My friend Aniko sent me in a letter this beautiful old button. I put it on a chain and I never took it off since I received it.
I really like this time of the year, when tomorrow everything starts anew. I want in 2018 to continue to nurture and grow my friendships and try to hope more and worry less.
Happy New Year!
I bought this silver object some time ago from an vintage shop. I’m not sure if it is really a button or some sort of clip or fastener for clothing. It has a hinged system on the back, that could maybe hold some fabric in between the two movable parts. I kept searching for something similar, to see what could have been its purpose, but with no luck. I have only found a listing for quite similar objects and the seller calls them “buttons”. I wear it as a pendant and I like it a lot.
These are the finds from this weekend at the flea market. I’m getting more and more selective with what I bring home. For example, this time I have left behind a vintage tiger plush and a doll from the fifties, which were very nice but I thought about the limited space I have at home. I don’t regret not buying them, I do have my mother’s childhood dolls from the fifties and those are enough for me :).
I’m very glad I have found these antique buttons, though. Even if I do have enough buttons, too, these are so small and they could be part of some jewelry project or some crafty thing in the future. They are tiny brass buttons with beautiful details. 
I have also found this long and heavy silver chain which I think is antique. The niello serpent is bought separately but I like how it looks on this chain.
I wanted worry beads from Greece for some time now. I was hoping to find bakelite ones at some point, but I like these mother of pearl ones, too. They were quite cheap also and the smooth, cool surface of the beads is very pleasant.
Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.
At some point my friend found at the flea market a very interesting and intriguing box with someone’s collection of old buttons. On the box cover, someone wrote in pen “Austria”. We were joking that maybe we will find other countries in the next flea market visits. After some research, we think some of the buttons in that box are from the late eighteenth century. She is willing to share that collection with me :). I will post about the box at some point, but in this post I will show a ring I had made from one of the buttons in the box. It was only one of them and I don’t think is as old as the rest of the buttons, but I wanted an anchor ring for a long time now. I don’t care about its Christian symbolism, but I like the fact that it is a symbol of safety and stability. So, I do have now an anchor ring, with a nice rounded high profile on the finger. I like how it looks like together with my late Art nouveau ring (from the twenties or thirties).
Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Vintage charm parties.
I have found these postcards from the seaside and the seashell spoon in a box in my room. I have bought them a few years ago and forgot about them. The postcards are from the sixties to the eighties and one of them is not from the flea market, it was sent by me to my grandmother from my trip to the seaside in the mid eighties. The socialist hotels looked to me then as beautiful and serene as they seem in these postcards.
The mother of pearl pendant and the big square button are recent flea market finds.
Linking up with Thriftasaurus. Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Vintage Charm parties.
Visited a junk store yesterday, after a long time. It was more crowded with stuff than usual and really overpriced since our last visit (I guess the business goes well and they can afford to raise the prices). But we are always looking for sewing notions there and the guys running the store don’t think much of these :). I found these three boxes yesterday at an ok price. The black one with orchids is cardboard, it was a chocolate box and it is definitely old (not sure if forties old or seventies, but I like the design a lot, and it is nice and clean). Inside there are old zippers, saved from other clothes, but they work fine. The tea tin holds some nice colors of darning thread that I use for my weaving. The pink tin with little kittens and yarn balls is definitely new but it has a knitting doll inside and it is very cute.
Also, I found an old embroidery scissor (very good and sharp) and a crazy plastic button (from the eighties, I guess).
Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.
At the time when I had made a ring out of a button representing a boar, my friend had made this dog ring. Both are antique buttons (probably from around 1900) with a hunting theme. We wanted to have this buttons taken out of the horrible original context and worn as a way of showing respect and solidarity with the animals. I wear a lot my boar ring, but this dog one is very big and wasn’t so practical for my biking friend. So, she gifted it to me as a very early birthday present. 
Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesday.
These were mine in the early eighties. I’m not sure if they are actually older or my mother and grandmother bought them especially for me. I remember them well on different items. My grandmother would save them when I have outgrown one cardigan and move them on a new one, as I tended to become quite attached to my stuff, buttons included :). This is why the paint on the glass ones is almost gone. The plastic ones resisted better, but I also think they are newer. Anyway, even when I wasn’t a kid anymore, my grandmother carefully threaded these buttons together and saved them for me.
Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.
This button is a flea market find from a while ago. It’s sterling with mother of pearl, enamel and a tiny sapphire or paste stone. I have seen very similar ones online dated around 1910. I like very much its eye like shape and I wear it now as a charm on my bracelet.
It was a great day at the flea market today. I’ll post tomorrow the nicest find, but these are also things that make me very glad.
A snake ring for my collection.
A silver button with enamel and a tiny rhinestone (I’ll use it on a charm bracelet) and another silver charm.
Two watch chains (I wanted one for a long time now). I’ll use the simpler one to build a charm necklace and the more intricate one is perfect as a bracelet. Watching them more closely, I have noticed that they are both marked “Murat”, which a a French jeweler. They are gold filled and probably from the twenties or thirties.
A strangely organic looking old brooch.
Another stick pin for my collection (unfortunately no more stones on this one, but I probably replace them with some).
An old paper ring box.
A tin of colored pencils from the eighties, with some very nice shades.
A beautiful Russian tin full of interesting buttons (many of them bakelite). I think the tin is from the 1910s or 1920s.
Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.
stories of objects 