Our Bless'd Nest: Chalkboard

Showing posts with label Chalkboard. Show all posts

Tuesday

Chalkboard Family Message area- DIY Project 18

Nate & I live a very busy life- in between both of us teaching; Nate is a head coach, avid golfer, social butterfly, and sports addict.. I on the other hand am teaching full time, Newspaper Editor at School, in a fulltime Masters Program while juggling a clean house among other wifey duties, DIY Project Addict, and balancing my social life. Needless to say we tried to balance our schedules using appts on our iphones, but it wasn't working and we both would get frustrated when there were conflicts of schedules (Ugh I already told you about this- duh? moment happening alot). Nate continually forgot to add them to the appt. He keep saying let's just get a traditional calendar and hang it up. Well one I am not a traditional girl, two a calendar each year is killing a ton of trees and I think paper calendars are so 1982. I loved Pottery Barn's Memo center for the family ..

But each board such as the calendar, chalkboard, and memo board ranged from 40-50 bucks each plus the hanging system is not included. I didn't want to spend over $100 bucks on a memo center. Also the way they hang is too industrial for my tastes. I loved Ballard's memo boards too but pricy also. I searched on etsy and found an idea to DIY myself. It took wall decal of the calendar and applied it to the chalkboard so you can use it month after month and no killing trees. So without further waiting here is what my board looks like:

Here it is hung up with our dates and activities for April. I color coded it so we knew who was doing what and on what day- Nate is written in Blue, Tricia is written in Pink and both of us is written in orange. Makes it easier to put activities up!

The hallway is from the kitchen to the 1/2 bath and the garage. It is a long narrow hallway so I didn't just want a calendar there. So I added an E for Embley and a sign about families! This pics is taken down the hallway from the kitchen (that door open is the bathroom).

Here is a close up of the signs nect to the chalkboard:

Lastly, here is a pic taken from the garage angle:

Oh and that dead looking yellow thing in the middle of the floor is the dog's toy..lol. Hey we live here it isn't perfect!! Hope you enjoyed my latest project. My cousin says the chalkboard is very teacher of us to have in our kitchen. I love chalkboards (even before teaching and actual I have a dry erase board at school). I want to add a memo board (think push board) with decorative trim like the chalkboard but I haven't found a contender yet. This way we can post notes to each other, display photos, important papers.. eventually kids art and of course the ole chore list ;)

Monday

New Mantel- DIY Project #7

PB Rug, New Seagrass Baskets to hold Mag & Books

New Chalkboard basket to hold shoes

Close up of the chalk board

Hawaii Vintage Map from 1930's and our wedding pics (wedding & Luau Celebration)

Milk glass & Hydrangeas

Antique Ceiling tin tile cross

Mantal with Map, Pictures & Hydrangeas with Valentine Garland

Willow Basket next to new tall lamp

So if you read my other post we had a DIY weekend. I didn't get to everything on my list but we did alot! when we bought out house there was slat tile going up the front of the fireplace on both sides but no mantel. I feel like a mantel completes a fireplace. I wanted one for decorating for the season esp. christmas with stockings. I found one on Home decorators (home depots chain) and bought it in white.. nate and I agreed white would match the trim but it looked horrible next to the slate. So I returned it for a chunky black one. Nate installed it with the help of our neighbor Roger whom we adore! He is always willing to lend us tools and help.

I than played around with decorating it. I have shutters in aqua and my subway art to put up for the summer. But I think the vintage map, wedding pics and hydrangeas work for now. I also have heart paper garland up from Valentine. I am changing it out this weekend to St Patty's decor! Than to easter.. I love easter/spring decor.

I also put pics of the new floor lamp and all our new seagrass baskets. There is one in the entertainment cabinet from Khols but the rest of the segrass baskets are from Target- with the exception of the one under the floor lamp which is an antique. I adore the extra large sqaure chalkboard basket. It has chalkboard on two sizes and I felt it was welcome by the front door for shoes! Well that is all that is new for the E Casa.. I will take pics of the St Pattys decor and share later.

Saturday

Valentines in the E Casa

Well it's been super busy around the Embley casa. Like usual we have been teaching, I have been in my masters program, and we have been doing things around the house and enjoying our friends. I have made a ton of project lists and have only completed a couple of them..lol. But I found beautiful vintage shutters to display on my new mantel I ordered recently. So that is exciting. I will post pics of the shutters painted aqua with my special personalized subway art soon(hint-it is beachy with our wedding date)!! But the cottage/vintage/traditional look is coming togeather and the great thing is it is all very versatile. On to other news...We recently planned a little trip to New Orleans to celebrate Julie's 30th in April. We also are planning our second honeymoon (baby moon) last vacay with out kids for July..but we are waiting for my check for my stipend from school. It got lost in the mail in December and they just voided and recut the check Feb. 1st. So now I hope this one will make it here. We are going to have our babymoon and put a little nest egg of $$$ away for baby/mommy..lol It will be for maternity leave etc. Also great news!!! We closed again on the house and everything went just as planned!! Hooray!

Feb. is in full swing. I can't believe Valentines is right around the corner! Well when I was growing up my mom always decorated for the major holidays- halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, and easter. She did small things for us for the smaller holidays such as valentines. But she wasn't into decorating for the small holidays as much. Now that Nate & I have our own house I like to change the decor up with the holidays and seasons. Nate really enjoys the winter seasons such as thanksgiving and christmas because we go home to see family and we have a break from work. These are my favorite holidays too.. so I gravitate towards their decor and I forget about the other holidays!! Oopps. I have a TON of christmas decor..I have started a great collection on my fall decor.. and today after getting the PB catalog I got a jump start on my easter and St. Patty's day decor. More of that later.

The great thing about the main great room is that now all the main items are neutrals. The couch and arm chair are a chocolate brown. Area rug is a cream that matches the burlap/linen colored drapes and walls. So it is super easy to just add a few things to give pops of color for seasons. It also makes it easy for the house to feel not so drab in the winter months which I hate.

So I started to pull out my valentines decor and noticed it is basically non exsistant. I know I need to work on it. I have vowed to do better next year because I want to be the mom that my kids remember certain holidays because I made it awesome. My mom used to have us build scarecrows in Oct. and I loved it!! She also had a christmas village we put up every christmas and helped with the tree. I love these holidays because she involved us and made it special.. so I need to do better with the little holidays too.

I have a few vday pieces. I have a heart door mat I bought at target the very first valentines Nate & I were together. I recently purchased a new door hanger for vday because some how in the move I can't find my old one. I found my little heart rose wreath and than I bought an XoXo glitter sign to put on the entry way when you walk in. Than I pulled out my vday pillow I have had and another love pillow. Lastly on our coffee table is red candles and a heart candy dish full of pink, red and silver dove chocolates. The pics are below.

I have to say my favorite this season has to be my chalkboard. I layered the wreath over it and than wrote love scripture on the board. Verses are listed below:

My lover is mine and I am his. Song of Solomon 2:16
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth- for your love is more delightful than wine. Song of Solomon 1:2
Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it is not rude. Love rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always preserves. Love Never Fails 1 Corinthians 13
I obviously had to shorten the corinthians verse due to lack of space on the chalk board.. but it is a classic and I wanted to put it on there.
My absolute favorite is his kisses are more delightful than wine.. perfect for a wine lover like me to write!!
Well hope you enjoyed! I loved following the Valentines Mantel linky on the blogs I follow. I love seeing how creative others are. Hopefully next year I will be the same ;)