• the perk of decanting laundry detergent in a modern country laundry room with inset shelves and wainscoting
    cleaning

    The Perk of Decanting Laundry Detergent

    At the risk of romanticizing the chore of laundry, I have discovered there is a perk to decanting laundry detergent. The perk is I dislike doing laundry a little bit less when my laundry detergent is in a pretty bottle or my stain remover is in a glass spray bottle. Or perhaps, since I’m giving optimism a whirl these days, it’s better to say I enjoy doing laundry a little bit more now that I’ve started decanting my laundry detergent. Yes, optimism always sounds better. Two things have contributed to this laundry work perk. First, by decanting laundry detergent from a bigger container into a smaller, prettier container, I’m more…

  • feet on the lake on the happy list
    Uncategorized

    Spring Break 2023

    Hi Friends! I hope you had a great Easter weekend. Just a heads up that I am taking the week off the blog because it is finally Spring Break! I guarantee you I’m more excited than the kids. We will be spending time with friends this week, so I’m looking forward to catching up with them. If you’d like something to read this week, let me recommend one of the following: The Silly Thing We Do That I Love So Much 7 Funny Truths About Moving Check Out These Old Photos Of Our Home 10 Must See Places In Ireland If You Like Castles and Nature As always, thank you…

  • easter table with tulips and embroidered napkin with easter egg on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #296

    Welcome to the Happy List and happy early Easter to those of you celebrating! This week on the blog I shared some fun gardening finds. I’m very excited to see plants blooming and the grass turning green again where we live. It’s such a welcome sight after the dreary winter. I also reshared a funny story from the archives about the time when my kids got to throw eggs filled with paint in a park in Ireland. I’d love to know if you can relate to the parents in that story. Were you like me and wary of the whole situation? Were you the parent who planned this activity a…

  • egg painting kids activity using paint filled eggs thrown at a canvas
    Crafts

    From The Archives: Egg Painting

    Easter is almost here and I thought this was a good time to share a classic post from the archives about the time I learned what egg painting was all about. This learning experience ended up being eggcellent and it happened while we lived in Ireland and our children attended a Montessori-based elementary school. Enjoy! On the list of superficial worst nightmares, kids throwing paint ranks pretty high for me. Twenty kids age 4 to 11 filling eggshells with paint and throwing the eggs (hopefully) at a canvas? What could possibly go wrong?!?! Oh, I could think of one or a million things! Especially when I saw there was a bottle…

  • ceramic herb markers from clay hive co via etsy fun gardening finds
    gardening and landscape

    10 Fun Gardening Finds

    Friends, I am delighted to dig into today’s topic and share 10 fun gardening finds with you. This is an aspirational post for me because I’m delusional convinced that I might grow to enjoy gardening if fun and pretty things are involved. I’m not a one trick peony, I mean, pony, so it could happen, right? By the way, I’m using the term gardening loosely here. If it has to do with plants and I thought it looked neat then it landed on the list. Here are 10 fun gardening finds that caught my eye. COPPER TRELLIS I was today years old when I learned a circular copper trellis was a…

  • sheet music easter eggs on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #295

    Hi! Welcome to today’s Happy List on this last day of March! This week on the blog I shared how one-lane roads and bridges charm me and give me hope for humanity. I realize that’s a lot of pressure to put on an inanimate object but that’s where we’re at. Ha! I also shared pictures of our newly completed laundry room. I’m feeling very happy with how that space turned out. As always, I love hearing from you! It makes my day. It makes your day. It’s also part of the magic that keeps this blog running. You can always comment on this blog post or send an email here.…

  • modern country laundry room in a colonial farmhouse with wainscoting stained glass horse art basket wall and inset wall shelves
    decorating,  DIY

    A Modern Country Laundry Room For Our Colonial Farmhouse

    If a modern country laundry room can be a thing, that’s what we created for our Colonial Farmhouse. The transformation of this modern country laundry room only took us 3 months, 13 days, and, oh fine…a while. It took us a good long while to finish. Either this project was more tedious than we originally anticipated or we actually found a life and hobbies outside of working on this house. Yeah…you’re not going to believe we have actual hobbies, so this project was probably just tedious…as all good projects are. Almost four years ago our laundry room looked like this. Sexy, wasn’t it? That photo was taken on the day…

  • the charm of one-lane roads and bridges one lane road under railroad tunnel
    travel

    The Charm of One-Lane Roads and Bridges

    The charm of one-lane roads and bridges gets me every time. We currently live in an area with a seemingly high number of one-lane roads and bridges. One-lane roads and bridges permit two-way travel but are not typically wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. This means the vehicles have to slow their roll and take turns. What a novel concept in this dog-eat-dog world. To many people, one-lane roads and bridges are inefficient and dangerous. For sure, they can be and it goes without saying that you need to approach one with caution because you are not the only car on the road, buster! However, I’d hazard…

  • marbled faux easter eggs on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #294

    Hello, hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I’m delighted you’re here. This week on the blog I discussed a very niche quirk of old houses. Some old homes, like ours, have field stones or bricks in between the wood studs. These aren’t stone walls in the traditional sense. There’s nothing structural about these stones. In this blog post, I discuss why this might have been done. To keep things interesting around here, I also shared a blog post about how to reuse a Basmati rice bag. These burlap bags are awesome and too good to throw away! As always, I love hearing from you! It makes my day. It…

  • 14 ways to reuse a basmati rice bag including using it as a library book tote bag
    cleaning

    14 Ways To Reuse a Basmati Rice Bag

    Have you ever wondered about all the ways to reuse a basmati rice bag? Have you ever bought rice in one of these bags? Royal brand basmati rice is sold in the neatest burlap bag. It has handles. It has a zipper. It has neat typography. It has bold colors. It can hold at least 20 pounds. In short, it’s amazing and something that could definitely be reused. Here are 14 ways to reuse a basmati rice bag. 1. Turn it into wall art. 2. Use it as a grocery shopping bag. 3. Use it to store potatoes, onions, and any other vegetable that needs ventilation. 4. It’s the perfect…