and it was all yellow...

...and horrible. Granted, I've had my fair share of "Oh my word, this looked way better under the store lights!" moments. But by and large, I've been pretty fortunate in the paint color department. (My budget is so relieved.)

But these landlords (bless.) had a seriously hard time. Our master bedroom was pistachio, for goodness' sake! Rule of thumb: not all hues automatically go with whatever white is on your ceiling and trim. Ouch! If it hurts your eyes, don't do it.

The guest bath was another terrible - albeit darker - green which they thankfully covered over in beige before we moved in. The forgotten color tells its sad story, though, in drips on the baseboards and countertop and mirror! (Tape off before you paint, anyone?) I'm really glad our landlords don't follow my blog, BTW! At least I don't think they do! I'll know soon.

Since then, we covered those beige walls with some leftover Urban Mist from covering the pistachio in the Master. I could feel my angst melting away.

But for the last year and a half, I haven't been able to reconcile myself to this sight:

It just hurt. I mean physically. My eyes actually throbbed when I looked at the yellow. Especially wherever it met the white trim in the room! It caused a little vision explosion where the colors touched that just wasn't normal. And to top it off, the room was bossy as all get-out. Lest you think I exaggerate! I shall demonstrate.

There is something to be said for painting swatches of your color choices on the walls, against the trim, in the light, in the shadow, so you can see how it looks in different lighting for a few days before you invest in a couple gallons of mistake! You can never know by looking in the store. NEVER.

And in this last photo you can see the new color going in the corner. Which - combined with the yellow - also hurt.

But I pressed on because I knew the outcome would ROCK. What paint? What else! I uncovered a happy little surprise of a whole gallon of extra Urban Mist and just decided this needed to be done. (Urban Mist is a Behr color, kinda grey-blue...we used their interior semi-gloss, paint and primer in one!) So after a quick trip to Lowe's for a shorty angled cutting brush, a new paint pan, and some frog tape (which I didn't use, what!!), I got right to work. A couple evenings & naptimes later...happiness.

Gotta take some new pics so I can let you see the result! Oh, happy day. I don't cringe when I walk down the hall and glance to the right anymore!

Tell me, do you have any paint color skeletons in your design closet? Any oops color stories? Have you rented a houseful of bad choices (and therefore had to live with them)?? Any favorite never-fail perfect color ideas out there? I know people have favorites and let me tell you, in this house, Urban Mist is on the top of my list!

pass the dip! dip.

Yeah, we can just ignore the strange title. I actually just wanted to post a little something fun and quick and kid-friendly!

This year, I decided to dip pretzels with my almost-3-year-old.

Now I do love working with her in the kitchen! But there are a few requirements that must be met if I want the time to be fun AND somewhat productive for both of us.

1) It can't be too hands-on, too many pieces to touch, etc. (I really don't want my friends and family saying "Oh, wow, you made this with your little girl? How precious! Yum!" but thinking, "Did she have to touch every single candy piece? Did she wash her hands? Did she pick her nose after? Or taste test anything during?")

2) It needs to be quick! (We're working with a short attention span, after all. Both her and me.)

3) It needs to be either pretty or nummy. Preferably both!

So dipped pretzels fit the bill!

All you need is a bag of pretzels, some sprinkles, and candy wafers or melting chocolate of some kind. You can even make your own from scratch!

Melt the chocolate. Dip the pretzel. Sprinkle said pretzel with Christmas-y sprinkles before the chocolate dries.

That's it! Usually we see the full pretzel dipped, but we just dipped half of it. Less mess for my pre-schooler. Less touching, etc. I let her dip, shake off the excess, then place it on the aluminum foil to dry.

She was a little unclear about the sprinkling process. She kept thinking that the sprinkles were to fill up the 3 holes in each pretzel. So I did most of the sprinkling. We liked the final taste of the white chocolate the best! The contrast of dark pretzel/light chocolate was pretty, too.

I never saw a child eat so many pretzels in one sitting.

Have you ever been freaked out to eat a homemade-with-love-by-toddlers food gift? What was it, so I don't ever do it? Haha! Did anyone else light on a great preschool kitchen creation this season? I'd love to hear about it.