Tea Box-Pine Box continued

Hi Everyone,
It's been a really busy week and it turned cold here again so I haven't done any work in the shop. I did go out today however and did a little work. Here's an update:

I deepened the inside of the box and completely sanded it inside and out:

 Here is a photo of the parts for the lid. I've shaped the lid on the lathe and the small block is going to become a small knob. I'm going to assemble the whole thing with that wooden pin in the center of the photo:

And I've glued it together and put it in the vise to dry. I'll turn it tomorrow:

The finish: I've been thinking about a finish for the outside of the box. I've looked a lot of photos online and I've looked at pottery as well and I can't quite come up with an attractive finish for the box yet. I don't want to just paint it blue, I'd like to do something more visually appealing. I'm not a painter and I don't really know anything about color so I'm probably going to just wait and set this aside until I come up with something interesting.

I'll post the lid process photos and finish photos tomorrow.

VW