Happy List: #438

Hey There! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It is so nice of you to stop by!

This week on the blog, I shared the changes I made that make our utility room, or back porch, as we call it, more functional.

We also started a new project! Phase 2 of our fieldstone wall project has begun, and it is a doozy. There will be plenty of social media updates on this project, so be sure to follow along there, too.

I don’t take for granted that you’re spending part of your day here, and I hope the Happy List is a bright spot in your day. If you’d like to reach out, and I hope you do, please comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also direct message me on Instagram or Facebook. (P.S. I am much better at answering emails and Instagram DMs than I am at anything on Facebook.)

Here’s the Happy List!

STAINED GLASS

The stained glass hanging in this window charmed the heck out of me this week. What a happy little moment.

See more pictures of this room at Domino.

(image: Paul Cozzi and Third Wall Photography for Domino)

MOST MISPELLED WORDS

I can’t find the original data, but Mental Floss and other outlets are reporting the most mispelled words by U.S. state as determined by Google search trends and research conducted by Unscramblerer.com.

The list surprised the heck out of me. You will never guess the words.

P.S. The word I can never spell is Szechuan. What’s yours?

OWLS RECLAIM COAL MINE

Owls and other wildlife have reclaimed an abandoned coal mine in England that ceased operations fifty years ago.

The site is owned by a town, and many of the buildings on the site are listed on a historic register. No word on whether or not the town has long-term plans for the site other than this rewilding.

The pictures of these majestic owls soaring above the wild roses made my heart sigh with pleasure.

(image: Andrew Mason via Good News Network)

WATCHED, LISTENED, LISTENED

60 Percent Screw via 99% Invisible – This is a MUST LISTEN. It’s all about materials standardization, which turned out to be super interesting. More importantly, the post was really about soft power as it relates to countries and industries. It was eye-opening.

The winner of this potato chip taste test surprised me. I want to conduct my own research. I think this would be a fun thing to do as a family, or the next time we have people over for dinner.

How to make flowers float with a nail. What?!?

MILAN DESIGN WEEK

I would have enjoyed being in Milan to see the city decorated with elaborate balloon installations for Design Week. Can you imagine looking up and seeing this?

See more of the balloon installations in this Design Milk article. The slide!

(image: 10 Corso Como via Design Milk)

AUTHOR OWNED BOOKSTORES IN THE U.S.

AP News has a great article about a handful of authors who own bookstores in the U.S., including Judy Blume and George R.R. Martin.

I listened to a podcast a while back about Jeff Kinney’s bookstore. He said it’s basically a bad investment, but he’s doing it because he loves books, supporting authors, and this bookstore can help revitalize an area.

(image: Panagiotis Mouzakis for AP News)

FOOT CREAM THAT WORKS

At the risk of sharing too much information, my best friend laughs manically every time we get a pedicure because the things the manicurist does to remove the dead skin from my heels are unhinged. Think cheese grater.

I was influenced by social media to try this urea cream. If you’re like me and don’t know what urea does at what percentages, you can read about it here.

I kid you not, within three days of applying this urea cream day and night, my dry feet were noticeably better. So much so that Handy Husband commented. I have a hard time keeping up with the twice-a-day regimen, but I have been consistent at applying it at night for a month, and my feet are remarkably better. Not 100% yet, but getting there. It’s the best product I’ve yet to try.

(image: Amazon)

FLAG ART

If you’d like to make some patriotic decor for America’s 250th, don’t forget you can cross-stitch on a metal sifter, or anything with wire mesh.

Directions here.

CHICKEN SALAD FOR CELERY ENTHUSIASTS

This chicken salad recipe from Smitten Kitchen cracked me up this week. Okay, it wasn’t the actual recipe, but the recipe rationale, which I support, that made me laugh. I do love a good crunch in a chicken salad.

I also enjoy grapes and fennel in chicken salad. Anyone else?

(image: Smitten Kitchen)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Among the things I most cherish about science is the way it anneals curiosity. True curiosity is an open wonderment at what something is and how it works without emotional attachment to the outcome of observation and experiment. It is only when we cede emotional attachment that we can be truly free from judgment, for all judgment is feeling — usually some species of fear — masquerading as thought. And when we judge, we cannot understand. True curiosity is therefore a form of love, because, as the great Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh so plainly and poignantly put it, “understanding is love’s other name.”  – Maria Popova

Thank you for reading this week’s Happy List.

Be good to yourself and others this weekend.

I’ll see you back here on Monday.

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