Random Camera Shots

Messing around with my DSLR over the past few weeks...

Excuse the dry grass in this first one, but LADYBUG!

Instagrammin'

Instagram is definitely my social network of choice (I'm emhagerman if you want to follow along). It's been a while since I posted some of my shots on the blog, so here ya go!

New bangs | Old Fashioned for the Mad Men premiere | Wine time

Abackyard fire of the season | Deciding between glasses | Dyeing eggs with our nephew

Best egg award | Portland cherry blossoms | Salt & Straw with Chase

League night | Zander's new game | Margherita flatbread pizza at a local winery

Painted Terra Cotta Planters

Keeping with my garden theme from last week, here's the first installment of Operation: Garden 2013! 

More than a year after I posted how we saved our wedding succulents, they started to outgrow their small planters and it was about time they were replanted. I planned to get the standard terra cotta planters and do something like this, but when I saw the pretty brown and scalloped ones at our local hardware store I immediately changed my mind.

They're pretty on their own, but I decided that they needed a little bit of paint and I am obsessed with these metallics I picked up a Michael's.

I decided to use the chroma rose on the white planter.

On the brown planter I decided to tape off a triangular pattern.

Easy-peasy.

Garden Inspiration

This summer one of my goals is to magically curate a green thumb. I have visions of pretty flowers, lush vegetable gardens, and a quaint patio. Last year I didn't have a plan and just bought pretty flowers, but it didn't end well. We made a bit of progress, but by the end of the summer a lot of our flowers were scorched and we'd let the vegetable garden go.

This year I want to keep it simple (with a plan!) and modern with lots of colorful plants that are easy to take care of. I've found a ton of inspiration on Pinterest (natch):

Love these marbleized planters from West Elm

Both of these from West Elm are awesome, too.

Wood + industrial chairs in a bold color (via Remodelista)

Bubble planters and succulents (via Etsy)

White on white - love! (via Garden Gate Notes)

Desert flowers + succulents (via source)

Look, Ma! A completed Pinterest Project!

Since I spend about 9 hours a day in our spare bedroom office, I figured I should put in some effort to make it a prettier place. This mousepad DIY is one small, but effective change that I originally saw over on Pinterest. It' also one of my first fully completed Pinterest projects (if you don't count food), but it's almost so easy I don't know if it really counts. Actually, I feel quite stupid even posting how to do it because it's that simple, but here ya go:

Gather supplies: One very ugly mousepad, Mod Podge, pretty fabric.

Cut a piece the fabric to be an inch bigger than the mousepad.

Slap some Mod Podge all over the front of that bad boy.

 Put the fabric on top of the glue, smoothing out any bubbles (not pictured). Flip it over and add Mod Podge to the edges. Fold the fabric onto the glue and cut corners to make for easier wrapping angles and such.

Keep folding...

 Ta-da!