Happy List: #448

Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. What a sight for sore eyes you are!

This week, I shared a Potato Chip Taste Test idea that you can do the next time you have friends over. It is seriously fun, easy, and tasty.

I also shared all of the cool dice sets I found while going down a rabbit hole on the Internet. Tuck these ideas away for the next time you need a unique gift.

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’m rarely on Facebook, so it may take me some time to respond to any DMs there.)

Please note: I’m taking a blog break until at least Labor Day. I’ll definitely be back with a fresh, new blog post the week after Labor Day, but maybe sooner. I haven’t decided yet!

Here’s the Happy List!

SERENE SCENE

My soul exhaled when I looked at this picture. The serenity! I could sit on the dock and stare at the water for ages.

More inspiring garden ideas can be found in this Homes to Love article. Warning: Don’t blame me if the pictures make you want to visit and/or move to Australia.

(image: Simon Griffiths via Homes to Love Australia)

IMAGINATION LIBRARY

If you’d like to donate to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, here’s the direct link.

The Imagination Library operates in Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. To date, it has donated over 330 million books.

A $9.25 donation seems fitting.

PUMPKIN PLANTER

If the thought of watering one more plant makes you groan, but you still want your front porch to look festive for fall, this idea from WM Design House might float your boat.

Nothing to tend to until it’s time to toss the pumpkin, and it still looks festive. I think this is supposed to be a centerpiece, but the idea still works. More inspiration can be found here.

(image: WM Design House)

REPLACEMENT GASKETS

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you can get replacement rubber gaskets for your tumblers and coffee cups. At some point, those things are nasty and not cleanable. Frankly, I don’t care how many tricks the internet has. Cleaning those gaskets is always maddening.

If you have a 20-oz Coleman tumbler from Walmart, they don’t make specific replacements for it. However, it has a universal lid, so the replacement rubber gaskets for the Yeti 20-0z tumbler fit.

(Maybe find a different color than black, though. Out-of-sight, out-of-mind is probably not a good thing when it comes to gunk on gaskets.)

COOPERATIVE

I really enjoyed reading about an area of Spain that is known for its employee-owned businesses.

“Mondragón Corporation is today the largest federation of worker-owned cooperatives in the world. It employs more than 70,000 workers across 92 cooperatives, many based in the town of the same name, making it the largest employer in the Basque Country and the fifth-largest private employer in Spain.”

The article explains how the cooperatives work, how they’ve changed in the last 75 years, and the pros and cons of this system. It was great food for thought.

(image: Peter Young via Reasons to be Cheerful)

SILVER TRAY WREATH

I can always count on Country Living for fantastic ideas. This wreath made from a silver tray is very neat and unique. You can find a tray at a thrift store for cheaper than you can buy a new wreath form.

Get the details here.

(image: Becky Luigart Stayner via Country Living)

LEFT-HANDED?

The theories and research into why a consistent percentage of humans (around 10%) remain left-handed is fascinating. There is usually an evolutionary reason why something consistently happens, and it often comes down to the survival of the species.

One thing researchers have noticed is that whichever arm the fetus starts moving first is a predictor of whether or not they will be right-handed or left-handed.

That said, my son is mixed-handed. He eats and writes with his left hand, but is sports dominant with his right hand. I was the mom at preschool saying, “I know he’s stacking those blocks with his right hand, but please let him use his left hand to write.”

Read the article in Quanta Magazine. It will make a fantastic dinner table conversation.

P.S. If you need me, I’ll be over here weeping because I found this old picture of my son when he played T-ball, and he’s practically grown up now.

DILL PICKLE-SEASONED PRETZELS

This pretzel recipe from Inspired by Charm seems as good a reason as any to drive way out of my way to track down a dill pickle spice from Trader Joe’s.

If I must embark on a side quest, let it be a delicious one!

(image: Inspired by Charm)

P.S. I’m not sure how it works, but you can get that Trader Joe’s dill pickle seasoning on Amazon. There’s also Hold the Pickle seasoning. McCormick’s makes a Grill Mates Pickle seasoning, but I don’t know if that one is too chunky or not for pretzels. I can’t tell from the picture, but I’m sure you can find it in your grocery store.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“I’m pretty sure the best answer to every problem can be encapsulated in one simple dictum.

You can use this dictum to meet all your problems, regardless of what they are, and create the best possible outcomes.

You’re not going to like it. It has different forms, but here’s one:

Do what has to be done, when it has to be done, and do it that way every time.

This is truly infuriating advice.”

– Read the rest of this “infuriating advice” (it’s good) by David at Raptitude here.

Thank you for reading this week’s Happy List.

Be good to yourself and others this weekend. 

I’ll see you back here after Labor Day (maybe a little longer), as I’m taking an end-of-summer blog break to relax and work on my stone wall. I realize those things seem contradictory. Just roll with it!

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