Etsy Artist of the Week - Moxie Photo and Design

It never ceases to amaze me how innovative people can be. I recently came across these cheeky buttons on Etsy and loved the idea that I could buy a 1 year subscription to the Button of the Month Club. I contacted Leah Daehling of Moxie Photo and Design and she shared this story about her button passion.



I love buttons. I love mail. I love subscriptions for fun stuff. So I assume other people do too. Born, The Button of the Month Club.

I wanted a button maker ever since I found out my high school classmate’s mom made the sport buttons all the parents wore so proudly. I remember thinking “If I had a button maker, I would make fun buttons and it would totally rock my world. And what if I could charge people for them!”

Fast forward 13 years later. I realized I still was pining for a button maker. Call my contacts. Put the word out. The word from my sister: “I will call Party Line and see if anyone has one they are ready to part with.”

{sidebar: Party Line is a primitive Craigslist and/or Freecycle. It existed before Craigslist and Freecycle. You call the radio station in O’neill, Nebraska and announce live what you are looking for or looking to get rid of. And you give your phone number and/or address. It is very grassroots and I love it. Listen online at www.kbrx.com}

My sister put in the call, the request and my phone number. Before she could hang up with Party Line and call me back, the phone rang with a seller. {Could it really be this easy?!} He had a button maker he was looking to sell. We decided on a price {ok, I tried to talk him down a bit, but he stood firm at $50}. To avoid shipping charges, I set it up for him to meet my mom right down the road and half way between the two of them. It was splendid. They met. They made the exchange. He attempted to sell mom some pens he made. The pens say “maker of horseradish and pens.” Awesome. They were too expensive or I would have had her purchase 2 cases. To do what with. I don’t know, but with that sort of wicked catch phrase, who couldn’t use 24 of them?

Ok. The button maker. I covet it. I adore it. I dream about it. I get those little excited grasshoppers in my stomach when I know I get to make buttons. Maybe, I love mustaches. Pink is the new Black. The Church ladies just shook their heads. Grab your mate, not your plate.
I use my ever growing and ever changing supply of vintage images. Or my photographs, or plain paper. Or patterned paper, or book paper or whatever I feel like using. I use it. And funny politically incorrect vintage sayings like ‘hangnails are the special plaque of housewives and typists’…what? Awesome. Sometimes the things I find in these magazines are better than the ones that ooze out of the wicked and sassy part of my brain.

The button of the month club is a way to share in my joy of buttons. And to get a taste of what is going on in my head and in my inventory of vintage. Its always changing. Funny, sassy, ironic, sarcastic. {it wont ever be gross or risque’, I want my momma to be proud} Who knows what you will get month to month.

You get:
Stuff: 12 buttons.

Mail: Each one mailed on the first of the month for a year. A certificate will be mailed with the first button.

Bragging Rights: you will own completely original buttons. I don’t make repeats. Ever. Ever. There are too many new ideas to make repeats.

What a great way to put a smile on someones face! Anyone who mentions this blog entry when they order Button of the Month will receive an extra button in the first months packet! Thanks, Leah!

See more of Moxie:
moxiephotoanddesign.com
moxiephotoanddesign.blogspot.com
moxiephotoanddesign.etsy.com