The Art of Mexican Food at Home

My husband and I both LOVE Mexican food, but it seems like good Mexican restaurants are so hard to come by anymore. And even when you do find decent food, you pay an outrageous price for it. Although Cole is a sucker for those massive burritos, I cannot leave without ordering some tasty enchiladas. Thankfully, I came across a super yummy recipe for enchiladas from Progresso during my search for coupons one afternoon.

You can find the Progresso Chicken Enchilada Recipe here. They were extremely easy and fun to make and they were a huge hit for both Cole and I! Cole was super impressed that we could make something so tasty in the comfort of our own home.

I changed the recipe up here and there. All of my ingredients came from Trader Joe's, except for the Progresso Recipe Starter. I used 7 oz of green chiles instead of 4 oz because I didn't want to waste the extra 3 oz in my can. I have never bought rotisserie chicken, so I subsituted that for cooked chicken breast from Trader Joe's. I love their chicken breast because it's so tender! Neither of us like tomatoes or avacados, so I skipped those ingredients entirely.

I served the cooked enchilads with shredded lettuce, sour cream, and salsa. I will definitely be making them again! This is one of those recipes you want to share with all of your friends. Enjoy!

Song Canvas

Last year, I fell in love with Scotty McCreery's voice when he auditioned for American Idol. It just so happened that my husband & I got married last summer after the release of his first single, "I Love You This Big." My husband & I both agreed that this would be the song we would dance to for our first dance at our reception.

This song holds a special place in both of our hearts because we did get married so young. (I was 19 and he was 20). We just love the lyrics, "I know I'm still young, but I know how I feel." So for our 8 month wedding anniversary (I just couldn't wait any longer!) I decided to make a sentimental gift for my husband, Cole, that incorporated our song.

I had seen several ideas on Pinterest that involved holding up your wedding date, baby's birth date, etc. in a photo & using Mod Podge to adhere the photo to a canvas, so I came up with my own idea. I took a picture of myself holding up each word to the song: I -- LOVE -- YOU -- THIS -- BIG.

While the 4x6 photos were being printed at Walgreens, I went to Michaels to buy my supplies. I got a pack of (9) 4x4 canvases for about $12. They are originally $20, but I used a 40% off coupon. I also got some Matte Mod Podge for about $5 (The cashier let me do two different transactions so I could use the 40% coupon again. Normally the Mod Podge is about $8). I already had a hot glue gun, ribbon, foam brush, & paint, but you can pick up all of these supplies for less than $10.

Below is a picture of the supplies you will need:

 

 

First, I painted each canvas with the same acrylic paint I used to monogram the white buckets for our wedding. While the paint was drying, I cut the photos from 4x6 format to 4x4 format so they would fit on the canvases. Once the paint was dry, I used the foam brush to lightly brush Mod Podge onto the canvas as well as the back of the photo. Once I placed the photo onto the canvas the way I liked, I applied a coat of Mod Podge onto the top of the photo as well. I ended up applying two thin layers of Mod Podge onto the top of each photo because I wanted the photos to have a nice texture to them.

 

Once the Mod Podge was dry, I cut a piece of ribbon that stretched across the back of each canvas. I laid a piece of contract paper down & measured how far apart I wanted the canvases to be. (I didn't take pictures during the process of making this, but here is a picture displaying this step without the contract paper).

 

I used my hot glue gun to adhere the ribbon to the canvases. Although you can see the hot glue through the ribbon, it won't matter once the canvas is hanging on the wall. Once the glue dried, I had my finished piece. I used push pins to hang it up so that the canvases would be secure against the wall. It was much easier than trying to hang a nail for each canvas to sit on. This project looks great displayed in our bedroom! Now when Cole looks in the mirror each morning, he is constantly reminded of how much I love him. :)

Repurposing Wedding Decorations

My husband & I recently celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. Since then, we have had a lot of major changes in our life. Moving twice has contributed to those major changes, which has made decorating a challenge.

My mom made all of our flower arrangements for our wedding & I couldn't see just putting them in storage or getting rid of them, so I decided to repurpose several of the arrangements in our home. Our living room is decorated in mostly aqua blues & greens so I was able to hang one of the flower arrangements on the wall next to our wedding picture. Below, you can see how the arrangement was used at our wedding & how it is being used in our home now.

 

We had the flower arrangment displayed in front of a photo of us as our guests entered the church. Now, this same arrangement is hanging in our living room next to our wedding picture. I added a sconce with an aqua candle that I found at Ross to complete the arrangement.

 

 

 

Our master bathroom shower curtain is red, brown, cream, with a hint of the same aqua color that we used in our wedding. My husband's mom painted galvanized buckets white that I monogrammed an aqua "B" on for my mom to make the center piece flower arrangements for our reception. We only had about 60 people at our wedding; therefore, we only used about 8 of these buckets. While some of them are still in my parent's attic, I have one in our master bathroom. Since the shower curtain also has red & cream in it, I added some red & cream flowers to the previous aqua arrangement. Below, you can see how I have revamped the wedding arrangment into a piece for our bathroom.

 

 

 

We also had a tall aqua bucket that we purchased at Michael's that was used as an arrangment for our guest book table. I added the same red & cream flowers to that arrangement to create a new look for this arrangement as well.

 

 

 

Lastly, my favorite repurposed piece from our wedding is my bouquet. My mom also put my bouquet together. I didn't want an extravagent bouquet that overpowered the small detail of my dress. Below, you can see a picture of my bouquet at our wedding. 

 

 

I wanted to stick with a simple theme, so I added decorative vase filler rocks that I had laying around the house to a mason jar to create a beautiful display for my bouquet. Our bedroom is decorated in aqua, lime green, & purple, so this $1 doily from Michael's added the perfect touch of color!

 



 

I hope this inspires some of you to repurpose not only wedding decorations, but also other sentimental things that may have stuffed away in your closet or attic. Happy repurposing! :)

 

Faith. Family. Freedom.

My husband and I were living in an old, run down apartment that I had almost given up on making our "home." I didn't want to paint because I knew we would be moving within the next few months, but I just had the urge to paint SOMETHING. It occured to me that canvases are a great way to show one's artistic abilities & add a spalsh of color to a plain white wall as well.

I had some pictures of my husband and I hanging in our dining room & thought how cool it would be to add a plaque type canvas or piece of wood below each one. I went to Michael's to find something that may fit in this category. I found three 4 x 12 canvases in a pack for around $20. I had a 40% off a single item coupon which brought the total to about $12. I also grabbed some red, white, and blue acrylic paint (the same paint I used on the wooden anchor).

Upon bringing the canvases home, I had no idea what I was going to write or design on them. I started looking around our apartment, reading books, & listening to music for inspiration. I have three metal decor pieces that have LIVE LAUGH LOVE etched into them. It hit me that I wanted to come up with something that conveys the foundation of our home. FAITH for our enormous faith in our Lord & Savior. FAMILY because we are extremely close knit, with not only each other, but our extended family as well. And FREEDOM because that's what my husband fights for each day he goes to work.

I grabbed a piece of contract paper that we had used to wrap Christmas gifts last year & spread it across our kitchen island to start my project. I used scotch tape to tape off hard lines & edges. I probably should have invested in a cheap roll of masking tape because the scotch tape didn't stick to the canvas like it does to paper. When I completed the background color/pattern, I used a pencil to free hand the words & images onto the canvas.

My husband was underway for a week or so when I was working on this project, so I tried to spread it out over three days time. The total time for the project would have taken about 6 hours (2 hours per canvas) if I hadn't spread it out between three days. The most time consuming part was waiting for the paint to dry so that I could add the next detail. I'm very happy with the finished product & they look so much better in our new apartment! :)

 

 

Thrift Store Treasure

People often look at thrift stores as stores that contain junk or trash. I see shopping at thrift stores as an opportunity to purchase something that may not be in the best condition & turning it into something you would normally find at an expensive, specialty boutique.

Since my husband is in the Navy, I always get excited when I find something that is nautical themed (anchors, ship wheels, etc). My mom actually texted me a picture of this old beat up anchor one afternoon & asked me if I thought I could use it. She said it was a real wooden anchor that was pretty beat up, but the price tag read $8. That's always something to get excited about! If I were to make my own wooden anchor, I would not only have to buy the wood to make it out of, but I would also have to cut the pieces myself. This task would be nearly impossible in our 2 bedroom/2 bath apartment. Thankfully, I didn't have to take on this head ache.

Upon receiving it, I used some old sand paper we had laying around to sand down the previous scuffed paint. Our kitchen & dining room are decorated in red, white,& blue so I decided to incorporate my americana theme into the anchor. I used basic acrylic paint that I purchased from Michaels for about $1 per bottle to paint each section of the anchor. After painting, I wanted to add detail with the words "Anchors Aweigh" that I free handed across each section. I also added a splash of color with a simple piece of ribbon that I had left over from a previous project to create the rope or chain of the anchor. 

What another man thought was trash, I was able to turn into a staple piece of decor in our dining room.


 

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, Domestic Designs! I will be posting everything from dinner ideas to my latest decor creation. I specialize in designing & creating fun, new things that I can incorporate in my daily life. I am excited to start blogging & I hope others find my ideas fun & useful in their homes as well!