Favorite Podcasts

 Hello People!

I've made a list of blog ideas because like I said in my last post, I'm trying to post more even if it truly doesn't matter lol.

I have a podcast going in my ear about 5-6 hours of my work day because I'm just emailing and entering orders and quotes. I do find that I'm forgetting to turn it back on after answering the phone more often but I digress. So, with that being said, here are my current favorite podcasts.

1) Hey Riddle Riddle

HRR is a riddle/puzzle/improv comedy podcast that my friend, Van, turned me on to and I cannot thank her enough. The hosts are Adal Rifai, John Patrick Coan and my best friend (I wish) Erin Keif. They all met in the Chicago Improv scene but Erin has since moved to Los Angeles. They're ridiculously funny and punny but also be warned they get pretty raunchy sometimes. I also joined their patreon because I truly couldn't get enough and $5/month? Worth it. 

2) Bananas

Bananas is a strange news, comedy podcast hosted by Kurt Braunohler (banana boy #1) and Scotty Landes (banana boy #2). For those of you who do not know, Kurt is a comedian and actor and Scotty is a tv and movie writer. I love them both and every episode they end up going on tangents about stories that have to do with what they're discussing and I'm completely drawn into their shenanigans and past lives and just know I'm inviting them both to my wedding whenever that happens lol.

3) Do You Need A Ride?

DYNAR is a comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Chris Fairbanks who are both Los Angeles comedians. The initial idea of their podcast was they would drive around Los Angeles and give their actor and comedian friends rides to and from the airport or home or their gig. They stopped driving to and from LAX because it was getting to be too much and then covid happened but they're still so much fun to listen to and I fell in love with Chris because of DYNAR. 

4) A Beautiful Mess Podcast

The A Beautiful Mess Podcast is hosted by the two founders of the 'A Beautiful Mess' empire, sisters, Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman. The podcast goes into mostly home and lifestyle discussions like their blog does. They talk about secrets of their successful businesses and their hobbies, tips for renovating homes (they've both done a few) and they also discuss books and their children and their lives growing up. Honestly it's my go to podcast when I just need to unwind from the negativity and just need positivity. 

5) My Favorite Murder

I feel like if you listen to podcasts and haven't heard of My Favorite Murder, you must listen to some real outlandish types or maybe only one because I think I'd be wrong if I said this wasn't the most popular true crime podcast. To be fair, it's a true crime comedy podcast but that makes it so much better and palatable. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark host this monumental podcast in which they tell each other (and us) stories of murders, cults, survival stories (my favorite) and sometimes just strange phenomena. They have such a big following that they read a lot of their listener stories, to which I've written in a few times and still have yet to have one read which is one of my all time goals, but they're truly the most entertaining and sometimes jaw dropping situations people have been in. I've had to stop and go back and listen to certain episodes multiple times because the stories they tell just have my jaw completely on the floor of how crazy and incredible they are. I have joined their fan cult just to be able to get more of Karen and Georgia. I am a murderino. 

If you need a new podcast to get yourself into, hopefully you'll listen to one of these favorites of mine! You can tell I love the exactly right network as three of their podcasts are mentioned here lol. Also, if you didn't know I did used to have a podcast with my friend Mollie called Break Time with Myia & Mollie which I don't believe you can listen to anymore but it was 14 episodes of us just shooting the shit and I loved doing it. 

xxoo,

Myia

Home Reno '22

 Hello People!

This year Travis and I have saved up enough to do a few projects around the house and I thought I'd share with you what our plans are!

We are finally doing our driveway, and Travis is the most excited about it. We planned on doing it last year but as I stated in a previous post, our refrigerator decided to die and we needed that more than a smooth driving surface I guess lol.

So! We currently have a partially concrete - partially gravel driveway. It was definitely all concrete at one point in time, I'm assuming sometime in the 80's maybe? The back half is all gravel which is where it pools all of the water by the garage and where the basketball hoop is. Then it kind of transitions into cracked and bumpy concrete the rest of the way to the sidewalk. It is the worst to snow blow so Travis usually ends up just shoveling because it's not worth it.

 We're planning on sticking with concrete even though it is more expensive in the beginning, it won't need much upkeep versus black top. We got an estimate about a year ago for about five thousand, which totally sucks to spend that much on something that isn't super exciting but it has to be done. Fingers crossed something else doesn't break or happen!

Another to do is installing new flooring on the main level which includes the kitchen, dining and living room. We have the flooring we're going to be installing in the half-bath and entryway already so it'll be a nice cohesive space. 

The flooring is Traffic Master hand-scraped Saratoga Hickory. It's a nice deep color that we love and goes well with nearly everything else in the house. Eventually we will also be putting it upstairs but we have big plans for that space and will have to save up quite a bit to do so.

Along with the flooring we plan to redo our stairs. We will be removing the gross shag carpet and the overly painted railing. We've already painted the stairwell and the upstairs hallway a nice gray color versus the pale shiny yellow it was when we moved in. The color we chose is Dolphin Fin (personally I would've just named it Dol-Fin, Behr really missed their opportunity). 

The stairs will have similar colored treads and I think we're keeping the risers white. I would think we might put a runner down as well because of Archie but we haven't decided on that yet. The railings we're planning on going with would be something similar to our deck railing in our back yard, you can kind of see it in the driveway photo above, simple wood railing with black cylindrical poles for the balustrade. Not sure on the baluster yet but most likely something dark wood toned that ties into our trim. 

We would also like to redo our pantry and bar area. The bar area looks perfectly fine on the surface but underneath where everything is stored is basically an unfinished hole with doors. The pantry I think was put together as an, "oh shit we need a pantry" solution. It's currently under our stairs to the second level and the shelves are way too deep to even reach everything inside. The shelves are also just OS board with shelf liners stuck on top. We are thinking about putting in drawers for the lower levels to be able to reach everything in the far back areas and do some shallower shelving for the top. There is also no light inside so that will be added as well. 

Just so dark and not great. I'm glad we have these storage areas but they're just not practical or nice to look at. So we're planning on installing lights, new shelving/drawers and stemware brackets (which I bought a long time ago anticipating this project) and new doors. 

We are also planning on finishing painting the outside window trim, I think I have about 3-4 windows left, and staining our deck and front steps. Let's hope the weather is stable enough for us to do so. 

I'll be buying our flooring soon so stay tuned!

xoxo,

Myia