Happy List: #395

Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It feels so good to have you here!

This week on the ol’ blog I discussed our favorite new meal – savory s’mores. You must try this at least once this summer or fall. It’s one of those simple pleasures you can delight in.

I also shared that we installed another time capsule on our property. This one is in the Carriage House. I have SO MUCH FUN with this sort of thing. I’d also like to remind those of you that live in new houses that your house will be old someday. That’s how time works. So, feel free to leave notes inside the walls, handprints in the new concrete, or time capsules hidden somewhere.

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!

MIRROR, MIRROR

My goodness. This is a pretty bathroom. Notice that the frame of the bathroom mirror is painted the same color as the trim. The trim is also the same color as the ceiling. This is something we could all try.

If you want the sources for everything in this photo, they are listed under the picture in this Domino article. The wallpaper in this bathroom is used one other place in this home and it is stunning.

(image: Sean Litchfield for via Domino)

SCENIC TRAIN RIDES

If you’re looking for a scenic train ride in the U.S., USA Today has a “Top 10 Best Scenic Train Rides” list.

I’d like to take the #3 trip on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad that runs between Colorado and New Mexico. I’ve never been to New Mexico.

(image: Abigail Martinez via USA Today)

CURLY GREEN ONIONS

I learned something new-t0-me this week. I learned how to make curly green onions. I’ve only ever seen them in restaurant dishes and now I know how they do it! An ice bath.

The Yummy Life has full instructions here.

The question is will my family appreciate this trick?

(image: The Yummy Life)

WATERING CAN OR ART?

Goodee has teamed up with Montreal-based artist Dave Arnold to sell hand-painted watering cans.

This one is gorgeous, and also, I cannot afford it. Can you guess how much it is? I’ll tell you after the picture.

(image: Goodee)

$345 was the correct answer.

I’m not an artist, but it’s a good reminder that most anything can be your canvas.

This green glass watering can is more in my price range and also pretty. You wouldn’t want to hide this one away.

(image: Anthropologie)

SOUVENIRS

This is just a reminder that souvenirs collected on your travels don’t have to be expensive, and you can do something amazing with this souvenirs you bring home.

This homeowner collects postcards when they travel. Don’t they look great casually displayed on this wall?

(image: Marta Xochilt Perez for Country Living)

I collect decks of playing cards when I travel. I’ve been doing this since college and have amassed a fun collection.

It took me several years though to realize that I needed to date the decks of cards because we were forgetting which year we had visited which place. Was that 2003 or 2004? Hahahaha!

READ, HEARD, BOUGHT

To quote two articles I just read, “In the first quarter of 2025, the United States added 8.6 GW of solar manufacturing capacity, led by factories in Texas, Ohio, and Arizona.” Texas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Arizona, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Pennsylvania were among the top 10 U.S. states with the most solar installations in the first quarter of this year. (source and source) Despite all the rhetoric about oil, solar is quietly becoming a major player in the energy sector.

How to help kids succeed: If you have or work with people under the age of 25, I listened to psychologist David Yeager on the People I Mostly Admire podcast explain how he thinks conventional wisdom for how to motivate young people is all wrong. While, I think his advice was good for people of all ages, as a parent of teens, these ideas really made me ponder my approach to parenting. You will be blown away by the results of a study where just ONE STICKY NOTE had a huge impact on student outcomes.

Just purchased for the second time this 2-pack of polarized sunglasses. I need my sunglasses cheap and in a 2-pack because bad things seem to happen to them. I did make it exactly one year between purchases though, so go me.

FIREWORKS BUNDT CAKE

This kind of cake decoration is right up my decorating alley. I don’t want to eat rock candy, but decorate with it? Heck, yeah!

If you want the recipe for Food Network’s bundt cake, you can get it here.

If you want red, white, and blue rock candy, you can find it here.

If you want a non-edible “firework,” Try these red, white, and blue frill picks. They are 6 inches long.

(image: Food Network Kitchen)

POETRY MOMENT

The Second Music by Annie Lighthart

Now I understand that there are two melodies playing,
one below the other, one easier to hear, the other

lower, steady, perhaps more faithful for being less heard
yet always present.

When all other things seem lively and real,
this one fades. Yet the notes of it

touch as gently as fingertips, as the sound
of the names laid over each child at birth.

I want to stay in that music without striving or cover.
If the truth of our lives is what it is playing,

the telling is so soft
that this mortal time, this irrevocable change,

becomes beautiful. I stop and stop again
to hear the second music.

I hear the children in the yard, a train, then birds.
All this is in it and will be gone. I set my ear to it as I would to a heart.

Thank you for reading today’s Happy List.

Be good and gentle to yourself and others this weekend.

I’ll see you back here on Monday.

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