My grandma is the most generous person I know. If you told her that she had a beautiful coat on she would take it off and give it to you even in the middle of winter, but don’t even think about touching her buttons! She guards her button collection with her life.  She cherishes her buttons so much that she hides the really good ones so my mom and I can’t get our hands on them.

We are always trying to finagle a few here and there. They are so great for all sorts of projects. Buttons make such gorgeous embellishments. Every once in a while we are able to coax a button or two out of her, but she keeps a close eye on us as we dig through her collection. She must give her approval on each one that we take. We are constantly teasing her about this, but it’s all in good fun. She has a great sense of humor. 

She has been collecting buttons all of her life.  She started to collect them at six years old.  She had a special purse that she carried everywhere she went that she kept them in.  When her and her mother would go to visit friends she would ask everyone they saw if they had buttons to trade her. Most of the time people would just give her buttons so the collection was constantly growing.

When she was in sixth grade she created a replica of a famous church in Europe entirely out of buttons for a school project. Her creation ended up on display in a museum in Norfolk Virginia, her home town.  Over the nearly 80 years that she has been collecting buttons her passion for them has never wavered. She treasures each and everyone; big or small and regardless of what color it is or what it is made out of.

Her collection is quite extensive; glass, metal, plastic, Bakelite, mother of pearl and more. She has buttons of all colors, shapes and styles.   Some of them are incredibly old and some are brand new. Some of them are even in their original packaging still. She loves to count them and separate them into different categories. She can spend hours just admiring their beauty.

She has picked most of them up at garage sales and church bargain boxes. Over the years friends that know about her fixation with buttons have helped add to her collection as well. She stores them in jars and five gallon buckets on shelves in her craft room. My grandma is absolutely hooked on buttons!

She let me take pictures of these ones:

I am linking this post to Hooked on Friday a really great blog party you should check out! Join in on the fun and blog about something your “hooked on” or just read all the other great stories.