Things I learned on the way to buying buttons

I have a lot of projects that need buttons.  Little baby shirts. Little baby rompers.  A couple of little girl sweaters . . . I try not to buy buttons until I need them (until I have the yarn, at the least) so that I don't have any unspent, useless buttons.  I'm thrifty like that.

As a shopper, too, I pride myself on being decisive, efficient and still careful (that's when I'm shopping in a store.  Online, I tend to poke around and try to find good prices and promotions, and then wait before I buy to be sure it's the right thing).

That wasn't the case this morning.  I had a serious itch to just be out of the house and away from domestic duties--just a breath is all I needed, plus a little sunshine.  I needed buttons, so that was a natural getaway destination.  I took Lulu with me because she's been a little stir-crazy, too.  Joann, here we come.

They have two aisles of buttons.  Two whole aisles.  For me, that means my choices are much more difficult, so many options being available.  As I scanned all those little button cards for perfect buttons, I realized other things about myself:

1.  I'm not a zany person.  I don't like a lot of loudness, jump-out-at-you patterns or unique designs.
2.  I don't even go in for contrasting colors--it just seems wrong on baby garments
3.  I love all those cutesy buttons, which really you can only use until they show some preferences about whether they like fish, tractors, butterflies or other assorted creatures.  Trouble is that most of the cutesy ones are NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER 3.  Choking hazards.

Skunked.  That's how I felt.  It took me an hour to pick them out (sigh).  No cute teddies (not enough of them), dinosaurs (too expensive--not paying more for the buttons than I did for the yarn) or sailboats (hank-style buttons--a pain to attach).  There were some cute stars, but there were 25 in a pack for $3, and that tells me they'd break off while I was sewing them on.

Two aisles of buttons and the best I could do was some conservative, coordinating buttons.  Not too much sheen or texture.  Plain, even.  Is that who I am?  Plain, conservative and cautious?  Apparently my buttons say so.

Upon reflection, I'm certain I don't need zig-zig embellished neon buttons to show my finesse.  That's what I blog for . . .