#266: Fall Books, Movies & Decor

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Emma: You are listening to The Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort listen, and this week we are sharing our recommendations for a fall reading list, movies to watch and decore ideas to get into the festive spirit. We'll also share design decisions that we regretted.

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Elsie: Oh yeah, those regrets are always fun. Okay, I love this episode. I think this is gonna be so fun. Before we jump in, can I tell the little miniature epic story of my range getting delivered?

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Emma: Oh yeah, definitely. Please do. It's far enough away now that you don't have to cry during, there's no tears allowed. There's no tears in podcasting.

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Elsie: Right. I guess we've cried actually a lot. I think we've cried quite a bit. Alright. Backstory. So our kitchen was gutted in April and it is now September. And the only thing that mommy wants in the whole universe is a kitchen to cook soup and make coffee and just like basic everyday things. I'm starting to get to that desperate kind of shaky point. The bargaining. I'll give up my soul if I could just have an oven. So anyway, for our kitchen, which I did fulfill my promise that I put up an update video on Instagram.

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Emma: Oh, you did?

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Elsie: Yeah, I did it so everyone kind of saw, so there was two big splurges that we did for our kitchen, and I think some people would debate me on that, but let's not get into it. There were two main ones. One of the big ones was the windows. So we did like this wall of windows with diamonds, and you have to pay extra for every single diamond but I love it. I love it. I love it more than anything. And it is gorgeous. It is beautiful. And then the other thing was I wanted to get a fancy range, so I researched all the ranges. So I knew which one I didn't want, like I didn't want, oh, what's the, I can't remember the name of it. The one with the red handles, that's like the more modern, the most common, like the most common one you see in luxury kitchens. I didn't want that one just because it is very industrial looking and I do think it's beautiful and I understand why people pick it because it has really good customization options. But I wanted either a French one or Italian one. So I got that in my head. You know, sometimes when something's in your head, you're just not gonna get it out. When we were in New York last year, we went into the Williams Sonoma. So they have the lock or new ones, I think. And so I like saw some of those in person and I got scared. I got scared because of the, I don't know if it was just that they were like really busted floor models or like, there was just something really strange and then they had really strange paint finishes. One of them looked to me like it could have been spray painted, and I was like, okay, I am just not sure about this. I'm just not sure. I just didn't feel good. I'm sure that they're great. Someone's gonna tell me they have one and they love it and I'm sure that they are. But anyway, I ended up picking the Bertone one, the Italian one because it was just like the one I read the most about it. And I felt like it was like a combination. I still wanted a window on the front, a lot of them have no windows. That's a thing. There were certain things about the range itself that my husband wanted. So I wanted to make sure I got his little pancake griddel that he wanted.

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Emma: I feel offended I didn't get consulted so I could get what I need.

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Elsie: I knew what you would say. The double oven is her, that is all I would say her hill to die on for sure. And anyway, and then it has like this little extra thing where you can put like gold on some of the hardware, so it's like a mixed metal situation. That was like my biggest splurge. So I ordered it and then it had to sit in the warehouse for months while our kitchen was getting finished and they wouldn't deliver it until the counters were in. So the day finally came, it was scheduled to arrive and they resecured my steps on my porch and they were like, we don't know about these. We're gonna kind of resecure them for you and make sure that everything's perfect. So they filled my house with a rubber mat. It's going all the way to the kitchen in a little pathway and everything was perfect. And they got the range out. They took it outta the box and they were like, it has a little damage, but it's gonna be okay. We'll get someone to fix it. And I was like, what? Okay. Okay. I'm gonna be cool. It's fine. That's when the horns went ba ba because my husband is like, the one thing is he was like, what about when it gets broken and there's not as many people who know how to fix it. Because that is something that you have to consider when you buy a specialty appliance, same thing with cars. I did check into that, but like, it's still always gonna be less people available than like a Frigidaire or whatever. So then they came in again and they were like, no, it's ruined. They were like, we're gonna send it back. So it was already unwrapped. I like went out there and took a picture of it. It was beautiful. It was perfect. It was about to go into my kitchen. I was going to bake brown. I already promised Marigold we could bake brownies.

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Emma: Never promised a child anything because you never know.

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Elsie: I should have known. I messed up. So they put it back in, blah, blah, blah and then the guy was like, how old is this house? And I was like, oh, it's from 1904. And he was like, have you ever seen anything strange in there? And I was like, go on. I was kind of like, okay, I am into this now. I was like, yeah, I did. I kind of did this one time, but it was, you know, not a very big deal. And he was like, well, I just saw something. And I was like, what? Okay, okay. Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe. Okay. And he said that as they were walking through the dining room, that he saw a cereal box. It was actually like a package of like those little individual, what do you call it? Like individual? Oh yeah, the individual boxes. Like it's like a variety pack of different individual cereals that you could like just put milk in it because of our renovation. Yeah, the little cup things. So it was a box, a cardboard box with like a couple of those on it. And he said that it was like moving around independently. So I was so happy.

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Emma: I like that he was in your house for five minutes and he saw a ghost and you've been here two years and you're like, nah, not really.

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Elsie: Oh yeah. So yeah, my friend advised me to like to go in there and so that I remember, I haven't done this yet and kind of just, you know, like politely, as least desperately as I can, ask them if they can do it again, least desperately. I just tell them I'd really like to see it. So, but I'm not desperate. They'll just smell my desperation and they'll just fly away. I know that's what's gonna happen.

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Emma: You seem like you want us, we're outta here.

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Elsie: Anyway, that's my beautiful ghost story of the week and when the range comes back, everything will be perfect and we'll make brownies. The end.

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Emma: Well godspeed to that Italian range.

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Elsie: I know. And they were like, we'll see if there's another one in the US and then they haven't called me back and it's been a week.

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Emma: Oh, they're looking, they're looking high, they're looking low.

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Elsie: It's fine. Whatever happens, happens. I like physically, like I'm trying to give up all control, give up all because I'm like, Jeremy, I cannot control the number of weeks we still don't have a kitchen, but I can control whether or not I'm crying and miserable every day, which I can't, but like, try. The things we tell ourselves as we move through the world. It is true.

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Emma: Okay, so we're gonna do top fall books, top fall movies, and top fall decor ideas in this episode. So this is a pump up jam. This is to get everyone excited. If you have had a little bit of a late start, like me, it's already September and I haven't put up any Halloween decorations, so I'm panicking.

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Elsie: Same.

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Emma: I haven't even had a pumpkin spice latte yet.

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Elsie: I know. Oh, let's get one right after this. I know that's a thing to do.

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Emma: Tragedy. Okay, so. You had listed top three fall books, so I interpreted this as basically a mix of things I've read and things I want to read.

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Elsie: Yeah, mine's a mixup. It can be a TBR. Mine is too.

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Emma: Okay. Mine's a mixup. So anyway, and then these are in no particular order. So first one is a spooky pick. Stepford wives.

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Elsie: Ooh. I love that.

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Emma: If you don't know Stepford Wives then I don't even, just stop listening and go look some stuff up. Okay. But it's an old, old book. It's from the seventies. But I would say that one is a mixture of science fiction and horror. A lot of his are a mix of science fiction and horror. Sometimes his are just horror though. Yeah, he's also the author of Rosemary's Baby so that's probably his most famous book, would you say? And then this one's maybe like second place. Yeah. The Stepford Wives has an incredible seventies movie.

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Elsie: t does, it has the girl from the graduate in it, and then it also has, I think a nineties remake with Nicole Kidman that is also just delightful and wonderful.

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Emma: So I stand by all three of those. The book, the movie, and the movie. I love the Stepford wives. I think it's just a genius concept and it's like a deeply unnerving kind of thing. It's like the opposite of a jump scare. It's like an unsettling that gets into your soul. It's kind of like our fears of being replaced or being made irrelevant, which is pretty timeless. And also it's basically a novella. It's a very short book but I think if you want something that's gonna put you in the spooky spirit, this is a fun one. I'm also a big fan of science fiction, so I love a mix. And then my second one, I just brought them with me. My second one is the October Witches. This is YA. I, I'd say YA, the protagonist is a 13-year-old, so I think some people would say it's middle grade, but I kind of think it's more YA. But it's about witches and the fall. There's sort of a family curse. It's a fun one.

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Elsie: So by the size of it, it looks like YA to me, not middle grade. Yeah, I think it's YA.

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Emma: And then I do have a middle grade, so I don't feel like we talk about middle grade books very often and we probably won't.

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Elsie: Oh, I can talk about it a lot because I have a middle grade child.

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Emma: Yeah, you have middle grade readers. I don't have any in my home.

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Elsie: You wanna talk about a series of unfortunate events because that's where I'm at.

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Emma: Actually, I do. Yeah, but this is a middle grade. I think it's pretty interesting. I haven't read it yet. I'm literally holding it right now. It's called the Wrong Way Home and it's a prize winner. It has a Newberry Honor on the front. One of those, and I think you might like this. So it's about a little girl who is growing up in a cult. This is what's on the back of the book. Like I said, I haven't read it. A little girl who's growing up in a cult, and one day her mom comes to her and says, we're not safe. We have to leave. And so they leave and they go to California. But she, as a little girl, is confused and she's wanting to go back to what she considers her home, the cult. But over time she discovers that the outside world is not so scary. There's lots of beautiful things in it and that the things she was told while she was in that group were not all true. And I like the idea of exploring.

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Elsie: Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing. I feel like cults is not something I see a lot in middle grade literature. It's pretty like out there thing to touch on, but I think explaining it through this age group actually makes a lot of sense to me.

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Emma: Yeah. And so that was part of what intrigued me about the book. So I'm very excited to read that. And I don't really know exactly why I feel like it's a good fall read, other than it just sounds kind of interesting and cozy because it's gonna be fairly heavy on themes. But as I mentioned, it's a middle grade. So it's not gonna be anything too crazy, like it's for young readers. So anyway, those are my three.

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Elsie: Nice. Okay. I have three. So Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman.

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Emma: I was gonna put that in there. I was gonna put that in there. Also The Secret History. I'm currently reading The Secret History and it's perfect for fall.

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Elsie: Oh it is. It really is. It's perfect. Yeah. So we'll put that as honorable mention from both of us. Yes, it has that big tweed jacket energy really does. I love it. And Magic Lessons is what I'm rereading right now for fall. So that's, it's kind of just, I love it. I love all my Alice Hoffman, but it is my number one, I think it's just my favorite. And the next one is, this is a witch book that I read a year or two ago. I really enjoyed it, is Cackle by Rachel Harrison. It is like a modern story and. I love her writing. I'll definitely read more of her books and yeah, it's just very entertaining. It's very quick. It's very fun. Yeah, just throw it in there. I personally am having a harder time with the witch book category, and I do have a lot of disappointment reads. So this one, this is at the top for me up there with Alice Hoffman. And then the third one, this one's on my TBR, so I haven't read this one, but I watched a video where the author was talking about how much she researched poison for this book. And it is called The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. So I know the premise. I'll just say the premise. The premise is, in the old days before there was divorce, there was poison. So that I just think it's gonna be fun. So I am excited to read. I haven't read it yet, but I cannot wait. And I feel like it kind of fits, you know, the vibe.

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Emma: Before there was divorce, there was poison. That's funny. That's catchy.

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Elsie: Yeah, it's scary fun. Okay next up we're talking about fall movies. So I dunno if anything coming out this fall, but I'm excited to watch. I didn't research that. Okay. I do have one. It might be something. On my bonus, I have a 2025 movie, so I'm gonna mention one new movie. Okay. I'll just do my bonus first. So I loved, if you want a funny horror movie where it's like, it is horror. It gets a little gross, but not, I get it when people are like, I don't like horror and I wanna be like, bababababa. You know, there's different kinds of horror, right?

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Emma: This is how I'm with romance and people are like, I don't read romance. I'm like, oh, hold on, hold.

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Elsie: Yeah. So there's wildly different, a spectrum, you know, within the horror genre. So I get it. Like, if you're like, I don't like the gore movies. Like, I mean, I'm like, who likes those movies?

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Emma: You're like, nobody does. Right? No, I'm just kidding.

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Elsie: I don't like that kind of movie either. I get that. But there's lots of horror movies that go in different directions. So this is in the funny horror movie category. It's definitely like leans on comedy and it goes back and forth. It is serious. It's a robot movie and it's called Companion and it is from 2025. So it's new. It has Sophie Thatcher and she's also in the new movie, Heretic. Did you see that one? It's like a Mormon thing. Everyone knows I have my Mormon obsession. So anyway. Yeah. Companion. It's really funny. It has a lot of great comedy actors in it. It's about a sex robot, a companion. It's kind of just her story, it's a kind of a traditional robot. The robot's gonna find her own way story but hilarious and charming and different. And so yeah, I really enjoyed it. And I feel like I haven't heard other people talk about it yet, which really bugs me because it was so good. So I wanna put that up top.

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Emma: Well, we did a hard sell on Annie Bot, I feel like. So the book, did anyone read Annie Bot?

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Elsie: Because yeah, this has some similarities, but it's completely different.

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Emma: Yeah. Mine are more like comfort rewatches. So for horror, it would probably be Rosemary's Baby. I'm not a big horror watcher because I get scared.

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Elsie: But you like Rosemary's baby. That's good.

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Emma: I do like Rosemary's Baby because I feel like it's heavy on the vibes and like the horror of it is more ridiculous slash. It's unsettling. It's just kind of unsettling but it's more just like a story. Like, I don't know, it doesn't really feel, there's no jump scares or any of those things. So, I dunno. So yeah, I love that.

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Elsie: So for a couple more modern, oh, my horror was supposed to be a bonus. Oh, well I'm just gonna do horror first. I love the new movie Weapons that just came out. I think it's probably definitely gonna be my favorite new horror movie of the year. It's just, it's very good. So yes, I did not watch it, but I loved the premise. Yeah, I read the premise and I was like, oh, I would read this book, boom. Like, I think you could definitely watch it. I would encourage you to give it a chance.

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Emma: No, I watched the trailer and I was like, I don't think so.

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Elsie: Okay. It's definitely gross. It's definitely gross. It has a very compelling story and like very good storytelling and it's very, very fun and satisfying. So I loved that. And then my other horror movie that I don't think enough people like put on their list or, I dunno, I don't think that it gets enough hype. Is Susperia the remake from 2018. So it stars Dakota Johnson and it's my favorite movie she was ever in, I think.

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Emma: Yeah, she's great.

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Elsie: Anyway. I recently watched this little interview with her where she was talking about Susperia, and she said that all the actors in it were women. And there's probably like a few, you know, but like all the main, like every single main actor in the movie is a woman. And even when there's a man, there's like parts where the woman, the man is played by Tilda Swinton, which is so fun and interesting. So yeah, it has Tilda Swinton as well. It has witches and it is a remake of the 1977 movie. So if you're gonna watch one, you might as well watch both. They both have different parts that are like horror, horror, horror. Real gross. I love it. I love witches. I love ballerinas and I love the seventies, what's not to love, you know?

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Emma: Okay. So, okay, now we're gonna do our, like cozy lists, which mine is basically just rewatching Harry Potter. And then we recently got our niece into Twilight, so like rewatching Twilight and rewatching the original Knives Out. Those are the ones. Did we ever tell them how you showed me with our niece, the new Dracula?

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Elsie:No, Nosferatu.

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Emma; I thought maybe this is a time to talk about that. We're about, okay, why don't you talk about Nosferatu?

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Elsie: Here's my review. I was so excited to like, I was like, oh, everyone's gonna love this. My niece loves horror movies. Emma, not as much, but I thought she'd be a good sport.

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Emma: I like vibes, you know?

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Elsie: So then I look over and I saw my niece was completely asleep. Then Emma, which I think she was just tired, but we were, there's probably like, I don't know, a third of it left and we were like, oh, Penny's asleep. Do you wanna stop watching it?

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Emma: And I was like, yeah. And next day we were like, do we wanna finish it?And I was like, let's move on to Twilight. And then I was like, so what? Do they get 'em or not? I just was like, yeah, I don't care. This movie to me was beautiful. So well-acted great sets. Love the costumes. I assume the costumes won awards. Like beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I hope so. So boring. It's gorgeous. So boring. Oh, it was boring. No, the stakes are low and they're made of wood. Just kidding. The end. So I just didn't care. I was like, yeah, I don't know. They're gonna get them. They're not gonna get them. I don't know, whatever, whatever. Just didn't care. I was like, this story is non-existent. I'm so bored.

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Elsie: Okay, well, I strongly disagree and we're gonna move on from that. I thought it was gorgeous and worth watching.And if you think that's boring, you should watch the old one because I thought it was really entertaining compared to that.

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Emma: I believe you. I think maybe the story's just boring. I've never read that book, so I don't really know. You know, the vibes of the book. Maybe it's better. I don't know. Couldn't tell you based on the movie. I'm not gonna read it though. I think it's just a copy of Dracula, so, yeah. Yeah. I like vampires. But found Twilight much more today.

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Elsie: So, no, I mean, she didn't get it. She didn't even love the part where all the rats come off the boat. And that's the best part of the whole movie, I think.

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Emma: So that's why I almost did a joke when you were talking about your Italian range that they're trying to find one. I was like, don't worry, it's coming over on the plague ship. It probably is. It's gonna crash into California. The rats will spell and there will be your new range in a coffin. This joke barely makes sense. Let's move on. Let's move on. Okay, so what's playing in my kitchen this fall?

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Elsie: So these are thevibey vibes. So I've got Hocus Pocus. I've got Practical Magic of course. And I've got the Nightmare before Christmas.

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Emma: This is a crossover because you can watch it at Christmas.

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Elsie: Yeah. I just, I kind of just think it's a Halloween movie though. I come down on that side. It has the word Christmas in the title, but it is not a Christmas movie. So I thought it was, or anyway, we just kind of do like a sing-along, like it's my favorite sing-along and you can really act it out and it's really fun with kids, so it just brings us a lot of joy. Okay. Should we talk about three fall decor ideas?

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Emma: Yes, I think so. So these are like new stuff you're doing this year?

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Elsie: Just stuff we're doing. So I'm having my struggle time due to renovation. Just having an unfinished house. I have several rooms we cannot, it's already a horror story. It kind of is several rooms we can't use and then the rest of the rooms are like filled with the things from the rooms we can't use. And it's just kind of in that state where like last week when it turned to September, I gave away when we're recording this. So when it turned to September. I was like, I should put up my Halloween tree. And last year, I know I did it on like August 30th or something, but this year I just didn't have the spirit because my spirit is broken. So I'm trying to get it back. So these are my ideas. So every year I buy one new Halloween decoration that's like exciting. It's just like what I do to be excited. And this year I bought from Etsy, a mirror that says asylum for criminally insane women on it. It's kind of just like a sign but a mirror and I'm hanging in my entryway. It is just so pretty. And we won't have a link 'beause we just don't really have show notes. But just search asylum for criminally insane women or asylum, you'll find it. It's gorgeous.

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Emma: We sort of always link things in like the show notes that are on iTunes or Spotify, wherever you're listening.

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Elsie: I can try. I can try to link on Instagram and then my next one is, I'm gonna get Marigold. Okay. So I have one kid, do you remember two years ago or one year ago when I said my kids don't play with Legos? And I was bragging about it as a point of pride because I don't have to step on legos all the time. Well now I have to step on Legos every day because now I have a Lego child and I agree with everyone who sent me the subtle pushback that was like, but Legos are good for kids. Legos are really good for kids, and it's really worth it and it's really joyful. And I think it's, it's just so good for her. She's a little introvert and she starts school and then she comes home, runs to her bedroom and slams the door and plays Legos by herself to like refuel her tank. And I think that's so healthy for that age to just have your own thing. So I saw there's two Halloween Lego sets that are epic. And she's kind of on a skill level that's insane. She's like doing growth. She's doing huge sets in like two days and it's actually scary how much money it costs. So anyway, I think I'm gonna get her either one or both. I can't decide. The Hocus Pocus house set or the Nightmare before Christmas set. What do you think?

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Emma: Which movie does she like more?

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Elsie: She likes them both. Okay. But she's like, she's a princess child, so it's like it's out of her box, but she'll still do it because it's Legos. So I thought it could kind of be like a group. Like I thought maybe I would try to put her down in the puzzle room and be more like in the public for these ones instead of in her bedroom. Like more of a group activity, you know?

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Emma: Yeah. Well maybe you could. I don't know what these costs, but why don't you buy both? And then one could be a group and one could be her own one.

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Elsie: Yeah, it's just cute. That's cute though. And then, yeah, if she's willing to do that, then I'll probably do the Home Alone one this year. We'll see. We'll see. There were a couple good Christmas ones too. Lego was incredible. I take back everything I said like the best one. She just got this one. That's like from the New Wicked. And it has a little Glinda with a little bubble to put her in. It's so cute.

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Emma: That's cute. And now I feel like from the last episode, I'm doomed to get a cat because I didn't want a cat.

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Elsie: You should be, you should be very scared. You love cats when you were a child.

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Emma: I did. That's funny.

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Elsie: Okay, my last one is kitchen decor. So since I am gonna celebrate having a new kitchen. Probably yes. I have these ideas that are very small, like it's the little things. Okay, so along the wall where the new windows are, there's like these sconces and I just like, every day I'm like, I'm so excited. I'm gonna tie like a black ribbon on each one. That's just, that's all it is. But it just makes me so excited to do it. And then just like a jar of like either trail mix or Chex mix or candy corn sitting out to the side and then like an internal candle that's going at all times. I feel like that's good for a kitchen. Pumpkin, my Halloween candle out. Do you have a favorite fall candle? Because I can't find the perfect one.

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Emma: Not really. I have a few. And I always just like buy stuff when I am at Home Goods or wherever. Anywhere really. But no, I don't have just one. Not really. I think we had a bunch of candle recommendations on a favorite sense episode.So there was some in there. Okay, well actually I'm in a similar mode as you, but for different reasons. My spirit is a little broken. I was actually just talking to my husband the other day and I felt like I was breaking some news to him, but he took it remarkably well. So it was suspect, but I was like, I don't think I'm going to go as hard on the Halloween decor this year. So I have a Halloween tree. It's a Christmas tree that's black, basically. It has Halloween ornaments. Same one I have. I love it. And I don't think I'm gonna put it up this year because we have a 1-year-old, he's like 14 months old, almost be 15 months soon. And he's in that phase where he's still crawling, but starting to walk. So he is sort of cruising around the house a lot and he also just has a personality where he loves to get into everything that is unsafe or that he shouldn't get into. He just learned to destroy. He's just a little destroyer and he's like the sweetest temperament kid.

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Elsie: And he's toilet curious.

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Emma: Oh, he is so toilet curious. If you leave a toilet open, oh, I'll kill you at my house. Like, it's such a problem. And he's so interested in everything plugged into the walls. My other son wasn't as much like this. So, but Hugo is so I just feel like I will do a Christmas tree.The Halloween tree is just a death trap for him. Unless we don't put ornaments on it. But it's still a little bit like, I feel like he's gonna figure out a way to hurt himself with it, because he's gonna be drawn to it like a magnet.

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Elsie: You brought like a little tiny one to put on your table.

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Emma: Yeah, well I'm gonna do, or something like that. The bats, I still have stuff I'm gonna put out. But I think I'm gonna skip the tree and I usually put out all these fake pumpkins and I think I'm gonna skip that too because I think they're just gonna get moved around the house a lot and, and probably just like, honestly, probably all broken and damaged. So I just think we're in a year where things are very destructive and when I do the Christmas tree, we're gonna have to put all the ornaments like in the top half, like it's that year for us. Yeah. Or someone's gonna get hurt and it's Hugo.

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Elsie: Maybe you could get like felt ornaments or something.

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Emma: Yeah. There are some that are like safe. He could take them off and touch them and we can put those down. But I think it's confusing for Oscar to know which is which. He's very careful with his brother. He is a really sweet, big brother. But he's still a little hard for him to know every little thing that's safe and unsafe. Anyway, but here's what I am doing. So I had to mention already doing the bats, which I always buy. Bats are good and they grow every year. And then some of them will get damaged and I'll buy more, but I hang them up all over the walls. They're like flying all over the house is what they look like and the kids love that. And they're high enough that Hugo can't get them. So that's great. And then I always do some kind of special like Halloween movie night for the kids. I call it spooky movie night because it's not on Halloween. I just do it sometime in October and I bought this, it's basically a body pillow, but it's like a giant stuffed skeleton.

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Elsie: Ah, that sounds fun.

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Emma: And he's in the closet. He hasn't come out yet. The kids haven't seen him. And I also bought us matching Halloween pajamas. So one day when Oscar comes home from pre-K I'll have the pajamas out and the skeleton out and I'll have put out, like we have like a Halloween throw blanket. Like there's a few things that I kinda switch the living room to feel like Halloween time. And I probably won't wait till October to do it. I'll probably do it kind of early because that's what I'm like, and it'll be spooky movie night. And I just have a feeling that that skeleton stuffy basically is gonna be a big hit. And it will not surprise me if we're a 4-year-old has it in his room.

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Elsie: Do you think he'll do like the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, or do you think he'll do like the Nightmare before Christmas?

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Emma: I'm gonna pitch it and we'll see. He's not really into watching movies. Like the longest thing he watches right now is like 45 minutes and they're like Wildcats movies. I have a little toddler. I used to watch Cars all the time, though.

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Elsie: I have a toddler one. I'll tell it to you later.

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Emma: Okay. But yeah, I was gonna pitch The Great Pumpkin. You know, we pitch things. I don't really care so much about watching movies at his age, but I do like longer form shows. I think it's good for their attention span. And Hugo doesn't watch tv, so he will just be crawling around and playing the whole time. So spooky movie night. And then the other thing is, I'm still adding to my spooky village. So Elsie does this. There's a little wooden tree house you could buy at most big box craft stores or online, wherever. So it's a wood tree house that's plain, and then we decorate it like some kind of spooky structure and then we line them all up. They all go on my mantle, and it's a spooky village. You get it? So every year we add one. So the idea is kind of like as the kids age, they have different ones. So like last year Hugo made one that just has his little footprints upside down that are white. And then I painted little ghost faces on them. And that's his from last year. So I'm doing something slightly different this year where I found Elsie and I recently went to a thrift for like 20 minutes frantically because we had a spare moment. We were like, let's thrift the time we have. So we went to this new thrift that opened up, a bigger one. And it is a 10. It's a big one. The Red Racks on Sunshine. Anyone from Springfield's listening? Anyway, so randomly there is this bird house there. It's like three bird houses put together and it's really big. And I just was like, oh, that would be perfect for the Spooky village and main structure of it was already gray, but then the roofs on it was this green color, so I painted those black. So I feel like it's already like a base to be good job sister, a haunted hotel type thing. And I just thought it would be fun. So like among my spooky village, there'll be one giant one that's like kind of, yeah, this more variety. And I also feel like the kids this year can do it together because Hugo still isn't really at the crafting age, yet he's still very much in the putting everything in his mouth phase. So like you kind of have to just, we let him participate. He does do a little bit of crafting, but you have to really, you know, there's some limits there for him, but next year he'll probably be more so anyway, so I think it'd be a good year for them to do one together. So I'm doing that and that will will go up. The Spooky village is coming out because it can go high up on the mantle and Hugo can't get it. So it's great. So, yeah, and that's kind of it, but it's a pretty minimal Halloween year for me. Which I'm fine with. It's still gonna be super fun and cute.

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Elsie: Yep. But's, you know what? What you're doing, you're being relatable because it's okay. It's okay if every year's not exactly the same

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Emma: This year, I'm trying to make sure my 1-year-old doesn't die. And that's the theme of Halloween Decor this year.

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Elsie: You're doing great. I'm really proud of you. Yeah. What's that? Oh, the podcast listener said they're proud of you too. Everyone loves you. Okay, now we have a listener request. They ask have you ever made a design decision that you regretted? Ha Ha ha. I love this question. This is a great question. I feel like it's a little bit of a got you question, it's like, or it's a little bit of a, like, is it ironic? I mean, like, who hasn't made, I feel like if you said you have never made a design decision that you regretted, that would also show something really strange about you. You know what I mean? That like, maybe your style's never evolved, which is not necessarily bad. Or you don't have one or you don't have one. Who doesn't regret? Like, I think the thing that's hard about one of the many things that's hard about houses is that, you know, to paint a room, you know, you have to at least give up what, a hundred dollars and a weekend and then you know, you spend all that time. And then very often you step back and you're like, oh, I don't like this. And that's so normal in designing houses, unfortunately. I think that's why people love the internet advice, you know? And love like choosing paint colors that other people have, you know? Because they're trying to avoid that experience, which I think is smart. A lot of my earliest first houses I painted the most like intense, craziest colors kind of just everywhere. And it was fun, you know, it was a learning experience and that is how you learn. I personally think that. It's cool to learn through mistakes. Have you ever made a design decision you regretted?

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Emma: I'm like, I probably have a hundred of these, but I just picked top two that came to my mind. Picked the worst one. The worst offenders. I picked like the two that came to my mind first is kind of more what I wrote down or thought of. So the first one was probably my very first regret.So it was my first home that I ever bought. I was 26. I was about to move in and before I moved in, I paid someone, which at the time I didn't have a lot of money. I paid someone to paint my kitchen cabinets because I wanted it to be done really well. The whole rest of the house I painted myself. But the cabinets, I wanted to be done really well and I picked this like butter yellow color. Which I think is a really cute color. It can be but pretty immediately I was like, oh, I don't like this at all. Like, it just felt very like country kitchen and it didn't go with anything else that I owned or had. Which, not that I had all that much at the time. I think that that color works best and maybe only in really bright spaces. And it wasn't like, it's a pretty small kitchen that had one window above the sink. It was just kind of a nook kitchen kind of thing. And it just was like an immediate like, oh, this doesn't really look good.This doesn't even really go with the rest of my style. I don't know. But I already paid someone to do this and I don't really feel at that time, and it's still, now by the way, I don't really feel like proficient enough to do cabinet painting. You need to be pretty serious. Painting walls is one thing. Painting cabinets is another. So that was the first one. And then the other one is, okay, so this is a small digression. Maybe we should talk about this a little more in another episode sometime. But what I'll say to set this up is simply, Elsie and I have been going through our archives and deleting lots and lots and lots of posts and we have criteria for doing this. And again, maybe we'll talk about this in another episode. It's maintenance cleanup, that's it's maintenance cleanup for the health of our site. It's for the health of our site. It's a good decision. We've seen it helping our site, the health of our site, so it's good, but it's kind of a weird exercise. And anyway, there's lots of things about it. Maybe we'll talk about another episode if people are interested. One thing that it does is it takes me back to all of our old posts because each post we have two criteria that we check before we delete them. And by delete I kind of mean a few things. But again, we could get into that another time.So I've been going through old archives and seeing old room tours and all sorts of old stuff. And it's fun. It's actually like a real walk down memory lane in a very literal way. And so I am like at the moment in the part of our archive where I was showing a lot of room tours from my house, it's on Woodcliffe. I don't remember what I would've called it back then because I doubt I said this street name it.

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Elsie: It was just your first house.

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Emma: It wasn't my first house. It was my second house. It was this kind of mid-century house that had really high ceilings. And I don't know what I called it on the blog other than Emma's the dark Snake house. We called it the Dark Snake House, the Chamber of Secrets that I lived in. If you don't know that story, then go back. But anyway, so that's how I know a trapper. Anyway, so I'm going through those archives and it's just sort of like notice. So one thing about that house is it had been flipped right before we bought it, and the person who flipped it did not at all have the same decor taste as me. And so like one thing that he did, I know it was a man, I don't know his name though, but one thing that he did was he had put in this like copper back splash in the dining room cabinet area. And it had like a copper sink. There was just a lot of like aged copper. It wasn't like shiny copper. It was meant to look like industrial copper. And I never took that back splash out. I have no idea why, because it didn't go with anything else and it probably wouldn't have been very hard to remove it all. It's probably just one big piece. It's probably just one big piece with like nails in it and I lived with that in that house the whole time. I never liked it.

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Elsie: So your regret is actually just leaving something that you didn't like? Interesting. Kind of like make it work.

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Emma:Also, I didn't like it, so it never really worked with all the stuff I did because it didn't go with it at all. It was just like the opposite of the style I wanted. So, yeah. But I would also say both these examples too. It's a little hard to tell you without visuals, but kind of what they ladder up to, I would say is not going with the general theme of your home or design of your home. Like if you buy a mid-century home, like try to make that work mid-century a little bit. You don't have to do it like Mad Men costume. But like try to like that style. Find what you like about that style. That's always good advice. And you know, same thing, you know, and sometimes you end up in a home that's just not the era you love and I get that. But as much as you can, I would try to go with it because otherwise you're just swimming upstream and it can just all look kind of a mess. And that's what happened a lot in my spaces. So my current house now doesn't really have any era to it per se. So that sort of works for me actually. But yeah, those were the two that came to mind first in part because I've been doing the archive work.

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Elsie: Okay. So I don't have the best memory of regretting things. It's just not like a thing my brain sticks on.

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Emma: I'm the same. I actually am pretty like moving forward.

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Elsie: And I do, I mean I obviously, I remember through the years that there were a lot of things I did in my homes that I shared that people didn't like. But at the same time, I feel like I've kind of blocked it out. So as far as like my personal thing that I regret. So I recently was going back, looking at pictures of our three, technically three kind of two houses in Nashville. And the first one that we lived in, it was one of my favorite houses. It was very special. It was where we brought our kids home and there were certain rooms that I kind of feel like we got perfect. I'm very proud of it. It was also the place where I learned to renovate, and I feel like if you have a dream, like my dream was to make it like a Palm Springs, like Frank Sinatra type of vibe of a house, you know? And I had that dream and I kind of achieved it and like, that's good. You know what I mean? And on a small budget too. Anyway, when I looked back through the pictures now, the only thing that stood out to me where I was like, ooh, was that we put like a ton of fake shiplap, like just a ton. I think that like once I knew you could do fake shiplap. So I know a lot of people equate shiplap with the Joanna Gaines era. But in defensive of shiplap, every time I go to Seaside, Florida and I stay in an Airbnb, it's like they are covered, they're veneered in shiplap and it looks great. It really fits like the coastal, like a coastal cottage type of house, I think is where it fits the absolute best and like, you know, if you're thinking like Maine or like, you know what I mean? Just things like that. Like it really works. But in our house in Nashville, there was a mid-century house I think that like it was just weird looking. So now when I look back, I'm like, why did I like, because the thing is that what would've been better than having it would be just plain walls. So it was like I didn't even need anything there.And I think that it was just like I had an itch to cover every surface with some kind of texture, because I wouldn't, I refused to use color in the house, and it was like, it has to be all white all the time. So then I was like, overcompensating with texture. So anyway, that was really my main one where I look back and I'm like, well, it's kind of weird. Yeah, like I feel like if you've designed a lot, you're gonna have a lot of design regrets. Yeah. I kind of stand by it that there's nothing wrong with that. Like who even cares? It's like, so you do something and then 10 years later you don't like what you did anymore. Who gives, that's normal. Like that's cool.

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Emma: I mean, I think the hard part about it's like home stuff often can cost a lot of money or there can be a lot of waste if you need to rip something out. If you do something expensive and you don't like how it turned out immediately, there's nothing more heartbreaking than that. Because if you buy a pair of shoes that you realize, oh, this isn't right for me. You can usually resell them or return them or give them to a friend or something. But like if you have to rip out a whole bunch of tile that you just don't love,it just goes in the landfill. And that's sort of heartbreaking and makes all the stakes a little bit higher and just feel like, oh gosh, you know, like, yeah, I gotta get this right. So in the way that you don't have to worry about buying a purse where you're like, I'm gonna try to get this right, but if not, I'll give it to my sister.

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Elsie: Yeah. I strongly believe you just, you do the best you can with the knowledge you have at that time, and the taste you have at that time, and like the budget you have at that time. And then, yeah, you look back on it later and you would've done it differently. Like, who cares? It's fine. You move forward. You're all doing great. Okay, so let's talk about books. I have a series to talk about this time. Okay. And I don't think I've ever talked about this series on the podcast before. Maybe, I dunno if we have, I might have I read the first one.

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Emma: So when I saw you were talking about it, I was like, oh good.

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Emma: Yeah. That's not the move, that it's not the move to stop after the first one, not the way that ends. It's definitely, I keep reading the series ending. It's definitely meant to be a series. Okay. So the series is called The Raven King series, and the first book is called the Raven King, and it's by Maggie Stiefvater. And it is a, what category is this in? I mean, fantasy, it's like kind of in the like YA fantasy, speculative fantasy. Like, it's like the type of magic that it's about is like kind of a little, I guess, a little bit of a quest. It's like an American boy who wants to find these ancient lay lines and solve this ancient mystery. And it is a four book series. I loved it. I def, I think I binged it. Probably last year. And it was my first time to read this writer. I just started reading her new book, but I think it was a pool thing. I started reading at the pool and then I got distracted. I love it. But I need to keep going on that one. But anyway, these books are extremely vibey. I would say just read the first one. So Emma was mad because she read the first one and it ends on like a cliff hanger.

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Emma: I didn't know it was gonna not really end at all. So I don't usually binge books like series. So one, I don't think I listen to as many audio books as you. So I have a huge TBR, shelves and shelves. And so I have a hard time being like, oh, I have this new series, I'm only gonna read this for a while. Or I have a new author, I'm only gonna read that for a while. I just have too many other things I want. So I just have a hard time with that. So if the book doesn't really have an ending. I was just like, it ends on a cliffhanger, okay.

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Elsie: So I was delighted because then I was like, okay, immediately, yes, I'm gonna go onto the next book. Because to me that was like the best part of the whole first book was the ending. And anyway, I think it's a great series. I think it's for fantasy readers. Let me think of how I say this. It also has mediums, psychics. So there's a lot of different ghosts. I would call it like weird girl fantasy. It's definitely not romantic at all. Very small. Tiny bit. Tiny bit, very small in the romantic. Little bit of yearning, which I like. And yeah, ghost mediums like witches, the thing with the lay lines. And then there is some other unhinged stuff that starts happening later on. It's great. I loved it. I thought it was a pure delight and a lot of fun.

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Emma: It's teenagers too, right? It's like high schoolers.

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Elsie: Yes. Yeah. High schoolers. So that's fun, I think. I really like how the characters develop through the books and it was just delightful. I don't know. Okay. What's yours?

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Emma: So it's a book that I read more than 10 years ago. But I still think about it from time to time, and it also has a movie. So if you've never read, I really enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha. Have you read this yet?

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Elsie: No.

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Emma: I know I've recommended it to you and I feel like you were like, eh, we'll see you later.

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Elsie: Yeah, I, for some reason, I'm not interested, so sell me.

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Emma: So it's about a number of geishas, but it starts off with a young girl who's going to be become a geisha. And I think that it's kind of like she's destitute, so this is the path she has to go on. She doesn't necessarily want to, so it's that type of thing. She's in a home with other geisha girls. She kind of has a mentor geisha who's really mean to her. And then there's another little girl who's like her friend named Pumpkin.And they're both gonna become geishas. And then we watch her grow up and by the end of the book she's like, I think she's like in her thirties, but she's like an adult. So we watch her have different relationships with men. We watch her go through her geisha training, and it's just really good, really interesting, kind of weird at times. Really fun. And I actually haven't seen the movie, which is crazy because I love the book, but I have a feeling based on seeing trailers and like promos for it, that it's quite beautiful. And the book itself is very beautiful too. It's just very sweeping because I feel like any story that tells a story that takes more than 10 to 20 years. You really go there in a lot of different ways. And so you watch this character change and grow and kind of accept her life and make the most of it. And I think it's interesting to watch someone do that. There's always a certain amount of bargaining, a certain amount of like. Finding a way to do it on your own terms. And then a certain amount of just bad things you have to go through and how you navigate that. And it definitely has a lot about different female friendships too because her original Geisha, who's mentoring her is very mean. But she has another Geisha friend later who's farther along in her career and she's kind to her and helps her, even though at times the help isn't the help that she wants, but it is help. So anyway, it's really, really beautiful and fun. It's very emo.

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Elsie: Okay. I don't remember if I watched the movie. I definitely haven't read the book. Interesting.

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Emma: I sold her on the emo. I can tell.

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Elsie: You got me a little, and I was like, oh yeah, just send me emo book recommendation any day, anytime, any place. It doesn't have to be Harry Styles fan fiction, but it helps. Oh, this is also random, but, so we really do buy a lot of the book recommendations that you guys send us. Like all of them.

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Emma: Like we really do all the time. I'll come over to Elsie's house and I'll see that she's bought the same books as me. Like I'm just constantly logged into my thrift books and when I get your guys' emails, I just type in the books and I add them all to my cart, and I eventually check out sometimes that day, sometimes another day. My thrift books budget is probably a little wild actually.

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Elsie: I think that the thing, the person in this world who hates me the most is probably my mailman because he has to carry all my thrift books. Because they come in the regular mail, you know, and the package says thrift books. So you're like another book. This lady has another book and it's, some days there's like four or five bags on my porch of thrift books. But I am preparing a library right now. Anyway, just go, just go on there and take a look, see. Because you can almost always find the same book for cheaper. And it's just so interesting because like I also feel like at first I hated the library editions. You know, I didn't like, like, oh I didn't like getting like library editions. And then over time now I kind of like it.

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Emma: If it has that, I always pick that like it because I could pick different ones, especially for children's books. It's interesting. Although Oscar did ask me if I stole a book from the library because it had the plastic on it. And I was like, no, I just bought it. I think it used to be at a library. But it's confusing for him because we just started going to the library. So he is just like, mama, did you take this from the library? No, but somebody did, I guess, or someone bought it from them. I don't know. It's wonderful. It's the best way to buy used books online. Oh, so where I was going with this though was we do love your recommendations and also they all just go on my shelf. I have this little library room off of my bedroom. My husband recently become a nighttime reader. He's a reader off and on a little bit. He's kind of getting serious now. He's getting into it. And so a lot of times I'm like, oh, he needs a new book. I'm like, go in the library. Oh, a couple podcast listeners recommended this. Why don't you read that? So now my husband's reading a lot of the books that you sent too. So anyway, so thanks from all of us, including my husband.

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Elsie: Okay. It's time for a joke or a fact with Nova.Hey Nova. What do you have for us this week?

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Nove: A joke.

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Elsie: A joke? Okay.

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Nova: How did the hammerhead shark do on his test?

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Elsie: Ooh, how did he do?

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Nove: He nailed it.

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Elsie: Amazing.

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Nova: Oh, and you're listening to this, tell Oscar that this is dedicated to my cousin who loves sharks, who collects them, and who has all the facts about them. Even facts, my mom doesn't know

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Elsie: That's true. He teaches me a fact every week. Alright, have a great week.

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Nova: Bye.

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Elsie: Thank you so much for listening. We are so excited to be back to a weekly schedule, so please leave us a review, five star review, please, if you are enjoying the episodes that we would really appreciate that. These are some of the upcoming episodes we have. We're gonna do, why are you retired from influencing, a favorite things episode, a gift giving episode, what we learned from being offline episode. Emma's been offline since January, so that's really interesting. A how to curate a closet episode. And then we're going to do a rewatch for Halloween, the 1973 movie for Halloween pick, and then for Christmas, well, I'll keep those a secret.

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Emma: We'll talk about Christmas later. It's too far. Look at us planning ahead.