Uh Oh... Mrs. Schulman got a new camera...

This post isn't really about decorating, but I wanted to share a story.

Once upon a time, a girl had a blog. Then one day she said to herself.... you're pictures suck... they suck real bad. So she went online to shop for a new DSLR camera, and found a screamin deal she just couldn't pass up... and now, she can post pictures like this :)

Contrary to what I said in my last post... It is possible to have pretty flowers in AZ :) Granted, we're not even to June yet but the flower bed in the backyard seems to be holding up pretty well...

I've never really showed pictures of Ms. Amber, just projects... but here's one view :) I'm dying with excitement that I now can take fuzzy background pictures!

We had a little sprinkle sprinkle the other day, and Mr. Husband called to tell me there was a rainbow outside and that I should go take a picture of it... I love that man :)

He also tore out the hideous Hibiscus in the front yard and planted white roses instead which makes me love him even more :)

I managed to take a picture of our pretty white rose with a freakin fly...

Really fly? Really!?!?!?!?

If Pottery barn ever wants to make a catalog for "knock-off's" or "wanna be's", I'm submitting this picture :)

I went in to my neighbor's yard to take a picture of his roses... and it's my favorite picture so far

I still need to find some good photo editing software for the new Mac, but I'm unbelievably happy with our little purchase. So long story short... The Mrs. lived happy ever after.

I heart you Camera.

Front Porch Re-do

When we first moved in to Ms. Amber, the first thing I wanted to tackle was the front porch... I was going for spring/summer vibe but now looking back, I'm going to call that a BIG PROJECT FAIL!! Notice how I can't even keep the flowers alive?

Step One...

So one of the first things I did when it started getting warmer outside (which was around February-ish because AZ gets freakishly warm too early) was give these nice ladies a quick re - do...

It was much easier than I thought it was going to be. I was dreading going from White to brown, but with one coat of spray paint primer, then paint they turned out amazing!!! By the way, when it comes to spray paint, I will ONLY use Rustoleum 2x spray paint. I'm telling you, others don't even compare.

Definitely going for a pottery barn theme here.... I also just grabbed some white canvas fabric and recovered the existing cushions, and then made some accent pillows with bird fabric...

Step 2....

Next in line was tackling the wreath on the front door. The one we had I still absolutely love, but it's more for fall... Target had some beautiful wreaths but they were too small, and I'm not going to pay $40... I'd rather make my own :)

I took a trip to hobby lobby, grabbed a "twig" wreath, then 3 "cluster vines", and simply tied them on to the wreath with wire...

This part was a little tricky but I glued on fish string to the four corners of this "S" (that was also from Hobby Lobby), and then tied the strings to the wreath so it has the allusion of being suspended...

Simple. Clean. Elegant. Looooooooveeee it :)

This was again one of those things where you cross your fingers and hope it works :)

Step 3...

Then I had to dress up the lantern just a bit by adding some apples and greenery at the bottom...

Which leads to me my Step 4.....

This looked absolutely awful. Again, we're back to the fact that I can' seem to keep real flowers alive... but I'll give myself a break because again, we're in AZ and flowers do not like to live here!!
My goal was to have something that looks like this (thank you Pottery barn for putting your catalogs on the Ipad!!)

Again..... Simple. Clean. Elegant

This is totally the look I was going for, and if I have to use fake flowers to get there, then so be it :)

I really did feel awful using fake flowers but 1) you totally can't tell when driving by 2) if you choose light colors, you can't tell as much when the sun tries to bleach them and make them even lighter (like it would to a fake red rose) and 3) anything is better than above :)

I'm quite happy with how it turned out...

And here she is all together :)

Have a great Sunday!!

Outdoor Chess Set

The other day while I was watching HGTV, there was a quick tutorial on how to make a "Outside chess set". It was a huge life size chess set that involved lots of grass squares, concrete, and ginormous chess pieces... I thought it was super cool, but Mr. Husband would never let me rip up our back yard. So I thought I would try and make one to put in our front porch on top of a table, so it could turn in to a "chess table" : )

For the base, I ended up using a board that was for magnetic scrapbook stuff, and it worked perfect!!!

I grabbed some wood from Home depot, glued the sides together, and then glued the frame to the board itself...

To make it match our outside decor, I spray painted the board white and added some decorative trim on the top.

I then grabbed a square sheet of travertine tile at Home Depot for half of the squares. It was the absolute perfect size!

I then found this moss at Michaels... I loved that it was so vibrant. I really wanted to use real grass at first, but Mr. Husband said absolutely not :) I had no idea that they made moss in sheets and it was the exact look I was going for...

I filled the base with potting soil, and then it was time to "checker board" away!!

After I was done, I placed it on a small wrought iron table that was already out front, and here's how it turned out :)

I also found a super cheap chess set at Target and spray painted the pieces brown and white, but we don' t keep them outside because it can get pretty windy. I imagined that we would go out in the front every weekend and play chess while we drank yummy coffee in the mornings, but that has yet to happen :(

At least it's fun to look at!!

A Closet Makeover

I love how my new years resolution was to be a better blogger... and that didn't turn out too well. It's been crazy in the Schulman household with lots of fun and new exciting changes! Sometimes I feel like I can't keep up with everything, and on top of it, I'm on a computer for at least 8 hours a day... The last thing I want to do is come home and use it for another hour or two... so it turns out I'm a much better blog reader than I am a blog poster :)

But it's funny how a new MacBook Pro can change things! I had no idea pictures can load so quick and blogging could be so much faster! It's taken some getting use to having never owned a Mac, but I know I haven't even come close to unleashing what this thing can really do...

Even though there hasn't been a post for quite a while, that's not to say I haven't been crafting away!

Thankfully, I finished the closet makeover a couple of months ago. This one took a lot of energy out of me and made me never want to paint again! I don't know what made me want to make a closet cute, but was determined to do something about the drab white walls. I also spend a lot more time in here than most would probably think. I start work at 5:15 in the morning, which means I get up pretty early. So I don't wake up Mr. Schulman, I go in to the closet and pretty much get ready in there.

Here is my small cute closet.... well... almost cute :)

It's a pretty small closet, but it's all mine :) Mr. Schulman has his own closet in the room as well, so it works for now!

...and I just wanted to say a quick hi to blog friends!!

I was pretty scared to start painting, mostly because I chose a dark chocolate. I wanted to paint pink stripes, but also didn't want the closet to look like it belonged to a 5 year old :)

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I was also worried that the darker colors were going to make my already small closet look even smaller, but because we have such high ceilings, the stripes actually helped the room look even bigger.

In my previous post, I mentioned I was pretty excited about finding a certain something. Well... it was Martha Stewart's new line of Mineral Paint. It literally was just put on Home Depot's shelves the day I bought it, and they said I was the first one to try it! I felt honored...lol.

It's a bit expensive, but it's pretty awesome!

I chose a light pink to put on the ceiling... You can't tell in pictures that the ceiling has a "shimmer" to it, but it looks so pretty in person!

The last thing I did was decide I wanted Crown molding, and this is where I had a heart attack. It took me a while to figure out how to cut the crown molding, and was so disappointed when I started putting up the molding only to find out that wall's do no have 90 degree angles. Walls have 92 , 95 ish angles!!!!! I cried, and yelled, and threw things, and said words a lady shouldn't say... At this point I was so over the project that I went to home depot to find the "cheater" corners.... AND I'M PROUD OF IT!!

And here she is :)

You can't tell in the pictures, but I also switched all the plastic hangers with the nice velvet hangers and it makes a world of difference! It saves so much room, and just looks super nice.

I learned two things from this project. One was just a good reminder, but things don't always go as planned, and you have adjust and sometimes improvise. The second, is that it's okay to pay for some things.... and next time, for me anyways, we WILL pay for someone to come out and install the molding for us.

Even with all of the frustration, I am IN LOVE with how the closet turned out. I'm still on the search for cute little nick knacks but now it's at least easier to get up in the mornings!!

Linking to Thrifty Decor Chic's before and after party!