DIY: writing paper chalkboard

I've been wanting to do this project for a long time now. I'm sure it's been done somewhere before, but if so, I haven't seen it. I originally thought it up when brainstorming on some ideas for something over our bed. I think it fits perfectly in our kitchen though. 

Supplies: 

board

chalkboard paint

painters tape

paint (I chose a light blue)

paint brush

old board found. Sanded and filled in large cracks with wood putty. *Obviously the smoother the board the better.

Apply chalkboard paint

Lots of coats 

Tape off where your lines will go. This part will take the longest unless you can think of an easier way to do it. Paint your lines once they are taped. You may need to do a few coats.

Hang and be creative!

*My lines did not come out as clean as I would have liked because my board wasn't the smoothest. Again, the smoother the board the better!

randomness

One of the things I was most excited about when getting married was starting new traditions. Crazy weird ones. We don't have too many right now and the ones we do have are pretty normal - like going to cut down a Christmas tree. However, a couple of weeks ago we decided to start a new one. We built a fire to "shred" some of our personal documents we needed to get rid of. It was nice because it happened to be a really cold night in the middle of May. We decided to roast hotdogs and just make a night out of it;) So our new  "Have a fire, roast hotdogs, and burn personal documents on the last cold night before summer" tradition was born. :)






In other news, I've been up to a lot of projects lately that still need completing.

I did finish painting our kitchen. I went with a bright, golden yellow. I felt like going crazy with it. It's hard to get a feel for the real color from my pictures.





I painted our bathroom the exact color I said I wouldn't, but I really like it.



I'm trying to get a few projects to a presentable state...

so many things you can do with pallets.



the gutted record player. we're getting there slowly but surely.



this is going to be some random wall art when finished.




I haven't been giving too much attention to my garden. Just watering everyday if I remember and occasionally pulling some weeds. I'm pleasantly surprised at how it's doing so far.

this is a cute little green bean. It's about the size of a fingernail.



bell peppers



onion...not sure when you know when these are ready for picking.



by biggest and best producer...yellow squash.



cantaloupe



I actually planted a few seeds from a cantaloupe we bought and within a week or so it had sprouted and is doing better than most of the seeds I bought in a package. I don't think the garden is going to be as fruitful as I had imagined, but hopefully it will save us a few dollars this summer.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Garden fence shelves

I must warn you that my style is very different. There's not many "new" items in my house. I love making old things new and salvaging pieces that would otherwise be trash. These shelves are a perfect example.

These floating shelves were made from my dad out of an old door. They were hanging in the most random locations on the wall in our bedroom. I had put them up before Jack moved his king bed in and never had the time to move them. I thought they would look better over our desk.

Our house, being that it is extremely old, isn't quite straight or level when it comes to walls and floors, so I wanted to close in the side of the shelves to make sure things stayed in place. My dad had some old wire garden fence, so I cut out some and stapled them to the sides of the shelves.

finished shelves...

I like how they turned out, but like I said, I have a slightly different taste than most.;)

A.D.D.

I'm discovering how A.D.D. I am. I'm working on a very long list of things to do/clean for our house. I find myself jumping from one thing to the next without necessarily finishing the first task.

One thing I had on the list was to find or make a headboard for our bed. I found some awesome old shutters at the habitat restore in Anderson. They were painted a very pretty green and the back is a deep blue.



I sprayed the shutters down with bug spray (in case anything was living inside) and scrubbed them with wood soap and some sandpaper.

I think it turned out nicely. I will probably paint them white someday, but like the beat up green look for now....and yes, that is a belt around an old pillow. I saw it in an antique store as a decoration and found that we had a pillow just like it, so I put one of my old belts around it. Jack of course made fun of it.



I'm also working on (with much help from my dad) an old record player/radio cabinet. This thing has been sitting in the attic for a looong time. It's extremely heavy from all the hardware inside. We are gutting it and making it useable storage space.








I also just finished up painting our fireplace. It was pretty dingy. I painted it white and scuffed it up with a piece of asphalt I found in the driveway.











I was on a roll from doing so much around the house that I decided to challenge myself in the kitchen. I made us some coconut shrimp for dinner. I must say it was quite tasty and a lot cheaper than Outback's.



I'm off to another busy and too short of a weekend! Maybe some painting will get done! have a good one!

paint

I've been trying to decide on a paint color for our bathroom and kitchen.  I'm wanting to use the same color to save money and want something unique...

I keep coming back to this color... which isn't unique at all.

Source: flickr.com via Kim on Pinterest

Like this...maybe a little more golden.

Source: byggfabriken.com via Hello Tiger on Pinterest

loving this blue color too

Source: tinysprouts.blogspot.com via Kaytie on Pinterest

Source: designspongeonline.com via Abby on Pinterest

mmm...decisions, decisions.

easter sweets

For some reason this Easter was a killer with sweets...They were everywhere...it was mainly the Reese's that got the best of me.

I think I may have gained a few LBs...

scary right? Found this picture from awhile back when we were playing with photobooth. Motivation to always eat right and exercise...and to lay off the Reese's!

Here's some more just for fun...they make me laugh every time;)

Gardening 101

I've learned a lot trying to start a garden. A lot of things not to do actually. My cantaloupe that I transplanted died immediately so I replanted the seeds straight into the garden. They're growing ok so far. The whole growing from seed process is taking longer than I expected. Next year I will most likely buy the plants further along.

My spinach was not sprouting nearly enough in the garden for some reason. I had maybe four sprout up. I replanted the spinach in smaller pots on our deck and it's working so much better.

I went to check on the garden this morning...in my pj's of course;)

and was surprised to see I have some onion sprouting

my peppers that I started indoors are still hanging on, although one got eaten by a mole that's really getting on my nerves..

as you can tell from above there are weeds...I don't know what exactly all weeds look like, so I haven't attempted to weed yet for fear of pulling up my plants, but they are starting to take over.

This is either squash or zucchini.

I love when I catch them breaking through the soil.

I'm probably most excited about the watermelon that's sprouting...

Hopefully in a few months I'll have pictures of fruit and veggies... If I can keep the moles and weeds away. Gardening is definitely harder than I thought. I will be very surprised if I get anything edible out of it, but at least I've learned what not to do.