new year, new look!

ever since we moved into our new humble abode, i've been struggling with the perfect spot to photograph new items for my etsy shop. i had no idea how much i lucked out with perfect lighting in our apartment until we moved out. i've tried all sorts of different spots in out new home with no luck. we have a number of insanely large trees on our property which block most of the natural light from coming into our house. great for keeping it nice and cool in the summer, not nice for taking photos though. so finally, with all the new items piling up, i realized that i wasn't going to FIND that perfect spot, i was going to have to MAKE it! enter chalkboard paint! i have to admit that i've wanted to paint a whole wall with chalkboard paint for years now. i thought this would be a great reason to give it a go. i chose the one wall in my studio that gets the most light, (it also is the wall that gets the most light in out entire house luckily) and i dove in head first! it took a few coats to get it fully covered, and it seemed very dark at first. however, now each time i draw on it it holds onto some of the chalk and seems a bit more of a dark grey rather then black. that was my original hope. i also need to use more pops of colors now to make it a bit more interesting. it's trial and error, but at least it's fun!

i'm not totally sure that this is 100% the most perfect back drop for my items, and i'm also not positive that i ever will find a spot that makes me as happy as that little spot in our apartment. but this is loads of fun and gives me the chance to get pretty darn creative with things. i love that i can update it for holidays (notice the current valentines day theme going on) and draw fun little critters for a bit of whimsy. i can also use it to sketch out ideas or leave really large notes for myself when i'm not using it as a backdrop. if i had it my way every room in our house would have a chalkboard wall. for now i think this will hold me over...