This is NOT my kitchen. I know it is beautiful and it is very modern and quite fashionable right now, but it just could never be my kitchen. I need color–fashion be damned!

 THIS is my kitchen. I know–you thought it was a Mexican restaurant, but it is, indeed, my kitchen. On purpose. 

I have lived through a few houses and quite a few kitchens over the years and when we moved into this house ten years ago, when the white kitchen fashion was taking hold, I knew that my new kitchen would not be stylish and clean and sleek, but it would suit my personal kitchen aesthetic. It would be colorful and warm and spicy and it would have art and a lot of favorite things. Things like:

The ceramic light fixture I hand-carried from Ecuador, and the paintings of tropical fruit by my Ecuadoran son-in-law. . .

and this crazy little skeleton from Mexico . . .

and the painting of my old, long-gone dishes . . .

 and these wonderful tiles from a gallery in Ecuador (I am crazy about tiles!) . . .

and other souvenirs from here and there . . .

And maybe most important, the ceramic chickens my mother painted and had in her kitchen throughout my childhood.

 So, no sterile, white kitchens for me! When the theme of kitchen inspiration was proposed for our next round of quilts, I knew that my very own kitchen holds a lot of inspiration and is my favorite room in the house. It won’t be long before we reveal the results of our kitchen inspirations. Do you think these chickens inspired me???