First of all … we wanted to say the BIGGEST THANK YOU. Thank you for supporting our brand new podcast. We had an incredible first week and we are so grateful (and excited!)
You can stream today’s new episode here:
You can stream the episode here on the blog or on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, and Stitcher.
OK … a few show notes links! These are things mentioned in episode four.
-You can see Elsie’s projector set up here. And you can see Emma’s set up here. There are links to all the items we used in those posts.
-Here are the links to Google Home (large speaker and small speaker). In my home, I use two large and three small.
–Elsie’s Halloween tour (and last years) + Elsie’s holiday home tour (part two).
-Nova’s snack drawer. This is where we keep all the packaged snacks. It makes lunch packing simple because we grab a few of these along with a few fresh things like bananas, clementines, cucumbers or grapes.
-Here’s a link to @thehomeedit. Their houses really are as organized as their IG feed. It’s inspiring!
And, as I suspected, there is no ghost toilet photo to share. Haha … probably for the best.
Happy Monday! XX- Elsie + Emma
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Excited to finally share the bedrooms at the holiday house! This house has three bedrooms (other than 
Here you can see a little before and after of this space. This bedroom is connected to a small second room, through this arch doorway. So we decided to add a king-size bed in the main area and then create a mini living room in the second part. It’s a great space to hang out before bed or have a cup of coffee and read in the morning. That is one thing we loved about this home when we bought it—there are so many living/common spaces.
Love the green leather love seat (it’s been retired but you can see 
In the stairway that leads to the second floor, that has the other two bedrooms, we added 
These two bedrooms are almost mirrors of each other. Both contain a queen-size bed (LOVE 
Is everyone starting to plan their Thanksgiving menu yet? We just hosted our first Friendsgiving in the holiday house and it was awesome! This is our 8th Friendsgiving and we rotate between Springfield and Nashville for the event. We kept it small this year with just us three siblings (myself, Elsie, and our brother Doren), our significant others, and our kiddos. With Elsie living in Nashville and our brother moving to St. Louis by the end of the year, it was really special to keep things small this year and spend some time together.
For our turkey this year, I pretty much stuck to 
I used a 10-14 pound frozen Butterball turkey, and loved that they had thawing instructions on the side of the packaging. I don’t always use a frozen turkey, so this was helpful! ALDI has a lot of other sizes available too, all at affordable prices, just in case you need a different amount for your event. The brine is a mix of Simply Nature Organic Vegetable Broth, spices, fresh fruit and citrus rinds, and a whole bottle of Crystal Creek Cellars Riesling. I sampled some of the Riesling before adding to the brine and it was delicious! We ended up serving the William Wright Chardonnay with our meal and everyone kept commenting on how good it was (plus it was super affordable—my favorite kind of wine. Ha!).
Along with the turkey and side dishes I already mentioned, I also served Caesar salad, mashed sweet potatoes, and then I bought brioche rolls and a box of stuffing mix too. My secret to any big meal like this is I don’t make everything from scratch, just most of it. 🙂
Elsie and our niece, Penny, set the table and made everything extra pretty. We were excited to host our Friendsgiving at the holiday house this year as this is basically the first big meal that has been served in this dining room. So we kept the decor pretty minimal since it was already an extra special spot.
We had a kiddo table this year, using the picnic table from the playroom. I am normally a big fan of kids eating at the same table with adults, but we just didn’t have enough chairs/space. I think a kiddo table worked out though as the cousins had a lot of fun sitting together.
I am immensely grateful for my family this season and I’m so happy we all got to get together already this year and spend some time together. Wishing you all the best whatever you are celebrating this season! xo. Emma
Four years ago, we purchased our 1970s fixer-upper and began a several-years-long renovation. I learned SO much during this renovation—it was the learning experience of a lifetime. It was my first very large renovation. It took longer and cost more than I expected (as almost all renovations do). What I wasn’t expecting, though, was how much I truly enjoyed the entire process. Once I realized we were finally done, I was missing the process almost instantly and wishing I could back and do certain rooms more slowly.
