Happy List: #446

Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. It makes my day to have you visit.

This week on the blog, I shared the new “parking spot” we installed at our house. It’s for horse parking only. Check it out here. I also revealed my first fall craft of the season. To be fair, it might be my only fall craft. You can take a peek at my creation here.

The Happy List is meant to be a good time for all and is filled with things that inspired me or piqued my curiosity 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!

GARDEN ROOM

For the record, I would giddily and gratefully take this “garden room” for my kitchen.

It is a basement garden room in a 19th-century home in Vermont, and you can see more photos of this home here.

(image: William Waldron for Frederic Magazine)

RULER IDEA

If you’ve been collecting rulers or measuring sticks, here’s a cute way to use them. This crate looks new to me, but you could make some really neat crates with old measuring sticks!

If you don’t want to cut your measuring sticks down, you could make a long, skinny crate to use as an epic table centerpiece filled with mini pumpkins and gourds for fall. I can totally picture it. Can you?

(image: Jenny’s Cookies)

SKINNY ISLANDS

In a Dutch town called Loosdrecht, the residents live on tiny strips of land within a lake. They don’t live around the lake. They are in the middle of the lake.

The strips of land are what remain after peat harvesting declined due to the rise of coal power.

See more fascinating photos and learn about the town here. The strips of land make a lot more sense when you learn about how peat was harvested in that article.

(image: Core 77)

EUROPA OR FRYING PAN?

In a now long-archived post on X/Twitter, NASA shared this picture. Eight of the photos are of frying pans by Christopher Jonassen. One of the photos is of Europa. Can you guess which one is Europa?

I’ll put the answer after the picture. I got it wrong. Ha!

(image: NASA via X/Twitter)

Europa is the first photo in the second row per The Journal.

LEGO MRI SCANNER

Grab your tissues for this story!

Since 2023, LEGO has donated more than 10,000 LEGO MRI Scanner sets to hospitals and health professionals around the world. The toy helps children (one million and counting) understand what they are going to experience when they receive an MRI. Clinicians report a reduction in anxiety and the need for sedation during the MRI after children play with the LEGO set. That’s the power of education through play.

Read more about it here. There’s a video, too.

(image: LEGO)

PRIME FOR YOUNG ADULTS

FYI – Amazon Prime for young adults offers students with a .edu email address free Prime for six months and then half off for the rest of the year.

This may be helpful if you have a kiddo away at college and they text you for your Prime password so they can buy shampoo. It’s never just shampoo.

Check it out here.

LEAF STAMPING

If you have a hankering to try leaf stamping on wood, it works better with fresh leaves, so try this craft before the leaves start to turn this fall.

Get the directions here.

BRASS PUMPKIN CANDLE HOLDER

I really like the simplicity of these brass pumpkin candle holders at Pottery Barn. Specifically, the shape of the medium-sized one.

I’ll be thinking about whether I can recreate the look for less.

(image: Pottery Barn)

CARAMELIZED GRAPE AND BALSAMIC TART

Normally, I share recipes I’ve made or plan to make. I’m SO curious about this one, but not sure I’m brave enough to try it. Who wants to try it and report back to the class?

It’s a caramelized grape and balsamic tart. There’s even balsamic vinegar in the homemade whipped cream! Get the recipe over at Better Homes and Gardens.

(image: Carson Downing | Food Styling: Holly Dressman | via BHG)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“Most of us live in a world where more and more places and things are signposted, labelled, and officially “interpreted.” There is something about all this that is turning the reality of things into virtual reality. It is the reason why walking, cycling and swimming will always be subversive activities. They allow us to regain a sense of what is old and wild… by getting off the beaten track and breaking free of the official version of things… [to access] that part of our world which, like darkness, mist, woods or high mountains, still retains most mystery.” – Roger Deakin (via The Marginalian)

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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