I'm trapped . . .

Caught once again in the production work today. I'm not one for making the same thing more than once or twice so when I get a super wholesale order for multiples, it's a mixed blessing. I'm grateful for the sweet order but longing for something a bit different. So I finished up the order this evening and decided that I should make just one thing for me. And this time I won't sell it off my body (as usually happens).

It's a plain, wide, domed, sterling cuff. Heavy and striking. A 'goes with everything', 'wear it every day' signature piece.

It's mine.

Buttons and boxes . . .

Oh yum. What a fabulous find. Bakelite buttons. Lots.

Friday was a gloriously perfect day. Gloriously perfect. My darling friend Rachel 'Two Dog Pond' stopped by for a visit and just chatting for a few hours with friends like her makes such a wonderful start to the day. She's teeming with great ideas for rearranging workspace, marketing for the Holidays, creative inspiration and I just can't get enough of standing her her aura. A really lovely person and it was sweet to spend time with her yesterday morning. Really.

Then off to join my friend Sue who loves to browse through the same antique malls as I do. Oh yeah, we always find all kinds of cool stuff that is so far beyond our price range that it makes us both giddy. The advertising wood boxes that I love being offered for a gazillion dollars, that sort of ridiculous thing. It's always good for a hoot or two.

Suddenly, a treasure! One booth had an old map chest that was labeled 'miscellaneous buttons' and in the top drawer was this little baggie chock full of Bakelite buttons! A gorgeous collection of Bakelite buttons in creams, golds, browns, oranges and greens. Some translucent, some solid. Big, little. Some round, some square. Plain, simple, sweet. Marked $16 and the entire booth was 60% off. Score! Now I'm dying to make more button box pendants. Itching.

Oh yeah, I did find one lovely old wooden box, as you can plainly see. Stamped on the side "BEEF BRAINS" and below that "GROSS". I can only assume that the 'gross' stood for 144 of something but its other meaning wasn't lost on me, astute observer that I am. In fact, Sue and I thought that maybe, just maybe, that dried stuff in the bottom of the box may have been some leftover grossness. We can only hope.