Happy List: #419

Hi! Welcome to the Happy List and happy New Year. I’m delighted to see you here.

This week on the blog, the first post of 2026 was a more introspective one. I hope you had time to read it. If not, I’ll wait.

Then on Wednesday, I shared a fun decorating and crafting idea for Valentine’s Day, a grapevine heart garland. I do love celebrating love.

Thank you for choosing to spend a few minutes of your day here. I hope you have fun, learn something new, and leave feeling inspired. It truly makes my day to connect with you. If you want to reach out, please comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also direct message me on Instagram or Facebook.

Here’s the Happy List!

HAPPY KITCHEN

Dan Pelosi’s kitchen must be the happiest kitchen I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. How can you look at this and not smile?

If you enjoy color, your brain is going to light up seeing pictures of the rest of this home shown in Domino.

(image: Kate S. Jordan; Styling by Kate Berry; Design by Nick Spain at Studio Nick Spain; Architecture by Stephanie Lee at Lee Architecture Office; Building by William Tyroll at WKT Construction via Domino)

DID YOU KNOW?

Birders in the United States spend $107 billion per year. Billion with a B. At least, they did in 2022, according to this report. They spent $93 billion on equipment and land and $14 billion on travel.

I had no idea. None.

There are an estimated 340 million total people in the U.S., 96 million of them are birders over the age of 16. I am not one of them. Maybe I’m missing out?

Read the entire report here. It’s pretty interesting.

(image: Wikipedia)

WIKIFLIX

Have you heard of Wikiflix? It looks a bit like Netflix in format, but it’s all free movies that are in the public domain.

(screenshot: Wikiflix)

HOMEMADE AIR DRY CLAY

Did you know you can make your own air-dry clay? I haven’t tried it yet because I have a package that I bought and haven’t used yet, but One Little Project has a recipe that uses kitchen ingredients.

(image: One Little Project)

TUB SHROOM

If you are someone with long hair or you live with someone with long hair, please know that this “Tub Shroom” is the best drain catcher we’ve used for catching hair in the shower. Seriously. Best $14 we’ve spent in ages. It was worth FAR more to Handy Husband to not have to deal with this problem in a plumbing-related sort of way.

I don’t need to go into more detail, do I? Please say no because I will.

(image: Amazon)

UPSIDE DOWN HOUSE

An “upside-down house” is where the main living areas of a home are on the second floor to maximize the views. The bedrooms are then on the ground level.

Architect Brent Kendle designed this upside-down home. The article says that when he and his clients toured potential lots, they took a ladder with them and climbed the ladder to see which lots had the best view. What a fantastic idea! Read more about it in Phoenix Home and Garden.

(image: Kevin Brost via Phoenix Home and Garden)

P.S. A childhood friend lived in one of these upside-down homes. Their kitchen was on the second floor, and they had a great view from what I can remember!

Arguably, the views from our second-floor bedrooms are better than the views from our main level.

MOON TREES

An astronaut on Apollo 14 took 500 tree seeds to space in 1971. When the seeds returned to earth, they were planted in various places around the U.S. Except, no one kept official records of where all the ‘moon trees’ were planted.

I grew up near one that is planted in front of the Oregon State Capitol.

You can see if you live near a moon tree here. If you know of one that’s not on the list, NASA wants to know. They are trying to keep a list now. If you want to listen to a fascinating podcast about the moon trees, check out RadioLab.

(image: NASA)

GO GREEN

Every once in a while, I see a push for colored tubs, sinks, and toilets to make a comeback.

I don’t know where you find a tub like this, but I like the round feet on it.

(image: Jase Sullivan via Desire to Inspire)

P.S. Our house came with a blue tub in one of the bathrooms, so I’m on the fence regarding this topic.

CHILI CRISP

I’ve been on a quest to learn how to make our own chili crisp, since that seems to be our most-used condiment. We go through so much of it. Serving size? What’s that?

We put chili crisp on foods such as stir-fry, teriyaki, lentil soup, fried rice, ramen, and butter chicken. We even tried it on homemade mac and cheese.

I’ve been using this recipe from Chili Pepper Madness as a base. I consider recipes to be guidelines, not hard and fast rules, so I’ve been experimenting with using rice bran oil, sesame seeds, onion flakes, and chilis japones in place of some of the recipe’s ingredients.

(image: Chili Pepper Madness)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“You know what breaks me? When someone is visibly excited about a feeling or an idea or a hope or a risk taken, and they tell you about it but preface it with: ‘Sorry, this is dumb but…’

Don’t do that. I don’t know who came here before me, or who conditioned you to think you had to apologize or feel obtuse. But not here. Dream so big it’s silly. Laugh so hard it’s obnoxious. Love so much it’s impossible. And don’t you ever feel unintelligent. And don’t you ever apologize. And don’t you ever shrink so you can squeeze yourself into small places and small minds.

Grow. It’s a big world. You fit. I promise.”

– Owen Lindley (via)

Thank you for reading this week’s Happy List.

Be good to yourself and others this weekend. Dream big and laugh hard! 

I’ll see you back here on Monday.

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