Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am so glad you are here.
This week I shared an update on the ceiling of the Carriage House. I might have a reveal post for you soon!
Then I shared pictures of how I’m using the vintage bottles we dug out of our backyard this spring. I had so much fun enjoying my house and delighting in these simple pleasures.
I hope this Happy List leaves you feeling inspired and encouraged! In addition, I absolutely welcome the opportunity to connect with you and hear what you are doing and how you’re feeling. That’s a little bit selfish of me as I love to feel the connection from this online community. I hope you do too. If you want to reach out, please comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also reach out on Instagram or Facebook.
Now, here’s what you came for, the Happy List!
COLORFUL
I might be a bit biased because I have green dining room chairs, but I loved seeing the colorful chairs around this dining room table. What a happy spot!
You can see more photos of this pattern-filled home at House Beautiful.
(image: Rikki Syder | styling: Francis Bailey | via: House Beautiful)
P.S. I also used to have blue dining room chairs in a house we lived in while we were looking for a house to buy in New Jersey. That dining table became my coffee table in this house.
HAPPY TO SEE IT
Either pom poms or monograms are having a moment on Pinterest lately. One of my nothing-burger craft ideas from 2017 is all of the sudden in the limelight. Folks, the Pinterest algorithm is WILD. You just never know what’s suddenly going to be popular, but I’m happy to see it.
You can read the blog post here.
ACCIDENTAL ADVOCACY
If you are feeling overwhelmed by the news, you have to read this story in the HuffPost about a woman who one day decided to pay off an entire school’s lunch debt. This is a great example of how one person doing one small thing can lead to a ripple of change. Here’s an excerpt. Bold emphasis is mine.
It’s the bizarre normalization of the whole affair, as if we’ve collectively agreed that fiscal responsibility is best taught through the ritual humiliation of second graders. It’s watching the adults in the room — ordinary, decent people who’d never dream of snatching food from a child in any other context — perform this strange ceremony with the mechanical resignation of DMV employees, while around them life continues uninterrupted, because this is just How Things Are.”
“I no longer believe the question is whether we’ll eliminate all lunch debt everywhere forever. The question is how many children we can spare from that moment of public shame while simultaneously building the case for a world where that moment isn’t possible at all. The question is whether we’re willing to live with the messy contradictions of simultaneous immediate action and long-term vision. The question is whether we’re willing to do something imperfect now while working toward something better later.”
MADE ME LAUGH
If you need a laugh, check out this story with a collection of funny notices.
(image: via Only Good News Daily)
CORNERED
The below photo caught my eye for the pure simplicity of the moment. It’s a triangle-shaped piece of plywood making a corner desk between two windows. My gut reaction was, “Ah, that’s lovely!”
(image: Logan White for Remodelista)
This photo reminded me that sometimes we make things way harder than they need to be. We spend a bunch of money and time on furniture, and it doesn’t even face the pretty corner windows.
ANTI PRIME SALE
Bookshop.org released its list of the 100 bestselling books so far in 2025. They are offering free shipping that ends July 11, 2025 (I think), as an anti Prime Days sale. If you are unfamiliar with Bookshop.org, they partner with independent bookstores.
On the list is On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. You can see the full list here.
(image: via Bookshop.org)
P.S. I don’t receive an affiliate commission for links to Bookshop.org. I do receive a small commission on sales made using Amazon links, and that helps keep the blog running.
FEEDING FRENZY
Every year 22,000 pelicans descend on Marsh Lake in Minnesota to nest and to feast.
Bravo to the BBC editors for the perfect background music in this video. It made the whole thing!
If the video doesn’t load, watch it here on YouTube.
BACON SPINACH SALAD
Speaking of a feast, I read a Jim Gaffigan quote recently that made me laugh. “Once you put bacon into a salad it’s no longer a salad, it just becomes a game of find the bacon in the lettuce. It’s like you’re panning for gold, hmmmmm, EUREKA!”
You’ll hit eureka with this spinach salad from TidyMom. It has BACON! The homemade dressing has ingredients I’ve never used in a dressing before. One of them is Worcestershire sauce. Every time I use Worcestershire sauce – it’s infrequently – I wonder if this stuff ever expires. I can’t even bring myself to look at the bottle to find out. I just dash out a few drops and hope for the best. Please feel free to judge away. Haha!
(image: TidyMom)
POETRY MOMENT
Baking Bread by Carol Lynn Pearson
There seemed more accusation
Than admiration
In Vivian’s voice
When she said,
“Well, I wish I had time
To bake bread!”
And so sometimes when
The loaves were in the oven
And Vivian was at the door
Louise mumbled something about
Another bake sale again
And never even tried to explain
Her near-religious ritual:
How the flour on her fingers
Was the sun and the rain
And the earth
How the thump of her palms
On the dough
Was the dance of women
On the ancient threshing floor
How the smell of baking
Leavened her
And left her believing that
We rise, we rise
And
How the cutting
Of the first warm slice
For the first child home
Made her a bounteous goddess
With life in her hand.
Thank you for reading this week’s Happy List.
Be good to yourself and others this weekend.
I’ll see you back here on Monday.