You probably didn't plant the hosta upside down--you certainly would have noticed that at the time! A more likely scenario is that you have a neighborhood squirrel population, and one of them saw you planting the hostas, and decided to check to see if you had hidden a nut in the hole. In digging around for the nonexistent nut, the helpful little squirrel overturned the hosta, and having very minimal horticultural skills, simply left it that way. This is a routine occurence in my gardens, now that I no longer have a cat that will go up in the trees and chase down the squirrels. I find it prudent to water new plantings in thoroughly, then go back the next day to replant the ones the squirrels have upended. They don't ever eat the hosta, just toss is to one side or flip it over. As long as you get to the plant in a timely fashion and plant it again immediately, it is unlikely to suffer any damage. Sounds like your hosta may have sat upside down for a while, but if you soak it in water for a couple of hours, replant and keep it well watered, it should be fine.

I've had a lot of great opportunities and experiences. Not all are things that could only be done "once in a lifetime" but I'd say that there are many things that just don't have the same impact the second time around.. or at another point in our lives. I had the opportunity to live in South Africa as an exchange student in the very early 80s. I was on the eastern coast and watched dolphins in the ocean from my classroom window, hiked the drakensburg mountains, saw many different sides of the beautiful and pained country, and had afternoon tea with Alan Paton (author of Cry, The Beloved Country-- which was the reason I chose RSA as my host country). In many ways, I was far too young for such a great experience. I would like to return one day but it will never have the same impact. The country is changing and my world view has changed. As a recent college grad, I received a full scholarship for a PhD program at a university in a very academically focused region of the country. I ended up dropping out of the program but the experience was incredible-- just living in an area with so very many interesting, intelligent and academically-focused folks was exhilarating. It was also a very self-indulgent phase of my life. Yes, there were great demands on my time as it was a highly competitive program -- but the luxury of a scholarship w/stipend allowed me to focus only on my studies and my outside interests. I was surely on a small budget lol.. but it was one of the happiest times of my life. At that same time, I had a boyfriend whose family had a large cottage on an island in Lake Winnepausakee. Our bedroom window opened up to a beautiful view of Mount Washington. A simple experience-- but one that has stuck with me. We spent many weekends and breaks in that home-- where our days were planned around grand meals cooked in the simple, vintage kitchen. We percolated coffee on the stove, made scones, french bread and pasta from scratch, collected morels in the woods. I was blessed with many wonderful meals and memories. There are a number of experiences I've had on trips that I surely COULD do again but probably won't. Mtnrd mentioned the SF Opera which is one of my favorite travel memories-- located in the high desert, the roof of the amphitheater was retracted to allow the starry blue night to serve as the backdrop and ceiling. I can't put into words how very breathtaking it was. One that stands out for a number of reasons is being present when my youngest nephew was born. My BIL had just had back surgery and while he was in the room with my sister-- but he was in a hospital bed. I was to jump in and take over as birth partner. Truth is, I was a terrible birth partner. I was paralyzed as labor progressed-- and while she had a VERY short labor/delivery, it was horrifying for me to watch. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a miracle.. and surely the birth of my nephew was extraordinary, but it was one of the most UNnatural things I've ever witnessed lol! The family joke is that my sis forgot the pain in seconds.. and it scarred me for life. :) What's my next YOLO? Not sure. I plan to start a business in the next 5 yr. I'd like to travel to Sweden to meet my extended family. I'd like to do an extended language immersion/cooking trip. But here's the thing with YOLO's.. you don't always get to plan them well in advance, you never know what opportunities are around the corner. :)

Geraldine, I've done pretty much any kind of fiddling with stitches there is. It's amazing what you can hide if you work at it. Disclaimer - That doesn't apply to dead bodies!!

Yes, 2littlefishies kitchen is inspiring. The difference I see between what she did and what we're thinking of is that her oven cabinet picks up on the color of the cabinets next to it. For ours, the color would be a stand-alone hue next to wood cabinets. This seems...trickier. I'm hoping balancing it with a same colored hutch on the other side of the room would help. Looking at houzz for 2 tone kitchens was helpful. Thanks crl. Nice job on your kitchen, Otterkill. That was a really creative way to repurpose the desk area. : ) Ahh, Rhome's kitchen. Thanks for the reminder of hers, GreenDesigns. I like how her ovens blend with the cabinets adjacent to them. That's a good example of a multi color kitchen. Wow, cilantro, I didn't know Wolf had their own cabinets. Those are interesting. Some of those are quite fancy! I searched through David T. Smith kitchen images on Google as well as Smallbone and Plain English looking for inspiration. A lot of the images seem to be protected so that I couldn't put them in my photobucket, so I collected them into a Pinterest board instead, which I've linked below. There is one in particular that is a combo of maple, cream and green that comes close to the color combos I was thinking of doing. (I wish I could see the other side of the kitchen to know if there's a wall oven hiding over there.) David T. Smith's designs are interesting, too. But, many of them read somber and sometimes "dirty" to me, as can some of the primitive style decorating. (Prim is live and kickin' in our area.) I happen to like country, and it would be appropriate to our house and location, but I don't want our kitchen to read dark or dirty. With our kitchen facing north, I also don't want it to feel cavelike. DH's original suggestion was to a black oven cabinet to offset the weight of the black fridge, but...again, that might be too dark. Our cabs have some black lines to shade the shadow lines, so black looks incredible with them, though. The layout is included on the pinboard. If anyone wants to check it out and share more thoughts, I'd appreciate it. Thank you all for your input! Here is a link that might be useful: Pin board: Design around wall ovens, multi color kitchens