#321: Cozy Fall Dream Day

0:00Emma You're listening to the Beautiful Mess podcast, your cozy comfort listen. I'm your host Emma Chapman. Elsie And I'm your host Elsie Larson. Emma And this week is all about fall, what our dreamiest autumn days look like, and what we were like as kids. Elsie Oh, fun! Yeah, and fun, fun. Emma Before we jump in, Elsie and I both over this weekend went on trips, so we're gonna share at least one thing from our trip. So, where did you go? What did you do?

0:12Elsie Okay, I went on a date with my husband, no kids, to Bentonville. The kids stayed with my mom, so thank you, mom. Emma That's about two hours from where we live. Elsie Yes, it's a two-hour drive. We stayed at. There's this like cute little boutique Hilton in the downtown, and it just looked really. It's decorated like just a crazy amount of modern art and really cute. So we stayed there and we went to the Grandma Moses exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum, and I was looking forward to it all year. They have 80 works, so like just so many. It was like three or four rooms full that you walk through, and it was just it was incredible. I and I actually went to it two times. We went to it on Saturday, and then on Sunday morning we didn't have much else to do, and I was like, I really want to go back and walk through it one more time, so we did. I went one more time, yeah, and I'll probably go again because it's staying until March. Like it is just a once in a lifetime experience if you have a chance to see one of your favorite artists that many pieces in one place. Like I would have flown to see this, so

0:27it was very special. Yeah, it was in our area. Emma Yeah, and I think we've mentioned Crystal Bridges a few times, but if you are ever anywhere near Bentonville, Arkansas, Crystal Bridges Art Museum is truly, I think, one of the best art museums in the U.S. It's all about U.S. artists too, which is pretty interesting. But it's just a really gorgeous, well-curated, amazing museum, and I feel like not enough people know about it, so I just feel the need to talk about it. But it's not that far from where we live, so it's really special. Okay, tell us about your weekend trip.

0:34Okay, I went to Austin, Texas, because we went to see a football game. I've mentioned before that my family is college football fans. Our team is Longhorns, Texas Longhorns. We saw it playing on the TV at a restaurant we were at, and Jeremy's like, "Do you think that Emma's at that football game right now? And I was like, "Yes. And I think she's wearing a costume. I was wearing a costume, so I have two main outfits that are like my special for the game outfits. One is the overall game day bibs. If you know, you know. It's basically burnt orange and white striped overalls, and a lot of the like younger men, college age boys, will wear them with no shirt and like paint their faces. I don't do that. I wear a tank top, but I just like the over. I love overalls. So when I saw that this was an option, I was like, I have to buy game day bibs. I don't know why they're called bibs, but there's overalls. Anyway, so I have that, and then as you all know, I'm a fan of sweater vest. I like a vintage sweater vest. I like weird decals on them. Sign me up. I'm Miss Frizzle. Just picture me that way. And I found, as I was shopping for a sweater vest, I

0:45found this one that was from a a brand that I love, and it was Longhorns themed, and it has all these decals on it and like sequins, and it's it's honestly pretty wacky, but it's so funny to me and like so good and just exactly what Miss Frizzle would wear to a college football game. And so I bought it, and this was the first time I got to wear it. So that was really exciting. Ooh, I want to see a picture. Do you have a picture? I don't think I took any pictures. I want to show it to you though. It's amazing. It's an amazing sweater vest. It's it's kind of the crown jewel of my collection, but anyway. But the thing I wanted to mention, the game was fun and everything was great. It was a great week in Austin, such a cool, cool town. But I went to a restaurant. It's called Barley and Swine. I'm saying the name because I want you to go if you get a chance if you're in Austin. And it was an amazing dinner. It was the best dinner of my life. Woo! Yeah. What? So one, I'll say they have a Michelin star. I had never been to a restaurant before that had any Michelin stars. They have one. I think you can get up to three. I'm not sure. Wow,

0:56I'm not a Michelin star super knowledgeable person, but at any rate, so they do have a Michelin star. You could feel it, but it was also just like a really cool vibe in there. We sat at the bar and did the tasting menu. I'm not sure if the restaurant only does tastings or if you can do a la carte. I didn't really check. We had to get a reservation ahead of time. You will need a reservation ahead of time, but yeah, it was like I want to say seven or eight courses. They're very small. You can get a wine pairing with it. We didn't do that. I just had a glass of wine with some of the courses, but it was delicious, and it changes seasonally. If I lived in Austin, I would go every season as they change the menu. It was so good, just incredible. And I was immediately trying to look up if the chef had a cookbook, and he does not. He has these like almanacs that he had made, so I'm going to try to buy one of those. But I have to buy it off thrift books because there are not very many of them. But at any rate, it has recipes in it, so I was like, sign me up. But yeah, and he has two sister restaurants, so you can look that up. But the restaurant I

1:07went to is Barley Swine, great service, best meal of my life. It wasn't even that expensive. It was pretty average. I want to say it was like 125 per person for the tasting menu, something like that. It sounds magical. It was great. It was great. The game was good, but this was great. So if you're in Austin, you should go. Elsie Love. Okay, we have a listener question from Jill. She says, "What would the dreamiest fall day look like for each of you in time blocking form, I want to be immersed in your cozy fall mind. Oh my gosh, I love this! I love this question.

1:15Emma Dreamiest fall day, with kids or without kids? Elsie I mean I think you should do a little bit of both. I'm gonna do a weekday. Emma Yeah. So then you get some and some. Yeah. All right. Let's see here. So let's maybe let's go through. Let's be like doing our mornings, and we'll go back and forth. Elsie Okay. So I like to wake up at five and work on my novel for at least one hour before my family wakes up. On the weekdays, it's only one hour. On the weekends, it's much longer. So yeah, that's what I would do first. What about you?

1:26Emma I usually wake up with my kids. They wake up at six, but we would watch some kind of fall-themed PBS something. I don't know if you're a PBS PBS app person, but they tend to do kind of PBS PBS. No, no, not PBS. Don't do that. PBS Public Broadcasting Service. The app we use that on our TV, and they kind of like will change out the app icon for fall or like different holidays, and then sometimes in depending what shows you're watching, you know, like we'll watch Daniel Tiger, Wild Kratts, Dinosaur Train, whatever. A lot of times they'll have like kind of seasonal episodes, so they'll have kind of Halloween or fall themed this or that, so I kind of like checking it at different times a year. Once they start having like stuff with pumpkins in it, I'm like, oh yeah, here we go. So that, and then also my morning coffee has to be in a Halloween mug, which I haven't even finished putting out all my Halloween decorations yet. But the mugs were the first things mugs and soap dispensers were the first things to come out of the closet.

1:37Nice, yeah, but it has to be a Halloween mug that my morning coffee's in, and then I am dealing fall for the day on a weekday. Elsie Nice. Okay. Emma So after that, let's say during the day, day lunchtime, daytime activities. What's happening? Elsie Okay, so I would either like I like I do I do like time blocking. I like the I like to be on one task at a time. So I would either work on my book a little more or go on to painting after my kids are in school. My perfect day, and I I lately have been painting every day, and it just kind of happened since our trip to Sacramento. I'm just like obsessed with it all of a sudden, and I'm doing it also as like stress relief, and it's helping. So yeah, I would paint for even like an hour, and that's also when I like to listen to my audio book.

1:50Emma I'm kind of the same. As soon as my kids leave, I kind of get ready, kind of half get ready because I try to work out first. I think I mentioned in a previous episode, but I at my annual appointment this year, doctor's appointment, I was a little bit pre diabetic, so I'm trying really hard to make working out and eating well a big priority. I was kind of letting working out fall to the wayside as I was spending so much time with my kids, so now I try to do that the first thing once they go to daycare. I work out for me, so most like every other day I do weightlifting and I just do that in my basement. But every other day, that's not that. I go on a walk, and I love going on a walk. And in the fall, it's my favorite time of year to go on a walk. There's nothing like a crisp fall walk. I some people don't love walking. That's cool. I don't understand you. Yeah, I just love being outside and walking and letting my mind wander. A lot of times when I'm on a walk, I'm kind of brainstorming stuff I want to work on for the day, or I might even if I'm talking out loud. If you ever drive through my neighborhood and you see me talking out loud, I'm either

2:02doing my gratitude practice or I'm giving myself a pep talk because I need it, and that's like what I'm doing on a walk is like amping myself up to do life. Elsie Good, yeah, and it's the best in the fall because the weather's nice. It's not too hot. It's not too cold. It's just lovely. So love a fall walk. I can get one. I love a fall walk too. I'll put that one in there, and then the next thing, usually in the afternoon, I have to get my kids at 2p.m. Like, well, I have to start thinking about it. I get them at like 215. So pretty much after two, my workday is over. So I'll have a lunch, and let's have like a big mama sandwich or soup. Special sandwich, or yeah, soup season is good too.

2:10Everything for me, yeah. And then yeah, like more realistically, I usually eat cottage cheese, but we don't have to talk about that. Yeah, I'm a Greek yogurt, but we don't need to go there. This is not realistic day. This is dream day, fun day. So on this day, I'm gonna have like the specialist sandwich in all of town, and then I'm gonna freak out a little bit because I only have the two more hours, so that is when I have to do whatever thing is like pressing on my list. So like, if there's like I need to make a phone call, I need to do a meeting, like whatever thing needs to be done, it's gonna be during those hours right there. Yeah. But since it's a perfect day, let's say I have nothing that I have to do. I have no errands. Then maybe I can paint for two more hours, and I can and I can just like listen to an audio book a really long time, which would be that would be perfect.

2:19Emma Yes, yeah. Any spare moment I have, it has to be 15 minutes or more. It doesn't feel worth it to pull out my stuff, but I'm trying to finish this Grandma Moses replica paint by number, and I listen to an audio book or a podcast when I'm doing it, and it's just like a craft just for me, and I love it. If I only have like five minutes, then I don't pull my paints out because it just feels like a waste of time. I didn't get very much done. Yeah, but if I have 15 minutes, I'm like, I can finish one of the numbers. I really think I can if I go, go, go. So yeah, so that I think wearing sweaters once I the weather gets where I can start wearing sweaters, to me that just like really makes my day. Yeah, I can wear a cozy sweater. I love it.

2:27My sweater collection is like probably one of the best parts of my closet. I just am really honed in on the sweaters, so I love when those start to come out for the season. What else during the day, other than working, which I really enjoy, just like being in my office and like getting stuff done. But if I have a little bit of time before I have to pick up my kids, I love to go thrifting, and this is any time of year. But I especially love it when they have like Halloween, Christmas decorations, sweaters out. You know, it's just like fall stuff because I love all that stuff. So then there's more of it at the thrifts. So it's really fun to kind of treasure hunt for 20 minutes before I go pick up my kids.

2:34Elsie Cute. Emma I always love that. Elsie Yeah, that's more of a weekend activity for me. Emma Do you take your kids? Elsie Sometimes, like half the time, or I just sneak out. Okay, so at 215, I have to get my kids, and our school does have the cutest situation where all the parents sit around and talk at picnic tables. So I let it take sometimes like a whole hour of just sitting there chatting, and often we have playdates after because they start asking me if they can bring all their friends home. So that's kind of a part of our life right now, not every day, but like once a week. But yeah, since it's the perfect day, okay. Let's pretend nobody asks me for a play date, and we just get in the car and come home. But then after that, we're gonna do snacks, and we're gonna have some kind of a Halloween movie, and we're gonna do some kind of like a cooking or baking project tonight. Actually, I know I have to make lemon bars because it was one of our kids got the cookbook. What was that? I think it was Sally's Baking Addiction. The blogger.

2:52Emma Yeah Elsie I think she has like a kids cookbook, or it felt very kid friendly. So anyway, she got that from the school library, brought it home, and then the one recipe she really wanted to make from it was lemon bar. So we're gonna do that. Emma Oh, I saw that. I that I was like, oh, Marigold's legit. She knows about Sally. That's what I thought when I saw the cookbook. I was like, hmm, nice. Elsie Yeah. Emma Because Sally, she's top tier. That food blog. Oh yeah, she is. Yeah, she's everything. I I bake a lot of her stuff.

3:06Elsie Yes, and then we just got a new dining room table, and we just started having dinner at the table instead of at the island. So that's like our new thing. We're trying to be cute. Emma I love it. Elsie We're doing that, and then since it's a dream day, I want to make popcorn in the Whirly Pop, and then I'll watch a TV show with Jeremy. That's pretty much my whole day. I love it. What's your evening? Emma Yeah, after school, after I pick up the kids, we usually do some kind of activity, and I try to do like things for the season. So, a couple things we've done recently is I got this little Halloween floor puzzle. So it's like bigger pieces, but my older son loves doing puzzles, and it was like of a haunted house that had like a werewolf and a mummy and a vampire. You know, it was fun. And then I've also been getting these little packs. They're kind of like called Creator, I want to say, but they're like little Lego where it's like it only takes the little ones. It'll take like 20 minutes or less, and the bigger ones it's like an hour project or less. Like they're not the big kits, not the because to me that's like a weekend project, and

3:22those are expensive. So I'm like, this is gonna take multiple days, but it'll be Halloweeny one. So we had this one that was like a skeleton with a pumpkin head, and then he would kind of like use it to play with, and you know, just stuff like that. So how do. Few of those things, and we've been making some Halloween ornaments and for the tree and just things like that. So we do that, and then we make dinner. And sometimes the boys help me. It just depends. Like once a week, we do pizza night, and they'll help me. And lately, Oscar has gotten obsessed with Domino's. They're not breadsticks. They're like the bread bites. They're like garlic bread bites. I think we had that. I don't know what they're called on the menu, but they're like little bites of bread that are like garlicky, buttery. And he's kind of obsessed with them. He calls them special bread. He's like, "Did you get the special bread? If he sees we have pizza boxes, he's like, "Did you get the special bread? So we've been now for pizza night because we make our own pizza once a week, because it's a real like good one where kids can help you. That's like

3:33a good intro intro to letting your kids help cook pizza, because they can roll it out and they kind of do everything, and then they don't help you put it into the oven. So there's no, you know, worrisome. Oh, they have to. The water's boiling for pasta or whatever. Anyway, so lately that's been our mission is we're trying to make our own special bread at home, cute. And each time we've only done it a couple times, but I'm always kind of like, "What do you think, Oscar? Do you think this one's like Domino's?

3:38And he's like, "I think it needs more salt, or you know, whatever. He has like a little review. So then the next time I'm like, "All right, we're gonna do it more salty, and he's like, "He's just into it, so it's fun. So anyway, that's not necessarily fall themed, but I feel like delicious bread is great. is a comfort food, so it's like that works for fall, winter, anytime. So that, and then after our kids go to bed, oh, I guess I will say so. During the bedtime routine, we do a lot of reading books, of course, sort of the whole thing with the bedtime routine, really. And I love pulling out seasonal books, they read all books all time of year.

3:44But I do love pulling out like their Halloween books and their Christmas books. And so this time of year, the Halloween books are out, and I love it because I just love spooky stuff. My kids know they're like, "Mom, you love spooky stuff. I'm like, "That's right. So I just love all their little Halloween books, all the little Halloween books you can get for kids. It's a blast. Halloween picture books are one of my joys in life. Yeah, so we have tons of them. So they're out right now. So that's part of our bedtime routine. And then after the kids are in bed is usually when Trey and I have our our real dinner, our dinner, which is not special bread. It's usually more something protein or whatever, whatever, whatever. So I make that.

3:51And this time of year, I'm always trying to do soup if I can, and I love to make a big pot of soup, so it's something we eat together, and then I save the rest for my lunches throughout that week, or I'll even freeze them in the soup cubes, which are like these big oh yeah cubes that you can buy a tray for, and you can freeze them. So then you have soup, you know, months later you can pull it out and rewarm it, and I love it. So I'm big on the soups this time of year.

3:56Elsie Magical. Can you read the question from Karen? Emma Yes. Karen says I'm a Kiwi gal living in New Zealand who has followed you since your Bright Stockings era, 2010. Question mark question mark. My question is: What would you do if you lived in the Southern Hemisphere. Imagine Easter and autumn, Halloween and spring, and Christmas in the summer. How would you decorate your home? Would you pretend it is winter and decorate snowy at Christmas time? That's what a lot of people do, or would you create summery Christmas decorations?

4:04Imagine fairy lights where it doesn't get dark until 10 p.m. Would you decorate Halloween with pumpkins and do fall baking, even though they aren't the season and it's spring. Elsie This is tricky. I hate the idea of it. Emma I do too. I feel I'm like, wow. Elsie I want to hear more from people who live there how you like. I mean, you have to, right? Like, you can't just change Christmas to be a different time of year. Like you have to have Christmas in summer, right?

4:13Like there's no there's no option because I feel like you could just have like a different like everything could just be switched. But if that's not how they do it, you know, like they just don't celebrate Christmas on December 25. Instead, they do right june 25 or right. Yeah, I mean that's what I would want to do, or at least have two Christmases. I have a friend who does this like Christmas in July, and she does it every single year. And she like sets up a full tree and gets like one present each for her kids, and like does you know it's really cute. So maybe there's something there. I don't know. I cannot answer this. It sounds like a nightmare, but I love Australia. I mean, I I can't wait to visit. I just feel for like this Christmas and fall in the summertime thing. It's very haunting. I don't know.

4:21Emma Yeah, it sounds like a nightmare to me too. Yeah, please write us if you live in New Zealand. Tell us what you do. We would love to hear your traditions for sure. But yeah, I'm like I don't know what I would do. I guess I would make the Easter Bunny spooky. I don't know. This is my cultural reference, so you'll see how cultured I am. There is a Bluey episode where they are celebrating Christmas, and it's like Christmas swim. Go go there, Australia. And so my son was like, "Why are they swim?" At Christmas, and I was like, "Well, they're in a different hemisphere. It's hot there. And he was just like, "What? And I'm like, "Yeah, that's the correct response. It's like, "What? That's not what's in any of the movies. It's like, yeah, we need. I guess we need to make more Christmas movies so we can all see more Christmas swims because Bluey is pretty much who's bringing the information here.

4:31Elsie Yeah, I don't know how I would deal with that. I don't know. We don't like it. We don't like it. We are confused. Even when when Emma moved to LA, she immediately the very first autumn she called me and she was like, "You would hate it. You would hate it. Just the the feeling of not having like fall leaves and a chill in the air. Emma People would barbecue at Christmas. I just didn't like. I wasn't used to it, and I didn't like it, and I never got used to it. I was like, "No, what are we doing?

4:39Elsie Yeah, but I mean, I bet there's like cute ways to make it fun, and I want to hear those. I want to hear. Emma Well, and a lot of holiday stuff is kind of nostalgia based. So if you grow up somewhere, it's gonna feel different. For us, we've already grown up in the Midwest, so it's like, well, this is what it means to me. So it's hard to imagine it flipped up on its head because I'm like, I don't know, man. Elsie Tell me if you're an Australian person or from New Zealand and you see like a movie where it's snowing at Christmas. Does that like give you the ick, or do you wish you could experience that? Because that's how the movies are. I'm just so curious. Want to hear everything? Yeah, I I need to go to Australia actually. Okay, the next question is from Kendra. She says, "What were you like as children, as preteens, as teenagers? What qualities did you find out about yourself that are still true now? What is something you grew out of? What is the most embarrassing story from your childhood? What is the most proud moment from your childhood? What would young Emma and young Elsie think of

4:53themselves today with your careers, your partners, motherhood, living in your hometowns, etc. That is interesting. That is an interesting question. Yeah. So, if you've listened to our mini, I feel like we've had three or four evangelical upbringing episodes. Then you know kind of a little bit about how we were raised. It wasn't with the same lifestyle that we have now. It was with a like a conservative Christian home. So I feel like there's that. Aside from that, I feel like there's a lot of things about us as children that are similar to how we are now. Our favorite picture that we like just think is like a funny joke is this picture where we're in a kid swimming pool together, and I'm like jumping in front of Emma, basically covering her out of the entire picture, and we feel like that's kind of like a metaphor for like our entire career.

5:02Emma The pose is like her arms are spread, and she's like, "Tada! That's what the picture is like. And I'm just kind of standing back there, like almost cowering, like yeah. Elsie So wait, so I was like that. I was like loud and annoying, I would say. And Emma was like the little cute little sister. So I was like very jealous that like people thought she was cuter than me because she was, and it was just true. Emma I was smaller, yeah. So yeah. Elsie Yeah, and I so I was. I think we had a little bit of jealousy.

5:13Emma I think you had a little bit of jealousy. Ye Elsie That's true. I did. Emma Mine didn't developed till later in life. Then I was jealous. Elsie I was like an art child. Like I recently looked through all my, you know, the like the books, kind of like a journal about school, your school years. Mom made one of those, and every single year it said like, "What were your achievements? And every single year, the only thing it said was, "I'm the best person in my class at art. So I always had that self confidence, which I think is really cool for kids to have something.

5:25Emma Yeah, it definitely is. It's have a big head when you're little. Yeah, why not? I don't think it's gonna don't be mean to someone else, but like it's good to be confident. That's good. Yeah. Elsie But I think if I saw my life now. I think I'd be happy about the art. I think I'd be really happy about like my bond with my children and my life as a parent and my marriage. But I think I would be kind of confused with how it turned out because it's just so different from how we were raised. And a lot of it, you know, growing up, we just we had a lot of years of like, sort of like trying on different ways we wanted to be. I guess, yeah.

5:34Emma Which I think you should do. I think that's a pretty normal, good way to grow up. I was gonna ask, do you remember like what your first like when people would ask you when you were a little kid, like elementary age or younger, like what you wanted to be when you grew up, like what you would say. Yeah, I would pretty much want to say an artist. Really, that was my most common one. And you meant like a painter. I don't know what I meant. Well, like when you said an artist, were you picturing yourself painting, or I don't know?

5:41Elsie The truth is that until I was in my mid 20s, and I had a career. I never thought I would be anything but a stay-at-home mom because that's how I was raised, and that's how I visualized my life always. So I pretty much live like the opposite life of what I thought I would. Emma I mean, you spend a lot of time with your kids. Elsie Yeah, I mean, I have a great. We have we have a great vibe, but I am not a stay at home mom, and I never have been.

5:50Emma Yeah, no, totally. Well, I remember I used to say I wanted to be a cowgirl, and I think that was a great choice. Elsie It's so cute. Emma And it didn't work out. But I remember our grandma Karina, who our grandparents had a cattle farm, and I loved visiting because I wanted to be a cowgirl. And she had this VHS tape. I don't know if she had taped it from a program or if it had just something that had been produced. But it was basically like a day in the life of a cowgirl, and I loved watching it. And I remember so you would wake up early. So I learned that from the video. You wake up super early, and seemed like being a cowgirl mostly involved feeding all the animals and taking care of the animals. Yeah, and so they would show her like feeding the horses. And there was this part in the video where she was like changing out a horseshoe, and the horse like stepped on her foot, and she had a cowboy boot on, but it like hurt, and that was kind of showing you one of the dangers of being a cowgirl. I guess I don't really know, but I remember because it was like, oh no, here's the part where she gets stepped on with the horse. But there was a lot of

6:06horseback riding in the video, which I loved because I just thought horseback riding was the coolest thing ever. And when we would go visit our grandparents, I loved feeding the horses and like just being on the farm. I just liked being out on the farm, and I thought it was cool. I actually don't think I would make a very good cowgirl because I don't know. I just don't think it's really for me. I have friends who own farms, and it looks like a lot of work.

6:11Elsie Yeah. Emma I think I'm too lazy to be a cowgirl. Is the truth? Elsie I guess our grandma was more or less a cowgirl. Yeah, she was. Emma She was more or less a cowgirl. Elsie I don't think that you're lazy, but I don't think I would be up for that either. That it looks like a tremendous amount of work and responsibility. Emma Yeah. People who who run farms, I'm like, wow, that's incredible. I still love animals, but we don't have baby. I just have a dog. But anyway, what else? What else? What else? What else were we like as children? I remember as a kid, I was always very. I don't know how to explain this. I think it's a very classic middle child thing, but I was always very aware of other people's feelings. Like I remember, our grandmother had this friend who she had a very a voice. She didn't have a voice box like the the roboty kind, but it was like head in that direction. She was a heavy smoker, and she had just just very very deep voice, and I know it caused like some self consciousness for her. I was aware of that as a kid, and I remember I would just like treat her really well. I remember making her special cards. I remember

6:31thinking like, oh, she anytime she wants to talk to people, she's embarrassed of her voice, and I just fell for her. And so I was always like trying to do something sweet for her. I don't know. So that, and she had this. My grandma had this other friend who was really great at sewing, Mary Robinson. Remember her? Elsie Oh yeah. Emma And I would just, you know, try to really encourage her to make me things, not because I I did want them. She was amazing at sewing, but I just knew she loved making things, and I got the vibe she liked making them for kids. And so I just was always like, kind of requesting things, and I did like it because she made beautiful, beautiful things. But some of them were also kind of like a little bit wacky. But I just wore them and loved them because I knew how much she put into it, and she just seemed kind of lonely. And I don't know. I just always I remember as a kid, I was very sweet. So I guess this is one of the things that changed. But no, I just I was always very aware of like, oh, I think this person might need some extra love. Like that was what my little kid brain was always doing, and I was like, I better

6:46because I think also I was the grandkid that was like really close with our grandpa because I noticed that everyone was always hanging out with grandma all the time and like doing bedtime stories with grandma and no one really hung out with grandpa and so I was the kid who would do that and it wasn't that I didn't like my grandpa and wish that I could be with my grandma it wasn't that I just was like oh nobody's picking him I bet that makes him sad. I'm gonna spend more time with Grandpa, and it was really fun. I ended up having this really special relationship because because of that. But I definitely think looking back, I'm like, yeah, I think this was kind of a middle child thing where I was just like really aware of everyone's feelings and like almost like trying to fix it. And I think as an adult, I've kind of come to terms with. It's great to be kind to other people and notice if someone's needing something, but you can't fix anyone. That's not really something you should even try to do. That's not even always appropriate. As a kid, I think it was sweet and good-hearted, but as an adult, I think I've kind of learned

6:57that's not really how you go through the world. And it's good to be empathetic and. Empathetic, but you maybe shouldn't like get into everybody's business all the time. So don't try to fix people. Elsie Yeah, that's a hard life lesson to learn. I remember Emma's favorite cartoon character was Donald Duck, and then like years later, she revealed that the reason why she picked him was because she felt like no one else liked him. Emma I felt like he didn't have any fans, and so I was always doing these impressions of Donald Duck. I had a whole birthday themed where mom made me like a Donald Duck cake because you know, and I liked him, but I also really I had picked him because I felt like he didn't have any fans. So sad, so I was like, I'm going to be his fan. Yeah, yeah, Elsie Okay. As teenagers, we were so cute.

7:10Emma I was gonna say weird. Elsie We were so weird. We so as soon as I got my driver's license and we learned that thrift stores are cheap, so it was like kind of the only thing we could always like the only shopping that we could always do. We just did it like every week, and that was like our thing all through high school, and kind of forever. And we still thrift a lot, so I think that that's a special. I think I would definitely be happy if my teenager self could see my closet now.

7:18Emma Yeah, I think my teenager self would see 40 year old me still going to the thrifts and be like, she gets it. She's still cool. Yeah, correct. Yes, yeah. I also was a reader as a kid and so I think I would like look at my closet in my house with all the books, my library, and I would think that was pretty cool. I'd be like, ooh, look at all these books she has. Cool. So I think I would give myself a thumbs up on that too. Elsie Cute. That was cute. That was a very sweet question too. Okay, we have a hot take from Julia. Do you want to read?

7:26Emma Yes, Julia says, no new group chats for parties. If you are inviting guests to an event, please share the details with each person or household individually, and don't add me to a text chain with 22 unknown numbers for your potluck. Again, with the potlucks, I don't need to know that Todd is out of town this weekend or that Lucy came down with the flute. I don't know who Todd and Lucy are. I'm just reading this in the voice I think she. Unless you are a family member or an existing group chat, please copy and paste the invitation into a new message and free us all from this week's worth of random text.

7:33Elsie Ok, for once I will say on this one, I 1,000% agree. I just hate group. I hate group chats, and I mean, I love our. We have one with our family, yeah. With our like small, you know, our sibling and our parents, our mom, the people who want to be in it, and it is burn dead. It's great. It's great, and it and that's and it's very active. We post, we we chat every day. Yeah, I don't want any other group text in the world, and I agree. I think that there are, especially like with neighborhood birthday parties and neighborhood activities. I do get on a lot of them, and yeah, you like don't know who most the people are. I think I agree. I agree with this one.

7:41Emma I agree with it. Elsie World would be a better place. Emma And in fact, I would take it even further than Julia has. I would say this: If you have received a group text of this nature, why are you replying all to say that you're out of town this week? Yeah, write back to the one person directly. Okay, because I can have some sympathy and empathy for this person who's like putting on the event. Maybe they are juggling that alongside a bunch of other responsibilities, and they're like, "I don't have time to send out 22 different texts. I just haven't blocked that out in my day. I still think you should do it. I'm with Julia, but all right. But then it's like, listen, everybody, if you receive this text, don't write back to everyone. We don't all need to know that you're not coming, or that you're going to be late, or that your grandma died so you can't come this time, or whatever the thing is. Okay, just write back the one person. Compose your own individual text to let them know. Plus, I'll also say, especially if it's a party or something, it starts to feel like kind of a drag in a way. If everyone starts

7:56saying they're not coming, it can almost feel like a little bit of a pile on, and that's not good for the person putting it on anyway. So just write them back individually to say, "I'm going to come, but I'll be late, or "I can't make it this time. I'd like to book a different coffee with you, or whatever the thing is. You know? Yeah. Why are we replying? Not only are why are we sending? Why are we replying? These are. This is where I'm at. Yeah.

8:01Elsie Okay. Well, we agree. Emma We super agree. Elsie I guess you can take yourself out of them, maybe, but I don't know how to do that. Emma Yes, but I think, and I'm not 100. I think it shows that you leave the chat. I think it like says something like Emma's left the chat. I can't do that in certain circles. That's just not gonna go well. Elsie Okay, I hear you. Emma Family members and things. You know, it's like no, no, no, no, no. If I was assured that would not show that I left, but I'm not positive about it. Okay, do you have a book report this week? I do. So I have just finished the Parisian Heist by Joe Piazza. Ooh, no, I'm not. It is so much fun. Okay, so Elsie I do. So I have just finished The Parisian Heist by Joe Piazza. Have you heard of this?

8:18Emma Ooh, no, I'm not. Elsie It is so much fun. Okay, so this is my little cute story. I got the book before it came out. She sent me the arc herself because I left her one Instagram comment. Wow! And it was just like a random, and it just-it was like I just saw it randomly on my. I wasn't following her yet, and I had never-I never heard of her. I never like nothing. And then, but I just like saw it on my Instagram. You know, like how yeah the algorithm is now. It's just-it's just everything. And I love historical fiction, and it was presented as like telling the story of Vincent Van Gogh's sister-in-law, who kind of is the reason why he became famous, and I just wrote immediately yes, and she wrote me immediately and was like, "Can I send you a copy?

8:28So it's like my very first arc copy, so I'm gonna keep it forever because I think that's I think it's special. Emma That is special. Elsie Yeah, in Whistler, she was kind of like making fun of people several times who like think they're special because they get an arc copy, and I was like, I am that I like I am, and I own that. You're like, yes, bring it. It's very special. It's like a collector's item now. So anyway, but then months went by, and anyway, the book is already out, and so I ended up finishing it on audio because it's just more practical for me, and I was enjoying doing it while I was painting. And it's a great audio performance. It has two narrators, so it has two timelines. It has a modern timeline, and then it has a historical timeline with Vincent Van Gogh's sister-in-law Yo, and it kind of shows like how you know when her husband, his brother, and her and he had died both kind of quickly together. She was left with all this art and no money, and she figured out how to become an art dealer as a woman in, I think it's still like the 1800s, maybe. So actually, I'm like

8:41100. Yeah, I think it's definitely the 1800s. But anyway, wow, yeah. So it's just an incredible story. So you get like all this art history, and then on top of that, there is a modern day story that is a heist thing. So it's like very, very pacey. It's very, very pacey for historical fiction. Fun. So yeah, I would recommend it to kind of anyone. It's just fun. If you like, I like things set in the art world, but this is one of the best ones I've ever read. So very good.

8:46Emma Say the title and author again. Elsie The Parisian Heist by Joe Piazza. Emma sounds awesome. Yeah, you sold me. Okay, mine this week. I feel like everyone's read this, but I finally got it off my shelf, and I had done a little trip, and I read the whole thing in one weekend, and I loved it. So it is Margot's Got Money Troubles. Oh, by Ruthie Thorpe. So also, I believe there is a mini series or the movies out. I don't know if it's a movie or miniseries.

8:55Elsie It's a mini series, and it's starring Elle Fanning. Emma Yes, and I'm definitely going to watch that next, but I don't have a review on it because I haven't seen that yet. Okay, so this is a fairly short one. It's not a crazy long book. So if you're looking for something just a banger that's a quickie, this is it. So Margot's got money troubles, so what I loved about it was probably like two or three things. But like I said, I read it in a weekend, which is very fast for me, and it was so fun. I was really like shushing my husband. I was like, I'm finishing a chapter here. I probably said that to him like four or five times. Like he probably was like, whoa, okay, But okay, so one, so the story kind of centers around a young girl, 19, who becomes a single mom, and she joins OnlyFans to make money. If you don't know what OnlyFans is.

9:06Elsie They know, they know what it is. Emma I think everyone knows what it is, but it is where you could kind of do you could sell nudes, so you could have subscriptions, and you could do sexy photos and videos, that kind of thing. Okay, so that's what she's doing for work as she raises her newborn. And what I loved about this was, I really feel like this is the book that I would point to if someone was like, "Tell me what it's like to be an influencer, I'd be like, honestly, this is the book. I feel like it kind of captured, and I've never done OnlyFans, but I'm just saying, and I'm not saying being an influencer on Instagram is the same as OnlyFans, but I am saying this book got it. It like understood what it means to be online and to kind of create a personality. That people want to follow, and you have to kind of engage in certain ways and feel the hatred in certain ways, and kind of navigate weird things at times, other people's expectations and desires. And it was just really good. Another character aside from Bargo that's in the book, kind of throughout the whole thing, is her dad, who is an ex-professional wrestler, and I didn't grow up watching professional

9:20wrestling like WWE. I know it is, but I just didn't grow up watching that as more of a soap opera gal, which I actually think those are very similar. And if you don't agree, let me know because I I'm like I'm telling you, they're the same thing, but one's fighting and one's kissing. Anyway, so I loved that addition to the novel as well, because he kind of brings this perspective of also what it means in his world, professional wrestling, to be either a heel or a face, to be the good guy or the bad guy, and to play off another person until he like this isn't who I am, but it's also not who I am. It's a hyper version of it, and also just using yourself, using your body, doing performance as a part of your art. I think wrestling and also social media and different versions of it can bring that. And I think that's really interesting in art when people use performance as a piece of it. And I think that both of those worlds, you're kind of you're kind of trying to get people to love you or hate you, and that's sort of part of the gig. So anyway, I thought it was fascinating. I felt like the book got it, and it was so interesting and so fun to read. And

9:31then another thing that I loved about it is, and this is how the book opens. So it's no kind of spoilers, not really spoilers in this book, but she has a relationship with her English professor, that is how she has her son. He's a married man with other children, and he's an English professor. So it's obvious that she is interested in English, and the book kind of has. So the book has a number of different points of view, like from different paragraph to paragraph, it will go from third person to first person, and it also had moments where it was like, okay, so I lied about that. A little bit of an unreliable narrator there, but here's the thing: like it just kind of played with these things that all writers play with, but it did it in a very in-your-face way, in a very like I'm showing you what I'm doing way, and it was fun. It was so fun. As someone who loves reading and writing, I was like, "Oh, this is so much fun, and there was a reason to it. There was a point to it because Margot is very much figuring out who she is. She's 19 years old.

9:41She's having a baby. She's trying to figure out a career. She's very much trying to figure out who she is and what she wants and what she desires and what she's going to be in life. And so, having these different points of view made a lot of sense. And so often it really added to the story. And as someone who likes writing, I also was like, "Oh, this gives the author an opportunity to kind of take us places Margot isn't, or to show us do almost a little bit of head hopping, but in an appropriate way because she was doing these different points of view thing. And it was so much fun. There are also times in the book when I didn't even notice it because the storytelling was so good, so very very fun. Loved it, loved it, loved it. It also had just so many little gems about life, about art. I actually took a picture. I'm going to read you the very last line of the book, which is not a spoiler at all. But I just loved it. So I finished it last night. Okay, so it is because that's all art is in the end one person trying to get another person they have never met to fall in love with them. I know. I like closed the book and I was like, I like want to cry. I

9:52also kind of want to cheer. I also was just like, man, what does it mean to be an artist? What does it mean to make art? Like it was just such a beautiful, honest book. It was so much fun. I love it. So, if you haven't read Margot's Got Money Troubles, you should read it. I'm also going to be watching the miniseries, which I bet is great, and I'm excited for it. Elsie Love! Wow! I'm going to definitely put that on my list now. Good sell. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with more fall episodes.