Happy List: #352 – A Pretty Happy Home

Hi! Welcome to today’s Happy List. I’m delighted you are here.

This week on the blog I shared t he thing I never noticed about white farmhouses before. It made me question my powers of observation.

I also shared the way we display Handy Husband’s running medals and race bibs. Running probably saved his life from a physical and mental perspective, so I’m definitely supportive of his desire to run races.

As always, thank you for being here today. It makes my day to share things with you that interested me, made me smile, or made me think this week. I hope it makes your day too. If you want to connect, and I hope you do, you can always comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also reach out on Instagram or Facebook.

Now, let’s get to the good stuff on the Happy List!

INTRIGUED

Leanne Ford’s interior design style intrigues me. She has a very clean aesthetic combined with rustic touches. Somehow it looks intentional rather than worn down. She makes it look easy but I doubt it really is in real life.

Check out more of her Church Lane Project photos on her website.

church land project by leanne ford shower with arched opening on the happy list

(image: Leanne Ford)

UPCYCLED

If you need upcycled decor ideas, Sadie Seasongoods is the place to go! Love this idea for using old kitchen utensils as recipe holders.

I don’t use paper recipes much anymore, but a lot of people do. I like the adaptability of this idea for holding mementos or photos. If you ran a booth at a farmer’s market, this would be a fun way to display prices for your wares.

(image: Sadie Seasongoods)

LANDSCAPE IDEAS

If you want some award-winning landscape ideas, check out this home’s landscaping done by American Landscape and featured over at Town a nd Country Living. They incorporated original plantings into the new design.

American landscape award winning landscape design for historic home in wisconsin via town and country living on the happy list

(image: American Landscape via Town and Country Living)

The paths around this home remind me of our flagstone paths like this one that leads to our pool pump house. We won’t be winning any landscape awards anytime soon though. Ha!

flagstone path on grass leading to pool pump house shown at night with landscaping lights

ATMOSPHERIC SCINTILLATION

I learned a new term this week – atmospheric scintillation. Sounds sexy. It is the astronomy term for twinkling stars. You can bet I’ll be casually busting that out in conversation as soon as possible.

If you want to know why stars twinkle, check out this video. If the video does not load, watch it here on YouTube.

HEAT GUN

Have you tried stripping old paint with a heat gun? If so, how did it go?

Christina from Little Victorian has a blog post about stripping a hand rail using a heat gun. It sounds less messy than using a chemical stripper.

The hand rail on our main stairs could use stripping, but I don’t know how you do it without affecting the entire stair rail, so I’ve avoided that project for five years now.

(image: Little Victorian)

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

I listened to the most gripping podcast on Radiolab about CPR and how to save a life.

You will be shocked where the safest place other than a hospital is to have a heart attack. It’s someplace I’ve only been maybe two times in my entire life.

I thought I’d share this podcast with you because you never know if this information might save a life someday.

(image: Radiolab)

SUNGLASSES

I bought this two-pack of polarized, UV400 sunglasses a month ago without trying them on and I’m SO GLAD I did.

Best risky purchase ever! So pleasantly surprised with the quality and this style looks good on almost everyone.

(image: Amazon)

EASY CHICKEN SHAWARMA

Handy Husband wants me to make this Chicken Shawarma recipe from The Mediterranean Dish, so I have the ingredients on my shopping list.

This looks pretty easy since the chicken is oven-baked and I don’t have to worry about roasting it over a spit. There are a lot of things I’ll do for Handy Husband, but that is not one of them. Ha!

(image: The Mediterranean Dish)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“Grief can destroy you –or focus you. You can decide a relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. OR you can realize that every moment of it had more meaning than you dared to recognize at the time, so much meaning it scared you, so you just lived, just took for granted the love and laughter of each day, and didn’t allow yourself to consider the sacredness of it.

But when it’s over and you’re alone, you begin to see that it wasn’t just a movie and a dinner together, not just watching sunsets together, not just scrubbing a floor or washing dishes together or worrying over a high electric bill. It was everything, it was the why of life, every event and precious moment of it. The answer to the mystery of existence is the love you shared sometimes so imperfectly, and when the loss wakes you to the deeper beauty of it, to the sanctity of it, you can’t get off your knees for a long time, you’re driven to your knees not by the weight of the loss but by gratitude for what preceded the loss. And the ache is always there, but one day not the emptiness, because to nurture the emptiness, to take solace in it, is to disrespect the gift of life.”

— Dean Koontz (Odd Hours (Odd Thomas, #4)

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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