Recently I gave my old sewing box a new lease of life with some chalk paint spray and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Of course before I could get started I needed to empty it and I was amazed not only at how much stuff I'd managed to cram in it, but also at the memories it contained.

To start with the contents were almost sewing related, although I've no idea why the book labels were in there. I do remember them being a Christmas present a good few years ago from my parents. I also suspect they're so old they've lost their stick!

SCISSORS, PLIERS, ONE PRESS STUD AND BOOK LABELS...

There was a bag of ribbons and cord, that I've accumulated. These have come from a number of places: boxes of chocolates, Easter eggs (yeap the posh sort wrapped in cellophane), shopping bags - yes I'm a one for removing the cord before recycling the paper bags, perfumes and gift sets from places like Jo Malone and Molton Brown. And other ones that I've no idea where they're from, but were too pretty to throw away.

There was a cross stitch project - complete with embroidery hoop - which I haven't made any progress on since I last found it. Looking at it again it would be good to finish this as I'm sure I could find a use for it. It was still in the very old Ideal Home Show plastic bag - so old the show was still sponsored by the Daily Mail.

I found some knitting too. It's very fine wool - perhaps 2 ply - and was I think originally destined to prettify some guest towels. I don't know if I'll finish this, I remember it being fiddly, which is why it probably got put aside.

Then there were some tassels which my mum made for me. I had them hanging from the brass handles on my wardrobe in my previous house. The wardrobes are now long gone, but the tassels survived. There used to be four and when I found them, I wondered what had happened to the other one. It's only now that remember it going to my youngest niece, who like me had a bit of thing for tassels. That's something I'd completely forgotten and I was reminded how things can jog our memories. I doubt she still has the tassel - it probably had a lot of love - but I hope that if she saw these she'd remember.

And towards the bottom a box of stuff. More ribbons, some receipts (?!) and in the blue box a beaded ring, which I really should wear. There was also my non-iPod music player thing, which I haven't used for a very long time, I have an arm strap somewhere and you never know if I were ever to run again this might come in useful.

There was also some craft kits. All seem to be blue-based. The kitten one below is so cute and reminds me of my cat Bob. I still like it and maybe one day I'll take it out of the packet and start to sew it, but I don't think it'd find a place on my walls anymore. Mostly because I don't have enough walls for the pictures I have, so I'd need to be creative and find another use for it. I'm sure it's not beyond my means though.

The kits above I also want to try - but to the uninitiated they look complicated too. They're probably not - or not as complicated as I think anyway.

Only some of these items found themselves back in the revamped sewing box, not because I'm throwing them out, but because I've resolved to keep my current projects there instead.