Hi! Happy Monday! I might be in the minority on this but I have always liked Mondays. It seems to be one of my most productive days; after the weekend I always have a large “to do” list to tackle and am anxious to start on it at the beginning of the week. Our weekend was busy but really good overall. Saturday, Jayde and me had some one on one time and it was so much fun. We went to an orchestra meeting, she is going to start playing the violin and is super excited. I’m excited for her. We had lunch together, went downtown and shopped at a lot of the little stores. Got Starbucks coffee, groceries, pumpkins, mums, etc. She told me many times how happy she was we were able to do this, just her and me. Is a great reminder to me that kids love/need one on one time with their parents. Sunday we went to church, gave our garage a deep cleaning (which has needed it for years), and planted a new maple tree in our front yard. A busy, but good, productive weekend! It feels so nice to walk out into a clean garage! Going to really try hard to keep it that way.

Today I wanted to share a diy project with you all. I looked into buying a huge chalkboard for our porch to go behind our swing but everything I found was more than what I wanted to pay so I decided to make one myself. I wish I would’ve took pictures of the process but sometimes I get too excited and forget.

Here is a picture of our porch last fall. You can see behind the swing, there is nothing there.

And now! Emmy loves fall as much as I do!

This chalkboard is 4 feet by 4 feet. It cost me under $20 to make.

I found a board (honestly could not tell you what kind of board) for $10 at Home Depot that was already 4 x 4. I then grabbed some pine boards for the frame and cut them to size here at our house. You can always have them do that for you at the store though.

I used Thompson’s Water Seal Spray, and sprayed it all over the wood boards. Since this is going to be outside I wanted to give it some protection. We will see how it holds up over time.

I used this chalkboard paint to paint the wood. I then attached the trim pieces with my nail gun and caulked any cracks I saw. I spray painted the frame copper but this morning knew I would like white better, so quickly gave it a couple coats of white paint.

I am really happy with how it turned out. It’s not perfect. I am no carpenter by any means, but I don’t mind it looking more rustic.

Around here, I can only find white and orange pumpkins so far. Once I find some other colors I want, I will share the rest of my porch. Love how it’s turning out so far!

Are you done yet, Mom?!

Gosh I love her! Thanks for stopping by!

Kayla