This is Gretchen, and I’m always thrilled to see her because her brain sponges up such satisfying facts. For example:
Were you aware that some studies have shown that when women are looking to reproduce, they’re attracted to men who smell biologically disparate? However, when they get pregnant, they’re attracted to men who smell like family, ostensibly because family will be more likely to protect the offspring. BUT! The pill mimics pregnancy. Which could mean that some types of pill cause you to fall in love with a man who is biologically similar, reproduce with him, and then find his smell unattractive when you’ve gone off the pill, sometimes leading you to break things off with him. What the what?
Gretchen is good for a few dozen of those life-altering facts over an evening, which is why I always pull her down next to me at dinner.
Gretchen also happens to be the author of the bestselling Happiness Project, and the soon-to-be-released Happier at Home (which will hit shelves September 4 and is now available for pre-order), both of which document Gretchen’s curiosity about ways to improve her life — she also has a site dedicated to the process that has some useful suggestions. The Go Mighty team and the gracious Isabel Kallman hosted a book release party for Happier at Home in New York last week, and some of our favorite women gathered to celebrate happiness.
Laura documented all the details over here. There was champagne, and donuts (Donuts 2012!), and lots of women laughing, which is the best.
There were also gift bags. Want one?
Bliss supplied a generous helping of good-smelling body and bath products, and Anthropologie gave us pretty wall calendars.
We also have five copies of Happier at Home to give away. To enter, just tell us what makes you happy in comments. In fact, will you please tell us three things? I like to read them. Fingers crossed for you.
Top and bottom images by Mighty Girl. Other images by Sheri Silver from www.sherisilver.com.
UPDATE: Comments close Monday, August 13. Until then, keep ’em coming:
Mighty Girl 
Dirt in my Skirt while I barefoot garden in the hot steamy earth makes me happier than I ever expect, every single time!
Harvesting, Drying, and Jarring my own fresh herbs to use all winter makes me happy as mint julep!
Melody Gardot on pandora while I watch my kids do the Full Moon @ Midnight Dance out in the yard every month, their laughter and imagining the future Thanksgiving Day conversations about “Remember When…” makes Smile Bigger than the Man in the Moon!
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3 Happy Things:
* Reading to my sons on our porch couch, ideally from one of the Disney storybooks (for example Peter Pan) of my childhood
* Leaving a sleeping household for a morning slow-jog in 60-degree weather (like today, not the previous beastly heat and humidity in Upstate NY)
* Naptime, my 4-year-old’s and mine, simultaneously
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1. Making the first friend after moving to a new place
2. Free samples in stores
3. When I go home and my mom makes the coffee before I get up.
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Masterpiece Mystery! (exclamation required) with a pot of tea. Pants optional.
A day alone in a new city with my camera. Coffee required.
Waking up with a happy dog nose in my face.
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1. A nap with my baby boy.
2. Seeing my husband’s face light up just as much as the baby’s when they see each other
3. The twenty minute walk I take each night with just my dog.
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Planning a trip somewhere I’ve never been. Cocktails with my best girl. Crawling into bed each night beside my best guy.
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1. Watching someone, anyone!, dance like there isn’t a soul in the world but themelves.
2. knowing that my move away from DC means I have reps in congress that can actaully, you know, represent me.
3. after so many years, finding the best smelling neck to snuggle my head in every night. and I’m not on the pill so it smells good for reals 🙂
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i am happiest when i am:
-reading books for pleasure (books!)
-playing ultimate frisbee (frisbee flinging!)
-giggling with friends (friends!)
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Getting in a productive day. Reading a wonderful book. Going out for brunch.
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#1) Connecting with people
#2) Helping others
#3) Knowing I’ve made a difference
And I love me some Bikram Yoga — because I connect and help there at my home studio; it’s kept me sane through 22 weeks of unemployment.
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1) My cat – how can an animal be so. damn. cute? Everyday. All the time.
2) My boyfriend who, even when I’m at my most obnoxious, somehow manages to say the exact right thing to bring me to my senses.
3) Taking pictures with my SLR camera that I’ve had for 13 years. Knowing I got the shot after the shutter clicks followed by the sound and feel of advancing the film is one of my highest forms of therapy.
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Snuggling with a fresh-from-the-bath baby is my idea of bliss. Points if they’re doing that cute baby snore.
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1. People doing things they don’t have to do in order to impress, entertain, please, or bring joy to others. Flash mobs singing/dancing definitely falls under this definition.
2. The smell of my boys as babies. I recently bought a new container of the Johnson and Johnson lavender lotion I put on them as babies and put it back on them, and was so happy.
3. Getting stuck into a good book. The kind where you should have gone to bed hours ago and you just keep flying through the pages.
4. The light at “magic hour”.
5. Those moments in life, occasionally, where everything just seems right and crystallizes into a memory right as you watch. This often happens to me with “magic hour” lighting, and sometimes a cocktail on a patio with beloved friends is also involved.
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1. Traveling with my son. It’s so fleeting, these moments, and then he’s grown and gone. We went to London, Paris, Munich this summer and then we’re headed to Mexico for Christmas this year alone…I love to see his eyes light up at all the “new, old stuff”.
2. Kayaking – something about being on the water, early in the morning, in Sausalito, with nothing but the wildlife is just liberating.
3. Being single. I’ve hit that point where I feel happy and free with no mans in my life. It’s become a conscious choice and I’m loving every minute of it. See #1, it’s temporary and finite. I will fall in love again someday, but for right now I’m super in love with me.
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What makes me happiest:
1) Love is always and forever more powerful than hate, rage, pain, fear, intolerance and ignorance.
2) Peace and joy are never any farther away from me than my breath, no matter what else is happening.
3) This world, as broken as it is, is the most marvelously beautiful and perfect miracle that has ever existed and I am SO GRATEFUL to be in it!
There are lots of specifics but in the end I think they all fall into one or more of those three. 🙂 Thanks for doing this, reading these comments is an ENORMOUS high! Never too much gratitude, appreciation, happiness and joy in the world.
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1. Watching my kids laugh at each other.
2. Working in my gardens.
3. A hot cup of green tea to start my day.
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Little bits of hedonism. Particularly good coffee and dessert out.
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Three happy things:
1. Riding my bike down the tree-lined streets of my neighborhood, seeing how long I can balance at stop lights.
2. Fish tacos and really great beer (especially hefeweizens!).
3. Spontaneous dance parties with my (brand! new!) husband.
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1. Swimming in my lake
2. Seeing my little boy smile and laugh
3. Visiting a new place (local or abroad!)
…the list goes on and on… 🙂
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Inspired by that little book 14000 things to be happy about (or something like that, I’ve been keeping a Word document list of stuff that makes me happy. It comes in handy on days when I’m particularly glum or ungrateful-feeling.
I’m gonna pick three with a random number generator, because that’s how I roll:
*giving my coworkers crap in an affectionate way (and getting it right back from them)
*those 99 cent watercolor trays
*good stories
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Lavender.
Key changes.
My mother’s laughter.
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Any of my preferred forms of exercise: dance/yoga/rock-climbing/running.
Oh, and love (in all forms). 🙂
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#1 Picking up my 3 year old from day care after a long day at work. He exclaims “Mama!” upon seeing me and runs to me excitedly with open arms.
#2 Biting into a chocolate eclair
#3 Arriving in a new place at the start of a long vacation
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1 – four part harmony
2 – the smell of tomato plants in the sun
3 – laughing without reservation
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1. Skinny dipping in Lake Michigan with old friends
2. Too much wine at dinner with new friends
3. Blueberry season
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McDonald’s french fries.
Hug from my Dad.
Clean sheets.
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Only three things?
1. My toddler daughter’s giggle — it makes my heart sing whenever I hear it.
2. The smell of my husband when he gets out of the shower. Shivers.
3. The ritual of making coffee each morning.
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1. The smell of my kids’ heads, especially when they are sweaty and grossly dirty.
2. The sound of their unabashed laughter.
3. The way my husband smells when he gives me a hug after working in the garden. Fresh air + his b.o. = my heaven.
Apparently I am a smells person!
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I am commenting before I read so not to be influenced.
What makes me happy?
1) belly laughs
2) a well written sentence
3) my cat snuggled next to me in the middle of a bad dream
And so much more. I am reading The Happiness Project –almost finished and have realized I am pretty happy. And that is happiness 🙂
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1- The smell of my new baby’s breath.
2-Chocolove chocolate bars, especially the peppermint one.
3- The way my almost 4 year old tells the baby “good morning sunshine!”
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1. clean sheets
2. participating in pay it forward at a starbucks drive through
3. 75 degree weather
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1. Waking up each morning , knowing that my pregnant belly (now healthy after a scary complication) is getting bigger and bigger, just as it should be.
2. The wrinkles at the outside corners of my husband’s eyes.
3. How soft my dog is in the morning when we snuggle.
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1. Snuggling up to read books with my super sweet boys.
2. Snuggling up next to my big boy (husband) and reading a book.
3. Swimming.
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1. sequins
2. glitter
3. other shiny stuff!
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In no particular order:
1. Looking at pictures of my best friend’s new baby
2. Hazelnut spread
3. Painting
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1. being with my kids
2. photographing a beautiful sunset
3. ice cream
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1. Laughing hysterically with my husband and our 18 month old son
2. Playing the piano
3. Laughing hysterically with my mom and my sister 🙂
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A clean kitchen
When my son does art projects at school
Running
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Happiness is being kneaded…that was a sign my mom had in my childhood kitchen. It makes me happy to see SO MANY commenters on your site. You go girl. Lastly, can we cheers a drunken cherry bomb the next time we meet up, or that lemonade you made…all sounds yum. And happy! Soon! XO!
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I’ll give you four: my four boys (ages 4, 4, 4 and 5). Currently running around the backyard and filling the neighborhood with the sounds of their laughter and screaming.
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3 Things that make me happy:
1. Sunshine after weeks of rain (and then rain after weeks of sunshine)
2. A few hours to myself with the sole purpose of exploring a new location and taking photographs
3. When one of my children says something unexpected and unintentionally hilarious
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my baby makes me happiest. i never would have thought that a baby would make me so happy.
being in switzerland and eating fondue with my family.
watching stupid tv with my husband.
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1. My kids having a moment together that I get to witness
2. My husband and I communicating something to one another that no one else gets
3. Laughing hard with good friends and family
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Finishing an excellent book that ends just the way it should.
That first cup of coffee when it’s made just right.
Sitting on the back porch with a book & a beverage in wonderful weather.
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1. Baths. I don’t take them very often but when I do, I always feel more relaxed – and happier!
2. Dandelions. I don’t care that they’re weeds. Yellow makes me happy; therefore, dandelions make me happy. (Plus, it’s usually a kid who gives them to me and if that doesn’t make you smile, you’re a grinch. Or allergic.)
3. Coffee. Good coffee.
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1. My morning coffee. Every day. 2. How much my kids love each other 3. A book that takes me to a whole new world. Recently both “Shadow And Bone” and “The Night Circus” did that, magnificently.
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1. The sound of rain on the roof above my attic bedroom.
2. When my kids are happily playing together.
3. The perfect lemon drop martini. Yum!
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My son! We had 2 years of heartache waiting for him and now we couldn’t be happier.
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My life feels a bit chaotic after the birth of my baby, even 6 months in. What makes me the most happy right now?
* A big gummy grin from my daughter first thing in the morning.
* Catching my husband look at me when he doesn’t think I’ll see him and recognizing love in his eyes.
* A cat curled up in my lap.
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1. Forests
2. Looking at the ocean
2. Fresh coffee brewing
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