Calendar Day!

Since my boyfriend is off enjoying sun and food and wine festivals this weekend, and I’m holed up in windy Baltimore with a cold, I decided this would be GET MY SHIT TOGETHER weekend. Y’know, when all the stuff gets done. Easy, right?

I think the first step is to attack the dreaded calendar.

 

A little while ago, I turned one of the walls in my office into a chalkboard and measured out each day over a calendar year. I love seeing an entire year before me so I can figure out what’s coming up, what to prepare for, etc. The only problem I found with this chalkboard calendar plan was that I couldn’t really write that much in each space. My chalk is run of the mill grade school chalk, so it’s pretty blunt and big and couldn’t fit much information in for each day. I tried post-its, but the only one that stayed stuck for longer than 10 minutes was this one:

 

My dentist appointment reminder sticker. That’s not cool.

So I think (sadly) it might be time to take down the ol’ Calendar Wall and fill out some good ol’ fashioned paper calendar with all my conventions, projects, ideas, and plans of attack for the year. Now I’ve just got to think of something cool to do with this new chalk wall – if only I was as skilled at GORGEOUS chalkboard art like Mary Laurel Burt!

 

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My Big Fat Wall Calendar

Sometimes all the projects I’m currently working on and want to be working on and anticipating what’s coming up next is a bit mind-boggling for me. I definitely prefer looking at the big picture, if I can. I’ve wanted a giant, yearly wall calendar for my office for a while now, but wasn’t having any luck locating anything. Eventually I decided to create my own – hence the wall I painted over with chalkboard paint in this previous post. At first I thought it’d be cool to use this wacky whiteboard paint and make myself a giant whiteboard (what will they think of next??) but didn’t trust myself or my bumpy walls to do a good enough job. I figured chalk would be much more forgiving.

So after some measuring and tiring out my arms by holding them over my head too long … ta daaaaaa!

All finished! Now, my first inclination was not to draw in the month divider lines with chalk but to use thin tape instead – but so far I haven’t had any luck finding any. I got some Artist Tape, which was thinner than regular masking tape but too low-tack to stick. Actually, not much really sticks to the chalkboard, unfortunately, so I have to scrap the idea to put up post-its for detailed info. It’s hard to fit a lot of words in using  these thick chalk sticks.

Years ago I worked in a coffee shop that had a giant blackboard that we’d write the daily specials on in the same vein as Starbucks, and I think I remember that we’d wet the chalk in order to achieve a thicker, more paint-like line. But I’m not positive. Anyone out there have any cool chalkboard tips?

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