Today, we are sharing the tale of two holiday houses and how we fulfilled our lifelong dream of being neighbors. Elsie is also sharing how she started house shopping and decorating (before even seeing her house) and we are answering a listener’s question on how to get into a festive autumn mood!

You can stream the episode here on the blog or on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, and Stitcher. You can find the podcast posts archive here.

A big thank you to our sponsors! Check out the offers from Bev, Modern Fertility, BetterHelp, and Green Chef. And if you’re looking for a specific code you heard on the podcast, you can see a full list on this page!

Show notes:

-Here are a couple photos of Elsie’s pink house:

Here’s a peek at the kitchen mood board. So excited!

-Holiday House room tours:

–Kitchen
–Front Porch
–Bathroom
–Formal Living Room
–Playroom
–Living Room
–Bedrooms
–Back Porch

-Listen to Elsie’s burnout story here: Episode #106: How We Survive Major Renovations

-Elsie’s similar antique chandelier from Etsy

-Elsie’s Macaulay Culkin print

-Here’s a link to the witch prints (here and here).

-Here’s a link to Agility Bed

-Emma’s apple cinnamon hot toddy recipe (so good!)

-Listen to us on the HGTV Obsessed Podcast here.

-Emma mentions The Burlap Bag candles.

I Love Fall / Sweet Vanilla Cinnamon / Pumpkin Spice / Baked Bread

-Elsie’s favorite autumn soundtracks: Rosemary’s Baby and Hocus Pocus

-Here are our favorite horror movies.

Episode 114 Transcript

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Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast, today we’re sharing the tale of two holiday houses and how we ended up fulfilling our lifelong dream of being neighbors, kind of. I’m also sharing all the details of what it was like to house shop, purchase a home, and even start decorating before I even saw the home in person and we’ll be answering a listener question about how to get into the festive autumn mood. I’m so excited for this episode. So we just recently purchased this home in Missouri and it’s one block from Emma’s house and we painted it pink. That’s why we’re calling it Pink House because Emma just didn’t want me to call it Holiday House 2.0, that was a hard no from her so we’re calling it the pink house.

Emma: Yes, plus it is a pink house that was like the first thing she did. We should say, so you kind of mentioned in the intro, that it’s been a lifelong dream for us to be neighbors. I don’t know, people might be like, weird, why? So our grandma, Norma Jean, her and her sister before her sister passed away Ina, our great aunt Ina, were neighbors. They were sisters and their houses are across the fence from each other in Buffalo, Missouri. We’ve just always thought that was really sweet and although maybe our personal homes, maybe that’ll never happen, although life is long, who knows? It’s kind of cool.

Elsie: What if we had double neighbor houses, a double neighbor situation?

Emma: Our husbands would just roll their eyes if they actually listen to this. 

Elsie: So our grandma and her sister lived next door to each other for more than, was it more than 60 years? It was most of their lives because, in the old days, people got married when they were basically children and that’s when they became neighbors. So they’ve basically always lived next door to each other and we just thought that was so cute. As kids, we would go over there and go play with their basketball goal and things like that. Just kind of fun anyway.

Emma: It’s always fun for cousins to grow up seeing each other a little more. So that’s kind of part of it with the pink house. Oscar and I already go on walks all the time and he’s just in a stroller, so he doesn’t know anything but I’m always like, there’s Aunt Elsie’s house as we walk by.

Elsie: Oh, how cute. I mean, he will soon. We’re going to tell the whole story, everything about it. We shared it on Instagram last week and got lots and lots of questions so we’re hopefully going to address your question today if you still had one and just tell a story and whatever, it’s fun. It’s pink. It’s adorable. Do you want to start with a little back story about how we ended up with our first holiday house and why it was called Holiday House and all of that?

Emma: So the house that I currently live in, we have always called it the Holiday House, and the reason being is we bought it maybe three years ago, four years ago, something like that. Yeah, three or four years ago. It was a house that Elsie could visit with her family because she lives in Nashville and I live in Springfield, Missouri. So it was a house that they could stay in when they come for the holidays so that’s why we called it the Holiday House. Then the rest of the time we were going to rent it out as an Airbnb but we pretty quickly ran into some issues with that. First was at the time, and I think this is kind of still true, there’s not really any property management companies here in Springfield, Missouri, for short-term rentals. So by the way, business idea for anyone listening in Springfield, Missouri, because I haven’t come across one and I actively looked for a few years there. Then also 2020, we ran into issues with COVID. The whole world kind of changed. So the short-term rental market kind of changed and that was different all over the country. In some places, it kind of boomed and then a lot of places it didn’t. So anyway, we had a friend, a couple of friends really, who lived in the holiday house while they were having their house renovated during that year and that sort of worked out. Then I moved into it and I just love it. I love the neighborhood and I really like living more in town and it also just has a lot more light than my previous home. One of the things I do for my career is I photograph food, which is kind of a funny thing to say. I’ve done it for years but I still think it’s funny.

Elsie: It’s not funny. People know and think it’s really cool.

Emma: I love it. I love photographing food. It’s really fun. But anyway, that’s a big part of my week. I do that almost every week and so there’s just a lot more natural light. I mostly shoot with natural light. I love the Holiday House so I live here now and it’s my personal home that me and my husband and my son, Oscar live in and our dog. But it’ll probably always be called the Holiday House even though it’s not just for holidays anymore, just because that’s what we always called it. Even on our blog posts that are about the house, they’re called Holiday House and we can’t really change those URLs without kind of creating a lot of broken 404 pages on our site. So that’s where we’re at with that. Then once I bought it, Elsie was like, well  I no longer have somewhere to stay when I come to town with my family. Obviously, you could stay if it’s just you, but your whole family, it gets a little crowded.

Elsie: So if I may interject, right before Emma moved into the house, first of all, we had tried to sell it and then I stayed in it for one last time and I really changed my mind just because it was so special and perfect. We had spent our best Christmas there, our first Christmas as a family of four, our best Halloween for sure ever, because it’s when Emma did the haunted house and it was just, it’s a really good Halloween neighborhood. So anyway, my husband and I stayed there one last time with our kids to our whole family there and we were like, we can’t give this up. It’s not exactly like a good or great financial decision but it was more of just an emotional decision and not an investment but an indulgence for our families, just like happiness and nostalgia and peace of mind and things like that.

Emma: As our friend Ramet would say, it’s part of your rich life.

Elsie: Hell yes, it is. So we decided that then immediately almost after that, like a week later, Emma moved into it and she fell in love with it so that really changed our direction. Then after about, I guess, almost a year and Emma told me that she wanted to actually buy it because we had bought it through our business so neither one of us personally owned the house. We kind of just owned it together as a business asset. She decided that she wanted to buy it and I, of course, was sad. But also like, that’s cool, whatever. So I set myself a Zillow alert and this is how you do it. So I’m not even like the biggest Zillow fan. This sounds like a Zillow ad, but it’s not. But they do have this one feature where you can draw with your mouse around the exact blocks of where you want to shop and that’s what I did. I basically drew two blocks around Emma’s whole house, maybe a couple extra blocks on certain sides of it. She lives really close to this intersection where there’s a bunch of businesses like food businesses. There’s a little wine shop, a little taco shop, like all these cute things, pizza restaurant and we really enjoyed just staying near all those things. It’s really great when you come into town and you can just get a pizza that night and eat it on your porch. It’s so cute. We kind of just fell in love with the neighborhood specifically and we wanted to be able to walk to all this stuff still because that was what we loved about Emma’s house when we used to stay there, Emma’s holiday house. Anyway, I made the Zillow alert but we really weren’t that serious. I really wasn’t sure if we were going to like, you know, it’s like you have all these goals in the future, but it’s like, what order do I put them in? I was pretty certain that it was more of a back burner goal than a now goal but then in the summertime I got Zillow alerts all the time for houses and some of them were pretty cute. There was even one actually across the street from where we ended up that it was so cute and it sold in a day. I was like, oh man, that’s pretty fast. Just like everywhere else in the world, it seems like real estate is pretty intense right now. So anyway, one popped up. This is the funniest place. It popped up while we were at Disney World and I was actually with Jeremy’s mom. Jeremy wasn’t even with me. I was just with Pat and I showed her. We were sitting down to have a lemonade, take a break and the alert popped up in my email and I showed her the house and I was like, should we just get it? She was like, yeah, I was like ok and then I, thought it over for a day or two. Luckily, this house was for sale by owner so it didn’t sell as lightning fast because I don’t think it was as visible. If I didn’t have the alert then I wouldn’t have seen it because for some reason it didn’t show up through the search but it did, for some reason, give me an alert. So the house is just like so basic. It’s a basic craftsman bungalow, very simple. It has two bedrooms in the downstairs and then it has one bathroom in the downstairs, and then it has an upstairs. That’s sort of a bonus area which could technically be considered another bedroom and there is another balcony

Emma: It’s kinda like a loft.

Elsie: Yeah, kind of a big play space is what we’re going to use it for.

Elsie: It was definitely a flip so let me tell you a little bit about that. My husband loved it because since it was newly flipped, it had things that old houses sometimes struggle with like electrical had all been updated. The lighting was all in the right places and things like that. It had some good, some nice modern conveniences about it. It has a really pretty kitchen which we’ll link to the picture or we’ll show it in the show notes. We’ve shown on Instagram a little bit, really, really pretty remodeled kitchen. They did it in great taste. I love what they did and there were other parts about it that weren’t as much to my taste, which was what kind of made me hesitate. The bathrooms are done pretty boring and not very era appropriate and they kind of effed up the fireplace a little bit. So I have to fix that overall. Really good job. There were some minor things that were just not what I would have done, totally to be expected. I guess where I was hung up was that I had fallen absolutely in love with this house on Emma’s Street that is a giant, needs everything old house, like needs everything. Emma had viewed it before and she said that it needed to be reconfigured. So it didn’t have any good bathrooms. It didn’t have anything about it. That is ready today, like move-in ready. It’s a project but it had obviously this limitless potential and I hope someone gets it who can put their heart and soul into it because that’s what it needs. But my husband was like, we’re not putting our heart and soul into that. We live in Tennessee, you know? So he was really attracted to this idea of a house that was kind of already ready to go. He was like, we can stay in it this Halloween. We can say it this Christmas and for all those reasons, that’s why we made an offer. Honestly, now that we’ve kind of gone through it all and obviously our offer was accepted and we closed on it. Then we painted it pink immediately. It was navy blue before and kind of started making our own. I realize now that I’m really glad that he pushed us to get something that didn’t need a whole lot because it’s like anything that we want to dom we can do, but anything that we don’t want to, we don’t have to do. Which is kind of nice. When I was obsessed with the house that was kind of a fixer, he was like, how many Halloweens and Christmases are going to pass by until this house is ready to stay in. You have to be realistic about that so anyway he was right in every possible way in that situation. It’s all good. I’m really happy with the house we picked. The size is much smaller, which is perfect for everything we need and we’re going to put up a picket fence and it’s just adorable.

Emma: Does Nova already know that it’s pink?

Elsie: Ok, no, this is the part that I was really excited to explain on the podcast because I felt it was too much to explain over Instagram, sometimes things just are. So what we decided is that with little kids, our kids are three and six years old, we could show them a picture and we could tell them about it, but it doesn’t mean anything to them until we’re there. So we decided to just wait and fully set it up and surprise them when we get there. We’re going to go for Halloween. This past week I was there for over a week setting up which we got a lot done but there’s still, even more, I’ll get into that later on in the episode, even more lovely boxes for Jackie and my father in law, Gary, and shout out to our dad Don because those are all the people who are helping me set up the rest of the things before we return in October. Anyway, we are so excited to show the kids and I’m excited that we decided to do it as a surprise because I think that their little kids if they thought about it, they could figure it out. But they’re not going to because they’re little kids. So it’ll be like a total surprise and I’m so excited.

Emma: Yeah, cute. I have a little present I’m going to put in there for them for when they come in late October.

Elsie: That’s a cute idea.

Emma: It;’s just a little something. Tell us a little bit about what it was like buying a house long distance and what you did to prep before you came to Missouri to set up. How do you buy furniture long distance when you haven’t been to a house? You know, that’s a little tricky. So did anything not fit? Was there something you bought that you’re like, wow, this is way too oversize for the space or way too small for this space? How did you manage that?

Elsie: Totally. So first of all, buying a house online is not anything I would ever wish on anyone. It is a little intimidating for this house and because I’m kind of a real estate enthusiast, you know, we’ve looked at a lot of houses. Before we moved to our house in Tennessee, we were house shopping for like three years. So I wasn’t that intimidated about this one just because it was very obvious to me it was not the kind of house where you look at it and you’re like, how would that feel? Is that small? You could kind of just tell and then our realtor is actually our friend. He’s our accountant. We’re intermingled and have all kinds of relationships with him. So I knew that if Jason, our friend was our realtor, that he would be able to go over there and kind of tell me the one or two things that I really wanted to know that I couldn’t tell from photos. There were a couple of things and then after our offer was accepted, I made a giant list for Jackie and she went over there a second time with Jason. They measured every room. Then it was kind of just like, is there an outlet on this wall, things like that that I couldn’t see in the pictures. Then she also made me a really slow walking through phone video of every room, kind of like spinning around. That was really helpful because I will say for me, the hardest things were the timing of ordering all that furniture is really tricky. It wasn’t just furniture, it was obviously curtain rods and curtain rings and curtains, you know, and just every little thing that goes into setting up a house we ordered the week before we got there or the day we closed, actually our Agility Bed arrived on the porch the day before we closed.

Emma: We should say Agility is a sponsor of the podcast but it’s also something a brand that Elsie and I love so that’s why we talk about it. It’s the first thing you bought for this pink house and it was one of the first things I bought when I moved into the Holiday House because we are true believers.

Elsie: I hope that our listeners know by now that our love for our sponsors is real. Just to make it crystal clear, I pay my own money for the Agility Bed and its frickin worth it. They’re not cheap, but we’re there every single Halloween and Christmas and a lot of other times so it’s during important times. As far as shopping for a house online, if you have to do it, I know Laura talked about that a little bit and some of our summer episodes and she bought her full-time main family home long distance and then walked into it for the first time when she already owned it. A lot of people have to do that when they move across the country and I think it’s pretty tricky. So if you can have someone you know go in there in person, hopefully FaceTiming you, that’s what I did with my realtor the first day before, what I was considering it. He told me, kind of every little thing. A lot of times, there’s things that you can’t tell in pictures, like what is the actual countertop materials? What is the color of this, the color of that, especially if the photos look edited anyway? It was a little bit scary but I would say for me, not even. I don’t know if I could do it for my main home. I think I would have to freak out and fly somewhere and see it in person. So for people who do that, like Colin, just did it, Colin and Laura just did it, they have all my respect.

Emma: Do you want to answer some frequent questions that we’ve seen people have as you’ve started to share this as you mentioned on Instagram? People keep asking these. So number one, are you staying in Tennessee or are you moving to Missouri?

Elsie: So I totally understand it was a little confusing, but we’re definitely staying in Tennessee. Our daughter just started kindergarten. We’re very looped in this area and the home that we live in Tennessee is our permanent home. I don’t use the term forever home anymore but if I could, I would. It’s that kind of situation, you know? But this is definitely a second home but we do go to Missouri a lot and we realized that we would like to go more. The big thing was just the flexibility, like being able to just pick up and go for a weekend whenever we feel like we need to or if something happens with a family member or just things like that, life and then being able to stay there and leave. I was staying there last week, I didn’t know which day I was going to leave for most of the trip which was so nice to have that flexibility.

Emma: You’ve also mentioned on the podcast before that you’ve gotten a little burnt out with renovating your house in Tennessee, your main house that you live in. You know, because it’s a big project and also renovating is wonderful but also can be a lot emotionally and financially and all the things. So would you say this is helping or hurting your burnout?

Elsie: So this house felt like a break for me. It did help. So first of all, since we weren’t renovating basically at all, like I know we painted the exterior, but that’s not renovating to hire a painter and give him one paint swatch. It wasn’t like the pain of doing a bathroom or a kitchen, even close. It was very simple and not a lot of choices or anything. So what I mostly did with that house was decorating. Actually, I bought furniture and I’ve bought a lot of vintage. I’ve been to the flea market a bunch of times, things like that and it was it really helped. It felt like so much fun. It was different. I have a different color scheme there. I have a little bit of a different style than I’m leaning into. It honestly felt like a total treat and a distraction. While I’ve been slowly reformatting what I want to do for our big renovation here and I did just need a little bit more time. So I would say it helped much more than it hurt. I don’t think it hurt at all.

Emma: Ok, so you mentioned you’re not really, it’s not like you’re hiding it from your girls but you’re not necessarily telling them a ton about it until they can see it. So when are they going to see it for the first time?

Elsie: I think we’re going to go the week before Halloween and it’s actually also Jeremy’s 40th birthday that week. So I think we’re going to celebrate it all in one special thing. Our daughter’s got her Buzz Lightyear costume and everything. I’m just so excited. I think it’s going to be magical and we can really feel the fall vibes this year. Because last year, because of COVID, we decided not to go to Missouri for Halloween and this year we’re going. 

Emma: Nice. What style are you doing the home? Well, wait. Also, say the age of the home, say the age of the home and kind of the style you’re doing.

Elsie: Yes, so the home was built in 1915 and like I said, it’s been renovated quite a bit like they basically gutted it and they left the fireplace is the same and they left a couple of original built-ins and things like that. But because it looks so updated and new, some of it may be a little bit too new. I decided to bring in a lot of vintage actually Elizabeth from Cheap Old Houses looked at it when we first were in escrow and I asked her, what would you do? She said, buy a ton of vintage so that’s what I’ve been doing. I bought this antique chandelier off of Etsy and that was really cool because we took down the new light fixture they had put up and put this old one and it just instantly made the room feel more old and like it had always been there. So overall, I’m just adding a lot of vintage and I’m trying to lean my decor more towards the 1920s and more towards antiques. I’m staying completely away from mid-century, which is probably the first time I’ve ever done that. Like, there’s always a. Some mid-century in all my houses, but not this one, which is a new experience and it’s been lots of fun so far. Then the color scheme difference is, so the outside of the house is pink, but on the inside, I’m doing the no pink rule which I’ve done before, like on an Airbnb. It’s just generally a good thing for me because pink can very much be my default and I just like pink so I get attracted to all the cute things, all the time when I’m shopping like shower curtains, towels, rugs, all of it, you know, pink, pink, pink. So I’m doing the no pink rule which is really fun and it kind of helps me branch out. I’m doing a lot more neutrals. I’m including a little bit of black which that is very different for me because in my personal home, I have almost no black. Black is just not really a color and I usually tend to decorate very low contrast, so I’m going more high contrast in this space. The other theme is holidays year-round. So there is some things that are Christmassy and some things that are Halloween sort of vibes that will stay up year-round. For example, I got this poster from Etsy, it’s an art print of Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone with the iconic hands on his face pose. I got one of those for the bathroom and then I got these awesome witch prints from Etsy. They’re vintage photos of women dressed up as witches and I love them. Those are in the kitchen and those will stay up year-round. I’m kind of just loving the strong, the more nostalgia the better. I love it.

Elsie: All right, we have a listener question. This one comes from TV Princess on Instagram. Hi ABM. It’s funny to be addressed as ABM, huh?

Emma: I like it.

Elsie: Hi ABM, I’m a giant fan and love the podcast. I relisten to at least one episode a day. Oh my gosh. Every morning while I get ready for work. Wow, ok, this is a true fan and it’s an honor. I have an episode idea I’d love an A Beautiful Mess guide to getting into the autumn spirit – decorations, cocktails, recipes, music, movies, daily routines, everything. Thank you and happy autumn. So I responded to her and I said, we are already recording this week and I’m going to use this as a listener question like a little segment. So let’s do it now. I love this question. So I do feel very, very strongly that you should change your routines up for the new season. If you want it to feel like a new season, you kind of have to create that for yourself. So I love what she’s saying, I already started my portable fireplace candle in the kitchen last night, I moved it in there and it’s like the woodsy smells really good as far as decorations, obviously go full ham on Halloween and Emma will too. Emma is in the zone with her skeletons.

Emma: Always.

Elsie: She told me, like three times I was in Missouri, that she was going to find a way to make the skeletons be climbing onto her roof or climbing up the side of her house.

Emma: Well, I recently got some landscaping done in the front of the house where they had to basically pull out all these weeds in a front bed and so it’s dirt. I was kind of sad because the grass won’t grow super fast and it may not even grow this year. It might be next year. But then I realized I could turn it into a graveyard. So I’m going to put up a little fake headstones and the skeleton hands coming out of the ground so when kids walk by, it’ll be like a graveyard. 

Elsie: So you guys see that she found her destiny in her holiday house, making it into a haunted house. It’s so cute.

Emma:  At least in the front. 

Elsie: Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to see your graveyard. That’s awesome. As far as decorations and cocktail recipes, I’m going to just give a shout out again to the hot toddy made with Harney and Sons Cinnamon, hot Cinnamon tea is that what it’s called? We’ll link to the recipe because I’m pretty sure Emma made a recipe of this, but it’s just cinnamon tea and whiskey. It’s so good you can put a squeeze of an orange and a squeeze of a lemon, a cinnamon stick if you’re feeling fancy. What’s your cocktail that you would say that makes you feel like fall?

Emma: I’m not super into cocktails at the moment just due to nursing. I’ll have a glass of wine or this or that here and there. But I will say along those lines, one thing I do and I talked about this on our, we did an interview on the HGTV podcast but changing out your bed linens for the season. I think really something about it for me, just clicks me into, ok it’s fall time, so you kind of have to wait till the weather is right but that always does it for me. I’m really big into seasonal candles. All my scents will go from summer stuff to more fall-winter stuff so right now I’m in this transition phase. I’m about to go crazy with the pumpkin candles. Right now, I have a bunch of candles that the Burlap Bag made me. They made me one when my son was born and on the outside of the candle it says Oscar William, which is his name and it’s actually banana bread, that’s the scent. To me, it’s perfect all year round but I really love it this time of year. So once I burned that one, I ordered four more from her. I was like I want the Oscar William candle. I need four more and they’re banana bread scent so I have that going in my house right now which I feel is a nice moving into fall scent because it’s very like baked goods. But I feel like banana is still kind of fall time but it’s kind of summertime so it’s an in-between. It’s that and then I’ll put all my autumn decorations up like pumpkins and then I wait until closer to October 1st to do the Halloween or at least I try to wait as long as I can.

Elsie: You are very classy.

Emma: Thanks.

Elsie: Not me. I’m not waiting. I started at the end of August putting up the Halloween stuff and I do just feel like I need two full months of spooky for my own personal preference.

Emma: Do you have any autumn music because I don’t have any recommendations for that?

Elsie: I do. So I love the Rosemary’s Baby soundtrack. Jackie and I both got the record. We were just talking about it the other day and it’s just vibey and it’s kind of spooky but it’s also just kind of nice. I really like that. Then honestly a lot of Halloween music is kids’ music so that’s perfect for my life because my kids love, the chicken dance song was playing in our house the whole entire weekend. That’s my life. The soundtrack for Hocus Pocus, I would say, is pretty perfect as well.

Emma: I love it. Yes.

Elsie: Movies, obviously let’s relink to the horror movie bucket list. There’s a kid one and an adult one.

Emma: I love it. Then we have promised people a mini-episode about Harry Potter and so I would also mention doing a Harry Potter marathon starting now,  Halloween and Christmas, I think works great. A friend of mine, her and her husband, they have people over every Sunday night and they do a Harry Potter marathon this time of year so we’re definitely going to pop over there. See if our infant son can chill.

Elsie: That’s so charming. I love that.

Emma:  Yeah, it’s really cute.

Elsie: Well, I hope everyone’s getting into the autumn spirit and if you haven’t downloaded our bucket list yet, the little printable that you can do, it’s on the sidebar of our blog right now and please do it because it’s so much fun. I just finished filling mine out this morning actually and it has so many things on it that there’s no way we’ll be able to really do them all but doesn’t matter because it just keeps you doing something fun all the time. Making memories.

Emma: Actually, small story on that, I had started it and I put it out on the kitchen counter and I was telling Trey about it and then I made dinner, went on a walk with Oscar and when I came back, he had added a couple of things to the bucket list. 

Elsie: What did he put?

Emma:  One of them was to rent a boat and do an autumn boat day. So we already got a couple of friends, two other couples, and we’ve already booked the boat and it’s just really cute. I’ve actually never been on a boat. We’re going in early October and I’ve never been on a boat that late in the year. It’s usually a summer thing here in Missouri.

Elsie: Do you think the leaves will be turning because that would be so pretty?

Emma: I hope so and I hope it’s still warm enough to maybe swim but I’m ok if it’s not. But I also just think it’d be really like, I’m going to do the snacks a little bit more Autumn and it’s just one of those things we probably wouldn’t have booked that or made those plans if he hadn’t put it on the autumn bucket list. So there you have it.

Elsie: Awesome. I was thinking yesterday we were in the pool and I was like, should I decorate my pool for Halloween? 

Emma: Yes. Oh my gosh. 

Elsie: Yes, we can still swim for like two more months because it’s not even close to cold yet and our pool has a heater. So ok, I’ll do that.

Emma: You can have skeletons in floaties, on an innertube or like,

Elsie: Don’t ruin it. Don’t ruin it. I’ll post a picture on Instagram when it’s done, I’m so excited. All right. Be sure to check out our show notes there at abeautifulmess.com/podcast and we will link to our favorite fall candles this week and whatever else we talked about in the episode and the mood board for the new Holiday House. All right. We will be back next week.

Emma: Bye.

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This week, I got really into decorating for Halloween. I’m planning to make these no-bake pumpkin oatmeal cookies today since classic no-bake cookies are my husband’s favorite treat.

Here’s a little peek at my pink house. Linking the items above here:

Smeg coffee maker, Smeg grinder, wall-mounted paper roll, console table, and paper bats.

I hope you all have a nice weekend. I’m planning to drop into an estate sale and swim with the kiddos. Oh, and pumpkin French toast is on our weekend menu.

If you haven’t listened to our podcast yet, I recommend trying it out with either one of these episodes: Autumn Bucket List or How To “Nancy Meyers” Your Home. xo, Elsie

Three things inspired this recipe. First, sometimes you want to make banana bread but you only have one ripe banana.

Or maybe I should say, sometimes you have a ripe banana and you want to do something with it (ideally, make bread). But is that one lonely banana enough all on its own?

Second, sometimes you just want to bake something. Is it just me, or does everyone feel this way now and again (especially in the winter months)? Ideally, I want to bake something easy that will make my whole kitchen smell amazing.

But I’d prefer if the end result was NOT a dozen cookies or scones or whatever because I know myself well enough to know that this means I will likely eat a dozen cookies or scones over the following couple of days. I want a little treat, sure, but mostly I just want to carry out the act of baking something and just get a little bite of something at the end.

Third, and most literally, this recipe is inspired by Chrissy Teigen’s recipe from her cookbook (which I love). But, I’ll be the first to admit that this is a much more simple version that results in a smaller serving amount in the end.

It’s really very different, but I was still inspired by her recipe and I love her cookbook so much I wanted to mention it anyway.

Side note: Don’t you love a white herringbone tile? So pretty!

If you only have one banana, make this banana bread. If you LOVE banana bread (raises hand high) but don’t need a giant bundt cake size in your house due to a lack of self-control, make this banana bread.Here are some mini loaf pans if you don’t have one!

Be sure check out these banana bread-inspired recipes, too:

• Overnight Baked Banana Bread Oatmeal
• Banana Bread Muffin Cookies
• How to Quickly Ripen Bananas

Enjoy! xo. Emma

P.S. Love those plates that look like paper plates but are porcelain, and for more of our favorite cooking gear and cookbooks, check out our wishlist and shopping pages!

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One-Banana Banana Bread

The best banana bread recipe using only one banana!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword banana bread

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 1 banana ripe
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ cup walnuts chopped

Instructions

• In a medium size mixing bowl, mash the banana. Then stir in the egg, vanilla extract, and oil until combined. Then add all at once the flour, sugars, baking soda, and salt. Fold until combined. Then stir in the chopped walnuts.
• Spoon into your prepared (oiled or lined with parchment) baking vessels and bake at 325°F
• Regular size muffins or a baked donut pan will yield six and should be baked for 14-15 minutes.
• If you use mini loaf pans (like I have in the photos), this will yield three and should be baked for 18-20 minutes.

Notes

I added a second banana to the top of these mini loafs just for the photos (just trying to give you something pretty to look at it). This is not necessary and in fact I found it caused the batter just under the banana to bake unevenly. So I really don’t even recommend it, but if you want the look … I get it.

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman

Our family gets so much joy from our holiday advent that I decided to make a Halloween countdown for October. This project is primarily made with glue, so it’s quick to assemble with no sewing required.

Aunt Emma (as she is known in my house) came up with the idea to make our girls a Halloween countdown calendar. I immediately said “YES, YOU’RE BRILLIANT.”

So why not start this fun (and very spooky!) tradition to enjoy a little bit of Halloween magic all month long in October? I pretty much set out to make a Halloween version of our Christmas advent calendar since we love that one so much.

We created this Halloween activity printable. My suggestion is to use a mix of activities and then in some of the days, just put in a candy. And, use a calendar to strategically place the movies on the weekends (if you’re like us and mainly just watch movies on weekends).

Feel free to add your own activities and traditions. The printable we made is mainly just stuff my little kids would enjoy and nostalgia from my childhood. Other things you can include are stickers or coloring pages. Customize it to fit your kiddos!

As far as the DIY goes, this is a pretty simple project. I completed it over a two-day period. I probably spent about 4-5 hours on it. It would take half the time if you just eliminated the embroidery stitching, but I really enjoy doing that and like the look of it.

Supplies:
–dowel rod
-large piece of felt for banner (I got a half yard at the craft store).
–colored felt for pockets
-embellishments for pockets (I used a lot of buttons, some embroidery, stamps with permanent ink, a bit of paint, and some wooden stars).

My complete banner is 18 inches wide and 32 inches long. Each pocket is 3×3 inches.

The first step is to cut out your banner and the 31 pockets. I embellished all the pockets before gluing them down (you can also sew them down, but I just moved and I don’t even know where my sewing machine is at the moment).

I like to lay them all out and embellish until it feels done. I did a lot of stamped buttons and stars. The buttons are sewn on and the wood stars are glued on.

After all the embellishments were done and dry, I used glue on three sides of each piece of felt to create a pocket.

Next, use glue to create a loop that holds your dowel rod in. Then, tie a string to each side of the rod to hang it on the wall.

As you can see in my photos below, I also used bat and spider garland to make mine a little more spooky. This pumpkin button is so cute, too.

Here’s the completed calendar! I can NOT wait for October to start using it with our girls, but I wanted to post it here early enough for you to have time to get all the supplies and make yours before October begins! Wishing you a magical spooky season. Soak it in! xx. Elsie

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Halloween Advent Calendar

How to make a cute felt calendar to count down the days to Halloween!

Author Elsie Larson

Ingredients

• dowel rod
• large piece of felt for banner  (I got a half yard at the craft store)
• colored felt for pockets
• embellishments for pockets  (I used a lot of buttons, some embroidery, stamps with permanent ink, a bit of paint, and wooden starts.

Instructions

• The first step is to cut out your banner and the 31 pockets. I embellished all the pockets before gluing them down (you can also sew them down, but I just moved and I don’t even know where my sewing machine is at the moment).
• I like to lay them all out and embellish until it feels done. I did a lot of stamped buttons and stars. The buttons are sewn on and the wood stars are glued on.

  After all the embellishments were done and dry, I used glue on three sides of each piece of felt to create a pocket.
• Next, use glue to create a loop that holds your dowel rod in. Then, tie a string to each side of the rod to hang it on the wall.

This is another one of our favorite meals that friends brought us during the “meal train” they put together just after our son was born. My friend, Michelle, delivered this creamy sausage and kale soup one night alongside a loaf a bread and it was all quickly devoured.

This is a great meal idea if you are looking for a super filling and comforting soup recipe. I’m also going to share a few tweaks I make when I want to make a vegetarian version—it’s simple!

One thing I love about this soup is the juxtaposition of the creamy base alongside chewy kale and soft (but chunky) potatoes. Maybe this creamy sausage and kale soup would qualify as a stew; or at least could easily become one.

When I asked Michelle for the recipe, she let me know that she used the Copycat Zuppa Toscana recipe here. I’ve made a few small tweaks to this. The main thing is I don’t use bacon, as I don’t find it necessary and it just adds more fat (which this soup has plenty of already, ha).

To make this soup vegetarian, you only have to make two substitutions to the recipe below. First, swap the sausage for your favorite vegetarian version. I really like Morning Star breakfast sausage (a mix of original and spicy if you have both options available) and Impossible ground beef. But, any vegetarian sausage you like will work just fine.

And the second is to swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock. Easy! And if you’re curious, here’s a link to the pan I used. It’s my all-time favorite.

And if you’re looking for more comforting soup recipes, check these out:

• Baked Potato & Broccoli Cheddar Soup – a classic
• Gnocchi and Vegetable Soup – sign me up for anything with gnocchi anytime!
• Potato and Cream Cheese Soup – soooooooo creamy and delicious
• Spicy Peanut and Wild Rice Soup – don’t knock it until you try it
• Creamy Cauliflower and Leek Soup – one of my all-time favorites

I love making soup as soon as the weather turns cold—it’s the best. And this is a good one. Enjoy! xo. Emma

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Creamy Sausage and Kale Soup

A super simple recipe for sausage and kale soup.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American

Keyword kale, sausage

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Author Emma Chapman

Ingredients

• 1 shallot finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 12 ounces sausage
• 8 ounces potatoes baby dutch yellow preferred
• 1 tablespoon flour all-purpose
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 32 ounces chicken stock
• 1 cup cream heavy
• 2 cups kale veins removed, chopped
• salt and pepper

Instructions

• Prep the ingredients by finely chopping the shallot, minced the garlic, and wash and cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces.
• In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
• Add the sausage and cook until browned. Use a wooden spoon to break up any pieces while cooking.
• Add the potatoes and sprinkle in the flour, cayenne, and red pepper flakes.
• Add the chicken stock to the pot and cover with a lid. Cook for 12-16 minutes until the potatoes are softened enough you can mash them with a wooden spoon.
• Add the cream and season well with salt and pepper.
• During the last 5 minutes of cooking, stir in the kale pieces. Serve hot.

Notes

To make this soup vegetarian, simply swap the sausage for your favorite vegetarian sausage (you will likely need to reduce the cooking time on that ingredient as well) and swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock. 

Baby dutch yellow potatoes are preferred for this recipe. I like to leave the skins on. But if you are using russet baking potatoes, you may want to peel them before cutting into bite sized pieces. But this is up to you and your preferences. 

This soup is best the day it is made, but leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for least a couple days. Just keep in mind the texture of the kale will change the longer it sits in liquid. 

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman

I’m so excited to share my autumn capsule wardrobe with you today!

Creating a capsule wardrobe has saved me time and money, simplified my closet (so every single item in my closet fits me and is something I am excited to wear) and, best of all, now that I have completed my capsule for the season I am ready to focus on other goals.

How I Define a Capsule Wardrobe

I define a capsule wardrobe as preparing your closet for the coming season, and then wearing those items for the full season. A lot of people do it by creating a minimal wardrobe (sometimes with a set number of pieces) and making sure everything matches so you can mix and match.

I find this appealing, but too limiting, so I don’t limit the number of pieces. I also don’t limit myself to strictly neutrals. I believe that to get the most out of your experience, you need to tailor your rules to your lifestyle and goals!

Why is a Capsule Valuable?

There are many different motivations for creating a capsule! One benefit is saving money. You can even create a capsule using only things you already own if you want. I always end up saving money by planning and sticking to a capsule, but it is not my main motivation.

Another benefit is saving time. This is my key motivation. I tend to get in a bad habit of online shopping way too much. It’s a huge waste of time! So for me I love to do this because I spend a lot of time on it for a few weeks and then I don’t really have to think about clothing for a full season.

My Capsule Wardrobe Rules:

My rules are simple! Create a closet for the coming season with ONLY items that fit me that I will wear, and that make me feel happy or confident (preferably both, lol) when I am wearing them.

Sentimental items (wedding shoes, funny clothes from high school and a dress from a first date) cannot stay in the closet unless I plan to wear them this season.

Clothes that don’t fit need to be tailored, donated or sold. Clothes that have a negative memory attached to them must go. Clothes that I am only keeping because of guilt (money spent, they were a gift, didn’t wear them much) also have to go.

Like I said above, I don’t limit my capsule to a set number of items. I don’t have any purpose or desire to get rid of all my clothing except for 40 items. So if I end up with 100 items, great—I don’t care. As long as I will wear them all, they can stay.

My Goals:

My goals are to simplify my process of getting dressed. I used to keep SO many clothes that didn’t fit me (either too small and I was justifying them as “goal clothes” or they needed alterations that I hadn’t gotten around to).

This is fine, but when your closet is FULL of clothes like this it makes getting dressed each day super annoying and discouraging. When your closet only has clothing that fits and that you like to wear, getting dressed is quicker and more fun.

My other goal is to save time. I love shopping, but shopping every night (online) is a waste of time. When I get all my shopping done for the season, it is so nice to free up all that time and use it for more important goals and passion projects in my life.

Click here to download my capsule planning sheet. Use this sheet to figure out what you already have to wear this season and what you would like to purchase.

Here are the items that made it into my capsule this year! There are also some items in my closet still left over from previous seasons (that I still wear and love!), but these are the bare essentials.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

1 / 2 / 3 / 4

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

OK! I hope this post inspires some of you to create your own capsule in some form or another.

Here’s a bit of reading material that I loved if you want to learn more about this subject:

The Curated Closet and The Curated Closet Workbook – This book is SO GOOD. I am currently reading it for the second time. It has a lot of homework that helped me to figure out my closet “issues.” I highly recommend both of these!

The other book I would recommend if you just need help cleaning out your closet is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I tend to get a lot of mental blocks when cleaning out where I just feel like I can’t get rid of stuff, and the things I learned from this book always help me to keep making those decisions.

I’d love to chat in the comments if you have any questions or thoughts about planning an autumn capsule! xx – Elsie

These no-bake pumpkin oatmeal cookies are the perfect treat during this transitional season. I personally am SO excited for fall, but I won’t lie, the weather still feels like summer where I live in southwest Missouri.

As I wait for things to cool off so I can pull out my sweaters, no-bake dessert recipes feel like the way to go. These are basically the pumpkin version of my favorite no-bake cookies, which are usually made with chocolate and peanut butter.

These cookies are super simple and made with just eight ingredients. You can use quick oats or old fashioned oats for these, just like Lisa’s Basic Oatmeal Cookies that I shared last month (another favorite!).

If you are in need of more seasonal dessert recipes, I got you:

• Pumpkin Swirl Slab Pie – a Thanksgiving favorite
• Pumpkin and Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookies – you can swap the tahini for peanut butter (if you dare).
• Vegan Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies – also gluten-free
• Baked Apple Donuts
• Easy Apple Pie Bars – the crumb top is where it’s at!

These cookies are soft and chewy and the perfect flavor for all my pumpkin spice lovers out there! If you want to firm these cookies more, simply pop them in the freezer for a couple minutes. Enjoy. xo. Emma

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No-Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

An easy to follow recipe that makes soft and chewy pumpkin cookies

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cookies, oatmeal, pumpkin

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 2 minutes

Total Time 7 minutes

Servings 12 cookies

Author Emma Chapman

Ingredients

• ¼ cup butter
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup pumpkin puree
• 2 cups oats

Instructions

• In a medium sauce pan, add the butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and milk. Stir over high heat until everything is melted together.
• Once the mixture begins to boil, set a timer for two minutes.
• Once the mixture has boiled for two minutes, remove from heat.
• Stir in the vanilla extract, pumpkin, and oats.
• Spoon the batter onto a surface covered with wax or parchment paper.
• Allow the cookies to set before serving. If you want them to be firmer, you can freeze for a few minutes.

Notes

You can use quick cooking oats or old fashioned oats for this recipe. Also, make sure the mixture reaches a rolling boil before starting the timer. 

In today’s mini episode, Elsie is sharing the challenge that she is undertaking to complete 100 10-mile bike rides. She is watching guilty pleasure movies during each bike ride, so she has some funny stories to share!

You can stream the episode here on the blog or on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, and Stitcher. You can find the podcast posts archive here.

Thank you to Spoonflower for sponsoring this week’s mini episode! Right now, ABM listeners can take 15% off sitewide by visiting spoonflower.com and using code ABMINTRO15.

Show notes:

-Here’s a photo of Elsie’s chart for her bike rides:

-Check out Atomic Habits by James Clear

-Elsie’s guilty pleasure movie list: Knives Out, Julie and Julia, Clue, Bewitched, Harry Potter series, Twilight series, and Mermaids.

-Here’s the link to Elsie’s Bink water bottle.

-Comment below with your suggestions for movies for Elsie to watch on her bike ride!

-Elsie’s upcoming movie list: Practical Magic, Little Women, Emma, and Mrs. Doubtfire

-Emma’s picks for Elsie to watch:  Hook, Sister Act, and Sister Act 2.

Episode 113 Transcript

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Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast. Today in this mini episode, I’m sharing about a challenge that I’m currently undertaking to complete one hundred ten mile bike rides. I’ve been screening guilty pleasure movies for almost every single bike ride, so I also have a bunch of funny stories about the movies I’ve watched and little reviews to share.

Emma: All right, so how did you come up with the idea that you wanted to do one hundred ten mile bike rides like why? It’s kind of random.

Elsie: It is. It’s so random. Ok, let me show you my chart. First of all. I’ll put a picture of this in the shownotes. So I made a chart and it just says one hundred ten mile rides on the top and then it has one hundred little squares. Then every time I ride one, I use my kids’ dot a dot marker to dot that square out. Now my next one will be number forty two. So I’m pretty far along, almost halfway through my challenge. I’ll share how I got into it. So last year, I started doing 30 minute bike rides as my main exercise. I think in the early spring and I did that for a long time about four or five months. I felt like I needed, number one, to make it more fun and number two to ride a little bit longer and make it a little bit harder. So this was my solution and I actually recently read the book Atomic Habits. It’s such a good book. So shout out. We’ll put it in the show notes. It’s a great book. I definitely recommend it. He talks a lot about this idea of attaching something that you want to do to something that you need to do in order to create a stronger habit. I am so proud that I did that before I even read the book and I was like, check. The thing I’m attaching is I want to watch guilty pleasure movies all day long every day and I need to exercise. So I have been doing 10 mile rides and I watch movies the whole time. The first movie I watched was Knives Out, which wasn’t my first time watching it or anything. We talked about that in our movie houses episode kind of just like feel good movies. The second movie I watched was Julie and Julia. Have you seen that one?

Emma: Oh yeah, I read the book and loved it.

Elsie: I watch a lot of 90s movies and a lot of early 2000s movies. I watched Bewitched with Nicole Kidman, which was like the cutest little house, the cutest little cottage house I’ve ever seen in my life. I watched the movie Clue which was so old and like weird and funny. It actually had some really offensive parts too but it was also fun to watch because it was like a haunted mansion, basically with a good 20s kitchen. I watched all the Harry Potter’s recently, which was such a trip and all the Twilights. I love this freaking nineties movie called Mermaids with Cher. That’s one of my favorites so far. I’m just going so hard on this challenge and it’s been so much fun because the thing that’s drastically different is before when I would do my thirty minute rides and I usually did it to music. I would be watching the timer and as soon as it said 30 minutes, I would stop every single time. Now it’s like oftentimes I want to do extra miles or I don’t even notice when it’s over, just because I’m watching movies and it’s so much fun. It has really, really been great for me and I would definitely recommend it if it’s in your goals and you like stationary biking, which I obviously love at this point. It’s kind of like my quarantine workout that never ended so.

Emma: Just out of curiosity, how long does it take you to bike 10 miles? Like generally, is it like 40 minutes-ish.

Emma: It can take between 50 minutes and an hour. So I’m not biking super fast. It’s kind of like medium speed like it’s a comfortable speed. I usually drink, sometimes I drink a coffee actually. Like, I don’t care. Sometimes I drink a smoothie. Then I have these big Bink water bottles. I’ll link them to show notes. I love those. I’ll show it to you. I usually drink two of these full of water during the hour. I just get off and refill it halfway through and I usually do it first thing in the morning. That’s something that really helps me is after I drop off my kids, if I do it first thing, then it’s just checked off. I have time management issues so it helps me so much to just keep it the same every day.

Emma: What movies are on your list? What are you going to be watching next?

Elsie: Ok. So I definitely want to open up on our show notes comments today for suggestions because I know everyone has a guilty pleasure movie that is on the level of the Mermaids movie that I love so much and I want to hear what yours are. What I have on my list still, I want to watch all the witches’ movies so like Practical Magic, things like that, I want to watch. Any kind of cheesy Halloween movie that’s too cheesy for Jeremy but too scary for my kids is definitely a biking thing for me. So all of that. Then I really want to watch the old and the new Little Women and the old and the new Emma. I’ve been considering doing a TV series but I can’t decide if I should keep it just movies. I think I could probably get to one hundred with just movies, so maybe I should do that. I don’t know.

Emma: Yeah, I mean, if you run out of movies, I guess you could always open it up, but it sounds like you’re probably not going to run out, especially because you’re about halfway. Well, I’m just going to throw one in there, sparked the conversation in the show notes, but maybe you should watch Hook. Have you seen that in a long time? I love that movie.

Elsie: I read that Hook is one of the longest children’s movies of all time, which is like an interesting little trivia. I have not seen it in probably 10 years or maybe a little less, so I would love to watch that one. Maybe I should do a little bit of a Robin Williams week. That would be fun.

Emma: That would be fun.

Elsie: I have to watch Mrs. Doubtfire too. If I watch anything Robin Williams because it’s like our movie of our childhood so strongly.

Emma: Yes, that and I always think of Sister Act and Sister Act Two. I watch those a ton as a kid. I have also been listening like I just finished atomic habits. I was listening to it in my Audible and I loved it so much. I love the idea of coupling something you need to do with something you enjoy or having some kind of reward tied to an activity, tied to a habit. What were the other things? He had a whole thing about putting a habit alongside so that you don’t forget, like putting your vitamins by your toothbrush. Yeah, habit stacking. I was like, Ooh, that’s just smart and a good hack because it’s easy to just forget things. You’re not really even being lazy. You just forget. So anyway, that was an awesome book, and it sounds like it’s been a positive thing in your life too with the biking and stuff.

Elsie: Yes, for sure. I love that book. It was really cool because it made me realize how much every little thing adds up over time. I think that’s kind of the point of the book. A lot of times, especially in my busy mom’s zone of life, it’s just easy for me to be whatever, I don’t care about so many things right now You have to very selectively pick what you care about. It made me feel encouraged that if I wanted to make changes over time like little things are good enough to make those changes. I think that’s always an encouraging message, especially when it’s like, I’m kind of a person who’s given to extremes, so it doesn’t always have to be extreme.

Emma: No. Yeah, I agree.

Elsie: I love the bike movies thing. We just made a home gym next door to my office, so the hidden room that’s right next to my office is now a gym and everyone is like, oh, you’re going to put your bike in there? And I’m like, honestly, I don’t think so because I want to keep it by my TV and I want to keep watching movies for right now. Maybe eventually, I mean, obviously it would fit better in that room, but having it next to a TV is the greatest thing ever.

Emma: Well, I love Knives Out. That’s like on my autumn bucket list to rewatch it this season.

Emma: Since we’re not going to do a mini-episode dedicated to this, just go ahead and let us know what is your review of the Twilight movies?

Elsie: Ok, so first of all, I loved the Twilight movies and I love Robert Pattinson, is definitely on my beautiful man list. I love him and I love him as an actor and I love Kristen Stewart. I have no issues with the acting whatsoever and the movie is obviously are really funny. In the time they were coming out, I never watched them, except for, I think, the I don’t know if it’s like the fifth one or the fourth one, one of our close friends had a song in the movie so it was a really big thing in our lives, a life memory at the time. It’s just that our friend had the song, so I saw that one at the theater because we were sort of celebrating for him, but I didn’t actually see the beginning or end of the series. All right. My review. Ok, so my review is basically like the style of them I actually would say is hilarious and does hold up because it’s so severe that it’s kind of cool now that it’s like aged better than you, like better than it was at the time when it came out. So I liked the style of them. I liked the effects were crazy, especially the baby. The CGI baby was something to behold. Obviously, I said, I love the actors like I liked the story, but like, I did think that my review of it in one word was, it’s very Mormony. It is very like, prude is the word like it’s just very old fashioned. So if you are ok with that or if you prefer that, this is the series for you. The edginess is kind of not there. So yeah, and I’m not really used to that.

Emma: The edgy part is that there’s vampires and werewolves in it. That’s the edgy part, not the sex part.

Elsie: The edgy part is like for seventh graders. But anyway, I would give Twilight an eleven out of 10 and I would definitely watch it again in the future. Probably wait like five years, though. Obviously, I wish it was more sexy. I think everyone wishes that, but it was still freaking fun to watch so I understand now why people are so weird about it.

Emma: Yeah, I love it. I love Twilight. I read all the books, love the books. But it is definitely kind of old-fashioned and definitely very campy in its own way. I mean, it’s about vampires and werewolves, and there’s a love triangle but I love it. That’s pretty much how I’d sum it up too.

Elsie: There’s not really a love triangle, though, like I said, they’ve been way more of a love triangle.

Emma: I think it is more in the books because it’s just longer in the books because there’s more space, you know, like, so

Elsie: Keeley is really into Twilight and she told me that in the books, the vampire house is completely different then the movie.

Emma: I read them as they were coming out, so I won’t lie, I don’t totally remember. I don’t feel like I was as into houses at that time, so I don’t know.

Elsie: Ok, well, if you’re into the house porn, I will say that the twilight mansion itself for me didn’t age as well. It’s kind of like the house you think is your ultimate mansion when you’re twenty-five or at least it was for me, and it’s not anymore. But the cottage that they make where they live briefly and mostly the honeymoon beach house. Those ones were 10 out of 10.

Emma: Ok, good to know. Good to know.

Elsie: Did I make that the longest review ever? I think that this episode is half twilight. Ok, that’s cool with me. Ok, I would love, love, love, love, love to hear your reviews. Please do not skip any guilty pleasures for us. Send us your suggestions in the show notes today at abeautifulmess.com/podcast. All right, see you next week.

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With this week being the official first week of autumn, this episode is all about our autumn bucket lists. We’re sharing three exciting things from each of ours! We’re also answering listener questions about our future goals, plans for our business, and how to pivot after you’ve made a major purchase mistake.

You can stream the episode here on the blog or on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, and Stitcher. You can find the podcast posts archive here.

A big thank you to our sponsors! Check out the offers from Girlfriend Collective, Grove, Modern Fertility, and BetterHelp. And if you’re looking for a specific code you heard on the podcast, you can see a full list on this page!

Show notes:
-Download your own autumn bucket list here.

-Our favorite kid and adult Halloween movies.

-Here’s the link for Oscar’s pumpkin outfit from Amazon.

-Here’s a link to Elsie’s spooky village. Such a fun tradition with kiddos!

-Elsie mentions Pushing Daisies.

-We mention our 100th episode, How to Define your Decor Style and Make Mood Boards.

Episode 112 Transcript

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Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast, with this week being the official first week of autumn, we thought it would be fun to do our autumn bucket list episode. We invite you to join along and fill in your own list with us. We are also answering listener questions about our future goals and plans for our business and how to pivot after you’ve made a major purchase mistake. We’re glad you’re here and let’s jump in.

Emma: We should tell people too, in this week’s show notes, we’re going to share a printable autumn bucket list that you can download and use. Also be sure that you’re following us on Instagram, which is just at a beautiful mess because we will share a phone version of the autumn bucket list. So as we talk about what’s on ours, you’ll be able to get your own printable version or you can save it on your phone and fill in things that you want to add to yours.

Elsie: Basically, we’re going to give you several ways to do the bucket list. You can’t escape our bucket list and however you choose to do it is great. There are so, so, so so, so many benefits to it. I hope that you all decide to join along but we’ll try to talk you into it. That’s what this whole episode is.

Emma: Yeah, tell them how has it benefited your family. Why do the bucket list?

Elsie: So every time we post it, this is our, I think, third or fourth year that we’ve been doing this thing that we do and people always get very hung up on, well, what if I don’t get to check off everything. Let me just tell you up front, that does not matter at all, at all. It’s not the type of thing where it’s like you failed if you didn’t complete these 30 activities. It’s like write the 30 activities down and the benefit is that I guarantee you, you will do 10 things that you wouldn’t have done just because you wouldn’t have thought to do it. It wouldn’t have fit into your schedule or it would have just slipped your mind. How many times do we think I want to do that this holiday season and then you don’t get around to it and then the season slips by you. That is mom brain. So this is the perfect thing to help with mom brain or whatever other excuse you have in your life. That’s just mine that, you know, just being forgetful. So anyway, at the beginning of the season, what we do is write down or fill in all the blanks. I sometimes even have extras, a ton of ideas of cute things you want to do. They can be small things as simple as watching a Halloween movie, which we have so many favorites. I will put those in the show notes, my favorite kids and my favorite adult Halloween movies. It can be simple as playing, my kids love the monster mash, playing the monster mash, having a little dance to the monster mash, things like that. Then it can be as complex as, I’ll talk later in the episode about my spooky village, which is a pretty complicated weeks long craft project that, kind of just keeps going and going and building and building and it’s ridiculous. So simple or complicated doesn’t matter. Do whatever is best for your schedule and the people in your family and what’s going to bring you the most joy? So make it work for you.

Emma: You definitely should have a mix of easy things and more complicated things. That way, if you have a free night where you’re just like, oh, we had plans and they fell through or whatever, then you can look at your autumn bucket list and be like here’s something that we could do tonight. Then, boom, you’re going to get to do something that you’re excited about, that you wrote down on the list, but you might have forgotten or you might have just sat around and not really gotten much done that night because you weren’t really planning to have this free moment.

Elsie: Yes. So before we start sharing some of the things on our list, let me just give you a little bit of instruction about filling your list out. Be sure to put on it some things that are really simple, like songs, movies, traditions that you did as a kid. If you want to make something this season, things like craft projects for that kind of stuff. After I make the bucket list, I will buy all my supplies at once, this is a pro tip, all your supplies for all your crafts, you just have a little basket of autumn craft supplies. If you don’t use it this year, guess what? You can use it next year. No big deal. Every year, I pull this stuff out, just simple stuff like the other day I was at the store and I saw these little blank pumpkins, and I was like that’ll be so much fun. That’ll fill a one hour window sometime when we just need a little project. I don’t want to get out paint because they can just cut the black part and glue it on and then also places to go. So if you like to visit an apple orchard, a pumpkin patch, if you have a favorite tradition, like a haunted house, like a corn maze, anything like that, be sure to put those on the list. Is there anything I’m missing Emma? Decorating your house, you can put things that you want to do that are slightly sort of like autumn adjacent. You just put things on it that you want to get done and it’ll just be there. It doesn’t necessarily have to be like all cute stuff for your kids. It can be something that you want in your life, that makes you happy.

Emma: It could definitely be a mix of family stuff but also just self-care, things that don’t even have to have an autumn vibe to them. If you’re like I just want to make sure I have some time this season where I go to HomeGoods and buy Christmas wrapping paper. Great. Put that on your list if that sparks the joy for you. There you go. That should be on your list for the season.

Elsie: So I think you get it. Be sure to download your list and fill it out. Now Emma and I are each going to share three things from our list and we’re kind of doing our top three, like three most exciting, but we definitely will have lots of very simple things on there as well. I know last year we made the brownies where after the brownies pan comes out, you put the eyeballs on the top and we put them on all our neighbors’ doorsteps. It was so fun and the kids loved it and it was really special. So things like that, you can just do over and over again. Our list will have lots of easy stuff like that on it as well.

Emma: One of mine’s kind of easy.

Elsie: So tell your first one.

Emma: I’ll tell my easy one first then. I bought this little pumpkin so all that Oscar my son wears right now is footsy pajamas. He has daytime pajamas and nighttime pajamas. That’s all he wears. So I bought this one that’s a pumpkin outfit and it has a little hood with a little stem on top. It’s very warm. The reason I mean, I thought it was adorable, that’s really why I bought it. But also it’s very warm and I want to keep up our walking tradition. I’m just going to have probably multiple times that we go on a walk in his stroller and he’s wearing the little pumpkin outfit. I’m just going to take with me some apple cider or some kind of drink that makes me think of fall and that’s it. That’s the whole thing on the list is just walk my little pumpkin around the neighborhood.

Elsie: It actually sounds really elaborate but when you break it down, it’s like this is a simple thing. It’s pretty much just like putting on an item of clothing and having a beverage but it seems like Pinterest mom.

Emma: Yeah, it sounds like, I swear to God, I’ll probably run into a friend and they’ll be like, why are you so put together? And I’ll be like, o, you don’t understand. I just bought this outfit and I’m going to put him in it multiple times. I’m just having some kind of drink in my hand and that’s all it is. I bought the outfit on Amazon. It’s like not even uber special or anything.

Elsie: Yes. No, exactly the same with my crafts. I think people think that we have some kind of like unattainable ability to do crafts that are cute with our kids. All it is is shopping in bulk in one trip and preparing for the season. That’s all it is. Fnd these little ways to simplify it for yourself and go easy on yourself. No one needs to have a lot of stress and anxiety over a fall bucket list.

Emma: No, it should be fun.

Elsie: My first one is to go crazy with our spooky village, so I will link it in the show notes. If you haven’t seen it then you need to click and see the pictures and everything. So we started the first year Nova was with us and each year we add several houses to our village and all the houses are is from the craft store birdhouses. You buy a birdhouse and then you paint it into a little haunted house. So we have one that looks like candy corn. There’s one that has evil eyes all over it. That is kind of has a steeple like a church. I thought that one was spooky. There’s one that is just painted green and then I let the kids glue googly eyes all over the entire thing from back middle, all of it, roof. We just last weekend went to Michael’s and got two more bird houses and Nova got to pick hers. She picked one that has swinging doors this time and then she picked one for Goldie as well. We’re going to start on that and I found the perfect place for them this year which has been a problem for me in the past but I found the perfect spot where we can really display them on my mantel of my fireplace but I’m just going to clear it off. The other option is my entryway table. Putting all of those up together and then I like to put a little bit of, anytime I see miniatures at the craft store like miniature pumpkins, miniature, sometimes they’ll have little, I don’t know, little ghost things like that. Then I always get some of those who can kind of like place them around the village. It kind of has its own little characters with it. It’s so much fun to make and I have a lot of fall and Halloween decorations that are just from the store, just things I just bought. But this is the one thing that we spend a lot of time making every year and I think it’s really special.

Emma: Yeah, I love it. And I’ve seen the spooky village online and in real life and it is adorable. I love it. My second one will stay on the theme of of decorations, I guess, is just to decorate the front of my house with all my Halloween and fall stuff, which for me is like eight or nine skeletons, like full size plastic skeletons. Then I have a ton of faux pumpkins, orange and white. So I just like to make little vignettes with the skeletons. There’s lots of kids in our neighborhood, and so people go pretty all out with some of their their porch decorations because when kids are walking around or playing in the neighborhood, they like to kind of spot different things. So I want to do something kind of funny with some of the skeletons this year, like maybe put one on my roof like he’s falling off or like he’s, I’m not really sure I haven’t figured it out yet, but I want something at least one of the skeletons to be doing something funny. My idea being like, it’ll make me smile, but also maybe the kids in the neighborhood will get a kick out of it.

Elsie: Oh yeah, big time. I love your skeletons that like they can be sitting on the porch swing or when you had the one on the toilet that was so funny

Emma: And the kids loved that one. 

Elsie: I think your Halloween ambitions are rock solid, sister.

Emma: Thanks. Yeah, I have a dream to do some kind of like hay bale maze in my backyard, but I’m not sure this year is the year I really wanted to do it this year but I don’t know. Well, this may not be the right year for me. I’m going to see. I’m going to fill it out.

Elsie: Yeah, no. Lower your expectations on yourself. That’s my number one parenting tip, basically my only parenting tip.

Elsie: So my second one, this is going to sound, you’re going to be surprised that I’ve never had this phase, but I’m really into making pies because actually, I’ve never made a pie. I’ve made lots of pies but I’ve never been really into making pies the way that I am into making cookies. Last year I learned cupcakes and buttermilk frosting and this year I want to learn pies. So it’s pie year and I’m so excited and I think it’ll be fun for the kids too and it’s kind of easy compared to the other ones. So I’m excited about that too.

Emma: Yeah. Are you going to make your pie crust from scratch?

Elsie: Absolutely not.

Emma:  Or a mix?

Elsie: Absolutely frozen. Yeah, I think I might make the fillings from scratch. The fillings seem worth it to me. The crust. Do you agree with that or not as an experienced baker?

Emma: I do not. I do not. I think you should make at least a few from scratch. Ok, and just see what you say to them. 

Elsie: OK, I can you do that. 

Emma: You can make a pie crust, mostly in a food processor, too. You have a food processor, right?

Elsie: Yeah, yeah.

Emma: So you can make it mostly in that. But it’s, I think, worth it for a buttery, flaky pie crust.

Elsie: Ok, I take back my answer. How hard can it be? I’ll make a pie crust. 

Emma: If you want a graham cracker crust or like those, just store bought is good.

Elsie: You know, I would absolutely rather die than eat a graham cracker crust.

Emma: What? 

Elsie: We’ve had this conversation. I hate graham crackers. Remember the smores talk?

Emma: Well, OK. Oreo crust, like Oreo cookie crust.

Elsie: Ok? That’s something.

Emma: Ok. All right. I swade her.  

Elsie: I’m going to stay with pie crust. I think it’s nostalgic and vibey and beautiful or I’m going to watch Pushing Daisies this fall too.

Emma: Oh yeah. When you do tell me where you found it because I think it’s hard to find it.

Elsie: Oh, really? Ok, yeah.

Emma: So let me know because I love that series.

Elsie: I’ll put it in the show notes.

Emma: Ok, so my third one is I’m going to do at least two Halloween costumes this year. I’m going to go on one for our family. That’s all three of us. Then one that I think will probably just be me and Oscar. So that’s what I’m planning, and I can tell you what they are. But also, if they don’t work out, then you’ll never see them if you are a listener. So I’ll tell you, but if you don’t see them then you’ll know that I tried and it didn’t work out. So the family one, what I’m planning as of right now is I want to do where we’re Tetris pieces. So Trey is really into Tetris and he’s actually really good. He plays Tetris online a lot. We also watch Tetris Championships together on YouTube. We just watch them sometimes at night. He’s really into Tetris. I think Tetris is really cool. So he’s going to be Tetris Blocks and I am too. It’s just t-shirts that I’m going to put foam Tetris pieces on. Then Oscar’s going to be one little Tetris piece on his little onesie and as if he fits into the blocks that we make. I don’t know if I’m explaining this well but I think once you see it visually you’ll be like ok.

Elsie: For me, that’s going to be a believe it when I see it costume. I just seriously can not imagine what you’re going to do.

Emma: Well, the idea is that we all fit together and also it’s Tetris and also it’s just easy to wear. So I think it’ll be a fun one. So anyway, that’s the cute one that is more wearable and it’s all three of us. Then the one that I want to do, it’ll probably just be me and Oscar. I was texting Elsie the other night as I was researching baby wigs because I really want to do a Zoolander costume, where he’s a tiny Derek Zoolander and I’m going to be Hansel. So that’s the idea with that one.

Elsie: I couldn’t love it more. Stamp of approval, that is. That’s really something.  have several Halloween costumes as well but I’m going to save it because I know at least one of them I’m doing for reels on A Beautiful Mess so I don’t want to give a spoiler.

Emma: You want it to be a surprise?

Elsie: Yeah, I think I should keep it a surprise.

Emma: Well, ok, what’s your third one?

Elsie: So my third one is build a haunted house of some kind and let me give you the options that I’m considering and then you can tell me what you think. One doing a dollhouse haunted house which I think is probably actually the most expensive out of all these ideas, even though it’s the smallest. Maybe I shouldn’t do that one but I love a dollhouse haunted house. So in the scheme of my life, maybe not this year, but at some point, I really want to do a Barbie dream house, which you can buy the nineties or eighties Barbie dream house. You can just buy them on eBay and make it into an Addams Family Barbie dream house, I think is the ultimate sunshine in my soul.

Emma: I like it.

Elsie: Another way to do the haunted house would be to do just the kids’ bathroom or maybe a bedroom in our house. I’m not sure. Maybe some kind of an isolated room where we just really put up way too many Halloween decorations in that one room.

Emma: Maybe the movie room?

Elsie: That’s a good place for it.

Emma: Because it’s kind of dark anyway, so it could be spooky.

Elsie: I like that. I mean, my concern is that you wouldn’t really see them because it’s always so dark though.

Emma: That’s true.

Elsie: Yeah. But also maybe a closet, like maybe in the guest room, there’s a pretty big closet that could work. Then the third option is to do a cardboard house. So we’re no stranger to cardboard boxes in our house. We always have some in our garage at all times waiting to be recycled and stuff. So a cardboard version, just like a kid sized playhouse version. So which one do you vote for? Out of those three options, what would you do?

Emma: They all sound really fun. I would probably do like the one room.

Elsie: Yeah, the one room is the easiest, I think.

Emma: Yeah, it’s, I guess, probably the easiest. Then I also feel like you could well, you could reuse the dollhouse stuff too. 

Elsie: Maybe a closet.

Emma: I feel like it’ll get used or seen the most. You guys can kind of like be in the room or if it’s a closet like that could be a good hide and seek spot for the season. I don’t know.

Elsie: I love that idea one way or another. A haunted house is one of my main things on my list so I’m so excited to do it. That will be fun.

Emma: I love it.

Elsie: All right, so don’t forget you can go to  abeautifulmess.com/podcast and see the show notes for this episode and you can download your own bucket list. We’ll also put them on  A Beautiful Mess Instagram. Be sure and tag us if you’re doing the bucket list because we really want to see not only what you’re doing with your family but also what things are on your list because it’ll just give us all more ideas. All right. So before we go, I have a couple of listener questions this week. This week they are from Instagram so they don’t have the fun voicemail. They’re just written questions. The first one, but they’re both really good questions. The first one is what do you do when you no longer like something that you spent a lot of money on for your home? Great question.

Emma: Yeah, that is a great question.

Elsie: So I’m thinking like, by a lot of money, I’m thinking a big rug, a sofa, a piece of major furniture, a bed frame, something like that.

Emma: Yeah, I’m hoping it’s not like marble countertops because I’m like, oh well.

Elsie: I don’t know it. Maybe it’s something else but I think those are common things, something that you’ve, I mean, first of all, don’t beat yourself up because tastes change and the biggest thing that I always have to remind myself of as a creative person and an Enneagram 7 and a person who loves design is that there’s always going to be more cute things out there that I can’t do in my house or that I don’t have space for or just more ideas. It’s ok to not be able to do your number one favorite thing at all times that I mean, every single person, even if you live in a mansion, you’re not going to be able to do every single thing that you wanted to do in your home, especially if you have a creative mind.

Emma: I’ll say just to add to that, it doesn’t help in any way for you to feel tons and tons of guilt over a mistake. That doesn’t make the mistake go away. It doesn’t help you learn the lesson better. It’s I think sometimes we get it in our minds or I do this, I think, oh, I made this big mistake that was costly so I kind of need to punish myself now. I’m going to feel really bad and really guilty about this or keep something that I don’t love because I need to be punished for this mistake. As you can hear that doesn’t make any sense. You don’t need to do that to yourself. Also, by the way, if your partner makes a big mistake, they loved this rug. They love the couch and it turned out it wasn’t the right thing, maybe give them the same grace that you need to give yourself. You know that that road goes both directions.

Elsie: Yeah, I Think that’s great advice. So as far as what to do besides just like trying to feel better, which is what we’ve said so far. What I would do is think, can I change it? Can I paint it? Can I check to see how much it cost to reapply to this couch if I’m just regretting the fabric or the color? Maybe it’s less than the price of a new couch, and it would be worth it to me. Can I sell it if it’s a piece of furniture and like you buy a farmhouse table and then you decide a year later that you are really into mid-century and that’s what suits your house, try to sell it. Just see what you can get for it to apply towards the price of the thing you really want. And yeah, anything like that, I would say, just let it go, figure out a way to either change it or get rid of it. Or, you know, if you want to accept it, as, you know, wouldn’t buy that now. But it’s in my house and that’s those are all options that you can choose from. I think in the long run, it’s ok to make design mistakes. It’s ok to make expensive mistakes. I really don’t know anyone who has done big house projects who hasn’t made an expensive mistake or change their mind about something that they regretted. So don’t beat yourself up and don’t feel bad.

Elsie: So this next question was from quiet violet on Instagram. Her question is how do you envision the future of A Beautiful Mess and what are your plans for the future? I love this question. I have actually been talking about it pretty extensively with my therapist the last few sessions. I really feel more than ever, you can tell me if you agree or disagree or whatever, I feel more than ever I want to keep blogging long term and influencing blogging. We do a lot on Instagram. In five or 10 years that might be different. We don’t know but I want to keep up the process of adaptability influencing through A Beautiful Mess. Right now we’re doing the podcast. We kind of know we won’t do it forever. Don’t freak out. We’re not quitting right now but you know.

Emma: We aren’t quitting right now.

Elsie: I don’t think we’ll be podcasting in 10 years. Who knows? Maybe, but I know we will be blogging in 10 years.

Emma: Now that you said that I feel like we will be just because you said that because the Universe will be like, oh yeah,

Elsie: Do you think I just like gave us a low key curse?

Emma: I don’t know if it’s a curse. I think that makes it sound like we don’t like podcasting

Elsie: It’s Superstitious, though,

Emma: I’m not superstitious, but I’m a little suspicious.

Elsie: My point, though, was that I love doing it still. For a little while last year, I got so burned out. We talked about that recently that I was questioning a lot of things. But when I broke it all down and got to the bottom of it, the thing that I still really love doing is writing A Beautiful Mess, the blog. Then there’s the surrounding things that we do as a part of that, like this podcast right now, I feel like we’re one of the early adopters. We were one of the first bloggers and almost all of the people. There’s one or two, I’m like, oh joy, there’s one or two who still do what we do. But almost everyone has quit by now who was one of our first blogging friends or buddies. I kind of just want to see where it goes for the long term because I feel like we’ve been so lucky to be on the forefront of the blogging industry. I just kind of want to see where it ends up by our older years.

Emma: Yeah, I agree. We’re actually doing a company, there’s only four of us, but a company retreat here and in another week or two. That’s all about blogging. It’s with my friend Julie Blander, who has a really cool blog you can check out. But the point of it is just that we’re still really into blogging and we want to make our site better and more useful. That’s always a goal of ours, and it still is even after this 13 or 14 years that we’ve been doing it, we’re still reinvesting into our site for it to become better and better. So we still love blogging. We’re sticking around for the long haul but other than that, should we tell them about our holiday thing that we’re trying this year?

Elsie: Yeah. So we do feel like, yes, we want to keep going on the path we’re going on but we need to find ways to evolve and we need to try new things and we need to not get too comfortable and too set in our ways. So this is what we’re trying this year as a part of that goal, say it Emma.

Emma: We’re going to have an A Beautiful Mess holiday special.

Elsie: So originally, the idea Emma was like I want to make an Amazon Prime or whatever TV special, like a variety show celebrating Halloween and Christmas, like two separate shows. Then obviously, we had to pare down the idea a little bit from there and do it, make it into something that we could do now this season. Then maybe we will still do those like mega TV show ideas in the future but for this season, we are doing a series of IGTVs surrounding the Christmas holiday. So it’ll probably start around November 1st and I’m excited because we haven’t done on camera work in, at least in a way where we were really excited in a while. So this is going to be exciting and really different. Emma can use her acting skills. Remember how Emma went to acting school?

Emma: Yeah, and it will probably actually come out around December 1st if, you said November 1st and that’s when we plan to film it. So it won’t be November 1st because we’re doing it right after Halloween.

Elsie: It’ll come out sometime during the holiday season and we make no guarantees to you what the day is because we don’t know.

Emma: Look we don’t totally know what it is, what we’re doing, but it’s going to be some kind of holiday special this year, coming to a phone or TV near you.

Elsie: We booked the shoot so we’re trying it and we’re just going to do it and see what happens. It’s exciting. I feel like at this point in our careers, being the grandma bloggers that we are, it’s time for us to try some different stuff. At this particular moment in our careers, Emma and I both feel one hundred percent sure that we don’t want to do a TV show. So this is kind of our own version of that. That’s more fun, more on our own terms, and something that is doable to us as busy moms. So we’re excited to share it with you and be sure you’re following A Beautiful Mess Instagram in case you, just make sure you are because that’s where it’s all going to be.

Emma: Mm hmm. Yep.

Elsie: Woo. So, yeah, I think we spent a really long time on that question but more or less we are excited to keep going and see where the river, just around the river bend. Ok. Yeah.

Emma: Yep, we sure are.

Elsie: Well, ok. So tag us on Instagram if you make a bucket list for fall and we will in a couple of months, we’ll do another one for the holiday season because why not? It’s kind of our thing and we love doing it. It brings us so much joy and I feel like if you can find these little things in life that it’s like an easy thing that ups your joy factor in your nostalgia. Who wouldn’t want that right?

Emma: Yeah, yeah.

Elsie: Yeah, yep. Just like opening up the KJP part of my soul and putting in all the nostalgia that it can fit.

Emma: Oh man, he’s the best.

Elsie: Yeah, I was thinking, now that we’ve passed, can we just talk for a minute before we leave about how we passed a hundred episodes and you were gone on your break? We didn’t even celebrate it. Some people thought that we really underplayed it and that we missed a big opportunity when they were like can you not do something ok?

Emma: Honestly, this is the first I’m hearing of it. I knew we were getting close. I didn’t really. I’m sorry, everyone. You know, I messed up a lot of things while I was gone. That’s the main thing I’m learning as I get back.

Elsie: Oh, no, no, no, no. To get back. That’s not what I’m saying.

Emma: Everyone was waiting for something and I’m like I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m very sleep deprived.

Elsie: I feel like you thought I was blaming you. But this is what I was really trying to say was a little game, a little game of who do you think we’ve mentioned the most in our over one hundred episodes? These are the choices, KJP, Ramit, or Cheap Old Houses. Do you think there’s anyone else who’s in the running who we mentioned that frequently?

Emma: John and Sherie. 

Elsie: Oh, Young House Love has a podcast. Yep.

Emma: Maybe, Elise, maybe Chris Loves Julia.

Elsie: Ok, that’s getting to be a long list like seven.

Emma: Wait, so do I get to vote or are the listeners voting?

Elsie: Let’s just both say our vote and they can say their vote but we won’t be able to hear them, you know, because. 

Emma: Yeah, they’re not here.

Elsie: I think the person that I’ve mentioned the most, I think it’s Cheap Old Houses but it might be Ramit, but it also might be KJP.

Emma: I think it’s Ramit. Yeah, which is funny, one we love Ramit so I mean it makes sense, but also his topic that he teaches on is so different from what we’re doing. So it’s just funny how often you know he comes up but we love him. We’re obsessed.

Elsie: So definitely, yeah, he’s definitely one of my heroes. Let’s do a one hundred episode celebration in some way. Maybe on Instagram. Maybe, I don’t know, but I think we should celebrate it.

Emma: What was the one hundredth episode? I could look it up, but…

Elsie: I don’t even remember. It was just one in the middle of the summer. Oh yes and when I recorded the summer, anyways, nobody wants to hear this. Ok. Thank you so much for listening. Don’t forget to tag us follow at A Beautiful Mess and tag us if you are doing your own bucket list because if you haven’t noticed by now, it’s the only thing that we care about in the whole world. We really, really, really, really care if you complete your bucket list and if it brings you joy. We love you so much and we’ll be back next week.

Emma: Bye. Ok. Happy fall, y’all.

Elsie: Oh God.

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The first day of fall is happening this week, you guys! While I’m still a total summer gal, my little one is pumped for fall and winter and her excitement is rubbing off on me for sure. Starting to get Halloween costumes together and decorate, and the scent of pumpkin spice is literally in the air with my number one favorite thing this week.

I also sat down with Lola and filled out our autumn bucket list and I have these pumpkin blender cookies on my list to make this weekend (gonna add chocolate chips for sure though!). Hope you get your fall started off right this week as well! xo. Laura

Each year, I create a seasonal bucket list full of activities to do with my family. As a mom of two young children, I often feel a little overwhelmed and this list helps me remember to actually DO all the fun ideas and make memories together during the autumn season.

I fill our list with a few big projects like adding to our spooky village and a lot of easy, attainable ideas as well like making homemade trail mix, pulling out of favorite autumn kids books and even something as simple as listing to “Monster Mash,” which my children love!

No matter what stage in life you are in, making the most of each season and making memories is a great goal. This list will help remind you to make time for small activities throughout the season. Click here to download your autumn bucket list!

Benefits of a seasonal bucket list.

• It’s an easy reminder. Time flies, especially with young kids, and it can be tough to remember to make time for all those cute ideas you have pinned on Pinterest. This list makes it easy as you check a few things off your list each weekend!
• By using the list, you can do a greater variety of activities instead of defaulting to the same ideas over and over.
• For parents, knowing you are creating lifelong memories and childhood magic is the most meaningful benefit of all (who wants to cry with me—I’m feeling sentimental!).

Hacks for a seasonal bucket list

• Stock up for all your supplies at once! Whether it’s grabbing some frozen pie dough to keep in the freezer or stocking up on craft supplies, get everything you need for the activities in one shopping trip and keep it on hand.
• Let your family members choose activities so everyone gets to do what is most nostalgic to them.
• Repeat all your favorite activities from last year. You are creating traditions!
• I like to put 3-4 big activities on my list (for example, going apple picking or making a large craft) and then the rest of my list is smaller activities that we can fit in when we have an hour before nap time or an hour before dinner.
• Above all else, make it easy on yourself. It’s supposed to be fun and not a lot of pressure.

Mega Idea List

Here are few ideas to get you started!

1. Go to a pumpkin patch.
2. Make a spooky craft.
3. Go apple picking.
4. Play “Monster Mash“
5. Make caramel apples.
6. Have a candlelit dinner.
7. Jump in a leaf pile (my kids’ favorite).
8. Make chili.
9. Buy fall candles.
10. Watch Hocus Pocus (fill the list with all your favorite Halloween movies for kids, adults or both!).
11. Decorate your porch for Halloween.
12. Make pumpkin pancakes.
13. Drink apple cider on the porch.

OK, you get the idea! Personalize the list by adding your favorite nostalgic fall activities. Be sure to add things that are specific to your town or region and things you enjoyed as a child. 

Frequently asked questions.

Credits// Author and Photography: Elsie Larson. Photography: Amber Kelly.

If you are in need of a super simple seasonal dessert, look no further than this no-bake caramel apple cheesecake recipe. It’s easy to put together and so delicious; like a caramel apple on top of a cheesecake. Yum!

The base of this dessert is a no-bake cheesecake made of only four ingredients: cream cheese, sugar, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla extract. The resulting cheesecake is classic and not overly sweet. This leaves plenty of room for the caramel apple topping!

I love the ease of using a store-bought graham cracker crust, but you could absolutely make your own using the crust recipe from my easy no-bake key lime pie.

The caramel apple topping on this cheesecake is also very simple and made from just four ingredients. You will need apples, butter, cinnamon, and caramel. If you want to make your own caramel from scratch you absolutely can, but if you are keeping this simple like I did, then store-bought caramel will work just as well.

If you love an easy no-bake pie as much as me, here are some other flavor options I’ve shared in the past:

• No-Bake Pumpkin Pie
• No-Bake Chocolate Silk Pie
• No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie

If you make this no-bake caramel apple cheesecake, I’d love to hear what you think! Please leave us a comment and you can also add stars to leave a review of the recipe. These help our blog to grow so thank you in advance if you leave us a review! xo. Emma

Print

No-Bake Caramel Apple Cheesecake

A simple recipe using a store-bought graham cracker crust and just eight ingredients.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword caramel apple, cheesecake

Prep Time 15 minutes

2 hours

Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes

Servings 6 servings

Author Emma Chapman

Ingredients

• 1 crust graham cracker
• 2 8 ounces cream cheese softened
• ¼ cup granulated white sugar
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4-5 apples
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 2-3 tablespoons caramel

Instructions

• In a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, cream the softened cream cheese until smooth.
• Add the sugar, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla extract. Mix together until just combined and smooth.
• Spoon the cheesecake batter into the pie crust. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or freeze for at least one hour.
• Peel and core the apples. Cube into bite sized pieces.
• In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter over medium/high heat.
• Stir in the apple pieces and cinnamon. Cook until softened, 4-5 minutes.
• Turn the heat off and drizzle the caramel over the apples, stir so all pieces get well coated.
• Spoon the caramel apple topping over the cheesecake and serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

I like to use Granny Smith apples in this recipe. But you can use any variety if Granny Smith is not available.

Any store-bought caramel should work well but some can be thicker, or more runny than others. Use your judgment on how much to use, just two tablespoons or maybe three tablespoons will be needed. The goal is to coat all the apple pieces well in the caramel. 

I use a graham cracker crust with this recipe, but you can use a vanilla wafer crust or even an Oreo cookie crust if you like. 

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman

The earlier space had outdated fixtures, mismatched switch plates, a broken closet door, and just needed an overall tuneup to feel fresh. We added a new sputnik light fixture and a more modern brass entryway doorknob set along with a coat of paint for the front door (Bubble Shell by Behr) and painted the walls a soft pink (Soft Stone by Valspar).

Besides the paint, the biggest change came when we took out the poorly installed tile that was coming up on its own (you can even see in the before photo how they don’t line up flat with each other) and added in a white oak floor instead. It took a ton of extra time as we ran into a bunch of problems, but it’s so pretty and we love it.

Having that organizational wall shelf with hooks is one of my favorite things in the space! It’s big enough to keep a letter holder for mail (I love this marble and gold one), a planter that I use to hold sunglasses, a small dish for loose keys, and anything else I want to keep near the door.

And, the hooks on the bottom are perfect for hanging hats and purses as well. Here’s a smaller (and more budget-friendly) version and I love this gold and white hook rack if you just want hooks or don’t have a full coat closet for coats.

We still love and use the mid-century modern IKEA kitchen that I made over for Lola when she was little. It looks so cute under the shelf and I feel like it’s the first thing that kids go to when they come into the house since it’s in the entryway—it lets them know this is a kid house and we’ve got fun things to play with!

Reasons to focus on styling and organizing your entryway:

• It’s the “first impression” to your home. Let the style give a preview of what to expect in the rest of the house.
• It’s the perfect area to organize items related to leaving/entering the home (shoes, mail, keys, etc.).
• It can also serve as a miscellaneous storage area for items that don’t relate to other specific parts of the home (i.e., “junk drawers” or lesser used items).

I finally framed the watercolor painting that Lola made with my mom soon after we moved into this home. I know I have favorite pieces of art I made when I was little and I think this is going to be one of her most special ones. It makes me so happy!

While getting an actual door on our closet (nine months after moving in) was a big deal, it felt so good to rebuild the shelves in the closet and add a new rod to make the space more functional as well.

Getting a shoe rack was super helpful (I also like this wood one and this white version) and lots of containers to store things like gift wrap, outdoor supplies, and baskets to hold more random home things like extension cords was super helpful.

I love these wire mesh baskets that come in all sizes and these pink and white boxes as well. Don’t forget to use your label maker to label your boxes!

Want more closet organizing ideas? Check out these posts!

• Easy built-in closet DIY for any closet in your home
• How to hack a store-bought closet system to get the most out of a pre-built closet system
• Short on time? Reorganize your closet in one afternoon

This wall and corner was kind of a nothing space, but I wanted it to be a welcoming visual since it’s the wall that you see when you first open the door for visitors. We squared off and trimmed out that rounded entry into the dining room to match the rest of the throughways in the home and it made me feel so much better to have that lopsided kind-of-an-arch look symmetrical and finished.

I love this console table that we chose for the space, as it’s slim enough to not take up a ton of space but the top is perfect for holding trays for loose items (like a brass tray or brass platter and hand dish) and some plants and decorative items. How cute is that pink princess phone!?

The four drawers are also a great spot for some miscellaneous organization as we have our “junk drawer” in one of them (everyone has that drawer with pens/tools/calculators/stamps and whatnot, right?) and the rest have things like cloth napkins or clean masks that I want to keep near the door (hopefully, I won’t need those forever though!). This is a pretty wood console table if you wanted something a little simpler.

Buy the console table here!

I love a brass hanging planter in just about every room and that “Ooh La La” print makes me feel like I always have a bit of Paris around the house.

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I love that I have shelves, drawers, hooks, a hanging rod, racks, and bins to keep our entryway organized and feeling neat as we come in and out of our space. I feel like this is such a welcoming and fresh way to say hello to visitors, and I like that I can decorate the console table area seasonally as well to add some holiday cheer to the front of our home.

You can see the rest of my home tours to see how I’ve made over all my other spaces so far!

Want more tips on styling your entryway?

• 3 tips for styling your entryway
• See how Mandi made over her charming entryway
• Not sure what your style is yet? Check out this podcast to help determine your style

You can get all kind of organizational and decorating ideas when you sign up for our newsletter, so get on the list if you want to know all our tricks and tips! xo. Laura

Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman.

I’ve never been much of a camping person (I’m more of a “glamping” person for sure). I’ve certainly done my fair share of it over the years, but I have to admit that I love my outdoorsy events best when I can still end up in a real bed after a shower at night. However, one of my favorite camping-related activities is a campfire. It’s warm, it’s cozy, and there’s usually some sort of yummy snack involved in the process.

Last fall, we bought a mini portable fire pit for our backyard, and we liked it so much that we decided we wanted to build a proper fire pit so we could have fires more often. After doing some research, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it’s really not that hard to build your own professional-looking fire pit.

It’s a pretty easy process to plan out, and although it does take a bit of muscle to complete, it’s totally worth a bit of cardio. Ready to create your own backyard campfires (and get an arm workout in the process)?? Good, let’s get going!

Before you start your fire pit, you’ll want to check on the recreational fire codes for your area to make sure that a fire pit is allowed (you can call your local fire department if you aren’t sure). You want to build your pit at least 10 feet from any building structures, trees, fences, or other obstructions.

Keep in mind also that you don’t want anything hanging above your fire pit, so even if a base of a tree is 10 feet away, you don’t want to have branches hanging directly above the fire pit.

*NOTE: You can get your landscaping stones from your larger hardware stores (like Lowe’s or The Home Depot), but make sure to also check smaller local hardware stores (and specifically stone and landscape businesses) to see what other types of stones are available.

I got my stones at a local stone place because they had a large range of colors to choose from (and I like color choices!). You can also either do two or three layers of stone, with or without the metal ring–it’s up to you and your budget.

OK, let’s get to work!

1. OUTLINE YOUR FIRE PIT. Lay out the bottom ring of your stones in the grass where you want the fire pit to be. If you are going to use a metal ring, like we did, you can use that to build a few stones around to find your circle.  Remove a few stones so you have space between them, and use the spray paint to mark where the outside of the stones would hit. Remove those remaining stones and complete your painted circle.

2. DIG YOUR FIRE PIT. Use a shovel, mattock, or whatever other digging tool you need to dig out your circle 6” deep. Depending on where you live, this will be an easier or more difficult task. Our Missouri grass has crazy strong roots and we have lots of giant rocks in the soil, so this was quite an arm workout for us! 

3. FILL YOUR FIRE PIT. Once you have a 6” hole dug, you’ll want to pour your gravel into your hole until the gravel is level with the ground. The gravel will give your fire pit an important drainage area when it rains.

4. BUILD YOUR FIRE PIT. Place your first ring of stones around the edge of the gravel circle and use a rubber mallet to tamp the stones flat and even with each other.  Again, if using a metal ring you can keep that in the middle to make sure you are fitting your stones right up against the ring.

When placing the second row of stones, place some masonry adhesive on the bottom of each stone and stagger the placement of the second row (the middle of each stone should sit on the end seams of the row beneath it). Use the rubber mallet to even and tighten the stone placement. Repeat the process with the third row. 

When you actually build a fire in your brand new pit, you’ll want to start with a smaller collection of newspaper, dry leaves, and sticks all piled up together. Once you light that starter pile you can start adding bigger branches and smaller logs, and then move to bigger pieces of wood as those catch on fire.

After you’ve had several fires, you’ll want to scoop out (or use a shop vac to vacuum out) most of the ashes so they don’t build up too high and blow around like little pieces of white ash snow. It looks cool at first, but then it lands in your hair, and you’re like, “OK, not cool anymore …”

As you can see, we are loving our fire pit so far. It feels like it was just what our yard was missing and we didn’t even know it! We’ve already had several fires in it so far, but our experience went to the next level of fire pit enjoyment when Josh built us a corresponding semi-circle fire pit bench.

You can also do a fire pit table if you love a fire but want it done in a more instant manner. We currently have this fire table and it’s the perfect size, pretty affordable, and really cute as well.

Love a good s’more? Check out these posts:

• The Ultimate S’more Setup
• No-Bake S’mores Cake (YUM!)
• How To Make Red Wine Marshmallows (!!)

Of course, you’ve got to have your campfire amenities, and for us that’s a s’mores stick (also works for hot dogs), mountain pie maker, and a cocktail. What do you think? Is this your year for a fire pit? xo. Laura

P.S. Check out more outdoor home decor on our wishlist and shopping pages!

Credits // Author: Laura Gummerman, Photography: Sarah Rhodes & Laura Gummerman. 

Print

How to Build a Fire Pit

Make your own fire pit in 4 easy steps!

Keyword fire pit

Prep Time 1 day

Cost $600

Ingredients

• marking spray paint
• gravel to fill your pit
• shovel mattock, or other digging tool
• concrete landscaping stones and metal firepit ring optional
• masonry adhesive
• rubber mallet

Instructions

• OUTLINE YOUR FIRE PIT. Lay out the bottom ring of your stones in the grass where you want the fire pit to be. If you are going to use a metal ring, like we did, you can use that to build a few stones around to find your circle. 

  Remove a few stones so you have space between them, and use the spray paint to mark where the outside of the stones would hit. Remove those remaining stones and complete your painted circle.
• DIG YOUR FIRE PIT. Use a shovel, mattock, or whatever other digging tool you need to dig out your circle 6” deep. Depending on where you live, this will be an easier or more difficult task.

  Our Missouri grass has crazy strong roots and we have lots of giant rocks in the soil, so this was quite an arm workout for us! 
• FILL YOUR FIRE PIT. Once you have a 6” hole dug, you’ll want to pour your gravel into your hole until the gravel is level with the ground. The gravel will give your fire pit an important drainage area when it rains.
• BUILD YOUR FIRE PIT. Place your first ring of stones around the edge of the gravel circle and use a rubber mallet to tamp the stones flat and even with each other.  Again, if using a metal ring you can keep that in the middle to make sure you are fitting your stones right up against the ring.

  When placing the second row of stones, place some masonry adhesive on the bottom of each stone and stagger the placement of the second row (the middle of each stone should sit on the end seams of the row beneath it).

  Use the rubber mallet to even and tighten the stone placement. Repeat the process with the third row. 

Emma is back from her maternity leave! She is sharing the story of her son’s birth—even some things that Elsie doesn’t know yet. Birth is nothing like it is in the movies.

You can stream the episode here on the blog or on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, and Stitcher. You can find the podcast posts archive here.

A big thank you to our sponsors! Check out the offers from Agility, Issuu, Ritual, and Bev. And if you’re looking for a specific code you heard on the podcast, you can see a full list on this page!

Show notes:

-Emma and Oscar love the botanical wallpaper in the nursery. Oscar can’t stop staring at it. 

-Stacey Abrams romance novel series. Reckless is the one Emma read.

-Elsie’s Guilty Pleasure Treasure: Etsy sweatshirts:

-Emma’s Guilty Pleasure Treasure: Full set of nail polish from Color Dept.

-We answer a listener’s question about how to love a scaled-down renovation.

-Elsie talks about recoloring kitchen appliances with vinyl when you can’t afford the appliances you want.

Episode 111 Transcript

Emma: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast. Emma here, and I’m back from my maternity leave. 

Elsie: Yeah. 

Emma: I thought it would be fun to share the story of my son’s birth with you all. Some of the story Elsie hasn’t even heard yet so that’ll be fun. Plus, we’re both sharing a recent guilty pleasure treasure at the end of this episode.

Elsie: Yes, I’m so happy you’re back Emma. I want everyone to hear all about your summer and everything that’s happened and your new baby. He’s so cute.

Emma: Yeah, I’m pretty obsessed. I won’t do just the birth story. I’ll talk about my maternity leave a little bit. It’s actually kind of hard to get into this episode because, I told Elsie, but this morning was the first day I dropped him off at daycare. This is his first day of daycare ever and that was hard. Everyone told me it would be hard and they were right. I was like, oh, it’s not so bad right at first. I feel like every hour that’s gone by, I’m like, no, this is getting worse. This is getting worse. I thought it would get better throughout the day. It’s getting a little worse throughout the day.

Elsie: Oh Emma, you’re doing a good job as soon as we finish recording…

Emma: I’ll finish all my work and go pick him up.

Elsie: Yeah, you can haul ass over there and pick up baby Oscar and feel reunited.

Emma: That was my first question to the gals at his school. I was like, so if I want to pick him up early and they’re like, yup, you just text and come on. Ok, cool, cool. So with the birth story, I did a little Q&A on my personal Instagram account, which is Emma Red Velvet, and that was the number one thing that I kept getting is, are you going to tell us your birth story?

Elsie: So people love a birth story, right?

Emma: I won’t lie. I do not like birth stories very much. I’m always so happy when a friend has a baby or welcomes the baby into the world, no matter how it happens, because there’s lots of ways, but I’ve never been one to really want to know all the details of someone’s birth story. It’s a little intimidating and I’m just not a particularly medical person. Yes, but now that I’ve gone through it, I feel like I have a new perspective on it. I at least understand it more so it’s a little more interesting and in light.

Elsie: You will have to enlighten me then because I have clicked away from many a birth story.

Emma: Me too. Me too. That’s why I was so surprised. I guess people really do want to hear this. So I’ll start at the very beginning. If you don’t know, a lot of women feel contractions like a week or two weeks or even a month before.

Elsie: Seen that in the movies here. 

Emma: So you’re on board with that. I kept waiting and waiting for that to happen to me. I was like, I haven’t felt any contractions and it’s two days now before my due date, June 2nd, and my due date was June 4th. So I haven’t felt any contractions and in my mind, I thought, well if it doesn’t happen until a few days after my due date, I think I had an appointment for that following Monday or Tuesday or something like that, they’re probably going to set a date to induce me. Because I’m thirty five years old and they’ll let you go for a while after your due date, but it’s like the baby is ready, so they’ll set a time for inducing you. In my mind, that was probably what’s going to happen because I hadn’t felt anything that felt like a contraction to me. So I actually went to my book club. I call it Girls Group. It’s a bunch of women I hang out with. I had gone to book club that night, went to bed and then around four a.m. I woke up and I was soaking wet and I was like, oh, I think my water broke.

Elsie: Whoa.

Emma: But it’s one of those things where I’ve never had my water break before so I also had this little fear. Did I just pee myself because you also have to pee all the time when you’re nine months pregnant. So I was like, was I just really tired and is that what happened? But no, it wasn’t that, and I was like, oK, I think my water broke, but I still hadn’t felt any contractions. I’d heard so many friends say, oh, the first time I had a baby, I went to the hospital and they sent me home. I heard that over and over and over again. So I was like, well, I don’t really want to go to the hospital and then send me home because it’s four a.m. and I’m tired. Maybe I can just go to sleep for another few hours at least and then see if I’m feeling anything when I wake up. That was kind of my reaction to my water breaking was can I go back to sleep?

Elsie: Ok, can I ask a question? What are you supposed to do when your water breaks?

Emma: That’s a great question. I didn’t really know clearly.

Elsie: So it’s not a common, like you go straight to the hospital when your water breaks.

Emma: That’s what you should do. Spoiler, that’s what you should do. But I didn’t really know that. I just thought if you’re not feeling any contractions, then it’s not happening yet, because that’s a big part of what they tell you. You start timing the contractions and when they get a certain amount of time apart then it’s time to go to the hospital and I was like I’m not feeling any, so I’m not sure if I should go. I almost went back to bed but then I thought I’ll just call and make sure that that’s ok because I don’t want to show up late because my plan was to get an epidural. I didn’t want to show up so late that they’re like, sorry, you’re too far along. You can’t get the epidural. That would be a nightmare to me. So I was like, all right, I’ll just call. So I called the hospital and I was like I’m nine months pregnant. Here’s my name and I think my water just broke, but I don’t feel any contraction. Should I just stay home and come in maybe later this afternoon or should I come in now? The lady was really nice but she was like, oh, you should come in now if your water broke. You need to come in like right away. I was like, oh ok, so I get off the phone and I go out of our bedroom and I gently wake up Trey because now it’s five a.m. So I wake up Trey. I’m like, hey Trey, my water broke, think it’s time that we should go to the hospital. I already called and they said we should go. He pops up immediately and it’s very like your water broke, oh my God. He’s ready to go. He’s looking for our bags that we’ve already packed. His reaction was the appropriate reaction to your water breaking. Mine was under and what I want to say about that is, and I think you’ll like this Elsie, is I am one of those people. I am an under reactor. So this is great in a crisis or when something weird happens and you need someone with a game face, I’m your person but if you throw me a surprise party, generally give me a surprise present. Elsie has had the misfortune of giving me a very sweet surprise gift before and I kind of have no reaction whenever those moments happen. I’ve learned many times in my life now at this point that is the wrong thing to do and it makes people feel like you don’t like the present or you don’t like the party and it’s terrible. But in a crisis, I’m a very calm person, so it’s kind of good sometimes and then it’s terrible other times.

Elsie: Ok so you’re under reacting. It’s five am and your bags are already packed. So did you change your pants?

Emma: I changed my pants but I won’t lie, you’re kind of just like leaking at that point. So I got a towel and was sitting on a towel in the car because I don’t want to get my car seat all watery and Trey is driving me, of course, and we have all our stuff. We get to the hospital and I’m still a little not convinced that they’re not going to send me home. I don’t know why, but in my mind, I’m like, oh, here we go, they’re going to.

Elsie: You were just really prepared for a false alarm.

Emma: Yeah, I was super. I was like that happens to everyone, it’ll happen to me. So we get there and I’m like, hi, I called my water broke, my due dates in two days from now. So should we go home? I’m not feeling any contractions. They were like, no, you’re having a baby today.

Elsie: Oh my gosh. I love that. So did it sink in at that point?

Emma: Yeah. At that point I was like, oh, ok, ok, got it. So this is the day I got, ok, so we’re having a baby. All right. Finally in the hospital and they’re like, no, you’re not going to leave. You can’t leave, this is it. I’m like, ok, cool. Then they start the whole process. They put you in a little waiting room, you get a gown and there’s a lot of medical type things. I had personally never been on an IV before, so just having that was new to me. So I was like, oh, this is uncomfortable and not that fun. I feel like a little science experiment where you don’t want to move too fast or it’s something a little needle will pop out of you. It’s like, nah. So like I said I wanted to get an epidural and what they told me about that was once you start feeling the contractions because they put me on this thing called Pitocin, I think is how you pronounce it. But it basically helps you start having contractions faster. It starts getting you into labor faster. I think it’s a hormone. Again, I am not medical, so I do start to feel the contractions and they’re like pretty much as soon as you feel them, go ahead and order your epidural because it could take like an hour or two by the time you say you want one for them to actually come and and administer it. So as soon as I was like, all right, I’m really feeling it’s time to call for that epidural. So I did that around 11:00 a.m. and the doctor, the anesthesiologist I guess, who came to give me my epidural was a really nice guy. He did a great job, but it was a little awkward because my nurse, she was new in that she had worked at another hospital, a different hospital but now she was at the hospital I was at and so she was learning all their processes. So she had been a nurse for many, many years and she was very knowledgeable. But she was learning the computer system and their specific order of checklists. There’s lots of checklists that medical professionals are going through over and over to make sure communication doesn’t break down and all that. So anyway, the anesthesiologist, he was getting ready to do my epidural, which is when they put a pretty long needle in your back into your spine.

Elsie: Ok, no details needed on that one.

Emma: Yeah, and I’ve never done that. The great thing about it is it’s in your back so you don’t have to look at it, so you just have your back to them while they do it.

Elsie: Yeah, that’s good.

Emma: Yeah, yeah. So anyway, she was like, oh, did you do the test dose? He was like, no, I don’t do test dose. Behind my back he’s doing his medical stuff, I hear him say test dose is for wimps, just kind of under his breath and in my mind, I’m like I’m not going to say anything because this guy is about to put a huge needle in my back. So I’m not saying anything but I also am like aren’t epidurals for wimps? Maybe we should be doing this test dose thing. What’s going on like it’s, you know?

Elsie: Ok, so number one, I can hear you. Number two, explain this shit to me. Ok, right?

Emma: I was like, what are we? What are we doing? Do I need that? Do I not need that? This is my first time. Can we just go over some…

Elsie:  Did you ever find out what it was?

Emma: Not really because then what happened after that is the nurse, I think she just forgot that she had already asked him, and she was going through her checklist. Like I said, she was new to this particular system, so I could tell from the look on her face and her tone she had just forgotten. She came across that again, like, oh, I didn’t fill this out. When did you do the test dose? But she had already asked him, and she had forgotten. I think so. She asked him again and he was like, oh, I don’t do tests. I haven’t done a test dose in the 20 years I’ve been doing this. The literature doesn’t support it, he just kind of starts going into like. 

Elsie: A little rant.

Emma: This is not how I do it, and please don’t question me type of attitude and I’m just sitting there with him putting this giant needle in my back and I kind of want to giggle because this is a strange situation to be literally caught in the middle of. But I’m not going to giggle because I’m getting an epidural right at that moment. So I just like kind of frozen and like I hope that this is fine. I don’t really know, but it was fine. It was a great epidural. It did what it was supposed to do and life went on and it was totally fine.

Elsie: Oh, I see that the next thing on your list, says Student Doctor. What does this mean?

Emma: I gave Elsie an outline, but I was keeping it really vague because she doesn’t know all the little things. So I was like, oh, I got to tell you this. Yes. So my doctor, my OB. She happened to be on vacation that week. I had a different doctor do my delivery, which was great, she did a great job and it was wonderful, but before she came in, one of the nurses asked me she was like, hey, the doctor who’s going to be doing your delivery today, she has a student with her. Is it ok if the student’s in the room or they said something to that effect? And I said, yeah, that’s fine, because in my mind, it’s not a particularly modest day. There’s a lot of people in the room and you’re pushing a baby out. So I’m like, yeah, one more person who’s about to become a doctor, that’s fine. Plus, everybody’s got to learn. So no big. Yeah, that’s fine. They can be in there. No big deal. But what I should have realized, I should have clarified is this student doctor going to be observing or are they going to be doing stuff? Because in my mind,they were just observing?

Elsie: You thought it was going to be like at a restaurant when they bring like the second server who’s watching it the whole time and they don’t do anything, they just kinda watch.

Emma: And you kind of just like taking notes. Yep, exactly. They don’t necessarily hand them any plates or anything, they’re just observing, taking down some notes, seeing how it goes. So I was like, oh, that’s what this is. No problem. But then I delivered my son and let me just pause though there, because the first moment that Trey and I heard our son cry, like he comes out and we hear his little cry for the very first time, that’ probably one of the top moments of my life. Definitely top three. It might be the top. I don’t know. It’s hard to quantify that type of thing, but it was the most magical, special moment ever, just because you’re so tired. For me, I’ve just pictured being a mom for so long and also pictured my son now because I’ve been pregnant nine months just thinking about it, I was dreaming about him all the time. So one of the best moments of my life was hearing my son cry for the first time and I know Trey felt the same. It’s just a magical, magical moment. So he comes out, we hear him cry and then what they do is they put the baby like up on your chest kind of first thing. I think it’s partly to distract you, partly because it’s just like this special moment. I have a feeling it also has to do with body heat, because your little baby just came out of this very warm place, your womb. Now it’s very cold in the hospital so they put them up on your chest and I think that’s part of the idea anyway. So he’s sitting on me now and I’m seeing him for the first time and I was very distracted. But I also noticed that I’m getting stitched up after delivering a baby. I noticed that the student doctor seems to be doing the stitching, which I was not anticipating. So I’m just kind of like out of the corner of my eye seeing that. Then all of a sudden, I see this little stream of liquid just shoot out from between my legs. Then I hear, yep, yep, yep and then I hear the other doctor come up behind the student doctor and she says, oh, it looks like you punctured her bladder. So that’s why you just want to ask for help. Like something to that effect.

Elsie: Oh my God, that’s like, wow.

Emma: Yeah, apparently. She’s stitching me up. She accidentally nicked my bladder, I guess. So that little stream of water that I saw shootout was, I guess, urine. So that was strange. In my mind, I was really like, kind of out of it because I was holding my son.

Elsie: I was not expecting that part. That was a twist. That was a twist and a turn.

Emma: It is quite a twist. I really didn’t even know. I once again didn’t really react. I’m just holding my son for the first time so that’s the most important moment and I’m pretty focused on that. But in my mind, I was like, ok, so now I think my vagina is sewn to my bladder. I guess I need to check into that later is what’s going into my mind. I’m like Frankenstein.

Elsie: Oh, good. Good for you for being a good sport for medicine.

Emma: Well, I regret it. I wish I had said no, thank you on the student. It’s great to learn, but not for me. Wish I had said that, but it’s ok. It’s not a big deal. It all worked out, but I did tell my main doctor at my six week checkup when she was back from her vacation obviously by then and I was like, oh yeah, it went great. Here’s what happened by the way though, as you’re checking things out, I just need you to know about this bladder thing that happened. So can you make sure that everything’s fine down there and her eyes just got really wide when I told her the story, She was just trying not to react too much because she’s a doctor and she’s a professional. But I could tell she was like, what? What happened? So that was also funny, but it was a great day overall. My son was born and he’s beautiful, so it was great. That’s more or less my birth story.

Elsie: Well, that was more medical than I thought it was going to be. I hope everyone’s ok. Let’s all take a drink of water and give Emma a big thumbs up. Everyone in the whole listeners are giving you a thumbs up right now.

Emma: You did it.

Elsie: You did it, Emma. I’m so proud of you. That is definitely so intense and you should get a medal like how they give you a medal at the end of the half marathon. You should get a medal for this.

Emma: I thought running the half marathon was harder.

Elsie: Stop. No.

Emma: I was ready for more of a horror story. Anyway so what else?

Elsie: Ok, well, that was kind of a funny story, too. I hope you don’t mind me saying I liked.

Emma: I thought it was very funny.

Elsie: I liked the twist. Baby Oscar is so cute, so I’m glad it was a magical moment. A lot of my friends have had really traumatizing experiences, so I’m glad you didn’t have a traumatizing experience.

Emma: Me too. I definitely think it’s funny too. I don’t really need to put a caveat because it’s my experience but I will say I’m so grateful for being pregnant, for how the birth went and for my son. I love it all and not all of it was easy, but I love it all, and I’m so grateful. But yeah, some funny things happened and hard things too but my review is five stars, would recommend if it’s for you. It’s great and it’s not for everyone and that’s fine, too.

Elsie: Yeah, beautiful. Well, I missed you so much this summer and we only talked on the phone for everyone who’s curious. We only talked on the phone like once a week, which was so little for us.

Emma: Yeah, it was weird.

Elsie: She was really in the zone and normally we talk about once a day. So I was trying to give her her space at first, and then I realized that she was just so busy. I have heard people talk about how breastfeeding is a full time job and stuff. So anyway, tell us a little bit about your summer. Did you do anything fun to entertain yourself? What was it like having a newborn at home? How do you like your wallpaper? Everything.

Emma: I love the wallpaper, and Oscar loves it too. At first, so you can’t see it. But now he’s kicking online more.

Elsie: Did you just say kicking online?

Emma: Yeah, that’s what we call it. Well the poor thing kind of can’t see and they’re getting into it, into this living life thing. Yeah. Now he’s seeing stuff and reaching for stuff and all of that. We call his wallpaper, that’s right by his changing table, his baby TV because he’ll just stare at it as if it’s a show. We make little jokes that are just like cheesy parent jokes. But like, there’s this one red flower that’s right by his face, where his head is whenever he’s on his changing table and we pretend like that’s his favorite character from his show Red Flower.

Elsie: Oh, that’s cute.

Emma: So yeah, the wallpaper is a hit, so that really worked out. I’ve been nursing. That at first is like every hour, every two hours so that’s really all you do for a while and it’s great. It’s also really tiring but I love it. It’s very special. I’ve read some books. I finally got around to reading my Stacey Abrams romance novel that I was wanting to read, Selena Montgomery.

Elsie: Can I tell everyone the review that you sent me? It’s a one liner review. Ok, so first of all, everyone knows that Stacey Abrams has a pen name romance novel series. We will put this in the show notes. If this is your first time hearing about it, it makes her even more of a treasure. Anyway, Emma read one of the books. Which one was it?

Emma: Ruthless.

Elsie: Ruthless and she sent me the one liner review and the review was not enough sex.

Emma: Yeah. Stacey Abrams, her background is in law, she’s a lawyer. So that part of the book it’s about a lawyer and like a crime has been committed. That part’s great. It’s great as far as, kind of a thriller or law type thing. But yeah, not enough sex. I was already on page like two hundred and the main characters hadn’t had sex yet and I was very disappointed because for a romance novel, that’s what I’m there for.

Elsie: So, yeah, maybe it’s not really a romance novel. It doesn’t sound like it is. I mean, that sounds like a side dish there.

Emma: I just wanted more so. But yeah, and then what else? We’ve been going on tons of walks. We go on walks basically every day. Oftentimes the three of us and sometimes just me and Oscar. So I have been using the stroller like crazy and it’s great. I have loved having a baby in the summertime because the sun doesn’t set until like eight or nine p.m. and you can get outside. Obviously, there’s some days where it’s really hot, so you have to go earlier or late. But I think that’s made a huge difference for mental health for me because I tend to struggle when it’s January through March, when there’s not as much daylight hours and sunshine. So I’ve been really grateful for the time of year that he was born because I think it’s just been really fun to be outside and also just to get some sunshine. And what else? We had one day where we all went to a pool, a community pool with a friend. It was Oscar’s first pool day and we weren’t there super long because he’s a little baby guy. We were there for a little while but it felt very summertime and that was really fun. Then we also had one day where Trey and I, his grandma, watched Oscar and we went out on a boat for a few hours, rented a boat. I’ve needed to learn how to drive a boat, and so I wanted to kind of do that, not with a whole bunch of other people around because doing new things is kind of embarrassing and hard sometimes. Anyway, but it’s not hard to drive a boat. I just never had learned.

Elsie: So you got a lesson, a boat driving lesson.

Emma: Yes, I got a boat driving lesson. And yeah, and that was one of the first times we were both away from him and it was weird and wonderful. And also, we went home a little early because we were like, we miss him. So, yeah but those are probably the main summer things that I’ve done but it’s been great.

Elsie:  I saw you had a baby pool on your back porch?

Emma: Yes and that was ok. Oscar liked it, medium-low. I really liked it but it’s kind of one of those things where you have to kind of set everything up and then get the sunscreen on him and all the things and then get out there. Then it’s like five minutes of fun and then he’s crying and it’s like, ok, now I take everything down. So it’s kind of a lot of work for what it is this year. I’ve already taken it off my back porch and will try that again next year.

Elsie: Everything is when your kids are really little.

Emma: Yeah, I’m like, ok, next year, try it again next year. As I was doing all that, I was remembering you or Elise said this one time, maybe both of you but something about with crafts and doing creative projects with your kid. You get all the supplies out and then they do it for like five minutes and then you clean everything up. But it grows over time or maybe it was a little early and so you try again later. So that’s what I was thinking in my mind, oh this didn’t work now, maybe later.

Elsie: Kinda like a memory tradition project is like that with little kids. Sometimes you need a redo or a lot of reviews before they’re ready to fully enjoy it. You have to think of it as an introductory experience sometimes.

Emma: So yeah, that’s kind of what I think that was for us here. We had one day where he fell asleep out there and so he took a little nap, only 20 minutes and I just sat in the pool and read my book and he was like sitting in his little bath caddy right next to me. Not in the pool, but you know, and that was really fun. But again, it was like a 20 minute thing so kind of a lot for a short amount of time. That’s all right.

Elsie: Yeah. Well, we’re so happy to have you back and congratulations. I know everyone just been dying to hear how you’re doing. So I think this episode will be really good for everyone to feel like we caught up.

Elsie: Ok, so we have a couple of segments planned. The first one is our favorite guilty pleasure treasure.

Emma: Yeah. So what’s a recent guilty pleasure treasure for you?

Elsie: Alright, Now that it’s September, I can say without shame that all I want to do is celebrate fall, celebrate autumn, fall things, pumpkin spice, everything, all that stuff. You guys know it is the vibe and anyway, so I pulled out my sweaters the other day from our Halloween closet and I pulled out all my sweaters, pajamas and costumes and laid them all on the floor in my closet and kind of set them all up. I got really excited about my Etsy sweater collection. So I’m going to show in the show notes today a sort of a little collage of my favorite Etsy sweaters and I’ll try to do the ones that are still on there. I have the one I’m wearing right now as we’re recording is the Sanderson Witch Museum. So I love that one and I just kind of first of all, I love sweaters. I kind of wear them year round but Halloween sweaters like one of my number one favorite things. The other thing is I love supporting Etsy people who do fandom shops. So, you know, it’s like the things like The Office and now I’m kind of getting into Harry Potter.

Emma: Finally

Elsie: And of course, I’m really into Hocus Pocus and Halloween. Yeah, so many things. There’s so many Etsy sellers who really geek out with you and make these adorable, hilarious merch items. So yeah, I want to support them and I will put them in the show notes today. It’s just bottled joy. What’s your great pleasure?

Emma: What’s great about Harry Potter is that it’s kind of Halloween, but Harry Potter is also kind of Christmas, because now that you’ve been into the movies, it’s always Christmas.

Elsie: Harry Potter is year round.

Emma: It’s like a school year.

Elsie: Let’s do a Harry Potter mini episode because I have so much to say about it but I don’t want to spend an extra 20 minutes on Harry Potter right now but I’m on like the seventh movie right now.

Emma: Yeah, let’s definitely do that because I grew up reading the books as they were coming out and Elsie never got into it and now finally she’s like, oh, I’ve been watching all the movies and I’m like, yes, my moment has come.

Elsie: Yes, I’ll save it for the Harry Potter episode.

Emma: Ok, good. My guilty pleasure treasure is I have been painting my nails lately and so I bought the full set. It’s seven colors plus a top coat of nail polishes from Color Dept.  have never been into painting my nails until this year because I was always a nail biter and now it’s been almost a full year that I stopped biting my nails and it just kind of happened when I got pregnant. I can’t explain it. It doesn’t make any sense to me, So anyone who needs a tip, I’m sorry this is not helpful. But yeah, it just something clicked finally and I quit biting my nails.

Elsie: I love that for you. Ok, so we have a voicemail question.

Voicemail: Hi, Elsie and Emma I wanted to ask when we moved into our home, we had grand plans for a big renovation in five years. Now after five years of daydreaming, we’re about to start. But after assessing our budget and the home’s realistic value, we’ve had to scale down our plans significantly. I want to be excited about our future, but I’m also really bummed about what we’ve lost. I wanted to ask how you come to love a scaled down renovation?

Elsie: I love this question and I’ve been in this situation before a couple of times, so I feel like I have a good answer. Have you ever been in this situation?

Emma: Probably. Yeah. Always I guess.

Elsie: In our first house, we had reached the potential of what it could be worth before we did. Ok, so first of all, we were going to do this huge deck and a hot tub that was in the ground, a nice fancy hot tub. There was a part of our renovation that we basically just canceled because we realized that it just wasn’t mathematically worth it, which I will say I don’t think that things always have to be mathematically worth it. But for us, this home was like we knew that it was a stair step or that we would be moving again soon. So it did have to be mathematically worth it. I also had to scale down the budget of our finishes as we were doing the house. Originally like everyone does this. You go on Pinterest, you save like all the most beautiful tile, the most beautiful light fixtures,things that spark joy for you and get your heart set on fancy appliances, things like that, you know? But then a lot of times the budget comes in or something unexpected happens or things are just generally more than you thought it would be. That’s what always happens to me because I’m too much of an optimist on budgets, for sure. Then you realize, ok, like this isn’t all possible. So my advice is twofold. Cut a couple of things out and just let them go and that part, I think, is the hardest. Then on the rest of it, embrace your new budget and find ways to make it look like your inspiration, even on a smaller budget. So for me, I did those colored appliances with the vinyl when I couldn’t afford the appliances I really wanted and I save like 10 grand things like that, painting a light fixture gold when you don’t want to afford a fancy gold light fixture, just spray painting light fixtures are totally ok to spray paint because you never touch them, they’ll never get worn off. It’s totally fine. Hand stenciling a wall when you have your heart set on wallpaper that can save like five thousand. It’s a lot of time commitment, but that’s what podcasts are for. We’re here for you. You know what I mean? So I think don’t give up that dream house that you planned in the beginning. Just find a way to get it for cheaper.

Emma: Yeah, I think it’s a real lesson in letting your dream kind of evolve a little bit. It’s going to look different than your original. But you know, like you’re saying, there are still a lot of more budget friendly solutions to certain things. And even if it’s not the grand thing that you were thinking of, it could still be really great. It can still look really, really great. Anyone else who’s looking at your house like they’re not going to know that you were intending to buy a thousand dollar light fixture instead of the spray painted one that you have, they’re not going to know. So they’re just going to see the beautiful light fixture and be like, oh cool.

Elsie: Yeah, that’s a great point is that when you get your heart set on something, you feel like nothing else is as good, but you can get used to the other stuff and it can eventually look as good to you. I think less expensive finishes that still aim for the look that you wanted is definitely the way to go.

Emma: Yeah, I agree.

Elsie: Yeah. If there’s a part of the plan, I don’t know what your plan was but if there was a part of your plan that just can’t happen anymore. Like my deck with my built-in hot tub, just take it from me, maybe it’ll happen on your next house. Maybe it’ll happen eventually. Maybe there’s another twist and turn. As Emma always says life is long, but it doesn’t have to be this year or right now. Yeah, I think that’s good to always remember when you least expect it, that hot tub will come your way.

Emma: Yes, I think so, manifest destiny. You just got to wait it out sometimes.

Elsie: Well, welcome back, Emma. I’m so happy you’re back and I’m really excited for fall. So we are going to be podcasting once a week and we have six mini episodes, so we’ll have a mini episode about every other week from now until Christmas. And yeah, we’re excited. We’re happy you’re here. Thanks for listening.

Emma: Bye.

My niece made us these matching outfits and I could NOT love them more! So far, this is the only mommy + me clothes I have for Oscar and I. So, I may need to remedy that soon. Ha.

Confession: The real reason I’ve had fried okra on my mind is because on the drive home from Nashville (from visiting Elsie) a few weeks ago, Trey and I stopped at a combination gas station/fried chicken place for lunch.

I didn’t actually get any fried chicken BUT I did have some delicious fried okra and a pretty amazing biscuit. Ha. So, of course I realized I needed to get my air frier out and see if I could make some air fried okra, asap!

I don’t pull out my air frier every night, but whenever I do, I am always happy. I absolutely LOVE air fried French fries. They are seriously the best. And I am happy to report that although air fried okra is just a little bit more time consuming to make (It’s still easy! It’s just more time consuming than French fries), it’s 100% worth it. So good!

The key is, you want to bread the okra, air fry, then toss in just a tiny bit of oil, then air fry for a few more minutes. If you get lazy and can’t be bothered for the second round of frying, they are still really good simply breaded and fried.

But friends, I’m telling you, just a couple more minutes for a second fry and you’ll be so impressed with this air fried okra! And it still takes very little oil (so not overly fatty like deep fried okra) and I’m also sure you could find and use gluten-free breadcrumbs if you wanted to go that route, too.

These are delicious alongside a grilled sandwich, baked fish, or even on top of a salad (and they look really cute in a paper cone or a holder to feel like you’re at a proper restaurant).

If you love this easy air fried okra recipe, be sure to try my air fried French fries, fried pickles, and crispy wings as well! xo. Emma

P.S. Check out more kitchen cookware and home decor on our wishlist and shopping pages!

Print

Air Fried Okra

The best crispy air fried okra recipe

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword air frier, air fry, okra

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

• 6 ounces okra fresh
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 tablespoon flour
• ¼ cup bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil

Instructions

• In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and 1 teaspoon of water, set aside.
• Rinse the okra and cut off the tops and bottoms. Slice into pieces around 1/4 inch thick. Toss the okra in the flour. Then dip each piece in the egg mixture, then in the bread crumbs.
• Air fry at 356°F for 6 minutes. Depending on the size of your air frier you will likely need to do this in two batches.
• Toss the breaded okra in the oil (melting the coconut oil to a liquid if needed). Then air fry for an additional 2-3 minutes.

Notes

You can swap the flour and bread crumbs for a gluten-free version if desired.

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

I think we can all agree that shopping for rugs can be overwhelming. There are so many styles, sizes, and prices to choose from. What’s great about this rug roundup?

Everything is under $250, and there’s a variety of colors (bold, neutral, and in between) to pick from.

Also, texture! I know shag carpet ended years ago, but it’s fun to have different options depending which room your rug will be in.

At the end of the post, I’m sharing Elsie’s tips for keeping rugs clean. This is a popular question in the ABM world since so many of us love light colored rugs.

Rug Source List: Wayfair, Rugs USA, Urban Outfitters, World Market, Annie Selke, Rifle Paper Co., and Amazon.

Rainbow Shag Rug

This rainbow shag rug is giving me all the 70s feels and it makes we want to go to a rainbow-themed disco party. It would be great in an area where you want to hide stains and marks, or in a spot where you are wanting to add a lot of color. A true statement rug!

shop now

Off-White Jute Rug

You can’t go wrong with a simple jute rug. Elsie swears by this one and has used it time and time again. The best part? It goes with everything and it’s easy to clean.

shop now

Pink Terrazzo Rug

I’ve wanted this pink terrazzo rug ever since Laura bought one for her living room (tour coming soon). I love the blush pink, but it also comes in this color if you want something in warmer tones.

Shop Now

Orla Chenille Rug

This soft chenille rug has rich colors and a classic geometric print. It comes in multiple sizes and the largest is under $200. Score!

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Maze Tufted Rug

The tone-on-tone maze pattern of this cream rug adds pattern without being overwhelming. I love a cream rug in a bedroom or a “shoes-off zone” to keep your rug looking it’s best for longer.

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Bungalow Ivory Rug

These are my colors. I love orange and pink together, and the green is the icing on the cake. I always take reviews into account when shopping for a rug and this one has tons of 4.8 star ratings.

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Camel Loomed Rug

Did you know that Rifle Paper Co. makes rugs? They’re amazing and the prices are, too. I can tell this rug would be even more stunning in person!

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Moroccan Shag Rug

File this moroccan shag rug under the classic category. The design is so versatile that you could use it in a colorful room to add texture and depth to the space.

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Watercolor Woven Rug

How amazing is this woven rug? The colorful ombre look is incredible and the way it’s crafted (by artisans committed to fair labor practices) is even better. I really love this rug.

shop now

Faux Cowhide Rug

I had no idea that faux cowhide rugs were easy to clean until Emma told me about one she had in her dining room. The fibers can be spot-cleaned, so you don’t have to worry about spills as much. Another neutral rug that can “dress up” any space!

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Moroccan Jute Rug

I’ve been looking for a new blush pink rug for my living room and this one is on my list. It’s made from an eco-friendly fiber that’s easy to clean, this is extra important since I have a dog. I love the texture and pattern on this one, too.

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Boho Dots Area Rug

Another rug that would look SO good in a bedroom or dining room. It’s simple with a little something extra. And it’s thick enough that it doesn’t need a pad underneath. Don’t forget to check that when purchasing your next rug!

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How To Clean Rugs

Elsie owns a mix of vintage and newer rugs and she swears by this cleaner. Keeping your rugs vacuumed (at least once a week) is another trick to keep them looking new and fresh. You can read more of her tips for cleaning rugs here.

Speaking of vintage rugs, Elsie’s favorite places to shop for them are:

• Apple & Oak
• Etsy
• EBTH
• eBay

Here’s a collage with every rug from this post (with links below).

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12

Happy shopping, friends! xo, Jacki

Our home was built in 1988 and came equipped with lots of dated brass fixtures and oodles of oak. Did I mention the arched raised paneled everything? I knew right away I would be painting the kitchen cabinets and I planned to try out chalk paint to see how easy it was to use and how well it might hold up in our kitchen over time.

My husband Phil and I were able to turn a profit on our last home, which allowed us to pay off our student loans (woo hoo!), have a down payment for our new house, as well as a reserve budget for immediate renovations. Since we were working with cash for this renovation, I wanted to be as careful with spending as possible. No going over budget allowed!

I would have loved to equip our kitchen with brand new, custom-made cabinets to fit the new footprint I designed for this space, but a more budget-conscious choice was to reuse our existing oak cabinets, rearranging them to fit the footprint and using spacers between cabinets where necessary. And, of course, you knew I’d want to paint it all white! We seem to be crazy for white kitchens here at A Beautiful Mess.

I have the unique perspective to be able to share two different methods of painting kitchen cabinets, since the last time I painted our kitchen cabinets, we used latex paint and a traditional method of sanding, priming, wet sanding, priming, and painting (all using a spray gun). It was A LOT of work! But this time around I wanted to try out a different method, mostly out of wanting less work, but also out of curiosity and a duty to the world to blog about the pros and cons of each method.

So, I decided to try Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint on our cabinets. And I have a lot to say about it! (You can scroll to the end of this post if you just came here for the pros and cons list.)

This is how our stove wall used to look before rearranging the cabinets to move the stove here, giving more space to the dining area of the kitchen. We discarded the old countertops and are relocating the upper cabinets to the basement and garage. Our new countertops are Corian Solid Surface in Arctic White, and we made the countertop of our kitchen island bigger so we can eat here, too. We outfitted it with the same countertop we had used in our last kitchen renovation—a maple butcher block slab we sealed with Waterlox, like we did here.

ABOUT CHALK PAINT

Chalk paint is different from chalkboard paint. Chalk paint is a specially formulated flat paint that will stick to almost all surfaces without sanding or priming. It has a matte finish and needs to be sealed. Other brands have formulated their own versions of chalk paint, but Annie Sloan is the original. I used their Pure White paint, and it really is a neutral white without warm or cool tones to it.

First, I thought I should show you what our kitchen looked like when we first got the keys to the house. We completely removed all of the cabinetry on the right wall, and I’m working on building a shallow shelving system to go in their place, in order to make more room for seats at the island and around the dining area. We moved the stove to the far wall, to make more room in the eat-in area of the kitchen. This required running a new gas line to power the stove (the old stove was electric) as well as rerouting ventilation for the hood vent.

First, we pulled everything out. I had rearranged all of the cabinetry digitally on AutoCAD first to make sure I could get the footprint I wanted without physically rearranging them in place. There was one spot we had to glue in wood spacers because I didn’t have a cabinet wide enough for the space and didn’t want to go through the trouble of fashioning a new (albeit useful) narrow cabinet to fill the gap.

FILLING OLD HARDWARE HOLES

Next, I removed the hardware from the doors and drawers, and filled the holes where the drawer pulls and door knobs used to be, since we planned to use new ones with different attachment points.

To fill the holes, I used Plastic Wood brand wood filler, which dries within 15 minutes. So you have to work quickly, but you’ll also be ready to sand it smooth without waiting for too long.

The most important step of painting your cabinets is cleaning them very well first. Use a degreasing detergent in your water and a non-scratch, yet abrasive pad (something you might use to clean a non-stick skillet), and really scrub hard! I thought I had cleaned my cabinets very well, but after painting, I noticed a few grease dots that were showing through the paint.

I had to cover those areas with more than 10 coats of paint for the grease spots to stop finally showing through! Even primer wasn’t working to cover up the grease. So, please take it from me—make sure your cabinets are super clean before painting.

After rinsing and drying the cabinets, I began painting with the chalk paint, without sanding or applying a primer.

PAINTING AND SEALING

I was surprised at how thick the chalk paint went on, and how quickly it dried. I was able to paint a coat, and immediately begin another. It took three coats to cover everything, and while it has the oak grain, there was the texture of the brush left on the surface, so I lightly dry-sanded it with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

After the light sanding, the paint finish was so silky smooth—you’d never know there was oak underneath! Traditionally, chalk paint is finished with wax, but because kitchen cabinets receive such heavy wear, I wanted to use a finish that wouldn’t need maintenance.

My go-to wood sealer is polyurethane, but it’s a finish that notoriously yellows. Not the look I want with white cabinets. So, I used a water-based Polycrylic instead which doesn’t use urethane as a hardener, so it won’t yellow over time.

I brushed three coats of Polycrylic onto the cabinet bases, and sprayed three coats onto the doors and drawers. It took two 1/2 pints to cover the cabinet base and island, and three bottles to spray the doors and drawers.

FINISHING TOUCHES

I used the original hinges on all of the doors, but replaced the hardware with these little wooden knobs that had a modern silhouette. They came unfinished, so I used Minwax Natural Stain and sealed with a few coats of polyurethane. I used polyurethane rather than Polycrylic, because it isn’t water-based and will stand up to being wiped and handled constantly, while I am a bit concerned about how Polycrylic may possibly become tacky after years of wiping and handling.

PROS AND CONS

Now that I’ve finished all of the painting, and because I’ve done it before a different way, I thought it would be really valuable to share a pros and cons list for each process—latex paint versus chalk paint.

CHALK PAINT PROS:

• Chalk paint dries quickly.
• Chalk paint is thick and requires less coats of paint.
• There’s no need to prime.
• If painted over already sealed wood, tannins of the wood will not seep into the white paint, causing brownish stains.
• Chalk paint will hide heavily grained wood like oak.

CHALK PAINT CONS:

• Chalk paint is thick and leaves brush marks. (Latex paint will also leave brush marks, but last time I used a spray gun for the latex paint.)
• You can’t have custom colors mixed with Annie Sloan paint, though you are encouraged to mix them yourself. But this requires you to have extra on hand for touch-ups.
• It is hard to hide the tannins when painting over areas that have been freshly sanded and not sealed, like the areas around the hardware holes I filled. These areas required a few extra coats of paint, though primer may be more efficient at doing this.
• Because of the thickness of chalk paint, it can build up quickly and diminish the dimensionality of decorative routered edges.
• Chalk paint can’t be brushed on as evenly as latex paint can be sprayed on. Some edges of my doors and drawers have thicker coats of paint and almost globby areas, though I was careful not to put it on too thick.

LATEX PAINT PROS:

• The paint finish will be very smooth and even, if done the proper way. (Check out all of the steps I did to achieve the perfect finish for our last kitchen renovation.)
• Latex paint is relatively inexpensive, and a little goes a long way when spraying.
• You can have your paint color custom mixed and if you need more paint mixed for touch-ups, you can purchase the exact color of paint again at a later time.
• You do not need to seal latex paint, and a satin or semi-gloss finish is easy to clean.

LATEX PAINT CONS:

• Spray painting requires a lot of extra tools. Renting or buying them is expensive, and even if you own them, it is tedious to set up and clean up.
• Latex paint requires all cabinets to be sanding and primed. If done right, you will prime, wet sand, then prime again, which is very labor intensive. Sanding also requires more materials, therefore more expenses.
• If spray painting, you will need a large area to lay out all of your cabinets and shelves, and will have to protect a large area around your workspace because of overspray.
• If you are painting over raw wood (especially oak), you may have some trouble covering the tannins which cause brown staining in your finish paint. Chalk paint can be done over already sealed wood, which takes care of this problem.
• Latex paint is not great at hiding wood grain. You will need to do extensive priming and wet sanding first to accomplish this.

CONS FOR BOTH LATEX AND CHALK PAINTS:

Time: Both painting methods are time intensive. I had thought chalk paint would be faster, because it had less steps. No wet sanding after priming and then priming again to tough up after wet sanding. But brushing on chalk paint was time intensive, and I could never get it quite even, like you can with spraying.

Spray painting latex paint was much faster, though it requires more coats, since you thin the paint before spraying, and spray it on lightly. Also, I think all the sanding I did for our last kitchen was much easier then it would’ve been this time, because those cabinet doors were flat, whereas these ones have routered raised panels that would have been tedious to sand.

Paint chipping: I’ve had experiences so far with both types of paint chipping off if you are rough with it, such as knicking it with a sharp metal object. I don’t think the lack of primer contributes to this happening, because I have experienced this with the latex painted cabinets as well.

Note: This post was updated in 2021— click here to see Mandi’s full kitchen reveal!

We’ve done a lot of kitchen cabinet projects on the blog, so be sure to check out how Laura refreshed her cabinets in one afternoon and Elsie’s tips for painting cabinets. Elsie swears by this method! xo, Mandi

P.S. Check out more cute home decor and kitchen items on our wishlist and shopping pages!

Material Sources:

Wall paint: Benjamin Moore’s Super White
Cabinet paint: Annie Sloan’s Pure White
Wall tile:The Home Depot
Tile grout: TEC Silverado
Pink sink: Thermocast
Faucet: Kraus from Overstock
Island butcher block: The Home Depot sealed with Waterlox
Flooring: Lumber Liquidators maple engineered wood
Knobs: wooden knobs
Stove: KitchenAid from The Home Depot
Dishwasher: KitchenAid from Home Depot
Coffee maker: KitchenAid (similar here)

Credits//Author and Photography: Mandi Johnson. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

These chicken verde enchiladas were another meal that was brought to us just after our son was born. My friend (and neighbor) Shailey made us these enchiladas and they were so comforting! I ate them for lunches the following few days as well until they were gone. Ha. I had to text her for the recipe so I could make them again, and now I’m sharing them with you too.

These chicken verde enchiladas are super easy to make, the base being a rotisserie chicken and your favorite jar of salsa verde. Being a Midwesterner, I will probably always love meals that are served from casserole dishes, ha. But I especially love these flavorful, cheesy enchiladas. I don’t know if most people think of enchiladas as comfort food but it totally is. Yum!

You can also customize these chicken verde enchiladas a number of ways. For one, I’ve started making them with corn tortillas while Shailey made her version with flour (both delicious!). There are also a couple different methods for cooking these, so I’ll share those in the notes of the recipe card below.

If you wanted to substitute the chicken for beans and sautéed bell peppers for a vegetarian version, you absolutely could.

And I am a fan of a big splash of hot sauce, as you can see. But you could also serve these with more salsa, guacamole, or add more crunch of chopped iceberg lettuce on top. There are lots of ways to customize these chicken verde enchiladas to your preference, or to use up whatever might be lingering in your refrigerator. Enjoy! -Emma

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Shailey's Chicken Verde Enchiladas

easy and delicious chicken verde enchiladas

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword enchiladas

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Servings 8 servings

Author Emma Chapman

Ingredients

• 1 rotisserie chicken 12 ounces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 red onion
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 16 ounces jar salsa verde or tomatillo salsa
• 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cups quesadilla cheese
• 4 ounces sour cream
• 10-12 corn tortillas
• 1/4 cup cotija cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Instructions

• Remove the meat from the rotisserie chicken. This should yield around 12 ounces of chicken, give or take. Shred into small pieces.
• In a large sauce pan, saute the onion and garlic over high heat for 2-3 minutes, until softened.
• Stir in the salsa and sour cream. Then reserve 1 cup of the mixture, set aside.
• To the pan, stir in the chicken, 1 cup cheddar, and 1 cup quesadilla cheese.
• Add 1/4 cup of the reserved sauce to the bottom of a casserole pan.
• Roll the filling into the tortillas, placing in the prepared pan. Top with the remaining sauce, 1/2 cup cheddar, and 1/2 cup quesadilla cheese.
• Bake at 400°F for 15-18 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling.
• Top with cilantro and cotija.

Notes

As I mentioned in the post, Shailey uses flour tortillas instead of corn. You can use either, both are delicious but have different final textures. 

Instead of baking you could also put the prepared dish under the broiler for a few minutes, especially if the filling was just made and is still warm. 

You can substitute mozzarella for quesadilla cheese, and feta for the cotija if you have a hard time finding either of those. 

If your tortillas tear as you fold the filling in, try warming them in the microwave for 30 seconds before adding the filling. But a few torn tortillas won't ruin the final dish. 

Serve this along with salsa, guacamole, sliced avocado, hot sauce, or really anything you'd top a taco with. 

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman.