Adventures In Chalkboard Land

So obviously chalkboard EVERYthing is super popular right now. Everyone I know has a chalkboard somewhere in their house whether it be a big one in a frame, chalkboard labels, chalkboard decals, the list goes on and on. In the Beard household we have one in a frame and we also have seven small ones mounted in the kitchen that we use for menu planning each week. I am completely obsessed with the chalkboard craze for a couple reasons. They are so easy to change around and it gives me a chance to attempt creativity and fancy handwriting ;)

When Mike got home from deployment I used the big chalkboard to write out a simple welcome home that I placed on our couch janky futon, so that he would see it when we walked in the front door. 

Holy flash. We have the worst lighting in our house! 

He loved it (well mostly I loved it, but I think he did too) but unfortunately I got a little lazy and the chalkboard sat upstairs in our guest room with "Welcome home handsome" written on it for a few months. 

Our kitchen chalkboards came (like most great ideas) from something I found on Pinterest. It was the first DIY we did in our little house so I'm pretty proud of them! Shortly after we made them, the holidays hit and we traveled and had people to the house and the chalkboard menu got a little neglected. But I recently repainted both the menu AND the big chalkboard and I've been working on making them pretty :)

The original! Not all that pretty to look at, but you gotta start somewhere!

Much prettier than the first time around! Mike said his favorite was Wednesday but I'm guessing it wasn't because of my lettering! ;)

Yes, that is supposed to be a peanut... Mike laughed.

This was for Valentine's day!

This was to welcome Mike home after a looooong week & weekend in the field. See! I'm getting better! :)

I'm certainly not an artist, but I've had a lot of fun finding inspiration on the internet and practicing my chalk art! The ultimate struggle (surprisingly) has been trying to find some Crayola brand chalk to use. I know, right? Welcome to Jacksonville :) Since our chalkboards aren't that big, I can't easily use the sidewalk chalk so I've been on a desperate hunt for just some plain old, skinny sized Crayola colored chalk. No luck so far, but I'm heading home to civilization Colorado at the end of next month so I'm sure I'll be able to pick some up there.

Aside from my trip home, there is A LOT of stuff coming up for us in the next couple months! My birthday at the end of this month, closely followed by our one year anniversary! I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that Mike and I have already been married for (almost) a whole year. Granted, he spent half of it deployed to Afghanistan so that's probably why it feels like it went by so fast. Anyway, four short days after our anniversary Mike will check in to Sniper School and while he's there I'll be busy traveling and wedding planning! 

Totally off the subject of chalkboards, but lookie what I found...

I guess great minds think alike! ;) 

Happy Sunday everyone!