Here you go: Orange Scented Chocolate Almond Bark 1 pound chocolate (I use 42% semi sweet) Approx. 1 scant tsp. finely grated orange peel or a few drops of orange essential oil 2 cups roasted almonds*, very coarsely chopped - reserve a tsp. or 2 very finely chopped nuts for dusting Approx. 1 tsp. flaked sea salt (optional) Directions: Line a large cooky sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, heat the chocolate, stirring until it is mostly melted; do not let the bowl touch the water. Add the orange peel and stir until the chocolate is completely melted & smooth. Do not overheat. Stir the prepared nuts into the chocolate, mixing well, and turn out onto the lined baking sheet, spreading in a 1/2-inch-thick layer. Sprinkle with the reserved finely chopped nuts & then the sea salt, crushing the salt flakes as you sprinkle them on. Refrigerate the pan with the bark on it for about 20-30 minutes, until hardened. Remove the bark from the parchment paper, break into pieces and store in the fridge or serve at once. * other nuts may be used instead of almonds To Roast Nuts: Preheat oven to 350F Spread whole nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet or pan. Bake for 5 minutes, then stir and bake for another 5 minutes. Check for color. If nuts are still not done, stir & bake an additional 1-2 minutes at a time until golden brown. Check often, since nuts can burn quickly! To remove skins, place slightly cooled nuts in a clean, dry towel, gather the towel around the nuts & rub vigorously. Skins should come off, but if they don’t, it’s OK. Cool & chop as desired.

I'm laughing because my "editor genes" haven't left me since I retired; they've just slowed down. I woke up this morning with the realization that I may have typed "reign" instead of "rein" in a post I wrote two days ago. It's a common mistake that always jumps out at me when other people do it, but then I went and did it myself. Correction made. Not to worry, Nutsaboutplants--I'm still absorbed in the book. I did move it downstairs, and I actually want to finish it quickly. I'm interested enough to want to know how it ends, but I find it disturbing. It's an unsettling book.

I think you have done a great job with the space and configuration that you have. There are things that could have been done better, but you didn't know what you didn't know. You can beat yourself up for not knowing, but that is water under the bridge. Focus on building a home filled with love and creating wonderful memories for you and your family. The smallest home I lived in was a 2 br, 1 bath, 600 square foot bungalow that I lived in with my husband, my niece, 3 dogs and 2 cats. We had no garage or basement or attic storage. We also were young and just starting out and had no money, but we had each other and we had friends and I have wonderful memories from that time of my life. We lived there for 9 years. As the years passed my niece moved back to PA. (I grew up in PA and moved to Southern California in my early 20s). My husband and I moved to a much larger, much nicer home. Two people living in 1700 sf with a 2 car garage! It had huge windows, a nice yard and was light and bright. I loved my home and had built a wonderful network of friends, but still missed my family in PA. My husband loved his job and was quite successful I ran a small business that I loved. It brought in a good second income, but I was working with animals and providing services to people who were disadvantaged, homeless, terminally ill . . . It was more about the fulfillment of the work than the money. With his income I could travel to PA 2 or three times a year and spend a month/6 weeks with my family and I was good with this. Life was pretty darn good. Then my husband lost his job and fell into a deep, chronic depression. He couldn't function, couldn't work, couldn't do anything. I had to get two additional jobs to make enough money to pay our bills. I decided that I couldn't keep up this pace forever and decided to go back to school and get my IT certifications as a network engineer and DBA. For two years I ran my business, managed road shows for Costco, worked as a merchandizer for Red Star Yeast and went to school full time. I'd fall asleep while eating dinner or taking a bath, sometimes I'd doze off if I had to stop at a red light. I had no time for anything or anyone. I had no life and I had a husband that was angry at me for not spending time with him, angry at my success and spiraling down into deeper and deeper bouts of depression. Turns out that being happy had nothing to do with having a bigger or nicer house.

@Diana K the article link was just for a reference to the excerpt in my previous post that said a dark cool color would be "awesome" in a south-facing room. The dark blue-greens you have been favoring are exactly what THAT professional feels would be "awesome". A lot of the advice given in many articles that discuss the effects of natural and artificial light on paint colors do indeed assume everyone on the planet must have pastel or neutral or some version of grey or beige. Your Malted Milk is in that class of colors, but your other colors seem strong enough to stand on their own. I likewise find the pale-centric advice frustrating. Why should those of us who like bold colors have to work so hard to translate? I was just trying to say that there are opposing viewpoints out there. I think that's why it all comes down to seeing the stickies in the room and with the lighting you hope to have. @elcieg can you please be more specific about this statement? "For instance the green and aqua have yellow undertone. South light is going to do mean things to it." Do you mean that south light has yellow in it so that any blue will look more green, and green will look yellow-green? "Mean" doesn't translate for me. I have a north-facing room that washes everything with blue light and the blues look more intense, so I get that. And my east-facing room gets pink light in the morning so pinks are nice in there. My west-facing rooms get orange light. My south facing rooms get green but only because the light is filtered through trees. Can you help explain "mean" in terms of light colors?