Birthdays, buttons and bumps on the nose.

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Once again, I find myself thinking, wow, it's been a while since I've blogged. I really have no idea where time is going at the moment.

It hardly seems like a week or so ago that I was starting out on this venture, stitching gingerbread men and Christmas trees...and now it's nearly March :-/

It's my birthday tomorrow - Saturday. Hmm, never a good thing once I passed 25. To me a birthday isn't a time of excitment and glee, but of a quiet *sigh* and a count up of any new wrinkles. I'm begining to think that possibly the wrinkles are actually like the rings inside a tree that show it's age, though I'm pretty sure I don't have 39 crows feet...just yet. But yes, 39 is the age that Saturday will delight me with, which I'm kind of overlooking and already stressing about the fact that after that I'll be 40! Arrghhh! I had a slight worry of turning 30, but moreso of turning 35, ever since being 35 I've assumed I was practically 40, so now with 40 looking close (ok, ok, Im not actually even 39 yet...) but with it getting ever closer, I'm now thinking, oh my goodness that means the 50 is the next milestone!

So basically, ever since I was about 35, I've thought I'm 40, so now I'm turning 39, I'm looking towards 50 - it's a habit I really need to break....before I'm 60 ;)

I've had to put my business cap on on my craft page, something I'm not too good at wearing, I can wear my mothers/cleaners/cooks/agony aunt/crafter hat no problem, but laying down hard and fast rules for potential customers isn't something I feel comfortable with. :(

It's strange really, as if I read on someones page, be it facebook, eBay a website whatever, the terms and conditions, I don't sit back and think, oh my word, how stroppy, but I think that's how people will see me when I do it. But I've come to learn that whilst I'd much prefer to keep the page as personal and friendly as I can, I also need to lay down a few rules so we are all happy. I'm hoping it's going to save me wasted hours...and money.

I've been trying to source particular buttons recently, it's doing my head in now as I can't find what I need. On the other hand I am nurturing my button obsession, which seems to be growing stronger each day :) My lovely Nan, bought out a massive tin of buttons she had saved over the years and just said, help yourself to what you want! Ooo lovely!! I thought it a little rude to just close the lid and say, ok thanks, I'll take them all ;) So spent ages choosing lovely little buttons. Now I have the dilema of I don't actually want to use them as I don't want to see them dissapear off to someone elses house :(
I did buy some lovely old buttons on a local market yesterday, they were very pretty and i couldnt resist!
I'm also finally parting with a childhood button collection from the 80s. All novelty shaped buttons, from the 'magical button tin' I had, that of course wasn't magical, but I hoped dearly that it would be one day! I've put them up for sale, but I'm doubtful they will sell, as most of them there is just one of each. Oh well, If not I'll just have to put them back in their non magical tin.


Mothers days is looming. I made my Mum one of my Button Hearts for her birthday that has just gone, she seemed to love it, so thats good :) I had been thinking of making her something for Mothers Day too, but it seems a bit of a cop out, but then again surely something handmade is much more personal than someting brought in the high street of which there are several hundred other Mothers receiving the exact same thing?

I've really got to concentrate on building stock, I keep saying it, but thats as far as it's getting. There have been several things stopping me, one reason is to do with an order..long story. The other main reason is Alfie had a brace fitted this week. It is a removable one and is purely to move his two front teeth together, he's only just turned nine and still has alot of baby teeth or adult teeth that are barely through, both my boys have been slow with their teeth, so they aren't shifting any other teeth around, just trying to make a little more room for the ones coming next. He's been very excited about the whole process, up until last night when it really started to ache :( He's putting on a very brace face though bless him :(

Considering he only had the brace fitted on Tuesday dinnertime and today is Friday, this morning he said to me, look its moved my teeth already, I went to humour him with a 'ooo yes'..but it really HAD moved them. I was quite shocked. I knew this wasn't going to be a long process, but really? Tuesday -Friday? Especially considering he had to take it out Wednesday afterschool and leave it out until the next day as we had to go back to the orthadontist because it was cutting his lip. He used to be able to stick his tongue sideways between his front teeth, but now there isn't enough room. I think he's slightly gutted at this as it's something he often sits and does, usually when chilled out watching TV or something. He also likes to 'impress' by drinking through a straw with the straw between his teeth...strange child ;) He'll have to think of another party trick now!

I had a lovely spa weekend with a friend last weekend, an early birthday present from my husband. It was soooo nice, I felt like I was walking on clouds by the end of the day, yet now it seems a million years ago. I've been very good though and really trying to pamper my skin and generally chill since being back. It's usually when Alfie is getting ready for bed, I slap on a face mask and walk around either looking like Shrek or Casper the Ghost, ordepending on whether I use the green one or the white one.  I'm never chilled out with the mask on as I am just pottering around getting Alfie sorted for bed etc, but all the same it's nice to wash it off later and my skin feels lovely. The downside to this of course, is it brings all the baddies out and I am now sporting a beautiful red bump on my nose. I can't even call it a spot, it's just a glowing red bump. The more I try and conceal it, the brighter is glows. I'm trying to decide whether to go for a temporary job as a traffic light, though obviously I can only do the red light, thankfully I don't have a yellow or green spot!

Tomorrow, birthday day, will be haircuts and parties ...sadly neither of which are mine. Alfie is having his haircut at 9.30 and he has a kids party to go to in the afternoon, I may just wear a 'birthday girl' badge too at the party and see if I can get some free jelly and ice cream ;) But I am also glad the party is not mine, I have no wish to have a room full of people there to remind me I'm another year older, afterall, I'll be 40 soon....oops, I said I'd stop that didn't I ;)

Hopefully next time I write, I shall be spot free and just glowing in a fab way instead....don't hold your breath though.

Hugs
xxx

Up and Down like a Yo-Yo

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I just re read my last post, I was shocked to see it was two weeks ago, where has the time gone?

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirl to be honest. Lots of ups and downs. Nothing major, but all the same a bit of a rollercoaster ride that I'd have been only too happy to get off at any point. I never have been one to love rollercoasters, I would much rather sit and eat ice cream whilst watching the kids whizz past on some dreadful, stomach churning, looking contraption. I'd always used the fact that Alfie was too small to go on the big rides as my excuse to stay off them, but now he's getting older, the fact is there for all to see that, yes, I am indeed a big girl and their are very few rollercoasters you will get me on.  I do love 'Air' at Alton Towers though, I feel like I'm flying, it's a lovely free feeling, though to be fair, if any bird flew as fast,randomly and upside as that rollercoaster,  I think it would end up beak first into the nearest tree.

The only rollercoaster I've been riding is my own really. There have been ups and downs with the craft venture, a couple of issues that arose really put a major dampner on the whole thing. I really began to wonder if it was all worth the stress. But then on the other side of the coin, I've had some lovely messages and feedback from happy customers, so fingers crossed the ups will always outweigh the downs and if the time comes when it doesn't I shall be hanging up my needle n thread.

My Boys and me had a flying visit to my parents this week. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and left Tuesday afternoon. My parents live down in Suffolk, which is my hometown and I live up in Derbyshire, so it's not often we get to see them. My Husband was working down south, so as it was half term we went down too and stopped with my parents whilst he was off working, then he picked us up Tuesday afternoon.  On the Tuesday morning we went and visited my Nan. She came through with a BIG biscuit tin, filled not with biscuits - normally this would be a great dissapointment, but no, not this time, as it was filled with buttons! Buttons, buttons, glorious buttons. I never knew I had a button addiction until I started this venture, though when looking back, perhaps it's always been there bubbling under the surface.

I used to have a comic delivered to the door everyweek when I was a little girl, back in the day when a comic was just that...a comic, not a poor excuse of a childs magazine with a 'free' pile of junk sealed on the front of it, all enclosed within a polythene bag, so no matter how much I assure the kids that the tat on the front will be broken within minutes and the magazine will be rubbish. I can not open the pages to show them the magazine is full of nothing and the 'free toy' really didn't warrant paying £4.99!

Anyway, the point of this seemingly random rant is, in this comic, there was a story about two children who used to go and visit their gran who had a magic tin of buttons. The children would choose a button and gran would tell them about which rich adventure she'd had that made her end up with the button. It was always something magical and wonderful. As I had such a vivid imagination - and still have, I thought if I too had this wonderful box of buttons, I too would be able to magic myself to all these wonderful places whenever I chose to. One christmas my Nan had bought me a sewing box, the same one that I use today infact, in this sewing box, amongst many other delights was a little tin with a hinged lid. I decided this was the perfect button box. Over the next few months or years, I really have no idea, I started collecting interesting buttons...well, I thought they were interesting at the time. In hindsight they were infact mass produced plastic buttons in quirky shapes. All the same I collected these 'magical' buttons in my little tin. I'm not entirely sure how I thought these buttons would somehow have some rich adventure within them, but perhaps that's where my love of buttons came started. I still have the tin, still with the buttons in it, along with lots of childhood pin badges and a magic roundabout charm bracelet. Hmm, perhaps I'm finding that I am also a hoarder? 

I have thought recently about getting rid of the little buttons, as sadly when i take one out of the tin, there are no stars, no magic, no adventure. Just a feeling of, I wonder what made me choose this plastic button shaped like a pencil sharpner? Whilst searching for buttons on eBay recently for a craft order, I came across some similar aged buttons and saw that they were selling, so now I'm tempted to sell them...but I'm torn, do I or don't I?  As much as they don't whisk me away to a magical place, they do take me back to my childhood bedroom laid on the carpet reading my comic, maybe that memory in itself is the magical place.  I am struggling for space though and any money would be a bonus, but I feel like I'm selling a little bit of my soul...is that ridiculous? They are only plastic novelty shaped buttons afterall....aren't they?

I'm also torn with the buttons my Nan gave me, she gave them to be to use with my crafts, but can I part with these buttons to someone. I'm not sure.