Ok so I'm painting the window again (the one in my apartment, the north-facing one, I've done it maybe nine times now and my partner has stopped asking why) and I've been fighting dry patches all week because I keep getting distracted and letting the paper dry unevenly. Anyway. I saw this tiny spray bottle at the pharmacy for like four dollars, the kind people decant perfume into, and now I just mist the paper before every wash and honestly the difference is absurd for the money. Mist, wait a beat, then lay the color in. That's it.

The annoying thing is I know this is a thing people have been doing forever, like it's in every book, but I never did it because I thought I needed the fancy mister and the fancy paper and the whole setup. Turns out no. Four dollars.

Also my desk is currently a disaster. Six dried-out pans I keep saying I'll re-wet, a mug from yesterday's tea, three color tests of the exact same grey-blue, and one mechanical pencil I've had since undergrad that I will genuinely grieve when it dies. What's the cheapest thing in your kit that ended up mattering way more than it should