My newest food obsession is green enchilada sauce, I cannot get enough of it! A few weeks ago I was in the grocery store, trying to figure out my big weekend meal that I eat throughout the week and I was drawn to the green enchilada sauce that was on sale. When I saw canned chicken was on sale as well, I came up with this gem. I made them in individual form this weekend for a brunch I hosted (hence no prep photos). Typically I make it in a large oven safe skillet and cut in wedges but because I wanted to do some smaller, individual portions, I made them in cupcake tins. Be sure to spray each tin well and allow to cool prior to trying to remove the “cupcake”; they’ll come right out if you do. This is a fairly loose recipe because you can really do it however you want so play with the amounts as you need to.

Chicken Enchilada Frittata

• 1-1/2 – 2 cups liquid eggs

• 1 large can chicken, drained and broken up

• 1 can black or pinto beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 – 1-1/2 cup sauteed veggies (I use onions and red, yellow and green peppers)

• 3/4 – 1 cup green enchilada sauce

• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

• Toppings – Sour cream, salsa, avocado, etc.

Combine all items thoroughly. If cooking individual portions, fill up cupcake tins about 3/4 of the way full and cook in a 400 degree oven for about 20 – 25 minutes or until cooked through. If cooking as a whole, start on the range to brown the bottom then move to a 400 degree oven for 15 – 20 minutes or until cooked through. Can be served out of the oven or room temperature.

Notes:

• When making as one batch, I cut into six portions for 225 calories. Because this is a loose recipe, if you’re a calorie counter, be sure to keep track of how much of each item you use and calculate for yourself.

• I got rave reviews on these. They’re super simple and packed with flavor!

You can check out this item plus more coming soon at http://www.etsy.com/shop/DecorbyFuchsia 

Can you guess what movie these quotes are from?

Side-by-side canvases

Highlighting the finished edges

Detail of quote

]]> http://www.fuchsiadandp.com/blog/2013/05/custom-canvas-wall-art-with-quote/feed/ 0 http://www.fuchsiadandp.com/blog/2013/05/slow-cooker-bacon-ranch-chicken/ http://www.fuchsiadandp.com/blog/2013/05/slow-cooker-bacon-ranch-chicken/#comments Sun, 12 May 2013 01:41:38 +0000 admin http://www.fuchsiadandp.com/blog/?p=342 Continue reading →]]>

As I said in my last post, I’ve become quite obsessed with Pinterest. A couple of weekends ago, I was looking on my Yummy – Entrees and Sides board to find something to make for my weeks meals. I came across a slow cooker recipe (yay) that sounded delish – Chicken Bacon Ranch. However, when I cook in the slow cooker, I like to take whatever is in there and eat it, either as-is or with very little work to make a complete meal. While the pin I found sounded good, it was lacking in the veggie department, i.e. zero veggies. So I was inspired to create my own dish that could stand on its own.

Ranch seasonings elicit two things in me – salads and pasta salads. I decided to take a cue from one of my favorite pasta salads and added from there. I kept the basics of the original recipe – chicken, bacon and ranch seasonings – but added broccoli, tomatoes and mushrooms. Can I tell you how much I love this dish?!? Serve it over rice, pasta or my preference to keep it light, riced cauliflower. Enjoy!

Bacon Ranch Chicken

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cut of your choice

• 3 strips thick cut bacon

• 1 can diced tomatoes

• 1 can cream of chicken soup

• 1 packet ranch dressing mix

• 1/2 cup light sour cream

• 4 oz fresh mushrooms

• 1 lb broccoli

Place the bacon on a wire rack over a sheet tray, place in a cold oven, turn the temperature to 400 degrees and cook until crispy.

If using chicken thighs as I do (less expensive cut and I love dark meat), you’ll need to trim them pretty good.

Mix tomatoes, cream of chicken, sour cream and ranch dressing mix in slow cooker. Add chicken and broken up bacon, cook on low until cooked through (about three hours, longer if frozen).

Prior to removing chicken, slice mushrooms and chop broccoli. I par boil my broccoli as I like it a little tender.

Once cooked through, remove chicken from slow cooker and shred. The chicken should easily come apart. If it doesn’t, put it back in the slow cooker for a bit.

Add chicken back to slow cooker along with mushrooms and broccoli, cook on low for an additional hour or so, just until the vegetables are cooked as you like.

Notes:

• I think this would work well with any veggies you like, frozen or fresh.

• This is a very vegetable heavy dish, find the balance that works for you.

• Since I eat this as a meal, I cut it into four servings, with each serving about 311 calories. If you’re a calorie counter, be sure to tally the items you use as many products vary by manufacturer.

That’s when it occurred to me, why do I need to be a professional blogger? Why can’t I just update my blog, no matter what the length of the entry, when I have something to share? So that’s what I’m going to do. Sometimes you might see two posts in a day and sometimes you might not see a post for two weeks. My posts might be a recipe share, might be a photo of a new decor piece I’ve created, might be highlighting an interior design trend, might be a musing about something completely random. But what my posts will be are interesting and informative, definitely something you will want to read.

So here comes the new blog…enjoy!

• I admit, I am a creature of habit. So when I find a product that I like, it tends to be the product I go to first when designing. Florida Tile has become my go-to tile product. With a great range of products at ridiculously reasonable prices, it’s hard not to turn to them immediately. In fact, of my last five projects that I specified the tile, it’s been Florida Tile on four of them.

• I’ve decided in the past week or so that I’m sick of my hairstyle (been sporting it for about two years now). Which made my mind meander to how quickly one could become sick of their décor surroundings. While I know that’s the driving force behind so many using a primarily beige palette when designing, wouldn’t one be more pleased with the end result by doing a more thorough overhaul on a space?

• I continue to find the green movement interesting. I think people have been fed information that leads them to believe that their project must be LEED certified or nothing. I don’t understand why people don’t say, “Make my project as green as possible without increasing the budget.” There are so many affordable ways that one can design green, changes that can be made to accommodate green philosophies. I encourage people to look at the green movement as something that doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

• With the Powerball jackpot increasing with every drawing, I can’t help but daydream about what my winnings might buy. When it comes to the portion spent on my home, it gets more detailed and luxurious with every increase. But then I start to think about how I can implement something without lottery winnings to afford it. All it takes is a little imagination and I think one day, without winning the lottery, I will have my dream home. Vegetable garden included.

• I’m officially getting old. For almost seven years, I lived within walking distance of Coors Field and downtown Denver. I loved it and had decided that when I made my next move, I’d move back into that neighborhood. However, after being in the Congress Park neighborhood for six months, I realize I love the area. The quiet, the access to anything I need, the majority residential with a sprinkling of commercial leading to great food and drink finds, etc. I never thought I’d ever be a neighborhood of a city girl instead of simply a city girl. I’m cool with it though. Older and wiser, right?

…but think it would be good to expand on this so people really understand the benefit of hiring an interior designer. Not just what we do but how us doing it, rather than yourself, can truly save you loads of time and money.

Many people think that the sole reason for hiring an interior designer is to help them choose colors. And if those people have an eye for color, they think they are wasting their money. While we do help with colors, many times, that’s not really the bulk of what we are doing on a project. It’s all the other items we do – scheme creation & material collection, pricing & budgeting, documentation for construction, purchasing & procurement, etc. – which are the true benefits to the home or business owner.

So let me show what we do based on an actual project, for example, moving your office into a new, larger space due to growth. In order to not make this blog post a three hour read, I’ll show the basic difference between doing the project yourself and having an interior designer do it. The requirements of the project and the differences between doing it yourself and having an interior designer do it would be similar on different kinds of commercial projects and even on residential projects.

You know you want to move, you know the area you want to move into and how much you can spend on rent. While you can work with each individual building management company to determine if a space would work for you, hiring an interior designer at this point will allow you to discuss your needs in detail. Typically, while the building management company will go above and beyond to get you as a tenant, including preparing space planning drawings, this process can be time consuming and even all for not. An interior designer, knowing your detailed needs from the get go, will be able to quickly and simply determine whether a space will work for you. We can also help understand what your needs will be with how you’ve already grown and your anticipated growth. Above all, we are working for you, not the building management company, so we work in your best interest, not theirs.

After selecting the space, you would need to prepare drawings for the contractor’s use. It would be very rare that this task could be accomplished with out an interior designer and / or an architect. Creating construction documents requires a knowledge of building codes, including life safety codes, software or instruments to create the drawings, time to create the drawings and coordination with engineers (structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, etc.). There seems to be a slight misconception, as well, that construction documents means the project must entail structural work, must be of a certain size or must include a certain amount of installed work. Construction documents can be a simple as a finish schedule and photo with notations added to direct where the finishes go. Every project requires some level of construction documents.

So now that you know where you are moving and how your office will be laid out, it’s time to determine what it should look like. If you were going about this yourself, this would involve trips to home improvement stores, specialty décor stores (flooring, lighting), furniture distributors and more to select each finish and item. This could take hours upon hours to complete, involve driving all over town, possible coordination of schedules if more than one person is responsible for decisions, being guided by a salesman instead of someone working towards your budget and schedule, etc. More often than not, it can also be highly overwhelming. As your interior designer, I find out your likes and dislikes when it comes to style and colors. I then use that information to pare down the information I show you. Selecting from 3 – 4 carpet choices is infinitely easier than selecting from thousands. I also know where to look for these items to get you the best value, good quality at a good price. And I am able to easily acquire samples to put together into schemes and show you. Imagine how much time and energy it might take you to select tile for your reception area, carpet for your offices, vinyl for your break room, tile for the floor and walls in your restrooms, restroom fixtures, restroom accessories, paint colors, systems furniture (workstations), reception area furniture, reception desk, conference table, desk chairs, conference chairs, task lighting, decorative lighting, art, plants. The list can easily continue.

I’ve scraped the surface of what an interior designer can do for you. But I hope I’ve made my point clear, why you should hire an interior designer. We’re not just to tell you if two colors don’t go together. We benefit your bottom line by saving you time, money and energy while creating a space that fits your needs and desires. The next time you have a project, I hope you will consider letting Fuchsia be the interior designer that helps you. Give us a call today!

For example, the image below comes from a model created to determine what the best layout for the lounge in the office space would be. In doing so, it was determined that while the tables worked where they were, the seating furniture made the space feel a bit to congested. As you will note from the picture below it, we decided against the loveseat and just did the two chairs against the wall.

Another example of what we can do is create a model for marketing purposes. While the immediate image below is nice and conveys what the space will look like, the photo below it shows how an upgrade to a photo realistic model can really make the space shine and becomes a true selling tool.

The next time you’re in need of a model, of any kind, even if we haven’t done the design, contact Fuchsia to put it together for you.

Let’s assume that you are ready for the change and have the monetary means to do so. The question then becomes what to get. There are so many options: tile, butcher block, plastic laminate, solid surfacing, quartz, granite, marble, soapstone, concrete, etc. Several factors can help you determine what the best product is for your home.

1) Budget

If you are on a tight budget but can’t live another day with what you have, tile and plastic laminate are your best options. Both are affordable and give you the ability to create a beautiful countertop. You can use small tiles, large tiles, solid-color tiles, patterned tiles, etc. Plastic laminate comes in wide range of patterns and colors, from playful to modern. One option that can cost just a little more than these is remnant granite. This option will take effort and time on your part. You will need to go to granite yards with a lot of information (photos, measurements, color palette of existing finishes, etc.) in order to find a slab that will be a sufficient size to be cut properly, good pattern size for your kitchen and a color that matches the kitchen’s color palette. Amazing deals can be found, just get ready to do some legwork.

2) Use

If you use your kitchen regularly for cooking, consider the wear and tear that could be put on your countertops. Tile can be a bad option for cooks with lots of wide grout lines all around. Even when sealed, it’s very easy to stain grout. Using a dark grout or minimizing the size of grout lines can help with this issue. Butcher block is gorgeous but a hot pan set on it will more than likely scorch it. Granite is a better option for cooks who move their pots from the stove to countertop regularly. Be sure to review each of your ideas for the countertop for it’s ability to wear, susceptibility to stain, etc.

3) Installation

Will you be replacing your countertop as a DIY project or paying a professional to do so? Tiling a countertop is a pretty easy DIY project that even the most novice DIYer can handle. Tiling also tends to be more forgiving for incorrect measurements, first time errors, etc. Measuring for a plastic laminate countertop to be manufactured or a granite countertop to be cut is very specific. You should always contact the company who will be doing the manufacturing or cutting for their requirements prior to measuring. Countertops of this type also require extra hands. If this is something you would be undertaking by yourself, tile would definitely be your best option.

4) Look

Lastly, and for many the most important, what do you want your countertop to look like. Not just color or pattern but style. A granite or concrete countertop leans more towards the modern while tile or butcher block can lean towards a country look. It’s certainly possible to pair a certain countertop with an overall style that wouldn’t be thought to necessarily match. But typically when that is done, there are more pieces required to make that connection (accessories, window treatments, etc.). If you are looking to just update your countertops, matching the style of the room and countertop will be your most cost effective move.

In most homes, gatherings and parties may be scheduled for a living room or den but soon find their way to the kitchen. It’s the most used room in homes. Why not make it the most liked too and update your countertop? Contact Fuchsia today to get started.

Workstations with Community Areas

Several manufacturer’s have integrated a community area into their workstations. Whether soft or hard seating, this area allows for several things. I could see doing a simple meeting with a few people that doesn’t necessarily need to be private. I could see moving to these locations to have lunch which will help someone decompress during lunch; separate their working from their break. Below, two of my favorites at the show.

Workstations by Allsteel (Left) and Dauphin (Right)

Cafe Height Workstations and Tables

While the use of cafe height tables has been popping up in residential furniture in the past few years, it hadn’t quite made it’s way into the commercial sect except for at dining tables. However, that has all changed. In what seemed like every furniture showroom I saw an example of cafe height items. Whether workstations or conference tables, the commercial furniture manufacturers have recognized that sometimes meetings are mere minutes and there’s no need to sit down. Having these cafe height installations allows for quick meetings in a more casual surrounding. The below is from Global, one of my favorite manufacturers, in a workstation application.

Workstation by Global

“Faded” Carpeting

I alluded to this trend in my Facebook post last week. After that post, I saw it at several other showrooms. While all done slightly differently, the overall concept is the same. Carpet tiles that incorporate several colors, whether the same hue or completely different colors, to create a distinctly faded look. I will say, I prefer the ones that used multiple colors to create the fade only because I could see people wondering if the tiles using the same hues were actually faded. But the look of all of them is gorgeous. Mohawk, on the left, used multiple colors for the fade while Shaw, on the right, leans more toward using the same hue. Milliken and InterFace FLOR also offered a line with this look.

"Faded" Carpets by Mohawk (Left) and Shaw (Right)

NeoCon is mostly about introducing new products. Whether it be like the above, where the product previously existed but is being done in a new way, or like the below where the items are new to the (US) market. One of these is just new to me, not to the market, but these two were the main ones that struck my interest:

3M DI-NOC Architectural Finishes

I cannot believe I’ve never come across this product before but am very glad I did. Similar in finish to plastic laminate, the product is actually a film applied to any substrate. However, because of it’s lack of thickness, it wraps curves better than plastic laminate. It also doesn’t require the same type of seams as plastic laminate so there are no seams at corners. 3M also does glass films, Fasra, that I could see being easier that etching and similar. You can see on the image below how well the product wraps corners.

3M DI-NOC Architectural Finishes

Laminam by Crossville

I am absolutely in love and cannot wait to use this product! I’ll be waiting for at least a few months, however, as it hasn’t hit the US market yet. Laminam is actually a porcelain sheet, 100cm (about 3′-3”) wide by 300cm (about 9′-10”) tall by a mere 3mm (about 1/8”) thick, in 55 patterns, for use on walls. It can be installed on new construction or used as cladding over existing construction. I can see using it in so many different ways. As an accent wall, reception desk fronts, for signage, in showers, etc. I was told that it can be applied to curved surfaces though I didn’t see it applied as such so I’m not sure exactly what the finished look is. But if it can? How much better will that look than faceted tiles on a curved wall?!? I think this product might take the US by storm! Shown as an accent wall in an office in Italy, I think you can see how striking this material can be.

Laminam by Crossville

I was only able to spend about a day and a half at the show but every minute was well worth it. However, I was mostly able to only hit showrooms of products I already knew to get information on their new products. I look forward to going again next year and spending more time looking at all the exhibitors. It was an awesome learning experience and I’m excited to share it with my clients!

Tiling can basically be installed anywhere, be of many shapes and sizes, be of almost any color and compliment any style. My favorite part about tiling is that the possibility is there to make a huge impact with a simple material. Tiling doesn’t have to be limited to the bathroom or kitchen. It can be used as flooring, wall treatment or an accent throughout your home and even outside. Tiling can be a great way to freshen up a space.

I don’t want to write on and on about tiling, it’s a well known product. But what I will go a bit deeper on is the idea of tiling in a non-typical application. With the amount of different tiles available, it’s easy to find something to add character to any room of the home. Tiling a wall to create an accent or installing on plywood to create a piece of art can happen in a bedroom. Tiling fireplaces rather than cladding in stone or brick is an easy way to set it apart in your home and set it apart from your neighbors home. Tiling a concrete patio, with appropriate, safe for outdoor use tile, can liven up and sophisticate an outdoor space.

Another way tiling can be done in a non-typical application is by using bold colors. If you’re timid about bold colors, use in a small dose with a more traditional field tile. I recently saw the application below in Kitchen & Bath Design News and loved the idea. The accent tiles are definitely bold but not overdone allowing the accents to be much brighter and bolder than if that was the tiling throughout. That’s not to say that tiling throughout can’t be done with bright, bold color but you must be careful doing so. And if you do use it throughout, you basically have to retile when you’re ready for a change. Using multiple bold colors, like the picture, allows the opportunity for change of the overall room scheme.

Photo courtesy of Kitchen & Bath Design News

Out of all the designing I get to do, selecting tile might be one of my favorite tasks. The ability to select from all different types of styles and colors to create something very unique is just so much fun. If you want in on the fun, Fuchsia might be the right firm for you. Contact us for your next tiling project. Or even a project that you don’t think will include tiling, we might sneak it in there!