chalk – Shaunanagins

It’s October now.

I’m probably just tripping on pumpkin spice lattes, but I could swear to you that the ’10’ on the calendar is literally staring me down. Time is moving. Life is getting busy. And that ’10’ means that, in spite of all that, I have only one glorious month to satisfy all my spooky-cum-tacky impulses. I have one month where rubber spiders and ghost paraphernalia and zombie references are completely socially acceptable.

Yes, I have midterms and papers and the Haunted Walk Halloween tour season and football on the teevee but, I’m sorry, last night pumpkins took priority. “Autumn Apartment Phase 2” is a go.

The inside of my apartment got its Halloween flavour from a combination of Homesense, the Dollar Store, and hand-me-down deco. Miranda smiled as I pulled out the spider web wine glasses, festive ribbon and creepy spiders. My favourite touch this year are a couple of green light bulbs, one for the laundry room and one for the front porch light, which make the spaces super creepy/nuclear.

So what does this have to do with chalking it up? Well, I’m counting down 31-ish days to max out the spookiness and tackiness, and I want my pumpkins to know it.

So, this happened:

Cool, eh? Currently, the blackboard paint pumpkin sits on my front porch with a countdown of “Days Until Halloween!”

Awesome. I will definitely post more pictures as the week goes on!

I want my home to be fun.

What a crowd-pleaser statement, I know. Of course I want my home to be fun. Of course you want your home to be fun. I also want my home to be cosy and open and bright and quirky and welcoming and [insert unarguable “home” attribute here], but that’s besides the point.

“Fun” was front and centre in my mind when I reorganized the apartment this summer. I was set on having a specified area in the open concept living space that was fun–specifically, fun in a music-y way. Music has always been important to me, and I knew my roommate-to-be was no different, so the apartment had to encourage tunes. I wanted the keyboard to get played. I wanted our CD collections to get played. Basically, I wanted a space where we could “play,” period. That space, naturally, needed to be as open to creativity as possible.

The blackboard wall was inspired by a suggestion from good ol’ Josh, and solidified thanks to some fond childhood memories (growing up, our playroom in the basement had featured some cute little blackboards…these were mainly used to to torture my younger brothers with endless games of “school”; I know I had a good time).

All it took was two coats of blackboard paint, purchased at the local Canadian Tire, to turn my previously-dull keyboard corner into a canvas. I have never seen anything so effective in making a home more fun.

Here’s a picture from the “cloffice” post last week. You’ll see the blackboard wall in the background:

Disclaimer: If you venture to read the wall, I would like to note that Jesus/Jagger/Gambino may not have used those EXACT words. Paraphrasing.

It’s super helpful for making notes to self/one another, as well as for writing down ideas, encouragement, Pokemon doodles…the usual. I would like to note, however, that the wall was visited last weekend by two monumental artists. This was a gamechanger.

I rest my case. Actually, I should probably rest my case with a picture of the wall in its current state. If this isn’t fun, I don’t know what is!

IMG_0279(2)_edited-2 — I personally love the “surf borad” which defies all laws of physics, courtesy of my two favourite artistic geniuses.

Since the wall has become such a hit, I decided it would be worth it to take this chalk action to the next level in a couple subtle/clever ways around the apartment. It’s happening. It’s happening as you read this, in fact. Lloyd’s response earlier today as I set to work on this latest project: “You said you were going to do it, and now you’re doing it. I don’t know why I’m still surprised anymore.”

Translation: Autumn apartment part two and Chalking it up part two are very ready to make their relationship official. Can’t wait for what next Friday has in store!