Happy Friday, folks!
We have plans this weekend that will completely disrupt our routine. Can you believe it?
Actually, I can hardly believe I said yes. I’m turning soft during this pandemic!
We are hopefully getting not one, but two kittens from a neighbor.
*Crossing fingers this all works out. Otherwise, my kids will be devastated.*
The compromise we made is that the cats will be outdoor cats with the task of prowling the property for rodents. We need all the help we can get on this front.
Let it be known that I said our last cat (when we lived in Georgia) would be an outdoor cat and the sneaky thing found its way into our house regularly, so just call me a sucker!
This week on the blog was full of SO MANY happy things! I shared a handful of the satisfying things I’m enjoying this summer and a very creative bus stop gardening station.
Here’s today’s Happy List!
BEDROOM DOORS
I mean…wow.
Go see how the movable doors for this bedroom came to be, what they did to the doors to create privacy, and pictures from other angles in this Domino article.
I also discovered in this article that there’s a non-profit in New York that has architectural salvage. So, if you need me I’ll be planning a road trip.
(image: Photography by Zio and Sons Creative via Domino)
READER COMMENT
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I have THE BEST readers. If I can brighten your day even a fraction of how much you brighten mine, I’ll be content.
Like this recent reader comment from Elizabeth:
“Oh my goodness thank you so much for posting this! I have a brand new pair I just rolled my foot in the yard giving my dog a bath and thought I just ruined my Birkenstock’s! I didn’t think anyone else has has the toe notch stretched until I found your post and it worked!! I couldn’t find my clamp curling iron but my hair straightener worked great. Thank you so much for this, they are good as new!”
Elizabeth is referring to this post about how to fix a stretched out toe post on a pair of plastic Birkenstocks
Sometimes I write about obscure solutions to problems that I don’t think many other people will have. I also wonder if my creative solutions are actually replicable out in the real world. When someone writes to tell me that a solution helped them, well, it makes my day AND gives me a sigh of relief. It’s way better than someone writing to tell me their bread didn’t rise or their jam didn’t set.
TREBLE CLEF
History Cool Kids is one of my favorite Instagram accounts and this recent post about how various composers drew the treble clef was fascinating to the pianist in me.
Mozart and Schubert probably drew the treble clef closest to how we recognize it today. Beethoven was like, “whatever.”
TOWEL BAR
I pretty much like anything Jenni at I Spy DIY does, but right now I’m crushing on the way she hung her hand towel from this sink!
Find out why she was able to do that and see all the other pictures of this pretty bathroom here.
(image: I Spy DIY)
FAMILY GAME NIGHT
If I’m being perfectly honest, we played so many board games this spring that we had to take a break from all that family togetherness. Ha!
However, we recently busted out a game that was gifted to the kids called Telestrations
It’s like Pictionary meets the childhood game of Telephone. Every player gets a secret word to write down in a notebook. They then draw their secret word. Next, they pass their notebook to the next player who tries to guess what the first player drew. This sequence continues on down the line until the notebook is returned to the original player.
I cannot tell you how hard we all laughed when the reveal of who guessed what was made. There were actual tears running down my face.
You need at least four people to play, so keep that in mind and everyone needs to be able to read and write. You can do friendly or competitive scoring with this game, but we didn’t find it necessary to keep track of points. The laughs were the best part.
WOOD SCULPTURE
I don’t know how long I stared at this wood sculpture wondering how on earth British sculptor Jamie Frost managed to create a life-like person out of wood.
Go see more of his sculptures and learn about his process in this Creative Boom article.
(image: Jamie Frost ‘The Gaslighter’s Comeuppance’, holly, 2017, photo: Black Hill Creative (exhibition shot from 20-21 Visual Arts Centre) via Creative Boom)
THINGS THAT GO BOOM
Nuclear war shouldn’t be on the Happy List. It’s not a very happy topic.
However, learning about important topics like nuclear war so that I can make more informed decisions or at least speak with more knowledge about a topic does make me feel satisfied and more engaged with the world.
That’s why I’ve been listening to the podcast called Things That Go Boom from Public Radio International. You’d think this would be a dry, technical topic, but it has been fascinating, engaging, and a little horrifying to learn all sorts of things about nuclear weapons.
So far I’ve learned how the Navajo Nation has been affected by nuclear testing, what the design students and the Girls Scouts have to do with ending nuclear war, scary false alarms, and how a breakdown of tears led to the conclusion of the Iran nuclear deal.
FURNITURE FLIP SERIES
I enjoyed the blog post kicking off a Furniture Flip series by Jenna Sue Design Co.
So much inspiration from just one person! I can’t wait to see what all her readers contribute.
(image: Jenna Sue Design Co.)
Her kitchen is one of my favorites, by the way, and it is mainly because of that hutch cabinet!
SO TRUE
I read a story last week where the character described a hug as emotional jumper cables.
The image has been stuck with me ever since.
It’s a pretty apt description!
That concludes today’s Happy List!
I hope you have a fantastic weekend.
If you want to follow along with whatever we’re up to this weekend you can find me on Facebook or Instagram.
See you right back here on Monday!
*affiliate links in this blog post*