Happy List: #129 – A Pretty Happy Home

Hey, hey!

Can you believe it is August already? It feels like summer is flying by. Last week we took time off to hang out with friends visiting from Oregon. We mainly stuck close to home, but we did take a few days to visit Hershey Park in Pennsylvania.

This week I shared pictures of our living room and how I turned a dining table into a coffee table. I’ve never had a round coffee table and I’m enjoying the heck out of this one. If you’re curious about our dining situation, we are back to using my original dining table because I have the space for it once again.

I also shared the old books that I found in our living room. Little discoveries like finding books and magazines from the 1800s bring me so much joy. It helps offset the other little discoveries in an old house that aren’t quite so much fun.

Here’s the Happy List!

CORNER GLASS SLIDING DOOR

Sometimes I’m scrolling, scrolling through a page and then something catches my eye.

Like this corner glass sliding door situation featured on Remodelista. Holy cow!

(image: Remodelista)

BYE BYE TO METAL RIVETS?

I’ve never been happier to read that metal rivets on jeans may be going bye-bye. At least, if one group has its way.

Metal rivets used to be necessary to hold certain seams together, but now they are just for looks.

Do you know what damages wood and leather furniture? Metal rivets.

Do you know what drives me crazy? Metal rivets scratching the furniture.

The rivets can even scratch leather car seats too.

P.S. On a different topic, if you want to reread how I fixed the waistband gap on my jeans, click here.

RUG HACK

This is a brilliant and easy rug hack from Paper and Stitch. I can’t believe the difference it makes!

(image: Paper and Stitch)

USES FOR TENNIS BALLS

I confess I never thought about creating a mallet with a regular hammer and a tennis ball, but it sounds like something I would do.

More ideas for tennis ball uses in this HGTV article.

I use tennis balls when I travel as a foot and back massager.

GOOGLE’S TRIBUTE TO APOLLO’S MARGARET HAMILTON

Did you see this?

Google positioned 107,000 solar mirrors in the desert to honor Apollo 11 computer programmer Margaret Hamilton. The area of this tribute is bigger than NYC’s Central Park.

This amazes me!

SUPER SOAKER ORIGIN STORY

I got a kick out of telling my kids that the Super Soaker water gun was invented by a NASA engineer!

Lonnie Johnson wasn’t trying to invent a water gun. He was trying to create a cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners that didn’t use freon.

His invention was rejected by multiple toy companies before the rights were purchased by a company called Larami. Larami was later purchased by Hasbro. The Super Soaker was eventually put under Hasbro’s NERF brand and probably hasn’t been the same since.

It definitely doesn’t look the same!

My son does have a new version of the Super Soaker and if I had a nickel for every time I’ve yelled, “Don’t squirt anyone who doesn’t want to be squirted!” I’d be rich.

DIY LUMBAR PILLOW

Can you guess what these pillows are made from? It is a pretty great hack!

Tutorial can be found here.