Happy List: #364
Hello, hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I’m glad you’re here.
This week on the blog I shared how we’ve been working on recreating the exterior trim on our house. Logistics have us putting that project on hold until the spring. We’ve been paying attention to the old houses in our area and it is incredible how many old homes have had their old trim replaced with something simple and modern.
I also shared (finally!) the pictures of our completed fieldstone porch on the carriage house. That porch has come a long way in the last five years. It’s no longer an eyesore, that’s for sure.
I can’t say it enough. Thank you for choosing to spend part of it here. 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 Happy List!
INTERIOR WINDOWS
I am forever on a quest to work an interior window into our home. It hasn’t happened yet, but I have ideas on how it could. Do you like interior windows as a way to define a space but not block light too?
I like how these leaded glass windows frame an interior door in this space restored by Maria Speake of Retrouvius and featured on House and Garden UK.
(image: Michael Sinclair for House and Garden UK)
P.S. Look above the windows. The bricks in between the posts and beams is how our house is built!
14,000 PRESCRIPTION LENSES
A new art installation by Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett suspends 14,000 prescription lenses in concentric circles in a Japanese forest.
How cool would it be to experience this in person? I bet it’s magical. More close-up photos can be seen here.
(image: Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett via This Is Colossal)
FLY AWAY
I noticed that Joanna Gaines used metal birds as wall decor in one of her renovations and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. You can see that here.
Here are some brass birds from Wayfair that would look so pretty grouped on a wall.
(image: Wayfair)
KITCHEN INSPIRATION
Designer Josh Young’s home is featured on the Farrow and Ball blog. The kitchen is what stopped me in my scroll. That stone wall!
I even watched the accompanying YouTube video for more glimpses of what was happening in that space. That island has some impressive details.
(image: Josh Young and Farrow and Ball)
FINGERPRINT GHOSTS
I am a sucker for anything made with my children’s fingerprints or footprints. I can’t think of a better stamp in time than their little fingerprints on a piece of art.
Here’s a sweet take on that for Halloween – fingerprint ghosts on a paper mache pumpkin by Finding Lovely. You can get all of her tips here.
(image: Finding Lovely)
P.S. If you enjoy old houses, she has a really cool one!
WATERCOLOR WORKBOOK
This watercolor workbook looks like something I’d like to try! Might end up with some frameable art!
I’m also thinking about ordering it for a friend for Christmas. Maybe one for me and one for them. There’s a winter version, a Christmas version, an animal version, and more.
(image: Anthropologie)
WHY ACID-FREE PAPER DOESN’T DARKEN
Book pages in paperback books age and turn brown because the lignin in the ground-up wood used to make the book’s paper will eventually oxidize.
Lignin is a dark-colored polymer that is packed inside cellulose fibers that together form the rigid structure of wood and let a tree grow tall and strong. The cellulose and lignin form such a tight structure that it blocks most microbes from getting in and breaking down the wood.
Acid-free paper is less likely to darken because lignin is removed from the paper formula, leaving only the cellulose. The cellulose doesn’t oxidize as easily.
I learned about this in this MIT article titled “What Makes Wood Rot So Slowly?” It’s short and super fascinating.
CAULIFLOWER SALAD
I found a salad using raw cauliflower, dried cherries, and almonds made by Alexandra’s Kitchen that sounds delicious. I got the ingredients to make it this weekend. I might leave out the mint though.
The best part is that the cauliflower is raw in this recipe, which means Handy Husband will eat it. The man isn’t super picky but he does not do cooked cauliflower or cooked broccoli. That really cramps my style, if I’m being honest.
(image: Alexandra’s Kitchen)
ON FRIENDSHIP
I hope you have a friend like this…
“She was nine, I was nine and a half. My family had just moved to the neighborhood, and I was missing my old friends, so my mom took me to a field to fly kites. Soon another mom and daughter came over, and before long, the girl and I were off running, and our moms were left with the kites. I am now 80 years old, she is 79 and a half. We have shared our lives, ups and downs, good and bad. Have no idea where or who I would be without her. She feels the same. Just amazing.”
— Barbara, Cup of Jo commenter
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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