In a newsletter I got this morning from the Care2 website there was some advice about how to run a magical kitchen. Some of it's excellent advice, such as this:

2. Organize to meet your real needs. Take some time to think about what you need, enjoy, and want in your kitchen and then make it happen. For example, if you're a tea-drinker like me, you may want to keep mugs, teabags, and honey in one cabinet rather than in three different places, so all you have to do is open one door. And let your kitchen reflect your passions and beliefs by displaying artwork, quotes, or objects that are meaningful to you.

And also, to a certain extent, this:

3. Be willing to be wacky. Play and spontaneity are deeply nourishing, but many of us don't even consider having real FUN in the kitchen--instead, we feel drudgery descend like a thick fog the minute we set foot in it!

However, I feel deeply troubled by this next paragraph of advice, and I'm sure I can't be the only person who finds this scarily appalling. They say:

Liven things up by allowing yourself a little creative freedom: why not paint a magenta sun on your backsplash, or hang a rubber whale from the overhead light, or sew yards of fringe and rick-rack on an apron and wear it with pride.

A magenta sun on my backsplash. Yeah right. Do I look like the sort of person who paints any sort of sun on her splashback, let alone a magenta one?

And rick-rack. Fringing. STOPPIT STOPPIT STOPPIT.

I just don't understand why this so often happens. Why is it that the people who like to talk about good and interesting things like making a magical kitchen all too frequently let themselves down by have a leaning towards painting magenta suns on their splashback?

It's the patchouli oil, rainbow jumper syndrome gone mad.

Doesn't anyone realise that honestly, these things don't have to be synonmous?