DIY Chalkboard Table Top and Chalkboard Backed Chairs

I posted a while back on a table I thrifted last year. The table was just $40, kind of old fashioned but solid and sturdy (unlike our last dining table set that fell apart after 2 years). They just don't make things like they used to... at least not furniture. I knew it would be the perfect table to refinish and I figured at $40 if I messed it up (quite possible) then it we be ok...

I waited until after we did our recent kitchen remodel (hopefully another post soon that's soon to come) before getting a jump start on the project. I knew I wanted to go the chalkboard route. I may have taken it a bit far... But its not often I refinish a dining table so I decided in addition to the chalkboard table top, to also do chalk backed chairs. Kind of like "director" style chairs. This way we can write names on the backs of the chairs, funny quotes, time out chair...things of that nature.

And after many hours of sanding and painting:

The whole process was kind of humorous to be honest. At first I was going to just tackle it sanding by hand. Then one day my husband came home with an electric sander for me (yes for me to use, not him, clearly  no interest in helping but I am happy to have his support)...

Turns out it was a "finishing sander" which still did the job on the table top but the rest of dining set was kind of sanding nightmare. It was like the never ending sanding project and at one point I gave up, then I went back at it the next night and so on.

Even now after its completed I have this "I didn't sand it enough" guilt but I just wasn't sure when enough was enough. One night at about 11pm after much sanding I thought "this table cost $40 and if I sand any more then that's just crazy." And the sanding stopped. But of course before the painting could start there was a whole lot of vacuuming and cleaning to get rid of all the dust, fun times!

Being the cheap person I am, I decided to just use up an old can of white latex paint instead of buying new paint at the hardware store. So the only supplies I purchased were a small can of chalkboard paint, a small can of polyurethane and sandpaper.

Since I didn't have a primer, I had to do two coats of white. As you can see, the table legs and chairs have a lot of detail in the woodwork so the painting actually took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it didn't bother me as much as the sanding... After two coats of the white I distressed it with sandpaper, just rubbing off areas that would normally naturally look worn on an old table. Then I did the final glaze on the white, 2 coats of the polyurethane - allowing it to dry thoroughly in between coats.

Finally, to finish up I painted two coats of the chalkboard paint on the table top and the backs of the chairs. After the chalkboard paint was thoroughly dry I cured it by rubbing chalk on it, and finally (finally) my table was finished. All for under $70. And alot of elbow grease.

Whether its a chair with a guest name on it, a time out chair (my personal favorite), a good girl/boy reward chair, homework chair, treat chair, you name it, I think there is a lot of fun to be had. As for the table top? I'm looking forward to making lists and playing games. My husband is excited to solve math equations with our little one. Good times ahead.

I ummed and ahhed about posting this project for a while. Mostly because this is so different from my usual crafts. And of course because I wanted to take decent pictures and my indoor photography is limited to weekends. Working full time there is just no time for taking pictures indoors during the week so sat or sun mornings it is. I managed to snap a few pics (quickly) last weekend.

I eventually decided to edit my pictures with the cinema scope effect. I'm kind of addicted to it right now...

As much as I felt like I was losing it with the sanding, I'm actually looking forward to my next furniture refinishing project. I'm looking for no-sanding involved projects... I just picked up and old school telephone table at goodwill for $7.50...

Treats for you...

Being a cover artist is such an honor. I have been fortunate enough to have my projects on the cover of Take Ten a few times, and my daughter was on the recent cover of Create With Me. Much to my surprise, I recently had the honor of one of my projects for Stampington making it onto the cover of Somerset Life. A simple gift packaging project called "treats for you." A real treat for me...

Busy with instagram (and other things...)

I haven't blogged in the longest time... For a number of reasons. Mainly because the holiday season and January are without a doubt the busiest time of year for me, but now I finally feel like I will have more personal time to tackle a few projects around the house, get back into shape, and hopefully blog more often. In the midst of all the craziness I have been addicted to instagram, I'll be honest, its rather addicting... I finally got an iphone and have been looking at all the different picture aps for iphoneography and so far instagram is my favorite. Its almost too easy to take pictures and just let your iphone do all the editing for you. I actually havnt been using my slr as much as I was, shame on me! In January I did the photo a day challenge inspired by Chantelle from fatmumslim. I started February but I have been rather slack keeping up this month. I put together just a few of my favorite instagram pictures from January.

If you are on instagram then I hope you to see you on there, my username is vanessaspencer.

Look what Santa brought.

Look what the stork Santa brought. Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing my good friend Kate's new bundle of joy - little Max. This 11 day old sweetheart makes me want to have another baby right this very minute! On Saturday night while I was trying to finish painting my bathroom I had the stocking idea and sent Kate a text all excited like "OMG we need to stuff Max in a Christmas stocking - do you have one big enough?" She surely must of thought I was 100% crazy. Best. idea. ever.

This little guy makes my melt. Merry Christmas!

A Crate for Christmas.

My early holiday gift from one of my closest friends - Johanna. She knows me so well. This vintage crate she picked up from Goodwill - for $6!! I'm seriously in love with it and its now hanging on the wall in our living room. So far I just have a mini vintage camera displayed in it that I purchased from The Evol Pixie Supply Co. This present seriously made my day.

a giveaway hosted by yourwishcake.

I'm a little excited this weekend.   My adorable friend Kerri is kindly doing a giveaway on her lovely blog yourwishcake and you can win this flower bib necklace I created:

Kerri's blog is always an inspiration and quite frankly I feel all kinds of special to be featured on there for a giveaway... She kindly photographed herself wearing one of my bib necklaces and lets just say she is obviously better at self portraits than I am. If you take a peek at the giveaway post you can see hers.

So hop on over to yourwishcake to enter the giveaway and to get to know Kerri. Have a great weekend!

Holiday Boutique Craftiness

Recently my friend Jenn and I had a little booth at my daughters school for the annual Holiday Boutique. Jenn posted some great pictures on her recent blog post about it. It didn't go as well as planned but it was still a fun day, a good learning experience, and a great way to support the school. And now I have a ridiculous amount of handmade Christmas gifts so no complaints.... Here is a peek at some brooches/hair clips I'm adding to my etsy store soon, and a picture of the two of us at our table.

 

Happy holiday crafting....

Spicy Chicken....

I realize the title for this post "Spicy Chicken" may be a bit misleading... But I couldn't help myself. Today I decided to start wearing in my new 2nd hand vintage acme cowgirl boots (a thrift store SCORE for just $10). One of my coworkers (she cracks me up daily) referred to me as having gone all "spicy chicken" in my new boots. Whatever, I'll take it... I love Fridays, not just because of the soon arrival of the weekend, but because its casual "jeans allowed" Friday which is perfect for boot wearing.

I plan on living in these boots this winter so breaking them in was going to have to happen sooner or later. The previous owner must not have worn them much at all because these boots need some serious breaking in. They are however a perfect fit, but getting them on and off isn't easy! 

And I couldn't help myself with the suitcase. My old green suitcase had been sitting in the prop room at work for some time and today I finally decided to bring it home for a fun project I have in mind.  

When I was walking from one building to another at work I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous I must have looked. Kind of like the "spicy chicken cowgirls leaving for a long trip!"

Off for the weekend, yeehaw!

Kate and Victor

I recently had the chance to do some maternity pictures for one of my favorite couples. My good friend Kate and her husband Victor are expecting a baby boy. This baby boy (Max) is due in a few weeks. This couple have been through a lot to get where they are now. They have endured pain that I cant even imagine so seeing how happy and excited they are is truly amazing. What makes me melt is knowing what these two have been through, yet they manage to still be so strong, happy and kind. Kate and I used to be coworkers and quickly became friends. I miss her terribly but wish her all the best with this new chapter. She is going to be a great mum. I miss her and I sharing our lunches together (pretty much daily) and having the kind of friendship where we could talk about anything. We have cried together through hard times and laughed our asses off (crying with hysterical laughter). Kate is just the kind of person who's personality is addicting. She is without a doubt one of the strongest, funniest, smartest people I know. So here is a peek at Kate and Victors maternity session. I'm looking forward to meeting little Max and possibly a newborn photo session...

A Peek at my Halloween Decorating

I decided to get some Martha Stewart rat silhouettes this year.  I think these are my all time favorite Halloween decorations. It probably would be much more effective if I had wood stairs but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Last year on the day after Halloween I picked up some clearance wall stickers for 90% off. Couldn't resist! 

They're on the fireplace, stairway, in the bathroom - everywhere!

I will have to blog on the outside decorating once our pumpkins are carved. More to come.

Happy Halloween!

The first day of kindergarten

So the past week has been quite a week to say the least! My little girl started kindergarten a week and a half ago and I'm happy to report it hasn't been nearly as stressful as I thought it would be. Its still going to take some adjusting but its all coming together. I had a week off work before kindergarten started to spend lots of quality time with Izzy. We did a few Disney days, lots of shopping for back to school supplies and clothes, LOTS of pool time, and finished up some projects around the home! Well, I finished the projects while Izzy watched the Care Bears and My Little Pony...

The first day of school was great and went very smoothly. I decided to go back to work that day, but my husband was off work for a while also, so he was close to home just in case there was any problems. Thankfully there wasn't... So far Izzy appears to be really enjoying herself, a little too much to be honest because I cant seem to get her to come home when I go to pick her up! She is having way too much fun... We are very fortunate and live within walking distance to her school, so I get to walk her to school each morning, which I love. Then I swing by and pick her up on my way home. Here is Izzy on her first day of school... This is without a doubt my favorite picture from the day! Looking a little nervous at first.

But it doesn't seem to take Izzy long to warm up so within seconds she was being her silly self and doing all kinds of funny poses. I've included a bunch of pictures from the day throughout the post :) The second day of school? Well the second day was interesting because school was cancelled! Yep. We had a major power outage the night of her first day of school (which was kind of a fun camping night at home playing flashlight games and sleeping on the floor). Because of the power having to be restored at the school etc, etc, the school district closed all the schools for the next day. It all worked out because the husband was still off work so him and Izzy got to have a random daddy/daughter day. I came home to some new plants in my backyard, lovely!

Ive joined the PTA, which I'm really excited about but at the same time seems really bizarre? I think It just seems like this stage of my life came around way too fast. I honestly feel like it wasn't all that long ago that I was in school, now my baby is! Either way, I'm excited to be involved and help the school, volunteer where I can and meet and get to know other families in our community.


Izzy's 4th day of school was also an interesting one. To cut a long story short: I drop Izzy off at usual time of 7:45. At 11am I get a voicemail from the school saying "we are just checking in to see why Izzy is absent?" I run outside at work at lightening speed, (saying bad things under my breath), call the school and tell them "she ISN'T absent, I dropped her off like 3hours ago, WHAT is going on?" The school receptionist very kindly and professionally handled the situation & told me she would figure it out and call me back asap. I decided - OK, I will give it 5 minutes before I jump in the car, drive to the school and begin the search - because I was 99% sure it was some kind of roll call mix up... which it was and my phone call was returned within about 4 minutes. phew. But for a split second I was in serious panic mode. A few people at work saw the humor it in, joking about how she was already skipping school... sigh. If my daughter is anything like I was as a teenager then that's just going to be painful... Lets just enjoy the cuteness of kindergarten before the teenage years, please!!

Few more pictures from the day.

This is what I am calling the GANGSTA poses.

It's been a long and tiring but very exciting week.

Happy Back to School!

Day 31: August Break Challenge is over?

Wow, that went so fast. I'm feeling very happy and proud that I actually stuck it out and completed a challenge for once! Mind you there were a few days I missed and would then make up for it the next day and post twice (sorry about that). So I thought this picture of my little one blowing a kiss was a good one to say "goodbye" to the August Break:

                          

August Break was a blast and pushed me to take more pictures and blog everyday! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Glad to be a part of it. Many thanks so Susannah Conway for hosting this awesome challenge.

Day 30: Messy Hair.

I couldn't help myself, had to share this messy hair picture of my Izzy..

Professional Photography

Artful Anthology Photography.

Because a picture should be worth a thousand words.

 

Elizabeth and Pedro.

Costa Mesa, California Wedding. August 2011.

 

Jen and Neal.

Montage Resort.

Laguna Beach,California Wedding. March 2011.

Lambie Family Portraits.

Rancho Santa Margarita, California. August 2011.

Day 29: Self portraits on the move.

Yes, I do self portraits of my daughter and I when we are on roller coasters. Doesn't everyone?

I still need to perfect these, I tend to miss half our faces (usually Izzy's ends up being cut off - I guess because mine obviously takes up more room). But pictures like these on a moving roller coaster? Not easy. This would probably be easier if I had the iphone so I could reverse it and actually be able to see our self portrait before I take the picture. Yep I really need an iphone. I've decided to continue until day "Day 31" with The August Break since I started late, so two more days! Cant believe I've made it this far, feeling proud.

Day 28: Point and shoot macro.

I typically take my point and shoot camera to places like Disneyland, so of course its when I don't have my good camera that I find things like butterflies about a foot away from me where my SLR would come in handy! By the way, I'm just assuming this is a butterfly since its broad daylight and its hanging out on some greenery, but to be honest it looks more like a moth. I know. It isn't the most beautiful butterfly/moth thingy). But I feel like when you witness the simplest of moments (like this one) you really need to document it, Moments like these are rare. Life is so busy and hectic at times. Every now and then you need to just stop and apprecieate a moment like this from mother nature.

Thankfully point and shoot cameras have a macro function that will do the job so that you don't miss the shot.