Button Therapy!

How do you de-stress?

We all have our favorite ways. I knit prayer shawls and brush dogs and make quart after quart of bone broth. Watering the garden works. Binging on The West Wing works, as long as I avoid current news at the same time!

Turns out, gluing buttons to paintings works, too.

It would be a bit better if I didn’t have to keep stopping to clear out the little nozzle thing on the glue, but that’s okay.

I’ve loved buttons for years. I recycle them from Bill’s shirts when they outlive their useful lives. I buy pint Mason jars full in vintage stores. White and ivory, mostly tiny, I use them for quilts and glue them to lampshades. (Well, I did glue them to lampshades before I took all the fabric off the vintage lampshades and just went with the frames!)

These days, paintings. And, as I was in grave danger of running out, I actually broke down and bought spare buttons from Amazon. Two bags full. Wildly mixed sizes.

The first task, sorting. Tiny. Medium. Larger.

Then, practicing well-balanced randomness. Also known as randomesque. (Actual random is pretty hard!)

Non-toxic glue. A bit finicky but safe and it dries really clear.

I’m taking some to my kids. Buttons, glue, and picture frames. I’m about to be in charge of Grammy Camp for a week!

For now, it doesn’t solve all the problems, even in my world. It does have a fascinating mix of flow and structure. (Read that right brain – left brain.) And it’s just fiddly enough to be distracting. I could use a bit of distracting about now.

And a bit of sleep.

Tomorrow, about five hours of painting. Yay!!!

Some new photos for a MOO printing project.

Bill, blessedly, in charge of dinner.

And, according to FedEx, some fabulous pasture raised eggs and a big box of frozen dog food. (Sorting the freezer is not nearly as relaxing as sorting buttons!)

Along with a reminder that there are some things in life that we have to learn again and again. Some days I think I’d change that if I could. Instead, notes.

And hugs for all of you who are learning the hard things just now.

Sorting buttons helps.