A.rosbrook

When I say that this is my favorite space that I have ever created, there is no exaggeration.  I thought that I was ready to dust my hands off and walk away after my living room reveal, but I mean, how Mandilicious is that?  Not Mandilicious at. all. folks.   As I have mentioned before, creating a kids room that you both will enjoy can be super hard.  If you let them be involved, you are guaranteed to end up with a few roadblocks…such as kangaroos (I mean, kangaroos? When she said that I giggled like an idiot for about 30 minutes.)  Here is the interview with Dylan, just so you guys who are new can see just how sparkly this little child is. (Just a warning, she is so sparkly that you will need sunscreen.)

When Sherwin Williams gave me the color Pink for National Painting Week the whole Dylan’s Dream Room process began.  And just because I cant get enough of showing you guys the HORRIBLE condition of the house when we bought it (this is the MLS listing) here is the BEFORE before.  Hope you have a tetanus shot.

Then the room went to this.   This was one of the first rooms that I redid when I started Vintage Revivals almost 3 years ago.

And THEN (sheesh this is like the song that never ends!) I painted everything white.  And it was great.  But there was none of Dylan’s flair for life in this room at.all.

So now that you are up to speed I am THRILLED to show you how the room turned out.  I worked for 3 weeks straight on this space (because I pretty much did it twice,  but that is another post for next week.) When you are creating a space for someone you love so much, its so easy to put your heart completely into it.  I showed you the color palette Dylan picked out, and this is how we incorporated so many colors into one space.

Each color was used on the far right hexagon and then diluted with white paint to ombre it out (pretend that is a legit term ok folks?)

If you watched Dylan’s video you know that pink and puppies were the things that she talked about the very most.  So how could I not make a pink puppy feature wall?  We are hoping that with a guardian bulldog she will actually want to sleep in her room now…please pray.

From our door to Paris with one layover, we had about 14 hours of travel time. I'm a multiple mini-meals lady, so one cardboard box of vegetarian mush on the flight over wasn't going to cut it for the whole stretch. Per request, I wanted to share a typical travel snack pack. I keep a few things in mind when packing food for the road/air. Bear with the stream of consciousness.

First off, food will likely be at room temperature for a few hours so choose items that are alright to be out awhile. This covers most vegetarian options, but worth saying. Those foods should have a good constitution - greens that hold up dressed, like kale or a broccoli salad, rice or noodle bowls packed with vegetables and sauce, wraps or sandwiches with lots of crunchy items inside. I try to keep the choices lower in salt (planes keep you puffy as is). While I am all about reusuable containers on a normal basis, storing food in plastic bags or disposable containers (I steal these from salad bars and tuck them away for circumstances like this) are easiest here. Something you don't mind throwing away or recycling. Lastly, bring an empty reusable water bottle and fill it up past the security check. Sure you get water on the plane, but I like to drink more than that wimpy cupfull once or twice a flight. It's nice to have throughout the trip as well. I loved Sarah of My New Roots recent post about travel foods too. It reminded me that I forgot to make these peanut butter bites.

This likely sounds high maintenance to a few of you, but it is totally worth the few moments of planning ahead to have fresh, light food while traveling. I went to bed at 2am the night prior but at least I had good snacks! Hugh would never take the time to pack food, but appreciates it greatly when the pretzels and peanuts have worn their welcome. Minimal bit of time invested, big reward.

My backpack full of snacks:

kale salad: chopped lacinato kale, hard boiled eggs, parmesan, thinly sliced celery and lemon vinaigrette (extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, white of a scallion, honey, salt and pepper)

summer rolls: recipe to follow

"favorite things" trail mix: roasted/salted pistachios, montmorency dried cherries, dark chocolate chips, toasted coconut flakes

maple chocolate chip cookies: I'll post this recipe eventually, good heavens. A version of these.

good greens bars: these are the emergency snack. Most "energy bars" are full of lots of soy and crap. These have the most virtuous list I've seen. Not my first choice of whole foods focused snacks, but they don't take up a lot of space and plug up hunger when you've gone through your fresh items.

sturdy fruit: apples, bananas, oranges

SPICY LENTIL SUMMER ROLLS // Makes 6

I made these the late afternoon before leaving, and everything held up fine a full day later. I did not pack a dipping sauce. As you can see my snack bag was quite full as it was, and I have had sauce taken by security (what is my life?) but a peanut sauce would be so tasty if you aren't dining on an airplane.

I made used the end of my homemade sriracha, but the bottled sort works great too. Carrots and beets were the last vegetables in my fridge, a combination of sprouts, cucumber, lettuce or sweet peppers would be great here depending what you have.

• 6 rice paper wraps (you can typically find these in the asian section of well stocked markets)
• 1/2 cup cilantro sprigs
• 1 1/4 cup grated carrots
• 1 1/4 cup grated beets
• 1 large avocado
• 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils
• 1-2 Tbsp. sriracha (see note above)
• 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
• pinch of salt

Set up your roll workspace. You need a large bowl of warm water and a damp dish towel to work on. Set out your cilantro, carrots, beets, avocado and in a small mixing bowl, combine the cooked lentils with siracha, sesame oil and pinch of salt. Taste and adjust heat as desired. Remember this is what flavors the entire roll.

Working one roll at a time. Put the wrap flat into the large bowl of warm water, being careful to not let it curl up, until soft, about one minute. Lay the wrap down on the dish towel. Down the center, like a burrito, layer the cilantro, small handful of the carrots and beets, a few slices of avocado and a modest 1/4 cup of the lentils. Fold over the top and bottom ends over the filling, tuck the right flap over and then roll to close. Repeat with remaining wraps.

Enjoy or if traveling, store in plastic wrap for easy transport.