a very difficult easy project.

over spring break we started a lot of projects around here. some were finished. some are still on their way. one of the projects that i thought would be super easy and would be finished in no time was the entry way chalkboard. we had some pretty involved projects that seemed as though they would take a long time so i added some that would be "fast". or so i thought. this crazy thing drove. me. nuts. here is how it went.

i found a big picture inside a frame in my mom's basement. the picture was of lilacs. i have no purple. however, i got the idea to take everything out of the frame and use it for something else. the frame is really cool. it's a big chunky black frame with some cool detail. my mom obviously wasn't using it so after stealing politely asking if i could have the picture, i brought it home and eventually decided to make it into a chalkboard. all i had to do was pop the glass out, spray it with chalkboard paint and presto chango (or something like that) a chalkboard appears. pop that back in, hang it up... easy. hm. this is not how it went. first i took the glass outside on the porch to spray it. the papers i set it on top of blew all over the wet paint after i left the first coat to dry. i wiped it off and tried to see if i could make that side work. i couldn't. we brought it inside, laid it on our "paint sheet" (opened every window) and tried again with the flip side of the glass. then as phil (he was recruited to help me since i was now annoyed) was finishing the last coat, he dropped the cap to the spray paint right onto the glass. totally messed up again. we wiped off that new layer and sprayed again. somehow it worked and we were finally left with a nice, smooth chalkboard. then as i tried to put the glass back into the frame, the whole corner CRACKED OFF. yep. we tried to glue it back together but there was an eight inch crack left in the glass. great.

the new plan was to spray the paint directly on the wall, then just hang the frame over that. we taped up papers around the area but neglected to protect the floor. after the last coat i looked down to see chalkboard paint covering the rented floor and tracking its way through the apartment all over the carpet. nice. UGH! so thank the LORD that cleaned up easily with some stain remover and warm water. we then had to add picture hanger thingies to the back of the frame since it wasn't meant to hang horizontally. all that was left was to drill some holes in the wall, put anchors and screws in and hang the frame. then we couldn't get the bit out of my stepdad's drill. so we waited until he could get it out for us (turned out we weren't just ignorant, he had to yank it out with pliers) then FINALLY phil hung the frame. this took us about 3 weeks to complete this seemingly easy project. sheesh. but here she is looking all cute and silly in our entryway:

yes, that is a message God wrote to phil telling him it's time for us to have a baby... even though it looks suspiciously like my hand writing...

see? it just welcomes you right in : )

isn't it annoying when a seemingly simple project goes all wrong and ends up being one of the most frustrating? at least it's all done and cute now and will probably make us smile and laugh for a long time to come : )