Button Floozies

This Fool's Gold crazy quilting round robin is a special personal challenge and every block has been an adventure in searching for new ways to explore with inexpensive gold materials..  This block is finished and I've used 7 different gold braids 2 kinds of gold cording At least a dozen different kinds of gold  glass and metal beads 5 different kinds of gold threads various gold buttons 4 kinds of pearl beads sequins and crystals I've posted about the progress of this peacock on my blog: http://olderrose.blogspot.com/

I've done a guest post of my latest thrift store button haul over at Design to Shine's blog ! I hope you'll come and have a look at all the beautiful buttons!  And if you do, please leave a comment to let me know you were there!

Across the hill from me in a lovely bit of Scotland lives a very creative and talented artist who goes by the name of "Highland Fairy". Her motto is "USE it up, wear it OUT, MAKE it do. or DO without!!!" She specializes in creating one-off, customized, recycled vintage garments and accessories for those who dare to wear them.... she also makes jewellery, does pottery and makes ceramic buttons. I told you she was talented!  As well as making her own buttons she has a keen eye for finding interesting vintage buttons and I love how she uses them on her textile cuffs. I like how she uses buttons functionally, for fastening the cuffs, and decoratively as well. She makes such beautiful things from items that other people discard. I find her work inspiring, and I hope you enjoy looking at it too. With her obvious love of buttons I think she must be a natural born "Button Floozie"!  You can find her on F...

 ~*~*~ This post will stay on top of the blog through March 18; please scroll down for other, newer posts, too! ~*~*~ Nina Edwards, author of On the Button , is here to help us celebrate National Button Week, March 11-18, with a contest for all of us, on her own blog!  Read on: Hello there, Button Floozies! I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when I found your site. I was in the middle of writing a cultural history of the button, and battling with the ins and outs of industrial production at the time. (How was a threefold made? What was meant by églomisé?)  Here were like-minded people who delighted in the beauty of even the most ordinary buttons. Who noticed how they could recall the past. Buttons rich in romance, sexy as hell, tenderly sad or sometimes just mad, bad and evidence of brutality. The first time I really noticed buttons was astride my grandfather’s knee. He was the carthorse - clip-clop, clip-clop - and I was the laughing farmer. My grandfather would preten...

I am not an expert on vintage buttons, I just love them :)  Aren't these colors great?

***The swap is now closed** Spring is in the air!  And that means it's almost National Button Week!  Yes, in the USA, National Button Week is next week, March 11-18, 2012, and we will have a nice giveaway here on the the Button Floozies blog so be sure to check back in a few days to hear about that !  In the meantime, let's start celebrating early with a swap!  If you sew at all -- even just to replace a button on a blouse -- you need a little needlebook to hold your sharps. If you sew a lot, as many of us do, then you know how handy it is to have a little take-along needlebook in each of your purses and several drawers of the house! Needlebooks on Pinterest I made a board on Pinterest for needlebooks (feel free to follow it if you have a Pinterest account -- and my button board , too!)  Some of the needlebooks I found and pinned are from blogs that also posted a tutorial on how to make them!  How easy is that? Needlebooks on Pinterest Of cour...

Greetings fellow Button Floozies, thank you all for your lovely comments about Buttons by McAnaraks and congratulations to Andrea Creates the winner of the 900 blog followers giveaway. For the rest of this month, until March 31 2012 we will give a 20% discount to anyone who claims "I am a Button Floozie" when they order from our website www.mcanaraks.com or our Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/ButtonsByMcAnaraks We will give you a refund by Paypal after purchase.The 20% discount applies to the cost of the buttons, but not the postage costs. If you would like to find out about future giveaways, special offers and news about Buttons by McAnaraks please visit our Facebook page and "like" us http://www.facebook.com/ButtonsbyMcAnaraks Happy buttoning, Floozies! Fran from Buttons by McAnaraks

Fran used random.org to choose the lucky recipient of her beautiful buttons! Congratulations to Andrea Creates !  Andrea, please email me with your address so I can mail these buttons out to you!  Mail to buttonfloozies (at) gmail (dot) com. Thank you again to Button Floozie Fran for providing this wonderful giveaway!

***This post is staying at the top of the blog through March 5; please scroll down to see more, newer blog posts!*** My name is Fran and I make buttons. I started out 20 odd years ago making clothes under my clothing label "McAnaraks" and selling them at craft fairs around Scotland. Steve invents and makes wooden puzzles and resin dice. We met at a craft fair when I asked him if he could make buttons for me to put on my jackets. He said he couldn't. I managed to overcome my disappointment and we got to know each other anyway and we have been together for 19 years now. So it was buttons that brought us together. Eventually he started making buttons for me to put on the jackets I made. People often asked if they could buy them, but I jealously guarded them for use on my clothing creations. In 2009 I decided to have a go at decorating the buttons, and found that it was great fun and I was quite good at it, so we tried putting a few on sale at one of our craft fair...