Happy List: #289 – A Pretty Happy Home

Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List! I’m delighted you are here.

This week on the blog I shared all the things I learned about Valentine’s Day this year. Basically, we spend a lot on a holiday we don’t particularly love.

I also wrote a blog post about my current interest in watercolor greeting cards. I’ve made some of my own. I also found a bunch on Etsy that were amazing. Have you ever made your own greeting cards? It’s fun!

As always, I like connecting with you! It makes me smile. Please feel free to leave a comment or share this site with your friends. You can also connect with us on Instagram or Facebook. Thanks a million!

Now, here’s what you came for – the Happy List.

THAT’S UNIQUE

Have you ever seen a refrigerator that looks like this?

(image: The House That Lars Built)

That’s the prettiest fridge! It begs the question of why we as a consumer group haven’t got more imaginative with how our refrigerators look.

You can check out how the folks at The House That Lars Built made this refrigerator look like a cabinet here.

BUBBLES

The artists Renzo B. Larriviere and Zara Pasfield of the studio Atelier Sisu have an art installation in the U.K. that looks like giant bubbles. Oh, how I’d love to see this in person.

You can see more of their work over at This is Colossal or on their website.

(image: Atelier Sisu via This is Colossal)

LEMON CRUNCH CAKE

I’ve heard of lemonade cake but not Lemon Crunch Cake. This recipe for Lemon Crunch Cake from The View From Great Island looks delicious.

It is a spring-personified type of cake! It screams ~~get in my belly~~ Easter brunch to me. Get the recipe here.

(image: The View From Great Island)

GARAGE LIGHT

Life is a little brighter with the new garage light we just got. It came in a 2-pack, so we have one in the garage and one in the basement.

Our middle-aged eyeballs are so happy with us right now! Trying to do detailed work in a poorly lit space is not fun.

This light screws into a regular light socket but then has positionable LED lights that you can shine where you need them. It doesn’t take more energy than a regular lightbulb but it is way brighter. The 2-pack was around $30.

(image: Amazon)

ADVENTUROUS EATING

Do we have any adventurous eaters in the crowd? If you visit Colombia you can try Hormiga Culona, which are fat-bottomed or leafcutter ants that apparently taste like peanuts when toasted.

Who wants to try this snack? I’d try one.

Learn more about how these ants are harvested, why they are called fat-bottomed, and more in this article in Travel Food Atlas.

(image: via Travel Food Atlas)

DIY PING PONG TABLE

Woah! This is a DIY we need to make. Just imagine me dropping everything to go tell Handy Husband about my latest idea. Ha!

An outdoor ping pong table would get so much use around here, especially if we put it down by the pool. Get more details and see more of this fun house in this Apartment Therapy article.

(image: Margaret Wright for Apartment Therapy)

P.S. We’ve actually tossed around the idea of making an outdoor ping pong table after playing on some in Barcelona, Spain, and Ithaca, New York, but the technique used in this DIY seems a lot easier.

GOOD NEWS

Quoting from an Axios article. “Australian scientists announced Friday they’ve discovered a protein in the lung that sticks to the COVID-19 virus like Velcro and forms a natural protective barrier in a person’s body to block infection.” This could explain why some people didn’t get sick from Covid-19.

Read the article here. Read the published study in the PLOS Biology here.

SHOUT OUT

Shout out to Ida at Between Carpools for coming up with a clever way to store and manage a roll of garbage sacks! Go read the blog post here.

(image: Between Carpools)

I’ve been thinking about how and where I’m going to store all the things including garbage sacks that are currently in the pedestal drawers under our washer and dryer when we get a new washer and dryer. I like the added storage, but we aren’t going to get pedestals for our next washer and dryer.

I may have to use Ida’s idea!

POETRY MOMENT

Instructions On Not Giving Up by Ada Limón

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.