Happy List: #42

Hello, Friends.

I want to start by saying thanks. This blog is my happy place – a creative outlet of sorts. The people I interact with here have always been so positive, kind and understanding. That matters to me – more than I could ever express.

I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around the horrific shooting in Las Vegas. Around the natural disasters in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Texas. In the police and voting incident in Barcelona. In the car attack in Edmonton. You get my point…the list of horrors in our world is long and I haven’t even mentioned wars, disease, etc. Some of these things can be prevented or minimized and we should not rest until meaningful change is made.

I’ve sat here this week thankful my family is safe and healthy. Thankful for the roof over our heads. And thankful I can come here – to my happy spot – and write things that are light-hearted and interact with people who put a smile on my face. It gives me a boost for when I have to go back to the real world where people are hurting and I’m trying to figure out how I can help in a meaningful way.

I keep coming back to the 3rd stanza of a poem from 1864 (hence the not modern reference) written by Eva Alice titled “Kindness.”

O, the power of kindness!
So gentle, loving, meek,
It is indeed a language
Even the dumb can speak;
The deaf can understand it,
It sheds a shining ray;
Then let us strive to make it
Our guide from day to day.

Kindness blossoms during tragedies. Perhaps it is everyday kindness that we need to experience more – in work, in politics, in school, at home.

I have no clever segue, so I will just say – now back to our regularly scheduled program…

DIY BENCH

Now I need want another bench.

Daniel from Manhattan Nest built this bench using old lumber and the bases from two side tables.

Just goes to show that if you like the shape/design of something, but not its purpose, you might be able to reimagine it!

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ROUND MIRROR

I could really use a 28″ mirror like this one from Target in my home. It’s less than 50 bucks and that speaks to my thrifty soul.

And, no, I’m not going to talk about how much my soul misses Target.

KITCHEN WINDOW BAR

If we had lived in our house in Oregon longer, I’m convinced I would have eventually turned our kitchen window into a bar set up like this one in the Southern Living idea house. I had already taken the screen out of the window and used it as a pass-through. The bar seating was just a matter of time. But then we moved. GAH! I should have been quicker.

Other than that window treatment, I love everything about this picture.

PODCAST LOVE

I listened to two podcasts, in particular, this week that made me stop and think. I love stuff like that, don’t you? You can listen to these directly on the links provided without having to use your phone’s podcast app.

The first was from Mindshift, called “Stepping Back from Overparenting: A Standford Dean’s Perspective.”

When Julie Lythcott-Haims was dean of freshmen at Stanford, she saw troubling behavior from some of the most accomplished students in the country. Students would involve their parents — and parents would involve themselves — in every aspect of the student’s life and school work at a time when these young adults were supposed to exercise greater independence.

This parental behavior doesn’t start when kids head off to college, it begins long before: there’s the excessive help with school assignments and fighting with teachers over every grade. For many parents this type of advocacy feels necessary to ensure their child’s success, but Lythcott-Haims says normalizing over-parenting can lead young adults to experience an “existential impotence.” They end up feeling incapable of handling life’s challenges on their own.

The second podcast I really enjoyed was Presidential – Abraham Lincoln: His Hand and His Pen.

Lincoln did not keep a diary as previous presidents had, but he did keep a series of letters. Letters that he would rant in and then never sign or send because he knew the power of the president’s words and if he sent those letters, it would be catastrophic.

Lincoln is also the first president that would cut and paste his speeches, so that he knew where to take a breath and pause for emphasis. He was aware of not just what he was saying, but how he would deliver the message.

I find the closing words of Lincoln’s first inaugural address on March 4, 1861, to be relevant today. He was facing a Civil War with several states already seceding and he was desperate to try and avoid this conflict.

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” – Abraham Lincoln 

WALL OF SEATS

This picture is mainly for The Junk Whisperer because I know she has at least one or two old tractor seats.

Tractor seats might not be your thing, but you have to admit – it makes a statement!

I’d also take that bench and that brick wall. Gosh, I sound greedy today!

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THE FRAME

Why, oh WHY wasn’t this around when we had a television?

See that large frame in the below picture? That’s the TV!! When the TV is off, it becomes a piece of artwork. It has a legit frame around it and everything.

It’s a Samsung The Frame SmartTV and it’s ONLY a cool 2 grand. Hahahahahaha. Seriously though. If you buy it, please invite me over so I can ooh and aah over it. I can’t imagine us ever having a TV again, so I’ll need to live vicariously.

DIY SWING

This swing was DIYed by the super talented folks at Casa Joshua Tree. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Also, this home is available to be rented through AirBnB.

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PEANUT BUTTER APPLE OATMEAL COOKIES

This cookie recipe screams FALL to me. It also screams EAT ME I’M DELICIOUS, but I could just be hungry.

Get the recipe at Two Peas and Their Pod.

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PIANO AND A GALLERY WALL

I haven’t included a piano picture in my Happy List round up for at least a month, so here’s one I’m crushing on.

If you are fans of ABC’s Scandal, then you’ll recognize the name Katie Lowe. This is a picture of her L.A. home from Architectural Digest.

This seems like a bright, airy, happy place to sit down and pound out a tune.

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I am off to enjoy a (hopefully) low-key weekend. Happy Friday, everyone!

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