Thankful trees and chalkboard walls

People, fall is here.  I can barely believe it- I'm not sure where the summer went....  But it's the start of my favourite run of the entire year- fall/Thanksgiving/Halloween/Christmas.  If you follow  me on Pinterest, you'll know (and probably be annoyed) that I've been pinning Christmas ideas for awhile now.  I can't help it.  But this post is NOT about Christmas- calm yourselves, unclench your jaws, put down the eggs.  I wouldn't do that to you.... yet.  ;)

A Thankful tree.  While reading one of my favourite blogs Jones Design Company, I came across this post and pinned it.  I loved the idea.  I really want to teach my kids to be thankful for all that we have- to be gracious.

I have a little nook between my kitchen and living room, that serves no purpose, and I knew that it would be a perfect spot for our little tree.  First I had to raid my dad's garage and get a little metal shelf to fill the spot.

I had picked up a vase/bottle thingy one day when I was out thrifting- I knew it would come in handy for something.  Elise and I went out in the yard, stick hunting and found some that had come down in our last wind/rain storm.  I plopped them in the bottle/vase- voila.  Love it.

I went to Emily's site and downloaded the thankful tags.  There are a few different designs, all are so cute.  I had a hard time deciding between these and the foxes.  I just printed them on my printer on some creamy cardstock, cut them out, punched a hole in the top and tied some butcher twine I picked up at Michael's last year on them.

I knew that I needed to add just a little something else, probably cause I didn't feel like vacuuming.  I went down to my craft space and went through my stash of chipboard letters and spelled out THANKS.  They were pale purple, so I painted them with some gold craft paint and while they were still wet, covered them with a fine gold glitter.  Dollar Tree baby- they have some awesome glitter.  I was just in there the other day and all I bought was oodles of glitter.  I think the cashier thought I had a problem.  

(via)

So I put my tree and my little vignette together.  Ah, I stood back and thought.... I really need to paint that wall.  (The tape wasn't there at the time, I took the pics after I decided to paint)

Yeah, that's what I thought.  Now these pics make my walls look BRIGHT green.  They are green and a little bright, but not the glowing neon that they are in these pictures.  I really want to paint the kitchen and tone it down, big time.  I have some other things I want to do in there too, so I'm not painting it till we decide what the plan is.  Anywho, I've been wanting to paint a chalkboard wall in there since the summer.  I had already purchased the paint, and I figured now is as good a time as any.

I grabbed the paint and stirred it up.  (It's the Rustoleum chalkboard paint, and I just picked it up at Home Building Centre in my town- it's just on the shelf in the paint section.)  The instructions say it's best to roll it on with a roller- I grabbed a high density foam roller, cause that's what I had, and away I went.

First coat.  I was a little nervous about how much the evil green was bleeding through.  The instructions say 2 coats, if needed.  Um, yeah.

You can't put the second coat on for four hours, and I had to go to work, so I finished it up (2 more coats) the next day.  I love it.

As you can see, I haven't written on it yet.  The instructions also say (me following these instructions is a BIG deal, as I usually think they are just "suggestions") that the paint needs to cure for 3 days before you season (rubbing chalk all over the surface, then wiping off) and begin to use it.  You'll see it in action soon, I'm sure.

Last night was the first night we did some "I'm thankful for" tags.  We each did one.  I have 20 of them, so we can do this up until Thanksgiving, and then we can keep it up and be reminded what we are thankful for.

I think it's a good exercise for all of us- I'm really curious to see what we come up with over the next couple of weeks.

Be sure to visit Emily's blog, and check it out.  She has other wonderful things available to download- and her house has been inspiring my decorating lately too.  

Have a great weekend, and be thankful!