For the Luv of Aqua and Paint Colors

For today's House Luv I am going to share my new obsession.... the color aqua! Just to introduce myself I am a girl that's not afraid of color in my home. It makes me feel good and sets the mood for any room. In my opinion you just can't go wrong with a good shade of aqua, or wait, is it turquoise? Or maybe it's teal? robins egg blue?  Really you can't go wrong, they all sound yummy and they are so pleasing to the female eye. Men could live with out I'm sure, but they too don't mind a pop of color and aqua is seen as a blue or green to them so it is still acceptable.

  Speaking of Men, the hubs and I are in the middle of a new construction for our new home. We are in the painting stage and trust me when I say, women & men see colors differently. So we are living on trust here and the plans are turning out beautifully.  He is learning to trust me and I am learning to go with my first eye instinct and be brave an go with it. After all, it's just paint!

  So now that you know a little about me let me share my love.... {Aqua}   It's the new blue. It has been around for decades. In the 60's it was mint green. Then in the 80's it evolved into teal. 90's we called it sea-foam and 2000's it became turquoise. Today we are going to call it {aqua}. What ever the case the color is still around and people are using it in all shades not matter what the name. So just grab what your drawn to and go with it. You only need 3 elements in a room to tie it all together and make it "feel" apart of your home.

  Let me first start with a little inspiration and then follow with your input and tell us which ones you are luving today.  Maybe you can pin something you like and add just a pop somewhere this Spring in your home to make the place come alive!  The great thing is your choice of {aqua} can be paired with coral, tangerine, red, pinks, grays, taupe, yellow, lime green,  brown and black. You choose....

Source: 1.bp.blogspot.com via House on Pinterest

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Source: yellowbrickhome.com via House on Pinterest

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Source: pocketfulwhimsy.blogspot.com via House on Pinterest

So what shade are you into? What is your favorite pairing? We want to know. Share on FB or in the comments.

With my son's nursery, I pulled in the aqua, tangerine, lime and brown.  I choose {frosty} paint color from Valspar. However I didn't have the color made at a Lowe's, I had my local ICI Glidden paint store color match and it turned out amazing!  I love their LifeMaster No VOC paint. It covers fabulously and isn't as pricy as the competitors. If your paying more than $36 for a gallon of paint, your paying too much. Anyhow... remember that wall colors change with the time of day and lighting. See below the first picture is a virtual color of what the paint color frosty "should" look like. How ever on the actual wall in day light on the west side of the home. The 2nd picture shows the true actual color. The 3rd picture shows the actual color at night with a true white incandescent bulb in the lamp to the left.

Oh I love this room, it truly was my happy place during many, many sleepless nights. 

Aqua can be very tricky when trying to pick out a paint.

I highly suggest taking your fabric or your inspiration with you while picking it out.  Aqua can range from blue to green. A true aqua is in between the two.

Hope you enjoyed todays post!

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You can see more of our House luv of All things Aqua on our Pinterest.

Blessings and Happy Spring!!!

 

Being a Thrifty Nifty: Once A Month Cooking

Ok so I have always wanted to try doing once a month freezer cooking. I finally stopped making excuses and I tried it! It went really well! So here is a little blurb about my first try at cooking meals and freezing them. There are two reasons why I wanted to do this. 1. I wanted to help my family save money, and I did that! 2. I really hate cooking every night but I did not mind doing it all in one day! Now I just throw my freezer item in the oven and we are good to go for dinner. I am going to give you my step by step in what I did but also some tips for a few things I discovered along the way that will work better for me next time.

Here we go!

Step 1
Get a book on freezer meals:

I read The Everything Freezer Meals Cookbook
It was a great book, I wanted something that had simple everyday recipes and this one did. It gave great me great tips on how to get started with freezer cooking. There are tons of books out there, but this is the one I liked.

Step 2

After reading the book you have to pick out the recipes you want to cook. I picked out about 14 recipes that I knew I could split into two dinners. The ones that said "feeds 6-8" actually ended up make 3 portions for our family. I am only feeding two adults and 1 14month old. Either way, pick out the meals you want to cook then make a list of everything you need to cook those meals. After, check your pantry and cross off anything you already have and do not need to purchase.

Once your list is complete, go do your shopping!!! Have fun and organize your list so you are not running around the store. Try and keep things grouped together so that your shopping is quick and organized!

Step 3:

Start cooking! Once you get your shopping done you are ready to get in the kitchen. Try and shop the day before cooking if not it will make for a long day. I organized all my cooking supplies into recipes so I would have everything on hand and readily available. The book suggested if several recipes called for the same thing then do it all at once. So I had about 9 recipes that called for chopped onions so I chopped all 9 at once and kept them on hand.

I tried to cook the things that took the longest first! The meals that called for no cooking at all I prepared last. Make sure to prep and label your bags with what you will put into the bags everything kinda looks the same once they are frozen. I think freezer bags are the easiest way to freeze the meals. Once things are done being cooked and cool off place in your bags then freeze as flat as possible. Some things will call for flash freezing. Your book will explain the different types of freezing methods.

That is about it, I cooked my meals and froze them. Below are a few more pics of cooking different meals and I also listed my pointers. So far only one meal did not turn out well. All of the rest have tasted excellent!

Pointers:

1.Buy disposable casserole dishes for your casserole recipes. The casserole method of freezing did not work too well for me. It was also very difficult to defrost and get saran wrap off.

2. Purchase really good freezer bags.

3. On re-heating day if you are cooking an item that doesn't need to be defrosted you will probably have to cook it a little longer than the book says.

Here are a few pics.

My meat loaf: I will use my normal recipe next time not the books

My man helping me cook

Steak and Tomatoes

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House Luv: Give-A-Way.......Thrifty Nifty Thursdays

There is a ton of thriftiness going on over my way.

My husband and I are building our dream home.

We are finished with the framing process and

the plumbers and electricians are working away!

We have been blessed with the opportunity to build

in this economy and we are so grateful.

Enough about me... What about this giveaway?

We are planning to "bless our home" with scripture by inviting our

friends, family and those we know have prayed for us through out our marriage.

Based on Deut. 6:4-9 we are to write the scriptures on our "door post" and "gates"

So I want to share with you the invitation.....

click on the image to enlarge

I am sharing this invitation to one of our lucky readers!!!

Yes! I am giving away this invitation to one of you!!!
Fully customizable invitation or something to
print for your home. It is a 5x7 template that
will be sent to you in a digital format for you to print.
The sky is the limit!

You need to do at least 3 of the following things:
You must leave a comment each time you 
complete one of the following:

1. Share the post from yesterday's {shot of espresso} by copying this
 ( http://31main.blogspot.com/2012/01/good-morning-welcome-to-your-shot-of_25.html )
 and pasting it on your FB page.
2. Inviting 5 women that you are friends with on FB to the 31 Main FB page and this site.
If you add a total of 10 women you will earn 2 extra points in the drawing!
3. Pinning this on Pintrest with the comment "House on 31 Main, new mommy blog giveaway"
4. Tweeting about the give-a-way (hit the tweet button at the end of this post)
5. FB post about the give-a-way (hit the facebook button at the end of this post)
6. Blogging about this give-a-way (2 extra points!)
7. Adding our button to your blog (2 extra points)

If you have any questions ask on the 31 main FB page.
Want to become apart of the FB page?
Click on the BIG Facebook icon on the top right of the blog and ask to join.

We are so excited and each of your entries will put your name in for the drawing once unless it counts for 2 points and then your name will be entered twice.
Your entries will  not count unless you report it in the comment section of this blog.
Comment section is on the bottom of this post (it's kinda small) so look hard for it.
Entries will be picked with randomization utilized.

Blessings ladies!

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Thrifty Nifty Thursdays: Foyer Lantern Up-cycle

Go here for the DIY guide 

on this beauty below.

Source: fromanawakenedeye.blogspot.com via Jenny on Pinterest

I was thrilled with the way it turned out!

No trace of that shinny icky brass anywhere.

Pure oil rubbed bronze beauty!

Grab it for your Pinterest craving today. :0)

Happy Thrifty Nifty Thursday!

Be sure to join our facebook group 

by clicking on the three little houses

 at the top of the page.

"The house of the righteous brings treasure."

Proverbs 15:6

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The Best Thing He's Ever Put In His Mouth

So I got this recipe from a friend over the holidays and it is amazing. The night I made it my husband and dad both said it was the best thing they have ever put in their mouths! I wouldn't go that far but it is really, really good and really easy to make! It is so not healthy but you probably won't find me posting the healthy recipes lol!

Ingredients for Cheese Cake Sopapilla

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 (8 ounce) cans crescent roll dough

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup white sugar

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions

1.Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2.Beat the cream cheese with 1 1/2 cups of sugar, and the vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in a bowl until smooth. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape the each piece into 9x13 inch rectangles. Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough.

3. Melt your butter then stir in the 1teaspoon of cinnamon and 1teaspoon of sugar. Drizzle the melted butter mixture evenly over the top of the cheesecake.

Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 45 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 squares.

I like to add some strawberries on top or some sort of great cheese cake toppings! It's really good plain too!

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