Happy List: #385 – A Pretty Happy Home

Hello! I’m thrilled to welcome you here on the first Happy List of April! January and February dragged by and then March was gone in the blink of an eye. Funny how that happens.

This week on the blog I shared how I decorated wood bunnies to look like faux chocolate bunnies. It is so much fun to make Easter crafts. It’s almost as good as Christmas crafts.

I also shared some fun gardening or outdoor-related finds I have my eye on for myself or for others. It’s not quite warm enough to simply hangout outside yet, but we’re getting close. I can feel it!

In case this is your first time here, I purposefully keep the Happy List focused on the lighter side of life in the hopes that this is a soft place for you to land when the news can be overwhelming. I absolutely welcome the opportunity to connect with you and hear what you’re doing and how you’re feeling. 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.

Enjoy the Happy List!

DREAMY

I love this champagne-colored metal roof. Or is a bronze color? Whatever it is called, I’m into it and the rest of the elements of this space.

(image: Robert Brinson via BHG)

WHAT DID HUBBLE SEE ON YOUR BIRTHDAY?

Talk about out of this world! NASA has the neatest feature on its website where you can see what Hubble saw in space on your birthday. Only month and day are needed. No need to input year.

For instance, if your birthday was today, April 4th, Hubble saw this chance alignment of a pair of galaxies called NGC 3314 on April 4, 2019.

Try it out for yourself here.

(image: NASA)

EASTER IDEAS

I follow Brooke from Nesting With Grace on Instagram and she always has fun decorating ideas. I love how she set this table for Easter with cut daisies in a yellow planter. Also, note the place cards made from a chocolate egg with an initial piped in frosting on the top. My kids would love to start dinner with dessert!

She has more neat Easter dinner ideas in this blog post.

(image: Nesting With Grace)

FISH DOORBELL

Only in the Netherlands is there a fish doorbell.

From their website: “Every spring, thousands of fish swim through the Oudegracht in Utrecht, searching for a place upstream to lay their eggs. But the Weerdsluis is often closed. You can help the fish continue their journey! If you see a fish, press the doorbell. This alerts the lock operator to open the lock.”

The way you “see a fish” is through a live webcam. I have checked this live webcam multiple times now and there’s always been at least several hundred people watching it. It’s one of those pure moments of goodness on the internet. I have not spotted a fish though, which is a shame because I really want to ring the doorbell.

It does make me wonder how many pranks they get, but I suppose the lock operator can verify with his or her own webcam.

(screenshot: Visdeurbel)

BETTER SLEEP

I finally broke down and got the funny-looking pillow that I’ve seen a lot of folks online say they use for better sleep.

Handy Husband loved his from night one. I did not. I kept the box because I was convinced I was going to send it back. It took me about a week to realize that I was waking up without back or neck pain. After that, I was sold on the pillow. You can sleep on your back or side with this pillow, but it’s most comfortable and helpful to me if I sleep on my back.

Don’t quote me on this because it’s only been three weeks, but I also *think* it might be helping one of us not snore at night. Maybe because this person’s head is in a better sleep position? I need more data to be sure. It could be a fluke and I’ve just jinxed it. DRAT!

(image: Amazon)

P.S. I put a regular pillowcase on it and then hide the pillow behind other pillows when I make the bed. We use these silk pillowcases. Get your husband a silk pillowcase. He’ll probably grumble at first and then become the biggest sleep diva if he doesn’t have his silk pillowcase to sleep on. Ask me how I know.

ANY MAP PUZZLE

There is a fun and free website called Any Map Puzzle that lets you type in a place on a map and it will make an online puzzle for you to solve. Here’s New Jersey, but I asked it to make puzzle maps of the town I grew up in and the town where I live.

Below is the “medium” difficulty puzzle map of New Jersey. It’s harder than it looks, particularly because of how the tiles move.

Play the puzzle here.

(screenshot: Any Map Puzzle)

POTSTICKER SALAD

This Potsticker Salad from Gimme Some Oven looks like one of those meals that is delicious to eat when it feels too hot outside for a heavy meal. It has a sesame ginger vinaigrette on it. YUM!

(image: Gimme Some Oven)

POETRY MOMENT

Let Me Begin Again by Major Jackson

Let me begin again as a quiet thought
in the shape of a shell slowly examined
by a brown child on a beach at dawn
straining to see their future. Let me begin
this time knowing the drumming in my dreams
is me inheriting the earth, is morning
lighting up the rivers. Let me burn
my vanities: old music in the pines, snifters
of scotch, a day moon like a signature
of night. This time, let me circle
the island of my fears only once then
live like a raging waterfall and grow
a magnificent mustache. Let me not ever be
the birdcage or the serrated blade or
the empty season. Dear Glacier, Dear Sea
of Stars, Dear Leopards disintegrating
at the outer limits of our greed; soon we will
encounter you only in motivational tweets.
Reader, I should have married you sooner.
This time, let me not sleep like the prophet who
believes he’s seen infinity. Let me run
at break-neck speeds toward sceneries
of doubt. I have no more dress rehearsals
to attend. Look closer: I am licking my lips.