My name is Deb, and I'm a collector.

And I'm proud of my collections:

turtles all over the place;

rubber stamps in my craft room;

crystals and pretty rocks in our family room;

roosters in my kitchen; and

antlers in our front room.

♥

In the corner of my craft room, to the left of my rubber stamp collection (showcased in the cool shelf that my hubby made) is a fabric strip that holds my button and pin collection. It's just two strips of unbleached muslin that I sewed together and it's hung with a piece of wooden dowel with a ribbon attached. It's about 4" wide, and 30" long, and I have been pinning little treasures to it for about 30 years now.

Whenever I travel or go to a concert or performance of some sort, I usually pick up a button or pin as a souvenir. When I first made this fabric strip and pinned the first few buttons on it, I remember thinking that I shouldn't have made it so big - that I'd probably never fill it completely... I'm still adding buttons to it, although they are pretty squeezed in at this point.
In the photo above:
My "band mom" pin from Carrie's high school marching band days; a pin from San Antonio, Texas from my trip there 9 years ago with my mom and sister; a gold mask stick pin from Venice, Italy; buttons from Hard Rock Cafe...

In the photo above:
Arizona professional sports teams; Wicked pin from New York Broadway production; button from Gwen Stefani concert; and one from Eric Clapton.

In the photo above:

Concert pins from Moody Blues, Alannis Morrisette, and Jimmy Buffet; helicopter pin from the one Carrie made me go up in while we were in New York...

In the photo above:

Yes. I saw the Backstreet Boys (Carrie's idea!!!); Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young; and Tom Petty

In the photo above:

Concert pins from Billy Joel, more Tom Petty, Maroon Five, and Justin Timberlake.

More concert buttons... John Mellencamp (my favorite!!!), County Crows, and Gwen Stefani (again).

You'll see that there are lots of Hard Rock Cafe pins as well as other little trinkets from various places that I've traveled. I would have never guessed when I sewed this strip together 30 years ago that it would someday contain such a variety of momentos. It's just a little glimpse into how I've kept myself entertained over the years, and I love it.

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Do you have a collection of buttons and pins like these? How do you store your various collections?