Hi, and thanks for checking in! I have a couple little projects for you, and one rant. Let's start with the rant: Melissa & Doug. If you have kids, or have friends with kids, or have ever even seen a toy store, you've heard of Melissa & Doug. Their (largely) wooden, visually pleasing, detail-oriented toys are a delight to parents and kids alike. We think they're privately owned, which we discovered when we seriously considered purchasing stock. Because that's how ubiquitous they are. But I have a gripe: The packaging. You might think the packaging, oftentimes in nominally pleasing raw wooden crates, would appeal to me. But I find so much of it lacking. Specifically, lacking lids. Take this box.

That's it. It looks cute, and it held cute animal magnets, but there was NO LID. How am I supposed to stack this thing with no lid? And so many of the toys come with pieces that don't fit neatly away. The ice cream set we have, for example, includes an ice cream box that the ice cream fits into, but the scoops and cones are left to their own devices. Similar with the extra mug, sugar packets and coffee pods for the coffee station we Santa just brought. Because there are all these loose pieces, and no lids, I've largely repackaged our Melissa & Doug stuff into other containers (largely clear, lidded shoe containers), leaving me with these little wooden trays to use. When I needed a little tray to corral some goodies on the back of our toilet, I reached for one of these. I also figured it was a great time to try out my can of gray stain, because the unfinished pine is similar to that of my kitchen island, which I plan to re-stain soon.

I wasn't thrilled with the color of the stain, but hey, that's good to know! I applied four or five coats, stopping when I was pretty happy with it, and then cut a piece of my favorite wrapping paper to line the bottom.

I flipped the little guy over and covered the magnet sticker with some Contact paper, and then added a couple rubber feet for stability.

A a tiny plant, a candle, and a jar of matches complete my back-of-the-loo tableau.

Speaking of that match jar. There's a story there, too. You know what the matches are for, right? To freshen the air? In our 3 x 4 bathroom? It's important. Well, before we did the match thing, I had tried something called PooPouri. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a very expensive (but check out that link - a Groupon Deal) jar of essential oils. You spray the bowl once or twice before you go, and it's supposed to trap the smells in there. "Like nothing ever happened," to quote the friend who enthusiastically recommended it. Well, I'd bought a bottle. My well-meaning mother, when she visited for Christmas, thought it was just regular air freshener or perfume and kept liberally dousing herself with it. The stuff is POTENT, and by the time she discovered it, I'd already made a pretty strong association between the scent of the spray and that of poop, so I was fully grossed out every time I got a whiff. After three days, I was so grossed out by the constant smell that I just sent her home with the bottle and resolved to go back to matches and a candle like normal people. I actually put "cute matchbox" on my list of things to buy or make, because I'm nuts. Then, at a local paper store, I saw this adorable little match jar.

Well, that's adorable. If you click through the link, you'll see it can be yours for the bargain price of $18. Eighteen dooooolllllllars. That's insane. It was actually $18.50 at the local shop. Whatever. I came home and "made" one.

At home, I snipped the match paper from a used matchbook, and used double-sided tape to affix it to a tiny corked jar I already had (from someone's wedding favor). I tossed in some long matches (had those, too) and added a kraft-paper label from my stash. Voila. I saved $18.50.

And that's the story of my upcycled, DIY bathroom tray and match jar. Have any clever reuses for Melissa & Doug packaging? There's a lot more where that came from! And I'm using it to inaugurate yet another blog "feature:" The trash to treasure one! I can't wait to share more on salvaging some stuff and giving it new life. Thanks as always for reading!