BUTTONS

I love buttons.  I always have. I can’t quite pin down what it is about them that I love – how pretty they can be, how they feel, how they sound – but whatever it is that draws me to them, I love them!

Now buttons, generally, are not like Marmite (other yeast spreads are available) as in it it’s not a case of you love them or hate them, there is a more even spread of feelings about buttons.  However, there are extremes. 

My lovely friend Liz had a phobia of buttons, specifically on clothing, called koumpounophobia.  I had never noticed that she never wore buttons until one evening, when I was sharing a house with her, she asked if I could cut the buttons off a new top for her.  She had, she told me, always been afraid of buttons but, as an adult, had managed to manage her fear enough to be able to cut them off and let them drop into a box that she kept under her bed.  I found it really interesting that she would keep the thing she feared so close by but I guess, she thought it best to know where they were!

At the other end of the scale are those, a bit like me but more so, who LOVE buttons!  I’ve not been able to find a scientific word for the love of buttons but I have found a few blogs and websites belonging to fellow button lovers!  Like the lady from Button Obsession who’s love for buttons resulted in starting her own online button shop  and Glenyce, from the blog Midcraftcrisis, who asked for buttons for her birthday and, amongst lots of other lovely buttons, received the ‘Family Button Box’ from her Auntie Jill.

  Glenyce’s Family Box of Buttons brings me back to what inspired me to write about buttons today.  We are visiting my brother in law and, while looking for a needle and thread, my OH found his late Mother’s box of buttons. Who’d have thought that this little, battered old biscuit tin could trigger such an outpouring of love, affection and memories! Just the way he held the tin, gently and lovingly in his hands showed how precious the memories are that are held within it. 

Some buttons had no meaning or memory for him at all and made us wonder who had worn them.  Others instantly brought back a happy memory of a favourite childhood item. And others had ‘always been there’ and, despite having no special person or event attached to the memory, provided a sense of continuity, safety and home.

I am very jealous of my big sister, Susan, who inherited our Family Box of Buttons from my maternal Grandmother.  Not only is it an amazing box of buttons, it is also a really lovely old, wooden box!  I can picture it clearly now, feeling the weight of it and gently opening the lid to reveal probably a hundred years of buttons and memories – a real treasure chest!

Two particular buttons I can picture in my Nanny’s button collection are a shiny brass button and a white, twinkly plastic button – both of similar sentimental importance to me.  I always imagined the brass button had come from the army uniform of my Nanny’s husband – he sadly died in the Second World War when my Nanny was six months pregnant with my Mum.  I used to hold the button and wonder what it would have been like to have a Granddad and how brave he must have been.  The white, twinkly plastic button was a spare from this fabulous cardigan my Nanny knitted me which had a mix of buttons on it (possibly from the button box!) which seemed very grown up to me!  There were two of the white, twinkly ones which looked like opals, a clear twinkly crystal like one and two red twinkly ones which looked like rubies! 

I loved the cardigan which was knitted from some fantastic white wool with rainbow flecks running through it!  That little plastic button reminds me of all the other lovely buttons on the cardigan, the cardigan itself, my lovely Nanny who knitted it for me, the excitement of opening it on my birthday and feeling like a grown up princess and being even more excited to find another little parcel which contained a knitted bikini in the same wool for my Cindy – all that from one button!

As I won’t have the honour of custody of the Family Box of Buttons, I have started my own. I didn’t do this consciously, just initially keeping the odd spare button in a drawer from new outfits of my own and then, once I had my own children, all the spare buttons from their outfits. 

I have since transferred the buttons to a little, flower covered tin that my Mum gave me a few Christmas’ ago which had been filled with toffees (I think). It still looks quite shiny and new but I am looking forward to bringing it out when I am a grandmother myself and showing my grandchildren all the lovely buttons I will have collected, telling them about all the wonderful people whose buttons they were and helping to create lovely memories for them to share with their children.

 

 

http://midcraftcrisis.blogspot.com/2011/08/button-obsession.html?showComment=1324383323877#c2704762974284619129

http://www.buttonobsession.com/store/

http://dipsolect.com/koumpounophobia-fear-of-buttons/

 

 

Tags: birthday, box, button, family, grandchildren, grandparent, heirloom, koumpounophobia, love, memories

GUEST BLOGS

TinyTalk families and our record breaking bunting!

I am really proud to say I have been invited (twice!) to guest blog!  My second guest blog went live yesterday and you can find it at:

http://signandthecity1.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-post-my-baby-signing-business.html

This blog is written by my colleague, Jen Stanbrook, and gives a real insight into running a baby signing franchise. Please pop over and check it out!

The above picture is featured in my blog and shows some of the families in my class and I showing off our record breaking bunting – another fun filled and proud moment in my life as a TinyTalk teacher!

PS – my first guest appearance was on http://joannedewberry.co.uk/?s=TinyTalk

Tags: baby signing, business, franchise

BLACK CAB

An image keeps coming back to me that I saw a couple of weeks ago of a shiny, black cab with two passengers – a Mum facing the driver and a daughter, on one of the pull down seats, facing her Mum.  I saw the black cab as, on the way to dropping my daughter at majorettes training, I turned a corner to find it in front of me, sparkling in the evening sun.

Immediately I was transported back to my childhood when, on a very special occasion, we (usually my Mum and I) would get a black cab home from the train station, cinema or theatre.  The thrill of sitting in the cab, in it’s funny little flip seat facing my Mum and talking of the day or evening we had just spent together as we sped through the night prickled down my spine again, nearly thirty years on! 

When I was a child, we didn’t have a car and so travelled everywhere mostly on foot but sometimes by bus (don’t get me started about sitting on the top of a double decker, especially an open topped one!).  However, once a month my Mum would go to Bejam’s (later bought out by Iceland) to do a ‘dry shop’.  This included flour, rice, pasta, tins and all frozen goods for our family for the next month.  Once the shopping was completed, we would then order a taxi to come and take us and our shopping home – this was never a black cab. It was always some sort of saloon car or another and it didn’t have the same feeling about it, especially as I was usually crammed in along with bags of dog biscuits!

I wondered if the young girl in the black cab had the same feeling as I had in my childhood? Did all the little lights and belts and signs intrigue and excite her as they had me?  Was it the perfect end to a perfect day? Did she feel wonderfully special? I’m not sure but I hope so!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_carriage#Black_cabs

 http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/the-black-cab

Tags: black cabs, memories, Stephen Fry

FAME…at last!

Am really proud to have been asked by Joanne Dewberry (http://joannedewberry.co.uk/) to write a piece for her series ‘A Day in the Life of…’

So far, I have had lots of very positive and flattering comments about it!  Am also very chuffed that I seem to be inspiring lots of people to make a little time in their life for…Ice cream Tuesday!

http://joannedewberry.co.uk/category/day-in-the-life-of/ Miriam Faulkner!!

www.tinytalk.co.uk/miriamf

Tags: baby signing, buisness, franchise, ice cream, TinyTalk

AN UNNATURAL LOVE…

Is it wrong to love a comfrey plant?  I think it may be but how can I not bestow my affections on something that provides me with so much joy a dozen or more times a day? 

Strangely, this love has only blossomed this year despite having owned the plant (well, it started as several roots but I planted them into one pot) for about two or three years.  I bought it in a bid to produce my own comfrey ‘tea’ to aid my efforts at growing my own veg.  However, the only tea that my veg have seen has been the cups of PG Tips (other brands are available but I don’t like them!) that I consume by the bucket load everyday!

Initially, I put the pot in the back garden but not a lot happened, just the odd weedy looking leaf.  Then earlier this, for reasons I can not remember now, I moved it to the flower bed by our front door and it absolutely loves it!  It is this fantastic, gloriously green master piece of a plant that shouts to the world – someone who loves and grows plants lives here!!!  We’ve recently painted our front door a lovely sea green/sage green colour and it sets the comfrey plant off a treat!  And, to top it all, the flowers are really pretty and I have never been past the plant where there aren’t at least two bumble bees busy at work collecting their pollen. 

I am truly amazed that something as simple as a plant and give me such a buzz both emotionally and literally, thanks to the bees, every time I walk past it!

For more information about comfrey, check out this information page from the website allotment.org.uk http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/comfrey/comfrey.PDF 

Bumble bee enjoying the Comfrey

The ‘heart’ of comfrey

You can hardly see the pot now!

POTTY TRAINING, IN REVERSE – UPDATE!

Brilliant news! He went straight off to sleep and didn’t wake up until….well, not exactly sure as I majorly over slept today (7.45 – eek!) and he was already awake! There were no leaks today but he had had a wee.  Let’s see what tonight brings…

POTTY TRAINING, IN REVERSE!

It seems I may have inadvertently started to potty train my little man! 

I was hoping to hang on until next summer when he will be three, as I am keen to avoid the stop start situation that starting early can bring.  Mr TinyTalkMiriam (Mr T for short!)  is keen to start soon, mainly as our daughter asked for knickers when she was just two and two weeks later was dry but also to cut down on the amount of black bags we put out each week (this slightly obsessive love of recycling could be the subject of another blog!)! So, while we have been discussing our plan of action, we have been vaguely talking to him about going to the toilet and trying to get him to sit on it before his bath.

To date, he has shown zero interest in either going to or sitting on the toilet except that when we go into the toilet, he gets to wash his hands which is one of his favourite past times – he can often been heard asking anyone who will listen if they want a wee!  As I am hoping to put the whole process off for a year, I am not too bothered by this disinterest! However, in a fit of desperation last night, the pull ups came out and potty training in reverse* began!

So, what generated such desperation? Well, Mr T was away on business and I was pooped after spending the first night he was away chasing the cat around the house in the middle of the night trying to get him to take the mouse he had brought in back out and then spent the second night enjoying the wonder that is sharing my bed with a two year old!  Bedtime came and my little man started his latest post ‘night night, sleep tight’ routine – shouting for me at the top of his voice!  I successfully ignored this while watering the garden (even though I could hear people walking past our fence chuckling at his outbursts!) however, when he started shouting NAPPY! I thought I had better investigate.

I opened his door to find him standing up in his cot, beaming at me while one hand pointed to the nappy on the floor and the other was busy discovering the joy that is one’s half naked body!  A very cross Mummy explained that this was not on, that it was late and that it was time for sleep all the while putting on another nappy. 

Three nappies later, I was desperate!  What on earth could I do? I was certainly not up for a night of endless nappy changes! Suddenly I remembered the bag of pull up nappies that I had bought in error a while back when in a rush and subsequently thrown to the back of the cupboard!

With much excitement and enthusiasm, I asked him if he would like to wear some big boy pants. I pointed out the very exciting red car on the front and helped him to step into them. Well, he was SO excited! He kept patting them and smiling and wouldn’t let me put his pyjama bottoms back on, so he could keep looking at the picture! I gave him a big kiss and said goodnight.  And, joy of joys, heard not a peep until 6.40 this morning! The nappy was wet and had leaked a little (as pull ups are designed to let the babies know they are wet) but he was happy and I was pleased to have had a full nights sleep!

So, when my little man started shouting nappy again this evening, I put the pull ups on on my very first visit!  As a total bonus, while he was still half naked I asked him if he wanted to go to the toilet to do a wee and he said yes!  I sat him on the loo and, for the first time ever, he sat comfortably on the seat for a minute or so – previously he would either cry before you even got to the loo or do that excellent plank movement that is usually reserved for avoiding going into the pram and/or car seat.  There was no wee, but he was SO chuffed with himself! We washed our hands, went back to his room and put on his big boy pants and tucked him into bed.

So far, I have not had to go back into him and I am really excited to see what has happened tomorrow morning.  Wouldn’t it be brilliant if I manage to potty train my little man albeit in reverse?!

 

*Generally, when potty training, toddlers are dry during the day first and then, some time later, are dry at night so parents focus on day time potty training first. We seem to be bucking convention and doing it the opposite way round!