I can’t understand why I am drawn to tiny trinkets. Miniature figurines, toys, beads, and buttons always fascinate me. Do they attract you? I can’t seem to throw them away, so I always just put them in a box in a drawer. No more! Now, I’m putting them out on display for my guests to sift through — if they can snatch one of the silver ladles out of my hands.
At a local antique store (about which I will be telling you soon), the owner does a lot of mosaic work using trinkets. She had bowls full of “treasure” all over her shop with tiny wooden scoops in the bowls. With delight I grabbed a scoop and started sifting. It was like sifting in a Pirate’s treasure chest! I was having great fun … until I noticed the shop owner looking at me. I put down the scoop and grinned at her sheepishly. She said, “No, no no! Go ahead and scoop! That’s what it’s for, and EVERYBODY does it.”
You can bet it gave me an idea for all my tiny treasures. I told you long ago about a Hand-some Bowl that my husband gave me. It’s a huge ceramic bowl with carved hands holding it all around. I decided that it would be perfect for displaying my stuff. Why hide it in a drawer? With two antique silver ladles at the ready (bought at a garage sale for a buck, because the kids selling it didn’t know it was silver that needed polishing — they just thought it was dirty), it makes an interesting display for my coffee table.
I think it is a success because the first adult who saw it immediately began to scoop. However, I suspected that when I’m not looking five cats would want to scoop, so Mr. Tucker cut a circle of Plexiglass and inserted a lovely drawer knob from Anthropologie in the center.
This reminds me very much of the Magical Button Box we had as a child. Momma only brought it out to amuse us when we were sick. That is why it was “magic” … we never got to play with it long enough to grow bored by it. I think that if I were a parent of small children, I might put some trinkets like this in a covered tin to only bring out on special days or days when a child was ill. Do you think that a kid in today’s technological world would find interest in sifting through a bowl full of trinkets and treasures?
Other posts you might enjoy:
- The Magical Button Box
- Adopt An Ancestor
- Dealing With Stress
- A Timer Keeps Me Moving
- Gift Giving Simplified, Or Not!
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
When my son was young, four to six, give or take; I would bring out my button box. I LOVE buttons — old, new, all colors, sizes and shapes. He absolutely enjoyed sorting through them. This was an occasional thing, just once in awhile. But then he graduated onto LEGOS and other things.
Ah, well. Now he’s 16 and I’m just an old fool.
Renee
We may just be “old fools,” Renee, but it’s still fun to sift through treasures. Consider taking those buttons you love, putting them in an interesting bowl (with a scoop) and putting them out to enjoy. Again, why hide them in a box?
I have my mother’s button box and I just love it. It’s housed in an old Cavalier cigarettes box. Apparently in the Fifties you could buy 100 cigarettes nicely sealed in a useful oval tin about the height of–well, of a cigarette. That was in the days when we had cigarettes on the coffee table in a cigarette urn, a nice silver Ronson table lighter, and tiny “ash receivers” scattered on all the side tables. Times have changed, but the Cavalier cigarette box has endured. I still enjoy taking it down and emptying its contents on the table to look through.
What a treasure! I have cigar boxes, but I haven’t found a cigarette box. Yep, those button boxes are wonderful. I say sift ‘em!
I think it depends on situation if wat attracts me…Sometimes, it can but mostly it does not attratc me…
I love the crafts you have here for us…This looks really interesting…
This is a great art and I am hoping that this can help a lot of people to be creative…