Little Boxes

Today I tried to pick my spirits up by being domestic. My chosen arena was the kitchen. First I made Swiss steak. I cooked it in the slow cooker for a couple hours and then stuck it in the refrigerator to marinate overnight. Rob always likes it better the second day.

Next I boiled up the turkey carcass, then picked all the meat off the bones and bagged it. This will make several stews for the dogs. Finally, I made a berry pie. The house smells pretty good, even if it didn't do much for my mood.

Morgan had her happy pills early this morning and has had a pretty good day.

Before Christmas, Chan sent me a couple of little boxes. I have a nice little collection of boxes and today I went around the house gathering them. They seem to fall into categories.

First are the creatures.

Rob gave the penguin to me one Christmas. It's very sparkly and pretty.


I collect frogs and often receive them as gifts. This frog box was a gift from a friend.


This one is more ornate than most.


A common theme in frog collecting is the Frog Prince. I guess you're supposed to kiss him and hope he turns into a real prince.


I really like this little guy. He hovers over the flower on a tiny spring. This is a very tiny box.


This is another tiny frog. I like his roundness and the smirk on his face..




Here is a carload of animals.


There are even more on the back.


To prove it's really a box, I removed the two lids.


This box has the characters front and back from one of our favorite movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas.


Another category is my collection of Russian boxes. While I was there I bought several as gifts for friends and couldn't resist getting these for myself. The workmanship is extraordinary.

This one is very small with St. Basil's Cathedral painted on the top and the Cyrillic letters for Moscow on the front.


The Russians are known for their lacquer work and this box has a representation of St. Basil's done in lacquer.


Some of the loveliest boxes I saw in Russia were made from birch bark. It's carved, burnt and bent to make these boxes .





The sides as well as the tops are ornately carved and one has a piece of amber set in the lid.


This box is larger than the others. I really liked the painting on the top and when I returned home I did a cross stitch sampler of the Cyrillic alphabet with this scene on it.


There are also boxes that don't fall into any category.


This glass box has real pressed flowers in the lid.


This one is red alabaster.


This little box arrived in the mail about the time Bentley died. It was sent by some charity I had contributed to. The vet had cut off a lock of Boo's hair for me and this box was the perfect place to keep it.