What Did You Do Today?

I really try and keep Saturdays open for things I want to do. I clean the house Fridays when I get home from work. I go grocery shopping and do laundry on Sunday afternoons. Saturdays are my days.

Since  my living room is back to normal, I decided I'd set up my new television (Merry Christmas from my cool parents) and sound bar (Merry Christmas to me, lol, I spoil myself) on my new television stand (thank-you Target). 

Hahaha, you know how people make fun of assembling things from Ikea? At least Ikea things come with instructions. I open the box, no instructions. I go online, no instructions. I call, at least two weeks to mail instructions. I told her to forget it - surely I could figure this out. It probably took me twice as long as it should have, but here is my lovely television stand. 

I was insistent on a stand with wheels because, when people come over, I don't want a television in front of my giant fireplace. Instead, I want to see the fireplace and not look like my living room is really a television room.

Now all I need is a blue ray player for this room. But things come in time.

The bigger project I worked on today were the chalkboards. Since they were still hanging out in their Christmas glory I thought I'd refresh them with some love quotes (hey, not all single girls are anti-Valentine's day. I love "love quotes"). 

Since it is in my hallway, it is SO hard to get a picture of the whole thing. This is the best I could do. I need a wide angle lens ... for my iPhone. 

This sonnet (#27) by Pablo Nurda is one of my favorites.

(lol, see my finger here - I didn't until I posted it)

Here is the other end ... and some chalkboard art tips

1. You know all those stencils and everything you can get? Forget about it - anything in your own hand is better! Don't like your handwriting? I don't think anyone does - I'm always getting compliments on mine and I think it looks so ... normal. 

2. Start with a really clean board - like wet the whole thing down and let it dry. If you make a mistake, use a damp paper towel to fix it. 

3. Want to emphasize a word? Use two colors (my favorite trick). It doesn't even look like two colors - it just looks awesome when to write one on top of another.

4. Mix up your fonts. I have three that I can use (regular printing, handwriting, and block letters) then mix them with caps and lower case. Once you add in your different colors and ways to fill them in you have a whole variety.