Memories are made of this...

We keep reading about the 'throwaway society' that we live in. We constantly chase after new possessions that we cast aside just as quickly. However, the tide seems to be turning and we are seeing ever-increasing sales of keepsake and memory boxes. It seems that right now, as many of us are feeling insecure, we are holding on to what is precious to us; printed photographs, greeting cards and mementoes of happy times. We now stock over 100 different keepsake boxes. So we were excited to come across Julie, a craftswoman who specialises in designing and making handmade, personalised keepsake boxes for weddings, babies and children. She takes large limewood boxes and hand paints each one individually, adding a motif designed and hand painted by Julie and cut by her husband. Finally she paints the wooden letters used to personalise the box with a name. What began as a hobby, as Julie made craft items for family and friends, soon mushroomed into a thriving business that Julie now runs from a purpose-built workshop in her garden. Starting with personalised nameplates, Julie discovered that she loved working with wood and fimo clay to produce an ever-growing range of personalised items. Among her other products are adorable themed nameplates to hang on the nursery door, bunting to welcome a newborn and Christmas baubles. We have been selling Julie's products since August 2011, starting with just four designs. For babies we chose boxes featuring a sweet bib design in pink for baby girls and a pair of blue booties for baby boys. Once personalised with the baby's name, they have proved very popular as Christening gifts. Next we chose two designs for older kids - a sweet pink and white heart for little girls and a train for boys, which has been a runaway success (excuse the pun!). So with Christmas coming up we decided to add another six designs. There seem to be lots of baby keepsake boxes around so we were pleased to find some that would appeal to older kids as well. They still make brilliant presents for new babies and christenings but older children will love these styles too. Kids just love collecting special bits and bobs and the clasped lid is a great idea - a personal treasure trove of secrets! For little girls we had to choose the 'Princess' design with its sparkly pink crown, perfect for all her jewellery and special things. Then we added the 'Ballerina' box for budding dancers, featuring sweet polka dotted ballet pumps. We wanted a box that older girls could enjoy and the 'Cupcake' box in lilac is the ideal companion for a young girl's bedroom, perfect for hiding away her diaries and personal stuff. For little boys we picked out a super 'Rocket' design and a colourful 'Plane', both suitable for babies and little boys alike. Most lads love their football so we had to include a footie-themed box for the older ones (or their dads!). The great thing is that Julie will customise the box in a favourite team's colours - a super place to store match programmes, football stickers, magazines and all sorts of football memorabilia. At Oh So Cherished we love to offer products that have a really personal feel and each lovely, handcrafted box is, as a recent happy customer wrote, " truly lovely and a work of art". 

Update June 2012: New additions to the range: by popular request keepsake boxes for dogs too! Take a look here...