Keepsake Boxes - Graduation Gifts

This is one of those simple projects that turned into an interesting journey.
I started out with the idea of making my daughter a very simple, plain keepsake box for a graduation gift. As usual though, nothing that starts out simple for me stays simple very long.
First I got the idea to make her best friend one just like hers, so it then turned into two boxes instead of one.
After that, it sort if evolved into making stacking boxes instead of just a plain box.
Then I thought of adding their school initials and graduation year as scrollwork on the side of the boxes. Somehow though, that changed into making those out of three quarter inch stock and making that the handles for the top boxes.
After that, I still wanted something to break up the look of the sides so I scrolled their initials and placed that on the sides. This seemed like a good idea because these two girls are planning on sharing a college dorm room in the fall. So having their initials on them will help them know which belongs to who without having to open them first to look at the contents.
The light colored wood is cottonwood and the dark wood is mahogany. It is finished with three layers of Minwax polyurethane.
I also wanted to show how the boxes break down.

You can remove the lids on the top two small boxes.

Next, you can remove the two small boxes to reveal the middle large box.

Then you can remove that box to reveal the bottom large box.

And this last photo shows how I cut the bottom of the middle box and the bottoms of the two top small boxes to sort of nestle into the boxes below them.

I swear, it baffles me sometimes how a simple project like the one I started out on here can turn into a week long project without even giving it much though. Thus is the nature of wood work I recon. It is a very interesting journey though on which one always learns something new.
I had a lot of enjoyment and sorrow while doing this project. While working on it I thought a lot about over the years of my daughter growing up and came to a realization. She has grown up way to fast for me. I would give anything in the world just to have my little princess back. If any of you have small children, cherish every day with them. They will be grown before you know it.