During our trip, Jeff was pretty much in his workshop the whole time. I had worked for awhile to get caught up on tying buttons on cards and was almost completely caught up, but then I came home to all the buttons he had been working on in their various stages, finished all at once. A whole lot of buttons! So many, in fact, I wondered how in the world I would get them all tied on cards in time for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival this weekend. Jeff was too busy making more things for our booth to help with the tying. My friend had offered to help me tie buttons on cards before I left for my trip and when I came back (and saw the mountain of buttons before me) I did something that is hard for me to do- I took her up on her offer and accepted her help. We joked that we would have a tying-buttons-on-cards-party. Bracken called it a button party and I liked that even better.

We set up some tables outside for our work station. (With a pop up tent over it, which was good because it did rain a few times.) I organized buttons into families and put them in muffin tins. We tied buttons on cards and more buttons on cards and the pile slowly started to shrink. My friend is such a generous person and even with two little ones in tow and her hands very full with her family and her business, she still helped me. Children played, built forts, decorated the sidewalk in chalk art, and though some naps were skipped, everybody had fun. (And it was much more fun tying the buttons on cards with friends!) I have more buttons to tie on cards during our drive and beyond (plus pricing and all those loose ends to wrap up), but now I have a manageable amount of buttons to tie and I couldn’t have done it without her. I told her she was my hero that day, and she was.

If you are coming to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, we welcome you to visit our booth and say hello! Our online shop will be closed for the duration of the festival and I’ll be back in this space next week. Now, off to enjoy some fiber and the animals that produce it!