Happy List: #366
Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I’m excited to have you here.
This week on the blog I shared some festive metal Christmas signs that had my idea gears grinding.
I also shared how I styled the thrift store finds I bought this year. The hunt is fun, but making those finds come to life in your home is the real joy!
As always, thank you for being here. The Happy List is my way of balancing my media diet. It keeps me from doomscrolling! Connecting with you keeps me from doomscrolling too. If you want to reach out, 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.
Let’s get to it. Here’s the Happy List!
MID-CENTURY MODERN
I have a soft spot for the mid-century modern home style because my grandparents had a classic mid-century modern home. There was a stone waterfall feature INSIDE their entry. I’ll never forget it. I loved that house as a kid.
That’s why I was enamored by Heidi Gardner’s home featured in Architectural Digest. Maybe you wouldn’t want to live in a mid-century modern home, but you have to admit the mirrored tile on her range hood is SO FUN. Your entire kitchen would sparkle. I need more sparkle in my life!
See the rest of the photos here.
(image: photography by Nate Sheets for Architectural Digest)
HOW THE U.S. STATES GOT THEIR NAMES
Do you know how your U.S. state got its name? I didn’t!
New Jersey, where I currently live, is named after Jersey, one of the Channel Islands.
The Dakota part of North and South Dakota is taken from the Dakota people of that region and means friendly or allied. This is ironic since the Dakota territory couldn’t get along and split up.
Also, did you know it is against the law to mispronounce Arkansas? Harsh, man. Better go check if you’ve been saying it correctly!
Learn more about your state’s name in this Mental Floss article. This is great dinner conversation material.
A BASKET FULL
Have a large collection of small baskets? Here’s what you can do with them for Christmas!
More pictures of Christmas at My Little White Barn can be found at Farmhouse Living.
(image: My Little White Barn via Farmhouse Living)
TREE.FM
Stop everything and go to Tree.fm where you can listen to real clips from actual forests around the world. It’s been an absolute highlight of my week to listen to what a forest in France, Ireland, or Brazil sounds like.
It’s not quite like traveling, but Tree.fm is a delightful mental break. Seriously. Go do this. Close your eyes, forget your troubles, and soak it all in. Thank me later.
(image: Tree.Fm screenshot)
THE CLEAN BALL
Just ordered this $10 Clean Ball for a gift. It’s a sticky ball in a cage that you put at the bottom of your bag to collect dirt. You can rinse it off when it gets dirty and the water regenerates the stickiness so you can keep reusing it.
It has 4.5/5 stars from 6,000 reviews on Amazon, which is pretty good for a weird little gadget.
(image: Amazon)
P.S. I wish my mom had one of these growing up. I’d always be stoked to find half a piece of gum in the bottom of her purse (she’d always tear them in half), but I’d have to remove the lint and hair that got stuck to it if I wanted to chew it. It tasted a little like perfume, but I was a kid in the 80s and this was a treat. Hahahaha! In other news, I have a strong immune system.
WHY ARE PLANETS ROUND?
Have you noticed that all planets in our solar system are round? Why is that? Can they be any other shape?
I learned in this Big Think article that objects in space will reconfigure their shape the larger they become. Objects below ~200 kilometers in radius will keep whatever shape they happen to have – could be a pyramid, a cube, a blob.
Objects above ~200 kilometers in radius start to reconfigure themselves into a round shape due to gravity. Gravity pulls particles toward the center of mass.
Read more about it here.
CROCHETED GINGERBREAD GARLAND
This garland crocheted to look like gingerbread is so charming. That yarn is the perfect color.
All the details can be found at Golden Lucy Crafts.
(image: Golden Lucy Crafts)
APPLE BUTTER CHEESE TWISTS
I am really curious about this Apple Butter Cheese Twist appetizer idea on The Pioneer Woman‘s website. I like Granny Smith apple slices on a grilled cheese sandwich sometimes, so I think this flavor profile could work. What do you think?
(image: Leah Perez/The Pioneer Woman)
P.S. The recipe I shared last week was SO tasty. We kept it in the freezer not the fridge. The salad recipe I shared the week before was just okay. I think I prefer a traditional broccoli salad over this one though.
POETRY MOMENT
I want to text you but I’m tired
of looking at screens & I hate to be negative here,
but I know how this goes: you marvel at the morsels
of sun between my fingers, I find a lucky penny
in your attention. You seem grounded-but people always do.
Even earth is shaken with a shift of plates. & you can’t be dirt
to me. You can bring some though, & I’ll bring
some. But my thing is, where do I get the seed?
Or what do we plant instead? I want less diagrams
& more carbonation. I want to stop mourning you
before we’ve met. Give me your shoelace,
anything, I’ll plant it. Or-we will,
Thank you for reading today’s Happy List.
Be good to yourself and others this weekend.
I’ll see you back here on Monday.
*affiliate links in this blog post*
