Episode #117: Movie Houses

Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast. This week, we’re chatting movie houses, autumn decor of course, and we each share our favorite apps that are not photo or video apps. It’s October, so we’re sipping on our cinnamon teas. Thank you for listening. All right, let’s get into it.

Emma: Woohoo. Yeah, I feel like we don’t even need to put in the intro for the next few months that we’re talking about autumn decor because we’re talking in every episode. Yeah, it’s true. Pretty much, pretty much. It’s our thing.

Elsie: So our episode number, episode number 60, was our favorite movie houses, and we recorded that a while ago. I lived in a different house when we recorded that so that’s my time marker. So far, I’ve lived in three different houses since we recorded the podcast, so that’s how I keep track. Also in episode ninety-six, we did How to Nancy Meyers Your Home over the summer. Did you get a chance to listen to that one, Emma?

Emma: Not yet. I’m still catching up from summer ones, but I will say, and this is just a little preview, and it’s not going to happen super soon, but we’re working on a kind of special Nancy Meyers quiz that we’re just making for our readers. So that’ll be on our blog probably pretty soon, and we’ll link it a million times once we have it live. But it was just something fun because that was a really popular episode. So we wanted to add to that, I guess. 

Elsie: So, yeah, out of more than a hundred podcasts, these are some of my, definitely in my top ten favorite episodes we’ve done, just because we love movie houses and we’ve learned that so many of you love them as well. I’m not the only one who watches movies just for the houses, so we thought it would be fun to kind of do a few new ones this time.

Emma: So originally when we did the first episode of this house segment, I think it was my idea. I don’t want to take credit, but I’m pretty sure it was my idea. Elsie was like that’s kind of weird. Plus, what’s so strange about our podcast is it’s very visual. Everything we’re talking about is very visual, even though this is a podcast, so you can’t see anything. So we highly recommend that you go look up these movie houses while you’re listening to this podcast. If you’re able to, if you’re out jogging or you’re driving your car, obviously don’t. But if you’re able to look up the movie houses, while we’re talking about that, it will probably enhance your listening experience.

Elsie: One hundred percent. We will link to the movies in the show notes. So if you need to go back later, you can go to the show notes and look up all the houses. We can’t put pictures from the movies on our blog because a time or two we got these little like, give us lots of money for using our picture letters, and we’re just not going to mess with that anymore.

Emma: Yeah, our lawyer was like, don’t do that and we’re like, OK, OK, we got it. 

Elsie: But it’s so easy to just go on Pinterest and search these movies. I searched movie interiors all the time and also shout out there is a blog that does this. Most of their whole blog, it’s called Hooked on Houses. I love it. It is a very good blog for looking up movie houses, and they also do like trivia and backstory. A lot of movies are shot in two or three different houses that are made to be one house, they tell you things like that, and I think it’s really interesting and cool.

Emma: Yeah, I think that’s fun, especially because like I would personally if I was on a vacation to a place that had certain houses, I’m always interested to see things like that if there’s tours available. When we went to Iceland years ago, take a picture, especially if you’re such a fan. But we went to a bunch of Game of Thrones places when we went to Iceland.

Elsie: Oh, You did. I didn’t know that.

Emma:  Yeah, my friend, Michelle had looked it up like, oh, this was where they shot, you know, whatever scene. I think that stuff’s really fun if you’re a fan of a movie or fan of a TV show. So let me tell you my first one and it is a Nancy Meyers.

Elsie: Nice.

Emma: It’s It’s Complicated. Are you a fan of that one?

Elsie: Big time, of course.

Emma: Ok, good. Yeah, me too. I feel like it fits right in with my Croissants Fridays, which our listeners know I’m obsessed with having a croissant every Friday. It’s my special thing. She makes those in the movies.

Elsie: I love that scene, but I’m also like, who’s going to make croissants from scratch late at night when they’re drunk? That’s a stretch for me.

Emma: This character and that’s why you’re like ok I get your 

Elsie: It was very sexy.

Emma: It was very sexy. Yeah, which I think Meryl Streep’s very sexy generally. But yeah, that scene is very sexy, very like giggly sexy. I really do love the house in It’s Complicated. Google it, if you haven’t. But my favorite is the kitchen. It is one hundred percent kitchen porn. It’s funny because it’s very traditional. I would say it’s kind of a more mature look, and it’s a little bit feels kind of like West Coast Southern California vibes, but I just really love it. It. It has pans hanging up, and it has an island, I feel like most movie kitchens have an island, probably just for shooting purposes, but I love that kitchen. I love the vibe of it. I feel like it just feels like a real cozy family house, but also high-end and nice but not so precious you couldn’t live in it. I just really love the vibe, like the feeling of it. I would like to visit that house. I would totally live in that house and it’s just a good feeling.

Elsie: I totally agree. So when I first watched It’s Complicated, I had read that it was one of the top Nancy Meyers kitchens and in the movie how she’s building the kitchen through the whole movie with Steve Martin, her handsome architect. I expected at the end of the movie to see the kitchen, and I will go to my grave wishing to see that kitchen. I’m not OK that I didn’t get to see it. I mean, I love everything that Nancy Meyers has ever done, but if she would just at least tell us a little bit, just give us a mood board, just give us something.

Emma: Maybe she felt like it had gotten built up in the script, and it was just like, we can’t fulfill this, so she needs to leave it where our imaginations have to fill it in because there’s no way it could, you know what I mean?

Elsie: I kind of felt that it was like, you’re supposed to think at the end, she already had her dream kitchen, and it’s almost like it couldn’t be topped or whatever. I don’t know. But anyway, I really enjoy imagining it. Maybe that’s why she left it there so that we could all just have our little imaginary porn of just thinking about the kitchen and what it could be. I know it was like going to be next to a garden, and I know it was going to have a walkout. I think a walkout bedroom balcony above it, something like that. So I mean, it all sounds great, but I would have liked to have seen it, and I think about it at least once a week.

Emma: Speaking of kitchens, and I’m just going to say this one little thing before you tell us your first one. So originally I had a different one on here for my first one, and then I was like, I better go back and watch that because I feel like I might be misremembering it. I was going to do the Mr. and Mrs. Smith House. Do you remember that movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt?

Elsie: I don’t remember the house. Let me google it really fast.

Emma: Yeah, Google it. Because here’s the thing I kind of love the exterior. It very much reminds me of a house that I would potentially see in my neighborhood. It’s very big, so it would have to be in the fancy side of my neighborhood, not here.

Elsie: Ok, so I remember now that people get confused that they think it’s the same as the Father of the Bride house because they’re very similar on the exterior, but they’re not the same. Ok, I’m looking at the house.

Emma: Yeah, the exterior I love and the interior I do not. I’d love to know what listeners think because I was like, Oh, well, maybe these aren’t the colors I would have picked, but I’m into it. And then I just kept seeing little things like this all tile countertops and in the kitchen, and I was like. No, I’m not putting this on my list anymore, I don’t like it, but I do love that movie.

Elsie: I’ll agree with you. It looks a little bit like a black and white McMansion. The outside is killing it.

Emma: Yeah, the outside is killing it I love a McMansion, but it just wasn’t what I remembered. So anyway, I was really disappointed in the kitchen. I thought it was cooler and then I was like, Never mind. Tell us what your first movie house is for this episode. We’re each doing two, by the way.

Elsie: Yes. So I had to send a list to Emma so that we didn’t repeat any of the ones because there are so many that we mentioned in episode 60. So if you haven’t heard that episode yet and you enjoy this one, definitely go back and listen to that one as well because it’s a lot of our top favorites. So my first one is The Royal Tenenbaums, and I don’t think I did a Wes Anderson movie yet, and I’m a huge Wes Anderson fan, lifelong fan. I hope that he has one of those, 70 year-long careers. That’s what I’m hoping and praying for his life, and I kind of think that he will. I really enjoy his interiors, and that’s one part of what I would say is my go-to style goals is one part Nancy Meyers and one part Wes Anderson and marry those two styles together and you have my dream home. So anyway, The Royal Tenenbaums house is a mansion in New York, and you can google it and you can see the real house. I think the exterior and the interior were both used in the film and the way it’s decorated, you can see it like a Zillow listing if you google it, the way it’s decorated now is very livable and kind of like normal compared to the movie, still beautiful. The way it’s decorated in the movie is a ton of red. Lots of rooms painted all red, which I absolutely love in a movie. When you start to pay attention, you will see it over and over and over. Countless movies are lots and lots of red in the interiors. I’m thinking of Amelie. I’m thinking of Home Alone and definitely in this movie. One of my favorite parts about it is that they kind of show a dollhousey looking version of the house. Where the scene’s kind of like flow from room to room. Do you know what I’m saying? 

Emma:  You kinda see characters walk from one space to another kind of thing.

Elsie: Yes. Do you remember in the Kacey Musgraves Christmas special that I think they kind of modeled that house after The Royal Tenenbaums House. Where it zooms out and you can see different rooms and they’re very colorful. So anyway, I love that. I think it would make an excellent dollhouse project. I’m not in the market for another Dollhouse project right now, but if anyone is, I definitely recommend doing a Royal Tenenbaums dollhouse. I think that would be so much fun, just search the rooms and they’re very iconic. I would say my favorite detail, there’s two, my two favorite details are one Chazz Tenenbaum’s artwork wall, where it says he never developed as an artist, just like kid art for miles. That is stunning to me, and I want that in my house. I love my kids’ art. There’s nothing better in the world to me than like good bad kid art. The other thing that I love is the bathroom with the iconic cigarette bath, and it has the green curtains and a tile bathtub, and I just really always loved the curtains in there. That’s what first gave me the idea to do my kids’ bathroom with the double curtains and they’re green, and I was kind of trying to emulate that whenever I worked on that room.

Emma: One thing I love about the Wes Anderson interiors and movie sets is he does the thing and a lot of movies do this, I guess, where it’s not so polished like I feel like a Nancy Meyers kitchen versus a Wes Anderson kitchen as far as like a movie set, it’s a very different vibe because one’s like, oh, it’s ready to be photographed for Domino. Then one is more like, oh yeah, I feel like people really live here. There’s like a little bit of dust or a little bit of clutter or whatever, a corner where things have kind of piled up, which is like a real house and like how we all actually live. I don’t know, I just kind of like the vibe of that, feels very livable, feels very real, even though it’s clearly a movie set. So my second house is one that, wasn’t on the list of houses that we’ve already mentioned, but I’m super forgetful and I can’t believe it’s not on there because it’s one of my favorite movie houses of all time. I have to tell you a story about it. It’s Ex Machina. It’s a science fiction movie as you could probably guess from the title. It’s about robots. It’s about artificial intelligence. One of the main characters in the movie he’s kind of as if he was the CEO of Google or something. He lives in this very fancy house out in the woods that’s extremely modern. So when we watch the movie Trey and I, we both loved the interiors so much. I love the movie because I love science fiction, but I was immediately very obsessed with this house. So we’re googling it, trying to figure out where it is. It was a set. Is it a place we could visit? It’s actually a hotel in Norway called the J’ouvert. I don’t know if that’s how you pronounce that either. We immediately wanted to go there because it looked so beautiful. But it was booked out for super long and the times that it did have available were times of the year when we didn’t necessarily want to go because there’s like a really snowy season and a warmer season. So we did end up going to Norway pretty much because of this movie, but we just ended up staying at an Airbnb and this other area, and we loved it. Morway is one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited, and I would love to go back and it’s all because of Ex Machina.

Elsie: That’s so funny.

Emma: You’ve seen that, right?

Elsie: Yeah, I’ve definitely seen I actually want to rewatch it now because I feel like it’s been a while. Maybe like even I don’t know, 10 years or so, however long, whenever it first came out is when I watched it. I love a robot movie. I love a sci-fi movie, and I do love this house. I think it’s very you. It’s very modern and Emma loves modern houses, and it’s like a window house. That’s how I would describe it. If you don’t have time to Google Pictures. It’s a house with all windows everywhere you look is a window. There’s pictures of it in the winter where you can see a snow scene outside. It’s very beautiful. I think you should definitely try to stay there at some point.

Emma: Yeah, I would love to. Obviously, we kind of put like all travel on hold for a while.

Elsie: I’m jealous that it’s possible to stay there because, besides my Nancy Meyers kitchen, I never get to see. I’m so bitter that we can’t stay in the Grand Budapest Hotel because for a brief second I, like everyone, hoped and dreamed and prayed that it was a real hotel and then you look it up and it’s not. And yes, there are pink hotels in the world, but there’s really not a hotel that is like that hotel. If there is, prove me wrong, please do send it to me. I think that if you ever do get a chance to stay in one of your dream houses, even for an Airbnb or even just a tour it, do it, freaking do it. That’s so cool.

Emma: I agree. Do you follow Accidentally Wes Anderson, that Instagram account?

Elsie: I don’t follow it, but I have the book and it’s a beautiful book.

Emma: That’s what I was going to say is they have a coffee table book, and I feel like there are a lot of places that would be very much worth visiting, even though they’re not the Grand Budapest Hotel, but they kind of have that beautiful vibe. That would be one way of figuring them out is that account or their coffee table book that looked beautiful.

Elsie: We’ll link to that in the show notes it is a beautiful book, and there’s actually I’ll link to all the Wes Anderson coffee table books I have because there’s a lot of them and they’re incredible.

Emma: Ok, so tell us your second house.

Elsie: Ok, so this is a cheat in more ways than one. First of all, it’s not a movie. Second of all, it’s not one house. It’s a bunch.  But my second one, I’ve always wanted to talk about this and I don’t think I’ve ever talked about on the podcast is The Handmaid’s Tale. So The Handmaid’s Tale is for sure, one of my favorite shows. It always has been. Obviously, it was the best at the beginning, but I still think it’s a solid show and I really enjoyed the last season. So one thing about it, though, is that it’s such an intense and emotional show, and I am one of those people, there’s a lot of movies and shows where I kind of watch it just for the interiors. Recently, last weekend we watched or the last two weekends we watched The Godfather one and two, and it was so much fun. But I was definitely looking at the houses for a lot of it. But Handmaid’s Tale, you’re not really able to do that because it’s such an emotional show, I know you’re not a watcher, so I’ll just describe it to you.

Emma: I’m not. I was like, This is going to be too much for me, so I just never got into it. I did read the book, though.

Elsie: Oh yeah, the book. Ok, we’ll talk about that later. So anyway, I feel like I had to go back and appreciate the homes in the show separately from watching it, which I usually don’t have to do, but just Google The Handmaid’s Tale houses and The Handmaid’s Tale interiors. Actually, don’t Google go on Pinterest and do that do the searches. There’s three in particular the first Waterford house that they stay in. So first of all, like in this dystopian future, it’s basically they take over the whole northeastern part of the country and they get to pick whatever mansions they want. So there is like the best mansions, like just incredible. I know that it’s evil and I know they’re not supposed to want their houses, but there’s a part of that there that like, even if you aren’t able to absorb it when you’re watching the show because of the drama, you’ll go back later. So the first Waterford house, I particularly loved the Green House and I loved the dining room. It has these kind of cool windows with the black iron grid windows that are very trendy now, but they are a historic feature and this home has them and it’s really good and really cool lighting. I actually really liked the kitchen as well in that home and then the second home where the June Osborne character lives, I can’t think of all the characters’ names right now, but with the gray haired man who’s in Get Out.

Emma: I have no help because I don’t watch the show.

Elsie: Ok, so the second house that she’s in, he is kind of an eccentric character. So his house is very stained glassy. Everywhere you look at stained glass, it’s really amazing. The first thing that they kind of show you is that he has like every art museum painting on his walls. All the famous paintings. You know, it’s like if they’re going to take over the country, someone’s going to get those paintings and this is who got them. I really, really love his home. He has a feature, a kitchen fireplace that is up high kind of like near the stove area, like an elevated, not a fireplace on the ground, but a high up fireplace that it’s a very cool vintage feature that I just like love and I’m obsessed with and that home had that. Then the third one that I’ve never gotten out of my mind is, I think in maybe season three, I’ll try to put in the show notes a little bit more detail because this is getting confusing. They go to this commander’s house that has a ton of kids. So everyone who’s watched the show you’ll know what I’m talking about just from that. He just has like the most kids ever, which is a very rare thing in their dystopian world. In their mansion, they have this playroom that is jaw-dropping, just stunning and amazing. So I actually will try to make a pinboard. I think the best thing for me to do is make a pinboard that shows you all of the interiors I can and then I’ll link to that in the show notes because I’m realistically not going to be able to go through and find out which episode. Probably realistically, you’re not going to go watch it just for the interiors, either so I’ll just make a pit board.

Emma: I like it. The one I’m most interested in is to see the stained glass, the eccentric guy’s house that you mentioned. I love stained glass. Something about it. I know it’s so churchy, but I feel like in houses and restaurants when I see it, I love it. It’s just very vibey, very vibey.

Elsie: I love stained glass. In my Mary Poppins dreams, when I wanted to have a historic home for a couple of years, that was a feature that always got me. I think if you get to live in a home with stained glass, I’m very jealous and I hope you enjoy it and love it with all your heart.

Emma: I have an honorable mention.

Elsie: Go for it.

Emma: Ok. It is the movie this came out, I believe last year, Malcolm and Marie. Have you heard of it or seen it?

Elsie: No.

Emma: I don’t think it was super popular. One, it got released at the time when I don’t know if anyone was able to go to the movies.

Elsie: Who’s in it?

Emma: I know it’s Denzel Washington’s son. I don’t remember the actor’s name, but he’s excellent. He’s also in Tenet. I don’t remember his name. Yeah, look it up for me. Then the other ones, I don’t know how to pronounce her name, so you can let me know. I think it’s Zendaya. She’s in Spider-Man. She’s in Euphoria.

Elsie: Zendaya, maybe.

Emma: Zendaya? Yeah, see, I don’t remember how to say their names,

Elsie: It’s John David Washington and Zendaya. I haven’t seen this movie at all, but it looks from here like a sixties mansion.

Emma: I don’t think it’s a mansion. It’s just probably if I had to venture a guess, a three-bedroom, a three-two, but it’s very nice, very, very nice, very high end. It looks kind of mid-century ish, but I don’t know. It wouldn’t shock me if it was a new build. It also could just be a movie set. I don’t know, but you should watch this movie. I think Jeremy would really like it. It’s just kind of like a couple’s fight.

Elsie: Is the movie really in black and white because all the pictures I can see on Pinterest are in black and white?

Emma: Yes, it is.

Elsie: Wow, interesting. I haven’t seen a movie in black and white in so long. I would definitely like to watch this.

Emma: Yeah, it’s really good. And like I said, I don’t feel like enough people, at least in my circle, talked about it. It’s really great movie. The writing is excellent. It has. It’s just a couple that’s kind of having a fight after a big event, a night out. I don’t want to say too much. Not that it’s spoilers, but just watch it because I think it’s a very realistic fight and they have moments where they resolve things and then something else comes up and then they work through that again. The house is beautiful, and I think the whole movie is just a couple of shots. It might even be just one shot. I’m not really a movie buff, but it’s made very interesting, but it’s worth watching just for the house. But it happens to be a really beautiful, interesting movie as well.

Elsie: I love a story that takes place all in one night. That’s always a good one for me.

Emma: Yeah, and all in one location. It’s still very interesting and fun to watch. I feel like that’s just something to pull off for a filmmaker, so it’s very cool. That’s my honorable mention.

Elsie: Ok, can I give an honorable mention too?

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: So I’m pretty sure I probably mentioned this. Let me look at the list. It’s not on here, but I had to have mentioned the Dream Girls mansion.

Emma: Yes,

Elsie: I’m going to link to this. But did you see that our friend Jeff Mindell just got to do a video in the home and he made this really cool video. It was like one of the best Instagram videos I’ve seen in a while, and I just want to link to it because it’s just such a cool property, and he kind of gives a little bit of history. It’s really cool. I didn’t know, I learned from his video that it was owned by Frank Sinatra, and I just knew it as the Dream Girls house. But it also has Mad Men episodes filmed there and other things. 

Emma: I love Dream Girls. 

Elsie: Dream Girls was one of our special memories because we watched it on Emma’s birthday and we got Imo’s Pizza and I love Dreamgirls. We’ll watch it like every five years till I die.

Emma: I’m pretty sure that was my twenty-first birthday and that’s like what I wanted to do. I’m a party person.

Elsie: I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, but Jennifer Hudson is making an Aretha Franklin movie, and the costuming looks very similar, so we’ll have to watch that together.

Emma: Cool. That’s very cool.

Elsie: Let’s move on to our next segment. So we got a question on Instagram that I thought was such a cool question. A listener asked us if we could share our favorite phone apps, and I’m pretty sure everyone knows this, but we own some photo apps and video apps. A color story, film, Template, and a Design \Kit. And so she specifically said not photo and video apps, I think because she knew that. Of course, that would be boring if we just talked about our own apps.

Emma: Which is one hundred percent what I would have done if she hadn’t said, I can’t, because that’s, you know, I’m a shameless self-promoter.

Elsie: I absolutely love the photo app category. We’ve spent the last almost 10 years of our life focusing on that company and that category. We’ve never made an app that was outside of the category yet. But we do have other apps on our phones, so we’re each going to share our top two useful and sort of fun apps that we love to use on our phones. So do you want to go first?

Emma: Yes, and mine is very useful. I don’t know if you would say fun. I think it’s fun. So my first one, this is one I use almost every day. So that’s why I put it on the list. It’s called Time Tree, and it’s basically just a shared calendar that you can share with your partner or among your family, or among friends. You could use it as an organization. We use it to like basically since we had our son, I was like, oh, we have a lot more doctors appointments and if one of us is going to go on a walk with a friend if we’re taking Oscar or not taking Oscar, it’s really important the other person knows because all of a sudden it’s like you’re just not as independent anymore. Once you have children.

Elsie: Don’t I know it?

Emma: So we use time tree and there’s lots of calendar apps, but that’s just the one I use, and I really like it.

Elsie: Cool. So it’s like a family calendar.

Emma: Yeah, so we can both see like he’ll get a notification if I add something if we have a friend’s kid’s birthday party this Saturday, I put it on there, and then he knows,

Elsie: Hmm, yeah, I’m going to check that out. We have like pretty frequent little, I wouldn’t say a fight, but whatever is a miniature fight about like. 

Emma: A miscommunication?

Elsie: Yeah, just about things that it’s like, I want to do this, we’re going to have these people over. We’re going to do that, you know what I mean? I wanted to have a chill weekend, I want to write book things with three different people. We were invited to a party. That’s tough stuff when you’re a parent or probably every season of life.

Emma: Well, sometimes you’re talking on the phone with your partner and they’re like, oh, don’t forget, we have this thing next week, but you’re driving and talking on the phone or whatever. You just don’t you can’t write it down. So then they feel like they’ve told you, but you’re like, oh, I can’t just remember that you know what I mean. So it just kind of leads to this place where you are like, I don’t know what’s going on. So that’s why we have Time Trees. So we both can just click the app open and see what’s on there.

Elsie: Nice. That’s amazing. Ok, so my first app is called Chani and it is an astrology app. So I’ve been reading this book by Chani Nicholas and it’s called You Were Born for This and it’s sort of like an astrology 101. So Emma and I are going to talk about our astrology appointments in, I think, next week’s episode, so I won’t go too far into that. But we recently had an experience going to an astrology appointment that was really cool, and it just sparked my interest in it a lot more. So I’ve been reading this book to sort of get a basic picture of how to read my own chart and just what it all means because it’s like, what is the Sun? What is the Moon? There’s just so much to learn. So anyway, this app is beautifully made. It’s so cute. You know you have a weekly horoscope and then you have other little things in there you can read. There’s kind of a lot. There’s short-term things, long-term things. There is like you can read about each part of your chart, like the Sun, the Moon, the planets where they are, what it means for you right now. So it’s beautifully designed, really fun to read, and I’ve been enjoying it, so I would definitely recommend it.

Emma: Hmm. And what was it called again?

Elsie: Chani. 

Emma: Chani, OK. We’ll also put links to everything we said in the show notes, which is at abeautifulmes.com/podcast. My second one is OK, so I know they didn’t want us to plug our apps, so I’m not. But if you think I’m not going to plug an app, you’re wrong. So my husband is coming out with an app, and right now as you’re listening to this, it’s probably on preorder. It’s not as I’m recording it so I’m kind of saying this in faith. It’s just about to come out. It’s called Demo and it’s a songwriting app, so you don’t have to be able to play instruments. You don’t have to have instruments. If you’ve ever wanted to write a song. This app is something that you could use to make that come to life, so it’s pretty cool. He’s been working on it for quite some time now, and he’s had the idea for years and years, so it’s been really fun to watch him bring it to life. He has a couple of partners who live where Elsie lives in Nashville. So, yeah, it’s just exciting for all of them that Demo will be available soon. If you or your kid likes to write songs, check this out. I’m not musical.

Elsie: I mean, I will say that this is truly an inventive, unique app. I mean a lot of apps, it’s like, it’s like this app but this style or it’s like this, but different a little bit. This is a completely new idea that really hasn’t been made. I know when he was designing the UI, he had to think of it from, he kind of just had to imagine it from scratch, which anyone who’s worked in apps or even just imagining what it would be like to design an app, that deserves a lot of respect. If you’re interested in songwriting, I hope everyone will give it a download.

Emma: Yeah. All right. What’s your second app?

Elsie: Ok, my second app is Libby. I’ve talked about this before, but not for a long time. I think Libby is short for a library, and it is an app where you can download audiobooks for free using your library card number. It is so cool because I love to listen to audiobooks and I listen to a lot of them. A Couple of weeks ago when I went to Missouri last month. I listened to like four audiobooks in a week so it can be kind of a lot.

Emma: Expensive

Elsie: I also have an audible because sometimes I don’t want to wait and I want to do it right then or I want to download something and have it for a flight or a trip or whatever. The thing that’s cool about Libby is it’s completely free. The thing that’s a little bit challenging about it is that you do have to wait in line still for other people to return their audiobooks. So if you pick a book that’s very popular, like one time I listen to the Michelle Obama book, then you might be waiting like a month or two or more. If you pick a book, like any number of books that we recommended on here, but it’s not as popular, you can probably listen to it that day. So there’s all kinds of things on there. But I mean, I just think it’s cool that it’s free, and I think that we should all be doing our part to support libraries. So I always want to mention every time I get a chance. I hope that when my kids get older, that they enjoy audiobooks because it’s just kind of enriched my life so much this past year.

Emma: I personally find it so charming that it’s just like the paper books at the library that you have to wait if they’re all checked out and then you have to return it on time or pay a fine. I like all that. I just find that I mean, libraries are charming for a lot of reasons, but I really enjoy that. I think it just makes me feel like I’m, I don’t know, it almost adds like a tiny bit of like a social element to checking out books, whether it’s audio or otherwise, because you know that other people are doing it or not or whatever, like you’re just like a part of this system.

Elsie: One hundred percent.

Emma: We could do a whole episode on libraries if you ever want to.

Elsie: I do think we have a book report episode coming up soon, so probably next month or so. That will be fun because yeah, we haven’t done one in a while and I do feel like if we ever didn’t want this to be a home podcast, it could probably be a book podcast because it’s like our other main subject that we love to talk about. Before we go, we have a voice mail question to answer, so let’s go ahead and play that right now.

Voicemail: Hi, Elsie and Emma, this is Brianna. My question is I just moved from Washington state to St. Louis, Missouri, and I know that both of you guys are from Missouri. And so I was just wondering if you guys know of any fun things to do in St. Louis or just in Missouri in general. What are your favorite sites around the area? Thanks, love the podcast. Bye.

Elsie: Ok, so our brother lives in St. Louis, and our friend, Keeley is from St. Louis. So the first recommendation is Forest Park, which I guess is a really beautiful park and it has a lot of free activities you can do. So there’s a free art museum, a free science center. The next one is Clementines, which is an ice cream shop that Keeley says is allegedly better than Jenny’s, which I can’t even imagine something being better than Jenny’s. So I definitely want to try that out next time I’m in St. Louis. The next one is Fitz’s Root Beer. She said you can go to the factory where the root beer is made, which I love root beer so I think that sounds super fun. Then the last one is kind of a famous St. Louis thing, City Museum. It’s kind of this like, I don’t know what you call it, I want to call it like a park made out of like a junkyard. I don’t know. That’s how it looks like very eclectic.

Emma: It’s kinda like a Discovery Zone for adults, but also for kids. I’ve been, I went with my friends as adults, and it was really fun. But you can like, climb on things. And yeah, it’s Kind of made out of junk. It’s very like found art-type things.

Elsie: Yes, if you’ve ever seen where we’re from and Springfield on Commercial Street, there’s artists who like to make sculptures out of found metal and old tires and things like that. It’s kind of that kind of vibe. It seems very photogenic. Keeley told me that it’s legitimately terrifying to crawl in these underground tunnels that are almost too small for people. I personally think it looks a little scary, like with all the metal and stuff, but I would definitely take my kids. I mean, it looks fun, but I would just want to be really careful.

Emma: Yeah, you definitely can get scraped up. My friends were really smart and they all brought fanny packs and then they brought an extra one for me because you kind of like, I don’t know, it’s hard to carry a purse when you’re doing it.

Elsie: Pro-tip.

Emma: I know. My friends are smart, much smarter than me. They plan for me to not know what I’m doing. From our brother. He has a really long, super long list of delicious places to eat in St. Louis. So if you want Elsie, we could put all of those in the show notes, because we’re not going to say them all on here because that could be a whole episode.

Elsie: Say the top three that he texted us and then we’ll put all the rest in the show notes.

Emma: So the top three that he texted us and he said these are his. His wife, Ruby might have different ones. So these are Doren’s. He said The Crow’s Nest, which is kind of a bar and grill. They said that it has this thing called metal brunch, where it’s like they play metal music and the menu’s kind of themed like that so that actually sounds really fun to me. I’m not even into metal music, but I’m like, oh, that’s themey and fun.

Elsie: Doren has good taste in dive bars. So I want to go there for sure? I want to go to a metal brunch.

Emma: Yeah, the second one was High Point Drive-In, which is a burger and shake place but it’s kind of like connected to a movie theater, he says. So that seems cool. Then he also said Sugar Fire, which is a local barbecue, which barbecue is pretty big in Missouri generally and also in the south, obviously. But so if you want good barbecue, Sugar Fire. Then I’ll say a couple from his wife, Ruby, she had more like some places, and then we’ll put all the stuff in the show notes like we said. So things to do so, she says, for thrifting, which I love thrifting, Green shag market. She also says Rolling Ridge Nursery has all the trendy plants, and Ruby is kind of a plant lady, so I trust her. So if you’re wanting plants, if you’re needing plants in your life, Rolling Ridge Nursery And she said, there’s also an indoor plant garden that’s called The Jewel Box so that sounds really cute. Then she had a lot of places to eat as well. Let’s see what was different? Oh, an oyster bar. Yeah, it’s just called Oyster Bar, and it looks like a dive bar seafood place, but it’s really delicious, she says. That’s cool. Then Nine Mile Garden is apparently a food truck park, so that’s kind of fun and also kind of outdoors. So if you’re looking for something like that, Nine Mile Garden might be one. But anyway, there’s seriously so many more. So we’ll put those in the show notes, which again, is at abeautifulmess.com/podcast because there’s a lot if you’re going to St. Louis anytime soon, or even if you live there and you just want more because it’s a big city, so there’s lots and lots to do for years.

Elsie: Thank you so much for listening, everyone. If you haven’t taken a minute to leave us a review yet, we always appreciate those. Please come on to our show notes today and let us know what are your favorite movie houses? I love hearing what your favorite movie houses are and maybe it will give us some movies to watch. Have a good week.

Emma: Bye.