Happy List: #389

Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am over-the-moon to see you here.

Happy early Mother’s Day to those of you celebrating this weekend. I am immensely grateful for the women in my life who have, in ways big and small, positively impacted my life. The photo at the top of the blog post is of me and my mom.

This week on the blog I shared the fairy light mason jars I made for our deck. While I made mine just for fun, I realized they would make a fun, unique gift for someone in your life…a mother figure, perhaps.

I also shared the next installment in the Carriage House series. I shared the plan for one of the windows. It’s something we’ve never done before.

I hope you leave here today feeling inspired, encouraged, and maybe you will even learned a thing or two. 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.

Now, onto the Happy List!

STONE ENTRY

Of course this picture caught my eye! Hello, gorgeous stones!

This house doesn’t have a traditional entry. You enter through this stone opening and walk straight into a greenhouse or solarium. I don’t know where you put your coats and I really don’t care. This is so cool.

See more pictures over at Domino. They have a table just for Mahjong!

(image: Jared Kuzia for Domino)

HOW TO CUT A ROUND CAKE

John from Preppy Kitchen has a better way of cutting a round cake than into wedges. I can honestly say I’ve never thought about this, but his method makes sense. I’m a little disappointed that I don’t have a cake to try it out on right now. Ha!

Read about it here.

(image: Preppy Kitchen)

P.S. I love his oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. Sometimes I add coconut flakes to it. *drools*

GARDEN DELIGHT

Thomas O’Brien’s home and gardens featured in Frederic Magazine are simply magical. There are so many details to take in and enjoy.

I have a flat roof that I would love to add a short, decorative railing to. Just need to clear a few hundred necessary items off the to-do list first. Hahahaha.

See all the photos here.

(image: Max Kim-Bee for Frederic Magazine)

SOLAR JAR LIDS

Just in case you want to make fairy light mason jars this month, these are the solar lids I ordered. They come in a 3-pack and a 6-pack. I regret not getting the 6-pack.

Read my blog post about the fairy light mason jars (solar and battery-powered) here.

(image: Amazon)

P.S. If you’d prefer colorful, solar fairy lights, try these lids. They are very happy looking.

CONTEMPORARY FIBER ART EXHIBITION

I know many of you are inspired by fiber arts. Same! There’s a contemporary fiber art exhibition in New York City right now that showcases the broad diversity of the fiber arts space.

If you can’t get to NYC by May 16, go check out the photos at My Modern Met.

(image: Ana Maria Hernando, “El intento del agua/The Intent of Water,” 2025 | via My Modern Met)

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

Information is Beautiful is a website that makes, well, information beautiful to look at.

They have a section where they have identified how true each scene in a “based on true story” movie actually is. You can click on each scene and it will tell you how true the scene is and what actually happened if it wasn’t true at all. You have to go check it out. It’s so fascinating. The amount of time this would have taken boggles my mind.

Here’s a screenshot to show how they display the information graphically. Dark blue is true. Dark pink/red is false. The Imitation Game was 42.3% accurate. 12 Years a Slave was 88.1% accurate.

(image: Information Is Beautiful)

WHY YOU SHOULD READ OBITUARIES

Psychologist Sarnoff Mednick observed that highly creative people have a different kind of memory structure that “holds a wider range of ideas and forges more unexpected connections between them. The greater the distance between two ideas, the more original and surprising their combination tends to be.” (source)

Keith Sawyer argues in this Big Think article that “reading obituaries can boost creativity by exposing you to distant ideas, fueling the associations that lead to unexpected breakthroughs.”

I have to say, I have never tried this, but I’m not opposed to the idea. Inspiration can come from the strangest places. Read the article and let me know what you think.

READ AND HEARD

What I DID read this week was Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

I’m halfway through it and I demand each of you check it out. If you want to know why Ivy League schools care so much about sports, what the cheetah has to do with how we raise our kids, and what the Magic Third is and how that affects racial harmony, this book is for you. It will make you look at the world around you with a new set of lenses.

I also listened to Roman Mars interview John Green on the podcast 99% Invisible about how tuberculosis is connected to almost everything. Even Adirondack chairs are connected to tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is still one of the top ten causes of death worldwide and WE HAVE A CURE.

99% Invisible is one of my favorite podcasts. It’s all about the “thought that goes into the things we don’t think about” like architecture, infrastructure, sounds, etc.

I watched this YouTube video where a 4th grader speaks to the Princeton Public Schools’ Board of Education about autism. He said, “I have autism and I’m not broken.” You will cheer with pride for a stranger and his parents when you watch this boy speak. I hope this video goes viral.

TART CHERRY SHIRLEY TEMPLE

We’ve been on a tart cherry juice kick lately. It’s supposed to be really good for you. However, they don’t call it TART cherry juice for nothing.

That’s why this Tart Cherry Shirley Temple recipe caught my eye. The addition of some orange juice would definitely mellow it out a little.

(image: Food Network)

POETRY MOMENT