Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am so glad you are here.
This week on the blog I shared the reveal of our Carriage House gym. Someone commented that they admired our tenacity in tackling this project. I love that word – tenacity. What a fantastic compliment.
Speaking of persistence, we also celebrated our six year house anniversary! Six years of loving and working on this old house of ours! Time has flown by.
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!
COMING UP GREEN
Love the pop of green on this house. Totally made me smile.
When we lived in Minnesota, I once painted an accent wall in a similar color of green. I loved that wall.
(image: Becky Luigart-Stayner via Country Living)
DIY STEPPING STONES
You have to go see (I insist) what Donna from Funky Junk Interiors used to make these DIY concrete stepping stones for her garden path.
Oh my goodness. You’ll never look at this throwaway party item the same way. It’s so clever!
Get the tutorial here.
(image: Funky Junk Interiors)
DROP CEILING IDEA
So many people still have a drop ceiling in their basement. The ceilings I’m referring to have that grid system with removable panels that kids will try and see what sticks to them. I rarely have seen one without a water stain too!
They are pretty unsightly, so that’s why this photo caught my eye. This doesn’t appear to be a drop ceiling but the battens or trim on the ceiling seem to mimic that grid idea. But see how the battens extend down the wall to add interest? I wonder if you could do that in a basement and make that ceiling seem a little more intentional and attractive? Just an idea to ponder.
(image: Lisa Cohen | Styling: Leesa O’Reilly | via: Homes to Love Australia)
SMART COCKATOOS
My mom was into birds when I was growing up, so we had a few cockatoos and other birds. That’s why this video of wild cockatoos in Australia learning how to use a water fountain in a public park caught my eye! They are smart.
According to this article in Popular Science, they’ve also been observed opening the lids on trash bins.
In New Jersey, we worry about raccoons and bears getting into the trash. Imagine if it was a cockatoo!
If the video doesn’t load, watch it here on YouTube.
MEN’S SHORTS
I have purchased Handy Husband two pairs of these shorts this month. They are THAT good.
They are an elevated pair of comfy shorts for men. He can wear these with a polo shirt and pass for kind of dressed up or with a t-shirt for a super casual look. However, he’s not allowed to DIY in them yet.
He has this sky blue color and the black.
(image: Amazon)
RADIATION TRACES
Researchers have tested and catalogued traces of Marie Curie’s fingerprints by looking for radiation markers on items she routinely touched like cabinet doors, doorknobs, and back of chairs. This is fascinating to me. It’s a legacy of her life and work in a way that’s unique to her.
Mostly, this legacy is no longer dangerous to others.
You can read more about the process, the reasoning, and what of hers has been destroyed in this BBC article. I also learned that the Curies were exhumed and re-interred in lead coffins in the 1990s.
(image: Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout)
EGG ROLL SMASH TACOS
I am determined to make this Egg Roll Smash Taco recipe from Pinch of Yum this week. The recipe has been open in my browser for two weeks now!
If there’s a recipe I need to try, please send it to me. I feel like I’m making the same things over and over.
(image: Pinch of Yum)
POETRY MOMENT
Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard by Kay Ryan
A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small —
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn’t
be so hard.
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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