I think I need to go back to Room and Board tomorrow and sit on all their dining room chairs. Kinda like Goldilocks.

Best of luck to Anna. Rough times.

I got to hold a week-old baby for a couple hours (and conveniently handed her back to her mom juuuust before she had a blowout on both ends! Timing!). And then lunch with my friend's husband, but drama with some work stuff he's here for meant I dropped him off right after.

My lats/shoulders are killing me, between the pole class and the baby-holding! You would not think those two things have much in common.

OK, I am just stuck. Really being indecisive about colors.

My old kitchen had white cabinets and floor, hideous brown counters, and paneling that I had painted a nice soft yellow, very cheerful but not too bright. The long wall of the kitchen is southwest-facing, and there are two windows, so it gets a lot of light.

The new kitchen will have a stained fir floor, probably medium-dark, blue lower cabinets, and probably white upper cabinets, with white/gray/beige quartz counters. But I cannot figure out what to do about the walls.

Do I go straight blue and white? Can I do yellow walls? Will the blue be too cold with just white, or would it be too busy with blue, white, and yellow all together? Should I go for cream instead?

Argh! This is SO HARD.

Was Temecula unbearably hot, Pix?

K left for Chicago this morning and I have spent the rest of my day doing things both ridiculous and productive. In the ridiculous column, I have put chair socks on our new table and chairs (well, technically just the chairs) because I'm tired of scratching the hell out of the floor. Productive? I have made the dough for the fig newton cookies as well as a lunch of cucumber salad, sticky rice and hoisin chicken. Nom.

My lats/shoulders are killing me, between the pole class and the baby-holding! You would not think those two things have much in common.

Yet it makes sense.

Consuela, I really love the blue and white, but it might be a pain to keep clean. Maybe grey instead of yellow? (But I like cool colors in general).

I would do yellow walls.

Yeah, I vote yellow. Three colors is fine. More than that can be busy, and cream might be weird with the counters or white cabinets?

I can't figure out if the floor and the sideboard (which is mission-style, oak finished) will be enough to keep the room from looking too cold. Benjamin Moore recommends this silver and this gray as complementary to the blue.

But they also recommend this green and this cream.

I'm tempted by the green and cream, but I think it might be too much color.

And is it appropriate to have the walls and cabinets the same colors? Maybe I could do blue lower cabinets, upper cabinets and walls cream, and then a green accent wall? Hmmm...

I have a lot of trouble judging new furniture. We always had station wagons, the better to bring antiques home in, and they might as well have had "I brake for antique stores" bumper stickers on them. My mother's passions were antiques, architecture and sewing. I bought my first antique furniture as a teenager with my saved allowance, and the only furniture I've bought new is bookshelves. Once new furniture gets above a certain price point, I start thinking, "But there's this [link] this [link] this [link] and this [link] Also, not a practical size, but droolworthy and a steal [link] I am aware that I'm not being helpful.

Wow, shrift, if you buy the art deco table, I'll happily borrow my sister's SUV and drive up to Pt Reyes Station with you to get it!

Ginger, I wish you could come with me to the Alameda Flea Market in October. It's only once per month, and I'm hoping to get my new dining room table there. I'm looking for a drop-leaf table that I can seat 6 at when opened, but will work just for me in the breakfast nook.