Holiday Shopping Woes

 I am convinced that the only people who do well on Black Friday or Cyber Monday are people looking for major appliances or who don't shop frequently and have no idea they're getting a bad deal. Because you're getting a bad deal. Even sites that used to deliver big sales (6pm.com, I'm looking at you and doing some serious reminiscing over your $99 Frye boot deals of yesteryear), increased the prices of items from early last week. And by a lot. Like $69 a lot in some cases. Huge brands were offering 15-20% off and calling those cyber Monday sales. For small business, those are perfectly acceptable sale percentages, but for ModCloth to offer 25%? And Gap. 40%? Gap regularly offers 50% off just because it's a Tuesday. Cyber Monday used to mean deep discounts that made you feel like you stuck it to the man. Now many of the sales are worse than if you belong to an email list. So what did I buy? A bronze jackalope from White Faux Taxidermy, because I need all the fancy things more than a refrigerator or a shirt. That is all. 

Dollar Tree Bathroom Makeover for $6

I rent, which means I am stuck with parts of my apartment that I simply do not like. At all. Like my bathroom, which, until yesterday, was an extraordinarily hideous reflection of somebody else's poor decisions. Those are harsh words, but ooooh...

Now your eyes hurt. And I'm sorry (kind of), but you need to see what I've been living with for two years. I have been able to improve my kitchen and use good (and cheap) decor to make my super affordable Philly apartment (think way under market value) look way nicer than it should look. Except my bathroom. I was never able to figure it out and cringed every single time I have to go in there. Until yesterday. I was home visiting my parents and went to Dollar Tree with my mom. Dollar Tree is fantastic. Everything is only $1. 

Proof that all the things are only $1.

Do you want to smell nice or lovely? #options

Taste the rainbow? Smell the rainbow.

I prefer chefs with swagger.
 

See? They sell really random stuff there, but also really amazing products, like the best carpet cleaner I have ever used (which I may know from personal use that it also works amazingly well on dry clean only products). Anyway, they had black and white floral contact paper for only $1. And a lot of it. I started thinking about my bathroom and the hideous tile and before I could stop hyperventilating, I had grabbed 10 rolls, abandoned taking pictures of products and headed straight for the checkout. For $10, what did I have to lose?

Before starting, I tried to find online tutorials for contact paper bathroom tile DIY projects, but to no avail. There are so many tutorials that show people using contact paper as a backsplash, but nobody using it as a solution to cover hideous bathroom tile. So like most of my projects, I decided to wing it. After wiping down the tile and making sure it was completely dry, I started measuring and cutting. The contact paper was so easy to put up, and the best part (next to the SVU marathon that kept me entertained while I was working) is that this will peel off without damaging the tile when I move. Also, I only needed six rolls of contact paper, so I am going to return the rest (because money).  

As a follow up, it's worth noting that I just ordered plain black contact paper to create a border to make it look more like somebody who truly cares about their bathroom lives in my apartment (and also somebody who wants the transition from cream to white and black to look less obvious). The before and after shows the huge improvement. 

I am so happy with my Dollar Tree DIY project and can't wait until the black contact paper arrives to finish the work!