Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It is a pleasure to see you here.
This week on the blog, I shared the solar lights that are lighting up my nights. They bring me year-round joy. Most of them are also linked in one place on our Amazon Storefront.
I also shared the most important post of the year, so far, Lemon Curd S’mores. Do not miss out on trying this delectable creation. Roast a marshmallow over your stove burner if you have to. You won’t regret it.
The Happy List is meant to be a good time filled with things that inspired me this week. As always, 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 limit the time I spend on Facebook, so it may take me some time to respond to any DMs there.)
Here’s the Happy List!
THE COOLEST WOOD BENCH
Folks, I have not been imaginative enough about the half a dozen wood (!) benches we have built in the last twenty years. Look closely at the back of this bench. See how the two pieces are separated by that curve? What a neat detail. I don’t need one, but I need one. You know?
I’m sure the flowers in this garden are lovely, too, but I got distracted by the bench. See more photos of this home and its gardens here.
(image: Alister Thorpe for House and Garden UK)
NO BORDERS MAP QUIZ
Here is a free, fun, and harder-than-it-looks map game from Brilliant Maps. You have to click on the U.S. states, and there are no borders.
Just hope that Rhode Island is the last one you get because it’s so tiny. Ha!
(image: Screenshot Brilliant Maps)
ART ABOVE A DOOR
If our house had taller ceilings, I’d be all over hanging art above the door like in this home. I also like it when art is hung lower to the floor.
More photos of this home can be found here.
(image: via The Nordroom)
BETTER-TIMED CROSSWALK
A teenager (a teenager!) invented a crosswalk system that analyzes how fast pedestrians are crossing and adjusts the traffic signals to give pedestrians more time if necessary. He did this because he realized his grandparents could not walk as fast as younger pedestrians, and crosswalks had become dangerous for them to cross safely.
What a smart and thoughtful invention for people of all abilities. Young people like this give me so much hope for the future. Read more about it here.
(image: via Nice News)
ABSURDIST BASKETMAKER
I’ll bet that no high school career counselor has ever suggested “absurdist basketmaker” as a profession, but that’s exactly what Lewis Prosser is. His basket costumes are used in storytelling, cultural celebrations, and plays. Learn more about him and his creations here.
Between basket costumes and crosswalk inventions, there really are a lot of career options out there!
(image: via This is Colossal)
ELEVATED MEN’S SHORTS
If the man in your life needs to branch out from cargo shorts, Handy Husband has two pairs of these waffle-knit shorts, and I love how they look on him. He only cares that they are comfortable. (Typical!)
They are slightly nicer looking than your average comfy shorts, so he can wear them with a polo shirt and look fairly dapper. He’s had these shorts for exactly one year now, and they still look great. Although it looks like the black ones went through the wash with one of my tissues. I have got to start checking my pockets!
He wears a size large in a 7-inch inseam.
CORN, AVOCADO, QUINOA SALAD
This salad from Pinch of Yum had me at marinated tomatoes, as our tomato plants are starting to burst with ripe tomatoes.
I also love how the recipe author fully admits to not liking quinoa, except in this recipe. I like quinoa best added to other things, too. I plan on trying this recipe this weekend.
(image: Pinch of Yum)
POETRY MOMENT
The Clearing by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Already the river is lighter in color,
less brown, less turbid, more
translucent. Just yesterday
the currents were thick with mud
and logs, needles and sticks
and bits of once-living debris.
Now that the furious flood has lost
its force, the gravel and sand
have begun their settling.
Whatever was floating now rests
on the banks and all that is left
suspended in the water
is what is most fine.
Soon, even that will sink
and the water will be clear again.
I, too, have felt the gift of slowing,
how it invites a sedimentation
of all I try to carry—the silt of my stories,
the muck of the world.
Like a river, the more calm I am,
the more clear I can become.
No magic, just a matter of physics.
How natural it is, the clearing.
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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