Show Your Love this Valentines Day

Yesterday I had the greatest find at a Yard Sale. This wooden crate.


The picture does not do it justice. It is a really sturdy, well made piece. It is stained very dark, almost black. My mind was racing with all sorts of great ideas of what it could be used for.

Of course, I was getting ahead of myself. I had no idea what the price was. Yard Sale rule #1...always find out the price before you fall head over heals. I think it was too late...I was falling for the crate. To my delight, $5 was the price I was quoted. Great!

Almost immediately I knew what I would use it for. Right before Christmas I had bought my son $15 worth of Legos. I realize under normal circumstances, that doesn't buy many pieces at all...maybe one tiny set. However, I scored a LARGE storage bin packed with Legos. Trust me, these Legos were endless. And I know, because much to my sons chagrin, I washed and sorted every piece before he was allowed to get his little hands on them.

Wednesday, my son had a friend over for a playdate. He later told me how hard it was to find the pieces he was looking for, because he had so many Legos in his bin. I know, it is a terrible problem to have.

I feel for the kid, I honestly do, but at the moment we just don't have much space to work with. There aren't a lot of better Lego storage options for our small space. That is...until the wooden crate.

I brought it home and promptly began sorting his Legos by the 4 most visible piece colors: black, white, gray and dark gray. It was quite a time consuming task. Mindless, but time consuming.

I had in my head this picture of how he would react. He would realize what a thoughtful and wonderful treasure this really was. Of course, he is a 6 year old boy, so you never know how he will react.

On the way home I told him I had found something for him at a Yard Sale. "Is it a toy?" No. "Can I play with it?" Not really. You should have seen his face at this point! He had pretty much lost interest and wondered what ridiculous thing I had wasted my money on and why I was torturing him with it. Until...


he got a peak at it. It was love at first sight! He even exceeded my expectations of how he would react. Here was my sweet guy understanding EXACTLY what I was thinking when I saw it.


He immediately started building ships. "Thanks Mommy! (with a giant hug for me) I always wanted to build ships from the same color, but they were to hard to find." He totally made my day!

It may not be a traditional Valentine Gift. Nothing with red or hearts here, but it meets his needs and he loves it!

I am linking up to:



She has a special party featuring your best 2011 Junk project. I linked up one of my first posts featuring my "Dumpster Diving Mirror." I literally pulled this piece out of the trash. It was a mess! And I must admit, it is still in my bedroom and I refuse to part with it. It is one of my favorite pieces. It is beautiful...it was completely free...and you would never know that it came from a dumpster. Ok, if it weren't for my big mouth you would never know it came from a dumpster!