...especially since the spender wasn't me!
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| Look at that tag...Oh...A Thing of Beauty! Can you guess what it is? |
Since it is rare for an addiction, especially one as prominent as mine, to be cut off cold turkey and actually take - we are in the process of weaning me away from that brightly lit blue and yellow gem of a shopping land. Baby steps. I am still going once a week to peruse As Is and steal many a good idea but the rest of the week I need my wing-man to step in.
E works conveniently close to Ikea which means he could go there everyday on lunch if he wanted to...sometimes he does but on occasion Costco wins out as it is equally close and they have free snacks! You know how we love free in this house! :) Last week my dear husband returned home with a few cheap-o treats for me all gracing the bright orange AS IS stickers I have grown to love like my own children...that is actually pretty easy as I don't have any kids but ya' get the picture! He bought 6 white bowls for 50¢ each which were great but hardly the stars of this show. The true stars were the 3 cork boards he bought also for 50¢ each...well, what he thought was cork boards - they were actually place mats but either way they were cheap!
This weekend I put those bad boys to good use. I have been waiting for the right time to make a framed cork board to span the length of my office desk but I just haven't gotten around to it yet which, of course, made for a very messy desk very fast. I needed something to tide me over...enter 50¢ place mats. They are made of 1/8 soft and pliable cork. One side has a black design but the other is plain plain plain. I know I am going to junk these up with my own stuff so why add another design to distract the eye? I took a few thumbtacks and went to town hanging them over my desk:
Not bad for $1.50, eh? It is functional and cheap - just how I like it! I can add a few more tacks at the bottom to keep them from lifting but in time they will lay flat...especially with all the crap-o-la of random notes and stuff I plan to hang! Being these are only 1/8 thick I have to be a little careful when hanging things as the back of a tack can push through the wall but with a push pin it works perfectly if I go in at an angle and don't try to push it all the way through. See:
Either way, even if I push through the wall, a pin hole is hardly a problem to fill. Here are my new cork boards in action...
The boards actually come in handy to break up the space and also give me 3 different "note zones". The left is my blog zone, the right is our house zone, and the middle is the me zone with inspirational things to keep me goin'! I spend many many hours at this desk so it is nice to look up and see Bubba and the "Keep Calm Carry On" card I was sent one perfectly timed afternoon...oh, the little things!
So that's it! Did you guys get any good deals this weekend? Can you beat my $1.50?? Give it your best shot - leave a comment and let me know what you've been up to!
Hooking up with the linky parties at these lovely ladies blogs + The Frugal Girls! Pop on over to send them so LOVE!!
Bianca IKEA AS IS SECTION, CORK BOARD PLACE MATS, TYST PLACE MAT, CORK BULLETIN BOARD, OFFICE ZONES
