My Treasure Chest

This past week has seen a number of coincidences in my life. My husband and I were talking about the price of petrol and how our little jaunts out are now more infrequent because of it when I suddenly realised that my (paternal) nan died 10 years ago this year. A couple of days later I received, quite out of the blue, a reply to a query that I placed on a message board years ago. An elderly gentleman, although he didn't know him personally, was part of the same operation(s) thus able to tell me of the events and incident causing my grandfathers loss of life during WW2. I had to get the wooden box out to confirm some details .....................

Now I'm not the type to ask for things nor accept things readily when offered but when nan died I did ask if I could have the box under her bed. Not for any material value but for what it was - her "Treasure Chest". Having delved into it numerous times during my childhood I knew what was in it - all the important stuff - her marriage certificate, notification of my grandfather's presumed death from the MoD and a number of other bits and pieces. I've been researching my family history for 20 years now so the bits left have a good home. I'm rather ashamed to say that it was 10 years ago that I vowed to rejuvinate the inside of the box with some embroidered panels .............. perhaps it's time that I did something about it!

Anybody that saw "Coast" on tv the other night will have seen the old railway on the beach in Brighton. Though we've visited the area a few times, we hadn't known about this before - it was very interesting. There is an old sheet of newspaper lining the box and when I took it out to see if there was anything worth noting of a family history value (it appears to be just a random newsheet published in 1934 not long after nan's marriage) there was a photograph of the railway!

Back to textile things, I've been making a little decorative embroidered horse from my scraps but I really don't like how it's turning out so I think it's best if I put it in the bin later and move on. From the beginning it never had that "can't wait to get out of bed and work on it" feeling - that should have told me something! I did, however, make a little case for the camera from this tutorial

I chose a pretty fabric to pull out of my handbag. My husband said "I will look pretty with that won't I?" I forgot we share things lol!
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