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A Pretty Happy Home

Life, DIY and Random Things That Make Me Smile

  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
    • Apparel and Shoes
    • Books
    • Crafts and Sewing
    • Decor
    • Furniture
    • Home Improvement
    • Kid Favorites
    • Kitchen
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
    • Apparel and Shoes
    • Books
    • Crafts and Sewing
    • Decor
    • Furniture
    • Home Improvement
    • Kid Favorites
    • Kitchen
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy

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happy list

Happy List: #187

Happy Halloween! Do you have big plans or no plans for Halloween? Somewhere in-between? I’m not sure what our plans are yet…still overthinking it! Ha!  This week on the blog I shared…

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October 30, 2020
Crafts, holidays

DIY Wood and Brass Hearts for Valentine’s Day

I have a lovely DIY to share with you today – wood and brass hearts! They are perfect when you’re looking for a subtle touch when it comes to Valentine’s…

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January 31, 2022
happy list

Happy List: #263

Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I’m glad you’re here. This week on the blog I reflected on Independence Day. I also shared some ideas on how to use…

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July 8, 2022
  • DIY fieldstone stairs building fieldstone stairs outdoors
    DIY

    Building Fieldstone Stairs: Part 3, The Reveal

    July 28, 2025 /

    Here’s the “tada” moment you’ve been waiting for, the reveal of our fieldstone stairs. If you’re just joining us, you can catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. It’s a rockin’ good time. The short story is we thought we’d see how hard it would be to build stairs out of natural fieldstone. This means using stones dug out of our backyard and used in their natural state. No clean edges. No uniform sizes. No idea how it will look when you’re done. Well, we had a vague idea. But it turned out even better than we imagined and, believe it or not, it wasn’t the…

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    annisa 8 Comments

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    happy list

    Happy List: #398

    July 25, 2025 /

    Hello, hello! This is the last Happy List of July. Can you believe how fast summer is flying by? It was Stairway to Heaven the Carriage House week on the blog. The blog is a snapshot in time of our lives, and this week we have been consumed with the building of stairs. You can catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed it. I’m crossing my fingers I will have the reveal ready for you on Monday! I’m so glad you are here. I hope the Happy List is a bright spot if your day and leaves you feeling inspired and encouraged! I absolutely enjoy connecting…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    February 24, 2023
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    Happy List: #381

    March 7, 2025
  • building fieldstone stairs DIY fieldstone stairs
    DIY

    Building Fieldstone Stairs: Part 2

    July 23, 2025 /

    Welcome back! We are building fieldstone stairs. This is a DIY project we’ve never attempted before and may never attempt again. We have just enough confidence, competence, and delusions to approach new projects with an “everything is figure-out-able” attitude. Today I’m going to overshare our process for building fieldstone stairs. Please note when I say fieldstone I mean actual stone taken out of the ground (my backyard) and used in its natural form. This is not stone purchased on a pallet from the stone quarry that has even, predictable dimensions. That would make this project infinitely easier – a concept with which we are wholly unfamiliar. Let’s get into the…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    DIY,  gardening and landscape

    Building Fieldstone Stairs: Part 1

    July 21, 2025 /

    My friends, it is time for our next project, building fieldstone stairs! Have we done this before? Nope. Is that going to get in the way of a good time? Maybe. This project needs a little context, so let’s step on up and get to it. Where will we be building fieldstone stairs? Outside, of course. There is a set of wood stairs in our backyard (4 steps) that we walk down to get to the first floor of the Carriage House. The stairs are set in the middle of a loosely stacked fieldstone wall and below a slightly out-of-level flagstone. Why we are replacing the old steps? For kicks.…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    Happy List: #397

    July 18, 2025 /

    Hi! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am so glad you are here. This week on the blog I shared the reveal of our Carriage House gym. Someone commented that they admired our tenacity in tackling this project. I love that word – tenacity. What a fantastic compliment. Speaking of persistence, we also celebrated our six year house anniversary! Six years of loving and working on this old house of ours! Time has flown by. I hope this Happy List leaves you feeling inspired and encouraged! In addition, I absolutely welcome the opportunity to connect with you and hear what you are doing and how you’re feeling. That’s a…

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    Happy List: #347

    June 7, 2024
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    September 3, 2021
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    colonial farmhouse

    Colonial Farmhouse Six Year Anniversary

    July 16, 2025 /

    Time flies when you’re restoring, renovating, and generally making a home! We have been the stewards of this colonial farmhouse for 6 years now. The anniversary was actually in June, but I was ankle deep in mortar dust with the Carriage House renovation. Besides, it’s really a blip, as is our ownership, in the grand scheme of this old gal’s 250(ish) year history. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I enjoy poetry. It is so relatable because it often captures what we are feeling but don’t know how to express with our own words. There’s a poem called Old Houses by Robert Cording. It…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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    October 4, 2021
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    DIY

    Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 10, Reveal For Now

    July 14, 2025 /

    It’s the big TADA or, as most refer to it, Reveal Day for our stone Carriage House gym! We have been working on this phase of the Carriage House gym expansion for four months! I have documented almost fifty individual work sessions on social media. Truthfully, it was more than that, but I spared you a bit of the tedium. I have no good or bad value to place on the amount of time this project has taken. It is what it is when you’re DIYing your way through your evenings and weekends. I can’t tell you what tv series is good to watch, but I can tell you my…

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    annisa 4 Comments

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    happy list

    Happy List: #396

    July 11, 2025 /

    Hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am so glad you are here. This week I shared an update on the ceiling of the Carriage House. I might have a reveal post for you soon! Then I shared pictures of how I’m using the vintage bottles we dug out of our backyard this spring. I had so much fun enjoying my house and delighting in these simple pleasures. I hope this Happy List leaves you feeling inspired and encouraged! In addition, I absolutely welcome the opportunity to connect with you and hear what you are doing and how you’re feeling. That’s a little bit selfish of me as I…

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    annisa 0 Comments

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    April 1, 2022
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    Vintage Bottle Bud Vases

    July 9, 2025 /

    A couple of months ago we dug up some vintage bottles from our backyard. Some folks have a garden in their backyard and dig up things like potatoes. We dig up vintage bottles. Perhaps we could trade? Anyway, it’s not that unusual to dig up “garbage” in the backyard of a really old home that existed before a person driving a big truck collected your bins of trash every Friday at 4 a.m. You can complain about a lot of things in modern society, but waste disposal ordinances seem like a good thing to me. The vintage bottles we found were in surprisingly good shape for having been buried for…

    read more
    annisa 4 Comments

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    Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 9, The Ceiling

    July 7, 2025 /

    We’ve discussed floors, walls, and now it’s time to discuss the Carriage House gym ceiling. You wouldn’t think a ceiling would be very interesting, but the Carriage House has a gorgeous ceiling. Trust me when I say, when you are laying on your back staring straight up while trying to bench press your body weight and the only thing you have to distract you from the strain of your questionable choices is the ceiling above you, you’ll be glad you took the time to make it look gorgeous. When I say gorgeous, I mean that in a rustic sort of way that’s appropriate for this building’s age and style. We’re…

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    annisa 2 Comments

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