A Beautiful Mess

Episode #65: Painting Exterior Brick

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 13:53:26 GMT

We recently painted two homes white in 2020, so we thought it would be a good time to do an episode all about painting exterior brick.

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.

Show notes:

-Link to Romabio Mineral Paint. The color we used is “Richmond White”

-We mention using the same color as John and Sherry—here’s their house post.

-Here’s a link to my q+a with Lance from Classic Finishes.

-Here’s a link to Simple Green, which you can use to scrub your exterior brick if it ever gets dirty.

-Perceived colors vs. compared colors. When you are choosing a paint color, it’s important to see it in the context and lighting you are using it in, not just against other paint colors. We explain how we used a soft beige with a tint of green to achieve what looks like “just white paint” to the naked eye.

–KitchenAid mixer.

–Mastering The Art Of French Cooking.

–Dyson vacuum.

–Vitamix blender.

-We talk about how painting exterior brick is different regionally. Do people do it where you live?

Here’s a before/after of our current home and previous two homes:

We loved this home. In addition to paint, we removed the storm door and replaced the lighting.

This is the home where we didn’t live very long (Covid pivot). The exterior paint was a huge upgrade, and we believe a reason the home sold so quickly.

This is our current home. I would post a more pulled back shot for you, but we have a lot of bad landscaping that needs to be updated and obstructs the views. Painting it made it immediately feel cleaner, brighter and more coherent. It’s a 1990s home that has some design flaws, especially the windows, and the white paint really helped to minimize those flaws. Eventually, we may decide to address the exterior further, but for now we are very happy with it!

Huge thanks to Leahlani for sponsoring this week’s episode! If you haven’t seen their holiday kits, you need to take a look— they’re amazing!

Thanks so much for supporting our podcast! We love talking to you all each week!

Episode 65 Transcript

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Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast this week, we’re talking all about painted exterior brick. I’ve learned so much from painting three houses in a row. And this last time we did things a little bit differently and I learned even more. I know the painting brick can be controversial, but we’re passionate about how much it can improve a home, like my nineteen nineties half brick, half stucco home. The difference is night and day. It’s magical. We’re also answering a listener question about wedding registry must-haves. This week’s episode sponsored by Leahlani. We’ll chat more about them later in the episode. All right, so let’s talk about painted brick. This is very controversial. Like, you know, the comments get heated. It’s like funny to me that it’s even controversial.

Emma: They do, people care a lot about painting brick and they care a lot about how you store and display your books.

Elsie: (laughs)

Emma: These are some controversial topics in our universe. OK, first off, how many times have you painted the exterior brick of a home?

Elsie: Not one, not two, but three times. All right. So first of all, about five years ago, we painted our first home when we moved to Nashville and we painted about a year after we moved in. And so we lived there for like four years with the brick painted — no wear and tear except for the front porch where we step down, where we walk on it. And it’s like also rains on and a little bit different. That we would touch up every year. But the rest of the brick, no wear and tear whatsoever. And also like painting a floor is very different from painting a wall. We all know that. This is obvious.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: And then our last home, so you know that we famously moved into a house and moved out four months later. So we painted that home.

Emma: It was a flip!

Elsie: Yeah, it was it was an unintentional flip. As soon as we realized that we needed and wanted to sell it quickly, I scheduled my local painter to come paint it. And he came the next week and painted it and he did a great job. It was very quick.

Emma: It looked awesome.

Elsie: It made it sell faster. But we’ll talk more about that later in the episode. Like, whether or not it adds value is definitely like a big question. And then our current home, where we just moved to, we had it painted a couple weeks ago and we used a new material that we’ve never used before, Romabio paint. And it is a lime-based paint. So it’s natural. It’s nontoxic. It’s not actually paint, but it’s like painting brick with brick is how they say it. So it can breathe. Like if you feel it, it still feels like brick. There’s no gloss to it all. There’s no sheen to it all. It’s perfectly matte. And it’s said to age really well over time. And we just thought it was cool that it was environmentally friendly and lasts a little bit longer. So…

Emma: Yeah, I also like that you’ve kind of tried a bunch of different options. So you can I mean, I just feel like that lends to your experience with painting Brick. So if people are interested, it’s like, oh well, should I use this type or this type or, you know, what’s the most affordable way to go about it or whatever it is.

Elsie: For sure.

Emma: So on that note, let’s get into some common things that people like to ask. Are your neighbors OK with it? You’re in a little bit of a cul de sac. So your neighbors are fairly close, not like right up against your house, but you can definitely see their houses from your house. And yours is the one white one. Everyone else has unpainted brick.

Elsie: So every where we’ve lived out of these three houses, it’s been mostly brick homes and our home kind of stood out once it was white. It was never the only like especially where we live now. There’s quite a few brick homes in the subdivision, but not right next to ours.

Emma: Right.

Elsie: So I think that it does stand out. But, yeah, one of our neighbors ran right over the next day after we did it and said to Jeremy that they had always nicknamed our house, the institutional looking house. And now it looks way better, which is so funny.

Emma: That’s a really nice, neighborly…

Elsie: It was a really nice thing to say. And we also like, yeah, we wanted to make sure that they liked it. So it felt good to know that, like they were cool with it. Our house is a little bit tucked back, so I didn’t feel like — it doesn’t really like show like you have to be right up next to it to it to see it. It’s not a house you would like just drive by when you were like out on a drive, let’s put it that way.

Emma: No, it’s kind of tucked away in the little cul de sac. But I also, just my own perspective. Even if I have a neighbor who paints their house exterior, something that maybe I wouldn’t have chosen, I always just love seeing when people are taking care of their homes. I feel like most neighbors feel that way. Of course, you want to check if you have an HOA and they have rules, or you have neighborhood rules and you’re not allowed to paint certain colors or whatever, of course, check into that. That’s very important because I think your neighbors might care on that one. But other than that I really think just like when you have neighbors who are taking care of their house, they mow their lawn and they take care of the landscaping, they don’t let things become, you know, kind of broken or in disrepair, even if they painted a color that isn’t my choice, which I love white, but if I didn’t, I would still feel like, well, at least they’re, you know, spending money on their home and upkeeping it and like that’s going to make the neighborhood a nice place overall, just that people care and are putting love and money into their property. So, that’s my two cents.

Elsie: I completely agree and I also think it’s a very regional thing like where we come from in Missouri, it’s not very common to paint a brick house. It’s like a little bit unusual. But here in the Nashville area, it’s very common and you kind of see it like on every block.

Emma: Yeah, it’s yeah.

Elsie: So it’s…and painting a house white is definitely the most common color to paint brick. So I don’t feel in that way, I feel like everyone’s like, oh that’s fine.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: OK, next common question, does it damage the brick.

Elsie: OK, so this is like a big part of the debate is that people will say that it’s damaging to brick and that it devalues your home. And I’ve talked to — so we’ve worked with three different professional painters in a row. I’ve talked to all of them about this at length and they just strongly disagree. So this is but definitely with this Robabio I feel like I’m saying it wrong. Romabio. I think that’s how you say it.

Emma: We’ll definitely link it in the shows.

Elsie: Definitely with this material, the lime based material, it’s a natural material. It’s a big part of the Earth’s makeup. (laughs) It’s sustainable. It breathes exactly the same as brick could breathe before. It’s not like blocking the breathability whatsoever. And it really shouldn’t peel off because it’s becoming a part — it’s like painting brick with brick. So, yeah, I definitely don’t think it’s a concern for devaluing your home or I mean, I’m sure that someone can find a home that was painted the wrong way, that where it’s peeling off and it looks bad.

Emma: Right.

Elsie: But that hasn’t been our experience at all. Mm hmm.

Emma: No, that makes sense. Can you tell us a little bit what the maintenance is like? Do you have to especially because you always choose white, so do you have to power wash it once a year, twice a year, every month? Like what are we talking here?

Elsie: So I will say after our last home, we did a lot of power washing on that home. But actually it was mostly on we did these like white flower beds along the front. And like, maybe I shouldn’t have done white, like, right against the dirt. That was the most thing we power washed. And that wasn’t even really the brick. So I think that the way you choose to landscape will either, like, hide dirt or make it show more. So choose a way that, you know, is generous…

Emma: It will hide…

Elsie: Right. And that’s definitely something I learned from our last house. Lance said that if you’re going to power wash this, maybe you just do it lightly. You, like he he was not like powerwash it constantly at all.

Emma: Right.

Elsie: And he said you can also use the product simple green, which I haven’t used that. But he said it’s like kind of a natural cleaner. And he said if there’s anything like really dirty, you can definitely use that and it’ll come right off. So good to know. Yes, but it has a 20 year warranty. It’s not supposed to chip or fade or peel. So…

Emma: So if it did in these twenty years, you can call what, the manufacturer or your painter?

Elsie: I mean, I guess like…

Emma: Twenty years is a long time.

Elsie: I mean, who really cares about getting free paint? I think it’s more of just an assurance to you that, like when you do this, that you’re not going to have to, like, redo it again in five years because a lot of people worry about, yeah, that’s not really happening. So even with, like, latex paint, that’s not happening.

Emma: So, OK, can you tell us a little bit why you always choose white? Have you ever considered another color?

Elsie: (gasps) Ok, so…

Emma: We know Nova said to paint the house pink, you need to give other colors a try.

Elsie: Nova, yeah, Nova has been like kind of trolling me lately. She’s been saying like you always pick what you always do, what you need to give the other colors a chance, which I think a lot of our listeners are like, (clapping) oh, Nova! I agree with you right now. Yeah, she told us we should paint the exterior pink and orange. That was her choice.

Emma: That would have been fun.

Elsie: Which we did let her pick the front door color, which is pink. So to be fair, she does get to pick some things. And we have been thinking about adding some kind of fun accent colors in the back part of the house, like around the pool area.

Emma: Yeah, like umbrellas and things like that…

Elsie: Umbrellas, canopies. Maybe there’s like a part where we have like a little balcony fence that’s black and we’ve been thinking or rail sorry, we’ve been thinking like, should we just paint that white so it’s just invisible or should we paint it like a like a light pink or like something a little more fun?

Emma: That could be fun. Little accent.

Elsie: So yeah. Anyway, I definitely always pick white because of the area we’re in. I think that it’s — I think it’s common sense for resale and for just being kind towards your neighbors and just being like a mature adult, not to paint your house like totally, totally different from, like, what the neighborhood calls for, you know, I mean, or like staying with the neighborhood vibe. So I’m doing it in my own Elsie way. But I’m also like being a part of the neighborhood, which I think is good. I think it’s like common sense.

Emma: Well actually you explained to me the how the color of your current house, it isn’t actually white. It’s actually kind of a beige color, like a little bit green, really.

Elsie: It’s true. I yeah. I’m going to talk about…

Emma: Oh am I skipping ahead? Sorry.

Elsie: It’s OK. So if I lived in Charleston I would 100 percent paint my house pink or New Orleans or you know, there’s other cities where that makes sense. And I love those cities. But Nashville is not one of those cities. There’s not even really historic homes that are painted zany here, like once in a blue moon, you’ll see one that’s painted like green or something. But yeah, like I felt like our color choices for our area are a little more traditional. And I think black houses look so cool, especially like the 80s, like jaggedy looking cabin houses. Those are very cool, painted black, but definitely not our house style. And also our house is like, it’s very large and 90s and kind of awkwardly shaped. So white was definitely the choice for that. But yeah, I’m not against the other paint colors. I think it’s so cute like if you live in a quirky, historic district and you can choose like a fun color for your house.

Emma: Yeah. Go for it.

Elsie: Send me a picture because that’s so inspiring and cool. Let’s stop right there and take a quick break for this week’s sponsor.

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Emma: Ok, what is the best time of year to paint? Because here in Nashville you have all four seasons. So I bet you partially painted so soon after moving in because you can’t be doing it right after Christmas because too cold.

Elsie: It’s true. So there’s basically — in our area with four seasons, there’s basically two times of year that are best to paint and it’s spring and fall because you want to be between, what is it, between 50 and 90 degrees. So not super cold, not super hot. Our first house, I think we actually painted it more in the summer and they had to come every day at like five am to get it cool enough. You know? And I think also just consideration for the painters, too, because it’s a lot of time being outdoors.

Emma: Right.

Elsie: But, yeah, I think moderate temperature, like if you live in L.A., you can probably do it year round. But for us, it’s like spring and fall is good.

Emma: Mm hmm.

Elsie: Yes.

Emma: OK, in your opinion, does painting the exterior of your home add value to your home? Would you say it ad would you say it’s neutral or would you say it takes away? I feel like those are basically the three options.

Elsie: Right. I think that part of it is the market. So in our market, it’s pretty easy to add value to a home by doing cosmetic upgrades. Like the neighborhoods can usually support that. And it depends on the comps in your area. So if you buy a house where there’s other houses in the neighborhood that are 30 percent more than yours, then probably yeah, you know? So for us, yes, I feel like on the last couple of houses that we sold, that the exterior was definitely a part of what made it appealing and what made it have so many showings and sell quickly. And also they sold above asking price. So I think that it did. But I think that that’s debatable. And a lot of people would be like, don’t say that, you know, painting your exterior is definitely not an investment that you can count on a dollar for dollar return. But I think, a strong maybe.

Emma: I will say as someone who’s been pretty addicted to Zillow for about two years now, usually the first picture is the exterior. And when it looks like somebody has done the exterior, I am a lot more likely to click on. The house and look, because I’m like, oh, they’ve probably done at least a little bit on the inside too, or this at least isn’t going to be a total dump where I need to turn on my imagination right away if I’m, you know, wanting to give it a peek.

Elsie: Yeah. I think that for 90s homes, it’s which in our area is like a huge majority of the houses are built in the 80s, 90s, early 2000s. They can become very cookie cutter. So I think it gives you a chance to personalize your home and kind of give it a look, you know, make it feel like it’s stuck in the 90s, which is cool.

Emma: I agree. OK, let’s talk a little bit about choosing a shade of white, because if people just hate white, then you are not going to get this. But if you like white interior or exterior paint, then, you know, there are a lot of different shades. It can slant a little bit pink. It can slant a little bit blue, green, and it makes a big difference. I also think with exterior, if you get a white that — it can be kind of blinding. So, and I feel like your house is the perfect white shade where you’re like this is white, but it’s not blinding like a primer would be or something.

Elsie: Yes, this is really interesting. I love talking about perceived colors versus true colors. It’s so important. So recently, like I showed on Instagram, some different shades of pink I was thinking about for our front door and on some of the shades like compared to a brighter pink, it looked very beige and people were kind of being meanies and being like, that’s not pink. But the thing is, it is! Because if you painted that on a front door and there’s white brick around it, the perceived colors are still pink. It doesn’t have to be like the most bubblegum-y shade. And I think that’s why when you go to the store and you pick the color you think you want and then you put it on your wall, sometimes it ends up not being, and then you have to go back and go back and go back.

Emma: That’s why you should do that test, because…

Elsie: Right.

Emma: …the lighting and the perceived look of it can be very different. Yes.

Elsie: So here’s how to do it for your exterior if you want white. So one of our covid hobbies, and we don’t have many is driving around driving the neighborhoods, looking at houses, looking at like how people landscaped, how people painted and updated, and especially like when we knew we were getting a 90s home. It’s fun to look at what other people have done to update their nineties homes, you know, and a lot of them are like the strong black and white, like a white house with black windows and black shutters. Like that’s a very big trend. So anyway, a lot of the whites can they have a bad vibe and it’s like a little bit blinding. And we learned and then there’s a point where it can also become too beige. In our old neighborhood, there was a beige house and it was just like it looked dingy all the time. But you could tell it wasn’t dirty. And it just is that they picked it a little they picked too much of a beige or like a light gray. It can kind of go a little bit like blue in a weird way. So what we picked, how we picked our color. So we picked Richmond White from Romabio, and it is the color that John and Sherry used from Young House Love. John and Sherry from Young House Love used it on their last home in Richmond, which is like where it gets the name, because I think after they did their house, they just like color matched. And then everyone was like, we want that exact color. So they had to look kind of like make it a real color to make it easier for people.

Emma: Oh, OK.

Elsie: Yeah. So I knew I wanted that color because Jeremy had been to that house in person because he shot a little video for their E course. And so he had seen it and I was like, did it look beige to you or did it look white? He said it looked white. It’s just white Elsie. And I was like, I know it’s not. So I had had that test. And then also our painter Lance was the same painter who did their home. And I was like, does it read as beige or does it read as white? Because I have the swatch in my hands and it looked pretty beige, but when it’s up on the house, it reads as true white. So I think that that’s super, super important. And then Lance pointed out to me that when you put the paint color next to like a like a white piece of notebook paper, like a like, you know, a white piece of printer paper like true true white, it actually looks like it’s like very light green. And he said, this is awesome because it like blends with like the trees and the grass. And it’s just like more of a natural, earthy color that isn’t so jarring.

Emma: Right.

Elsie: So I hope that helps someone. If you’re picking a white for your house, don’t just go with unstinted white, go with something like a little bit warm and a little bit earthy, but not like a full beige, is my opinion.

Emma: That makes sense.

Elsie: Oh, it’s so fun. It’s so exciting. I will put before and after pictures in the show notes too, to show you.

Emma: It looks beautiful. I saw it before it was painted and after and it it looks really, really beautiful so…don’t listen to the haters, they’re wrong. The house looks amazing, it looks way better than it did before, in my opinion, but that’s what I think.

Elsie: Thank you. I mean, whatever feels like home to you and it definitely feels like home to me.

Emma: And I feel like your Halloween decorations stood out more. Your Christmas decorations will stand out more like anything you put on the front porch on the front, like doors. I don’t know. I feel like that stuff matters because as you know, we love festive things. So…

Elsie: It’s true. Halloween porch is like one of my must haves, you know?

Emma: Ok, next up, we have a listener question. It is “I’m getting married soon and I’m working on my wedding registry. My question is, what is the best thing you registered for? And was there anything that you wish you had left off?” Great question. And also huge congrats.

Elsie: Yeah, congratulations. That’s exciting.

Emma: What an exciting season.

Elsie: Ok, so wedding registry, because I’ve been married almost ten years so I could really, like, think back on what things do I still have. And it’s not a lot honestly, you know, because things like break or wear out or like you move and you like go with a new theme or whatever.

Emma: Right.

Elsie: So the things that I feel like really stood the test of time. I know my mom got me a set of pots and pans and I still have that. Still great. And they’re not even like fancy. They’re like the how you say it? Like Giada.

Emma: Yeah. From Target. Her line at Target. Yeah.

Elsie: Yeah. And then. Oh my God. A kitchen aid mixer. You have to put a kitchen aid mixer

Emma: If you want one.

Elsie: My grandma got us ours. I didn’t even use it for like five years but now I use all the time because I learned to make cookies and I think it’s like, you know, it’s a classic and it’s something that you’ll probably always have.

Emma: Yeah. Yeah.

Elsie: I love KitchenAid.

Emma: Yes. And the only thing I would add, one thing I got from my mother in law when I got married, was Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which is a massive big cookbook. And I think if you like to cook, I think cookbooks are a great thing to ask for because they’re useful. But it’s also kind of sentimental. And I personally have a huge collection of cookbooks. I don’t really feel bad about having tons of cookbooks.

Elsie: Oh, my God, hell no.

Emma: Yeah. So I feel like it’s a thing that is practical and also sentimental because a lot of the gifts that you get at your wedding, you might you might want that element of it where you remember what your aunt got you. You know, it’s a very special season. So, yeah, cookbooks. There’s an idea. (laughs)

Elsie: OK, I want to add like two more. OK, you know what I wish I had registered for?

Emma: What?

Elsie: A Dyson because I still want like a really good Dyson vacuum or a fancy vacuum cleaner. And also my other most loved kitchen appliance besides the kitchen aid mixer is the Vita mix.

Emma: Oh, OK. I’m into…

Elsie: So maybe you can get lucky and get some of those.

Emma: I like a food processor and I’m into immersion blender because I am a soup person. Yes, but you could also do it in a vitamin X or any kind of a kitchen blender.

Elsie: That’s true. I make soup in my Vitamix.

Emma: Yeah, it really depends what you make and what you need. But yeah, those are a few things. And if all else fails, ask for a bunch of cookbooks. (laughs)

Elsie: Yeah.

Elsie: Congratulations! OK, thank you so much for listening. We are so grateful for the kind words and support this week. If you’ve got a question or a topic request or you just want to chat, you can e-mail us anytime at podcast@abeautifulmess.com. Have a great week!

Emma: Bye!

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Heirloom Advent Calendar DIY

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 20:00:52 GMT

I am so so so excited to share today’s post! Our mom had an advent calendar when we were little kids (with one candy per day) and it is such a sweet and special holiday memory for me. I knew I wanted to make an advent for Nova’s second first Christmas (last year we returned home from China the week before Christmas and she doesn’t remember it, so we call this her second first Christmas—kind of fun to get a redo!). Anyway! I knew I wanted to do something we could keep for a long time and use every year. So I was OK with spending a good amount of time and work on it.

I spent wayyyyyy too much time scrolling ideas on Pinterest (so fun!) and I kept feeling drawn to the stockings. So I did my own set with my favorite colors and lots of unfinished wood, which is a current design obsession for me.

Here’s a close up.

I had SO MUCH FUN working on this. It could totally be done in a weekend, but I spent about a week on it since I get distracted a LOT.

Let’s talk about the DIY steps. This is E-A-S-Y. There’s nothing in this that you can’t just see from the photos, but I will still explain all the steps just in case you’re curious about exactly how I did it.

1. First, cut out 24 stockings from felt. I mainly used felt I already had, so it’s a mix between high and low quality (and I’m a-OK with that!). I made a few paper templates for stocking shapes and used them to cut out all the stockings. I didn’t want mine to be exactly the same shapes and sizes, but you can do that if you want a more unified look.

Next, embellish each stocking on the top side with hand embroidery and/or by glueing things onto the stockings.

2. Machine stitch or hand-stitch each stocking. Next, add a loop to the top of each stocking with felt or yarn (something to hang them from).

3. Paint small wood stars white and drill or punch holes. Use a stamp set to add numbers one through 24.

4. Add the stars to the stockings with string.

5. Use wooden rods, yarn, and wood beads to make the hanging structure. You can see below that my stockings are permanently attached to the rods, but you can tie them on instead if you’d like to be able to remove them each day.

Bonus step: After I was done, I wanted to add a little more detail, so I hung a bunch of larger wooden stars on the rods.

6. Fill your stockings with candy, teeny little toys, and notes with fun activities like movies to watch, crafts to do or special places you will go each day.

MY HEART!!!!!!! I had so so much fun working on this and I am so excited for December 1 so Nova can start experiencing it!

I hope some of you will make this project this year and in years to come. I would LOVE to see your version of it in colors that you choose, so please tag us on Instagram @abeautifulmess.

I’m here if you have any questions! xx – Elsie

Credits//Author: Elsie Larson. Photography: Amber Ulmer. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

10 Things I Love Sunday

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 14:00:22 GMT

Happy Sunday, dolls! I’m definitely in holiday shopping mode, so I’m going to share some of the things I’ve been picking up for friends and fam and some things I’ve been picking up for myself, haha.

Major news!!! Etsy is having a site-wide sale through 12/2! That means the A Beautiful Mess collection is on sale, with just a few exceptions. I think this doormat would make such an amazing gift!

I absolutely ADORE my Billie razors. I gave them as a gift to my mom for Mother’s Day last year (my mom likes very practical gifts). She now is a Billie subscriber because she loved them so much. They have this adorable gift set for $35 and you get a razor and blades plus a full-size shaving cream and body lotion—made with clean ingredients!

Another great gift set from Bite Beauty—this one includes lip care products like my absolute favorite lip treatment, the agave lip mask. Perfect for winter.

I am 100% a robe person (I have three—one for winter, one for summer, one for spring/fall … I take robes very seriously, haha), and I’m so in love with this design.

THE SCRUNCHIE OF MY DREAMS.

One of my favorite pieces of holiday decor in our house is this wreath. Target has been bringing it back for three years now, so you know it’s good! I store mine in a dust bag and it keeps it in perfect condition.

A hair and skin “secret” that I will shout from the rooftops forever and always are silk pillowcases! Here is a really cute scrunchie & pillowcase set for $35.

My favorite sweatpants of all time. For real, the softest and so buttery. I feel like they should be more expensive because that’s how good they feel—luxurious. Just bought my second pair because I’m so in love and they just added more colors!

The dress I’m wearing is out of stock, but here is a similar floral maxi wrap dress.

Our favorite Christmas song this year! We play it all the time and I feel like it needs to become an alt/pop Christmas classic because it’s so good.

Stay safe! xo Keely

100 Ideas For Elf On The Shelf

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 20:00:29 GMT

The Elf on the Shelf is our MOST beloved holiday tradition for our 4-year-old daughter (it is our second year). However, recently it has come to my attention that a lot of people don’t like it or think it’s “too much work.”

Yes—it is a lot of work, but we’ve gotten so much joy out of it, so today I thought it would be fun (and hopefully helpful!) to share 100 ideas for The Elf on the Shelf. I hope it brings your family as much joy as it has ours!

1. Elf is sitting in Christmas tree.

2. Elf brings little note or gift (ours arrived this year with a book that Nova had been devastated to return to the library earlier this year—haha).

3. Elf is listening to music.

4. Elf is sitting on the breakfast table, eating Cheerios.

5. Elf is “hanging around” from door knobs or curtain rods.

6. Elf is sitting in a shoe.

7. Elf is sitting on piano (or whatever is specific to your home).

8. Elf is hiding in pantry.

9. Elf is in your child’s room when they wake up in the morning (this is VERY popular in our home).

10. Elf is reading Christmas books.

11. Elf is making paper snowflakes!

12. Elf is sitting inside of holiday wreath.

13. Elf is in coffee cup filled with marshmallows with a note: “Let’s make hot chocolate tonight.”

14. Elf has sugar out with a note: “Let’s make cookies!!!”

15. Elf has small wrapped gifts for each child (can be anything—even just a candy. Don’t overthink this.)

16. Elf has Christmas records out.

17. Elf is in sink like he’s taking a bath …

18. Elf is hiding in a plant.

19. Elf is roasting a marshmallow on a candle.

19. Elf is sitting in a stocking.

20. Elf is sitting in a cereal bowl.

21. Elf is making a snow angel (use flour or fake glitter snow)

22. Elf is riding a reindeer, unicorn, toy horse (we get a lot of mileage out of this one).

23. Elf is coloring in your kid’s coloring book.

24. Elf brings crafts you can make together.

For this next section … here are some ways your elf can be “naughty.”

25. Getting into the toothbrushes and toothpaste.

26. Getting into candy.

27. Eating cookies you just baked the night before (Elves are very hungry and they really like sugar).

28. Elf is hanging from chandelier, like above …

29. Elf is getting into coffee beans.

30. Elf is on toilet (bonus points for a drop of green food coloring in the toilet, OBVIOUSLY)

31. Elf has gotten into yarn and made a BIG MESS.

32. Elf is peeking through blinds.

33. Elf is “sledding” down stair rail.

34. Elf is building snowman out of marshmallows.

35. Elf is taped to wall (use washi tape, one piece for each arm and leg)

36. Elf has drawn mustaches on family photo.

37. Elf is getting into your child’s snack drawer or favorite snack.

38. Elf is in a bowl of popcorn.

39. There is a trail of mini marshmallows leading to where your elf is (obviously this may not work for you if you have pets)

40. Elf is “trapped” in upside down jar or water glass.

41. Elf is playing with your child’s favorite toy.

42. Elf is playing with playdough (can spell a word if you want, like HELLO).

43. Elf is in the fridge—add some ornaments or garland to make it funny.

44. Elf is riding a toy car.

45. Elf is sitting in your child’s coat pocket.

46. Elf is using the computer.

47. Elf has written on mirror with mama’s lipstick.

48. Elf has “spilled” candy all over the counter or table.

49. Elf has gotten into all the toys and made a mess.

50. Elves are VERY festive. Getting into the spirit with music just makes sense! If you have a record player, you can make them spin around … so cute!

51. Elf leaves notes with Post-it notes!

52. Elf is writing a letter to Santa.

53. If you make a gingerbread house, the Elf should be “moving in” soon.

54. Elf is in a basket of laundry.

55. Elf is getting into mama’s purse or diaper bag.

56. Elf is holding the camera (if you have an Instax camera you can have a photo already out of your elf, like they just took a selfie).

57. Elf is drinking maple syrup from a straw.

58. Elf has left a note on a marker board or chalkboard.

59. Elf is in a box of holiday donuts.

60. Elf is wrapped up in Christmas lights.

61. Elf is riding in paper airplane.

62. Elf is hiding in silverware drawer.

63. Elf has made snowman on bathroom mirror with shaving cream.

64. Elf is “walking” in pair of adult boots.

65. Elf is in little blanket—”brrrr, I’m cold!”

67. Elf is hanging upside down on fridge (use magnet clips on his feet).

68. Elf is tied in ribbon … wrapping gifts.

69. Elf is making snow angels with sprinkles.

70. Elf is making a big mess with bows and holiday wrapping.

71. Elf has been drawing pictures with your kiddo’s markers or crayons.

72. Elf is reading your child’s favorite book.

73. Elf has decorated a part of your home that isn’t usually decorated (like a dollhouse maybe, or your toaster …).

74. Elf has left a note with instructions for where a treat is hidden!

OK … I have reserved this last section for more elaborate ideas. If you want to be EXTRA … this part is for you! (for the record, we do almost nothing elaborate with our Elf and it’s still fun!)

75. Make a “swing” for your elf with a string and toilet paper roll.

76. Elf is floating with large bundle of balloons (I can’t WAIT to do this one!).

77. Elf has put clown noses (tiny red pom poms) on a family photo.

78. Elf is riding train set.

79. Take your elf to a photobooth and take photos of it to use one day (lol—this is very extra, but I want to do it!!).

80. Write messages on a plate in ketchup or mustard or sprinkles, etc. …

81. Craft roller skates for your elf made out of Cheerios ????

82. Make a hammock for your elf.

83. Elf is swinging upside down from a candy cane.

84. Elf has unrolled a roll of toilet paper all over your hall (or down the stairs); put elf inside the roll.

85. Elf is hanging in a paper chain.

86. Make a gum drop necklace for your elf and leave a bowl of gumdrops out.

87. If you have a dollhouse, use the furniture for your elf … rocking chair, toilet, bed, etc. …

89. Have the elf’s head sticking out of your kids pjs … this is a fun idea for gifting them holiday pjs too.

90. Print tiny photos of your child, so it looks like your elf is making a tiny scrapbook of them.

91. Stick your elf in a jar of jelly beans or M&Ms. Remember, even after the elf leaves the jar, the candy will be magic!

92. Put googly eyes on every item in your fridge and leave your elf in there!

93. If you finish ice cream or cookies (whatever) after your child goes to bed, leave the elf out by the pretending like they ate it all.

94. The elf is “sleeping” in the guest bed.

95. The elf is getting into the dog treats with a note: “Ew! Don’t leave these cookies for Santa!”

96. The elf has covered all the family photos with photos of himself.

97. The elf is making a holiday garland with Fruit Loops or popcorn.

98. Leave the elf in an empty box of candy canes with a note: “Can you find all 12 candy canes? I hid them all around your house!”

99. Leave the elf out with an empty cardboard box and a note to fill it with toys to donate.

100. Here are a bunch of printable ideas you can print and use as well! HAVE FUN.

Whew! There we are. 100 ideas. PLEASE pin this post so you can reference back to it for years to come!!

BONUS ROUND! Reasons why the Elf did not move: They were waiting for your child to do something extra nice (haha), they were being lazy, they “aren’t doing their job” … maybe they need a little talk. Remember, if the elf forgets to move, blame the elf! If your elf is extremely forgetful or lazy (lol), they can always apologize with a little candy or gift … and maybe a letter that says, “Don’t tell Santa!” ????

Woooo! I hope you are feeling motived! Happy holidays. xx- Elsie

Credits: Author: Elsie Larson. Photography: Amber Ulmer. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

Elsie + Emma’s Gift Guide 2020

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 14:00:25 GMT

Happy holidays, everyone!! Today, Emma and I are here to share our joint gift guide, including things we are giving, things that we love that would make excellent gifts, and things on each of our own wishlists!

Something on my personal wishlist this year …

Emma: I’m loving this necklace and this stackable ring set.

Elsie: I was thinking of getting robes for my husband and I since we are into our new hot tub life, but running inside through the cold afterwards is the most awkward part. Also, for my own stocking I always get some cookie cutters for my collection and this one caught my eye. How cute is he?

Something I am excited to give this year …

Emma: The Always Pan. I got myself one and love it—I know it’ll be a high quality gift.

Elsie: I got this pizza oven last summer and I’ve been dying to open it ever since. I think it will be so much fun!

A favorite kitchen item to gift …

Emma: Electric wine opener, that is actually pretty cute (many are so fugly, but goodness these are useful!)

Elsie: Olivia Pope wine glasses and popcorn. It’s a classic!

A favorite self-care gift …

Emma: Love a good spa night at home, and love this face mask collection!

Elsie: My favorite skincare line is Leahlani. I use Bless Balm every single day and the Mermaid Mask a few times a month. It all smells like Hawaii and it’s my favorite line to gift because it’s beautifully packaged.

A favorite gift to send in the mail …

Emma: Mail them chocolate croissants!

Elsie: Birthday cake truffles are my go-to gift to mail someone. They are SO delicious. I got them for a gift once and I never forgot about them … because you can’t!

A favorite kiddo gift …

Emma: Anything by Melissa and Doug.

Elsie: This barn set is too cute (got it for Marigold) and these diverse dolls from Hazel Village.

*Sources from the coffee photos above: Coffee Maker / Pink Pour Over Kettle (budget-friendly option here) / Wood Tray / Star Pour Over / Smile Mug / Pastel Stripe Mug / Speckled Pink Mug / Coastal Mug

Sending love! Emma + Elsie

5 Minute Clean Beauty Makeup Routine (Only 5 Products!)

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 20:00:25 GMT

We have gotten a lot of requests from minimalist makeup lovers on what clean products to use, and today I’m so excited to share this routine with you! You only need five products, and if you wanted to buy everything I used here, it’s under $100.

Exa Beauty High Fidelity Foundation — First up, I’m using this amazing *new* foundation! I absolutely LOVE it. it’s a medium coverage buildable foundation available in 43 shades (for reference, I’m using shade Joshua 520). It’s got a dewy-satin finish. As you can see from this photo, it does a pretty good job covering redness and uneven skin, but it’s less opaque once it’s blended out. I use about two pumps and a blender to smooth everything out. Once I’ve done my whole face, I take the blender and what foundation is left on it for my eyelids— it doubles as a primer for your shadow later! I recommend these beauty blenders from Black-owned biz Beauty Bakerie if you’re looking for some!

HAN Bronzer — After my foundation has dried, I use this bronzer from HAN. It comes in three shades and uses cocoa powder, so it smells lovely and it’s only $16. I have the Malibu shade that is matte that I prefer for contouring, but here, I am using Ibiza which has a subtle shimmer and is the lightest shade. To apply, I grab a fluffy brush, pick up some product and tap the excess off the brush. With a very light touch starting at my temples, bring it down over my cheekbone. Once most of the product is off the brush, I start using small circular motions (again with a very light hand) to blend it.

OK, buckle up, because we are about to MULTI-TASK with our bronzer!! You’re using one product for two applications here— your bronzer and your eyeshadow. Pick up some product on a fluffy shadow brush and again, tap off the excess. Use your brush to fill in your crease and blend really well! I have hooded lids, so I take this up past my crease so you can see it when my eyes are open, as pictured above. I find this bronzer to be super flattering as an eyeshadow with a minimal makeup look since it has just a hint of shimmer and is nice and neutral.

Pink House Organics Glow Stick — I love these glow sticks because they double as a dewy glow and a blush. I just take my finger and swirl it around the product for a sec, then use my fingers to blend it out from the apples of my cheeks up my cheekbone. So easy, but if definitely gives your face some dimension.

Honest Beauty Extreme Length Mascara — I LOVE this mascara because it has a primer on one side and mascara on the other. Also, it’s pretty easy to find in the US since it’s at Target! You just apply the white side first, then the regular mascara. Gives you a little extra lift!

Tower 28 Milky Lip Jelly — Last but not least, add a lip! These glosses are a great dupe for Oui Fresh glosses (rip). They don’t have the same vanilla flavor but they are very similar in texture and a few colors.

I hope this is helpful for those of you that want a little something for the day but don’t want to take more than 5 minutes! These products are tried and true, but if you have any questions, please leave them below!

xo Keely

Credits//Author: Keely Rust. Photography: Amber Kelly. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

Holiday Decor Wishlist

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 14:02:44 GMT

Oh, hi! It’s officially time to decorate for the holidays. I mean, I know a lot of you have already finished decorating. Don’t worry—this is a judgment-free zone and I’m actually kind of envious. Haha.

My favorite way to get in the holiday spirit (I need an extra push sometimes) is to listen to a Christmas record (this one by Kacey Musgraves is my favorite) or watch the movie White Christmas. I also started diffusing this essential oil, and I’m tellin’ you … it works! I’ve had a pink Christmas tree on my mind for a while, and I think I’m ready to make the switch from my white tree. I love this one from Wayfair. I usually add a mix of keepsake and novelty ornaments to my tree—this TV dinner ornament and egg ornament is so fun … I want them immediately! I posted a story our IG about these tissue paper Santas a couple weeks ago. They are one of my favorite vintage-inspired decorations. And, I’ve been wanting a little porcelain village set to put on my mantel—I can’t wait to snag this iridescent one.

I hope this colorful wishlist makes your day feel extra festive! xo, Jacki

The Ultimate Kiddo Gift Guide!

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 14:00:29 GMT

If you’ve been scouring the internet for the perfect holiday gift for kiddos in your life like I have lately, then you know there’s a lot of stuff out there and a lot of it is pretty darn cute. Since it can be a bit of a “cute overload,” I thought I’d share some of my favorite finds with you in an ultimate kids gift guide just in case there’s something perfect for under your tree this year …

1. Love a cute kitchen set! Lola started playing with hers at age one and at almost 4 we still play with it daily!

2. Adorable little car garage.

3. Fold out princess play set!

4. Who’s up for tea time?

5. My favorite pants for Lola—they have pockets too which she loves.

6. What fairy princess costume set would be complete without a star wand?

7. Every kid I know with a scooter like this is obsessed with them!

8. The ultimate craft library to bring your kid’s creations to life.

9. How adorable is this wooden play shaving set?

10. Cutie dolls in lots of skin tone options!

11. Lola loves the balance bike she has and this one is just too sweet with the basket on the front (here’s the budget-friendly option we have).

12. Here’s an easy DIY doll pattern to make your own doll for your little one!

13. Kid’s love to play with cash registers and they are a great accessory to play store or restaurant at home.

14. Say “cheese” with this wooden camera!

15. Jumbo floor puzzles are fun for just about everyone.

16. Easy holiday dress for hanging at home this year! And they are soft T-shirt material, so it’s a great everyday dress too.

17. Wooden trains have a special place in my heart and this set is so cute!

18. Fold-out street playmat for little wooden cars gives you a big place to play but folds up small for storage.

19. Peppermint-scented play dough? Don’t mind if I do …

20. I love this sweet little mouse and the little bed and accessories she has!

21. Book about fearless females? Yes, please!

22. I love a good doctor’s kit—hours of playtime making their stuffed animals (and other members of the household) feel better.

So many cute things to choose from! I also love these dolls and this wooden mini-golf set (similar here) may be the best kid’s toy I’ve ever seen in my life!! Hope you found something perfect for a little one in your life this holiday season! xo. Laura

P.S. Here’s a link to the wooden rainbow and similar pink ukulele in the first photo!

Stuffing Risotto

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 20:00:09 GMT

It’s been a little while since I proclaimed my love of risotto on this blog. I did spread the gospel of risotto on the podcast somewhat recently, but it’s overdue. This stuffing risotto is inspired by two things. First, I had all the necessary ingredients since I had other Thanksgiving-esque dishes I made this same week. Maybe you’re in the same boat?

And second, I was thinking about smaller gatherings that still felt special. Like, if you plan to give thanks this year with your significant other, or a much smaller gathering than you normally do. Risotto always feels special to me, and a risotto with stuffing flavors makes for a perfect small gathering side dish IMHO.

This stuffing risotto is very easy to make, as all risotto is. It does take a little time, as the liquid slowly cooks the rice and the whole dish becomes a creamy, delicious dream. You will need to open a bottle of wine for the recipe (below) but we’ll only use about 2/3 of a cup, so have someone to share the rest of the bottle with and sip and meditate on a few things you’re thankful for this year. This is not a requirement, but I suspect it does make the risotto taste better. ????

I will gladly eat risotto all on its own and often do, but it also makes a great companion for baked chicken, fish, or a vegetable side. This stuffing risotto would go especially well with turkey. You get it.

Take care of yourself, friends, and hug whoever you are able to be around. Sending virtual hugs to you from the Midwest. xo. Emma

Stuffing Risotto

Course Side Dish

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Author Emma Chapman

Ingredients

1 cup arborio rice
2/3 cup white wine pinot grigio or chardonnay
2-3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped shallot
2 tablespoons chopped celery 1-2 stalks
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
2 teaspoons thyme leaves, stems removed
2 teaspoons chopped sage
salt and pepper

Instructions

In a small pot, combine the wine and vegetable stock. Simmer (over very low heat). Having these elements warm will help them to cook into the rice faster.
In the large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion and celery just until they begin to soften (1 to 2 minutes). Toss in the rice and cook for another 2 minutes until it begins to look translucent. Now begin adding the wine/stock mixture, half a cup at a time, stirring until it’s mostly absorbed before adding more. Continue until the rice is cooked through. I usually taste a few grains of rice once I’ve used most of the wine/stock mixture. You may not need all of the liquid.
Season with salt and pepper. Then stir in the cheese and chopped herbs until well combined.

Notes

This will serve four as a side dish. If this is the main course, it will likely only serve two to three.

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Whipped Feta

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 13:58:13 GMT

This little side dish is inspired by a classic. I was trying to dream up a sweet potato side dish that felt a little more flavorful and balanced than the classic Midwest kind that gets topped with toasted marshmallows. I came up with this roasted sweet potato and whipped feta number, and I don’t want to toot my own horn. But …

TOOT TOOT.

Sorry, but this is suuuuuuper tasty.

The roasted sweet potatoes are crispy and a great blend of sweet (which they naturally are) paired with just a little chili powder for a savory compliment. And underneath is a creamy, tangy delicious bed of whipped feta. If you’ve never made whipped feta before, MAKE THIS. It’s truly out of this world.

This roasted sweet potato and whipped feta side dish comes together very easily; you just need to know how to chop up potatoes and press blend on a food processor. ????

You could also use the whipped feta recipe (below) all on its own as a dip for a vegetable platter, or cheese board with crackers. I first had whipped feta at Butcher and Bee years ago and they serve it as an appetizer with warm naan.

I especially love the presentation of this dish, as it almost reminds me of the reverse of the marshmallow topped sweet potato casserole since for this the sweet potato is on top with a fluffy white whipped feta underneath. Yes, it’s a little different, but this is a great side dish to add to any holiday meal or big dinner. Enjoy! xo. Emma

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Whipped Feta

Course Side Dish

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Author Emma Chapman

Ingredients

2 pounds sweet potatoes 3-4 medium sized
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt and pepper
8 ounces feta
1/2 cup greek yogurt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey + more to drizzle
2 tablespoon chopped green onions for garnish

Instructions

Scrub the potatoes to remove any dirt and cube. I leave the skins on, but you could peel them if you prefer. Toss in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle on the chili powder and some salt and pepper.
Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes. Flip/rotate the potatoes so all sides will get cooked. Bake another 15-20 minutes until the edges look very crispy.
In the meantime, in a food processor add the feta and Greek yogurt. Blend. Then drizzle in the olive oil and honey as the processor runs (if yours allows this; if not, you can add it in batches blending in between). Blend until super smooth.
Add the feta to a plate and drizzle with a little more honey. Add the potatoes, then top with green onions.

Notes

In place of the green onions you can use other herbs like cilantro or rosemary.

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

My Christmas Wishlist (For The Whole Family!)

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:30:06 GMT

How many shopping days are left until Christmas?? While I did start shopping a little earlier than usual this year, I’m definitely still completing my holiday wishlist for the whole family. I thought I’d share some of my most favorite items in case they turn out to be a favorite of yours as well! This year, I partnered with Bed Bath and Beyond to create a list of holiday goodies that are perfect for family shopping, as they have so many categories and items to choose from at all different price points—and they’ve made holiday shopping easy this year with options like in-store pickup and curbside service. It’s free and you can get your items brought out to your car within two hours or less!. Hurray for easy! Here are my top five picks for each member of our family …

1/ 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

I was so excited to find this portable essential oil diffuser, as it’s perfect for travel but also for keeping on my desk to plug into my computer while I work—it’s so tiny and cute! I’m totally the person who is always cold in winter, so I like to spend most of my time under a cozy blanket when off duty and this blanket is amazing! It’s like a fluffy cloud on your lap, I swear. I always love a good cheese board for entertaining (and it’s nice to have a mix of small and big ones) and the gold monogram letter is a nice personalized touch.

I’ve had the same white noise/alarm clock for over 10 years now and it’s also kind of giant on our nightstand, so I’ve been wanting something a little sleeker and smaller now that that technology has gotten better. I found this light therapy clock that has sounds as well, and it’s perfect! You can set it to wake up to certain lights and sounds which is great for a more “gentle” waking experience, so I’m excited to try out that option as well. And last but not least, I’ve been dying to get my own espresso machine for like a decade now and it’s finally happening!! I remember seeing an espresso maker just like this one at someone’s house and I loved that it ground the beans for you right on the spot so you always have super fresh coffee to use for your latte. I’m going to be making one heck of a lot of coffee on Christmas morning and I can’t wait!! Love this speckled mug as well …

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

I love shopping for kids—it’s so fun! The first thing on my list isn’t exactly a toy (since you wouldn’t want a kid to use it by themselves) but this mini waffle iron is so cute and it’s a great way to get kids interested in making weekend brunch with you when they get to help make tiny waffles that are just the perfect size for them! I love these little reusable sticker books—they are great for keeping kids busy in the car and the stickers can be used over and over again, which makes them last for a while. I also love this wall hanging from the Marmalade line to add to a bedroom or playroom—always yes to rainbows and tassels!

Lola just played with her first remote controlled car and she was SO into it! I found these bumper cars so two people can play, and when they bump into each other hard enough the drivers eject from their seats, which she will think is hilarious! Play food is huge around here as Lola is super into playing restaurant and cooking in her play kitchen. I love this felt pizza set and it has lots of layers and toppings so she can create them differently each time she makes one!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Todd has been obsessed with robot vacuums ever since he had one when they first came out like 12-15 years ago. He keeps saying at least twice a year that he wants another one, so maybe this is finally the year he gets his wish? We have a lot of great trees in our yard at our new house, so talks of hammocks have been flying and I think this one would be perfect. Todd’s always into a “multi tool” and he picked this one out since it can measure, saw, and hammer, so it’s great for an outdoorsy person who wants to be prepared. Todd loves a good slipper, but he’s always trying to wear his “indoor only” slippers outside—I figured these indoor/outdoor slippers would be great for him so he can get the mail or whatever he wants while still staying cozy. And speaking of cozy, Todd loves a good tub soak more than any other person I know, so I thought he should finally have a tub caddy where he can have a drink, read a book, or an iPad to watch a show while he relaxes in the tub. He’s basically a champion relaxer and we could all learn a thing or two from him on that front.

So there you have it! Our family holiday shopping wishlist is complete, so now I just need to get to wrapping and decorating to make our new home feel as cozy and warm as I can during the holiday season (I know we could all use some extra cheer this year for certain). Hope you’re feeling the holiday spirit as well! xo Laura

Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

Episode #64: (MINI) Our Holiday Traditions

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 20:00:52 GMT

Hi! It’s our holiday traditions episode!

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.

Show Notes:

-Who remembers puppy surprise? Here’s the TV commercial from 1991.

-Um, holy shit. You all have to watch this old Martha Stewart Kmart commercial. IT IS GOLD.

-Here’s a link to the David’s Tea advent that Emma loves.

-Here’s a link to Emma’s Oreo truffles.

-Here’s a link to the Christmas tree train that I customized.

Thanks so much to Grove Collaborative for sponsoring this episode!

Episode 63 Transcript

[read_more id=”1″ more=”Read More” less=”Read Less”]

Emma: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast, if you followed us for really any length of time then you know we go hard for holiday traditions and we absolutely will take any opportunity to get festive. Today, we’re sharing a few of our favorite traditions from our childhoods, as well as some that we’ve created on our own. The more traditions, the merrier, we say.

Elsie: Aw yeah, holiday traditions episode.

Emma: (singing) Holidays, celebrate!

Elsie: So most of you know that we are sisters and we grew up together. We are two and a half years apart. So most of our childhood…

Emma: Elsie’s older! (laughs)

Elsie: (laughs) Oh my God, Emma hate sit when people ask us which one is older.

Emma: I really do. I’m like, it’s obvious, isn’t it? (laughs) No…

Elsie: I know. I told Nova that someday people won’t be able to tell who’s the big sister and little sister. And she didn’t believe me.

Emma: Yeah, well, at the moment it’s pretty easy to tell with them. But when you get older, actually, it’s hard to tell. So…

Elsie: OK, so let’s take a time machine and talk about some of the most magical memories from our childhood.

Emma: Okay.

Elsie: One of my favorite memories of my childhood, I was just thinking about like because holiday gifts, it’s so magical. And our parents worked really hard and our Christmas mornings were like so epic. And now I feel like, how do I make my tree look like it has as many gifts as my parents made it look like? Like, you know what I mean, like…

Emma: We should get our mom’s tips and turn it into a blog post. (laughs)

Elsie: Good. Yeah, good point. Or maybe it looks like more since I was a little kid, but now when I set out all the gifts, I’m like, oh, I should have bought more. (laughs) Like it’s like. It’s like totally. Yeah. To make it like that big epic tree you have to buy a lot of stuff.

Emma: Maybe the key is having three kids. Maybe you need one more kid.

Elsie: I do need one more kid. Actually, we’re going to take a poll. How many people think I should have either one or two more kids because I’m having a month where I want that and next month I’ll be like, never mind. So…

Emma: Yeah, we’ll see.

Elsie: It goes around and around, too. Anyway, so one of my favorite memories is do you all remember Puppy Surprise? So Puppy Surprise is a toy from the nineties where you get this cute little stuffed doll and then there’s a Velcro on the doll’s stomach and there’s puppies inside of it, little bean bag puppies. And the surprise is how many puppies you get. And I got two puppies and Emma got five puppies. And…

Emma: And that is a lesson in karma.

Elsie: (laughs) And boy, was that disappointing.

Emma: I’m sure Mom was like, oh, no!

Elsie: I know! (laughing) Because you can’t see what’s in there!

Emma: No, it’s not like they bought you one that had less puppies. They wouldn’t have done that.

Elsie: I know.

Emma: It’s a surprise!

Elsie: And I was such a little turd, and so I always remember that. And it’s sort of like an illustration of our childhood because Emma was always like, she was like more adorable than me. She was like a blond little girl with blue eyes. And I was like a little…

Emma: I’m an enneagram 9. I don’t do anything. I’m just like “I’m happy with anything I get”, you know, like that kind of kid. So.

Elsie: Yes.

Emma: Yeah. That’s why the universe gave me five puppies.

Elsie: It was. And I was like, do you want to share some of those puppies with me? And she was like, yes.

Emma: I was like, I don’t remember. Probably I did because I was scared. (laughs)

Elsie: Yeah, it is a lesson in karma. And I think it also just like shows our like, future in a way of you being like gracious and me being a little bitch.

Emma: I don’t know about that, but thanks. I do love though, all the kids toys because toys are like the where it’s kind of like a surprise. I feel like this is a torture for the parents…but it’s so fun. Like kids get so excited to be like, see what what color they got or how many or whatever it is like, remember when you got Penny that hatchable? Was that’s what it’s called?

Elsie: The Hatchimals.

Emma: The Hatchimals, yeah.

Elsie: A couple of years ago that was the whole thing and Jeremy and I got one from Craigslist…

Emma: Parking lot.

Elsie: …the night before Christmas.

Emma: Black market kids. It’s like Dwight Schrute with those unicorn toys. (laughs)

Elsie: (gasp) Oh my gosh. Yes. Like Princess Unicorn, that was funny. That was a good episode.

Emma: Ok, so mine from childhood is one that Elsie participated in too. So we used to go to this church growing up where they put on a live nativity scene. And when you were like in the youth group, you could partic- or if you’re an adult, you could participate in the live nativity scene. So it was that like the fairgrounds…

Elsie: Yeah like paint the picture so they can see what it’s like.

Emma: It’s outside, so…and it’s December. So we’re from the Midwest, so it’s pretty cold. Usually it wasn’t snowy, but it’s very cold. Like you’re definitely wearing like boots with two pairs of socks and very warm clothes…

Elsie: Those little hot pocket things that you hold…

Emma: Hot hands. That are full of chemicals and then everyone just throws them away. But anyway, so yeah. So it’s very cold. But you’re with all your friends from Youth Group and it’s just a live, like over a big speaker system, they’re telling the story of Jesus being born. And everybody plays a different little part, like I was usually a traveler.

Elsie: Our dad like sat in the trailer where they sang the songs.

Emma: Yeah, he was in the choir and it was warm in there. But I couldn’t sing. So we’re like, you know, out and about. I feel like, did you get to be Mary one time and ride on the donkey? There’s like a real donkey.

Elsie: No, I didn’t. But like, the cool job to do was to be in the harem. So I was usually in the harem.

Emma: Oh yeah.

Elsie: I was quite cool.

Emma: Yeah, that is pretty cool. I was really a traveler. So you’re like going to the Inn and that’s why there’s not enough room at the inn. It’s because of you, the traveler. (laughs) So but anyway, honestly, my one of my favorite parts of it was fun to hang out friends and it was fun to like I don’t know, this was a very, like homemade live nativity thing that our church put on and I think it’s really sweet.

Elsie: It’s a big part of our childhood. And it was it was nostalgic.

Emma: But probably my favorite part, and this is why you can know that I’m a food blogger, is I in between, I think we would do two shows a night and people drive their car up and watch it kind of like a drive in movie, and in between you would go to the trailer that was by the choir trailer and get hot chocolate, which was just warmed up, scalding hot chocolate milk. It wasn’t even like a special recipe or anything.

Elsie: With marshmallows.

Emma: With marshmallows. But that was like, I don’t know, I just have, like, memories of this chocolate milk. And it was like the best chocolate milk because you’re so cold.

Elsie: It’s a hygge experience.

Emma: Yeah, it’s Christmas. And there’s all these, like, Christmas songs playing because you’re doing the live nativity thing. So anyway, it was a really fun thing to participate in. And I just love that it was like one guy at our church who— an older guy who had just come up with this idea and gotten everyone to do it. And he’d been doing it for years and years.

Elsie: He went hard for that idea and I think that’s very cool.

Emma: He really did. And he stored the stuff all year long. And it’s just really cool. And I find it very inspiring. Someday we want to do an episode on this podcast where we talk about basically our pros and cons list of growing up in this church and kind of talk through some different things of it. But this one is on my pros list.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: Because it is a really special Christmas memory.

Elsie: It was a lot of traumatic stuff, but this is definitely one of the highlights and the happy memories.

Emma: Yeah, for sure. And now we’ll take a break for a word from our sponsor.

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Elsie: Ok, so let’s chat about a couple of things that make our holiday feel warm and cozy as adults. So I feel like as soon as I became an adult, which was a while ago, (laughs).

Emma: Which was two years ago…no. (laughs)

Elsie: I like, it was back in the day. Do you or does anyone remember when Martha Stewart had her holiday collection for Kmart? That was like my first…

Emma: Yeah!!

Elsie: It was a big deal, if you were in the Midwest in like the early 2000s…

Emma: Does anyone remember Kmart? (laughs)

Elsie: So, yeah, that was like my whole aesthetic was like, wanna be Martha Stewart, which is kind of still is.

Emma: Of course. Yeah.

Elsie: And yeah. So I’ve always just like loved decorating and always like try to like save my pennies for Christmas decorations and like build them up year after year after year, which is really, really special. And yeah, our collection is pretty bananas now. I’m not going to lie and I just ordered two more trees, so I’m one of those people, but also making cookies, making cookies every year. Like a couple of years back, I learned royal icing sugar cookies, it was one of the best things I ever learned. If you want to teach yourself something that’s like a like, it’s kind of one part food, one part craft. And I feel like it’s the gift that keeps on giving, because now I have this, like, huge collection of cookie cutters and you can do it year round. They make great gifts just like so many good things about it. My kids like doing it, but I only let them do like it’s it’s an adult thing. And then I let them do a little bit just for fun.

Emma: It’s a little, yeah, advanced. But they can make some of their own, too that are….

Elsie: Yeah. I take my crafts too seriously so I have set in my mind, when this is like a craft with my kids and I like let it all be and like I don’t micromanage it when it’s my own craft for myself and I’m like, this is like my replica gingerbread house type of like situation. That’s like an alone time thing.

Emma: Yeah. It’s OK to have your own crafts, yeah.

Elsie: And then, yeah. The other thing I want to say is just like the glow of a Christmas tree, that is the best lighting of your life. It’s the most beautiful you’re ever going to look. It’s the most beautiful everyone’s ever going to look like. It’s just it’s magical and it feels good and there’s just nothing…I wish that there were other times of the year like ways for your house to be like that, but it’s just the magic…

Emma: People to leave their tree up like all year or for excessive amounts of time. I’m not one of those people, but I get it because I’m like, oh, the lights. When you turn the little Christmas lights on at night and you just walk past the tree, you know, I get it. I get it. Because, man, it’s magical. It feels like your house is in a Hallmark movie and it’s awesome. OK, so I’m going to mention three things that you know, feel cozy to me that I tend to do around December/Christmas time. One. I usually do a Harry Potter marathon. And for me, this is something I’ll do over the entire month. I don’t usually watch multiple movies back to back. Sometimes people watch them like all in one day on a Saturday. That’s a bit much for me…

Elsie: I don’t like that either.

Emma: Yeah, so much for me. Recently some friends of mine did a Harry Potter marathon like every Sunday night. So I went to a lot of those and it just finished up. And for the last one they actually made butter beer, which was really cute and it was really tasty. So anyway, that was really fun, so I feel like I did just watch them, but I’m still probably going to rewatch at least my favorites in December because it just feels— I know those aren’t Christmas movies, but they feel like Christmas movies because it takes place over an entire school year and there’s always Christmas in the movie. And they used to come out around December. So in my mind, they’re Christmas movies. Anyway. So that’s it.

Elsie: They’re definitely like cozy movies. Yeah.

Emma: Yeah. Anything English to me is very cozy. They get it over there. OK, speaking of that, the next one is, I like to do so…advent calendars are awesome and any advent you do, I am for. Anything that like leads up or adds to your enjoyment of the month, do it. I love to do a tea advent because I love tea as I’ve mentioned too many times (laughs), all of the time. I should be a tea spokesperson but so I like to do a tea advent. So it’s like a different tea every day. Davids Tea like has one that they make, a tea advent. So I bought that one last year. I’m thinking I have so much tea right now at my house that I’m just going to kind of do my own this year and put it in my own little Advent calendar that I made, which I think you’ll see on the blog pretty soon. So, yeah. And I also have Christmas mugs. If you saw my Halloween mugs, then you know that I’m into like seasonal mugs. I’m very into that. And I have a big collection of Christmas…santa.

Elsie: Yeah we’re waiting for the video. Yeah, the tour. The official tour.

Emma: Yeah, I will make one. And so I use my holiday mugs for my tea advent and it just feels very festive to me. So that and then the last one I’ll mention and I’ll link this in the show, notes that abeautifulmess.com/podcast…is every year I have to make Oreo truffles, which is essentially where you just blend up Oreo cookies with cream cheese and then dip it in chocolate and you make little balls, you decorate them with sprinkles…

Elsie: Oh damn.

Emma: And they’re so delicious and so easy to make. And it’s just really simple. You really don’t even need a recipe. I just told it to you. But they’re delicious and it’s just fun and there’s nothing about it that has to be Christmas. But it’s just something that I associate with Christmas time. So I like to make them every December and usually I do it for a party. But this year I don’t know if I’m going to have a party. So I guess I’m just going to eat a ton of Oreo truffles and watch Harry Potter by myself.

Elsie: You can make them for Christmas Eve.

Emma: Yeah, yeah. I’ll figure it out.

Elsie: I love a festive recipe. Tradition.

Emma: Yes, me too. Is there anything new that you’re trying this year?

Elsie: (singing) Bum bum bum! OK, so I am so excited. So I mentioned I got a couple of new trees because we moved to a new house.

Emma: Didn’t one of your friends, they were like making fun of when people have a lot of Christmas trees?

Elsie: All right. This is actually a cute story. So our friends, Adam and Zach…

Emma: Who are awesome.

Elsie: Let’s just call them anonymous names, Adam and Zach. (laughs)

Emma: Oh, yeah, that’s not their real names. (laughs).

Elsie: They said that— they’re they have a cute small town. It’s a suburb of Nashville, kind of. And they had like a Christmas tour, like a you know what I mean? What am I saying.

Emma: Like you go to different houses and you…

Elsie: Yeah it’s like a tour you can sign up for and people can like come to the different houses and see the decorations. It’s a historic home tour. OK, yeah.

Emma: So they were thinking of signing up for it and then they saw that one of the qualifiers was you have to have at least four Christmas trees in your home, and they were like making fun of that to me and then…

Elsie: Like it was excessive, and then they came to my house and it’s like, haha. And this year it’s probably going to be like more than 10. Like, I love Christmas trees. And I mean, I do collect them. It’s a big part of my garage.

Emma: Mm hmm.

Elsie: It’s like, yeah, too many. But anyway, this year, my new addition besides like a couple of new pink trees, which I will link, they are so freaking cute and I’m just like is I’m going to do a Christmas tree train. I’ve just been wanting to do this my whole life, just like the main. OK, so when you first walk into our house, you know how you see the piano.

Emma: Yes.

Elsie: Right ahead of you. So right by that I’m going to put a tree with the train around the tree where it’s just like going in the circle around the tree. And I think it’ll be so magical.

Emma: So is it just a regular like kids train track, but you’re going to somehow make it Christmassy or what?

Elsie: Yes, I’ve seen people do it with IKEA trains. I don’t know if I have time for that shipping anymore. We don’t have an IKEA.

Emma: Their shipping is crazy.

Elsie: Yeah, it takes a while. It’s like a month minimum for us. They like do it once a month delivery. So anyway, I think I’ll probably just order one and then yeah. I’ll probably paint it or modify it a little bit, maybe spray paint it. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll be able to find one like if it’s like light natural wood, that would probably be like my top choice. So I’ll link whatever we find.

Emma: I didn’t know if you’re going to try to make it look like a train from, like the Polar Express or like, I don’t know, something along those lines. So you want it to be like more, light wood.

Elsie: Blends in with our decor. That’s what I was thinking. Yeah. It’s not from the Polar Express, but I do really I would love to do, you know how they do the Polar Express experience for kids? I would love to do that in the future, probably not this year because.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: Just not gonna.

Emma: Not this year.

Elsie: Do you have a new tradition you’re going to try?

Emma: I really don’t. So as people might know, I’m living at the holiday house, which is Elsie’s kind of second home in Springfield. It’s kind of an AirBnB, but not anymore because I live there.

Elsie: It’s your home now.

Emma: It’s my home now and my holiday house. And it has three Christmas trees that I bought last year. So I’m putting those up with all the decor from last year. But I’ll probably add a little bit more just because I love to walk around the house like after work in the evenings, like when I’m making dinner or just hanging out and just see all the lights, and just see all things. It just feels nice.

Elsie: The glow.

Emma: The glow, the glow. But yeah, I don’t really I usually have some kind of party, but I don’t think I’m going to do that this year. I do have a lot of like friends who live in the neighborhood. So I might see people one on one like I have been here and there.

Elsie: Okay, homework time, Emma find yourself one little Christmas dream. One little Christmas gift you can give yourself that makes your house feel cozy.

Emma: I just make oreo truffles like five times instead of one day.

Elsie: That would work.

Emma: I don’t know. It’ll be different this year, but I am excited. There’s a pink tree and I’m excited to put that one up like before Thanksgiving. I don’t even care. I’m just putting it up.

Elsie: So, OK, Thanksgiving is like three weeks away from Christmas. Of course I’m going to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is at the wrong time. When I run for president, we will be changing the date of Thanksgiving.

Emma: Number one important thing!

Elsie: That’s my number one important number one issue, one hundred day plan change Thanksgiving. It should be like November 1st or it should be even before Halloween, whatever.

Emma: That’s what the Canadians do, right?

Elsie: Yes. Yeah.

Emma: They understand. That makes more sense. Really, Yeah. (laughs)

Elsie: Ok, thanks so much for listening this week. Don’t forget to check out our show note at abeautifulmess.com/podcast. We add links and resources there every single week. Every single thing we mention is linked. Also we started offering transcripts, so every single episode in our archives has a transcript now that can be read. OK, talk to you guys next week.

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Episode #63: Listener AMA Biz + Money

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:43:30 GMT

Hi there! When we do any kind of Q+A we always get a LOT of business and money questions, so today we are devoting a whole episode to these topics! In true Emma and Elsie fashion, we couldn’t stop dishing advice so the episode turned out pretty long! We hope you enjoy it!

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.

Show notes:

-Books we recommend:
–I Will Teach You To Be Rich
–The Simple Path To Wealth
–Work Optional

–Here’s a link to Emma’s new blogging course, which is pretty much exclusive to podcast guests since it hasn’t officially launched yet! Use code ‘earlybird’ for 50% off!

-And if you’re interested, here’s a link to Emma’s 5 day blog challenge (it’s totally free!)

-Link to more blog advice posts: Business advice for our younger selves, 5 ways to treat your blog more like a business, How I still love blogging after 12 years, Our top 12 posts about blogging, Our app story.

Thanks so much to this episode’s sponsors Calm and Issuu! We’re so excited to partner and share more about these awesome companies with you. Our sponsors help support our podcast, so be sure to check them and their great offers for our listeners out!

Episode 63 Transcript

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Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast. This week, we’re doing a listener AMA on the topics of business and money. We’re going to rapid fire about 20 questions. We love sharing business secrets and we truly believe it’s one of the ways we can contribute is to be generous and open with our business advice. If you didn’t already know, we own two successful companies, blah, blah, blah. Not to brag (laughs) that we built from scratch. And guess what? It’s not all roses, but we truly believe that anyone can have the same success as us on your own paths. All right. So we have around 20 questions and we’re just going to, like, blow through these questions and give you all kinds of advice. We zig we zag, right, Emma? (laughs)

Emma: Yeah. And we’re going to try not to do too many disclaimers. And also, it is kind of weird to talk about business and money. I always start to get a little, uh, just feeling like I have a big head or like I’m bragging or like I’m making someone else feel weird by talking about my own opinion or my own, I don’t know, success?

Elsie: And to be fair, you might be right. That’s like always in the back of our minds. But let’s just consider this a safe space where we’re just talking with friends really openly….

Emma: Right. Well, where I was going with it was a little bit that I do think maybe I have fallen into — maybe no one else does this — but maybe I have fallen into the trap of, you know, it’s not good to talk about business or money, especially if you’re a woman. And I just hope that us trying our best to be open about what we know, which isn’t like, you know, we know some things, but by no means do we know everything. So you’ll see. But I hope that it encourages more women and also anybody to be bold in the things you want in life and to be proud of what you’ve built and what you’ve done. You know, because sometimes I want to minimize my own achievements. And I think that that’s a bad way to go about life. But it’s something I struggle with. So maybe people do, too. I don’t know.

Elsie: I think so. I definitely think it’s an awkward place to be in as a woman. And so let’s just do it.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: Yeah, we can do it. OK, so we collected questions from Instagram and we’ll just kind of like go back and forth, read the questions?

Emma: Yeah, let’s try it. All right, cool. So the first one is “I want a financial adviser, but I can’t afford it. Any books on investing or stocks?” So we have you on this one. So one of the books I just read said, like, the greatest little line that I really, like, hung on to. It was “by the time you know enough to pick a good financial adviser, you know, enough that you don’t need one.” And pretty much the three books have all kind of said the same thing, that you need to learn these basic things. You can learn them from these three books. You’ll be like a little mini expert by the time you finish these three books and you can totally do it. You don’t need, like, someone with a tie to explain it to you.

Emma: No. Tie optional.

Elsie: Tie optional. OK, so the books are I Will Teach You To Be Rich, The Simple PPath to Wealth and Work Optional, and we will link them all in the show notes. I’ve read them all within the last year and they’re all worth it. And they all give similar advice with different emphasis.

Emma: These three books are awesome, but also there’s lots of books you can check out. And I think that is the number one way to kind of get past feeling intimidated about certain things in your life, which it could be your financial life. It could be owning a business, it could be maybe marriage, it could be maybe parenting. If there’s any area of your life where you’re wanting to grow or you’re wanting to learn more, go to the library if yours is open and get a book or get on whatever bookstore you like to shop on online, Amazon, whatever else, and buy a book. I think that’s a really good way to start to learn the lingo and just educate yourself. I’ve been reading financial books since like late high school, early college. Started with Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman. And I think it’s a lifelong learning thing that you have to kind of get into because nobody’s born knowing about 401K plans so…(laughs)

Elsie: Absolutely! It’s a fun hobby, learning all this stuff.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: I’ve really enjoyed it.

Emma: Mmhmm. Be curious.

Elsie: Yes, love it. Next question?

Emma: How has covid-19 affected your business.

Elsie: Oh man. So, for A Beautiful Mess we actually already all worked from home except for one person who now works from home.

Emma: Yeah. (laughs)

Elsie: And for our app company everyone formerly worked in an office, so I think it was a lot hard…

Emma: …on the business side.

Elsie: Yes, I think it was a lot harder of a transition for the people who were working in an office. For us, it’s been pretty seamless because we already kind of had a flow. A lot of us already had our workspaces, you know, set up and ready to go, and we’ve been fortunate, like we haven’t had to do any layoffs, and we have I mean, we’ve worked really hard also to protect our employees, fortunately we weren’t, you know, restaurant owners or some of the people who really had to go through pure hell this year.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: So, yeah, it’s definitely been like a struggle time, but we’ve kind of just adapted and shifted and tried to keep doing what’s still working and not worry about what’s not working right now. Just kind of like sidestep it.

Emma: Yeah, just get through it. But then I think we’ve mentioned this on other episodes, but our short term rental businesses…

Elsie: Oh yeah…

Emma: Which we kind of just started that in 2018, 2019. So really kind of the worst time that you could have started it. If, you know, if we had had a crystal ball, boy that would have been useful.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: But yeah. So Elsie already sold her Florida house her BnB that she had in Florida.

Elsie: I did. So sad. But it really was the right choice for me.

Emma: Mm hmm. And we’re kind of looking into that with some of our other properties, too. I never like to announce that until something’s like finalized just because I, I’m I’m a little superstitious. I’m a little ‘stitious. (laughs)

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: But yeah, I think that area of our business has been, you know, not as good and kind of a drag. And, you know, we were so excited about it and we started it at a really tough time. Hindsight. Yeah, that’s how things go.

Elsie: Anything that’s like a travel industry affected business is really hurting this year. And yeah, AirBnB is definitely not great.

Emma: Maybe some areas, but ours haven’t done as well because our Florida ones are…really the big draw is all the parks, and that’s really — they were closed a huge part of the year. I’m not even sure they’re open now. I think they might be but there’s restrictions.

Elsie: They’re open.

Emma: So, you know, but a lot of people still don’t even want to go, which I understand for sure. So it’s just a strange, you know, situation on that front.

Elsie: Yeah, it’s stuff it has affected us. Yeah. But luckily our online businesses are online already, so that’s been good.

Emma: But we are fairly…we really believe in diversifying. That’s like a big thing in all areas of our businesses. We don’t like to rely on just one income stream. And this is exactly the reason why, because you never know when something strange is going to happen, like covid-19 or other things.

Elsie: No one could have known.

Emma: No, no one. No one knew, no one could have known. So, you know, trying to have different ways to make income for us is like a safety net. And I think this year, some of that has kind of saved us, which has been really lucky, and also something that we did work on. But I also want to recognize that it’s hard work and luck and we’re really grateful, you know, for what we have because this year sucks, so.

Elsie: Oh, does it ever. OK, “Would love tips when first starting out low income personal finance stuff.” So I love this question because we started out super low income.

Emma: Slash NO income. (laughs)

Elsie: Like I know for sure we were in the poverty line at certain points.

Emma: Yep.

Elsie: In our twenties and then you know, we’ve grown now to be successful. So, OK, we can each give a tip. How’s that sound?

Emma: OK, yeah.

Elsie: OK. My tip is when you, when you’re low income and you like you are struggling just to pay your next bill, like it’s obvious to you what’s essential and what’s not. But as you grow through the years, especially if something happens where your financial situation changes really quickly, it can be like kind of confusing what to spend money on and what not to. So my tip is, if you’ve grown up without much money, you haven’t learned the skills of how to spend. So spend some time thinking about what’s really important to you. And like, that’s what I wish I would have done more in my late 20s is like spend more time thinking about like what are my priorities and what are my goals? Because I think that I…it took me some time to realize what that was.

Emma: Yeah. Yeah. And I think I guess the tip I would give when you’re first kind of starting out or feeling like you’re at that starting place, wherever that is in your life. First I would get rid of any debt as much as you can, especially anything that has a high-interest rate or that feels like it’s suffocating you and anyone who’s been in that type of debt, I think you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Elsie: Definitely.

Emma: Where it’s just climbing and climbing and you can’t, you know, get past it. So, and make that a big goal in your life. And I feel like sometimes that doesn’t feel very exciting. Like people are like I want to build a business, but it’s like make that in your own heart, in your own mind. An exciting goal to get that debt out of your life because you’re going to feel so much better and your mindset is going to change. After that. I would then work on what I would consider basics and a safety net, so this is having an emergency fund, so if you get laid off or if you don’t have income for six months, you’re going to be able to pay all your basic bills, rent, mortgage, if you have one, being able to buy groceries, so on and so forth, having health insurance. If you’re outside of the U.S., this isn’t going to apply to you. But, you know, in the US, we’re kind of in charge of our own health insurance. And if you become really ill, that can cause major debt in your life. And you also don’t want to be going through that when you’re also very ill. So, you know, getting that in place and then, you know, building up kind of the basics is really…I just feel like some of that stuff is not very sexy. It’s not very exciting.

Elsie: None of that is sexy.

Emma: But you got to make it sexy for yourself, because when you’re starting out, those are the things that are really you’re going to fall back on whenever you start to do the sexy stuff that’s a little more higher risk. Like if you want to start a business or if you want to take on some debt because you’re going to flip a house or, you know, whatever is going to happen in your life, that stuff’s cool. I love stuff with some risk, but you’ve got to have the basics and the safety net all in place first.

Elsie: Beautiful advice, Emma.

Emma: Get a safety net if you want to be a trapeze artist. Step one. (laughs)

Elsie: (laughs)

Emma: Yeah, OK, this person asks, how are you saving for retirement?

Elsie: OK, so we have our own case through our business. If you are an employee and you have a 401k plan at your business and you haven’t signed up yet, do it right away.

Emma: Especially if there’s a match.

Elsie: Yes, if there’s a match, it’s like free money. So cool.

Emma: It’s an immediate raise. You just don’t get to use the money today. So, yeah.

Elsie: And it really adds up over time so you can make your own 401K or a lot of people’s employers provide one. So that’s a great…

Emma: And there’s actually a couple options. It can be a 401k. You can also do an IRA or a Roth IRA. If you don’t know the difference, Google it or speak to a financial advisor. I feel like I have to reteach myself this over and over again because it’s one of those things that basically has to do with when you’re going to pay the taxes on this money, you know, so it’s it lets your money grow tax-free or you pay it now or you pay it later. And it’s really, in my opinion, as long as you’re saving for retirement, and especially if your employer offers some kind of match, any of these options are good. So doing something is better than nothing. But yeah, Google it and pick one. OK, sorry I interrupted you.

Elsie: Totally.

Emma: So 401K the company has it.

Elsie: Each month you know, a little bit of our paychecks go into this and it started off pretty small. And we get statements, you know, like I don’t know, every six months or so and it’s like amazing. Like every year, a couple of years it grows like quite a bit like it’ll double and stuff like that. I highly recommend that as a start for your retirement.

Emma: Yep. And after that you can do more investments, like if you have goals where you want to retire early. That’s part of The Simple Path to Wealth and really other books. But as Elsie mentioned that book earlier, it’s very much about like building up basically your stocks account so that you could live off of it and kind of retire early if you want. Some people are interested in that. Some people like if you own your own business like we do, I don’t know if we’re going to retire early, slash retire ever unless we were forced to do it for health reasons. But I do think we might kind of ebb and flow on our income and it will give us the freedom to be like, hey, we’re kind of doing this more for fun now because our income’s kind of taken care of.

Elsie: Having the option…

Emma: Like in our sixties.

Elsie: …to take off for a couple of years or even just. Yeah, like take a long vacation. Like, that’s something I dream of doing with my daughters when they’re little older. Having options is always good. Yes. OK, let’s take a quick sponsor break before we keep answering questions.

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Best tips for making blogging my full-time income. All right. So first of all, we will put a link in the show notes. But Emma has a brand new E-course about blogging it’s very thorough. It’s a great thing to dive into if you’re interested in learning a lot really quickly.

Emma: Yes, I have been putting my heart and soul into this course, and I really wanted it to be packed with a ton of information, but no fluff because I feel like this year nobody has time for that. So it’s like, this is just going to help you go from zero to 60. It’s all the best advice that I have from our decades of blogging. And I still really believe blogging is a great way to make side-income or full-time income. So, yeah, I feel like this is turning into a commercial, but I can’t really give all the advice in like one minute, you know, podcast Q&A. So I didn’t really want to put it out there like we have this course.

Elsie: So I’ll just say one little thing, first of all. OK, so the one tip that I give my friends when they ask me if it’s worth it to start a blog now or not is it’s not worth it unless you’re willing to do it every day, every couple of days for the next year. Are you willing to do that or not? Yes or no? And be honest, if you’re like I, I’m hoping to blog for a month and then start making an income, don’t even start like it’s not for you if that’s your attitude. Like, so that’s like my like, cutthroat really honest advice.

Emma: I mean, it’s a business, it’s a small business.

Elsie: It’s a business. And you do have to put in the work upfront. You don’t have to put in a lot of money up front. You can build your own website. You can do a lot of things for free, but it’s a lot of work. And the the people that we know who have had a lot of success in blogging, they work on a plan, they work on a schedule and they stay focused on that. It’s not like what you feel like. You wake up that day and you blog about you feel like blogging that day, like, you know, it’s not 2007 anymore. (laughs) It’s, people work on an editorial schedule and it really doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. But the planning is essential.

Emma: Yes. Yeah. And I talk about that a little bit. There is a free, completely free five day challenge where I give tips every single day.

Elsie: Let’s put the link to that in the show.

Emma: It’s an email. You sign up, it’s a newsletter or email or whatever. And one of them is about bach working. So it’s a great way to and this applies to a lot of areas, not just blogging, but it gives you ideas for how to better batch work so that you can get a lot done quickly, because a lot of people are either trying to build this as a side thing or maybe their kids are home this year. So they have limited work hours, you know, so on and so forth. So knowing how to batch work like a pro is really beneficial, I think, for anyone. So five days of free tips — you can sign up for that, too, if you’re like not in the course, but just give me the free tips. We got it! Going into real estate. What advice do you have? Oh, that’s really general. OK.

Elsie: I know like I don’t know what people mean when they say, like, I’m going into real estate, but if it means I’m going to buy my first second home or second property, that’s what I’m going to assume it means.

Emma: OK, so you think they either already own their home or they’re not interested in owning a personal home?

Elsie: I would think so.

Emma: And this is just investment. OK, yeah, I think that makes sense.

Elsie: I would think so. So I actually think Emma will have better advice. So I’m just going to give my little quickie based on like I’ve bought a couple AirBnB properties and that’s my whole experience. But I would just say do the math, make sure you factor in all the cost, especially if you’re going to do an AirBnB it’s going to cost like for us, it’s usually about twenty thousand dollars or so to furnish each project. That’s a lot of money, you know, that you have to pay up front. It’s…and even like if you anyway, maybe there’s a way to do it cheaper. But a lot of times there’s not, especially if you want to go quickly, I think that just factor in all the cost and make sure that it’s really, truly an investment. I think that real estate, like at least how I got into it, I was like, this is fun for me. I’m interested in it. But in the end, I’ve ended up selling a couple of my properties and just investing in boring, unsexy things because I realize, like I’m a mom and it’s actually like taking up a lot of time and not making that much money. So I, I won’t say I’m not going to lie to you. It’s not that glamorous. It’s not that profitable unless you, you know, have good money. And then sometimes it’s like the things I’ve heard about that make people like this crazy money, it’s like buying like strip malls and stuff. It’s like really unsexy.

Emma: Hmmm…strip malls.

Elsie: It’s not like fun, cute little BnBs.

Emma: It’s like offices or like little shops. Like a strip mall or…

Elsie: I guess what I’m trying to say is that I feel like we made it look so cool to, like, buy houses and make AirBnBs and now I’m afraid that, like, we gave people the wrong advice because of covid and because actually, well, out of all the things we’ve done in life for money, it’s not at the top of what’s done well for us.

Emma: Yeah, and other than short term rentals, which you guys all know about, my first home that I ever bought when I was twenty five or twenty six, it’s a three bedroom, two bathroom I’ve talked about in previous episodes. We kept owning it and we’ve had it as a long term rental for I guess like five years now, something like that ever since we moved to our other home. So I have that experience too. And I think long term rentals can be a good investment for some people. It really depends on your market. It really depends like how much you’re willing to invest and how the money shakes out basically in the market you’re in, or if you’re choosing to buy in a different market, like if you’re using like roof stock or something like that or just you have access to buying properties and markets you don’t live in. So, yeah, I mean, I don’t it’s not one of those things I really feel confident recommending just generally because I feel like I just don’t know, like where you live and where you’re at in life. But for me, that made sense at the time and it’s been a good investment and our house is being paid off over time. We definitely do have to check in on it. We have a management company and we definitely do you know, you have like costs, like if things break or we have a renter and their dog breaks the fence and you have to repair it, of course, because you don’t want their dog to get out all the time, you know, so you have like things you have to keep up with.

Elsie: Just owning houses generally has hidden costs.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: Like on our Florida houses like, how many times do we have to replace the pool pumps and things like that, you know? And we only owned it for a year. (laughs)

Emma: And I’m like, I don’t even really know anything about pools because I’m from Missour and I don’t have one (laughs) so I don’t know.

Elsie: Yeah. So our advice is, be very careful with that one.

Emma: Do it if you want, but it probably takes more time than you think.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: And yeah. And that’s fine if you’re into it. But if you’re like, oh I really just want something completely simple and like well maybe do stocks then because it’s a little more hands off. But yeah. OK, do you and Elsie pay yourselves a salary. And how did you decide how much?

Elsie: Actually our accountant decided for us.

Emma: Yes he did.

Elsie: So, we have an accountant we love and trust. He’s been with us since we were broke ass, you know, little children basically. And he was he started off as a small business accountant when he was also much younger. And…(laughs)

Emma: We’ve known him a long time. Jason!

Elsie: Yeah. Now that we’ve grown together through the years. Yeah, he’s someone we trust. And so the way we do it in our business is very like tax advice based. So we pay ourselves the biggest salary that you can to be in, is it like, to be in like a certain tax bracket? You explain it — I don’t know.

Emma: It’s because you pay certain taxes on full time income as an employer. So we do pay ourselves a salary at A Beautiful Mess, Elsie, and I do not pay ourselves a salary at our other business, A Color Story, we also receive owner draws from time to time if the businesses do well and if they don’t, we don’t receive them. (laughs) So, um, yeah. And here’s how I would think of it: So one, if you don’t have an accountant who you trust, I would get one. Just I know it costs money…

Elsie: One million percent.

Emma: I know it can take time. I really, really, really do recommend it though. Unless you yourself are an accountant, OK. Or if your dad is or your mom is or something like that. But I would think of it like runway. So whether you’re thinking about paying yourself a salary or your team or both, depending on where you’re at in your business, think about how much money do I have in my business checking account or business savings account. However you hold your cash, however you hold your liquid assets. How like I would like to have…to me, I think it makes a lot of sense to have about six month’s. Runway so I could pay salaries for six months if I stopped making money today. If we just everything dried up, I could still pay salaries for six months. And the reason I like to do that is because it gives you, you know, runway like a plane landing where you can figure something else out. So if the money dries up in certain areas, you can hopefully figure something out and still keep paying people or paying yourself. And if not, you still have some time to be like, all right, we’re going to have to kind of end this and it’s going to take money to end it. And it’s you know, I’m going to need to fulfill some promises I’ve made or bills that I might have outstanding or whatever. So I would do it based on that. So if you’re starting to pay yourself a salary, think about runway. Think about like, how much do I have in my business checking, business savings and start there. I also think, you know, you kind of have to think about what’s a living wage in the area that you live in, and once you start hiring people, you absolutely have to think about what’s a living wage in the area that your employees live in. Also, obviously, there’s laws about minimum wage. You want to know those, but hopefully you’ll be able to offer something that’s maybe even better than that so that you can get the best people and you should be one of those best people who gets paid well at your business. But, yeah, I would start there thinking about thinking of it like a runway.

Elsie: Nice. Good advice. Ok, the next question is, what’s your advice on starting an Etsy shop? So my advice on starting any type of business is the same. You need to like sit down with your calculator, with your pen and paper and really think about how much money you can make before anything else. I think that that’s the most important thing, because I think that…

Emma: So you want to think about the cost of your materials.

Elsie: Yes.

Emma: How much time it’s going to take you to make it.

Elsie: How much output can you realistically do.

Emma: Shipping materials and how much time it will take for you to ship it or someone else? Because that’s when I feel like it’s easy to forget.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: Like packaging boxes.

Elsie: I think that in the maker universe there is a lot of like it’s like a lot of people don’t go in with a plan and then they have like they have the most success they can, and they realize like that they’re capped right on either how much they can output with their own two hands or how much they can realistically ship or realistically keep in their garage or whatever other thing. So I think choosing something that you have a chance to grow, if it does well, is an important step in the very beginning of any business.

Emma: Yeah, I agree. Being able to scale it beyond just yourself, potentially.

Elsie: We started off with an Etsy shop, so it was like a very happy but scary time in my life. Like I lost a job and I was kind of just making ends meet with, like staying up late at night making paintings. And I definitely learned all these lessons the hard way. So that’s where this is coming from.

Emma: I did her customer service and shipping! (laughs) So I know about packaging boxes. So I was like, let’s Henry Ford this assembly line here.

Elsie: Yeah, Emma like kind of worked for me when she was in college. It was. It’s so funny.

Emma: Yeah. You were like, hey, would you quit the pizza place and just do my Etsy shop? And I was like, if you pay me the same as the pizza place. Yeah.

Elsie: Oh God, that’s so cute. (laughs) OK, I love it. Next question. Are you ready?

Emma: Yes. In your experience, what qualities and approaches make for good team leadership? Oh, so how to be a good leader is what? The question is a great question.

Elsie: So in a A Beautiful Mess, we’re really proud of how we manage our team, how we hire. We have employees we’ve had for almost ten years now. Like it’s…

Emma: Some…

Elsie: Some of them. Yeah, it’s a — we’re proud of what we’ve done because, you know, it’s…

Emma: I learn something every year.

Elsie: Yes. And like, my advice is…the thing that the thing that’s been really valuable to us is finding people who are self sufficient self starters, who can work on their own, who can be reliable and consistent and can like have their list of goals and complete them, because managing — a lot of people don’t know when they start a business that managing people can take up your whole week. And if you still want to do creative roles in your company, which most of us do, that’s going to really mess with your output. So finding people who are self starters is absolutely essential if you want to have employees, but you also want to have a creative role in your company.

Emma: Yeah, being able to thrive in a minimal management atmosphere. That’s like one of my interview questions always.

Elsie: Right.

Emma: So that and I’d also say on the flip side of that, as a leader, you do have to take time for your team. So if you’re unwilling to do that at all, you may need to just work alone, because it’s not just…you do have to provide feedback. You need to sometimes be critical, but also professional and respectful. You need to say when something’s not working, and you need to do it as immediately as you can so that it doesn’t go on and on and on. And then people feel weird, like they feel like you’ve been thinking this for a while and you didn’t say it or something to that effect so that. You also need to take time. I think this is part of being a good leader. You need to take time out of your day to tell people when they’re doing a great job and to tell people that you appreciate them and to find your own way to let people know that…Elsie I always do this, like there’s this like Don Draper thing from Mad Men where…what’s the character’s name? She works for him.

Elsie: Peggy Olson.

Emma: Peggy. Peggy’s like, you never say thank you, and he’s like, that’s what the money is for! And that’s like not how to be a boss, because…

Elsie: Emma says that all the time. (laughs)

Emma: Yeah…that’s what the money is for! (laughs) It’s like that’s exactly not a good way to be a leader. You don’t because yes, of course, you should pay your employees and you should pay them well. And if you can, offer benefits. Absolutely. But I think actually having professional boundaries but still caring about them and helping them to succeed is a part of being a boss. And if you don’t want to take the time to do that, you just aren’t cut out to be a boss.

Elsie: It’s true. Humans need to be seen. They need to be appreciated. And that’s definitely something we’ve learned along the way managing.

Emma: Yeah, and it takes time and communication is hard for everyone. So there’s always more to learn in those areas. But yeah, and I think it’s really exciting. I get a lot more done because I have an amazing team, so it’s 100 percent worth it. But there are times it’s kind of confusing and you don’t know if you’re doing it right or you thought you communicated well and then you realized you didn’t and you have to go back and try again, you know, so that’s part of it, too. And if you don’t have the time to do that, then you’re going to have to either make it or not be a leader, one or the other. So, yeah,

Elsie: OK, let’s take a quick break for an ad.

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Who are your business life role models and what have you learned from them? OK, so…

Emma: I have one, but I think I’m going to say a second.

Elsie: OK, so I…

Emma: I mean, I have a lot but…

Elsie: So yeah, I had my friend Ting on before, on a couple of episodes and he’s definitely my mentor in business and a little of in life too, because I do aspire to have a more Lucy Goosey schedule in my future. Like that’s something that…

Emma: Do you?!

Elsie: He has in his life that is a value to him and I think it’s a value to me that I would like to have someday. You know, it’s just the ability to be like, OK, this week I’m going to go visit my grandma, OK? This week I’m going to spend a lot of time with my friend who’s going through a hard time.

Emma: Yep.

Elsie: Things like that. Yeah. And when you’re an entrepreneur with a lot of responsibility, that’s not always possible.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: So I think one of the things I’ve learned from him, well I’ve learned a lot of like good money tips, big wins, big picture, you know, not like, I think that as…maybe it’s my personality type, maybe it’s my conditioning, maybe it’s being a woman. But I think that I like focused on small things too much in the past. And now I’m learning to focus on the big ones. Yes.

Emma: Yes. Yeah, yeah. I think focusing on the big wins is a difficult mindset shift sometimes, and it’s really fun. Yeah, Ting is an amazing person, so I’m glad you mentioned him. Oh, I’m going to mention someone who’s more famous. Sorry, Ting.

Elsie: More famous.

Emma: Yes, I know, but really I probably have a lot. But one person I want to mention is Martha Stewart. As you can probably imagine, we idolize her. Obviously, sometimes when I very quickly am trying to explain my job to someone who doesn’t know what blogs are, I’m like, we’re Internet Martha Stewart’s kind of.

Elsie: Oh, my God. You say that?!

Emma: Yeah, I do.

Elsie: Oh my god I’m so embarassed! (laughs)

Emma: I know. I know. I say a lot of pretty braggy, pretty braggy shit now and again. It’s just shorthand! People know who she is! It’s shorthand. (laughs) And I don’t know Martha Stewart personally. Maybe someone who works for her would have a story that they would like to share. I don’t know. But here’s one thing that I admire about her. Does anyone remember the time that she got in trouble and had to go to federal prison (laughs). I do.

Elsie: Raises hand.

Emma: Raises hand! And she wrote a book about it afterwards.

Elsie: In prison.

Emma: Oh that’s right she wrote the book in prison. And here’s what I think is really inspiring about that, anyone going through any kind of life, including owning businesses, is going to have times where bad things happen, where maybe you messed up or maybe something crazy happened like covid-19 and you ruined all your great plans. Who knows? But I think it’s really inspiring to watch someone get completely knocked down and keep going, because I think that’s really what it takes to have success more than any other time.

Elsie: Like, I don’t know if you all remember when Martha went to prison, but people were talking like it was the end of her career and her reputation forever. And now we all know that it wasn’t.

Emma: She was like, nah, I think I’ll do a show with Snoop Dogg in 20 years. (laughs)

Elsie: I think I’ll write my 95th book soon, like, that’s like literally what happened afterwards. So I think. Yeah, sorry I took over your story. (laughs)

Emma: No, no, I think that’s it. (laughs) It’s just like, you know, you get knocked down and you keep going. And I think that that is any time I see her…

Elsie: I admire that about her also.

Emma: …endlessly inspiring whenever people do that, because it’s hard, it’s embarrassing. Whenever you fail, it’s embarrassing if you messed up. And it sometimes has big consequences, like for Martha having to go to federal prison. Right. But I think not giving up and not saying, well, that was it for me. I’ll never have anything else, I think is a really interesting attitude and takes the pretty steely mindset. And I hope that I can aspire myself to that at times whenever I get knocked down, because it’s going to happen to all of us in some way.

Elsie: Right. It’s not over!

Emma: It’s not over. Unless you give up, then it’s over. Is it necessary to have a professionally built website or can I do it myself? That’s the question.

Elsie: All right. So one of the other questions in our Q&A that I didn’t put on here was like, how much is it cost to have, like, a nice, like, professionally made blog you don’t even want to know! Is the answer. Like seriously…

Emma: How much money do you have is probably the question you’ll get asked if you… (laughs)

Elsie: Yeah, it’s not uncommon that it could be like 20 grand.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: So ugh, yes, you can make it yourself. There are all kinds of templates all over Etsy, like Google it and just Google blog templates and you’ll find a hundred websites with cute reasonably priced blog templates. Like maybe you have to pay one hundred dollars or something.

Emma: Right.

Elsie: But it’s affordable and it’s worth it and it will take you seventy-five percent of the way.

Emma: And then Emma and I, we both learned our little basic coding from having our MySpace pages. (laughs) Learning things like that is fun. I would just say it’s fun and it’s worth it. Spend a weekend and try to make your own website and you will be surprised what you can do. You don’t have to pay twenty thousand dollars unless you just want to, but please don’t.

Elsie: No, not for your first one. Just do it yourself and then like get into the group of blogging and then as you have more money, you reinvest it into making it better. You can do it yourself. Our first blogs were all built ourselves, actually. Like sometimes I would like text my friends and be like, can you do this whole big thing for me? And they unfortunately say yes. So I mean, yeah, be scrappy, don’t be ashamed of it. Start your business the scrappy way.

Emma: Never be ashamed to be scrappy.

Elsie: Is going into debt to start your business a bad idea. So I’ll just give the short answer. Ninety five percent of the time, yes, it’s a bad idea. There are certain businesses where it it would just have to, you know, like there’s certain businesses where it would make sense, but for the most part, don’t go into debt to start a business, find one that you can start with whatever amount of money you have, even if it’s five hundred dollars.

Emma: Yeah. Our general mindset on risk. So risk it to me is kind of similar to saying going into debt, is you should risk things that you can lose and it’s not going to ruin your whole life. Like when we started our app company. I think we’ve shared this on this podcast before. So just quickly, when we started our app company we had gotten a two book deal with our blogging company and we got an advance for that. And we spent the entire advance building our first app. And because we had an app idea and we wanted to try that into us, we knew that that was money that we could afford to completely lose. If no one downloaded our app or just totally bombed, we could afford to lose that money because we hadn’t I don’t think we’d even like put it in our account yet. Like, we know we had gotten a deal. We’d signed the contract and we knew how much money it was…

Elsie: It was worth our little gamble at that time.

Emma: Yeah, we knew we had other money to pay ourselves to keep blogging and to do the books that we were going to do. And we just use the advance on that. So it was money that we could lose. And I think that luckily the apps worked out and we have a whole nother company about it. But if it hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been bankrupt. We wouldn’t have been in a bad place with our business and with our livelihood. And I think that’s kind of a better way, a safer way to go about it, unless you’re just. Independently wealthy, in which case I don’t even know why you would listen to us, because we don’t know what your life is like.

Elsie: So definitely not. Ok, so the next question was how much money would you risk on a new business adventure and business venture? (laughs) Business adventure! And I feel like Emma just kind of answered that, like only risk what you can afford to lose and it won’t ruin your life or hurt your life, damage you in a way that you know is too painful, like plan on losing it, obviously, like you’re hoping not to. You’re hoping to make a lot more, but definitely like be risks, only something that you’re OK with losing. Yeah, it happens. You know, like we’ve lost money on things and lots and lots and lots of our friends have most people who start an app don’t make their money back, you know, and other retail ventures, lots of things like that. You know, it’s it’s OK. Like it happens.

Emma: Oh, yeah, it happens.

Elsie: All right. The next question.

Emma: OK, what boundaries have you set up to keep work and life separate when you’re working from home?

Elsie: All right. I love this question. This is one that we get a lot. And I feel like we’re kind of pros at working from home. Like we…

Emma: If I’m a pro at anything…(laughs)

Elsie: We’ll give you a great pep talk. If you’re just starting working from home, set up your own space, leave…when you finish for the night, here’s what I do like. I have my little office. I leave my computer in there unless I’m going to bring it out to do something fun, leave my computer in there. You know, I turn off the light, I leave all my notes there and it’s just all there the next morning. So I think that you really do have to just train yourself. And it’s hard at first and it takes time that unless it’s an emergency, you’re just not going to work after a certain hour of the night. You’re just not going to work on the weekends. Like, I will occasionally work on a kid’s nap on the weekends.

Emma: Right.

Elsie: But like but that’s about it. Honestly, unless it’s an emergency, I’m not going to spend my whole weekend working. And that’s like part of, you know, my life as a mom and having a boundary so you can set those up. It’s a habit that you have to form over time. So be a little bit of a hard ass at first and then it becomes routine.

Emma: Yeah. And if you’re finding that you’re having a emergency every single weekend, then take some time to evaluate that, because that sounds like there might be something kind of broken or it might be time to hire someone or outsource something to a freelancer or change the way that you do something. You know, it just sounds like maybe there needs to be some evaluation there. And if you have really limited space, like you’re like, I don’t have my own room to have an office, that sounds great, but I just don’t have that option, then get creative. It could be you buy a little folding card table and you set that up in the morning and you work, work, work, and then you’ll fold it up and you put it in a closet at the end of the day. And I know that probably sounds so. It makes me think of, this is going to sound crazy, I think. But when Mr. Rogers walks into his house and changes his shoes, you know, as a child, now it’s time to play. Now it’s time to hang out. Now it’s time to be home. And in the same way, I think when you work from home, you need these little mental things that make you say, now I’m working. Now I’m not working.

Elsie: I honestly think that’s great advice. For years, Jeremy and I would do this like Friday night. We went to this same dive bar right at five p.m. every Friday for like three or four years…

Emma: Cheese fries!

Elsie: Yeah, and we…and it was with other people who also worked from home. And it was all of our way of like signaling weakened in our brains.

Emma: Yep.

Elsie: So if you need to do a little one of those each day and to start your workday like, you know, I like going to my office every morning with my coffee and, you know…

Emma: Yeah, it’s like time to start.

Elsie: …do the same couple of things to start my morning, you know, check the email, the slack, whatever it is, you know. So you can do it. Just don’t be hard on yourself and remember that you need to pick your boundaries and then you need to create them over time. It’s a habit. It’s formed. It’s not like a one time thing that you decide. It’s something that you what…

Emma: It’s like a ritual.

Elsie: It’s a yeah. It’s a ritual that you have to do over and over before it’ll feel…

Emma: Real and meaningful.

Elsie: Intuitive. Yeah. Yeah.

Emma: Some things grow meaning over time. Yeah. All right. Moving on.

Elsie: Do you invest in stock. How, in which company. OK, so I just did this so I can answer it.

Emma: Elsie is pretty hyped.

Elsie: I am so hyped.

Emma: Did you write this question?

Elsie: I’m so proud about it because…

Emma: Yeah you should be!

Elsie: I’ve been spending the whole year learning, you know, from these three books. We already put the books in the show notes. You’ve already heard it, so I won’t repeat them again. But they all give basically the same advice. So the stock thing that I’m doing is the Vanguard Total Market Index fund. And all it is, is a way to invest in the total stock market, you know, a little bit of each company all at once, so when the market goes up, it’ll go up and when it goes down, it will go down. And over time it’s supposed to be, you know, in a rocky way, always going up. So there’s some sense of security, you know, unless the world goes to hell, in which case we’re all F-U-C-K-E-D anyway!

Emma: Yeah, it’s walking dead time if that happens.

Elsie: So anyway yeah, that’s the thing and they basically all recommend Vanguard. So I’ll just say Vanguard is the one. Next question.

Emma: Love it.

Elsie: What is the one thing that really catapulted your business to the next level? Ok, I love this question because I feel like we have such a passionate answer. It really is a lot of little things.

Emma: Yes.

Elsie: Everyone always wants to know, like people ask, like, where did most of your money come from? And I’m like, it didn’t mostly come from just one thing. And I think that people want to hear that because they want to be they want to know, like the shortcut. Right. There truly isn’t one. It’s all like this building block compounding effect, you know. So a couple of…Say a couple of the big turning points we’ve had.

Emma: So a big one in the beginning was learning to focus. So we used to own a retail shop, the Red Velvet Store. It was on Commercial Street in like our city, Springfield, Missouri. And we also we’re blogging at the time and we kind of used our blog as supplemental income in a supplemental way to promote our shop so that we could promote it outside of just our community. And over the first couple of years, we realized that if we focused more on the blog, we would make a lot more money and our efforts that we were putting into our business would be less divided and a lot more rewarded, probably. And we were right. And so we did that. It was a really hard decision because we like to do lots of different things, as you could probably guess, based on the content of our blog. But focusing down made a huge, huge difference that those first couple of years. So that was a big one. I’m trying to think of what else.

Elsie: A big one was when we started our first app because it was our first big risk and it was one of the ways that we diversified our income. And that was like the first year that we ever reached a million dollar year was the year we had our first app. So that was pretty life changing.

Emma: That was kind of a lesson in reinvesting money that you make into your business and then also diversifying revenue streams for sure. Yes, that was a big one. I think growing our team has been huge, which we weren’t really able to do that in the very beginning because we don’t have the money to do it. But as we did have more income over time, every time we’ve gotten to add a full time team member one, I feel like, oh, we created a job in our economy. That’s exciting. I know it’s just one job, you know, every now and again, but I still feel like I’m participating and I like that. It makes me feel proud. But I also think each time it’s made a huge difference to our business. Yeah, because our team’s awesome and we get so much more done with them than without them.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: And it’s better. (laughs)

Elsie: The last couple years our big wins have been like very invisible, boring things. We’ve been focusing really hard on our archives and our Google ratings and things that are so boring, like growing Pinterest…

Emma: SEO…

Elsie: And growing our affiliate programs and things like that that are yeah. Like kind of boring when you just have a conversation. But when you set a goal and you work on an all year and you achieve it, it’s a great feeling. So, yeah, a lot of the things…I think that the app launch is like the only one that’s truly like a sexy one.

Emma: Yeah, yeah. I think everything is kind of it probably sounds like small wins, but they add up to really big wins over the long haul. If you’re if you’re in it for the long haul, which is why we don’t really believe you can blog for a month and see the amazing success that you probably deserve if you do it for a year or two or three or fr us it’s been like fourteen now.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: So here we are.

Elsie: Yeah. Like seven thousand blog posts. That’s crazy. All right, how much of your home do you write off since it’s quote unquote content. Does that factor? OK, so we get a lot of questions like this, that are tax questions that are about like write offs and things like that. And our honest advice. We talked about this last night and like to summarize, just focus on making more money where you’re not too worried about the tax write offs. Like to us, taxes is like something we work on with our accountant. But no, we honestly don’t write off like our houses or…

Emma: Like a personal clothing.

Elsie: Our clothing. Yeah, like our yoga pants. It’s like maybe we’ll make some affiliate money from these adorable yoga pants, but they’re not a tax write off and they’re not going to be. And also, we don’t want to have that complication if we’re audited in the future. So don’t worry too much about tax write offs is our advice.

Emma: Yeah. Get a good accountant. Take their advice, and then focus on the big wins in your company, not necessarily…This is what I would consider small win tax write offs, but, you know, every business is different. But, yeah, for a blogger, I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to write off your entire life. I would focus more on monetizing your content.

Elsie: OK, this is my favorite one.

Emma: Elsie, do you think you could have started a A Beautiful Mess with kids?

Elsie: Ok, pep talk for moms. Here we go. Buckle up. One hundred percent. Yes. It’s like…we had more time to work before I had kids obviously. But…

Emma: Right.

Elsie: …this year my kids have been out of daycare almost the whole entire year. And for almost…for most of that time, my husband and I were watching them by ourselves and my hours were slashed. And it’s still been a great year of growth and achievement. And honestly, I’ll teach you a couple of things that you just need to know. Lower your expectations, go easy on yourself, make a good plan and stick to the plan and batch working. If you’re a mom and you want to get a lot done, you have to batch work. That is my key to everything. You can do it.

Emma: You can do it. Your life is not over. Your life is long and there’s lots of different seasons. Maybe you’re going to have a little less time in this season, but you can still do things.

Elsie: Most of the bloggers that are like in my group of friends who I know are like making the big bucks are moms. So you can do it. All right. The next question is, is there anything you wish you never tried? That was all loss and no gain?

Emma: Yeah, we were talking about this one yesterday and I’m trying to remember where we landed.

Elsie: We basically were like, no, yeah, we’re glad for everything we tried because even

10 Things I Love Sunday

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 14:00:06 GMT

Happy weekend, friends! I hope you’re finding some joy for yourself today. Here are 10 things I have been loving lately:

Get yourself a disco ball! I have one that is basically a leftover photo prop (see above) and I’m realizing this is an excellent piece of holiday/anytime decor. Look how the light catches it in the late afternoon! It even makes my popcorn ceilings look a little magical.

Let’s talk advent calendars. I love a good homemade advent like this and this one. But, I also decided to buy my immediate family the store-bought kind that has little cardboard pockets you open each day. It just seemed like a small thing (gift) I could get them this year that might make this strange holiday season a little more fun. I got Elsie’s girls this Kinder one (two, so they each get their own), this non-candy one for my niece, Penny, this one for my brother and his fiancé, although really it’s for their dog kids. I bought this classic milk chocolate one for my parents.

Since moving into the holiday house a couple months ago, I noticed the flatware was looking very worn out. It was the gold kind, but the gold was flaking off, and although I’m sure it was still food safe it just didn’t feel like it. So, I decided to buy a few new sets and I splurged a little, as I also use these in my food photography for work, so why not? I got these pretty white handle ones, and these classic gold ones.

I’m currently reading The Magpie Society: One for Sorrow and loving it. It’s a YA murder mystery based at a spooky English school—very fun and an easy read. It’s a good one to curl up with some hot cocoa.

Bought myself this ring from Etsy. I think I actually saw it in an Instagram ad. Do you all fall for those too? I did, but no regrets because I love it.

Bought a few holiday decor items from my friend, Kara. I got these ornaments and this garland. She has lots of really pretty stuff!

Also added a new Santa mug to my collection (tour coming soon). This shop makes Santa mugs in three different skin tones.

I like the fit of these leggings—my wardrobe is slowly becoming all animal print. I think of this as a “cool aunt” look, but I feel like Carole Baskin sort of ruined it for everyone.

I needed to update a lot of my makeup, so here is everything I got. It’s a bit of an ILIA haul: concealer, liq uid eye tint (which I plan to use as highlighter, too), and a multi stick that I’ll use for lips and cheeks. Should I do a review or show things on IG? I never know how helpful that is since everyone has such different skin types and tones.

During a sale I recently bought this pink cardigan. I wear cardigans or sweaters basically everyday now since it’s full on winter temperatures now. Ha.

Take care of yourselves, friends! xo. Emma

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 20:00:09 GMT

Mashed potatoes have got to be one of the ultimate comfort food side dishes. So, so good. Creamy carbs? Now it’s a holiday!

This is about the easiest EVER way to make mashed potatoes. The only way it could get easier is if farmers/food scientists could create some kind of self-peeling potato. I don’t know if I would ever eat that as it sounds INSANE. But I would sure be tempted.

Maybe for Halloween next year I should be a mad food scientist. Which would pretty much be a mad scientist who is holding a bag of potatoes all night.

Or maybe that was the worst idea I’ve had this week. I’ll never tell.

Oh, this totally feeds a crowd. Look at the giant pie pan of mashed potatoes! Don’t make this amount for just you and your significant other, or you’ll be eating mashed potatoes for a week.

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes, serves 6-8+ as a side dish.

5 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk (go ahead and use whole milk if it’s a holiday)
salt + pepper
chives or cheddar cheese to garnish

First, peel and cube the potatoes. Throw them in the slow cooker with the vegetable stock (or water) and butter. Cut the butter into small cubes before adding. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours and 30 minutes.

Once the cook time is up, mash the potatoes. I used a potato masher. You could also use an immersion blender, potato ricer, etc. But I think the masher is the easiest option.

Add the sour cream and milk and stir to combine. If it still seems too thick to you, add more milk until you get the consistency you prefer. Taste and add as much salt and pepper as you think it needs.

Just before serving, top with chopped chives or some shredded cheddar cheese (or maybe some french fried onions—go nuts!). If I’m serving gravy, then I usually omit any cheese to my mashed potatoes; otherwise, I add plenty of cheese. But that’s just a preference thing, so change it up based on what you and your guests like best. Enjoy! xo. Emma

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Sarah Rhodes and Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

5 pounds russet potatoes peeled and cut into large cubes
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk go ahead and use whole milk if it's a holiday
salt + pepper
chives or cheddar cheese to garnish

Instructions

First, peel and cube the potatoes. Throw them in the slow cooker with the vegetable stock (or water) and butter. Cut the butter into small cubes before adding. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours and 30 minutes.
Once the cook time is up, mash the potatoes. I used a potato masher. You could also use an immersion blender, potato ricer, etc. But I think the masher is the easiest option.
Add the sour cream and milk and stir to combine. If it still seems too thick to you, add more milk until you get the consistency you prefer. Taste and add as much salt and pepper as you think it needs. Top with chives before serving, optional.

100 Black-Owned Kids Shops

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 14:00:34 GMT

Hi, friends! Today, we wanted to share our friend Andi’s list of 100 Black-owned kids brands to follow and shop from. She posted this incredible guide on her blog recently, and we hope you can reference it when shopping this season—we definitely will be.

“From books and toys, to clothes and accessories, to face masks and mealtime essentials, there are so many incredible shops to support! With the holiday season approaching, I wanted to gently encourage you to consider ordering something from one (or many!) of these small shops.

Below, you’ll find 100 Black-owned brands that sell all sorts of products for kids, organized by category. I also shared a quick blurb about the shop, plus links to their Instagram and website to start shopping. The categories are: clothing (organized by high-level style), accessories (hair, shoes/tights/socks), playtime (books, puzzles/games, dolls/toys), baby essentials (mealtime, diapering, miscellaneous), boutiques/retailers/marketplaces, personal care, art/home decor, and last but not least because of course, 2020—face masks for kids! Some are shops that *only* offer products for babies and kids and others (particularly in the art, home decor, personal care, and boutique categories) are for everyone with specific products also available for kids.

I believe this is important to call out the WHY behind this post. Why am I sharing this roundup? Why are you seeing others highlight Black-owned businesses, artists, creators, etc.? Here’s my imperfect answer. The Black community has encountered 400 years of systemic racism in America and by the numbers, this has created a huge disparity in wealth. Intentionally supporting Black-owned businesses is one way we can engage in anti-racist efforts to fight this gap. There are struggles Black-owned businesses often face that many white business owners do not encounter (access to capital/loans and generational wealth, just for starters). Supporting Black-owned businesses also means you are fostering job creation, supporting local economies, and uplifting Black communities.

Representation also matters. If you are only seeing and listening to and shopping from people and businesses that look just like you, that’s a problem. As a mother, I’ve noticed just how white, elitist, and frankly, non-inclusive the “baby and kids small shop” world can be, so it’s incredibly important to give visibility to Black-owned businesses in this space. And, if you’re not in a position to shop right now, the very easiest thing to do to support small businesses is to follow, share, comment on their social media. Sign up for their emails. It’s the easiest, lowest hanging fruit when it comes to engaging in anti-racism work. And don’t forget: “When you buy from a small business, an actual person does a little happy dance.”

CLOTHING

Minimal

@lucylueorganics / organic baby clothing / WEBSITE

@minibrooklook / organic everyday kids wear / WEBSITE

@alf_phi / children’s clothing crafted from preloved and vintage textiles / WEBSITE

@avaandisa / linen & cotton children’s wear / WEBSITE

@loganandgreys / handmade children’s clothes / WEBSITE

@lepetitorganic / eco-friendly, vintage, handmade children’s shop / WEBSITE

@smallerexplorer / vintage, gender neutral clothing / WEBSITE

@milesandmilan / gender-neutral kids clothes / WEBSITE

@shopsacko / hand-dyed garments / WEBSITE

@yoahnewyork / gender-free ready-to-wear for the modern child. / WEBSITE

Modern/Trendy/Colorful

@minifridayatl / modern kids streetwear / WEBSITE

@candidartkids / kids reversible quilted jackets / WEBSITE

@kamsokids / ethical kidswear inspired by African heritage / WEBSITE

@myBuddhaBabe / luxury clothes and accessories for babies and toddlers / WEBSITE

@seviinchildrensapparel / cozy and comfy kids clothing / WEBSITE

@RAHLOVESBOUTIQUE / comfy and trendy kids clothes sizes 12 months – 6T / WEBSITE

T-shirts/Onesies

@kammy_kids / cute, simple onesies and kids T-shirts, perfect for special occasions like baby announcements, holidays, etc. / WEBSITE

@bashbabyclothing / faith-based T-shirts and bodysuits / WEBSITE

@typicalblacktees / anti-racism apparel for the whole family / WEBSITE

ACCESSORIES

Hair

@becauseofzoe / hair bows / WEBSITE

@rowanandcompany/ hair bows (as well as pacifier clips and teething toys!) / WEBSITE

@shopmarlobea / versatile head wraps / WEBSITE

@hazelknots.co / handmade hair bows / WEBSITE

@phoenixrayne_ / modern headwear for kiddos / WEBSITE

@lilyfrilly / fun, colorful, sparkly bows and other accessories (fun fact: the brand has a 6-year-old CEO!) / WEBSITE

@shop6heart / turbans and headbands / WEBSITE

@hausofheadwraps / modern and fun headbands and hair wraps / WEBSITE

Shoes/Socks/Tights

@shopoliviaj / children’s socks and tights / WEBSITE

@sunandlace / leather baby and toddler shoes / WEBSITE

@tippy_tot_shoes / stylish high quality footwear for walkers and “pre-walkers” / WEBSITE

@dionnegooding / unisex leather kids booties and sandals in African-inspired prints / WEBSITE

PLAYTIME

PUZZLES & GAMES

@puzzlehuddle / diverse kids puzzles / WEBSITE

@littlelikeskids / diverse jumbo kids puzzles / WEBSITE

@paperplaywonder / finger puppets, coloring pages, paper puzzles, puppet theater sets / WEBSITE

@theblacktoystore / handpicked, curated children’s toys, games, books, and gifts / WEBSITE

@browntoybox / STEAM-inspired educational boxes with a book about a Black trailblazer, a hands-on activity, a toy and more! / WEBSITE

DOLLS & TOYS

@shop.opalandfig / handmade heirloom dolls / WEBSITE

@harperimandolls / handmade linen keepsake dolls / WEBSITE

@mecharisdolls / handmade dolls / WEBSITE

@malavilledolls / dolls available with different skin tones, hair styles, etc. / WEBSITE

@thefreshdolls / diverse dolls that represent all children / WEBSITE

@healthyrootsdolls / dolls and storybooks that represent and empower kids / WEBSITE

BOOKS

@braveandkindbooks / indie kids bookshop / WEBSITE

@justlikemebox / monthly book subscription service / WEBSITE

@jambobooks / curated book subscription box that delivers 2-3 books each month featuring a child of color as the star / WEBSITE

@blackbabybooks / curated selection of kids books featuring Black characters / WEBSITE

@ashaybythebay / online bookstore offering tons of books for babies, kids, and teens (and adults too!) / WEBSITE

@mahoganybooks / DC-based online book shop offering books written for, by, or about people of the African Diaspora (and lots of kids books!) / WEBSITE

@eyeseeme_bookstore / African American Children’s Bookstore also offering a monthly book subscription box / WEBSITE

BABY ESSENTIALS

MEALTIME

@modern.mama / suction bowls + plates, silicone bibs, spoon set / WEBSITE

@rootedbabyco / African-inspired children’s items (teethers, meal supplies) / WEBSITE

@prettypleaseteethers / teething toys, pacifiers, silicone bibs, pacifier clips / WEBSITE

@Eizzybaby_ / silicone bibs, collapsible snack cups / WEBSITE

@stinaandmae / bibs, changing mats, swaddle blankets and more / WEBSITE

@AviroBabyBoutique / bibs, pacifier clips, teethers, etc. / WEBSITE

@Junobiebags / eco-friendly breastmilk storage bags / WEBSITE

@nomiandsibs/ microwave + dishwasher safe silicone labels for bottles, sippy cups, and water bottles / WEBSITE

DIAPERING

@pootersdiapers /cloth diapers, natural creams, and more / WEBSITE

@crunchy_boutique / cloth diapers and other natural parenting gear and accessories / WEBSITE

@the.shine.cloth / social justice and Black pop culture-themed cloth diapers / WEBSITE

MISCELLANEOUS

@terico.ca / leather mats / WEBSITE

@estella_nyc / hand-knit baby gifts / WEBSITE

@heritagebabydesigns / ring slings / WEBSITE

@Hendrixandcompany / handmade baby photo props and monthly signs / WEBSITE

BOUTIQUES & RETAILERS

@kidochicago / Chicago-based IRL and online shop offering modern and fun toys, books, clothes, accessories / WEBSITE

@taylorandmax / eco-friendly, elevated children’s clothes / WEBSITE

@darlyngandco / baby items including apparel, teething toys, diapers bags, and more / WEBSITE

@kidsswagco / Canadian retailer offering kids toys, apparel, backpacks, and more / WEBSITE

@royalbabiesandtots / cute and affordable children’s clothing / WEBSITE

@shophappymango / Atlanta-based retailer offering nursery pieces, car seats and strollers and more / WEBSITE

@yinibinibaby / online and IRL boutique (Washington, D.C.) specializing in handmade, cotton children’s clothing + more / WEBSITE

@thelittlearkokc / online and IRL boutique (Oklahoma City) offering baby gifts, clothing, gear, and accessories / WEBSITE

@shopmoodbabe / curated modern kids shop / WEBSITE

@fivesunsboutique / kids goods curated from ethical and sustainable brands / WEBSITE

@Ebonyseedsco / boutique offering baby clothing, feeding accessories, and more / WEBSITE

ONLINE MARKETPLACES CURATING BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES

@black.owned.baby / online marketplace curating kids + parent items from Black-owned businesses / WEBSITE

@evrgreenbaby / online marketplace with a curated line of eco-friendly baby products and apparel from Black-owned businesses / WEBSITE

PERSONAL CARE

@carabnaturally / natural hair and skin are for babies and children / WEBSITE

@alaffia / body lotions, shampoos, conditioners, body products / WEBSITE

@bgskids / SPF 50 sunscreen for kids created by Black Girl Sunscreen / WEBSITE

@playpits / natural deodorant, perfect for entire family / WEBSITE

@sheabutterbabynaturals / handmade skincare for the entire family / WEBSITE

@eugeniashea / all natural shea butter / WEBSITE

@Reagansanai / handmade natural and organic products for children of all ages with sensitive skin or eczema / WEBSITE

ART & DECOR

@annkelle / illustrator and textile designer selling colorful, simple art prints, kids masks, and more! / WEBSITE

@dinkymixprints / culturally diverse and empowering children’s art prints / WEBSITE

@_54kibo / unique contemporary African design items, including kids nursery decor, blankets and toys / WEBSITE

@shoplovedua / changing baskets + Moses baskets / WEBSITE

@sustainablehomegoods /ethnical and fair trade homewares, including nursery items + small gifts for kids / WEBSITE

@goodeeworld / curated marketplace with home and lifestyle items (including some kids items) / WEBSITE

FACE MASKS

@Henrymasks / colorful kids masks (come in 4-pack) / WEBSITE

@nsmithcollection / themed masks like Mickey Mouse, Disney princess, Spiderman, etc. / WEBSITE

@noelbynoelb / masks in fun patterns, including a DIY ‘craft mask’ / WEBSITE

@keeleystudio / reversible masks in fun colors and patterns / WEBSITE

@prettydopevinyl / mermaid, pirate, superhero masks featuring Black boys and girls / WEBSITE

@izzyandliv / face masks with adjustable straps and fun patterns! / WEBSITE

@jamilletextiles / gorgeous, handcrafted masks / WEBSITE

@shonsimonco / simple, colorful masks for kids (under $4 each!) / WEBSITE

@mixedupclothing / kid-friendly masks / WEBSITE

@showtelloakland / Oakland-based concept shop offering face masks for kids (and more!) / WEBSITE

*Many of the shops offering face masks also sell other items, and many retailers shared throughout in this post also sell masks!

Thank you so much for sharing this guide with us, Andi! You can find Andi on Instagram here and follow her blog here. xo

A Color Story: New Fashion-Forward Pack from the Yusufs!

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 20:00:18 GMT

Hi, friends! We’re so excited to share our newest filter +pack called Fashion, which we’ve created with Nasteha and Nuni Yusuf. If you’re not familiar with the Yusufs, they are bloggers, YouTubers, and entrepreneurs, as well as being sisters, mothers, and refugees. To say we were honored to work with Nas and Nuni would be an understatement!

Photo by The Yusufs, edited using Fire in #AColorStoryFashion

On their Instagram and blog, the Yusuf sisters focus on fashion, and their looks are to die for. Their iconic style was the inspiration for this filter +pack! Fashion contains 20 new filters, ranging from high-contrast to filmy looks. There is a huge variety of edits available in this pack, with some leaning bright and warm, like the one above, and others that are dark and moody.

Photo by The Yusufs, edited with Glamour in #AColorStoryFashion

There are also two black and white filters available in the pack for a classic, vintage look. The photo above was edited with the “Glamour” filter. This B+W filter has the perfect amount of contrast, with a veeery slight green tint. The subtle green is what gives the photo that stunning, old Hollywood vibe.

photo by The Yusufs, edited with Nas in #AColorStoryFashion

And this edit of Nas is a showstopper with all of the colors, textures, and shadows present. We can’t get enough!! Even though we’re not able to show off our #OOTDs in the real world right now, we still have Instagram. ???? We’d love to see your edits from this +pack, using the hashtag #AColorStoryFashion. And as a reminder, ACS+ subscribers will receive this for free!

xo, Team ACS

Gratefulness Leaf Garland DIY

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 13:59:29 GMT

With the way this year has been going, I could sure use a holiday centered around focusing on good things and being thankful for the bright spots in life. I figured with Thanksgiving coming soon, now would be a great time to make a little garland with paper leaves to write down things that we are thankful for. … I always hear how helpful it can be mentally to focus on the good in life, so I figured this would be a great season to put that into practice!

Supplies:
–Leaf Template
-card stock in different colors
-scissors (my fave scissors of all time!)
–small clothespins
–jewelry bead punch
–large gold jump rings
-woven garland to hang leaves from (I used a braided rope garland I had which you can make yourself by braiding some soft ropes together and adding some wooden beads, or you can use a garland like this or this).

So, first you’ll want to print out your leaf template. You can either cut out each leaf to trace onto paper, or you can hold your template behind your paper and put it up to a window during the day to trace them onto your paper (this works best for lighter colored paper). Cut out as many leaves in whatever colors you like!

Use your bead punch to punch a hole near the top of your clothespin. Repeat for each clothespin.

Use your fingers to open large jump rings and add the ring through the hole.

Put the jump ring through part of the bottom side of your garland so it will hang down to hold the leaf. I would lay out your garland and space the clothespins where you want them first so you know they are more evenly spaced.
Use a pen to write down all the things you are grateful for on each leaf! You can ask little kiddos for theirs and write them down for them or have older kids write their own.
Hang your leaves on the clothespins and stand back and see all you have to be thankful for!

The garland looks so pretty with some amber jars with candles inside and my pink pumpkins at the bottom! Some of my leaves are more serious things to be thankful for, but others are also a bit silly (like having just painted a pink door at our new house or finally living really close to a good coffee shop), but either way it feels good to see a bunch of things that make us happy all in one place. I also left a few clothespins open and some blank leaves on the table to write down new things as we think of them, so feel free to fill up the garland or do one every day for a few weeks. This would also be a fun activity to do around the table on Thanksgiving Day, so keep that in mind as well! Hope this helps your gratitude meter go up a few notches as well! xo. Laura

P.S. I found some other cute garlands for the season here, here, and here if you’re still decorating like I am!

GRATEFULNESS LEAF GARLAND DIY

Ingredients

Leaf Template
card stock in different colors
scissors
small clothespins
jewelry bead punch
large gold jump rings
woven garland

Instructions

So first you’ll want to print out your leaf template. You can either cut out each leaf to trace onto paper, or you can hold your template behind your paper and put it up to a window during the day to trace them onto your paper (this works best for lighter colored paper). Cut out as many leaves in whatever colors you like!
Use your bead punch to punch a hole near the top of your clothespin. Repeat for each clothespin.
Use your fingers to open large jump rings and add the ring through the hole.
Put the jump ring through part of the bottom side of your garland so it will hang down to hold the leaf. I would lay out your garland and space the clothespins where you want them first so you know they are more evenly spaced.
Use a pen to write down all the things you are grateful for on each leaf! You can ask little kiddos for theirs and write them down for them or have older kids write their own.
Hang your leaves on the clothespins and stand back and see all you have to be thankful for!

Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

Houseplants Advent Calendar DIY

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 14:30:29 GMT

I’m gearing up for the holidays over here and nothing gets me more excited than an Advent Countdown! It’s just a fun and simple way to celebrate every day leading up to Christmas. Today, I’m sharing an easy-to-make Advent calendar I created with my love of houseplants in mind. ????

For this post, I worked with The Home Depot. Yes, all the DIY supplies I used are from my local store. But what some of you may not know is The Home Depot has a HUGE selection of holiday garlands and other decor items. The two-toned artificial garland you see in this project is from there, and I actually have three Christmas trees up in my house right now that are also from The Home Depot. They have a huge selection and lots of options that fit many different styles. They’re also hosting a DIY Holiday Workshop on their site- you can check out more Advent calendars and other projects at this link.

I plan to fill the little pots of my Advent calendar with small tins of different kinds of loose tea, as I am an AVID tea drinker this time of year. I will also pop a few packets of hot chocolate in there for good measure. But you could absolutely personalize the items in the little pots to whatever you and your family might enjoy. I think adding small, individually wrapped candies would be really fun and tasty. You could also add small slips of paper that contain messages or directions of simple holiday activities you do throughout the month; things like “watch Home Alone” or “bake gingerbread cookies.” It’s totally up to you!

Here’s how I created this houseplants Advent calendar, with tips of other ways you could customize it more.

Supplies:
-2×2 plywood
-black paint
-mini plant pots
-double sided mounting tape
-Sharpie black paint pen
-artificial garland
-paint brushes
-saw + fine sandpaper or sanding block

You may also need wire cutters depending on the type of garland you use. If the stems are plastic you may be able to easily snip with quality scissors, but if they are filled with wire you may want a pair of wire cutters.

Step One: Cut the plywood into a house shape and sand the edges well. If you don’t have or aren’t comfortable using a saw, you could also leave the plywood the square shape it comes in and simply paint a house shape, or any design you like.

Step Two: Paint the house outline, or whatever design you prefer, and allow to fully dry.

Step Three: Plan out where you will add the little pots and mark the spots with a pencil. Then use your double sided mounting tape to adhere the pots to the wood.

Step Four: Use the paint pen to add numbers to the pots. Snip off pieces of the garland and add them to the pots along with any tea tins, candies, or slips of paper you are using with your Advent calendar.

I used a thin piece of plywood for my Advent calendar, so this project turned out pretty lightweight. If you want, you could add some picture hanger hardware to the back and hang it in your home, but I’ve decided to leave mine sitting on a side table along with the rest of the garland from the project. Cozy!

What does your Advent calendar look like??? Thanks for letting me share mine! xo. Emma

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

Our Favorite Home Hair Care Products

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 20:00:14 GMT

I’m definitely a “hair person” in that how my hair is doing at any given moment is pretty connected to how put together I feel for the day. That being said, I know that here at the blog, we’re not the only ones spending a lot more time figuring out a good hair care routine at home rather than doing frequent trips to the salon, so we thought we’d put together a list of our favorite hair care products that you can use in the comfort of your own bathroom! All the good hair results and you can save the tip for your next drive-thru coffee pickup …

Elsie introduced me to this Dae shampoo and conditioner this summer and I was instantly in love the first time I tried them. It not only felt like they rinsed out of my hair cleanly (which is sometimes a problem with clean ingredient hair care products), but it made my hair super silky and soft. I was actually using a detangler spray for my daughter when I washed her hair since she always has a knot in the back from where she sleeps, but I tried these two on her and now I don’t even have to use the spray after baths anymore … yes!

The level of silky softness gets even better if you pair your wash routine with the Dae hair oil which locks in a lot of moisture and protects against damage and fights frizz. Several of us here at the blog (including me!) have also been using this leave in conditioner for a while and it’s an easy way to help tame frizz and detangle as well.

If your locks could use a little extra love between salon visits, I love this hair perfector to help hydrate and smooth color-treated hair and this deep treatment mask is a great home treatment for those on a budget.

For days between washes, this texture powder is great to revitalize hair and give it a volume boost at the roots as well (which you can use on clean hair as well as dirty). My hair girl swears by this brush for smoothing out hair and adding shine while you blow dry (here’s a more budget-friendly option I like as well) and these clips are great for sectioning off your hair while you’re blow drying. My favorite hot tool is this large curler (although this is Emma’s favorite secret weapon for a great blow out) and if you haven’t started wearing silk scrunchies to bed to keep your hair gently away from your face, you should start now!

So there you have it, a few of our top favorites that we’ve been loving as we try and keep our hair game on point at home. Self-care can be so important when things seem crazy, so if you’ve been wanting a way to pamper yourself a bit, just keeping up with your hair-care needs can be a great way to feel like your best self. xo Laura