Mini-Project: Shoe Drying Tray

I've stone-filled shoe trays on Pinterest before and thanks to the endless rain we've gotten over the past 2 weeks, I thought it might be time to give it a try!  My shoes have been wet, muddy and grassy but I was getting tired of leaving them in the entryway on the rug.  So, when I was at the store buying cheap runner rugs for the office, I spotted this shoe tray:

That reminded me of the few pins I've seen with this type of setup.  This was $4.97 and should have room for 3 pairs of shoes.  I went over to check out the rocks in the crafts section, but MAN were they expensive.    As in $5 for 2lbs of smooth river rocks.  Over to Dollar Tree, I went.  Sure enough, after some riffling through their decorative rock area, I found the large river rocks that I was looking for.  I wanted the multi-color version.  Now, I will tell you that I also got a small pouch of rocks from Lowes because they had more unique and eye-catching colors.  However, I only used 1 of those (also $5) and mixed it in with the rest of the Dollar Tree version.  $.50 per 1 pound of rocks is cheaper than $1 per pound of rocks.  

I had to go back and get more since I wasn't sure how much it required.  I ended up using 22lbs of river rocks from Dollar Tree and 5lbs of river rock from Lowes, so 27lbs total.  It would have been easier if they had large bags, but it's just not something I felt like searching for in the middle of winter.  The total bill for the stones was $16, so nothing terrible.  So, for a total of $21, I now have this beauty!

Now, if only I could figure out how to get the dog to wipe her filthy paws on the rug!  

Let me know what you think!  Have you tried this?  Have you figured out how to get your dog to wipe their paws?  Share!