My Newest Obsessions - Chalk Paint and Rollerblading

Some things are new and exciting, like tapping into a love of painting and marrying it with a collection of mismatched furniture. Other things are timeless, like speeding down a hill with wheels strapped to your feet, unsure if you should bail into the neighbor's grass or chance the sprinkling of gravel and twigs on the path ahead.

First of all, I don't know why I stopped rollerblading. Yes, it became passe, but since when have I really cared about being cool? I had spent countless hours scraping myself off the sidewalks and telephone poles of my town, through summer and winter, occasionally attached to a system of leashes and speeding dog. The clack of plastic wheels over smooth concrete was the soundtrack of my '90s. So perhaps it was the new millenium, the mounds of high school homework, or the fact that I lost the inserts to my rollerblades, but I stopped. Years passed. I still biked, ran, swam, but did not skate. Then, enter Slomo.

This video awakened something deep and dormant in me. I went out and got myself new adult skates that same day. And knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist guards, because I'm an adult and can't miss work because I broke myself skating.

Picking up skating again is different in an adult body with a (slightly) higher center of gravity and years of rust. But in a way, it's exactly the same. It comes back in stages. The balance first. The stopping technique. The downhill slowing. The joy. 

My husband got skates too. We are using muscles we had forgotten existed. We are learning our new town the way our hometowns became ingrained in us as kids. Which routes are smooth or scary, have barking dogs or uphill climbs? What is this or that parking lot for, and will people yell at us for skating there? He came of age on the impeccable surface of the roller rink, so navigating gutter dips and bulging sidewalk squares is new. But while I duck and weave as I always have, rarely chancing a glance upward, he has introduced me to the glory of music while skating. This new era is allowing for music on demand and blue tooth earbuds. We skate and sway to the sounds of Lake Street Dive.

What childhood activity would you bring back, with current technology and an adult budget?

The other thing currently filling up my brain in ways oh so good is chalk painting. In the way that the rabbit hole of the internet works, specifically youtube, I came upon Debi's Design Diary. I love this woman. She is funky and doesn't give a rip. She paints beautiful bright furniture with her own brand of chalk/clay paint. She makes chippy textures and drippy textures and talks about her family and her happy and ugly feelings. 

I got some of her paint and went to work transforming a cheapo full length mirror for our bedroom. I'm also painting a dresser to fit the whimsical nature of this paint, creating a misty woodland scene that rolls over the drawers and onto the sides.

Now, living in a craftsman house, I have a deep respect for natural, bare, beautiful wood. But sometimes something comes to you already painted. Or plastered with stickers. Or an oddball to your established motif. Sometimes it just wants a little funk. 

I see more of this in my future.

What have you been obsessing over lately?