Happy List: #240 – A Pretty Happy Home

Hello! Welcome to the first Happy List of 2022!

How is the new year treating you so far? For me, it hasn’t been bad. It has been filled with a whole mixed bag of feelings though!

This week I shared two things on the blog that gave me all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings. The first is the pool ball rack art I made for my son’s room. I love creating something with my own two hands and repurposing items into home decor, so this project was a win for me.

I also shared all the podcasts that keep me company while I go about my daily business. I hope you enjoy some of them as well.

If reading this blog three times a week isn’t quite enough, please join us over on Instagram or Facebook. The projects that never make the blog happen there!

Now, here’s the Happy List!

CORKBOARD WALL

I really like the idea of having not just a corkboard, but an entire corkboard wall. It’s so much fun!

The Chrissy Marie Blog has a great idea on how to attach the corkboard to your wall. Read her tutorial here.

(image: Chrissy Marie Blog)

CLEVER BRIDGE DESIGN

Way back in the 1820s in England, a clever person invented the roving bridge or snake bridge. These bridges with rounded ramps along the Macclesfield Canal allowed a horse towing a barge to cross the canal when the towpath changes sides without being unhitched.

Without this type of bridge, the barges would have to be temporarily moored and the horses unfastened, repositioned, and refastened, which slowed shipping down.

Clever, right?

Read more about roving bridges here and Macclesfield Canal here. This idea was brought to my attention by this Core77 article.

(image: Macclesfield Canal, England)

I SWEAR I BRUSHED

You can have excellent oral hygiene and still get cavities.

Then you can have questionable oral hygiene, like my children, and be cavity-free.

*knock on wood the cavity-free part lasts*

What’s up with that?

I found this article on FiveThirtyEight discussing this topic and the idea that it might be related to the microbiome in our mouth to be fascinating. I hope scientists figure it out because dental work is EXPENSIVE. Could we also fix that while we’re at it?

Sincerely, a mom with a kid in braces and a wife whose husband needs a crown replaced.

P.S. I needed a tooth picture, so this photo of my kids standing in front of some shark teeth at a museum in Sweden seemed appropriate. Plus, my kids were so cute when they were little.

LOVED THIS

“You know what’s really great? We told Betty White that we loved her while she was still alive.” – Paula Poundstone via Twitter

You know what's really great? We told Betty White that we loved her while she was still alive.
— Paula Poundstone (@paulapoundstone) December 31, 2021

SEATING NOOK

Isn’t this the prettiest seating nook designed by Tammy Connor?

More pictures of this home can be found here.

(image: Tammy Connor)

CHARLOTTE’S WEB

This isn’t a happy thing per se, but it is interesting to know that even authors are affected by their own work.

In an excerpt from a 2011 NPR interview, writer Michael Sims recounts that Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White had a difficult time recording the audio version of the book when it got to the part where Charlotte dies.

Here’s an excerpt from that interview.

“SIMS: He did. That’s a wonderful story, Amy. And I agree, E.B. White had a version of that, when he was doing the audio, many years later. The producer later said that it took him 17 takes to read the death scene of Charlotte. And finally, they would walk outside, and E.B. White would go, this is ridiculous, a grown man crying over the death of an imaginary insect. And then, he would go in and start crying again when he got to that moment.”

I cried at that moment too!

For the whole interview transcript, click here.

MAGNETIC DARTBOARD

My son received this magnetic dartboard from a friend for Christmas and I can’t even tell you how shocked I am at how WELL it works.

Those magnets are legit!

It also rolls up so you can put it away if you don’t want to hang it up permanently.

If you need a gift for a kid, this would be a great one. Last I checked the dartboard was under $20.

(image: Amazon)

Fair warning though, if the kids throw the darts hard enough they can gouge the walls. *shakes head in dismay*

LOVE A GOOD ISLAND

I miss having a kitchen with an island. Is that weird?

What I love about this island featured in this Domino article is all the wood. It’s warm and inviting. Plus, it’s going to camouflage all the nicks and marks from feet and barstools better than a painted island.

One other thing I appreciate about this island is that the stylist didn’t cram too many barstools in. You have to have room to maneuver!

(image: Julie Arnold via Domino)

POETRY MOMENT

Let Me Begin Again by Major Jackson

Let me begin again as a quiet thought
in the shape of a shell slowly examined
by a brown child on a beach at dawn
straining to see their future. Let me begin
this time knowing the drumming in my dreams
is me inheriting the earth, is morning
lighting up the rivers. Let me burn
my vanities: old music in the pines, sifters
of scotch, a day moon like a signature
of night. This time, let me circle
the island of my fears only once then
live like a raging waterfall and grow
a magnificent mustache. Let me not ever be
the birdcage or the serrated blade or
the empty season. Dear Glacier, Dear Sea
of Stars, Dear Leopards disintegrating
at the outer limits of our greed; soon we will
encounter you only in motivational tweets.
Reader, I should have married you sooner.
This time, let me not sleep like the prophet who
believes he’s seen infinity. Let me run
at break-neck speeds toward sceneries
of doubt. I have no more dress rehearsals
to attend. Look closer: I am licking my lips.