Happy List: #101

Happy New Year!

It’s so nice to be back here yakking your ear off after the Christmas break. Did you miss me?

I thought so.

Our Christmas break was a blur! We spent a few days adventuring, but other than that we spent our time close to home. We didn’t know what day it was and my kids stayed in their pajamas most of the time. Handy Husband kept asking me if it was garbage day and after I looked at my phone I would say, “No! It’s Sunday!” Or Saturday. Or any other day that wasn’t garbage day. Then on the actual garbage day…we forgot.

This week I shared the handful of Christmas presents my kids played with for more than 5 minutes (a miracle!) before they asked me if they could have another snack.

Here’s the Happy List!

SILHOUETTE ART

This silhouette art by Mary at Orphans With Makeup is right up my alley. Check out her blog post to see how she made this art –  especially her tip for getting the different colored stain lines.

(image: Orphans With Makeup)

HUMOR IS A GREAT COPING MECHANISM

For the record, I’m not okay with government shutting down.

However, I am okay with the funny way MoonPie stepped up to the plate to help out when the Twitter account for NASA announced it would not be responding to tweets during the shutdown. The best part is people actually started asking MoonPie questions!

Hi I’ll be happy to take all of your moon-related inquiries in the meantime https://t.co/tTRgvOOnq4

— MoonPie (@MoonPie) January 23, 2018

ORNAMENT ORGANIZATION

You guys have probably already packed up your Christmas ornaments, but I thought this was a good idea from HGTV.

Sure beats the ziplock baggie I threw mine in before stowing it in the Christmas box!

(image: Laura Russell for HGTV)

JOAN BAEZ

Joan Baez was popular before my time and, honestly, I didn’t realize she was still making music.

This new song of hers, “The President Sang Amazing Grace” is not a happy song. Actually, it made my eyes well up with tears.

Why is it on the Happy List then? Well, I like songs that challenge me to think about difficult subjects and this one will do that in a beautiful way.

Also, Joan’s voice is still quite compelling.

Listen to it and let me know what you think.

Top Nine on Instagram

It was super interesting to see my top 9 Instagram posts in 2018. By my count, 5 countries and 3 U.S. states are represented on these squares.

It cracks me up that Instagram seems to like the places I go and not the things I make. I should probably feel offended by that, but I don’t give a hoot about such matters.

If you want to see the pictures that didn’t make the Top 9, find me on Instagram! I’d love to see you there.

30-MINUTE THAI PEANUT CHICKEN RAMEN

Basically, I’m imagining that these are my hands in this picture and I’ve already tasted this delicious-sounding ramen recipe from Half Baked Harvest.

Is that too much to ask?!?!

(image: Half Baked Harvest)

GLITTER

I am no fan of glitter, but I recently read an article in The New York Times about how glitter is made that was fascinating. And funny!

Glitter in the U.S. is made in two places. The first place is in New Jersey. The second place is also in New Jersey. Read into that what you wish.

Glitter takes approximately 1,000 years to biodegrade on earth. That confirms my theory that you can’t get rid of glitter. You might be able to push it onto the next person, but it’s never truly gone.

The other really interesting thing I discovered in this article is how secretive these companies are about how their glitter is made. And the interviewee wouldn’t even tell the interviewer which industry is their biggest client because this industry doesn’t want people to know they use glitter.

I don’t want to be, but I’m curious. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say Facebook has probably found a new use for glitter and that’s why social media is so messed up. HA! Do you have any wild theories on who the secret industry is?

Also, I KNEW this photo I took of lady wearing glitter boots on a weekday morning train ride was going to come in handy someday.

SKI LIFT SWING

We stayed at a home in Central Oregon that had an old ski lift like this one that functioned as a swing or bench. It was SO neat!

This swing is located on a vacation rental in Quebec. If you’re headed there, you can check it out at Villa Boréale.

(image: Villa Boréale)

If I ever see one of these lifts for sale, I know what to do with it!

SOMETHING TO PONDER

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world…” – Neil Gaiman

Happy Friday, everyone!

See you here for more happy randomness next week and the week after and the…oh, you get the idea!

P.S. Until we meet again, you can definitely find me on Instagram and Pinterest. Sometimes I make an appearance on Facebook too.