Episode #200: Let’s Celebrate 200 Episodes!

Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort listen. This week we’re celebrating 200 podcast episodes. We’re in nostalgia mode today, so we’re sharing some of our favorite moments, memories, and what we envision for our next 200 episodes.

Emma: 200! It’s wild.

Elsie: It is. I feel like we just started yesterday, you know? It’s one of those things that went by kind of fast. Yeah. It doesn’t feel like 200, so I’m happy.

Emma: Yeah, and we were looking at all the dates and stuff, and you know, we started in 2019, like a little while before the pandemic. And when you think about it in those terms, I’m just like, life has been so different. So much has happened in the world and in our lives. I mean, how many houses have we owned since we started this? I don’t know, it’s cool.

Elsie: More than three?

Emma: Less than 200, but yeah, I don’t know. We didn’t really have like a lot of big plans. When we started it, I feel like most things, we were like, let’s just do it like a year or two I was like, we should do a podcast. We should do a podcast, and then I don’t really feel like we knew where we were going with it. We’ve just been going. You know what I mean?

Elsie: True. I don’t know. I still feel that way. I mean, I enjoyed doing it and I think it’s been a lot of fun. There’s certain parts of our life that are a little bit documented and then there’s lots of sort of like, we’ve been able to share our interests. I mean, I don’t know. It’s definitely more of a bestie podcast, you know what I mean? Like we’re not like up a nice studying or anything like that.

Emma: Yeah. I feel like now our podcast is what our blog used to be more like back in the day ’cause it used to be there weren’t as many platforms as when we started blogging 15 years ago, 16 years ago, whatever it was. I don’t know if there were podcasts and if there were definitely wasn’t on my radar yet. I didn’t even really know how to use my iPhone, you know? So the world has changed. We didn’t really have social media. So I think like now I think of our podcast as like the way to do personal stories and personal connections. And our blog is more the place where we do like teaching stuff, like a cocktail recipe that we’re probably gonna talk about on this podcast. But the recipe is on the blog, you know what I mean? So, I like this outlet for that reason. And I also just really like the longer form. I’ve never felt like I really can say anything on social media ’cause it just feels all really fast and I’m just definitely a longer form person. I think that’s why I like blogging and why I like podcasting.

Elsie: Yeah, longer form person, that’s a t-shirt that we can wear.

Emma: And it has to wrap around where you can’t even read it.

Elsie: Okay. So we’re gonna talk a little bit about our grandma moving into the pink house, which has happened, and thank you for all, We got so many messages and comments from people who are supporting and it was really sweet. So it’s been a very sweet time for our family. But before we chat about that, I need to put out the official call for October Ghost Stories. So probably in one or two more sessions of recording, we’ll be on the Ghost Stories episode. So we need the ghost stories immediately. So I’m going to give you your deadline. You have a one-week deadline from the time that this episode airs to send us yours, and if you’re a little bit late, that’s fine too. But we need to have a deadline because here’s the thing, these stories take an enormous amount of time. We get a lot of them and I usually spend a whole day just reading and you know, then I have to sort of like edit them and call them and choose which ones, anyway. So, please send us your ghost stories. So I’m gonna tell you what we’re looking for specifically, if you’re a new listener or you haven’t heard one of these episodes, we usually do it every October. I think last October I was having a meltdown, so we didn’t do it, but we’ve done it all the other October before that. But we do listener-submitted ghost stories. So we want your firsthand ghost stories that happened to you or someone who you know, where you heard the story firsthand. And we don’t wanna go back farther than that, where it’s like 10 people removed. So something that’s like firsthand or close to firsthand is good for us. And then send it to us in as much detail as you can. Write it as if you were writing a short story. Just pretend you’re an author for 10 minutes, and type us up the email. If you put any, like, personal details or you know, a nice message at the beginning, I will cut that out for sure. So don’t worry about that.

Emma: But we’ll read it. Thank you. But we’ll cut it out.

Elsie: Yes. And we’ll just kind of get straight to the story. For a lot of the stories, I do have to edit them down a little bit. But yeah, anyway, just send us the best story you can, as if we were gonna read it.

Emma: I don’t think anyone’s mad if we’re like cutting out one paragraph. I think people get it. There’s only so much time we’re doing all the stories, you know, it’s cool.

Elsie: Yeah. This is the other thing, don’t make your story too short. I wanna hear every detail that you remember, or that you’ve heard, or that you know, like every little sensory detail. That is the good stuff. So don’t just be like, I saw a man standing in the corner and then like, end your story there. Describe every part of it.

Emma: Yeah. What did his face look like? Was he making an expression? Did you smell anything? Did you feel goosebumps on your skin? Come on, people. We need you to really write us the thrillers there.

Elsie: Yeah. Did you tell people? Did you not tell people? Were you like, yeah, we wanna know everything? So yeah, it is podcast@abeautifulmess.com. Send us those ghost stories and we will do an episode, We’ve done two before I think we’ll try to make it just one, but we’ll see how many stories we receive this year, but that will be in October.

Emma: So anyway, grandma’s Pink House. Yes. So in a previous episode, just in case anyone doesn’t know, Elsie shared how our grandma Norma, who is our dad’s mother, is moving into her pink house, which is like in her neighborhood. It was a house that Elsie and her family went to for the holidays while they lived in Nashville. But now that they lived in Springfield, she’s kind of empty. So Grandma moved in and she used to live 45 minutes to an hour away from our hometown Springfield in a town called Buffalo. So it was just a little bit harder to see her, especially in the winter when it’s like icy. And we also, she’s getting older and so it’s nice that she’s closer because she’s gonna drive less and just be in town and that’s really comforting. So anyway, I’ll tell mine ’cause it’s fairly short. I’ve only gone over there once since she moved in, which as of recording, was just last week, but I took Oscar after daycare, and we went over there for about an hour and a half. And what I did was, which I think was a parenting mistake, I thought I was so smart, but I was not. I was like, I knew she would have a few toys and things, but I didn’t really know if she would have a lot of stuff that he would be interested in. And I really wanted him to enjoy her house and to be excited to come back and for it to be a place that he’s like wanting. It’s kind of tricky with toddlers, you never know if they’re gonna refuse to hug someone when you leave, things like that. And it’s fine, it’s no big deal. But you know, I was just trying, so I was like, all right, I’m gonna get these Paw Patrol toys, and he can open them when we get to grandma’s house. He didn’t know I had ’em and I open ’em at grandma’s house and the toys are gonna stay at grandma’s house. And so we got to grandma’s house and he got to open them and he was so excited. He loves Paw Patrol. And then my mistake though was, that once we were leaving the house, he really wanted to take the toys with him. And I was like, no, they’re gonna stay at grandma’s and when we come back, we’ll get the toys again, they’re gonna be at grandma’s every time we come. We can play with the Paw Patrol toys. But it was a huge meltdown. I think it was also getting close to his bedtime and he refused to hug her, you know, and didn’t wanna say goodbye. And I was just carrying him out the door. And he’s still screaming a little bit like a toddler. That wasn’t what I was hoping for, but it was still a really good visit and you were right. It smells like grandma in there. All her art from when we were growing up, like in her house is now in that house and it does feel like her house, like she has her chairs that we grew up with. She has a lot of stuff that she liked when we were kids and she still has it. So it felt very nostalgic to me, and it also just really felt like an old lady lives here. Yeah. Before it felt more like an acute Airbnb. I loved it. And Oscar had a great time, he just had a little meltdown at the end, but he’s two, so that’s what life’s like. So I’m excited to take him over there, though a lot more this fall. So I’m really happy that she’s moved.

Elsie: Yeah, it’s been really magical. We have been over there kind of constantly and it’s been wonderful. Jeremy’s like helped her figure out how to, so, okay, this is her. She’s 89 years old and this is her first time to have internet in the home ever. Which is so like weird and cool. So she has figured out how to watch Murder She Wrote. Which is amazing. Like one of the greatest, 90’s era shows. And she found this other lawyer show, so everything is going so well. She’s made me like so many boxes of like my stuff that she didn’t want in there and like, so we’re all like, supported now. And yeah, she like walked with me to pick up the kids from school one day. It’s been wonderful. So we feel like extremely, extremely lucky and thankful and like, it’s just the perfect situation for our family.

Emma: Yep. So that’s the update on the pink house.

Elsie: Yes. Yeah. I’m excited next for Halloween because we’ve kind of warned her, but our neighborhood is like the Halloween neighborhood. And then there’s three streets that are like the main streets, and she’s on the middle street, so she’s on one of the main, main streets.

Emma: We should just buy her a lot of candy.

Elsie: Yeah. We definitely have to help her prep and help her decorate and Yeah. But I’m excited. I think she’ll be very energized by how the neighborhood’s very invested in Halloween.

Emma: She loves kids. Obviously, she loves her grandkids and her great-grandkids, but you know, kids are all fun, and yeah, kids in costumes are just magic. So I think she’s gonna love it. Yeah, we should buy her a whole bunch of candy. So she has enough. ’cause she probably won’t have a good concept of that because it’s a lot. You need a lot because it’s like the neighborhood.

Elsie: Yes. Cute. Okay, so this is our 200th episode. So we are gonna talk through a bunch of nostalgic things. We don’t take a lot of time in our career to just like, and reflect, and it’s something that I’ve always been weak at. And we have recently been trying a little bit more, but, so this is like good for us. So the first thing I had down was how podcasting has changed me. I think that this is such an interesting question because, Emma wanted to start a podcast for years before we did it, and I was extremely resistant. I didn’t think I could do it, and I didn’t think I’d be good at it, and I thought I would hate it, and I thought people would be mean, and it has been kind of like the opposite experience of what I expected it to be. It’s been the most out of everything we’ve ever done, social media, blogging, you know, whatever else. I feel like any little bit of internet influencer that we’ve done, you know what I mean? So you name it, we’ve tried it, except for whatever the new one’s called that I’m not doing.

Emma: Threads. Yeah. I was like, TikTok Threads. What New thing?

Elsie: The new one. TikTok.

Emma: Be real.

Elsie: Okay. So I feel like the thing that has changed about me is that before we started, I couldn’t really talk long form without being really insecure or really getting upset with myself. I got really upset when we had to do like live interviews, even taped interviews, kind of anything. I had to be on a podcast, unfortunately, I don’t do it that much anymore and I think I would be way better at it now. It helped with that. It helped me learn how to like chill out and just like talk more candidly. I think I have developed a big sort of like hard shell from all of the many years of like internet trolls and mean little and things like that, you know? But honestly, like our podcast experience is a lot more peaceful than the rest of the internet experiences we’ve had. So that’s what changed me. What about you?

Emma: Yeah, I think I felt similar in that I definitely have not experienced the same level of online bullying that you have. Like for whatever reason, Elsie, in her whole life, not even just the internet, but as a kid.

Elsie: The pink aura.

Emma: Oh, is that what it is? Yeah. You always just have gotten more bullied than me. And it doesn’t really make any sense ’cause we’re actually really similar and we’re also sisters and we grew up, you know what I mean? It just doesn’t make sense. But you’ve always gotten so much more than me, the internet included. So I don’t think I had the same level of shell, but I also think my instinct isn’t as much to share my personal life on the internet as yours. Like whenever we both started blogging, we originally blogged separately. We had two different sites. Elsie had a beautiful mess, but I had my own food blog and that’s just it to me it was a food blog, like I was just doing recipes, things I was cooking. It wasn’t that I was hiding my personal life. I would talk about if I made something for my boyfriend or whatever, like it never felt like I was hiding it just isn’t my instinct to share a lot about myself on the internet and sometimes in real life too. I’m just kind of private, but I think I’m also like, I just assume my life isn’t interesting, to be honest. So anyway, I feel like the podcast has been a place where our readers and listeners have gotten to know me in a way that I don’t think they would’ve gotten to on the blog, or if you only read the blog or you only follow us on Instagram, I don’t think you know me in the way that our podcast listeners do. And that’s really meaningful to me. I don’t know what it means to everyone else, but it means a lot to me because it’s nice to be known. It feels really good. And you know, it’s the internet. I obviously really like knowing people in real life as well, and I have my whole support system in that way. But it is very meaningful and nice to have people be interested, and like, I don’t know, ask me questions about things I’ve talked about on the podcast, like long, you know, episodes, months ago people will send emails and it’s just really nice. It feels good.

Elsie: Yeah. That’s the best. Okay, so what is the biggest lesson we’ve learned from podcasting? I love this question. Okay, so I think for me, the lesson I’ve learned is that this different venue for sharing on the internet Is more personal and I think it’s more forgiving. It’s the space that we found where we can be the most candid and we don’t have to second guess and like give so many disclaimers and be honestly just like worried. I think the thing I thought before I podcasted is that like, and you’d be on Instagram or on a blog or whatever and you would just say a joke or say, you know, something about you are weak, and then someone would take it really wrong because there’s, from some other point of view it could be you know, or whatever, right? But I’m not talking about things that are really bad. I’m talking about things that are in the middle. Where it’s like it’s just person by person right? And things like that can get really blown out on typed-out media. So I think the thing I learned is like the typed-out media is sort of like not real, and in a way it’s like, I guess maybe this is a sad perspective, but for me, it’s kind of not worth it to try to share my life through typing anymore because I’m just like so tired of people taking things completely, not how I meant them, or like not really being able to like to understand my intention or my personality or whatever, you know? Like not being able to tell a joke, there’s just a lot missing there. And maybe it’s ’cause I’m not a great writer. Like maybe for someone else there’s not that same thing missing.

Emma: I think social media doesn’t have a lot of room for that kind of stuff, unfortunately. Because I actually think you’re a great writer.

Elsie: Thank you. I think the thing I learned is that there are different spaces for different levels of personal connection. And just like authenticity and really just like, the types of things that you would wanna share, like to share an embarrassing story on Instagram, I seriously think wouldn’t be worth it. Like people would, would find a way to be mean about it. But here it’s like so much fun. So I think it just opened my mind to the possibilities instead of feeling so narrow. Like I can be a know-it-all and think I already know, you know, everything there is to share on the internet. But now I’ve learned that I don’t and I love that.

Emma: Yeah. I guess the thing that comes to mind, and I knew we would talk about this at some point in our two hundreds episode, is, that it’s a thing I say to Elsie a lot whenever I read our podcast emails, so people who write the podcast box, they’re just always so nice and helpful and like I’ve gotten so many book recommendations. I’ve bought so many books from thrift books, from things our podcast sent, but it also, like I’ve honestly, a lot of times over the years read podcast emails from listeners and just like cried because they’re basically like, oh, your podcast is the thing I turn to when I need something light and like a friendly voice that’s just gonna be encouraging. And it’s, you know, not anything that’s gonna be making me sad, you know? ’cause like sometimes people are like, I’m going through a hard time, my mom passed away and I’m cleaning out her house. And I listen to your podcast while I do that because it’s like the light thing that I can stand during this dark time. And there are so many times where I feel like I love my career and I’m very proud of it, but I also, and I think a lot of people feel this way too, especially when you get into your middle age, is you feel kind of like, what am I doing with life? What’s the point? What does it all mean? You know, I do a podcast about, you know, what I’m up to and decorating my house and recipes and our sites about recipes and crafts and I love all that, but it is, sometimes it doesn’t always feel very meaningful. And so whenever I read those emails, it means a lot to me. And we’ve gotten so many of those over the years and it just makes me feel like, oh, okay, this silly thing that I’m doing, you know, as a job matters to someone. And it doesn’t matter to me if it matters to millions of people or whatever, but it means a lot when people ride in and they’re like, hey, your podcast helped me through a hard time. And I’m like, that is so cool and makes me so happy and it just makes me feel like what I’m doing matters a little bit to someone and I really appreciate it.

Elsie: Yeah. Makes me happy that new listeners have so much they can marathon through ’cause a lot of people like marathoning is how a lot of people listen to podcasts.

Emma: Binge. Binge. Love it.

Elsie: Yes. And yeah, it makes me so happy that it’s like just gonna be there. Just chilling, waiting for whoever.

Emma: Yeah. I’ve heard people, they’re like when you took this summer off? I just started over. They’re like, well, cool. I hope it was good. Yeah, so it’s like great. In a way, it makes me feel like we’re becoming the comfort rewatch, you know what I mean? Like we’re a little piece of that kind of media, and there’s nothing that I would love more, truly.

Elsie: Yeah. Me either. That’s nice. Okay, so our favorite part about the podcast, I think my favorite part is that it’s so different from the rest of the work we do. So the days that we podcast, I’m like at Emma’s house right now, We usually have lunch afterward. It’s just a different kind of day. And yeah, I really enjoy that and I really enjoy the comfort re-watches ’cause I feel like it’s kind of like if I had to make the podcast be just like, one thing I would probably pick that, do that. At this point, I think it’s fun skipping around, but like I do think that that part of it is the most, like, I don’t know, I think that more people are joining in on our re-watches than on our book club so far. I think that it’s just like a thing that you, that’s cool. That is very easy to join in. It’s very accessible, and a lot of the movies we watch are family friendly or, yeah, I guess the line of family-friendly is different for different people, I consider most things family friendly as long as it’s not like, you know.

Emma: Scary, scary horror?

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: Blood, violence, killing, sex.

Elsie: Long as it’s kind of for kids. But I’ve heard some people say that like they don’t let their kids watch Home Alone. And I am definitely not in that category of parenting.

Emma: I wish my kid would watch Home Alone.

Elsie: Oh, it’ll happen. It’s so cute. It’ll be the greatest thing ever.

Emma: Yeah. Some of my favorite parts are, I like seeing, this is so random, but I like seeing as themes emerge from the things we talk about. ’cause everybody kind of has like the things that they return to, the things they think about a lot, things that matter to them. And they usually turn into hobbies or topics of conversation that you gravitate towards with friends, things like that. And I feel like for us, one of ’em is like thinking about the future in a positive way because the future is aging. ’cause everybody ages unless you’re a vampire. Then, you know, so we’re kind of like putting out there that we’re excited about aging and I like that message a lot for a lot of reasons. But if for whatever reason, for us, it comes up a lot. We’ve talked about second lives or second careers, and we love to talk about people who started new careers in their forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies. We talk about our old lady retirement home dream of ours, and we have a waiting list. Not really, This is a pretend waiting list, but people have said they wanna be on the waiting list. So we know that a lot of listeners are looking into that too. So yeah, thinking about the future in a positive way is like a theme that we’re always on that I love. Also skincare, also comfort food, also fun movies. So these are a lot of the themes that we return to. And I think it’s a lot of like just enjoying the everyday magic of life, the simple pleasures, and things, and I like that about us. I think it’s quite wise.

Elsie: Yeah, I love it too. So our favorite episode. Favorite episode that we can remember. So I have like a couple, but I will say my most memorable episode is definitely my Evangelical upbringing episode number 75. Yours was probably number 76.

Emma: They’re really close together. If people go back and wanna listen to ’em if you haven’t heard them.

Elsie: It’s definitely the time that we went off of our normal path the most, and it was very rewarding. It was very worth it, I thought. I loved how it came out and I thought about doing another one in the future, so that’s a maybe, but it’s definitely a subject that like, everyone has these subjects inside of them where you’re kind of an expert on something that’s really obscure and really niche and it’s not a part of your everyday life. And it’s not really even something you enjoy talking about but it’s something that if you like, get around the right person or the right people, you can talk about it for hours. And that’s one of those for us.

Emma: Yeah, and I think too, like especially when you are a young child and then like middle school, high school age, even early college, like basically until you’re 25 and your brain stops developing. I think that there are all these formative years and the things that happen to us in those formative years make this huge impact compared to some things that happen later in life. And so I think everybody, but definitely myself included, I return to a lot of that and think about how it shaped me. And I’m also often like, kind of reshaping it, like kind of examining it, like turning it over and looking at it in a different light and being like, actually I like this part. And you know what? This part is more up than I thought. And you know, you’re just kind of like always weighing it and seeing how it shaped you and seeing what you can take from it that’s positive and what you can learn from it that might’ve been negative so that you can avoid it or not repeat it or just learn from it in whatever way. So I think us growing up evangelical, for me, it’s that kind of thing where I’m returning to it a lot in my mind just ’cause I wanna weigh it just because I wanna reexamine it. Mm-hmm. And I wanna see what good I can take and what other things I can kind of set down or process through so that I can set them down. And I think in that way, everyone has some things like that in their past, whatever it might be. All different things, but that one’s part of ours. So, I think that for me it will definitely come up in my art, probably all throughout my life in different ways. I don’t know if I really want like make a whole brand or talk about it all the time, like with work, but I do think it’s expressing it’s just not for me. I think there are people doing that. That’s awesome. I don’t have that much to say about it in that way. But I do think it’s something that will get expressed through creative things I do in my life, probably my entire life. Just because it was such a formative era and it is a thing that I return to a lot in my mind as I tear it apart, you know? Anyway, one of my favorite episodes was episode 48, which was about second lives. So we’re kinda talking about second careers and like other things, again, returning to our theme of how aging is awesome.

Elsie: I loved that episode.

Emma: Yeah, and it’s kind of an oldie ’cause this is episode 200, so that’s like, kind of early on in a way.

Elsie: Actually the other one I had done was number 49, which is just the next one after that, which is the time I interviewed Jonathan Adler. And we stopped doing interviews. So I could say a little more officially now, like, I realize like I’m not good at interviewing and I’m not going to be.

Emma: I’m not either, and we are not journalists.

Elsie: I believe you can get good at anything that you’ve set your mind to, and that you work at. And I just don’t think I was setting my mind to it or working at it. So we decided that we could support people through our book club, and other ways. And obviously, we’re like fans of so many people and we shout out so many people.

Emma: And it’s genuine. We are fan girls.

Elsie: But interviewing is a skill that I think you do need to have at least a little bit, and I realized that it did not.

Emma: I don’t either. I like talking to people, but it’s actually really different to just having a conversation with someone versus doing a good interview and doing a good job interviewing them. I don’t have the skill either, and I don’t think I really am same boat, not really interested in cultivating it, but I admire people who have it. It’s very cool, but I don’t.

Elsie: That was definitely my favorite interview because I always obsessed over it the most. And it went really well. It was really fun and it was definitely different. So I’m glad that I had that experience in life.

Emma: Yeah. He’s like a hero of yours.

Elsie: All my blogger friends get to like, go to his house or like go to some party. And like they can all kiss my ass like, it’s so annoying.

Emma: Ooh, someone’s jealous.

Elsie: I’m so jealous. I mean, I get jealous so little, I’m not a jealous person, but when my friends are posting about being at Jonathan Adler’s house and I wasn’t there because I don’t live in New York. ’cause I wasn’t invited. It’s very heart-wrenching for me. Anyway. Anyway. Okay. And then my other favorite is the ghost stories. I love the ghost stories. Yeah, it’s fun. I don’t remember the numbers, but we will put them in the show notes this week. We’ll, you know, link to them. So if you wanna go back and specifically listen to the Old Ghost story episodes before the new ones pop up, then you should. ’cause they’re weird. Like they’re actually mostly sweet, and then there are a couple of really horrible ones each time.

Emma: I feel like a lot of them are just kind of quirky too. Like just they’re just kind of random and weird, which they feel more real to me because I’m like, yeah, that’s what life’s like. It’s kind of just random and weird and a little offputting, but also kind of sweet, but I don’t know what to think about this and did it even happen? It’s like that’s what life’s like, so yeah.

Elsie: Yeah. That’s one of my favorites for sure, but I’m also like really enjoying the re-watches. I think in a couple more years, looking back, the re-watches might be some of my favorites because like this year, like we’re onto Halloween movies. And then we’ll start Christmas movies and it’s like, there’s so many. I think we would take a couple more years just to get through all the Halloween and Christmas movies. It’s so fun.

Emma: There’ll probably be new ones that come out eventually, like if we did this a long, long time. Anyway, I don’t know.

Elsie: Okay. But yeah, from my heart, I just wanted to say thank you for making this part of our careers meaningful, interesting, and supportive. I think that the last few years were a really hard time for kind of everyone in general, There was the pandemic and you know, the internet was roaring or whatever, like during these few years. And then also just the time in life that we’re in. Many, many, many of our friends who started blogging or doing Instagram or whatever in the early years that we started have had their own big pivots or decided to stop or, you know, move on or change to something completely different or whatever. I feel like it could have been a time in our life that was only hard and depressing, but the podcast helped it to be like a time that had a lot of good energy as well.

Emma: Yeah. And it’s been really fun to just connect with people in a different way. That we really don’t do on our blog. Not ’cause we don’t want to just ’cause it’s not really the place. It’s like this is the place.

Elsie: Yeah. This is the place.

Emma: You wanna chat and have a glass of wine with us? This is the place, the podcast, or whatever, go on a walk with us if it’s 8:00 AM where you are, whatever, whatever you’re doing.

Elsie: So on that note, for our special treat, for our 200th episode, we designed for you our beloved podcast listeners, our best friends, a dream day, the perfect day that we could spend together. And it’s imaginary.

Emma: But not in our hearts. It’s not imaginary, it’s real in our hearts.

Elsie: Let’s think of this as a real plan that we’re really going to do. Okay?

Emma: Yeah. Why not? Yeah. Manifest destiny.

Elsie: Yes. Okay, so we start the day with three of Emma’s best breakfast recipes. She’s just magically gonna make all three of them.

Emma: Yeah, it’s gonna be easy and no problem.

Elsie: She’ll still have time. She said we’re gonna have a two-hour breakfast where we’re just sitting around drinking too much coffee and eating too much. So the recipes are Emma’s homemade cinnamon rolls, hash brown casserole, and biscuits and gravy casserole, which if you haven’t ever seen those recipes, we’ll link to them in the show notes, they’re like the bangers of our breakfast category.

Emma: If you’re like, I don’t like casserole, I’m like, but have you tried these? But have you tried these? It’s so great. Yeah, really don’t just go have yourself another mimosa in the corner and come back when you’re ready to participate ’cause we are casserole it up.

Elsie: If you don’t like casserole, you probably like breakfast foods from Starbucks. Burn.

Emma: Yeah. For Elsie, that’s a major burn. She makes fun of me every time I eat a sandwich from there.

Elsie: Yeah. The three D printer food, we don’t buy.

Emma: Double, double burn. She’s burning everyone.

Elsie: Okay. After our long breakfast, we are gonna take a walk around the neighborhood, I kind of had this at my house.

Emma: Yeah, it’s at Elsie. It’s at Elsie’s house. We know what house we’re gonna be in.

Elsie: Yeah. So we’re gonna do a house tour. A house tour of all our favorite houses, which is really long, and it’s probably like a 10,000-step type of situation. And we will go to every free little library in the neighborhood, like 10 or so, there’s a lot. Check them all. We can put some into my pink free little library. ’cause that’s what I do now. It’s like my full-time hobby.

Emma: Grandma’s is stocked. When I went over there I was like, there’s a lot of good stuff in here. Yeah. It’s a good library.

Elsie: Yes. I work very hard on it.

Emma: There’s a little art gallery in part of the neighborhood, and there’s also the house that we call the Knives Out house. It does kind of look like the knives out house to me, but when we walk you by it, dear listener, you can let us know what you think.

Elsie: I have a lot of favorite houses in the neighborhood, so it’s actually a very good house tour.

Emma: Yeah. Oh, it’s a great house tour.

Elsie: If you like Century Homes.

Emma: It’s so an easy walk. It’s not super duper-hilly or anything. It’s really nice. And there’s a coffee shop. You’re gonna love it.

Elsie: You’re gonna love it.

Emma: Okay. Then after that, what are we doing?

Elsie: Then we’re gonna have art time. So we’re just gonna make art for a couple of hours, free for all. Make a huge mess. Don’t clean it up. It’s gonna be perfect. And then after that, we’re going to go to our favorite local bookstore and also get more coffee ’cause we’re just having a coffee day.

Emma: Yeah, or you can get a wine, whatever you want. You’re not driving. We’re hosting.

Elsie: Emma’s like chardonnay lunch order lady.

Emma: Why are you telling my secrets? It’s true.

Elsie: Well, they can join you on our perfect day.

Emma: My thing is I make myself drink half my water for the day before lunch, and if I do it, then I can have a chardonnay at lunch. Once I go out to lunch, this is when I go out to people. It only happens twice a month.

Elsie: Yeah, and it’s amazing. And it’s at a tea house. Okay, then I think we forgot to put lunch on here, but we’ll just pretend that we didn’t forget that. Okay. So for dinner, we are going to have Springfield, Missouri, Chinese food, which is a certain thing.

Emma: It is a staple from our childhoods to love it is to know us, to have it as to be a part of our childhood. I don’t even really know where I’m going with this, but we just feel it’s a must if you come to visit us, which is what we’re doing. And it’s just fried chicken with gravy and rice. You’re gonna love it.

Elsie: If you remember I have two kids from China. We’ve both been to China. Yeah. We know it’s not really Chinese food.

Emma: Yeah. You don’t need to tell me we are aware.

Elsie: We freaking know that it is Spring Field, Missouri, Chinese food is its own special thing.

Emma: Yeah. And it’s a cultural thing in this area. I’m not saying it makes sense. I didn’t invent it. I’m just saying it’s from my childhood and you’re probably gonna love it, so we’re gonna take you.

Elsie: Emma has a cashew chicken sauce recipe on her blog, and the cashew-style chicken sauce is kind of the biggest part of it, so it’s very important. So after that, we’re gonna have happy hour on my porch and we will make you our pitcher mojito recipe, and then Emma’s gonna make cosmos. That’s what we decided. We just think they’re delicious.

Emma: We were like, what cocktail should we make? ’cause we have so many good cocktails on our site. And just generally we love drinking. I guess we can say that, but these are the two that we’d landed on, and I feel like it’s a good mix because it’s like one sweet. Mojitos and one’s a little more balanced, I would say, which is Cosmos. So it’s gonna be a good mix. You can go back and forth. You do whatever you want. Also, if you’re sober, you’re still gonna have a lot of fun with us. Don’t worry.

Elsie: I have a really good sober bar. So after that, we’re gonna have a movie night, so we’ll have to do a voting situation on which movie.

Emma: You have to get your pajamas on first?

Elsie: Yeah. We’re gonna do matching pajamas and we’re all going to watch a movie together. And then if you, optionally, if you want, you can get high with Emma.

Emma: Yeah. It’s a little edible. Recreational is legal in my safe.

Elsie: It’s legal and yeah, it’s nothing.

Emma: It makes everything hilarious.

Elsie: It’s fun to laugh sometimes. And then after that, we will have ice cream and go to sleep. That’s our perfect day.

Emma: Perfect day. Let’s plan for you.

Elsie: So tell us what you would add, and maybe someday we’ll really get to have some of these.

Emma: We could pretend like it’s a retreat, but we’re just hanging out. If we call it a retreat that’s more official.

Elsie: All the best retreats I’ve ever been on have a lot of hanging out, you know what I mean? Yeah. Socialize like you want a lot of chill fun.

Emma: Yeah, I don’t know, maybe you don’t have to be productive for it to be a retreat. Maybe it could be a relaxed retreat anyway.

Elsie: Yes. Alright, so we have a voicemail question from Ashley from Michigan.

Ashley: Hey guys, it’s Ashley from Michigan. I actually just finished your episode on all things about books. I actually have a very good question, I think. If you both could choose out of these three people to be able to enjoy it, you’re not killing them off or anything, but Stephen King, Martha Stewart, or Nancy Meyers. I feel like you guys say that they’re your best friends often, and I wanna know which one. If you could only choose one to enjoy their work or their creativity for the rest of your life, which one would it be? Thank you. Love you guys.

Elsie: Cool. I love this question. It’s a good one. I mean, it’s a little painful.

Emma: Yeah, it is. It is very painful. So I’m like, obviously we love all three. Obviously, that’s why she’s so, I guess, ugh!

Elsie: I’m just going through which one would hurt the most to lose. So let it be known. I don’t wanna do this and I don’t wanna live in a world without any of these people. Okay. But the one that I’m gonna keep that I can’t live without the most.

Emma: Wait, let’s say it at the same time. ’cause I think we’re gonna have different ones.

Elsie: Okay. Steven King.

Emma: Nancy Meyers.

Elsie: I almost said all of them

Emma: Well, yeah, I mean, we obviously love all of them.

Elsie: You don’t wanna live without the movies.

Emma: I think I need those movies sometimes. But yeah, to lose on writing and all his books, but I’ve listened to on writing like three or four times now. So to lose that is a major loss. So that’s hesitation. Obviously, they also love Martha Stewart. I feel like she’s getting no love in this, but love her too, obviously.

Elsie: She was the first person my mind went to because I just can’t imagine the world without her. There would be such a hole in culture, because she’s kind of like, when we were younger, it was like the most common compliment people would give us was like, you’re the next Martha Stewart. People would always say that. As like an, which is an annoying compliment to give or receive. But it is like, it’s because she’s such an icon, there’s no one else like her. She describes a whole industry for women. For anyone, you know? Yeah. She was like the one for so long. So yeah, we’ll keep them all.

Emma: She also is kind of like one of the first professional women who I looked up to who also clearly loved Halloween, and it was like, okay to be an adult and love Halloween. I know that’s just like a silly, small thing but it meant a lot to me.

Elsie: Yeah. Like she brought Halloween to the bougie culture. This is nice because it’s extremely bougie now, and like if you go on Pinterest, it’s like, it’s silly how fancy people can make Halloween, but I love that. It’s something for everyone.

Emma: Well, I love Halloween. So it just felt like finding one of your people, like finding your crowd, and I feel like she was kind of, the president of the club.

Elsie: It’s true. I’m collecting the Halloween issues with her portraits. Like if you don’t know, just Google, Martha Stewart’s Halloween magazine cover.

Emma: If you don’t know, just get outta here.

Elsie: If you don’t know we might have too much prep to like get back to zero, but she’s basically every single year for Martha Stewart living she was doing portraits where she was dressed in a Halloween costume and they’re amazing. One time we had a photographer who said he had worked with Martha Stewart. I know. I was just like, what about the Halloween? Did you do a Halloween? I was like, the only thing I care about is Martha Stewart Halloween covers. It’s my vogue okay. Okay. I guess that’s everything. So before we go, I promise we will say our plans for our next 200 episodes, which by the way, I think it was like very generous towards ourselves to think that we’ll have 200 more episodes, but I don’t mind being generous towards.

Emma: Once again, manifest destiny.

Elsie: Yeah. Like I hope we do. It would be cool.

Emma: I’d rather like say two big of a dream for my life and not achieve it, then have nothing, I mean, might as well dream big, so, so what are we doing for the next 200 episodes?

Elsie: Okay. Well, I don’t know. I mean obviously like we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing, right? I think that we should do another episode type that’s sort of like the comfort rewatch. I think we should find something else that we can kind of like do focused episodes about something nostalgic because I think those are really fun for us. They’re like really the only thing we research and prep for if researching is watching Jurassic Park. I mean, honestly, I’ll do it every single time.

Emma: For us, it’s researching once again, not journalists watching it, a movie, and writing down notes. Love this room. Love it.

Elsie: Yeah. Okay. But I have something kind of exciting to share. I just decided in the last few weeks that I’m gonna do this after the new year ’cause I wanna get past the Christmas season. We kind already have our plans, but I am going to do our adoption story in two parts, two episodes. I think it’s time. I think I’m ready. And it’s definitely one of the things that people have requested a lot that I just, in the past I wasn’t interested in doing and I wasn’t ready. And now I feel that I can.

Emma: I love that. I love it when people share stories right away. I think that’s wonderful. But I also think it does make a lot of sense sometimes to like, let time pass, and let your view of the experience really deepen. So I think that’s a great idea. I love it.

Elsie: All right, here’s Nova. Nova, what do you have for us this week?

Nova: A joke.

Elsie: Okay, I’m ready.

Nova: How do you fix a pumpkin?

Elsie: How?

Nova: With a pumpkin patch.

Elsie: Nice, that’s a good one. Well, thank you so much for joining us for 200 episodes. We’ll be back next week with 201 and it is hosting a party deep dive.

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Kat

Posted: 7 months ago

Just here to say that I loved the “dream day” – I would 100% participate in that.

Nancy

I’m a week behind on episodes but wanted to thank you for the podcast! Im an OG listener, and each week it puts me in a lighter mood. Congrats on 200 and cheers to many more!

Rebecca Hiraoka

Ah i LOVE your podcast. It’s one of my favorite to listen to for so many reasons. I appreciate how much you both love life. Happy 200! Also, thank you for your Evangelical upbringing episodes. Many of us can relate & it was so helpful to hear how you both navigate it. Hoping you both have really wonderful Halloween/Fall seasons! Preparing to do my Fall decorating next week & I’m basking in this pre-Halloween glow! 🍁

Anna

Congratulations on 200 episodes! I look forward to listening every week. You absolutely help me appreciate “the everyday magic of life”(as Emma put it ). So thanks…and keep at it 💫

Jen

Home Alone-It’s funny that you mentioned Home Alone movie. My 4 year old son is obsessed with that movie. Yesterday he hid nerf guns and darts all over the house in case he has to defend the house. He also put one in his backpack to take to 4K maybe he thinks he has to defend his school too.

Emma Chapman

Admin

Reply to Jen

I’d sleep better knowing I had a nerf gun under my bed. I get it.