I'm warning you now, there's a story behind this one. Well, there is always a story. Sometimes it's just more fun to tell than others.
I used to do a lot of driving around my home town. I had a part time job delivering pizza. Yes, pizza. I don't really eat it, except for -- well, that's another story, for another time.
Delivering pizzas can be a very cool occupation. In your car, listening to your music. Finding houses and businesses on streets and roads, like a knight on a quest in a role-playing game.
But sometimes you find more than hungry people who have ordered food. Sometimes you find sunsets, starlit nights, banks of daffodils, knarled trees with craggy bark, deer leaping away across fences into the darkness. Sometimes you discover the perfect stone cottage surrounded by a green woods. And one day, I found a meadow clearing with beautiful horses inside. My favorite one was a lovely Appaloosa mare, mostly white with dapples of grey. I asked the retired veterinarian who owned the horses if I could come back some time to photograph them.
So I returned to the woodsy road and found the horses grazing in the sunny field. Later, I used a few of the resulting photos to create a composite drawing with soft pastels. Its working title was "Critters on the Landscape," but it later came to be named "In the Meadow."
I used a part of that drawing, featuring the mare, for the scene on this box. The box is a 5 1/4" by 5 1/4 by 2 1/8" box of laquered Alderwood. There is an inlay of ceramic tile in the hinged lid.
I had heard other shopkeepers who own or handle these boxes describe them with some awe. They say people handle them like precious objects of art.
The boxes look nice with a variety of different designs, but they especially lend themselves to fine art. They can hold change, jewelry, love notes, paperclips, or any number of small objects. I think they can also hold dreams and imagination.
Yes, I am in love with a box.
But I have a feeling there are 
destined to be other boxes in my life.
This keepsake box is on display at Kentucky Downs Race Course, where people are reminded that Thoroughbred racing on our European-style turf track will be taking place in mid- to late September. Three limited edition Kentucky Downs t-shirts from Horses-Around.com, an "I Love Exotics" cap, a ceramic stein, and a "Feeling My Oats" mug are also on display there. Although I will be working as a pari-mutuels teller during Live Races, there will be a Horses-Around booth selling various products to the visitors. I'll write more about the booth as time for the event draws nearer.
I'm told that there are several people already asking about prices on the merchandise. I'm creating a printed order form for people who want to get something ahead of time but don't go online. (Yes, there are still such people in the world, Virginia!)
One of my managers has expressed a keen interest in ordering an "In the Meadow" keepsake box for her own. I have a feeling I'll be getting one for myself, too.
What will I keep in it? The smell of the fresh woods after a spring rain. The burning blue of a sunny September sky. The graceful beauty of a long-limbed white and grey horse with liquid brown eyes.
That's all I really need it for.
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