Happy List: #387
Hello and happy Good Friday for those of you celebrating. I’m happy to see each and every one of you here.
We start our Spring Break today. I know it seems late compared to many parts of the U.S., but along our part of the East Coast, Spring Break is always over Easter.
This week on the blog felt like a busy one – in a good way! I shared the daffodil wall I’m creating along the front portion of our property. I know I could buy bulbs and finish this project in one go, but there’s something romantic about slowly adding to the wall over time.
I also finally shared photos of the new and improved front door and entryway to our house. I mean that in a literal and figurative way. There was a problem with the front door that needed to be fixed. The curtains were just a bonus. I’ll share photos of the outside once I get the front porch dressed up for summer.
The Happy List (and this blog, really) is focused on the lighter side of life. I hope that you leave here today feeling inspired, encouraged, and maybe you even learned a thing or two. I absolutely welcome the opportunity to connect with you and hear what you’re doing and how you’re feeling. If you want to reach out, you can always comment on this blog post or email me here. You can also reach out on Instagram or Facebook.
Here’s the Happy List!
RUSTIC CHARM
This covered hangout area is full of inspiring details. The flowers along the step, the wall that doubles as shelving, the beams, the window to the kitchen area, separate seating areas, and the use of plants to help define spaces.
If you like this, you’ll love the fireplace that’s out of frame in this picture. Check it out here.
(image: Laura Moss Photography via Town and Country Living)
P.S. Pictures of spaces like this don’t make me feel bad or that my home is less than. I know I’m not going to have a space exactly like this. However, there’s usually an element from a photo that I might be able to incorporate into my own home as I slowly make a space that’s uniquely us.
INTRIGUED
I am intrigued by this planter idea from Brian Patrick Flynn via HGTV. I’ve seen people plant things, especially ferns, in tree stumps. I haven’t seen them put a log on pin legs and use it as a planter, though.
We have a whole bunch of logs that haven’t been cut up yet for firewood, and most of them are rotten in the middle. That’s why the tree came down. That would make hollowing out a log easier.
Should I make one? Can I do it without a lathe?
(image: Robert Peterson, Rustic White Photography | From Brian Patrick Flynn via HGTV)
COPPER
I am so curious about copper countertops. I could ROCK those in my kitchen.
This is a deVOL kitchen, and I haven’t met a deVOL kitchen that I don’t love. You can see more pictures here.
(image: deVOL via The Nordroom)
CARROT CAKE PANCAKES
‘Tis the season for carrot cake. Jessica Gavin has put her spin on the dessert with Carrot Cake Pancakes.
I’ll admit, I’m skeptical of the nuts in this recipe as it relates to the pancake batter, but I’m willing to take one for the team to see if my skepticism is unfounded or not. It’s the least I could do for culinary science.
(image: Jessica Gavin)
HELP OUR LIBRARIES
If you love libraries as much as I do, you’ll appreciate this easy list from the American Libraries Association of things you can do to support libraries in the U.S. right now.
It breaks it down into tasks that take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and longer. None of the 10 items on this list costs money. Consider it your good deed for the day!
So far, I’ve done #1, 2, 4, 5, and 8.
(image: I Love Libraries)
P.S. If you love books and libraries, I Love Libraries is a great website resource for you. The amount of time I’ve spent in libraries alone and with my kids over the years….Gosh, I couldn’t even estimate the hours.
EASTER BUNNY BAG CLIPS
These bunny bag clips from Sky Lark House are so precious! They take a teensy bit of sewing knowledge (aka more than I have).
What I especially love about this idea is that it is adaptable for different holidays. Hearts for Valentine’s, trees for Christmas, pumpkins for Halloween, etc.
Get the step-by-step directions here.
(image: Sky Lark House)
TENSION ROD HACK
If you’ve ever had a shower curtain on a tension rod fall down at the most inopportune time and scare the life out of you, this tip from The Grit and Polish is for you.
I’m not going to spoil it, but it’s easy and does not involve drilling into your tile or the sides of your shower. This is something Handy Husband would have come up with because it involves science.
Check it out here.
(image: The Grit and Polish)
OBSOLETE MIDDLE AGES OCCUPATIONS
We worry about what jobs artificial intelligence will eliminate. This is not a new problem. Jobs have become obsolete since there were jobs.
Medievalists have a list of obsolete occupations from the Middle Ages. For instance, have you heard of a Pinder? This is the person who would fetch stray animals that wandered away from a farm.
How about an Ale-wife? This does not mean you were married to an alcoholic. But you might have been. Ale-wives were the women in villages who made all the ale that folks drank.
Learn more about a wide variety of obsolete jobs here. It will make you thankful that you’re living in the 21st century. I know that sounds like a stretch, but it’s true!
(image: British Library MS Royal 10 E. IV, f.114v via Medievalists)
HAM AND CHEESE CROISSANTS
If you have leftover Easter ham, you might want to try The Pioneer Woman’s Ham and Cheese Croissant recipe. It uses store-bought puff pastry! Puff pastry is not only easy, but makes everything seem fancy.
(image: The Pioneer Woman)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
“We’re often led to believe that getting older is in itself somehow a betrayal of our idealistic younger self, but sometimes I think it might be the other way around. Maybe the younger self finds it difficult to inhabit its true potential because it has no idea what that potential is. It is a kind of unformed thing running scared most of the time, frantically trying to build its sense of self – This is me! Here I am! – in any way that it can. But then time and life come along, and smash that sense of self into a million pieces. And then comes the reassembled self, the self you have to put back together. You no longer have to devote time to finding out what you are, you are just free to be whatever you want to be, unimpeded by the incessant needs of others.” – Nick Cave
Thank you for reading today’s Happy List.
Be good to yourself and others this weekend. Happy Easter!
I’ll see you back here on Monday.
