This is...a bit of a catch up...

I've had so much trouble keeping up with blogging lately, so here's a catch-up from the last two 'This is...' themes.


Last week's theme, as chosen by Betty Jo from Lino Forest was My Best Op Shop Find. And basically I was paralysed by the choices, as I've found so many great things over the years. In the end, I chose my favourite most recent find, which is this little embroidered tablecloth (sorry, I really should have ironed it, but hey, I think I may have confessed here once or twice already that I'm lazy like that!).


I just love the little Scotty dogs around the edge, and the little matching napkin (shown in the middle of the cloth). It's in perfect condition - looks to have never been used!

And this week's theme, as chosen by Danielle from Teacups on Treatops is My Most Treasured Childhood Possession.

Again I have lots of things from teddies, to plastic jewellery, to poems written in Grade 2.


But the thing I love most is this tin. Looks pretty unexciting really doesn't it! But it used to belong to my Grandma, and it was always filled to the brim with buttons. I would spend hours at her place playing with this tin, or rather with the buttons within. I would sort them by colour, then by size, then by pattern, or even by interestingness. I even loved the feel and the sounds of them.....are you starting to get the picture of where my button addiction may have originated? Anyway, this button tin became mine a long time ago, and before I discovered sewing, it just sat in my special meatsafe cupboard (another treasure that once belonged to Grandma and Grandad - it is a rickety old thing with a stained-glass window in the top cupboard door, with wire mesh at the sides. Grandma used to keep her potatoes in it. But I digress...).

Anyway, once I discovered sewing, I realised I could actually start using the buttons I had loved so much for so long. And then I realised that I actually had an excuse to start a button collection of my own, adding to Grandma's stash.


And of course my button collection fast outgrew this old tin, and is now sorted (by colour) in glass jars by my sewing area. But this tin still has pride of place. It now contains pieces of elastic, because I like to think it would still prefer to be useful. And I never tire of looking at it. If I am stuck for inspiration, this tin always takes me back to a childhood filled with colour, texture, and imaginative wonder.

All this from a tin eh?....who'da thunk it!!