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.
