Buttons!

Sarah and I had our annual trip to Harrogate this week to buy for the shops.

Harrogate is everybody's favourite Trade Fair, the sun is always shining, you get to eat lunch outside accompanied by a Jazz Band and, of course, Betty's Tea Shop!
And now something else to add to the list of Harrogate attractions - 'Duttons for Buttons'!
We came across this amazing button shop on our way from the station whilst keeping an eye out for a shop that sold crochet hooks.
Yes, I have another new recruit to the crochet sisterhood! Spend any amount of time with me at the moment, especially on a train, and I will teach you to crochet. I'm not forcing anyone, I'm just sharing!
So as the train pulled in to Harrogate and Sarah had completed her first few rows she was (literally) hooked and wanted one of her own. And Duttons for Buttons even sold crochet hooks! But we were mesmerised by the floor to ceiling displays of buttons and agreed to come back after we had completed our work on Tuesday afternoon (and after Betty's of course). We got there at 4.55pm, in a panic in case they closed at 5. But it was ok, we had half an hour of button love ahead of us. Oh joy! Sarah proclaimed it as one of the happiest times of her life and got so excited by the time we were ready to pay she was practically hyper-ventilating (effectively O.D.ing on buttons!!).
The lady in the shop was lovely, had a daughter in Musselburgh, and said she wished all her customers were as enthusiastic as we were! She then took and extortionate amount of money from us for a tiny paper bag full of buttons. We also couldn't resist these lovely tins which contained 4 reels of gutermann thread (and you could choose your colours!). Sarah had her buttons in the tin as soon as she got on the train home. I waited till I got home and took the photos above.
We finished the day crocheting our way back to Edinburgh in an empty carriage (the small one where they keep the food trolley man) and, after a couple of mini bottles of wine each, singing a selection of classic tunes (total eclipse of the heart, champagne supernova...) to the trolley man!
Duttons for Buttons have a mail order service, you can send them a swatch of fabric or wool and they will send you a selection of buttons that match for you to choose from. They also have shops in Ilkley and Leeds.
http://www.duttonsforbuttons.co.uk/html/contact.html