The 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️ List

+ an incredible Autumn syrup for coffee and a word about what's to come post-pregnancy

Shit’s about to get real private around here, guys.

Call it almost-motherhood, but my patience for unsolicited advice has dwindled down to next to nothing. Pair that with how weird the internet can be, and you’ve got yourself a famously very public, oversharing “influencer” who has decided to get very private once her son arrives on the scene. I won’t be posting his face to my EMMASTHING Instagram — in fact, I’m going to create a private account for friends, family, and extremely familiar-to-me followers so I can share him safely and separately.

I also am going to be leaning into my paid Substack heavily. For those of you who just rolled your eyes, I get it. I know you can’t afford to pay for every person’s paid subscription — it’s a lot. However, my paywall is literally my sanctuary. It’s my safe space, especially considering I know there are weird ass obsessive hater trolls who read this free letter and talk shit on it (to which I say… wtf. Get a grip and also maybe a life?). Over the paywall (and through the woods) is one of the only ways I can communicate freely and openly without knowing in the back of my mind that these trolls are partaking in my free content and ripping it to shreds. So, once I am officially a mama, any specifics about my son and family will more than likely be for paying subscribers only… unless, of course, it’s a story or experience with universal truth I feel everyone could benefit from reading.

Of course, I won’t leave free readers entirely in the dark! Free Friday letters will always* be sent (*maybe not for the first month PP or so, but you know what I mean), and I will never stop creating free content. But this is just my heads up that if you’re a free subscriber and start to notice way more PAID content, it could be time to upgrade if you want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

In fact, for the month of October, I’m going to offer a year-long subscription at a discount. Instead of paying $50 a year, I’m going to mark it down to $40. If you upgrade, consider it your early Halloween treat! Click below to upgrade now.

All right. I’m off my baby soap box (doesn’t sting the eyes!). Let’s get into this week’s content.

READING 📖

While I’m still reading 1984, I’m hopping around various pregnancy books in-between. My friend gave me The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding to skim, and I’ve already learned a few things. For those wondering, I plan to BF but I’m not planning to take my life over it. If the baby latches easily and it’s not a stressful, horrible thing for either of us, yay! If not, I know fed is best. Either way, this book is pretty informative thus far!

WATCHING 📺

GBBO is off to a great start. The showstoppers were legitimately so impressive the first week??? Also, can we talk about the spotlight they did for that one male baker who lives with his parents and likes skateboarding but is terrible at it? Dude, I’d be so pissed if that was the b-roll they used of me. We were laughing pretty hard.

I’m also watching Halloween Baking Championship, which isn’t nearly as charming and lovely as GBBO, but I just love a baking show. The host used to be Jesse Palmer which made no sense to me, but they’ve replaced him with John Henson and they replaced a few of the judges, too. The jokes and bullshit aren’t very witty and usually pretty awkward, but the bakers this season are super talented!

I planned to watch Tim Dillon’s new Netflix show this week, as well as this week’s episode of English Teacher, the new Rings of Power, AND to finally start Nobody Wants This, but it was a busy week with little downtime at night (and Zac forced me to watch 12 hours of football last night). But TONIGHT - tonight, we will be watching so many things and I’ll have more to chat about here next week.

LISTENING TO 🎧

I don’t listen to The Rest is History podcast religiously, just when the mood strikes. This week, I listened to their episode about Lee Miller, a very famous female photographer who covered WWII and got some infamous shots (including one of her in H**ler’s bathtub). Kate Winslet played her in a new biopic that came out a few weeks ago and, after listening to this podcast episode, I definitely want to watch the movie!

This is kind of a listening/watching combo, but this YouTube channel just popped up randomly the other night on our TV, and it’s so lovely? It’s like the crackling fireplace channel during Christmas, which I LOVE. Throw this on your big screen on a fall weekend and enjoy with your ears and eyes.

MAKING 🔪

What haven’t I been making is the real question. I really went for it in the kitchen this week and have the recipes to prove it.

The first thing is this incredible autumn spice coffee syrup. A local coffee shop near me makes something called the Spooky Spice latte, and the flavoring is just so epic. It’s the perfect marriage of spices and not too sweet, so my friend and I were determined to find something like it online that we could make and keep at home, and we did it. She made it first and tweaked the recipe some, so that’s what I’m going to share with you guys here.

I also made these amazing chewy spice cookies by Butternut Bakery that are so seasonally perfect. The middle is chewy and the edges are crunchy and the taste is phenomenal. One of these with a cup of coffee flavored with the Autumn spice syrup and you’re in fall HEAVEN.

To round out my week of fall-flavored things, I woke up one morning craving Apple Pie Oatmeal (???), found this recipe, made it, and IT WAS SO PERFECT. I used brown sugar as my sweetener and YUM.

Lastly, this Caprese Chicken from Defined Dish was a HIT. Zac said “This is the best chicken dish I’ve ever had.” Maybe he was just starving, but I don’t know… his reaction was pretty big. It’s a super easy dish to put together, and I served it with roasted broccolini because I’m trying to incorporate more veggies into our meals but damn, it’s hard.

SHOPPING 🛍️

For all my basic fall girlies, Anthro is having a 20% off all pumpkin-scented candles right now, so our time has come. I got this BIG ASS pumpkin that is so gorgeous as both a decoration and candle, and the scent is a delight and a half. I also got this smaller one because the pumpkin and clove scent was to die for!

They’re also having a 30% off sale on candle holders, so I grabbed two of these glass beauties in the “pink” and the “blue.” I’ve already set them up with my flameless candlesticks I love so much from Amazon, and they look gorge!

Because we’re now a “shoes-off” household, I’m realizing there’s no such thing as having too many house-only slippers. I got these from Amazon this week in the “black white” combo, and they’re extremely comfortable.

I also treated my extremely pregnant self to two pairs of maternity sweatpants and haven’t taken them off since they arrived. I know my angles well, but if you want to see what I truly look like right now, here’s evidence:

Just so. much. belly.

And speaking of what all you can see in that photo… I will FINALLY be revealing our kitchen reno to the GP (general public) next week!!! My parents are coming back over this weekend to continue helping us nest, and I have a feeling that, come Monday, things will be in a good enough spot that I feel ready to share some before and afters with everyone. WOO HOO!

Have a great weekend, and I’ll meet you here next week…

EGM