our utility trailer to borrow. We had a fun visit while they were here. The 3 and 4 year old grandsons got a little cold so I invited them to join me in the warm pickup cab along with the dog. Here is 3 yr old Caleb cuddling with the dog.

After hubby and the boys unloaded the leaves and debris on the fire, Hayden helped him pick up more piles of debris. Our farmhouse from the end where our den is where Dayle and I spend our time - the bay window is right behind our chairs so we always have lots of sunlight.

Farmer Dayle and Hayden, 4. He's a helper!

I adore this photo of the dog giving Caleb a kiss.

Boys and dog.. :-)

My boys.

The baby of the family. Cute, eh?

My daughter posted a photo of my granddaughters on facebook enjoying the snow, just a week ago!

4 days later the snow was gone and it was warm and they were playing in the yard in shorts! I'm so excited as they are coming to Oregon to visit this summer for a few weeks! :-)