A Chalkboard for the Garden

Well, it seems like I'm on a bit of a chalk board kick right now.

But hey, why not...I haven't done much chalk boarding since grade school,

so I guess I'll make up for lost time now!

Hubs and I like entertaining and throwing parties and my favorite kind of party or get-together is the backyard kind. Fire roasted smokies...homemade coconut marshmallows...bush pies...and LOTS of iced tea (I believe that's the same as sweet tea for my American readers!)...makes for good times and easy hosting.

In our last home, once you walked in the gate, you were kind of already in the backyard...hard to explain but it worked out really well for entertaining. Our new home, however, is much more typical with gates at the sides of the house and, unless our guests have been previously instructed,  most people will knock on the door, come in, take their shoes off, walk through the house, out the back door, put their shoes on again and then finally down the deck stairs into the back yard. Quite a few steps just to get to the party!

So I thought it would be nice to have something attractive to hang on the gate to let people know to enter there and I thought a chalk board would do the job perfectly.  

I picked up this frame at a garage sale for 25 cents several weeks ago, with this project in mind!

Last week, we were finally able to cut down a piece of...something...? I'm sorry...I don't even know what kind of material it is! Anyhow, Hubs cut it down to fit the frame. He's not happy about me posting this picture, because apparently one of the sides isn't perfectly straight. Sorry honey!

Anyhow, I gave it about five or six coats of chalk board spray paint and let it cure for just over 24 hours.

I gave the frame a few coats of white paint...

(again...please excuse that embarrassing mess of a lawn! It's a work in progress...)

...then dry rubbed some Burnt Umber acrylic paint over it and then finally sanded it down a bit in some spots.

Funny how us DIY'ers have to change everything, hey?

Then I inserted the chalk board into the frame and tacked it down with very tiny nails. I took a picture, but my non-manicured hands do NOT look nice in a macro photo, so you'll just have to use your imagination!

I also fastened some claw hooks...not sure if that's the right name but we'll go with it...to the top and side

so that I can hang it either way.

Here she is all finished and ready to let our guests know where to go and how to get there (haha)!

Then I decided to have a fun little photo shoot and make up a sign for a party

that I am going to have one of these years...

Standing up on the sidewalk with a few girly props works too...

I'm not gonna lie to ya though. I was just a tad bit embarrassed doing this photo shoot in my front yard with my cul-de-sac neighbors driving by and wondering what was up with their crazy neighbor.

I was desperately wishing they would come over and ask what I was doing, so I could something like...

"Oh! Hi! I have a blog. That's why I twist my body into funny contortions in the front yard while taking photos of lacy umbrellas and chalk boards on the side walk, and then take it all down again and go inside like nothing ever happened. Really!" But, no, they never did, and I'm pretty sure they're still wondering.

Ah well. Let's add a little romance by blurring the picture a bit.

I've always wanted to take a Victoria magazine-esque picture!

I won't be using this on my gate all the time, obviously, so I thought maybe this little corner could use a little more froofing...

I really love how it fills in that little space on the lattice wall...

...especially now that the flowers are filling in and frame it quite nicely...

It's kinda tempting to sit down with that Victoria magazine and have a little lemonade...hmmm...

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