Happy List: #409

Hello, hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List.

It was a big week on the blog for us as we finished a project. On Monday, I shared the swoop progress of our fieldstone wall. On Wednesday, I showed the finished wall pictures! I don’t have words adequate to describe what happened next. Simply put, we have been overwhelmed in the best way by your kindness after I shared those pictures. Handy Husband and I could probably both float away with how high you’ve lifted us with your generous words. Thank you.

I also want to give a shout-out to Kristin at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for featuring my floral witch’s hat on her website. That was such a fun surprise!

I’m a broken record – thank you for being here. You have an unlimited number of ways you could spend your time. The fact that you spend a few minutes with me is a privilege. I aim for the Happy List to be a bright spot in your day, and I enjoy connecting with you. If you want to reach out, please comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also direct message me on Instagram or Facebook.

Here’s the Happy List!

CURTAINS

This entire home featured on House and Garden UK is straight out of a storybook. But what really charmed me is the curtain situation in this bedroom.

I can imagine this being my house, and thinking these stacked windows with the uneven wall were a design flaw or dilemma. But the quirkiness is absolutely charming to me, and the curtain solution makes sense. There’s probably a life lesson in there.

(image: Chris Snook for House and Garden UK)

GLASS BAUBLES

Where are my color lovers at?

Terrain has THE prettiest glass bauble garland. Can you imagine this in a window, catching the winter light? *swoons*

(image: Terrain)

MAST YEARS

If you notice a ton more acorns on the ground than usual, this is called a mast year. According to this Martha Stewart article, scientists don’t exactly know why it occurs or what circumstances trigger it, but it likely means conditions were just right for the trees to pollinate successfully.

My area of the U.S. is having a mast year. Read more about it here.

P.S. The only real acorn photo I have is of acorns that I painted. *sigh*

BUTTERFLY

I feel like I’ve shared this before, but maybe it’s just because it is in my Etsy cart. Love this Monarch butterfly suncatcher that can rest on the side of a plant. It’s so happy!

I want to get it for a friend for Christmas. They also have birds! The chickadees are my favorite.

(image: Etsy shop VitrageArtSouvenirs)

DID YOU KNOW? 

I learned this week that protected bike lanes make EVERYONE safer, not just cyclists. It’s because protected bike lanes lower driving speeds, and lower driving speeds mean fewer fatalities for drivers and their passengers. Seems like a win-win. I get SO nervous for cyclists’ safety on our country roads with no shoulder.

Read more about it here.

GREEN ROOF CURIOUS

Of course, I liked the photo of this home in Australia because of the stone, but what I’m actually curious about is the roof. The grass you see? That’s the home’s roof.

I don’t want one, but I really want to know what it is like to live in a home with a green roof. What does it sound like? Can you hear the rain? Do animals romp around up there? What happens when you get a leak? How do you find it? Does it REALLY reduce your energy bills? So many questions, and it’s neat to live in a world where people are trying to do right by the environment.

The inside of this home is pretty cool, too. You can check out the photos at Remodelista.

(image: Derek Swalwell |  courtesy of Kennedy Nolan | via Remodelista)

FORMULA 1 FOR MARBLES

I’ve been living under a rock because I just learned that marble racing is a thing. The race tracks this man builds are incredible.

If the video doesn’t load, watch it directly here on YouTube.

THANKSGIVING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

I loved, loved, loved this article from PureWow about where to volunteer on Thanksgiving if you live in the U.S. Most articles are about consumption of some sort, so this was refreshing.

The ideas range from official volunteering with food banks to doing a good deed and picking up trash in your local park. There’s something for everyone. Check it out here.

PUMPKIN FONDUE

Should you need to make a culinary statement in the next few weeks, might I suggest making this pumpkin fondue from What’s Gaby Cooking? To paraphrase Gaby, she takes a molten cheese situation very seriously.

I’m impressed. And hungry.

(image: What’s Gaby Cooking)

P.S. I’ve toasted pumpkin seeds, but I don’t know that I’ve ever baked a pumpkin myself. I rarely bake squash because my family vehemently opposes that delicacy. I do buy canned pumpkin and add it to soups and sauces, though. What they don’t know doesn’t hurt them.

POETRY MOMENT

Zak Foster wrote in his newsletter, “I wrote us a poem for whatever we’re carrying right now <3. This week an old feedsack fell out of my stash and this is what emerged:”

A good sack, strong and worth saving—see here how its mended—someone probably thought we could use it one day ● Maybe here we could put away all our meanness—tie it tight and toss it deep into the ocean to be boiled away in those hell-hot underwater vents ● Maybe this is where we can put all our fearful hearts—we’ll gather them up like little cold coals and rocket them out past the moon where they’ll hitch a ride on a passing comet zoom off so far away even our most powerful telescopes can’t find em anymore ● Maybe we’ll put all our self-serving in here—we’ll know better how to care for one another by then—and the youngest and the sweetest among us will bury this sack under a big pile of wildflowers and all we’ll see is a great hillock of color and all we’ll hear is the buzz of bees so happy and drunk on that good nectar wine ● Maybe we’ll take whatever makes us strangers to one another and declare it all null and void and we’ll stuff it into this sack and we’ll turn it into pixels we’ll click delete and when they ask us if we’re sure changes cannot be undone we will say—yes—yes—yes—this sack is still good for so much

– Zak Foster

P.S. My friend, Nancy, sent me this poem last week. I’m so glad she thought of me when she read it, and I knew it might resonate with you, too.

Thank you for reading this week’s Happy List.

Be good to yourself and others this weekend. 

I’ll see you back here on Monday.

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