Time to pick up the brush.....

Last spring it was getting harder to paint as my eyes tired so quickly.  I had Madison's wedding stuff to work on and then there was Morris's vacation and then time to work outside in the garden.  Then I broke my arm.   I pretty much decided to let the Etsy site sell out and shut it down.  The orders kept coming in and I am about down to 30+ buttons on the site..

But I do miss painting on my little buttons as I've been doing it for so many years... Then I spoke at the Idaho State Button Society recently and they received my buttons with such enthusiasm that I decided to rethink the entire problem...  It was a definite boost to my spirits ..The garden is put to bed, I can't drive so I have long winter hours to fill at home,  I love painting the buttons and decided if I only paint during the daylight and discipline myself to short periods of painting and actually quit when I start losing focus and getting discouraged (that will be the hard part) ....I could do this. I can!   I can! I think I can!  I will try anyway...

So I made a partial list of buttons out of stock and the list got longer and longer.  I decided to start with my favorite things on the list and go from there... You notice cats and iris are not on the list.  I struggle with both.  I have a tray of cats partially finished and will complete them and no more cats for a while... It's too late to think Christmas so will start with Valentines and Easter buttons...first doves ...I haven't painted doves for a long time and ..................maybe castles and barns... I went online and ordered some more brushes...   

Now a bit if good news.  Every visit I dread seeing the retina scan...any red or white indicates bleeding and swelling.  The right eye continued to worsen and had failed to respond to any available treatment.  As a last resort the doctor inserted a slow-release steroid implant 6 weeks ago and all that green was a welcome sight. Here is the before and after.   Does not improve vision but slows the decline.

Progress

 Here was the progress last week with just the first flowers going on.

Then the second round.  At this point I have a lot more flowers but the webs are still too obvious...  The flowers are supposed to be a stronger element than the webs... which are kind of like my little secret.

So I bring it up in my editing program on the computer  and start adding splashes of color to see what kind of balance pleases me.  I definitely want quite a few pansies and mums and the webs more enclosed..  Right now it is slow going as the silk ribbon does not pull easily through the velvet and backing.  I have to use forceps on every stitch to pull it through.. slow and hard on my arthritic hands.

My goal is to finish this side by the end of next week and start on the back....  The back is entirely different and more CQ.. same theme -cats and spiders - but a completely different approach.

A great button find......

The initial roses I did were too "pinky pink" so I redid them all in a more antique rose and added them.. 

It all looks rather disjointed now but the next step are lots of blues and purples which will bring it all together.  At the end will be some white sprays of flowers as accents.

The very last step is the spiders...




I started going through my old metal buttons looking for some that had floral images and found this one about the size of a quarter.  When I was polishing it I noticed an engraving on the back.... extra superfine Scovills.  So I looked on Google and found that if it says Scovills/ extra superfine it would date it around 1827-1840 and it was probably a ladies coat button.  It is a two part button with a heavy shank.. It will definitely find a place on the bag.

Spectacular Holiday Cranberry Trifle

This bowl is the size of a small punch bowl (one gallon) and I used to use it several times a year.... especially during the holidays but not so now since we entertain a lot less and in smaller numbers.  It was stored in the barn and just bringing in  evoked lots of great memories... how many bowls can do that?  Tomorrow we are going to a charity bridge function and I volunteered to bring a dessert to feed 20/24 people.

 This holiday trifle is perfect because, except for the whipped cream, it can all be made the day before.  In fact it is better if it is made the day before.
Cranberry sauce
Make fabulous cranberry sauce from scratch.....
6 cups cranberries
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup apple cider (or orange juice)
1 t. cardamom
1 t. allspice (I use Chinese 5 spice instead)
I did not give an alternate because there is NO good substitute for homemade cranberry sauce and it is so easy to make.

Custard
Make 4 cups rich custard from scratch or ...........

2 pkg Jello "Cook &  Serve" custard mix  with  4 egg yolks
 Do not substitute  vanilla pudding mix. Yuk!

Pound Cake
Bake large pound cake from scratch or.......
2 pound cake mixes
Mix according to directions
Bake 25 min. in four 8" cake pans

4 cups Sherry

Then it is a layer of cranberries, a layer of cake brushed with sherry, cranberries, layer of custard, layer of cake brushed with sherry, layer of cranberries, layer of custard and so on.  Then all is mounded with real whipped cream...  Because I have to transport this in the car, I am taking the whipped cream separate and applying it on site.  Because of the size of the crowd I filled this more full than usual...  Now it will sit overnight in the frig with all the flavors blending deliciously.

Vintage shoe buttons save the day...

 

When I do a large floral area such as this I attach the flowers one color at a time.  I start with the medium size flowers and then the larger one and finish filling in with the small one and accent stitching..

Here the yellow are the medium.  You might notice I added some colored lace besides the green leaves previously added. 







And if you hadn't been reading when I was working on this last spring.... after the flowers were made I misted them lightly  and put them in the book press for a couple days.  I was aiming to get the "smashed" look of vintage millinery flowers.  I'm not sure if I'm succeeding but still forging ahead.

My secondary goal for this project is to use a goodly amount of my most precious buttons that I have collected.  That includes the black glass and vintage metal buttons leftover from the suffrage quilt.  I keep my these buttons in these vintage office flat files... unlike all the other buttons kept in large jars in the barn.  Just below is my entire supply of seed beads.

I also want to use the last of my buttons I bought in London several years ago.  Lower right in this picture is a card of shoe buttons I bought in a tiny (and I mean micro tiny) button shop on Portobello Road.  I was told they were dyed bone but when I was removing the pin shanks one looked like dyed MOP.

I've already used all the ones I bought at "The Button Queen" which was a very upscale shop that took me forever to find.



I loved the subtle color of the shoe buttons and they are perfect centers for the yellow flowers. If you look closely at the larger picture above you will see that each one is a different color.