Buffalo Minnesota Here We Come

This Saturday I will be joining my sister Pam at the Buffalo Arts and Craft Festival in Buffalo Minnesota.The show is from 9-4 pm. Last year it was Pam's first show in Buffalo and it turned out to be a fantastic one. We are both excited to be selling our art. Our booth number is 208 and it is listed under Pamela Vincent Creations. Stop by and say hello.These are some pictures from last years show. Most of the shops around town had Buffalo's outside of them. It was a beautiful, clean town and the people were so friendly.

http://buffalochamber.org/arts-crafts-festival/

Pam and Patty (yes we are twins)

Our sister Sandy on the right with friend Gloria

This will be my first year selling my button creations at Buffalo. I will be selling my cotton washcloths, vintage button bracelets, vintage button magnets and button bouquets on canvas. My newest design will be button key chains and I think they will do well.

Button Key Chains

They are so much fun to create

Vintage Button bracelets

100% cotton washcloths

A Funny Thing Happened To Me While At A Garage Sale

During the summer months in Minnesota, Thursday and Friday's are big Garage Sale days. I love going to garage sales as much as I love going to antique stores. You never know what you will find, or the type of people you will meet. On Friday, July 24, a few of my co-workers headed to a sale near by. The girls know I am always looking for buttons and to keep an eye open for them. Candy alerted me to a Button picture frame, it was brand new for $5.00. SOLD! I decided to put the picture of my two sisters and I inside of it and will display it at our shows.

The owner of the sale, Rachel asked me "What I did with buttons,?" I held my wrist up and shook my button bracelet and said " I make bracelets and other creations with them."  Then the button stories started and  Rachel said " Wait here a minute I have some buttons to give you." and went inside of her house. A few minutes later she came outside with a plastic storage drawer filled with stuff and poured it into a bag. I was speechless thinking how this went from a button picture frame purchase to a button bonanza.
Rachel said " I never use them and I am down sizing, please take them." I reassured Rachel that no good deed goes unnoticed and that I would like to make her a bracelet for her kindness. Rachel's eyes lit up and she said, "I love pastel colors."
We exchanged contact information and I told her I would be in touch with her soon.
After I got home from work, I poured all of Rachel's collection into my tray and this is what she gave me, buttons, threads, containers and all.

I started picking through them looking for pastel buttons for her bracelet. I was so overwhelmed with her generosity. The next night I created this pastel bracelet for her.

Sunday morning my husband and I were going out for breakfast and Rachel lived nearby. I called to see if we could stop to drop off her bracelet. Rachel had a big smile on her face when I came to her door. I handed her the bracelet and with in one second she had it proudly displayed on her wrist. I also included a gift bag with a few of my cotton washcloths and button magnets.  And this is the cutesiest thing ever, Rachel had another little baggie full of buttons she had found to give me. I think she may have thought that she would never hear from me again and I took the buttons and ran. But that is now how I operate and it is not how I was raised. I believe that when you pay it forward with random acts of kindness you get it back ten fold.
Our journey on this earth should include making  a difference in the lives of people daily. Pay if forward people, give someone the WOW factor. It is contagious- spread it around.

So, the other day a funny thing happened to me while at a garage sale. I met a wonderful lady named Rachel and she would like to come and see me at our show in December in Roseville.

Anoka River Fest Craft Show 2015

Patty and Pam

Hello all, I fell behind in my blogging so forgive me once again. This has been an amazing, busy summer for me and August is right around the corner. On Saturday July 11, I joined Pam at her Anoka River Fest show. It was her 4th year there and  she did very well. Now that she has established herself with her pressed dried floral art, people expect to buy from her. I must say, by mid day, her tables were getting bare. Pam created 10 new designs for this show and they all sold. I am so happy for her that she has finally found shows where people find her work unique. Anoka is a beautiful, historic town, There were over 140 artisans, two live bands, the food court was amazing. Along with all of the unique shops that lined the town including the antique stores. Everything was so clean and the breeze from the river was welcoming.Thank you Pam for a great day, I enjoyed spending time with my sisters.

I added our Sisters picture for luck

Our First Show of the Season- Hopkins Main Street Art and Craft Festival

Saturday, May 16th was my first show of the season with my twin sister Pam. I set some new goals for myself in 2015 and I call it a "New First."  Allow me to explain. The Hopkins Main Street Art and Craft Festival was a new show for us to attend. A new adventure and the first time Pam and I shared a new idea and created it together to sell.

The show was at least 6 blocks long and booths lined up down both sides of the street. Out of all the artisans that were there, I  only saw one other gal that was at the Anoka River Fest Show last year.

Pam and Patty's Button Bouquet Creations

Our booth was directly across from the Old Opera Hall and we were smack dab in the center of the town. When we first got there all we could smell was bacon in the air. Oh my goodness, our nostrils were flared to try to detect where that oh so delicious smell was coming from.

We had no time to search, our mission was to get our home of 7 hours, set up and get our wares ready for sale. In spite of the inclement weather, we met a lot of nice people whom were very complimentary of our work. Sister Pam say's "We will be returning her next year."

Thank you Hopkins, I had a wonderful day spending time with my sister Pam and my "adopted" sister Dale.

Button, Button, Who's Got The Button

Does anyone know where the phrase "Button, button, who's got the button" started from? I remember playing the game in kindergarten in the 60's. On a rainy day when we could not go outside to play, so we would form a large circle with our hands out and palms together.

One kid was picked as the leader and would walk around to all the hands and secretly drop the button in your palm. The trick was to guess who had the button. Once the button owner was guessed, you would get up and start the game again. I think the teacher just had us play that game to keep us out of her hair. Of course everyone wanted to play and be leader of delivering that secret button. 

Welcome to my new journey of vintage button creations, button history and DIY button projects. I started collecting buttons two years ago. I get them from friends, auctions, antique stores and free, from perfect strangers with incredible stories about their family buttons. I found I had a passion for 
re-purposing "Old" buttons, just ask my husband, I have thousands and thousands of them. The dirtier the better and after I clean them they are beautiful. Each has it's own personality and I wonder "Where did they come from?". "What clothing were they on?." and "How old are they?". 
I love them all.