Sunday Night Dinner: Enchilades Verdes

Josh and I have lived in South Texas our whole lives. Which means we're used to two major things. The heat and great Mexican food. Even our move to North Texas for school meant Mexican food that wasn't quite up to par with our hometown.

Well, you can imagine how I felt when I realized that our planned move to Oregon would mean a serious decline in the authenticity of my Mexican food! A challenge!!! I am going to be working on honing in the skills needed to make my favorite meals up north.

So, yesterday, I whipped up some Enchiladas Verdes. (Recipe adapted from All Recipes.com) With chicken, queso fresco, and an amazing verde salsa, this dish made my confidence spike! It was delicious! The general consensus was that the salsa was a bit on the spicy side (which is ironic because I only added 2 of the 5 required serrano peppers!!) but other than that it tasted authentic and amazing!

I served up these babies with a sprinklin' of queso fresco and cilantro and had Pomegranate Acai Margaritas to drink. (They were the Daily's Frozen pouches. Have you tried these? Amazing!!)

What have you been cooking up lately? Do you stick to a meal rotation? Experiment a lot? Or both? What's your favorite recipe?

Room Love: pretty & rustic, DIY dining room

Room Love: I save so many photos from the interwebs of gorgeous houses and rooms and I want to share some of my favorites.

Image from here via Young House Love

There is a lot I love about this space! Of course the openness, which I have been craving lately (as seen here) but also the mixture of finishes and textures. I used to hate mismatched everything; furniture, towels, silverware, you name it. It would bug me that things didn't go together. But, as of late, I have really been getting into mixing styles and finishes. It can look amazing if done right!

Here, you've got refinished chairs, an awesome round seat, and even untreated wood in the light fixture but it gels like the room was made that way. This should be inspiration to get those cool mismatched chairs from the flea market, spruce them up with a new fabric and coat of paint, and use them at the dining table. Mix natural elements like natural fiber baskets, a table runner, or (if you're lucky enough to find one) a round bench to liven up a room with a almost entirely neutral color scheme.

And, of course, the coup de gras, is the killer chandelier. Save those recycled wine bottles and create something totally unique. You can easily find bottle cutters on Amazon. Save the tops for a light fixture and bottoms for storage vessels or vases. I bet pillar candles lit up in the evening would make that light fixture look gorgeous!

What do you think? Do you stick with one finish/texture? Or do you mix it up like above? What DIY projects complete your home? Please share!!

Our reason to DWIT: A Big Move

When I first introduced dwitting, I didn't explain the biggest reason why we were "doing what it takes" and since today marks 5 full years of being together, I thought it would be extremely appropriate to elaborate. Josh and I have lived in the state of Texas for our whole lives and when we moved to college and got married, we decided that it would be amazing to get out of Texas and experience a different state. We pinpointed the northwest as our preference and even further narrowed it down to southern Oregon.

PoppyandPinecone on Etsy (Get your state!!!)

The weather is better, the land is prettier, and you don't have 40+ days of temperatures over 100 degrees. (Yes! That's what's happening in Texas right now. Blech!) It sounds a little crazy, especially since Josh and I haven't ever visited this state, but we're up for a leap of faith. We're in the perfect position to do something like this. No kids, no huge obligations. We just need to get there.

So, this is why we're dwitting. To get to Oregon and start our life. (Hopefully by the end of 2012!)

Have you ever taken a huge leap of faith like this? How did it turn out? Any great advice? Leave it in the comments below! I want to hear about it!

Our Bedroom Makeover: Easy changes = Big improvements

Well, fall approaches and things are finally getting back to normal around here. Josh spent the summer working out of town. I stayed home to take some summer classes and work. It wasn't necessarily fun living by myself for the past few months, but I'd like to think I took advantage of the opportunity by sprucing up the apartment. I made major changes to our bedroom and the kitchen and I have plenty of pictures of both!!

There wasn't really anything wrong with our bedroom before, but I felt like the blue we chose when we first moved in turned out to be way too dark for me. I wanted more of a relaxing oasis. I really inspired by a card I bought for my best friend's wedding. (I loved it so much, I bought the card for myself and then baked cupcakes to match!)

want to see more of cupcake pictures? check out my company blog for my eye candy!

Our room already had gold accents with the budget statement art and some other accessories, so only a new wall color was needed to acheive the light airiness of the card I was inspired by. Take a look at the difference it made!

I added to revamped nightstands that I purchased from Goodwill. A quick sanding, coat of white paint, and some new hardware made them clean and stylish. I also got some simple bedside lamps (also from Target) for night time reading. For the past year, we have used TV trays for nightstands and have had no bedside lighting so these additions have been the best by far! New white curtains (also from Target), keep the room feeling airy.

Now for some detail shots. I styled our nightstands with books in a similar color scheme of the room and added a few punches of pink to tie in with the artwork we have by the dresser.

Josh's nightstand is clearly more masculine with the addition of darker woodtone accessories, which tie in well with the furniture.

I was a little sad to see the original curtains I had made for the room go, but I knew white panels would make a huge difference. I contemplated making another set as I had previously and then I found these sheer white panels from Target and fell in love. There is a very subtle, circular pattern on them, and during the day time it is much more pronounced as the light shines through. It almost gives the room an ethereal feeling.

Here you can see the circular pattern on the curtains.

And this revamp was pretty easy on the wallet. Here's how it breaks down.

• 1 gallon Color Place's "Nature's Cool Water Pond" satin finish: $15.96


• Extra paint supplies: $15.00


• Nightstands found at Goodwill: $22.50


• White paint for nightstands: already owned


• 2 curtain panels from Target: $15.92 (2 @ $7.96)


• 2 table lamps from Target: $29.98 (2 @ $14.99)

Total: $99.36

Have you done any budget revamps lately? Or maybe a simple improvements that made a huge difference? Please share!

Fireplaces in the Off Season

When it's about a-billion degrees outside (like it is in Texas), our fireplace is the last thing on my mind. But lately, I've been making some improvements to our apartment (lots of posts coming soon!) and I wanted to improve the look of our hearth.

Last winter, we didn't have a chance to buy a screen or even use our fireplace so it's been bare since we moved in. And, go figure, they don't sell that kind of stuff in the summer wit the aforementioned "billion-degree weather". So, I searched out some alternatives to make our fireplace less of a black hole. Here are some of the ideas I love and the one I chose.

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I love the look of this fireplace in general. It's light and cheery, which is the opposite of what I envision when I think fire. Love it! Get this look easily with some vases in complimentary colors to your room decor and fill with faux blooms to keep your display looking good all through the warm months.

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I love this idea! Especially for a room that isn't full of wood tones and natural wood furniture. Here, it really brings warmth to the crisp white walls and fireplace. It's not exactly functional if you'd like to use your fireplace, but if you aren't really a fan of the flames or have a non-working hearth, then this would be a beautiful option!

I kept it simple with some pillar candles and a mirror. It keeps option of soft light and looks good when it's not lit. The mirror also helps brighten up the black hole that was our fireplace.

Have you used any of these techniques? Or any other fun ideas? I wanna know!

Room Love: a living room that's actually lived in...

Room Love: I save so many photos from the interwebs of gorgeous houses and rooms and I want to share some of my favorites.

Bower Power Blog

I love this living space! The warmth of the wood floors and furniture, the bold navy and white, and the mixture of patterns. It just comes together all so nicely. I can picture a family living here and enjoying the space. As much as I love the meticulously styled spaces in magazines and on TV, they can be a bit impersonal. But this room looks like it belongs to someone. (In fact, it belongs to some pretty cool people. The Bowers are a funny, beautiful family that have been blogging for over three years!)


What rooms do you love? Share in the comments!!!

The DWIT Stage: Doing What It Takes

Today was my first day at a new job. Don't misunderstand, I'm still working very hard to create and maintain my own company, Très Sweet Designs, but in this current stage of my life, that particular endeavor isn't covering our expenses. Not only are we trying to cover our current expenses, but we're also trying to get out of student loan debt (before graduation day) and start saving for that "dream life". So, today was my first day at a new job...

That's right, I am currently employed by the world's largest private employer, Wal-Mart. And you know what? I had a lot of fun today. I won't go into the specifics, but I think that it could turn out to be a great and (dare I predict) fun experience.

In honor of this new stage, the husband and I have coined a new verb: dwitting. It's fun to say and it makes sense so, why the heck not? "Doing what it takes" is extremely important to me. I have this wonderful (but not unreachable) idea of our future life and I'm willing to sacrifice my extra time and energy to help get us there. We've got big plans for the future and it's going to be so worth it when that time comes.

*I'll be adding more "dwitting" posts to the blog to chronicle our progress, so stay tuned.