placemats don't have to go on the table, you know

I've been staring at these placemats from Walmart for forever. As soon as I saw them, I was in love. Yellow and white (also in green) on a round piece of cork? I mean, think of the possibilities!

But they were $12.97 (I think) and that was entirely too much for me to be spending on decorative placemats. So I scoffed and decided to keep an eye on them. I'm definitely not the only one who won't pay that much. They'll go on clearance. Oh yes.

Sure enough, a while later, they were on clearance. But for $10. That's still too much. By that time, the green option had been whittled down but there were still a lot of yellows left.

I waited longer, and they came down again. $5. Now we're entering panic mode. All the greens are gone and there're only a few yellows left. But $5 still seemed a little pricey. I know, right? Five bucks. Pricey.

So I waited longer, and gasp with me when I found them reduced again. This time to $2, and there were only five left. Two of which were ripped and damaged along the edges.

Can you believe I still wrung my hands and fondled them and talked about it and weighed the pros and cons? Well, I did.

I walked away from them yet again and went for a read in the magazine aisle.

I started thinking about where I could put them and what I could use them for in the new house. And suddenly, I got all excited about them again. They fit amazingly well into my new favourite colour scheme, purple with yellow accents, and they're cork! I could put them in the kitchen or the office and use them as actual cork boards! It was exactly like how I felt when I first saw them.

I dropped everything, and went scurrying back. Luckily, no one had taken them during my absence, so I was able to get the last three undamaged placemats for only $2 each!

I hadn't really thought of what to do with them in the meantime, so they've been sitting on the dining room table for a couple weeks now, up until today. 

I was changing the sheets in the bedroom when I thought they kinda matched that pattern.

Or almost exactly matched that pattern.

So I grabbed some nails and threw them up:

startlingly similar, no?

Here's where they'll stay until we move. It looks so different in there now. We've definitely gone too long without a headboard.