Happy List: #331
Hello and Happy Groundhog Day. I’m so glad you’re here for another round of the Happy List!
I am publishing this before the groundhog does his thing, but I’m really hoping spring is right around the corner.
This week on the blog I shared a round up of 10 thrift store treasures that have come home with me lately. It’s fun to add up the purchases to see if I’ve gotten a bang for my thrifting buck.
I also shared pictures of our new living room curtains. They are velvet and hang so nicely. Our living room has been a slow evolution. Don’t tell Handy Husband, but it’s going to keep evolving. Ha!
Once again, thank you for being here. Don’t be a stranger. We like talking to you! If you want to connect with us or ask a question, you can always comment on this blog post or send an email here. You can also reach out on Instagram or Facebook.
Enjoy this week’s Happy List!
SWINGS
How do you feel about swings in your kitchen? That’s probably a question you’ve never been asked.
I think it works in this barn-inspired home in Vermont where they have high ceilings and a big open space. Also, those are FANCY swings.
Go check out the photos in this New England Home article. I think you’ll enjoy the sliding barn doors by the pantry.
(image: Elise Sinagra for New England Home)
FOR THE BIRDS
In Argentina, workers replacing a utility pole discovered that woodpeckers had made a home in it. They decided to replace the utility pole and let the woodpeckers keep their home.
This is what they did.
(image: Gustavo Oscar Perusia via The Dodo)
Birds have been using this home for ten years now. If you need a big dose of good feelings, read more about this story here.
TEEN SLANG
Parents magazine published a really helpful list of teen slang that I encourage you to check out. I knew most of them because I have teens and drive middle school carpool. Lucky me.
However, there were a few texting terms that were eye-opening.
WINDOW TO THE WORLD
A wall of windows feels like the ultimate luxury to me. Love the combo of old and new in this home, which used to be a cow shed. I’d moo-ve right in.
See more photos of this home here.
(image: Montse Garriga Grau for House and Garden UK)
PHISTOMEPHEL RING
Have you heard of the Phistomephel Ring? It has to do with set equivalence theory and a property that’s found in every single Sud0ku puzzle.
Basically, the squares looping around the center square contain the same numbers as the four corners. When I watched this being explained, I was like, “WOAH!” That could have helped me solve some Sudoku puzzles.
This video explains it all. If the video doesn’t load, watch it here on YouTube.
VALENTINE’S DAY LETTER BOARDS
Pam from House of Hawthornes has THE BEST Valentine’s Day sayings for your letter boards or other uses if you like a little humor with your love. I do!
Go check out all her ideas here. It will give you a good laugh.
(image: House of Hawthornes)
MORNING SICKNESS
Anyone who has been pregnant and experienced morning sickness (or all day sickness) knows that it is ZERO fun. I was miserable for months. And why do some people get it so bad they have to be hospitalized and some don’t have morning sickness at all?
The BBC Science Focus is reporting that Dr Marlena Fejzo, a geneticist at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, has discovered an “association between women who suffered from severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (requiring intravenous fluids) and a variant in a gene coding for a protein named GDPF15, a hormone that acts on the brainstem.”
High levels of this hormone during pregnancy resulted in morning sickness. However, if women had preexposure to this hormone, they weren’t as sensitive to it during pregnancy and did not have morning sickness.
I’m crossing my fingers that this discovery will lead to my children’s generation suffering less during pregnancy.
P.S. Humans are the only mammals that get morning sickness. (source)
DID YOU KNOW?
I just learned that you can return opened makeup to Target if you don’t like it.
Is this a thing at all stores? It never dawned on me that you could use up half a bottle of something and then decide you don’t like it and return it.
I bought a $29 bottle of concealer at Target this week because I’ve been trying to figure out if there is a concealer that won’t cake up in your wrinkles. I know people spend a lot of money on makeup, but I’m a drugstore makeup kind of gal. $29 is SO MUCH MONEY to me for makeup, especially if it doesn’t work.
Target’s return policy made me feel slightly better about this experiment. In case you are wondering, I got It Cosmetics Bye Bye Undereye Concealer in light nude (Target | Amazon). This concealer was regularly on all the lists as a makeup that doesn’t cake in wrinkles. I can’t tell you if I recommend it yet, since it has only been a day and a half, but so far it’s better than what I was using.
From morning sickness to wrinkles. This blog brings you the circle of life. Hahaha!
ONE PAN SPICY SESAME BUTTER CHICKEN
I made this baked Butter Chicken recipe from Half Baked Harvest last night and Handy Husband had three servings!
The recipe had me at “one pan.” The prep was really easy and I did it in the morning when I had extra time and then popped the dish in the oven at dinnertime. It made a busy night much less stressful. I did omit the sesame seeds because I didn’t have those.
(image: Half Baked Harvest)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
I got choked up when I read this quote. It illustrates beautifully how we need each other.
“My mother always says to me, that there is a reason that we have a choir. It’s because sometimes you have to take a breath, and the tune continues. So right now, I keep singing, but there might be a time where I can’t, and I ask you to keep the tune going while I take a breath.” – Diana Buttu
Thank you for reading today’s Happy List.
Be good to yourself and others this weekend.
I’ll see you back here on Monday.
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