Happy List: #362 – A Pretty Happy Home

Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I’m glad you’re here.

This week on the blog I shared the freshly painted ceiling on our front porch. That basic plywood ceiling has never looked so good. Total game changer.

I also, finally, shared the reveal of our home gym. I like to sit with things before I write about them to make sure they work. I must say, it feels a little pretentious to even say that we have a home gym. Like we are fancier than we actually are. We’re still us but maybe eventually with stronger muscles. Haha!

I know you have plenty of options for how you spend your time. Thank you for choosing to spend part of it here. It makes my day to share things with you that interested me, made me smile, or made me think this week. I hope it makes your day too. If you want to connect, and I hope you do, you can always comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also reach out on Instagram or Facebook.

Now, let’s get to the Happy List!

MUSTARD

It really is a shame that it’s so hard to change the color of our kitchen cabinets because I’d like to have mustard-colored cabinets like these in the deVol showroom for a season. They look so warm and happy. It would be like getting a hug from your kitchen every time you have to make dinner.

More pictures of this space can be found here.

(image: deVol Kitchens via Town and Country Living)

SOCIAL BATTERY PIN

Can you imagine if everyone wore a social battery pin? Do you think we’d understand each other a little better? Hope springs eternal.

It would make for a cute and funny gift for the introverts in your life. Saw it on Amazon.

(image: Amazon)

WARA SCULPTURES

This week I learned that wara is rice straw. This straw is what is left over after rice is harvested from rice paddies in Japan.

There is an art festival in Japan this month showcasing gigantic sculptures made from wara. Now THAT is something I’d enjoy seeing in person. See more photos of the sculptures in this My Modern Met article.

(image: via My Modern Met)

P.S. If you want to know how rice is grown and harvested using modern mechanization, this 10-minute YouTube video was interesting. The ironic thing about this process was that for all the drone and AI technology, they still use coal-powered furnaces to process the rice. If you want to know how rice is grown and harvested by hand, this shorter 3-minute video was informative.

CAT WREATH

I appreciate the heck out of a simple, well-executed idea like this cat wreath by Shaken Together Life.

Directions here.

(image: Shaken Together Life)

GHOSTLY

I am so glad there are people in the world who make fun Halloween decorations like these ghost windows by Jenna Sue Design. This is more of a commitment than I can handle, but man, you’d make the whole neighborhood smile.

Many of you won’t think the “commitment” is a big deal, so see how she did it with poster board here.

(image: Jenna Sue Design)

LANDFILL THRIFT STORE

There is a landfill in California, Lamb Canyon Landfill, that has started pulling useable items out of the landfill and selling them in an onsite thrift store.

The idea is that people throw away things all the time that are actually still fine to use. Landfill workers have to sort items anyway to make sure hazard items don’t make it into the landfill. If they pull out useable items to sell then less things make it into the landfill. Bikes are $6. Workout equipment $5. Grills $12. The proceeds support environmental programs.

I don’t know how many landfills do this, but the one closest to us does not.

Read more about it here.

(image: Madison Aument for LAist)

CARDIGAN

A couple of weeks ago I bought this dark green cardigan from Target. I finally got a chance to wear it yesterday when the weather cooled down. I was the nicest dressed person in Home Depot. Ha!

The styling in this picture doesn’t do it justice, so ignore that.

The great thing about this cardigan is that the V-neck isn’t too deep, so you can wear it without an undershirt and still be work appropriate. I sized down so that it was a little more fitted and thought it would be great for the holidays…or Home Depot.

(image: Target)

CHICKEN KATSU BOWL

I made this Chicken Katsu Bowl recipe from Half Baked Harvest for the first time last week. It’s definitely something I’ll make again. Handy Husband especially liked how the edamame was flavored.

Don’t skip the pickled ginger though. It adds a freshness or brightness to the dish that it really needs. I also added more fresh veggies – extra cucumber and grated fresh carrot.

(image: Half Baked Harvest)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

This excerpt from Louise Erdrich’s book The Painted Drum made me suck in my breath with its poignancy. I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind.

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.”

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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