Everything you need to know.....

.....You can find out from a waiter.

What? What is that you say?

Richard taught me this early in our relationship. He treats waitstaff in restaurants like gold. He is kind, polite and tips well. When he jokes with female staff he never ever comes off creepy or skeevy. He told me early on in our relationship that waiters know everything.

I have seen the truth. When we visited Nova Scotia and PEI a couple of summers ago we befriended a great waiter at a sweet Irish-style pub across the street from our hotel. If we wanted to know where the best sights were, where to shop and where to eat, we asked him. The lovely lady at Cora's Breakfast and Lunch told us where to find the best lobster dinner on PEI. (New Glasgow Lobster Suppers, if you are curious)

Anyway, Richard proved himself right yet again.

Yesterday I went to the paint store to ponder my options. I had green on my mind. A bright, leafy sagey green for my living room and dining room. I picked up the paint chips and then moseyed down the block to my favourite coffee shop. I had left one of Matthew's bottles there the previous week and needed to pick it up. It wasn't busy so I chatted with the owner about our decorating plans. I showed her my colours and told her about the other colours in my house. She pointed out that lilac, yellow, and green would make my house look like and Easter egg. She then drew my attention to the fact that one of the greens I picked out looked kind of like a colour you would see in a hospital. I looked again. She was right. I picked out a colour usually only seen on surgical scrubs. I couldn't get that image out of my mind. I went back to the paint store. I bought a gallon of something called Pink Peppercorn. It is the colour of chocolate milk.

I tried a test patch on my dining room wall. You can see the lemony yellow next to it and it is lovely. It reminds me of sunflowers. My kitchen does evoke an Easter egg when you see the lilac and yellow together, but I can live with that.

So, if you ever need advice on anything, just ask the proprietor of a coffee shop or a waiter. Rest assured they will be right.

EDITED TO ADD: The lemony yellow I am talking about? It's in my kitchen. I realized that I didn't mention that. So. Kitchen: Yellow. Front Entranceway and Powder room: Lilac. Living Room and Dining Room: Chocolate Milk brown.

I told Richard that the coffee shop owner picked the brown and he didn't look surprised.