This latest project began when I started shamelessly digging through someone's recycling bin on the way to the train. It turned out that a neighbor was parting with a stainless steel file sorter with trays, as well as an over-sized rectangular tin. Hmm I thought, I know these are just what I need...

So after a wash, I realized that the tin was perfect for storing all of our cardboard letters and tinker toys. And since it's a tin... it was perfect for magnetizing (/monetizing? I wish) our letters.

I also made a little lime green cardboard frame which has magnets on the back for doing letter and number sorts. I tell Electra, "Put all the numbers you can find in the square." or "Which of these are from the Japanese hiragana alphabet?"

Spelling out "to-ma-to" in Japanese hiragana...

(Finding 5's... (You can see the fan card for "Ran" from Electra's first pony ride. ))

My luck continued when that night I received an early Mother's Day gift, from MY mother! It was packaged in the perfect cardboard box. After applying some washi tape stripes to the side, reinforcing the inside and pasting a pretty picture on the top we were all set. A perfect fit, and a divider in the middle for our bilingual magnets.