10 Easy Steps to Finding Your Perfect Paint Color (Our Jimmy John's Kitchen Redesign - Part 2)

When is the last time you chose a paint color?
Was it easy?
Did it take forever to choose a color?

We recently let you in on a secret - we're turning our kitchen into a Jimmy John's!
Wanna catch up?

Part 1- The Why.
Did we seriously have Jimmy John's cater our wedding?
The design plans, and some catastrophic before shots.

Part 2 - The How. You are here!
BOLD COLORS - How can you be sure you will love them?
Here's 10 easy steps to fool-proof color picking!

Part 3 - The What.
Jimmy John's is a restaurant. Ours is a home. How do you make one into the other - ON A BUDGET?! See pics of the restaurant and the annotations of what we felt were the most important aspects we needed to replicate in our kitchen. Details about windows, walls, curtains, stainless switch plates, ceiling fixtures, etc.

Part 4. The reveal!
See the Before and Afters, the Master Project List, "Where can I buy it?" list, and...announcing the Next Project!

A while back told you that if you look at the colors we've chosen they look like a banana split.

Yet, they're perfect on the walls!

Life is too short to live with a room color you hate.
This is a lesson I learned after 5 years in a strawberry pink room.
(No joke.)

Here's what I do so I:
Don't have to live with a color I hate.
Don't have to buy a second color.
Don't have to re-paint a room.

1. I usually go to the store and find 10 or so paint chips that I like.

2. I grab 3-4 copies of the same chips.
(Yes, I'm leaving with 30-40 chips.)

3. I cut out a chip I like, times 3, and tape 'em on the back so it's one big swatch of color.

4. Repeat for the other 9 choices.

5. Tape white paper together to make a large neutral canvas and tape it to the wall in question.

6. Tape each of the 10 swatches on the paper - leaving a lot of space in between.


7. Decide whether the rooms is used more in the daylight or the nighttime.

8. Look at the colors during the most used time. Remove the obvious "no's."

9. The next day, look at them a second time during the most used time.
(Narrow down the choices to 2 or 3 you can live with.)

10. Look at the remaining 2 or 3 chips during the OTHER time of the day.
(Choose the pretty one and buy it!)

NEVER. EVER. PICK A PAINT IN THE STORE.
Even using the fancy thingy they provide with the various types of lighting.
You might be sure it's the right color. Swatch it first. Trust me.

I've been searching high and low for my "in progress shots of our kitchen re-do. (We're 97% done now.) When I find the pics, I'll post em. The kitchen reveal is next Monday! Here's the deets.

Since the choosing our colors was so important in our design,
I figured the steps would be helpful.
Were they?

How do you choose?
(Click the blue button and scroll down to comment.)

Linking to:

Now, THAT'S expensive!

Now, that's one might expensive sandwich!
Saw that a while back at a local eatery.

I'm sure they just forgot the decimal.
But, it still cracks me up.

Speaking of the price of food, boy it's gone up! I still work the deals, buying about 3 months worth when things reach their "lowest of low" prices - which occurs about every 12 weeks. So, there's always food in the pantry.

While the sign above is about Italian beef...
I'm wondering about hamburgers.

What's the most expensive hamburger you've ever purchased?

Where? What was on it? Worth it?

What would be the most you would ever pay?

What would be on it?

Comment below!

Why Some Florida Strawberry Farmers Are Destroying Their Ripe Strawberries

This is disgusting. According to ABC News, Florida strawberry farmers are destroying their crops which are ripe and ready to harvest. They feel the price of strawberries is too low to bring to market.

After watching the video below...
What's YOUR take on the story?
Leave a comment below~

Thoughts?

Fresh pasta nuggets of homemade joy! Another first.

Aw. Isn't it cute?
It's spaetzel. Gesundheit!

And, even though it's homemade, it's unbelievably easy.
It's just eggs, flour, and water.

Hey, wait a minute!
Pasta, in general, is eggs, flour and water.
Wow. How cool is that?

So, let's talk about spaetzel - the gateway pasta.
What do I mean?
Well, rather than having to fuss with rolling out pasta either by hand or using a machine to make progressively thinner sheets of pasta - with spaetzel, you simply need a colander and a spatula.

Hmm. Spaetzel. Spatula. Interesting.
Or, perhaps not.
Where was I?

Oh, yeah, so once the dough is beat and your arms are...beat, you press the loose dough with a spatula through a colander directly into boiling salted water. After a few minutes of cooking you shock them. (I simply mentioned to the pasta that they actually made a Mission Impossible 3 - and that seemed to chill the little chunkies right up. Use cold water, if you must.)

Next I lightly toasted the pasta in a hot pan with butter, salt, pepper, oregano and parsley. And, voilà! (Or whatever the German equivalent is.) You've got homemade noodles. It actually took longer to eat them than make them. But, don't let that get around. I think they'd make me turn in my cook card.

And, this batch had a bit of dijon mustard in the dough which gave it just a bit of tang. They were yummy and delicious.
And...they seem to be...gone!

Here's the full recipe.

Spaetzle

2 eggs
2/3 c. water
1 1/2 c. flour
5-7 T. dijon mustard
1/2 stick butter
herbs to taste (rosemary, thyme, parsley, etc.)
S&P

Put large pot of water on heat to boil.
Prepare bowl of ice water.
Mix eggs, water and flour.
Add mustard depending on your tastes. (5T. will give you a light taste.)
Mix well - at least 10 minutes. (It should get a bit stringy.)
Pour batter into colander or anything with holes and push through with spatula over boiling water.
Cook 7 min or when they float to surface.
Eat one to test if done. ;)
Skim them off and place in an ice bath and allow them to sit for 1 min.
(I only use the ice bath for large amts.)
Add 1/2 stick of butter to hot pan.
Add pasta and toss to coat.
Add herbs, salt and pepper.
Enjoy!!