I’ve always been thrilled when I’ve picked up an old book and found a yellowed note or a dried flower, something personal from a previous owner, tucked inside. Someone put it there; why? I don’t know, but it always takes my imagination on a trip back in time. ♣ So, whenever I can, I put something in my old books, a bookmark, a tiny watercolor, a dried flower from my garden.
Once I was browsing through an antique store in Vermont and I saw a box on the back of a dusty, dark shelf and started thinking how much I would LOVE it
if I picked the box up . . .
. . . . and instead of being empty, as they always are, how great it would be if this one was filled with beautiful old paper things . . . vintage place cards, menus, gift notes, postcards, old Christmas cards; I dreamed that when I lifted off the lid, it might look something like this:
What a find that would be! Like buried treasure, a time capsule, like discovering a bottle on the beach with a note in it! I would wonder about the person who collected all that stuff; why did she do it? Where did she live; what did she do; I would look for clues in the box. I would hope there might be photos or something with her handwriting on it, I would take it apart and examine every little bit. It would be like a diary! A mystery!
In my heart, I knew it wasn’t likely to happen. Buried treasure is hard to come by, although that’s never stopped me from examining the floorboards in my old New England house just in case. But I had opened too many empty boxes in antique stores, and no matter how buried they were, they’ve always been empty. And I’ve always been just a tad bit disappointed.
So about twenty years ago, I decided I may never find a box full of treasure, but I could make one, just the way I imagined it, the way I always hoped it would be. ♥ I picked out a box I liked, and slowly began to fill it. I have all kinds of stationery in it now, little bits and pieces I’ve collected over the years . . . almost anything evocative that would fit in a box . . . a wishbone, a bottle of red ink, an embroidered bookmark, a champagne cork with my birthday written on it, small pencil sketches I did for pages of my books, ticket stubs, and postage stamps, they’re all there.
There’s an enamel refrigerator magnet shaped like a champagne bottle with “2000” on it, a seed packet, stickers, old recipe cards, lavender soap leaves, a postcard I wrote home from Paris; I also put in things I found in antique stores that were already old . . . And some personal stuff like this . . .
Pieces of a tea cup with birds on it that fell and broke in the San Simeon earthquake in 2003; in an envelope.
And this little watercolor I did; it was part of a painting that I didn’t like, so I cut off the good part, signed the back and dated it, and into the box it went.
After a while, I had to get another box. The first one was full. Now, these boxes are my own little time capsules.
I’m making them for the future. Like Easter eggs I’m hiding in the bushes for someone to find. Someday a long time from now, someone will be walking through an antique store wishing she could find a treasure trove, a little magic. Maybe she will have kids, she will be working too hard, has taken a moment out of a busy day for a bit of escape. She will think that wishing for hidden treasure is not asking too much. She’ll see a dusty old box high on a shelf and pull it down, and it will be heavy, her heart might skip a beat, and she will think, is it treasure? And her answer will be yes. ♥
Now I’m thinking about those loose floorboards in my house . . . hmmmm.
Delightful idea – as wonderful as the discovery of this post – on a Saturday afternoon – not really expecting to ‘find’ it ! Thanks a bunch…
susan… i love the pictures you take. they are so good. what kind of camera do you have?? karen s
It’s a Canon EOS. Kind of new for me; don’t really know what I’m doing yet, but I love the pictures it takes.
Love the Canon EOS! I have one, too. Also have a Panasonic Lumix 12x (small size – fits in my pocket). The *only* down-side to digital is that is waaaayyy too easy to take lots of photos! With film, I knew how to pace myself, to take the time to compose each photo. Not any more! Click, click, CLICK!!!! xo
ps…. i just have to comment on the ap print i just bought from you. it is sooo lovely and your work is really exquisite…..i know, i studied it! i can’t tell you what an accomplished artist you have become. (the jar of flowers). i find flowers a real challenge….but you’ve nailed it. good job. i just wish everyone would buy one so they could see but there’s only 75!! yea!! 74 now…. ks
So sweet of you to tell me! Isn’t the paper gorgeous? I was so lucky to find the person who makes them.
What a great idea! We should all do that. I remember as a teen moving into an old house with my parents, it had a big old trunk there and it was filled with diaries and love letters and picture…I spent hours pouring over it all. Come say hi 😀
Such a wonderful idea. I always buy old sewing boxes filled with odd and ends for the same reason.
I think we should all consider our very own treasure boxes – I truly believe you can tell a lot about a person if you look at their treasures – you see into their spirit. Thanks for another beautiful post, Susan. Judy C
This would be great to do so our kids could find it some day, after we’re gone and they are cleaning out our things. Things that they were alive for but may have forgotten. You have my mind a churning now.
You have lovely stuff in your box. I’d feel like I’ve found treasure if I found it laying somewhere on a shelf.
Have a great weekend.
Kim
Heck, you had me with the Hummel box!
🙂
Good Evening Sweet Sue…I Love this Idea…I Need to start a Box like this so when I grow Older…Taylor will find My Treasure Box One Day…. & Never Ever Forget Me….ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Grand~Ma Angie & all Her Magic….lol…Thank You My Very Smart Friend….xoxo Poof! 🙂
what lovely thing to do and such a kind thing sharing with us,, thankyou
I love the way you think! Thanks for the look into your special box!
Happy Hot Summer day from California, Susan. I cannot wait to start my new box project. Also, I’m behind on my emails so I just read the ice cream sandwich blog. These are all so inticing. Thanks for taking the time to write to all of us. I absolutely love your blog.
Sheryl from Foresthill
I have a treasure box but it’s bigger then most. It is so full of bits and pices of my life and the lives of my family. Sometimes I find such wonderful memories that some how slipped away for a little while or a few years. In that box I discover the past and try to put myself there with who ever held that piece or earned that degree,that is now stashed in a pile. There are paintings done by family and books collected by all. Old dresses and coats and a hat or two. Shoes that fit a baby in the 1800s and ones I use to tap in when I was 5. I know how badly I need to stay there and pick it apart and remove most of it, but then I get lost and just find something I didn’t know was there before. Was it left for me to find all along? My treasure box is my attic of our family home. Big sigh because I just don’t seem to be able to part with any of it. For now if I can, I’m going to put it to use. Square tea cups and saucers too in light blue. 1940s wedding gift still in the box. Susan you are a treasure. Thank you for all that you do and all the ways you inspire our lives.
Sue
I have a few little treasure boxes of my own, filled with pretty things that are important to only me…they’ve come along with every move- 7or 8 times- and I really think I wouldn’t be able to part with them. I plan to leave them to my only child, my daughter Lacey, who I know will treasure my treasure boxes like I do. Thanks Susan, your blogs are so cheerful:)
FOSB 4-ever,
Jacqui
This had me remembering tearfully (and tearfully now) going through my mom’s treasure boxes after losing her last year. I gladly brought home things others in the family would have thought were meant for the trash. I love every envelope w/family news written in an aunt’s hand; envelopes from days gone by when all that was needed was a name and a town…the postman knew to whom it belonged. I love found treasures kept because someone’s heart couldn’t throw it away then or now.
Sarah, I know the feeling…ten (10) years after my Mamma’s passing, I’m still uncovering treasures she left…I consider them little gifts of memories and Love.
Thanks for being a kindred spirit to me in your reply, Judith. Hearts speak.
Yes they do! In their own handwriting, it’s like we still have them in some way, tangible proof of them.
This is so true. When I come across something that belonged to my mom (an old photo, a flowered handkerchief, a recipe in her handwriting), it’s like getting a lovely unexpected visit.
It seems like I have lots of little cards and things tucked in drawers. I want to keep them, but haven’t known what to do with them …. until now :D. I love this idea. Thank you so much for sharing.
Well, all I can say is that could you please tell me when this wonderful treasure box goes from your house to a shop so I could be there waiting to “discover” it? 🙂 We don’t have kids and I’ve always said that someone will have fun going through our house after we die when they find my boxes of old correspondence and the valentine cards my husband and I have made for each other over the years we’ve been married…just hope and pray the person is someone who would enjoy them and not someone who would take a look and dump the box in the dumpster…
I would love to be so lucky to have a chance to hold someone’s dear treasures and memories. I could never even think of throwing them away. I have so many things all in different places in my home and I love the idea of putting them in a treasure box (Boxes). Thank you Susan for sharing yours with us!
Oh Pat, your comment could have been mine! We have no children either (not from lack of trying!) and I worry if anyone will appreciate all the little pieces of memories I’ve collected throughout the years. I’m the sentimental type and save EVERYTHING – some organized neatly in small boxes, such as the beautifully romantic letters and small gifts and drawings from my first love, and others just tied up with string or in an envelope. I have notes that were passed in class from elementary school and every single note that my mother lovingly put in my lunch box.
The strange thing is, I appreciated this tucking away of memories because even as a child because I would purposely write little notes and “hide” them in things to find later, such as the note I put in the pocket of my Dressy Bessy doll, along with a brand-new penny: “To someone who cares – I left this penny here for my very little dear. Please take care of her” signed with my name and the date. 🙂
Oh well – rambling thoughts on a Sunday night!
Charming idea! Just received your calendars in the mail today. They are truly lovely. I hang one of them in my kitchen every year and carry the other one in my purse so I can pretend I’m organized. Love your blog. Mimi
O, my…what a way with words you have. And your ♥time boxes♥ are a fantastic idea. I have 10 grands…I would LOVE to leave them a little treasure box…wish I had started it long long ago. Since I am the oldest blogger in this entire, whole world, I could have added some really neat things….like a movie stub that was 9 cents…a gasoline ticket, 28 cents a gallon…or a grocery recite showing 4 lbs of hamburger meat, $1.00…..*sigh…all kinds of things. ;))
BJ, in reading your comment, I thought it would be great if you would do a journal entry/or a letter remembering these exact things you mentioned – it wouldn’t have to have receipts, etc. attached, just a written memory of your life would please someone now and in the future.
You think good things and you DO good things. Great post.
Thanks for this lovely post. I once bought an old book at a church fair and in it I found a photograph of a wedding group circa 1930. It looked familiar and on showing it to my husband, he remembered it was a photo of his aunt and uncles’ wedding. They were married and lived in a country town about 200 miles from where I live!
I’ve been saving things for over fifty years in different little spots around the house. Now you have given me a great idea to get them all together 🙂
Dear Susan- I purchased an old book at a yard sale a few years back and inside was a ticket for a ponyride from the Oregon State Fair. It was from the sixties. It made me so happy when I found it, I loved the fair when I was a little girl especially the animal pavillians. It is funny how slips of paper can take you back in time.
p.s.-I love your blog- you and I have been “friends” for so long but you just didn’t know it yet!
What a lucky person…. the one who finds this treasure. 🙂
My sister’s girls loved looking through my box of memories from the early and mid ’70’s when they were young…I remember Molly shouting, “You REALLY saw Pink Floyd?!” and almost fainting from surprise! For the past ten years or so I have been placing cards I’ve received in my books…cookbooks, especially…and I am always pleasantly surprised when I come across one. Sometimes dinner is late because I find a card and then have to write or phone the friend who sent it!
Hi Susan–I just wanted to let you know that I LOVE your blog!! I especially LOVED your latest Willard….I think it was my favorite. “Consider poor I” ….what an awesome line. Nancy’s creative spirit lives on thanks to you and the other islanders who share her story. Thanks for sharing her with us. Also, I am an Occupational Therapist for a school system and I work with special needs kids who need help with fine motor and HANDWRITING SKILLS. I feel the same way you do regarding the losing the art of cursive writing. SAD 🙁
Thank you so much! Yes, that hand to brain, to maybe art thing…I don’t know if the educational system is putting 2 and 2 together! I guess maybe for some this would be a great loss, but maybe they figure not everyone ends up doing much with their handwriting! My brother, for instance, has terrible handwriting…he should have been a doctor!
Susan, I had to laugh at your comment about your brother’s terrible handwriting and that he should have become a doctor. I’m a registered nurse, and can tell you that over the years I have confronted so many doctors about there handwriting (or should I say lack of it). I have suggested over and over to all of them to sign up for a handwriting summer school class! I love writing in script. Every once in a while, I will pull out of my recipe box a recipes my grandmother wrote out in her beautiful handwriting. I often just sit and wonder….what type of day she was having when she wrote it out? Where did she find this recipe? Did she ever think when writing it that someday, her 54 year old granddaugher would be sitting at her kitchen table thinking about her life, who she was, and how nice it is to have a part of her in my life? FOSB 4ever!
Love old letters, I have one from my Great Grandmother — it doesn’t really say anything special, but it’s her handwriting! FOSB 4ever!
My mother passsed away 12 years ago, but I still feel like she is sitting next to me when I read her hand written notes and recipes. It makes me realize how important hand written letters are to stay connected.
I have just loved using the bookmark you drew for us the first part of July. Do you think that trinket might ever become a tradition? The legacy box you made is just wonderful; so much sentimentality.
For sure, I will be copy-catting you, Miss Susan, for I adore little treasure boxes also. The crafty shops have those gorgeous boxes on sale often, and in so many sizes . . . I’m imagining all the possibilities! It’s the perfect way to keep “special things” in a safe and semi-organized fashion. My mind is already scurrying into places where things are tucked away, things to be retrieved! Thank you for this lovely idea!!!
P.S. Actually, I have used this idea already, but not as a treasure box. I have boxes of grandchildrens’ art work, newspaper clippings in another . . . but NO treasures in a collection . . . yet, anyway 🙂
Hi Susan ,, I have been enjoying your posts so much. I am a huge fan. I have been lucky enough to visit Marthas Vineyard and it was so pretty. I love Cape Cod and driving through CT was unbelievable to someone born and raised in AZ. But I LOVE the central coast of California. Morro Bay is my favorite place on Earth. 🙂 San Simion, Cambria, the Pacific Coast Hwy all the way to Monterrey. I love hearing about both coasts through your posts. Now I need to go… I have a trip to California to plan.
Happy Creating,
Gail
I love this…what a lovely idea, my hope would be that the eventual finder has the appreciation of such treasures!
I started a ‘collection’ of notes from over the many years that my kids were growning up, and we communicated on the busy days (weren’t they all busy) by notes left for each other on the kitchen table….these are precious, and so funny! Some day (not that I want to particularly think of it, but the eventuality cannot be denied) mychildren will laugh and remember these funny and endearing thoughts put down by them to me, and me to them. One of my favorites is actually a small scrap of paper that my youngest gave me one day, it says:
Momy-no won is butter than you.
I love that! Oh, again, the simple things…..
I love those notes too.
I am loving your posts! The idea of teasure boxes is sweet. Knowing my daughter and granddaughter will discover them after I have gone will be nice to think about. My girl friend and I tuck things in our books. When we share them I love discovering what I am going to find. I have even found a note from me to her once that I had forgotten about.
Susan: I collect old books and occasionally will come across a note etc. and I just wonder “when was this written??”. I hand dry flowers from my garden and every now and then I put one of them in my books for remembrance. I also do it to library books for the next reader. I love the idea of your special boxes. I’m starting one immediately. I have several special empty boxes that I’ve kept because they are so pretty, one I’ve had for 10 years! That’s what I will use them for. Thanks for passing along the idea.
Ah so you’re the one putting the flowers into books! Love that!
Such a lovely idea, and a beautifully written blog – & ♥ your pics, and the comments are great too! I’m thankful for creative people like you, so people like me can copy your clever creations. I think something was written somewhere about “copying” being the best complement?
I have boxes like that, filled with loose pictures, notes, cards, little clippings, I even have one of those old number games on a little chain that has one square missing, and you try to line up the numbers in order!
love your blog!
xoxo
Several years ago my Dad gave me a box that his sister gave him……..when he opened it there were all his Valentines received one year from grade school. Considering he was born in 1920, I was so very HAPPY to have this box of his passed along to me. Every Valentine’s season those old Valentine’s are in a bread bowl on our dining room table to look through………such a treasure to keep!
I don’t like to self-promote, but if you like old things and “time capsules”, come and visit me at http://www.madelinesmemories-ann.blogspot.com. My mother-in-law saved every piece of paper that went through her hands and I made sure that her collection was preserved for future generations. Most of what is in your box, Susan, was in her boxes. I randomly pick an item and hit the scanner and then try to do some research on the subject. The best part is I recently connected with a very nice lady who went to high school with my mother-in-law! She found my blog and now we have an email friendship. Don’t you love the internet?
I have begun little “treasure boxes” for our 3 daughters and 2 grandchildren. I hope they will enjoy “discovering” what is in them.
This reminds me of the end table we once bought at an auction. When we brought it home, we discovered the drawer was full of playing cards! Quite exciting for us!
I love your box idea. A friend I was talking to said look at 162.240.10.175/~susanbs3/susanbranch/ and look how she is filling her boxes. I have a lot of old boxes I have got at auctions just can’t throw them away.
Anyway she said she is filling them with things like you have old papers, broken china , memories, love
So now I have a new project. filling my boxes. I am going to make one for my friend who told me about your idea
Janice
Oh my goodness! Wouldn’t one of those boxes be a dream to find!! I love cleaning out closets & drawers and finding little things I’ve squirrel away & forgotten. Love you ideas!!
I really like the Treasure Box concept, I have a few of those going.One is full of cards and pictures made for me by my children years ago. Even more years earlier, when I was a child I received delightful cards in the mail from my Aunts~ when ever mumps, measles,chicken pox or even just a sniffle visited me. Saved those along with birthday cards. Also a letter I received from the real Santa, when I was about eight and beginning to wonder if he was indeed real. My father had one of my aunts type it on onion skin paper,thanking me for the new wool socks I had left for him along with the cookies.(My grandmother had knitted the socks for my dad and I could hardly believe my mother would let me give them to Santa!) The letter was surely authentic,complete with a North Pole post mark( perfectly crafted by the Auntie counterfeiter)
When I was a young widow with four children, I had a dear friend who was in his seventies. From time to time he would lend me a book he had enjoyed. I usually read these. Once he lent me a book titled “The Hidden Treasure.” Occasionally he would ask “have you read that book?” Finally after several months, perhaps a year,I started reading it….. He had placed a twenty, fifty,or ten dollar bill in each chapter. because he knew we didn’t have any “extra” money and he wanted to bless me!
Just wanted to share my Treasure story! Carol
What a nice thing to do! Good thing you read it! 🙂
Your box idea is genius. I have been collecting things for my daughters and now I know what to do with them! I can make boxes for each year of their lives. Good thing they are still little so I can catch up!. My middle daughter is 2 1/2 years old and LOVES bunny rabbits and LOVES snow. Where can I find that adorable bunny rabbit card in your picture?
PS I read your blog every night before bed. It makes me happy and peaceful and always puts a smile on my face. Thank you for blogging!!!
You are so welcome, I love doing it, so we’re equal! The bunny card has a copyright of 1984 on it! So I don’t know where you might find one now…that’s what’s wonderful about the boxes, as time goes on, everything becomes even more of a treasure.
My son and I made and buried a time capsule in our back yard several years ago with all kinds of little odds and ends like little toys (plastic Army guys and small Hot Wheels) and notes – just silly stuff. If we ever move, it will be interesting to wonder if it will ever get dug up when the new owners are gardening . . . if we stay here, maybe someday the grandkids will discover it. 🙂
I do boxes like this for every place I visit. Some boxes are smaller, some larger. I used to do scrapbooks but realized I had things that would never fit in a scrapbook so now I do boxes instead. And I use plastic boxes since my basement flooded in June, but pretty boxes inside the see through plastic ones! Oh the fun I have with my memory boxes and the trips I take with my hot tea under the stairs by candlelight! Cozy and comfy on a cold winter day in August! Yes, you read that right!
You must be down under somewhere?
No, I live in Germany! LOL!! My husband is in the Army.
Oh I was thinking you were having winter! But just a cold day in summer! How is it over there?
very cold and rainy, fall has come early, just like last year which means winter, the real one (LOL) will be a rough one like last year! Smiles to ya!
What a beautiful post….and what a great idea to send pretty things into the future. I love the idea. I keep pretty boxes with cards and letters that I want to save…as well as notes and drawings from students ( once I take them down off of the refrigerator!)…but I love the idea of putting other things in there as well. Thanks for the inspiration! I do put things in your books….I have a pretty red leaf tucked in the end of the summer book on the page with the quote about a tree reconsidering leaves as the summer goes on….and that’s where I put handwritten recipes from loved ones. As someone mentioned in an earlier post it warms your heart to see that handwriting again. I had an “Aunt Mamie” who was like a grandmother to me….the kind of person that you can just feel her love for you beaming off of her person. She lived to be 96, and up until a few months before her death was still living on her own and cooking and baking. She made the best “nut roll”….and she just made it. Never wrote the recipe down….until I asked. So, I tucked that in my SB Chirstmas Cookbook – because that is when I make it – and it is always like a little visit from her…brings a tear and a big smile! Thanks for your blog and your posts…you make each day a little brighter!
And Sue…..finding a treasure box from YOU, would be like finding a true TREASURE indeed! You are such a gift you know, and it would be fun to find one of your boxes one day! xo
What a fantastic idea Susan! I have so many things I’ve saved over the years, but they are all scattered in different places. So I’m going to find the perfect box and start getting them organized. My report card from grade school (where I actually got a grade for writing) , 2 of my daughter’s diaper pins, dance stubs I saved from high school, my engagement in the newspaper, a tiny deck of cards from the 5 and 10 that I used over and over when I first got married. I was very young, and my husband worked for $1 and hour at a car wash for 12 hours a day until he got a full time job, and those cards gave me a lot of enjoyment! Maybe I’ll get a tiny journal to put in there, too, with some information about the items. I even have some miniature license plates of one of my husband’s old cars that he got as a gift when he renewed his plates. Those would be interesting. And some old keys to some of those cars. My gosh, now my mind is thinking of so many things to go in that box! Thanks for the wonderful suggestion Sue. I love your blog!
I too have box where I put special notes and cards I receive. I lost my home in the 2003 San Diego wildfires and one of the few things I got out was a big bag of pix/cards that was in the garage that were my mother’s/I hadn’t gone through it and just threw it in car on the way out. Having important things together is helpful! Another thought – started at birth – a box of notes/mementos/pix to give your child wrapped with big bow when they are 18 or 21 or sometime in the future…all about them growing up.
I just started following you and LOVE your blog. How sweet and nostalgic you are. And talented as well! Thanks for sharing your life and gifts with us!
I am going to start my very own box/boxes but I have to confess. Upstairs in a now empty bedroom, there are boxes of “stuff” from my 2 daughters. I have tried to throw them away in my attempt to clean out that closet. Now I know why I have never thrown them away! Those boxes are TREASURE BOXES!! Thank you for giving me an excuse to hold on to some of my “clutter’…don’t worry I’m not a hoarder. LOL! I just hate to throw away certain things that don’t particularly have a *place* but too valuable to become trash. I’m here via Stash Manicure and Madame Samm. Loved your post ever SEW much…touched my heart. Your art inspires me!
Blessings
Gmama Jane
I love my mom for not getting rid of that old dishtowel! So I completely understand!
How very clever! I’ve always wanted to find something like that, but I never thought about creating one for someone else to find! I think you should add a photo too. I’m excited about creating a treasure box about things that speak to me! Thank you for this lovely idea!
I’m so glad someone else does this. I have a treasure box too and sometimes I pull it out and look at it all. It’s fun, and heartwarming.
I too,like to find surprises in books,boxes etc. Also ,like you, I found my prince charming later in life. I never got to meet my in-laws,but have found many of their surprises in old scrap,books,folders , boxes and my favorite, my mother-in-laws cedar chest. My mother-in-law was a “saver” and there have been some amazing things we have been surpised with. We have been married 7 years and I still am finding,books,and little boxes that are left. The finds are getting fewer and far between and I am sad to think I will soon be at the end.
I guess I should start a box of my own so someday someone else can have fun too 🙂
Loved reading about your “boxes”… I had a metal box with a lock, that I filled with my treasures as a teen. Recently, many years later, my sister said that box drove her crazy… she always wanted to know wha I kept inside. 🙂
My first diary had a lock, and it disappeared; I have seven younger siblings; you may have just solved my mystery! 🙂