Well, hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am so grateful you are here.
This week on the blog I shared the cabinet we built to conceal our trash and recycling cans that have just been sitting willy nilly in our kitchen for years now.
I also shared the Easter decor that is inspiring me this year. I was going to say “this spring,” but it’s not spring for another – checks calendar – month. *sigh*
The Happy List is one of the ways I try to focus on the beautiful and inspirational things in the world. It’s better for my mental health than doomscrolling. Funny how that works! I enjoy sharing what creatively inspires me and/or what made me smile this week. I also appreciate the opportunity to connect with you and hear what you’re up to. If you want to reach out, you can always comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also reach out on Instagram or Facebook.
Now, take a deep breath. Let it out slowly. Feels good, doesn’t it? You’re ready to have some fun with this week’s Happy List!
GLASS CEILING
I would like my kitchen to have a glass ceiling like this. I’d also like my floors to be made from French cheeseboards like this kitchen’s because I’m fancy like that. (hahaha – I’m not)
This home is located in Bray, Ireland, (I used to lived right next door to this town) and was designed by Christopher-Howe.
(image: House and Garden UK)
SO INTERESTING
A team of Swedish and Chinese researchers have developed variety of a high yielding rice that reduces methane emissions by 70% over conventional varieties of rice. This rice is not genetically modified.
Rice production accounts for 12% of global human-caused methane emissions, so adaptation of this rice variety by farmers could greatly help global warming. Read more about it and how they developed this rice without genetically modifying it over at ScandAsia Business News.
(Yes, I have eclectic reading habits.)
(image: Wikimedia Commons)
SO HAPPY
Have you looked at the Boden USA site lately? They have the happiest-looking shirts and dresses right now like this one. I love stripes and florals combined.
Perhaps color is the antidote to a blah winter?
(image: Boden USA)
MOONLIGHT SONATA
The Moonlight Sonata like you’ve never heard it performed at The Kennedy Center. I was enraptured watching this. Blown away. To have been there in person would have been incredible.
If the video does not load, watch it directly here on YouTube.
THE HAPPIEST
Why aren’t there more yellow houses in the world? They are the happiest!
If you like the outside of this Swedish home, the inside will charm your pants off. The checkered floor in this walk in wardrobe is amazing. Check it out here.
(image: My Scandinavian Home)
I JUST LEARNED
I just learned that a baby porcupine is called a porcupette. How cute is that?
Porcupettes are born with all of their quills, which probably makes you wonder what that birth feels like for the mama porcupine.
You can unclench your thighs. Thankfully for mama porcupines, the quills, which are made of keratin, are soft when the baby is born. They harden to those scary spikes within a couple of days after birth.
(image: Jim Schulz for Chicago Zoological Society via People)
P.S. If you want to learn more about the world of porcupines including why they fall out of trees so often, listen to this podcast.
PAPER FLOWERS
Do not be surprised if I create a wall of paper flowers. This seems like the type of tedious craft I’d enjoy and then have no idea what to do with later.
Country Living used wallpaper scraps to make these flowers. Template here.
(image: David Hillegas for Country Living)
Also, I need that mirror!
COCONUT CURRY SHREDDED BEEF
This recipe had me at crock pot. The adults in this house enjoy curry, so you don’t have to twist my arm to give this recipe for Coconut Curry Shredded Beef from Gimme Some Oven a whirl.
The reviews said the cucumber salad paired with it is perfection.
(image: Gimme Some Oven)
POETRY MOMENT
waning by Adrienne Maree Brown
slowly i collapse
lose light lose warmth
forget everything i ever knew about bright
it is time again to know nothing
to be still and silent
to wait and wonder
to notice exactly what i need so completely
that it pulls me through shadow
pulls me through the cold of my own isolation
back, slower than a dream
faster than a season
i hear everyone whispering:
plant everything now
plant love the shape of gods
the handprints of children allowed to say no
plant quiet contemplation of miracles
the ripple of orgasmic awe
plant the undulation, the pulse, the fusion
plant even the idea of a wave
and let the ocean flood you by morning
Thank you for reading today’s Happy List.
Be good to yourself and others this weekend.
I’ll see you back here on Monday.
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