Happy National Coffee Day!

If you're wondering, it is already 8:30am and I'm on cup number two. I've also managed to deep clean my kitchen and bathroom. Since the whole house now smells like bleach, pine sol, and some form of citrus, I thought I'd lock myself in my bedroom (away from the fumes) and write this post! 

If you're anything like me, you love the thought of your morning (and mid-day and afternoon) coffee; if you are mostly like me, then you go to bed excited for your next morning's cup of coffee. 

Honestly, if you are exactly like me, then you think your coffee tastes a lot sweeter when it's free. 

So, Happy #NationalCoffeeDay to you, my fellow coffee (and all things caffeine) lover. I hope today is another productive day for you, and I hope you find just the right cup of morning fuel today to help you out. 

To find that perfect cup, I've put together a list of places that are offering some sweet deals today on coffee! 

Krispy Kreme: Free coffee and an Original Glazed Donut on 9/29. This is such a treat to me! I am such a donut girl. 

Dunkin Donuts: Since it's their 66th birthday, DD is giving out Medium, hot coffee today for only $0.66! Unfortunately, no free donuts are being offered by DD.

Einstein Brothers Bagels: Through 9/20, Buy One Get One Free Coffee Drink 

Dairy Queen: Through 9/30, Get a Small Iced Coffee for just $1, an Ultimate Frappe for $2, OR a Premium Fruit Smoothie for $2. This is great if you are like me and have had too many cups of coffee already and just need a calmer drink for a second. Ha!

Biggby Coffee: Add any Mod(modifier) to your drink today for free! So, if you need that extra shot of espresso, girl, go for it! It's free! Through 9/29

Tim Horton: $1 Any size Dark Roast, all day on 9/29

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: All non-franchised stores will offer a free espresso shot if you download their new app for you iPhone. Pretty sure you can win a free cup of regular coffee with this, too!

Coffee Beanery: $1.00 off any brewed coffee size on 9/29

Whole Foods: $1.00 off 16. oz Allegro Pumpkin Spice Latte on 9/29

Smoothie King: Buy one, get one free any coffee high protein smoothie flavor drink. This is perfect if you and a work colleague, friend, or significant other like to go grab mid day coffee together.  On 9/29

Waffle House: Free coffee with any purchase through October 13th.

Peet's Coffee: Buy any food and get free medium drip coffee on 9/29.

Gloria's Jeans: on 9/29 Between 2-5pm: Get an 8.oz white chocolate caramel cookie chiller OR for the not so sweet coffee drinkers, just grab a regular fresh brewed coffee between those same hours, for free! 

Not So Free, but Coffee Brand Deals and Contributions:

Caribou Coffee: Free Medium brewed coffee with the purchase of a 1lb bag of coffee 

Illy Coffee: Illy is offering deals on their coffee machines all month, and this is especially great if you want to grab yourself a National Coffee Day gift such as get $100 off an X1 iperEspresso Capsule Machine. Just use the CODE: UEX10016 at checkout! 

Keurig: For National Cofee Day and through October 2nd, get deals such as $20 off Green Mountain products and 15% off other beverages with the code GREENSAVINGS at checkout. 

Starbucks: Buy a cup of Chiapas coffee on #NCD and a coffee tree will be given to a farmer suffering a coffee rust. If you need to know what Chiapas is, click here. If you need to know more about Chiapas coffee, click  right here.  

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Marble+Granite Contact Paper Makeover

Marble+Granite Contact Paper Home Makeover

Hey, hello! I've been a little behind the last two weeks on blogging and my posting schedule due to summer flying and being sick (think allergies and strep throat vibes). I'm feeling so much better now, and I'm beyond ready to get back into my blogging-especially with jumping right in with a post I’ve been dying to do!

I love to decorate and change things around in our place as much as I can! The only downside is that it's not our permanent place together just yet and we don’t want to make drastic, expensive, or permanent changes in a temporary home. We are currently renting, and that limits the things that we want to do. Because of this, we looked into easier, cheaper, and not so permanent alternatives to home makeovers! 

My research led me to different Pins and blog posts floating around about things to do with contact paper. I discovered the fun idea of using contact paper on smaller items a few weeks ago when my favorite Youtube Vlogger (click to 1:45 of the video and she does a quick DIY for the case) covered her Macbook in Marble Print contact paper. Thankfully, my wonderful Babe got me a dreamy marble print Macbook case for my birthday two months ago, so I didn't have to try and figure out how to do this really cute (but tediously precise) contact paper DIY laptop case.

So, what did I do instead of a small DIY project with contact paper? HUGE DIY projects with contact paper! I covered our kitchen counter tops and my makeup table (and coffee table) with contact paper!

(Here's a look at when I didn't listen to my super smart girlfriend and I put the marble on the kitchen counters originally) 

(Note that I took the marble off and settled for the pretty granite print!)

At first, I wanted to cover the countertops with marble print, but my Babe decided that granite looked a little better with the cabinet colors that we had, and it was easier to hide the application mistakes that I made during the process with the granite print. Although I wanted to listen to her, I did one section of the kitchen with the marble, and quickly realized granite was the better route. I ended up removing the Marble print from the kitchen and put it on the coffee table and my makeup table. 

The granite print paper can easily be found at Wal-Mart. The marble print can only be found on Amazon (at least where we live, this is the case), and that makes it challenging when I run out of it and quickly need more to finish.

If you’re anything like me and you aren’t a professional DIY’er just yet, you’ll enjoy the process that I took. My pictures aren’t extremely detailed because it is super easy to apply and finish. 

What You Need:

• Contact Paper 

Prints I used:

DC Fix Marble Print (from Amazon) about $8 per roll 

-Duck Brand Beige Granite Print (from Walmart) about $6 per roll

• Scissors 
• Smoothing Tool (I used a book, but feel free to get fancy with this) 

Covering the Surfaces:

The process is seriously so straight to the point. The back of the paper has measurement markings and squares that you can cut. All I did was cut out my own guesstimated measurements, and I applied it straight to the counter. Again, if you’re a more serious DIY’er, it would save more time and effort to just whip out some measuring tape and get to business, but I just kind of went for it. 

I did the corners and edge of the counters first (same with the table), and I followed behind it and applied huge sections of the paper to cover up white spots. Whatever my guesstimate amount was, I’d cut a little extra for the edges of the table and countertop so that there could be hang over flaps that I could just fold over. After this, I went through with my book (and plate lol) and smoothed it out. Voila! Fin! 

Seriously, it was so easy and so cheap! Three weeks, plenty of water spills, multiple cooked meals, and countless dessert later and the paper is still in tact! No peeling, no bubbling. Nothing! 

It's the most rewarding feeling see how adorable your results are! Now, go forth and brag about the fact that you just redid a major room in your room for under $40 (depending on how many rolls you purchased). 

If you need more detailed instructions, or if you have specific questions/just want to show me your beautiful home or small furniture makeover, comment below OR:

-email me (mostlylately@gmail.com), 

-tweet me @taylortoyouu or @mostlylately, 

-OR tag me in an Instagram post (@taylortoyouu or @mostlylately). I can’t wait to see your results!! 

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