Episode #156: How to Make Your House Feel Like HOME

 

This week, we’re talking about how to make your house feel like a home. We discuss ways to nest as you first move in, and how to set up a home that’s appealing to all five senses.

We’re also chatting about how our styles have changed over the past couple decades, and obviously … Hocus Pocus 2!!!! 

You can find the podcast posts archive here.

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Show Notes:

How to settle into a new home with the five senses:

Create a comfort box with special things that make you feel at home.

Smell:

• Burn candles (we love Thistle Farms)
• Bake something like roasted pumpkin seeds
• Diffuse essential oils (Elsie’s favorite blend)
• Open the windows and doors 

Touch:

• Get cozy with a blanket, socks, robe, or new pillow
• Read old books
• Work on a puzzle or play games
• Use a new skin care cream or have a spa night

See:

• Hang up curtains or blinds
• Decorate, paint, or frame old photos
• Put up seasonal decor
• Create spaces for clutter

Taste:

• Order your favorite food
• Make pumpkin spice syrup
• Have a dinner party
• Family dinners
• Make everyday things special

Hear:

• Make a playlist for each season
• Use a sound machine (Elsie’s sound machine)

Guilty Pleasure Treasure:

Elsie – Light & Magic series on Disney Plus

Emma –  Caramel apples, hot chocolate, apple cider, and neck heating pad

Listener question from Leslie: How has your style changed over the past decade?

Elsie – knows what she likes and will splurge on those items like boots, coats and clothing from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’90s.

Emma – wears more jewelry, claw clips and headbands, and more willing to embrace trends.

Find out 3 Things Emma Learned from The Curated Closet

P.S. Comment and tell us your favorite nostalgic Halloween movie!

Miss an Episode? Get Caught Up!

• Episode #155: Step Inside Our Old Lady Creative Retreat
• Episode #154: The Past, Present and Future of Blogging
• Episode #153: Autumn Bucket List

Episode 156 Transcript:

Emma: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast. This week, we’re talking about how to make your house feel like a home, including ways to nest when you first move in and setting up a home that’s appealing to all five senses. We’re also chatting about how our styles have changed over the past decade or two and maybe obvious, but we’ve got to talk about Hocus Pocus 2.

Elsie: Yes, we have to.

Emma: We do. 

Elsie: Well, happy October. This is the first time we’ve recorded since it’s been officially October. I’m feeling it. I went for a walk this morning. There was fall leaves everywhere and a lot of trees turning orange where I live in Tennessee, and it was just very beautiful and crisp. It was definitely the vibe that I was looking for. What about you?

Emma: Yeah, I’m trying to get Oscar into picking up fall leaves with me. So far, it’s not working. He’s only interested in sticks, really wants to pick up sticks still, which is cool, but I’m like, look at this leave. Look at how orange it is and he’s like, nah mom, that’s not a stick.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: So anyway, I want to know, as of recording this, have you seen Hocus Pocus 2 yet?

Elsie: I have not. Only one of my kids is interested to watch it and the other one is currently scared of the ghost pillow that I bought them from Home Goods. So I think I’m just gonna watch it with my one interested kid. Anyway, you tell me what you think. Give me the full details. No spoilers, but I mean, can you really spoil a movie like that? 

Emma: Yeah, I don’t even think there is much of a spoiler but sure, I won’t tell you the full plot. 

Elsie: It’s not a big drama. 

Emma: Yeah, you know what’s gonna happen? You got it? Yeah, I watched it with Trey, who did not really want to watch it. But of course, he was like, yeah, I know you’re into this. Let’s watch it. But he low level, made fun of it the whole time, which was actually really funny. So I’d say his review is like, just as good as the first one. Which for him is like a C-. But I really liked it. I would say I maybe like it even more than the first in as far as story and performances and different things like that. There’s quite a few kids in the movie. There’s kids who play the witches as children and that’s part of the movie. Then there’s also kids who are having to fight the witches when they come back, I guess. They’re not really fighting them but you know what I mean. There a couple of groups of kid actors in the movie or young adults and they all did so good. I had low expectations. I was like, look, this is a Disney movie. It’s rated PG. It’s based on an old nostalgic movie so mid 30 year olds like me are gonna watch this. I was not expecting much. I was definitely like, this will be whatever and that’s fine. And I’m fine with it. So considering that I thought they did really great. I actually thought it was very entertaining. But certainly did callbacks to the old movie as you would expect. Yeah, kind of set it up for a future if they want, which was interesting. So I was into it. I was like, I feel like they nailed the assignment and it was good. But you know, is it the most artistic movie of all time? No, it’s Hocus Pocus 2. 

Elsie: I don’t think it needs to be judged by those standards. 

Emma: Yeah, that’s what I think. Anyway, I loved it, very enjoyable. Very fun. Felt very Halloweeny was fun to watch. I was into it.

Elsie: Fun. Okay, well, I am so excited to watch it. I’m really looking forward to it. So okay, so this is my main question, do you think the new one is scarier or less scary than the old one? 

Emma: Yes. I was trying to think about that because I know Nova is on the everything scary train right now. But I think it’s probably the same amount of scary, so she probably won’t like it. It has witches and the zombie guy. So I don’t know. It’s not scary. It’s rated PG. There’s songs in it where they dance and stuff. I don’t know, I think Nova would probably still think it was scary but you can tell her Aunt Emma said it’s not scary. No vampires.

Elsie: Well, we’ll see what happens but I’m glad you loved it. I did enjoy it, there were a few people on Instagram who I follow who gave sort of like passionate reviews about it, which I thought was cute and I liked it. So I was happy.

Emma: Yeah, I’d say my review is fairly passionate. I’m like definitely good if you like the first one I feel like you’ll like this.

Elsie: Nice. Well yeah, I definitely love the first one and there’s not that many kids Halloween movies that we watch every year like not as many as the Christmas movies. So I feel like the more the merrier. Just bring them our way every year if Disney Plus wants to do a banger each year. Yeah, that would be great.

Emma: Hocus Pocus 3 with kind of a different thing now, into it, would be into it, would watch. 

Elsie: I love it. Okay, well, listeners will have to write us on Instagram or email us at podcast@abeautifulmess.com and tell us what is your nostalgic movie that you watch every year, especially if you’re watching with kids, we just want to hear it. We’re in that zone. I would like to add a few more Halloween and a few more Christmas. Like last year, we watched Halloween Town for the first time, which was not something I watched as a child and it was delightful. It was perfectly good for my kids’ age. So okay, so this week, we’re talking about how to make your house feel like a home. So we got a specific listener question. The question was how do you make your house feel like a home when you first move in. Then I thought we could like develop this into further topic of how to decorate your home for all five senses because that’s something that I love and passionate about. I’ve always had an obsession with the five senses, especially when it comes to your own environment in your home. But yeah, first let’s talk about how we settle in. So Emma is currently living at the pink house about to move into her new house that she’s been remodeling almost the whole year. So tell us what you’re going to do the first week to help yourself settle in.

Emma: By the time we move in, they’ll probably only be like a week left for Halloween. So I’m not sure I’m even going to really do a lot of decorations, but maybe just a couple. So other than the obvious, which is like unpack boxes and make sure your beds set up and things like that. Big one for me, I guess this would be under a see or sight as far as the five senses, but is making sure that we have blinds all of the windows that we want blinds on, definitely bedrooms, so especially Oscar’s bedroom, because his bedtime can be kind of early. He also wakes up early. So anyway, so making sure we have blinds so that sleep is a priority. Also, like sometimes bathrooms, our bathrooms are currently the only windows are into the back of our house. So it’s not as big of a priority as far as your neighbor will for sure see you naked like you know, it’s not quite that level. But still like making sure we have something for this. So that’s sort of a big one. I know that’s kind of maybe boring, but I feel like blinds or curtains or both, is sort of something that you can kind of forget and then you move into a spot and then you’re like, oh my gosh, I can’t sleep the sun was in my face immediately at 6am.

Elsie: Yeah, I think that’s a great tip but I’m not gonna lie, it is boring. What’s one of the things you’re going to do to make yourself like feel something? It’s not necessarily just practical. Like to feel the nostalgia of home right away.

Emma: Yeah, so definitely burn some candles. I’m really into candles. 

Elsie: Do you have a favorite candle? 

Emma: So they are a sponsor of the podcast, but I also sincerely love their candles. It’s called the Burlap Bag, and probably one of my favorites, so I have two favorites of theirs. They have a lot of really good sense. But my two favorites is one called baked bread and then one that’s called best smell ever. Bake bread smells exactly how you would think. So it makes your whole house smell like you’re baking and I love it. I actually love candles that smell like food. I know some people don’t like my husband’s, he’s like fine with them. He doesn’t care. He knows I love candles. He’s like wherever you want, but those aren’t his favorite. But then the other one, best smell ever, it’s not really a soapy lavender. It smells a lot like to me when you’re in an anthropology store if that makes any sense. Kind of like a bunch of good-smelling candles all at once. I honestly don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not a food scent. It doesn’t smell like soap, which a lot of florally are other things kind of smells soapy to me, which is not bad, but not necessarily my favorite. So anyway, the candle that’s called best smell ever is awesome and one that both my husband and I love so that too. I probably will bake something because that is another natural way to make your house smell less like a construction zone and more like people live there if you bake something.

Elsie: Yeah, I’m going to use our code and get those candles just to try them out. My husband loves candles and I’m like 50/5. I’ll go more into it but like I think a lot of candles are just too strong. Anyway, I’m taking away from your moment tell us, so you’re going to bake something when you first move in. 

Emma: Yes, definitely. I don’t know what yet. I haven’t like planned that but something. 

Elsie: I want to make pumpkin seeds. I love baking those pumpkin seeds every year. I do that a couple of times and the Chex Mix and that is what makes me feel like it’s fall.

Emma: Yeah, your pumpkin seed recipe which it’s really more of a method I guess but it’s on the blog. I think we updated the photos last year because it’s just one that like we link all the time because it’s so good.

Elsie” Yeah, I mean, if you didn’t grow up doing it, then you might want to use a recipe the first time you do it, and then after that, you probably won’t need it. Like I do it every single year without fail, it’s such a feel good thing to do. So everyone must bake pumpkin seeds. This is your homework from the podcast for the week.

Emma: Do it. 

Elsie: Okay. So the one thing I do to settle in, that’s a little bit different from what you said, is I did this the last time we moved to the house we currently live in, and I’m going to do it forever if I ever move again. And that’s why I packed a comfort box for me and a comfort box for the kids. I put some stuff in my comfort box for my husband too because he doesn’t care, it kind of counted for both of us. It’s one box that you can get it out right when you move in the first day and set out these special things. So definitely like a candle, a candle lighter, like if that’s something that you know. I think mine had some photos. It had some things in it that I was just afraid that were fragile that I was just afraid to lose like that sort of vibe. Then for my kids, it had, of course, my daughter has a special piggy doll, and then a special pillow. Then they have both their blankets and their bedding. I think it’s a good idea when you first move in to bring the old blankets and bedding without washing them and just put them down so they have like this comforting, familiar smell to sleep with. Other than that, just some fun toys so that they feel immediately like it’s their room, their space. You don’t have to worry about finding boxes. So if you’re moving the week before Christmas, then put some Christmas things in or since you’re moving the week before Halloween, it’s probably too late for you because you’re already boxed.  

Emma: I think we kind of did this, oddly enough, as we moved into the pink house, because everything you’re listing, I’m like other than a candle. We didn’t bring any candles. I’ve just been stealing yours. Hahaha.

Elsie: Yeah, if you were bringing a suitcase, and you were gonna live in a hotel for a month, what would you put in it. That’s basically the stuff you want right away, like your skincare that you use every night, things like that. Even like a change of clothes or whatever, so that you know immediately what you need to do. Two times ago when we moved, I hosted a baby shower the day after we moved. So I had to pack, first of all, all the cookies that I made for my friend’s baby shower, my clothes that I wanted to wear, and my makeup. But anyways, it’s possible. It’s just a little bit more strategic. So I think the other thing about the first day you move in or the first weekend is to do a pizza party or whatever your favorite food is that you can just order and just put a blanket on the floor and just have food in your empty house with your family, I think is so sweet snd such a happy memory. I still remember when we first moved into this house, Emma was here helping us and we were sitting on the stairs eating pizza because there was no chairs. Do you remember that? 

Emma: Yeah. 

Elsie: It’s just a joyful activity that I think should always be done. It’s like a christening. Okay, so let’s talk about the five senses because I think this is such a good way to think about decorating your home. Everyone, your other homework, I’m really into giving homework this episode. Your other homework is to write out each of the senses and just make your own little list of two or three things for each one that makes you feel that strong, nostalgic feeling of home because it’s definitely different for everyone and you should definitely personalize it and like you’re gonna hear from our list. There’s a lot of preferences involved. Everyone’s will be a little bit different, but I think so special. Okay, so we’re starting with smell. I think smell is the easiest one because it’s so instantaneous, like lighting a candle. Okay, so my favorite candle is from this nonprofit in Nashville called Thistle Farms. It is a wonderful, wonderful, cause. Look it up if you’ve never heard of it, we’ll link it in the show notes. I would say it’s the most inspiring charity maybe I’ve ever been involved with. It’s really wonderful. Anyway, their candle that I love is called santal amber. I have always stayed a little bit away from scents that have the word amber in them because I feel like that also means musky. So I think everyone should try this candle if you sort of like, I don’t want to call it musky because I don’t think that’s accurate, like sort of a what’s the right word? Like a little bit of it reminds you of like cologne.

Emma: I was gonna say it’s almost like cologne but not so heavy in a way. Yeah, more of a man scent or whatever. I don’t know. You know, Cologne.

Elsie: Well, it’s I mean, it’s not floral. It’s not fruity. Yeah. So anyway, and I like woodsy smells, but I wouldn’t even say it’s woodsy, but it just like is a nice, subtle, soft scent. It’s really unique. I’ve had lots of their candles and they have other good ones too, but this is the best one. 

Emma: I do love their candles. As soon as you said it, I was like, oh yeah, I’m glad she’s mentioning them because their charity is awesome. But their candles are also just really good. I think they have a Christmas one that’s like, Christmas tree small, you know? Yeah, that one’s so lovely and just great for the season.

Elsie: So yeah, I also think that their candles are more made with natural ingredients, which is pretty hard to find. A lot of the ones that are are almost like they have no scent so this is like a happy medium in that. Okay, so the other thing I do love essential oils. I think I always will. We previously in another business lifetime ago, we had our own little essential oils brand that we were doing for a while. This is a little secret, I think I might have said this before, but I’m not sure. But a little secret is that we made a holiday scent. So the one that I like now that you can still buy is called, it’s from the brand Plant Therapy and the scent was called holiday season. So we had a scent that was almost like this, it was just like a little bit more orange added in. It was definitely going to be called holiday or something like that and then at the last minute, we changed the name to homebody because we just wanted to trick people mentally to know that you can use it all year. It doesn’t have to be just for the holidays because I think that when something says the word holiday on it, you feel like you can’t use it in the summer. But I use the Plant Therapy holiday season year round. The only differences is that this time of year I add a couple of drops of the apple cider one that they make. Then in the summertime, I add a drop of sweet orange or something. But honestly, I just like that smell year round. It is soft and subtle. It smells to me like the cleaning supplies I like to use and it’s not really like a Christmas tree smell.

Emma: Yes and I had a whole set. I’m out of it now so I need to buy more but this whole autumn scent set from Plant Therapy. It had all these different ones. It was like autumn rain and Harvest Moon and apple cider and just some different, think that a pumpkin one. What’s awesome about essential oils is when you’re using it in diffuser, you can kind of mix. Like how you’re saying you use the Christmas scent, but then you add different things throughout the year so that’s so fun. Then also, since we’re talking about smell and the senses, other than candles or diffusers with oil making your house smell, I also think the smell of laundry. I feel like it’s kind of a big thing in life because when I put clothes on and it still kind of smells like good from being washed, I just really love that. Then also when I’m folding laundry, it’s just a nice little treat if everything smells nice, and that’s when I use essential oils other than to diffusing them is like on the wool ball and putting it in the dryer with your clothes. I love to use the seasonal scents for that. So like this time of year I’ll do more autumn pumpkin things and at Christmas I’ll do more fir needle in that type of stuff. I kind of like it when my clothes smell like the season.

Elsie: Yeah, one other thing that I love, I don’t even know if this is smell. I think it’s it is a little bit of smell but it’s also a feeling, is our home has a lot of sliding doors and we love leaving all the doors open. This time of year you can do it. There’s kind of a lot of the year in Tennessee that you can do it and spring and fall. It’s just such a good feeling to have a lot of fresh air in the house. So that’s a thing I would add in there too. Okay, so should we move on to touch for the next of the five senses. So just to like, get it out of the way early on. I think the obvious ones are like having a nice blanket, having some cozy socks. I love my cozy socks. I love slippers, like a nice robe, like things like that, that make you feel like you know, but let’s go beyond that. So I like to have a lot of things to touch, like a lot of old things. Some of the things I wrote down our books, a lot of old books in the house like the feeling of reading a paper book. It’s like a good sensory experience compared to just listening to books all the time. Puzzles, games, I just started ordering vintage dominoes to just fill little bowls with them and I just think that’s so sweet. So I think things that just give like a sense of the past that is a good feeling to me and just thinking about things that I just like like to touch like enjoy touching, definitely puzzles is one of them. What about you?

Emma: So one I love it when I have a skincare cream that comes in a little glass container. I like tapping the glass container on my bathroom countertop. Usually, it’s like marble or quartz and it just makes this little sound. In the morning I do it I always take this little moment to be like I love that sound in my head because I just like it. It’s just this funny little tap so it’s nice. It’s kind of nice when things aren’t in plastic. Obviously, be careful with glass, my son can’t get ahold of it because he could break it. But anyway, here’s a not as fun one, but kind of important is we stopped using sponges for dishes and now we only use brushes. You can still get like a small bush handhold. It just makes it where I feel like holding a kind of dirty sponge when you’re getting towards the end of its life, sort of a bummer. You can always put on rubber gloves. I will if I’m doing a cleaning the whole house moment, then I honestly will put on rubber gloves. But just doing the dishes at night, I don’t put on rubber gloves every single time. It just feels like such a whole thing. So I like using a brush instead of a sponge just from holding the wood part, the handle instead of having to hold the sponge. Then I know we’re not supposed to be obvious ones but I just gotta mention because I really did bring it over here to the pink house. I was like I’m not going to be without, it was my pillow. I have this Agility side sleeper Pillow. Anytime we road trip somewhere, anytime I can’t even if I can fit it in my suitcase if we’re flying. If I have enough space, I take it with me always because I sleep so much better with this pillow. I think Trey has one too and he didn’t bring his over to the pink house. I think he kind of regrets it but he can’t have my pillow because it’s for me. So yeah, and it has a satin pillowcase on it, which I think is kind of nice for your hair and your skin. I also just like the feel of it. It’s kind of cool to the touch, which is nice when you’re going to bed. I just like my sleep to feel the same all the time. I don’t want to feel like this is a whole different pillow like comfort level or the feeling of the cotton on you. I don’t know, I like it being the same every night. Something about it’s very comforting to me.

Elsie: I think pillows are extremely important. 

Emma: Well, should we talk about see, sight? 

Elsie: Yes. Okay. So yeah, things that you look at, obviously, you want your home to be beautiful like no one wants an ugly home. Eliminating clutter and decorating and painting your walls certain color, I feel like that is all kind of obvious. So I’m thinking of it more of like the little things that you see every day that catch your eye and make you feel happy memory. I just started collecting art. I think I’m going to spend the next few years on it. I don’t know why, I know why I never did. I never did because I felt like it was a rich people thing to do. But I don’t think I realized that you could collect art, kind of literally any budget, because there’s lots of original art on Etsy. I just bought a vintage painting, things like that, that are very affordable. So anyway, I think I just never felt like I was like ready to graduate to it and then recently I did and I was like, oh my gosh, I wish I would have done this like 5 or 10 years ago. It’s a collection that I can already see is gonna take a long time. I think that it’s more special to collect things that have a memory attached to them or make you feel something, just sentimental art that gives you, for me I want a happy memory attached to like almost everything in my home. So I can’t collect things quickly. I don’t want hauls. I don’t want like a huge box of stuff I want one thing at a time. Another thing, I like to see photos around all the time, but I personally don’t like to have big photos of my family, but I have a lot of little ones. So we have a lot of photo books. We have a lot of bowls full of Polaroids and photo strips and things like that. Then we have that one big hallway that has all the family photos. I personally can’t have a huge wedding photo or a huge family photo framed. It just makes like, I don’t know, I just don’t like it. I think for me, like lots of little ones was the answer of how to do that. Then obviously, obviously, obviously, seasonal decor is kind of my everything. I just love the feeling of switching things up throughout the year and having things that you don’t use all the time so they feel special when you get them out and put them away.

Elsie: Yeah, I think I have a lot of the same ones but like in my own way or whatever. Like for example, I did this collection of photos every month while Oscar was zero to one where he’s next to a donut. So every month, it’s more donuts. So by the end, it was a dozen donuts.

Emma: I just realized that that’s done now. 

Emma: It’s done. Yeah, we finished in June because he turned one. We had already bought our new home and we were already well into the renovation process. So I just wasn’t very motivated to put those all together, framed and hang them up, because I knew it was going to end up somewhere else in the next house. I didn’t know how big I wanted it to be because I could make it huge or I could make it small. So anyway, that’s one of the first family photos that isn’t already framed that I’m going to figure out where I want that in the house and hang it up because I just love them. I love seeing how much he changed the first year. I think all parents probably know it’s the same thing all the time. But it’s just so cute. I can’t wait to put his little donut photos up.

Elsie: I thought it was like really original and fun.

Emma: So aside from art and family photos, another thing is clutter. So I’m kind of thinking about that for our next house. So two things with them. One, we get a lot of packages, both for work and for life. So I have a spot in our laundry room, which is pretty close to our front door. That’s going to be where we put packages and boxes. Before Christmas, you end up with a lot of packages and sometimes you’re waiting for a couple of things to come before you wrap them all together. So it just kind of sits and ends up kind of cluttering your entryway or somewhere for us it’s always like a kitchen counter or the dining room table. It’s just like constantly full of packages, not all the time, but especially certain times a year like Christmas I think. We’re gonna have a spot that’s designated, here’s where the packages can go. If you open them right away, great but if you wait a couple days or whatever, it’s not just in the way. So that and then the second thing is, I don’t know how I’m going to do this yet, but I’m definitely going to have a little, there’s a little nook that’s where you walk in the garage door. Which is probably the door we’ll use most of the time because we have a two car garage at our new house. But it’s pretty close to the front door too. I just want a little table with some bowls and some hooks, I want to place where I can put my purse and put keys or if I’ve brought in mail. I feel like our again, kitchen counter or dining room table just always has like my purse. We both actually have like a fanny pack and we wear them sideways. So it’s just kind of like those things are always sitting out and you don’t really want to go put them all the way in your closet because if you’ve just gotten home and you’re about to go somewhere else, it doesn’t make any sense to do that. So just having an entryway throw table, a lot of times people call it that because you throw your keys or whatever. I just want a spot like that, that’s very much like, here’s where everything goes. Then also, if you’re like, where are my keys, it’s like, well, if you put them on the spot, then they’re always there. It just becomes more simple and easy to keep track of things because I just don’t like all the clutter. I’m trying to really think about clutter in the new house. I just want to keep things because I love to collect stuff and I love seasonal decor. So it’ll get full, but I just am thinking through like how can it stay very clean and minimal and decluttered.

Elsie: Yeah,I think that’s great things to think about.

Emma: Let’s talk about taste. 

Elsie: Yeah, I love the idea of having dinner parties, Thanksgiving, brunch with family, having people, over just special ways to make your coffee more fancy, like every little thing. I love that type of hostess vibe. Then one of my daughters is obsessed about the family dinner. She’s just like a very traditional kid and she always is like, can we sit at a family because we don’t do this much yet. At their current ages, we usually feed them and they’re kind of sitting at the kitchen island eating and then they go to bed and then we eat separately. So anytime we have a big meal, where we do it all together, they just love it and they think it’s very special. So anyway, I don’t know, I think that for me, it’s like the details that go into talking about coffee. Like having like a cute recipe, I’ve been keeping a thing of simple syrup always in my fridge where I just make it and it lasts like a month or so. Once I feel like it’s getting old I just make a new one. I’m like why didn’t I always do. This is so simple. Anyway, tell me what is on your tastes list.

Emma: So I guess two things for our new house that I’ve been planning and we’ll see how they turn out but they were planned for in the kitchen with tastes. So one is we have an area that’s essentially going to be the coffee bar. It also has some shelves that are higher up where we can put liquor bottles or wine bottles so those are available too. But mostly it’s the coffee bar. I’ll be honest. So our current home and even in this pink house where we’re staying because it’s so close to our last house, there’s a coffee shop we can walk to. Honestly, Trey and I walk there like every day, just about. So it’s so nice to just like, go get a latte in the middle of the day. It’s such a motivator to be like, I’m gonna get a bunch of stuff done, and then at three, I can walk to go get a latte. I’m like that’s not possible at the next house. there is a coffee shop and walking distance but it’d be a solid 30 minute walk there and 30 minute walk back. So I think I will do it once in a while because I love walking. But I can’t really do that during my work day, it’s just too much time out of the day. I won’t be able to get all my work done in the time that I have. So anyway, so the coffee bar, I’m trying to make it more, I guess fancy for a new house since I won’t be able to go out and get coffee as easily or as often anyway. I just want to be able to make homemade basically lattes. I haven’t bought everything for it yet. So far, it’s like what I’ve done is planned a space for it among our kitchen cabinets where appliances can sit out because I don’t want them sitting out everywhere. I have a spot where I don’t know how to explain this but it has two tall cabinets on both sides. Then it has a little bit of open shelving and in there, we got like four outlets put so we can plug in like gooseneck kettle so that we can make tea or make pour-over coffee, which is usually what we make. We have a Nespresso and I think we’ll probably just keep that for an espresso element because we love it. But I might do something else at some point, like get a special thing like someday for Mother’s Day, I might ask for it. I’m not planning it right now but eventually. Then I need to buy a milk frother because I just love the foamy milk every once in a while. I don’t have one currently so I need to get one. But those are pretty cheap and there’s lots of different kinds. You can get a little wand or you can get a little kettle that you pour the milk in and it kind of frosted in there either way. So I need to get something like that. But I also want to have a few syrups. They might sit out if they’re more store bought but if I make them I’ll probably put them in the fridge just because I think it’s a better method for longevity. But yeah, I love making like on our site, I have a pumpkin spice latte syrup that I’ve made for years and I love it so you know things like that. So I just want to have more, make more of a little coffee shop in my house since we won’t be as close to one anymore, which is totally fine. But just kind of thinking that through. So that and then the other thing that I planned for in our kitchen is we have these two cabinets where you open them up, and then they have the pullout rollout shelves, and you can kind of set them at different levels if you want. So essentially, that’s our pantry. I’m going to make at least one of the shelves be really organized like the Home Edit. Hopefully, we’ll see how I do. I wanted to have snacks for Oscar because he’s starting to get to an age where he can kind of grab things himself. So like all the appropriate snacks for him, I want to kind of have in a little spot and see how that goes. He still kind of has, like his snack cups. It’s like toddler friendly, where you can reach in, but you can’t necessarily dump it all on the floor because he would. So it’s like we’re at that age where it’s like we can try a little bit of things but he’s still pretty messy. So basically, I don’t care about messes. That’s fine. That’s part of learning. I just hate wasting food. So I’m trying to let him learn and let him do things. But when all of the food ends up on the floor, that’s always a bummer because it’s like, okay, well, how do we not be quite so wasteful because this stuff isn’t free. Graham crackers don’t grow on trees, Oscar. Yeah, anyway.

Elsie: So if my kids ever spilled food on the floor, I would never know because our dog just eats it so fast. 

Emma: Our dog is a picky eater, unfortunately, as far as being a cleanup crew. He eats like half of it. Like certain things he won’t even touch and I’m like, okay, great. 

Elsie: The next one or the last one is hearing. So I’m definitely thinking about music. First of all, playlist for each season. I think that is such a cute idea. So we do like the Google homes. We tend to play the same music over and over. Like if I’m cleaning, we’ll listen to Frank Ocean or whatever. I think it would be nice to get more into making a playlist that is more than just one artist. Do you ever do that?

Emma: I have a few Spotify playlists that I know the title of it and so I’ll say that because we also have the Google Home. We don’t hear so we’re really missing it. But I also really love when I’m at your house and your girls will yell at Google to play like Ninja Turtles or something like that. It’s just cute.

Elsie: It is cute. Yeah, they definitely know how to request their Frozen songs and things like that. So that’s fine. There are some bangers. Then I think having like, we have a record collection. So I love playing records. I think it’s so cool and special and it’s different. It’s definitely different from the way that we listen to music now with streaming because you have to listen to the whole record beginning to end and flip it, it’s just more intentionally. I think that there is sort of an art to listening to a whole record and memorizing a whole record that might be lost in the future generations that you know, it’s special from our childhood from like having CDs and stuff. I guess one more thing I would add is, I love the like, so our pool has the little waterfall, and I love the water sound. So in the future, even if I didn’t have a pool, I would love to just, I love the sound. I think it’s just such a nice, I think that’s part of why we leave our doors open so much is that it’s just such a nice sound to have in your home throughout the day.

Emma: Oscar sleeps with a sound machine. Trey and I don’t normally but we obviously did whenever he slept on our bedroom the first six or nine months. I can’t remember how long it was really. I love how when I visit you, you always have sound machines in your guest bedrooms. So I feel like that’s another thing on the hear list is really anything that helps with sleep or just makes something feel like home. So yeah, not everyone likes sound machines or things like that but I do think it’s kind of on the list for a lot of people.

Elsie: We’ll link ours in the show notes. The thing that is special about this sound machine is that it’s not like a sound machine that you can get on your phone or a digital, most of them are digital sounds. They all have a loop in them. It’s the type of thing where once you hear the loop, your brain can like obsess over it. I was never able to find any sound machine that I could handle the sound of it because I can just like hear, you could also hear voices and noises in digital sound machines. Anyway, so this one is like a small fan. Then the way that you turn it, makes it louder and softer and so there’s no loop at all. It’s just a fan but it’s in a more compact way. So we pack them when we travel. I definitely recommend it if you’ve ever had any kind of issues with digital sound machine then this is definitely a good next thing to look into.

Emma: Yeah, Oscar has the exact same sound machine. We love it too. Random tip for anyone out there who’s pregnant. That’s probably the number one thing I wish we had packed in our hospital bag for when Oscar was born was a sound machine because we kept using a sound machine on our phones for him just to help him sleep because babies they’re used to whatever it sounds like inside a womb, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t know what it sounds like in there but something I guess. Anyway, so that was probably the number one thing that I wish we had packed that we didn’t was the sound machine. These are really pretty small. They’re not like a big thing so you could totally pack it.

Elsie: Okay, so we have not done a guilty pleasure treasure in the long time. It’s one of our original first segments when we started our podcast that will never die because we will never get rid of it. But I think we’re very loose on like what we consider a guilty pleasure too.

Emma: Yeah, we are pretty loose with it.

Elsie:m So have you heard of this? It’s like a docuseries on Disney Plus, and it is called Light And Magic. 

Emma: No. 

Elsie: Okay, so I won’t tell you everything about it. So I knew it was about focusing around George Lucas and the beginning of Star Wars and things like that. I was like, I’m kind of interested. I’m like a little bit interested. I’m not interested in Star Wars, kind of at all. It’s just not my thing. I am interested in movie making so we gave it a chance. I’m so glad we did because it is pure motherf*cking magic. Everyone should watch it. So it shows the beginnings of George Lucas and also Steven Spielberg’s movie careers and how they developed their methods for special effects in a predigital world. So it’s like a lot of crafting a lot of hand built models, a lot of puppets, injecting a little bit of white dye into water to make like a cloud, like really is a treat for the brain if you have a crafty brain. Which I know most if not all of you do. It’s just inspiring. It also just makes you feel that inventors magic where you realize that these people figured out how to do something that had never been done. They’re telling their story about it. I love watching it. I think we’re probably almost through the whole this like one little season one little mini series and it is just wonderful. So I recommend everyone watch it. It’s called Light and Magic and it is about this, I guess not so small special effects company that George Lucas started in the 70s. 

Emma: Very cool. That sounds fun. 

Elsie: Yeah, yes. What’s yours?

Emma: I have put down some food stuff. So basically, I need to go to the frocery store, which I only shop once a week, but I’ve been buying caramel apples and hot chocolate.

Elsie: Is it like a caramel apple? Like ithe caramels already on the apple and you cut it up?

Emma: Yeah, you cut it up. Yeah, it has nuts.  I think they’re better if you make them yourself. I’ll be honest, but I don’t. I’m just buying them and they’re delicious. We ate one last night like for dessert after dinner. Then hot chocolate and cider. Which I feel like some people are either one or the other but I like both, not at the same time. Some nights I’m like hot chocolate, some nights I’m like apple cider, some nights I’m like hot apple cider with a little bit of rum it. Then I think this was my guilty pleasure treasure years ago or a long time ago but I’m bringing it back because I didn’t realize how much I missed it and loved it. This is something that I didn’t pack for the pink house because I thought we were only going to be here for like two weeks. But now that I know we’re gonna be here for more like four to six weeks I was like, I gotta go get this. So literally, I went over to the house yesterday and was digging around trying to find it. I needed to find more clothes for Oscar to because just gotten cold. So I was finding all his colder weather clothes that I bought him and didn’t realize I would need. So I’m digging around in the boxes and I opened one up and I found my rice heating pad. I was like all right.

Elsie: Oh my gosh. For those who haven’t listened to our podcast for a long time. I don’t know if it’s like a Midwestern thing or if it’s an American thing, or if it’s grandma thing. It’s a grandma thing. It’s sort of like a big beanbag that you heat up in the microwave and then you put your shoulders. 

Emma: Yeah and I love it. 

Elsie: You’ll have to link one in the show notes in case they haven’t seen one. I love it. That’s a great guilty pleasure.

Emma: Yeah, we have an email question. You can always email us at podcast@abeautifulmess.com, which is where this came from and this is from Lesley. She says, I have been reading A Beautiful Mess since 2009 and it’s really the only blog I have read consistently daily since discovering it. That says a lot about the longevity of your brand I think. I was reading when I was 19 through my 20s and still now 32. I know. Yeah. It’s crazy to imagine how much my personal style has changed since 2009 and the recent fall clothing 2022 post really reminded me of this. So I’d love to hear how you think your style has changed over the past decade and more. You have both always had such unique styles not defined by specific trends, and I admire you for the individuality. All of your readers have, of course watched your clothing style evolve and I’m interested to hear your take on it all.

Elsie: Ah, that’s such a nice message. That means a lot to us. I do feel a special bond with people who have read our blog for more than 10 years because that does just mean that basically they’re willing to change with us. We’re changing our interest as we grow older and I think it’s really special. 

Emma: We’re talking about clothing styles and how our personal style has evolved over the years. So what are your thoughts on that for yourself?

Elsie: Okay, so for myself, I actually feel like my clothing style has not evolved as drastically as my home style at all. But I also think that the way that I present in photos is different from the way that I really dress. What you put on for a day that you take photos isn’t always the same stuff that is just everyday clothing. So I feel like my everyday clothing is probably basically the same as it’s always been, a little bit different. I know myself really well now. I know what I like. I know what I will use, so I will splurge on, most every year I’ll buy a nice pair of boots. I know that I love my coat collection. I’m very into my coats, sort of the foundation of my personal style is that I have always really liked the late 60s, early 70s. I’ve always really liked the 1990s. So if it’s a trend that hits in those areas then I know it’s for me. Like this year like the Birkenstocks trend, I’m like, that’s for me. I love it. Yeah, I think I do need to do a Curated Closet redo. We’ll link The Curated Closet in the show notes for anyone who hasn’t tried it. They have an excellent workbook where you can work through your closet if you need to clean out, if you want to redefine yourself. Overall, I kind of feel like I know now what works for me. There’s so many trends that I’m just like fine with appreciating them for other people and ignoring just because I kind of feel like I’ve lived long enough now that I’ve like sort of like tried it all on. Is that how you feel or do you feel different?

Emma: So when I did the Curated Closet, which I also wrote a post somewhat recently, that was three lessons I learned from The Curated Closet, so we could link that as well. Basically, when I did that I think what I really learned was that I had a real missing area in my wardrobe, which is just like, quality basics that I can wear over and over again that fit me well. That is high quality. I don’t always buy top end designer things. That’s not really my budget and style, but just things that are going to last. So I feel like I wear more basics and solid things than I ever did before. But I still feel like somehow my style still feels like, at least to me, put together and still colorful and still something kind of different all the time. Which is funny because I don’t really try to buy weird stuff much. I feel like I used to always try to buy weird stuff. That’s all my closet was just weird stuff.

Elsie: You have lots of weird glasses. That’s like an accessory that makes your whole outfit more funky. 

Emma: It’s that and I think I wear more jewelry than I used to. I also am really into claw clips and headbands. I am more interested in embracing trends that I like then when I was younger. I think when I was younger, I was very, it wasn’t that I was stuck up, it’s just that I really wanted to be an individual. So trends made me kind of turn off from something because I was like, oh, everybody’s wearing that so I’m not as interested. Actually, I’m probably more trendy than I used to be because I’m just more willing to embrace it. I don’t think I have as strong of a desire. I think I’m just more confident in who I am as I age. Both in my body and just like who I am generally so I don’t feel as strong of a need to be so individualistic in my fashion style or really anything. I just feel like, oh, I am who I am so you can think I’m cool or not. I don’t really need to impress you with my new dress.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: I just wear another jumpsuit because I love them. 

Elsie: I love to be an outfit repeater. I definitely repeat my best outfits a lot and that’s fine. 

Emma: Same Same. 

Elsie: Alright, and then we have a message from Ashley, that it’s just so nice. I wanted to read it. It says just wanted to say thank you for creating the Childhood Magic site. This weekend, I did two crafts with my four and one-year-old, meaning they made a mess and I did the craft. Definitely know about that. But we had so much fun. Thank you for the PDFs and the inspiration. So thank you, Ashley for sending us that message. I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on Childhood Magic since I know that we originally said it was launching in August, which was so funny in hindsight, because now it’s October. So our website is up where you can view it at childhoodmagic.com but it just doesn’t have like the design put on it yet. Then we’re just waiting, I think it’ll be within the next month or so. But you can go ahead and view the content, you can go ahead and make projects, and we’ve been filling in Instagram with videos. So it is there, it’s ready for some joy with your kids. She’s right, there are a ton of PDFs and printables. There’s a lot of games that you can print out and other things like that. Then Emma has made the most beautiful, amazing slime archive just like every kind of slime and playdough you’re going to very impressed. 

Emma: There will be more. There’s a good amount but there’s more coming. 

Elsie: There’s a good variety. We’re gonna do science experiments. That’s definitely a category we want to work a lot on. So anyway, thank you for your support. It just means a lot that people have been sending us nice messages and already using the site even though it’s not even fully launched yet. It warms our hearts and it makes us feel like our summer of doing kids crafts was totally worth it. So thank you for that. So please subscribe to our podcast if you haven’t yet that way you’ll get the update every week, and it’ll be in your feed when we have a new episode. If you haven’t ever left us a review, please leave us a review. Our reviews are pretty good, but they could be better. If you have a nice thing to say, it would mean a lot to us. Anytime you want email us at podcast@abeautifulmess.com We love hearing from you and we love answering your questions and getting requests about topics. We always want more topics to do. All right we’ll be back next week.