Four Fun Things
My friend just moved into a sixth floor walk-up, and her small bedroom is sunny and bright but painted in that old landlord white. She asked me for color suggestions, and I’m thinking a creamy pink? I love my own bedroom color — feels like a womb — and pictured above is Harriet Slaughter’s bedroom in Lime White. What bedroom colors do you like?
We’re huge fans of The Dolphin Studio’s iconic calendars (I know many of you are, too); they have such a devoted following that they sell out every year. Good news: this week, Dolphin Studio is launching a Print Club, where you get a new print either every month or every other month. They come with a frame, so you can rotate your favorites; and you can hang them on the wall or display on a table. I’d LOVE to put these in our kitchen. You can only join once a year, from January 28th to February 1st, so sign up here, if you’d like. (I already did:)
Last week, I asked for chocolate dessert recommendations for my birthday, and this community really came through. “How about Ina Garten’s viral brownie pudding?” suggested a reader named Elizabeth. Added Julia: “I was about to suggest this brownie pudding, too! I made it for my spouse’s birthday, and it is DELICIOUS.” More readers agreed, and then Anon wrote a cute comment: “Speaking of Ina, my toddler once found my old Barefoot Contessa cookbook, and I discovered him licking the page with the chocolate dessert.”
My twin sister is also celebrating her birthday this Saturday, so the boys and I went to Haricot Vert, a very cool charm store in Brooklyn, and picked out 10 charms that felt like her — including hiking boots, a space shuttle (she went to Space Camp as a kid!), and the jam she always has in her fridge. Can’t wait for the necklace to arrive at her house. xoxo
What have you been into lately? Any good shows, books, recipes, or finds? xoxo
P.S. More fun things, and 12 readers share their favorite birthday celebrations.
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97 commentsI recently painted my guest bedroom Templeton Pink (Farrow and Ball) and I cannot get over how warm and inviting it is. It brightened up the room tremendously, giving it a lot of character, but also not being too pink (which is a color I don’t tend to like). It has a terracotta undertone and everyone that comes to my house or stays in the room is raving about it.
Am listening to the audiobook of “I Cheerfully Refuse”…it is much darker than I imagined but because the narrator sounds like your retired, brilliant grandpa, I keep listening. Also for the writing. The clarity of the writer is extraordinary and I am savoring that. I will be looking up all his work just so I can wallow in his use of words. Such excellence. TV: I am waiting for the next season of Silo and Murder Bot and really hope they release a new season of Foundation. I wish there was a new season of reality show, Alone. Movies…meh?
I loved “I Cheerfully Refuse”! Very dark, but I felt a lot of hope at the end! Worth sticking with.
It’s so neat to see that Aquarius charm. It looks exactly like the ones me and my young teen friends got in the 70s from our little hometown jeweler in our small town, downtown. Mine is Aries. Looked just like the one in this post. I still have my bracelet. One charm was a clarinet and another a four-leaf clover. Wish I remembered the rest. It’s here somewhere. Anyway, cool the zodiac one hasn’t changed in 55 years.
Watched Heated Rivalry and read the book and its sequel. She’s writing a third Shane and Ilya book now! I’m about to start Heart the Lover, and I hope it’s as amazing as Writers and Lovers. I’m late to the game, but I started The Morning Show and got hooked. Starting season four this weekend. Loving all the paint advice. This house needs a refresh and I’m sick of white and gray walls!!
I’ll be honest, I just finished Heat the Lover and I did not like it. It didn’t work for me and the beats that were supposed to be meaningful just felt fleeting.
My bedroom has east and south facing windows, so is very sunny and warm feeling. My wall color is Hint of Violet and I absolutely love it. It is just a taste of lilac and the color changes a lot throughout the day! Feels very akin to your soft pink color but I think pink would be *too* pink in my very sunny room.
I painted my bedroom this deep inky indigo blue a few years back and decorated it with gold framed prints of Japanese tapestries. I can’t imagine ever changing it. It is romantic and cozy. At Christmas, my husband and I hang blue twinkle lights and leave them up till the Spring equinox. Magic.
Although my mother and I had a fraught relationship, I inherited her vintage jewelry including a fine double chain 14K gold charm bracelet with many charms. Although it was a bit small and uncomfortable for me to wear, I did collect three charms that meant a lot to me. I ended up selling the bracelet (thank you eBay) and buying a lovely paperclip chain necklace from my jeweler. He put the charms on the necklace and now I wear it all the time and love it. At first, I thought I might feel guilty, but I am enjoying the necklace so much more than the bracelet that I think I did the right thing. I hope your sister gets as much happiness from her charm necklace as I am getting from mine.
I love dark and moody in magazines, but for my own living space I want light and airy. So I painted most of the house, including my bedroom, a pale robin’s egg blue. When I sit at the kitchen table I feel like I’m sitting in the sky. It’s freezing where I live, so my weekend will be spent eating only the coziest of foods. Casserole here I come!
Mmmm, what kind of casserole, pray tell? I only grew up with lasagna and a thing I call potato bake: which is like a quiche without the egg or cheese (grown up me is a lifelong vegetarian). It has potato, mushroom and spinach, basically.
Patiently waiting for my Heated Rivalry charms from Haricot Vert…what a lovely, thoughtful gift for your sister!
So, my bestie from the 5th grade and I go back in time about once a month- we go to my parent’s house that literally hasn’t changed since they moved in in 1985 and we order take-out and watch TV in the basement and giggle and pretend we’re kids again. But I have to say, the HIGHLIGHT last night was watching Heated Rivalry…. OMG! https://www.hbomax.com/shows/heated-rivalry/50cd4e99-04ee-427b-a3b4-da721ed05d9c
This is the happiest thing I have ever heard. Thank you for sharing this joy <3
Farrow and Ball’s Setting Plaster is the perfect color – I have to resist the urge to paint every single room in my house that color. Pink but not too pink, neutral but not bandaid, complements so many other colors to make an unexpected but cohesive palette. The best!
Piggybacking – I thought I would love Setting Plaster in our bedroom based on the zillion inspiration photos I saved, but it’s a large space and our windows are shaded by trees, so it looked oddly dark and drab. I then tried Pink Ground and it was EXACTLY what I was looking for – a warm, surprisingly neutral pink that feels enveloping and cozy (especially as we painted the ceiling the same color – I hate lying in bed and staring at a blank swath of white!) and not at all childish. If you have a darker or larger bedroom and Setting Plaster seems like too much, try Pink Ground!
Coming here to echo commenter below! My bedroom is northern facing and I thought setting plaster would be perfect, but it appeared too dark and brown for the vibe I was after. Pink ground was a better color for the space! Definitely get the test pots from F&B!
I too have loved painting my bedrooms a creamy pink, through three different houses. But it didn’t work at all in our current home and the difference seems to be that all the other houses were on an east-west axis and the light worked great with the paint. For the first time, I have north facing bedrooms, with a lot of trees outside and the soft creamy pink just looked muddy. Such a lesson in light interacting with paint!
This is me, exactly! Try F&B’s pink ground. It looks beautiful with northern light.
A fun thing for my family has been–hear me out–Beast Games season 2! I am not a fan of Mr. Beast (and have literally never watched any of his YouTube videos) but the show is a fun, family-friendly watch and definitely sparks a lot of conversation because it’s kind of a big social experiment. Also I’m so happy that Shrinking is back! That show is pure joy for me. I just started the novel That’s Not How It Happened and I’m really enjoying it–it’s by the creator of How I Met Your Mother and it’s really fun/funny so far.
I am forever obsessed with the yellow walls in GrossyPelosi’s bedroom! It’s just so sunny and warm! https://www.instagram.com/p/DFsxI1uuMYS/?img_index=2
I love his house so much, since I saw it featured here first. It is just perfect.
I just finished Theo of Golden, LOVED it.
Speaking of the child licking Ina’s cookbook photos……a friend of mine once discovered her nine year old son had erased all the bras in the Sears catalogue. When pressed he admitted he only wanted to see the boobs underneath. I mean, whaddyado, scold him for wrecking the catalogue? It kind of made perfect sense!
hahahahahaha
I absolutely love that picture and frame!
I’d love to see a photo of Lucy wearing the necklace, I’d like to make one for my sister too :)
Especially loved these four fun things this round. Or maybe my gratitude receptors are fully charged at this moment in time. I’m currently reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and I highly recommend. Meyers are ready so hoping to make the time to try a lemon meringue pie recipe over the weekend. If it turns out well I hope to share a slice with all of you.
I juuuust finished The Safekeep and it was beautiful. Steamy and gripping, it was just the book I needed. I am in the midst of my annual winter blues so a good book goes a long way!
TV show recommendations: Tehran (Apple TV) for suspenseful leave-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat episode endings, Night Manager (Prime) for espionage intrigue, and Gilded Age (HBO Max) for a fun low stakes period drama
I love four favorite things the most. It’s a delightful tidbit to get me through the tail end of the week. I am keenly looking at all the paint suggestions. I am looking for something for two small bedrooms, one for me and one for a teenage boy. I’m such a green fan and might lean that way for mine.
For a less uterus pink, but slightly warmer than Calamine, Rose Accent by Benjamin Moore is really nice.
Hahahahaha
Hubs once wanted to buy me a new white car with an ENTIRELY red interior….think: faux red crushed velvet. I told him it made me feel like I was sitting inside a uterus. We did not purchase that car…..
Hahahaha I remember seeing Jo describe her bedroom as “like a womb” before and thought to myself, hmm. I don’t think I want my bedroom to remind me of a uterus but okey dokey!
Our bedroom is painted Sherwin Williams Redend Point, it’s a beautiful earthy mauve/taupe that reads pinker in some light and browner in others. I love it so much, we also painted our living room the same color. It’s kind of moody and cozy but not too dark at all.
My room is a color called Sooty Lashes by Valspar (I think!). It’s a deep deep violet grey on this side of black. I have problems sleeping so like the room as dark as possible and have navy black out curtains but a mustard quilt and mustard bed lights. A lacquer painting of primitive angels in shades of green and teal and black and gold hangs opposite my bed. I also have a small yellow Buddha and a teal Buddha statue under the painting. My room is the calmest looking one in my house and I love it. It sounds like a lot of color but it all flows together into a sense of calm.
That sounds so beautiful!
That bedroom photo is so dreamy (as is yours, Joanna!). And what a fun necklace for Lucy!
for bedroom paint color: Benjamin Moore Glass Slipper
Love Glass Slipper! It’s the color in my pantry. It’s a grown up, sophisticated pale blue with just a hint of gray undertone to avoid it looking like a nursery (although it would be beautiful as a nursery too)
Glass Slipper forever! It was my first born’s nursery color after I saw it in a bedroom with a skylight. Perfection.
I’m reading Rabih Alameddine’s THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER), and how did it take me so long to read his fiction? He’s been such a reliably magnificent follow on social media for so many years that in my head I thought of him as “excellent presence in my feed” versus “author whose phrases I’d like to stuff in my mouth all at once like marshmallow peeps, if peeps were vegetarian-friendly,” and that was a shortcoming on my part. https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-true-true-story-of-raja-the-gullible-and-his-mother/ It’s especially lovely as a way to recover from the book I read immediately prior to this one; someone whose name rhymes with Shmet Feastin’ Trellis should pack it in, whew. My apartment building has a giveaway pile in the laundry room and I found a really demonic-looking Lafufu there a week ago; I was still thinking about its weird little face when I was finished folding all my clothes, so I went back and grabbed it, steeped it in boiling water and Woolite (which made it look like a sewer rat), and have been carrying it around in my purse and startling myself every time I rummage for my keys ever since. I have named it Vienna, as Shmet’s novel mentioned the Ultravox song “Vienna” over and over again in lieu of character development, and I imagine the Lafufu singing something similar: “IT MEANS NOTHING TO ME / THIS MEANS NOTHING TO ME / OH, VIENNA” in the most ’80s-tastic manner imaginable. Aside, I would wear every single look in that music video with gusto. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJeWySiuq1I
Interesting. Karl Ove Knaussgaard’s newly translated The Night School also references Ultravox and Vienna. Love that song.
I am a few weeks postpartum (I had twins myself), & I know I’m tired because I read the comment about it also being your twin sister’s birthday & thought ‘wow! That’s crazy that Joanna & her twin have the same birthday!’ 😂
Makes sense to me! My twins are 11 years old now and I’m here to say that I have very little memory of their first year beyond being tired, the first time they smiled at me, and the first time the slept through the night! But twins are the best.
Postpartum thoughts are a whole different universe!
LOL Katrina!
Too funny! Congratulations on your babies! Hope you can catch some rest.
We will need a photo of Lucy wearing the necklace…….;)
My mom made me brownie pudding for my birthday every year of my childhood, and I haven’t had it in so long! She died two years ago, so I’m thinking I’ll make Ina’s version for my birthday next month to feel her presence and to share that piece of my relationship with her with my kids.
A lovely way to keep her close. <3
I’ve just been reminded, having not thought of this in decades, that I wanted to go to space camp so desperately as a kid!!! Lucky Lucy! :)
I just finished reading Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. It’s over 1300 pages, but it’s a real page turner.
That‘s on my list next! I have loved Cutting for Stone.
It’s such a beautiful book!!! Sped through it, despite the size!
We just painted our bedroom Dutch Tile Blue by Sherwin Williams, and I love it so much! It’s light enough that it doesn’t make the room feel darker or overwhelmingly blue, but it’s dark enough to feel cozy and saturated. It’s just a really nice balance of being sophisticated and colorful.
Eeeek that’s my comment about my toddler! He stayed home sick earlier this week from preschool, and we set out to bake it but didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand. So we made these, and they were delicious!! Cocoa powder was EVERYWHERE https://www.loveandlemons.com/brownies-recipe/
Wow, that bedroom canopy! Pulls the entire room together. So feminine. Over 30 years, I have applied 11 diff paint shades of green to walls throughout our home including the fireplace brick. The main bedroom is accented with sage green. Greens shades are def my language. What a beautifully keepsake made with those charms. Happy birthday plans for you both! Baked, https://sugaredandstirred.com/espresso-loaf-with-icing/ Should you color a tad outside the chocolate lines, this mocha loaf is so good and the thick drizzle takes it over any mocha loving heart. MOIST and best served with Starbucks coffee ice cream. CoJ book rec’s, The Water Lies and Dear Debbie were both fast paced thrillers I zipped thru. Just started the novel, Dream State, Hoopla’s digital library has been surprisingly current. Apple tv, Shrinking S3 began, cameos galore! Joy & giggles. Read Ted Lasso IS returning this year. And, Hubs mentioned that Peaky Blinders has a new season coming soon AND a spin-off series. Went houseplant hunting. All the deep burgundy colored leafy gems made the cart. There’s a new (free or paid) streaming service, https://www.thenetwork.stream
I looooved Dream State!!
I just painted my bedroom “artistic taupe” by Sherwin Williams last weekend. Perfect pinkish purple warm neutral, and looks different throughout the day in a South facing room.
I’m about to paint my office artistic taupe! I agonized over the colors so this comment is such a great omen!
I went to Space Camp too! It’s always my ‘one fun thing about me’ in dreaded corporate icebreakers.
I love that :)
Space Camp is such a highlight of my childhood. Every one I’ve ever told has been jealous. And they should be. It was awesome. However great you think Space Camp it, it’s better (I had my first crush at Space Camp, I roomed with a group of Australian girls, and I got to be the space commander on our space mission).
I loved the movie, Space Camp, if that counts for anything! My day camp back in MA had the videocassette and we’d watch it on rainy days (at least 4 a summer)
I just picked up a bob wig to go to a dinner party in honor of Ina’s birthday. Brownie pudding is on the menu! I can’t wait to show up in a big denim shirt exclaiming ‘how easy is that?!’
oh my gosh, we need a photo, tenley!!
An friends daughter’s bachelorette weekend had an Ina theme…they all dressed like her!
I vote for pale yellow as a bedroom color. Feels extra sunny and you can do pops of bright color in the accessories, art, etc. Those charms are really cute but I can never figure out how to wear a bracelet without it knocking into things and making weird clacking sounds. How do people manage bracelets? (One of the many topics about being a grown-up lady that I have never figured out, haha!)
Same, Erin!! I get sensory overload from overly tinkly jewelry.
You can purchase silicone spacers for between each charm that keeps them more “ in place”.
I really love how charm necklaces are a thing now….wearing it around your neck isn’t too tinkly! Took my mom and sis to a charm bar after Christmas ( more the traditional charms…not the fun pictocharms) and got my mom hooked!
My bedroom is Benjamin Moore’s Mexican Tile, a sort of terracotta-pink blend, chosen after seeing it here in Porter Hovey’s house tour! https://cupofjo.com/2022/12/06/porter-hovey-home-immersive-paint/ It is magnificent: soothing, dark but sweet; we adore it and have used it other places in the house since. Our front hallway is this lush pink, too!
Dahlia! I think I have to start painting my apartment this weekend. What a fantastic color.
This a great colour, too!!
Our bedroom is a deep teal. We love it – grown up, a little sexy, dark enough to sleep in at night but still bright enough to not suffocate the room during the day. As for what we’re reading, the ALA announced its 2026 Awards, including the Newbery, Caldecott and more, on Monday. My kiddos and I were halfway through Daniel Nayeri’s “The Teacher of Nomad Land: A WWII Story”, which received a Newbery Honor, when they were announced. Well deserved: it is a beautiful contemplation about empathy, trauma, struggle, and compassion for a tween-ish audience. It felt like a necessary read right in our current cultural moment. (Disclosure: the first chapter punched me in the face, and I definitely ugly-cried reading it aloud. Still worth it.) Not really appropriate for my younger kiddos, but I’m super-pumped to read “Legendary Frybread Drive-In” which is a collection of stories from Indigenous YA authors and won a Printz. The chair called it “the equivalent of a literary hug” which I need bad right now. https://www.ala.org/news/2026/01/american-library-association-announces-2026-youth-media-award-winners
I was excited to hear these award winners, too! I put The Teacher of Nomad Land on hold at the library…I remember enjoying Nayeri’s “Everything Sad Is Untrue” several years ago. And I was super excited to see The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest named as a Newbery Honor book…my 10 yo daughter and I really enjoyed it this fall!
I’ve had the worst cold for the last two weeks, but I found Barefoot Contessa on our Roku and it’s been such a comforting binge watch!
We just painted our bedroom BM Kensington Green, which I learned about from a house tour here! I loved it so much I wanted it in my home. It was actually supposed to be in our back bedroom, but the painter got mixed up and accidentally painted our primary bedroom in that color! But it all worked out because I love it so much – perfect for lots of sunlight that our bedroom gets and I love waking up to so much color after spending my whole life in houses with only white walls.
We painted a bedroom Benjamin Moore First Light, and it is my favorite for embracing the morning sunrise (and a soft pink, like you described). Highly recommend!
The necklace is such a gift! How lovely to be known and loved that way…
I love a warm, soft pink but for some reason whenever I hear the “it feels like a womb” comparison it makes me scrunch my face. Heebyjeebies!
hahaha I love it but I also love the word moist
Same, Julie!
Hahahaha me too. My mind automatically subs out womb for uterus. “Feels like a uterus.”
Same, Julie! It also makes me feel VERY claustrophobic. I’m completely unbothered by “moist” and “buttery soft” (which I learned from this comments section is a big one for some people!) but “feels like a womb” and “potty” give me major heebiejeebies. Brains are so wild.
I made a snacking cake this afternoon – a depression cake (so called because it was invented during the great depression when it was hard to get milk and eggs) – which has been my favourite chocolate cake since I was a child (also for those who are vegan or have dairy/egg allergies it is completely vegan friendly). Highly recommend having a snacking cake on hand for your week, it really does brighten up the day having that to look forward to as an afternoon treat. But in terms of what I am reading/watching/loving this week; Reading Anna Karenina for the first time with my bookclub (we are reading the first four sections this month, the rest in Feb) and enjoying it far more than I thought I would. It’s the first piece of Russian literature I’ve properly read. Watching The West Wing with my husband, we’re about 20+ years late to the show but in our defense we were kids when it came out (but loving it thus far. It is nice to slip into a television scape where democracy is enshrined and there is funny/smart people working in the white house). And loving the dark grey lord and taylor cashemere cardigan I thrifted recently, it is all I want to wear this winter.
AK is my FAVORITE book of all time!! The psychological realism is so amazing! It’s one of the few books where the changing. contradictory and shifting thoughts in a person’s mind are so accurately portrayed. So masterful!
Andrea, that is one of the things I’ve been enjoying as well, the psychological realism within the novel. I said to someone recently that the book is like ‘reading gossip about people in the 19th c- its very juicy’ – a excellent look into how humans are so contradictory, complex and a little ridiculous and maddening at times.
Wait, what? Now Lucy is going to know what you got her for her birthday!
I texted her not to read it!
Haha Ive wondered the same! Does she listen? My sister would peek
Ha! I buy very few things to my sisters without running it by them first. They always at least know the categories in advance
Hahahaha – I had the same thought/worry!
Our bedroom is a very light mint green and it’s so soothing. My kids have made 2 boxes of brownies in the last couple days (one with walnuts, one without). I don’t know what it is about brownie mix, but our family of 6 wiped out both pans the day they were made. Thankfully for my waistline, we don’t have any more boxes in the pantry.
The first time I slept over at my now-husband’s house, the first thing I clocked in the morning is that his bedroom was beautiful soothing shade of green. I assumed it had been there when he moved in but nope, he’d picked it out and painted it! And we were so young, most guys our age definitely were not painting their bedrooms! I feel like I started to fall in love with him for his calming taste and dedication to making his space feel good.