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The Live More Experiment
Welcome to The Live More Experiment. I’m your host, Hannah Buchan, and this show is a behind-the-scenes look at what it really means to live more in every part of our lives. You’ll hear inspiring conversations with women who are doing just that, while I share my own journey and experiments along the way. I’ll also be inviting guests (and you!) to try out a range of self-development tools and report back on what really works.
The Live More Experiment
How Embracing Who You Are Can Change Your Life
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In this powerful episode, I’m joined by Emily Hogarth, mum, artist and creator of a gorgeous life, for a raw and inspiring conversation about confidence, identity, and what really happens when you start fully embracing who you are.
We dive into self-belief, overcoming fear and judgment, and the breakthroughs that can happen when you stop trying to fit in and start living as your true self. This episode is honest, uplifting, and full of moments that will make you reflect on your own journey.
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Hello and welcome back to the Livemore Experiment, Season 2. Thank you so much to everyone who listened to the conversations in season one. It was amazing to hear your feedback and how much you'd enjoyed them, and thanks to those who got in touch with me to see how they'd been inspired and also maybe left a review, which really made my day. So, season two, let's go for it. Today's guest is the gorgeous cut paper artist Emily Hogarth. There are certain people you meet who feel completely at home in themselves. They're not trying to be different, they're not trying to fit in either. They're just quietly, deeply themselves. And that's how Emily feels to me. I remember meeting her a few years ago now and being really drawn to her energy and style and the way that she moved through the world and the way she lived. I actually bought a toast dress because I thought I wanted to dress like Emily before realizing that I was really drawn, what I was really drawn to was the feeling of someone being fully and unapologetically themselves. And I think so many of us are craving that. So this conversation is about how you truly live a life that is yours and how you can come back to yourself every day. It's about creativity, identity, confidence, self-trust, losing yourself and coming back to yourself and what it actually means to build a life that feels like your own. Before we dive in, for anyone who hasn't come across Emily or her gorgeous work before, Emily Hogarth is a Scottish papercut artist and illustrator who lives just outside Edinburgh in East Lothian with her family. She creates intricate, handcut artworks that are inspired by nature and the Scottish landscape. And she's worked with brands including Cadbury, Nivea, and the National Museum of Scotland. Emily originally studied textiles at Edinburgh College of Art and has built a creative career that feels completely distinctive and unmistakably her own. So whether you're feeling creatively stuck or disconnected from yourself or ready for a new chapter or just a bit tired of trying to fit into the versions of life that don't quite fit, this conversation is such a lovely reminder that a rich, meaningful life starts with being fully yourself and that you can start being fully yourself today. Let's dive in. Hi Emily, thank you so much for being here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you're very welcome.
SPEAKER_00Right, lovely. We're gonna dive straight in. And um, I was wondering, what does life look for look like for you at the moment?
SPEAKER_01Uh oh, good question. Um I'm a busy mum, juggling three children. Um I work full-time in around family life. Um, we're live we moved house a year ago into a house that needs lots of renovation work, so we're living in kind of chaos. Um and I love it all.
SPEAKER_00Oh, amazing. And love seeing clips of um clips of the house move in the garden on um your Instagram as well. It's really lovely to see. Um, Emily, if somebody who you'd never met before, um if you uh if you were to describe yourself to somebody who you'd never met before, what would you say?
SPEAKER_01Oh I what would I say? Um creative person, uh friendly. Um I like people, I like chatting. Um I would just I'm a pretty open person, nothing, you know, not a lot phases me. Uh yeah, and I'd hopefully I they'd think I was friendly. You know, that would be I would I would think I would say people I was friendly, but you never know what other people think, do you?
SPEAKER_00No, absolutely don't, but I would I would imagine they would absolutely think that. Um, Emily, the reason I wanted to chat to you today, as you know, is because I think that you are somebody who is incredibly comfortable in their own skin and just very confident being themselves in quite a kind of quiet, unapologetic way. I think it makes you really magnetic and very flattering. Well, it it's it's honestly what I think, and um you just seem to really enjoy this gorgeous life you've created, and what I'm really interested in today is have you always known sort of who you are, or is it something that has sort of grown over time?
SPEAKER_01Well, that is, I mean, I'm kind of very flattered with everything you just said because it's um I don't ever think of myself like any of the things you've just said. Um so it's quite humbling to think other people would might think that. Um I I think I've always been I definitely was very confident in myself as a child and I was probably quite outgoing. Sorry if you hear the dogs in the background.
SPEAKER_00I'm trying to- We actually can't, but all part of country life.
SPEAKER_01Um but I definitely like being an adult. I like I'm really comfortable being in my 40s, and um I don't feel like I'm genuinely am happy and happy in life, and um I think I mean I'm very lucky I've got a really you know supportive partner like my husband and our kids, and I just really enjoy life.
SPEAKER_00So lovely. And you mentioned yourself as a child. Have you always sort of had a really keen sense of who you are? Like you're obviously an extremely kind of creative person. You sound like a very curious person, like, yeah, tell us about that little Emma.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I definitely was as a child, like I was confident, you know, I was always on a stage and you know, very creative and busy, but I definitely wasn't confident in my twenties in that same way. I think quietly I was confident in myself, but I wasn't um probably the most confident person in the room in my twenties. I think everyone in young adulthood, it's a funny, it's a kind of figuring out where you belong in the world is a kind of a hard one. I definitely probably, you know, like a lot of people, didn't I thri I didn't thrive, I don't think, then. Um I think I just was desperate to be a grown-up. And like I did like those sort of 20s, like they were I had a great time. I met my husband in Miles 21, so we've been together a long time. Wow, yeah. Um, and I but I just when we kind of when I got into my 30s, I was like, oh finally I'm just this is me, and I'm very happy in it.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's really interesting, and I think very relatable that sort of 20s, but can spill over to your 30s and your 40s as well. I'm gonna come back to that in a moment, but can I just ask Emily? Um that as a mum, I guess I'm really interested in what was it that allowed you to be like sort of feeling yourself as a child? Like was somebody around you kind of really embracing that or like getting that out of you, or did you have adults around you that were very comfortable in themselves?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it was more adults. Um, I had my parents and my grandparents around a lot, and they were well, especially my grandparents, were outspoken and loud and you know, unapologetically themselves, and they were quite um they were just very outgoing characters, and my mum as well, they were all medical people and they would all talk medical things in this really unapologetic way, and I didn't understand any of it, and they dressed how they wanted, and they we'd always eat, you know, we would eat really like fancy foods from around the world because my granddad had decided we were only eating Japanese that week, and um, and I I think they just they didn't need other people to kind of um validate themselves, they were just gonna do it their way anyway. So I think I because I grew up with that, um it just felt like oh but no matter what, these people will always have your back, and you know, they were always there like proper championing me, like putting me into art competitions, and I was like, I don't really want to do that. My granddad would be like, Oh, I've already sent off the like application for what? So, like they so having that though, I think is um definitely just makes you you know more confident. Like they'd take me to auditions for loads of theatre shows when I was a child. Not that I was brilliant, but I liked being in the theatre, so they you know would just they'd come to every show and we'd come and just support. And I think that support in people means you can just be yourself.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that just sounds absolutely gorgeous, and actually, what a lesson for like you joined to hear as an adult parenting um kids is actually they're seeing, do you know, how an adult lives, and that sounds like your grandparents had such an enthusiasm for life, like you know, Japanese for a week, whatever it was, like amazing.
SPEAKER_01And I think they just um oh you it just can't like yeah, definitely adds something into your own life, like to not emulate them, but they were an inspiration from a young age.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh absolutely. Can I just ask Emily? It's never occurred to me, but um, did you grow up in the country or in the city? I grew up in Edinburgh in Stockbridge, kind of like right from the city. Properly in the centre, amazing. I wonder if that sort of influenced you at all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it did. I love so we I loved growing up in the centre of Edinburgh, but my when I was that my grandparents were in the centre, but then they sort of in my childhood moved to Inner Leathen, okay, which is in the Scottish borders, and then so my it's really funny. Your memories of childhood are at my grandparents' house in Inner Leathen, running free and wild as a child in the countryside, even though I was in Edinburgh 99% of the time. They were the like they were where we had big family celebrations, and my cousins would all be up and we'd all be running around. And I had these like um Inner Leathen just was a special place of we were allowed to just be outside at all hours, and then it was just coming home to do the regular stuff.
SPEAKER_00Oh that freedom, that free sort of part of childhood. Interesting, that's what you remember as well. Um, so Emily, tell us that you've sort of touched on this, but in your 20s, it sounds like there maybe was a bit of a period when maybe you didn't feel so sort of confident in yourself, although you did say there was that quiet kind of quiet confidence. Can you can you talk a little bit more around that? So maybe a period where I don't know if it's you're trying to sort of fit in or trying to sort of find your way. Yeah, any thoughts around that?
SPEAKER_01It's I think it's hard at that age because you're not really sure what you're doing a lot of the time. You know, you're trying to make money to live. I was trying to have an art career, but it's a really unstable one at you know that age. So you're trying to, you're just trying to, it's like you're trying to just figure yourself out in the world, and like even like with what you wear and things, you know, it I wasn't like I wasn't confident, and you know, money's always harder in those ages, so you don't have lots, but I don't remember um it wasn't ever a big struggle. I just wasn't probably as confident as I am now. Um I like yeah, that's hard to figure out, isn't it? Like to look back on in that, but I just like like even back then, people would always be like, Oh, Emily, you're just it's like you're middle-aged already. And I was like, I just wanted to be middle-aged. It's like having like people not getting annoyed when I was just wearing dresses and wanting to go gardening and wanting to do these things at 20 when they were like, Oh, come to the club, and you're like, Oh, I I know I do want to, but I would rather go out on a dog walk with my friends than do that. Like that was never really me, but you did it because you're in your 20s and it, you know, you go out and party and do all these things, but like going to a music gig didn't wasn't it wasn't as exciting for me as it was for loads of other people, but you want to fit in. Whereas I was like, gosh, there's like an open garden this weekend. Anyone want to come there? And they were like, not really. Oh, that's a shame.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's fascinating, Emily. So actually, is that kind of you did really know who you are?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's it's a funny one. So it's it is when you look back actually. Now I think about it, it's like, yeah, no, I did I've always known what I love and what I really like, but it probably just it's like I needed everyone else around me to catch up with me. Because I was like, I'm ready to be 30, even though we're of 21.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that makes so much sense. And I think that like that's obviously your experience of your 20s, that's very relatable to me. Um, but I think that we can also experience that in our 30s and 40s, and ultimately it's that what you've just described as you sort of like know underneath it what you want to be doing and how you want to be living, but the sort of other people say you know it's hard, like whether it's what goes to the club, or like whether it's do you know, like, and it's like there's so much noise, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01In the wild, it's like and it's it's quite hard to sort of um not it's like saying no, but being okay that you're not going to miss out and you're not like you're not going to be the one left behind. It's like that having the confidence to go, no, no, that's fine. I'm okay doing this. Um I don't have to do that, and it's alright.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I love that. And almost to like have that conversation with yourself, even if you're in your 50s, or everyone knows like it's okay for me to do things.
SPEAKER_01As you get older, it's almost like everyone you have more permission to do that. Like people have everyone almost expects you to live your own life the way you want it, a bit more, um rather than being sort of the same as everyone else. So it's much easier to go, that's not for me, or that, or to find people who actually like the same things as you, and to you it's like you carve your own little bubble of a world.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I love that. And like but also how important it is to keep coming back to that stuff. Yeah, do you know that it does like I mean like it's busy and hard.
SPEAKER_01So do I mean there is days when you're like, oh, and I go, nope, go for a dog walk or go to an art gallery or go to a really nice cafe. And I know if I do any one of those three things, yeah, it will change my day around. Like it will, I will, you know, if I'm in a bad mood or something's not going right, if I did one of those three things, I know I will feel better.
SPEAKER_00That's an amazing doable.
SPEAKER_01You're like, just go and do that thing, and then you always come back going, Oh, that was a really nice coffee, or you know, finding that time to do something makes everything else better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So doing that little thing that makes you feel like you like, yeah, makes everything better. Like, what a great kind of um strategy to have. Um, one of my questions, Emily, was going to be is there anything that you kind of proactively do to um to live in a way that keeps you happy and keeps you kind of just confident in who you are, keeps you on kind of your path. You've mentioned a few things that you maybe go to when you've maybe woken up not in the best frame of mind. But is there anything else that you kind of do, like whether it's consciously or unconsciously, that kind of keeps you grounded in you?
SPEAKER_01Um wearing a dress every day. Like it's that simple thing, but I I do no matter what we're doing for gardening, going for the muddiest dog walks, I put a dress on every single morning and it makes me feel like me and like really happy. And I think, well, it's gonna be a new day, new dress, and uh getting outdoors no matter what. But I do love um I love connections with people, so I always think if you meet someone for a coffee or you do that, um I genuinely just love life, and I'm I'm quite I I am quite good at finding um what's it like time to do nice things in my day, even if they're just like a little bit because I know how how happy it makes me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I actually noticed from my follow you and love your Instagram, I find it really inspiring and sort of uplifting as well. But I do notice that you do that and you do it very kind of unapologetically, do you know? Like you just what what what is that, Emily? I think so many of us sort of feel like um I don't know, that's not how we should be spending our time, or it doesn't look like I'm busy enough if I do this, or do you know it's hard, like I think I think nowadays, I think because my job, I am on my own working at a desk, um creating all day, every day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, and because of that, you can isolate yourself from the world and you can be quite lonely. I mean, there's times when I'm working all the time, and I'm like, I haven't spoken to somebody for days and days and days. So I did, I think I've had to over the years kind of make sure I don't fall into traps that of like just never speaking to the world. Yeah, so I'm I am good at going well. Also, like everything will still get done if I take an hour out of my day to go for a dog walk or to go and meet someone for a coffee or go to that exhibition. The job that I'm working on isn't going to not happen. Yeah, the world's not gonna fall apart if I take an hour out of my day. And I actually often I find that if you do do that, you are more productive, and it is hard as children, you know, because you're you're limited to school hours anyway. Um, but half an hour here and there, like I always make myself a really nice lunch on a plate, and if it's like and sit outside and have like even just 15 minutes having a nice lunch because I like nice food and I like cooking. Um, so I do stop and go, well, it's not gonna kill anybody if I just sit outside for 15 minutes and to enjoy a nice lunch.
SPEAKER_00Oh my goodness, hearing you say all of that stuff like Emily, it just is so obvious to me when you say it that that stuff really matters, right? Do you know, like how we kind of look after ourselves? I work from home as well. That feel and the impact that can have on your mindset can be huge. I imagine your creativity can, you know, so it's vital that we get out and you know, go to places that we love, do things that we love and connect with people.
SPEAKER_01Um I do most of my like designing of like projects on dog walks and things because you've got an hour or so of you know, I often don't go on walks with other people, like sometimes I do, but you know, I go out every day, so I don't meet friends every day. And I looks most of my dog walks are just me on my own, and in that time, um, I've often designed what I'm about to sit down and do my desk, but I've done it in my head, and you can't do that just by sitting, like I can't just turn it on sitting at my desk. Um, you do have to go out and walk, or I mean everyone will have a different strategy, whether it is, but for me, going and I and I pick nice places to go for walks. I don't go to the same place every day. Like I purposely go, right, I want to go on a nice walk, so I will drive a bit further to go somewhere that's more inspiring or prettier or whatever. Whatever the mood takes me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I do notice that actually, you're not you're not going to the same, you know, albeit lovely and not going to the same beach, you do mix it up, don't you?
SPEAKER_01I don't like like I mean, because we've like I don't like the idea of doing the same thing every day. I'm like, come on, there's a whole world. Like I know loads of people and they have dogs and they do the same walk every day. I'm like, I just think we're so lucky to live here that my oh we're going up Trape in Law today, or I'll go to the beach, or I'll go find a woodland walk in inland even further. Because why not? Like, um, I love I love like unexpected things and I do like finding a new walk. I like new, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't want like I absolutely hear you, and the value of mixing it up is so huge, isn't it? Like there's a whole world out there to to explore. That's yeah, really exciting. Um, I'm kind of backtracking a little bit, but I um just love the bit about you that you always want to dress because that happened on my radar. You've got such a kind of um sense of style, do you know? Like you've got a real like look. And I'd wanted, and you mentioned it actually in your 20s.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, I didn't look like this like in my twenties. I think you know, I was like jeans and t-shirts like everybody else. Um, you couldn't have picked me out clothes-wise, if that makes sense. But then I think I don't know, like you know, you I think I had children, so you know, your weight changes, and I got like you know, slightly bigger than I was in my twenties. And weirdly, I was more happy and comfortable, and it was like such a weird balance to go, well, actually, I'm happier in a dress and who I am now. Who says I have to wear a dress just to go out? Like, why can't we wear a dress every day? So then all these lovely dresses I had in my wardrobe, I just put them on and just put dog walk, just boots on with them. And well, what's the worst that can happen? They get a bit muddy, they just go in the washing machine, you know. Oh, I just it makes me happy putting on a dress every day. So why don't we?
SPEAKER_00But actually, absolutely, and what if we were to dress, sort of saying, like, you know, Madden, like what should I wear today? Like, what would make me happy to wear today? Do you know?
SPEAKER_01Like, that's I I love I actually enjoy looking at my wardrobe, and I think I mean I'm lucky, I am very lucky now that over the years I have a lot I have a lot of dresses, like far too many to mention, and my husband's always like, We need to get rid of some. I'm like, Oh no, no, no, we can't do that. Um, and they're not like all like you know fancy dresses or anything, but I just it makes me happy getting to choose which it's like putting on a party dress when you're a little girl. Which party dress do you get to put on today?
SPEAKER_00I just love it, Emily. Gorgeous, and seeing you out in the garden in your dress just lovely. So lovely.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's not always the most practical, and so many times people are like we're hiking up a hill and they're like, Emily, why are you in a dress? I'm like, why not? I was like, here's the same. The music they were all wearing dresses, and I'm sure the queen wandered around with a dress. So why can't I just wear a dress?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, you doing you. Just absolutely brilliant, really inspiring. Um, is that Emily any advice that you would give to someone who was sort of struggling to sort of maybe be authentically themselves? So a natural thing would be that they're essentially maybe trying to keep everybody else happy, or you know, life's so busy that their stuff is just so down on the list of things to do, they just never get to it and they sort of feel that they've lost themselves a bit. Any advice that you would give?
SPEAKER_01It's really hard because I think it's funny because when you sent, like, you know, the questions and things over and chatting about this, I it's none of this is conscious that even what I'm talking about, and it's so I I've never actually sat down and gone, Oh, I have dresses because it made me happy. But when I thought about it, it was like, oh, well, that actually is why I do it. But I hadn't ever it's not like I've ever considered it, but it is yeah, but to give the uh to advice I would I would say find five minutes a day. Five minutes is not a lot to do something that you really like doing that isn't because other people tell you you like it, um, whether that's putting on like a really old album from your childhood that you really like and just going, I'm just gonna listen to this for five minutes, or picking up that book that you keep meaning to read, but the reality is you never have time. Well, what's five minutes? You can read a page, and if you read a page every day, that's 365 pages. Well, that's a book. Um, it's it's like allowing yourself because the world is busy, and I think our lives nowadays are so busy that I I actually do think that if you take a bit of time out, yeah, it makes you realise, oh, it's actually not as bad or not as hard or it's not as busy as I thought. Um if you just pause for a moment. Yeah, that's what my only advice would be is make a cup of tea, sit down and and prefer make a cup of tea in a really nice mug. That's my other key. Oh yes. Make like a mug that makes you happy because it's the it's the like finding the magic in the everyday. Like it's not we don't have millions of pounds, and not everyone can live where they want, and we don't all, you know, you can't have everything, but you can have one nice little mug that makes you smile every day making your cup of tea in the morning. And it's finding like the joy in something really small that isn't big and fancy, but it makes me smile in the morning making a cup of tea out of a beautifully like handcrafted mug that a friend has made or something. And I go, Yeah, just a little bit better now, isn't it? The day is just a wee bit better before we've even started.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I I really love that advice that just that little bit from you, and that you talked about that sort of it can change your perspective on actually the load, the mental load of everything you've got.
SPEAKER_01It's hard, so it's like it's the not looking at all of it, which I'm I mean as a bad as everybody else at getting overwhelmed by everything because you know there's children and they all have different activities, and then you've got work deadlines, but that will never stop me going outside and having 15 minutes for lunch, or stop me going for a dog walk, or stop me just pausing, um, because I know everything will be better if I do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, amazing. And you know, just reflecting back on the conversation that we've had today, that the yeah, take that little bit of time for yourself, but that those like daily sort of touchstones of joy, the mug, yeah, the like lunch on the plate, like all those little things, like that built that sort of creates a beautiful life. And I think that that's one of the reasons I wanted to have this conversation because you have so clearly created this beautiful life for yourself.
SPEAKER_01And I yeah, I mean it's hard work, like people are like, you know, our especially I mean where we live and everything, it's hard work, and you have to make sure the you know the wood is cut because the house isn't heated in half the house, we have to have a fire on, and the animals need fed, and you know, there's a leak in the ceiling all the time, and all these things, yeah. But you you it's like you have a choice to look at it through rose-tinted glasses or not, and I would always prefer the rose-tinted glasses look because why not? You know, yeah, look at it through a painting, like look at it with like the eyes of an artist. And I'm lucky to be an artist, so it's like, well, you know, we can always make it prettier or make it more than it needs to be.
SPEAKER_00I love that, absolutely. Um, Emily, we this is um my season two. You're the first conversation of my season two in the podcast. Very odd. Um, so it's a lovely way to start, and I've um got some little new thing for the end. I'm gonna do some quick fire questions. Um, that's okay. Okay, so number one, how many are there? There were just there were oh, there were four. Okay. Um I think you possibly answered this, but just a gut response. Place you feel most like yourself? In my garden. In your pottering about. Oh, gorgeous, thank you. Um, something that you feel proud of.
SPEAKER_01Oh, my family, uh, I guess my kids, you know, they're all happy, so I'm proud of them. Um, is that allowed? Yeah, my kids.
SPEAKER_00Yes, that is definitely allowed. I wanted to chuck that one in because I feel like some, you know, sometimes we don't acknowledge it. We feel proud of things, you know. So it's a nice one.
SPEAKER_01My kids, um, they're very, you know, they're all individual, very different, but they all seem to be pretty happy being themselves, and I am pretty proud of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a win, something to be proud of, definitely. Um, something you've outgrown. Oh, high heels.
SPEAKER_01I do not own a pair of high heels any longer, and I um I am I don't. Do you know what? I think there was like things, little things like that in your 20s, you go, Oh, I'll wear them because I want to. I don't even try. I don't even apologize for it. I just go, nope, I don't high heels.
SPEAKER_00I love it. And something, um, something you're saying lately. Something you're saying yes to more.
SPEAKER_01Work. I'm saying yes more to work at the moment. I haven't for the last week, I mean it may not look like that to the world, but last 10 years, I'm I haven't been saying yes to all the jobs because um of children and things, and you get a bit kind of safe in your little creative box. Um so I think in the last year I have been putting myself out there and just doing more work jobs that maybe I wouldn't have in the past.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so a little bit out your side your comfort zone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like I'm doing a workshop on Saturday, like a paper cut workshop at Jukes, which I would which I haven't done for 10 years. I did one last year and I hate I was so nervous. It's just not something which is surprising because I am quite a confident person, but things like that. I think putting the spotlight on me, um I was like, oh, nobody would sign up and nobody comes. Anyway, I'm doing it on Saturday, and I'm I'm actually looking forward to it. So um I'm saying yes to a lot more things again, you know, exhibition and just stuff because you just don't know where it will lead to. So I'm just saying yes.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely love that. Um, Emily, this podcast is called The Live More Experiment. At this point in your life, what does living more look like to you?
SPEAKER_01Oh, living more means living less, like doing less and worrying less and taking like more out if that makes sense, and not trying to not trying to do it all because it's impossible to do it all.
SPEAKER_00It's definitely impossible. I love that. Really like calm, yeah, living more is living less. Um, do you know, Emily? I was sort of thinking like through our whole conversation, what sort of there's lots of things that stand out to me, but one thing that stands out to me is the fact that actually it's when you talked about the house and you talked about you know, there's a leak, there's always like the wood to chop, but there was this it's not about getting to this final polished version of the thing, the house, or the career, or like whatever it is. It's I don't know for you, it's just feels like it's really about making now gorgeous.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like me, we have rent me and my husband have renovated houses before, and we have lived in a beautiful, finished, polished house that we did. Yeah, and it was lovely, and yet we are all happier here in a house that's falling down, that will take us the rest of our life. It will never be finished, and it will never be polished like our like our old house was. Um, and yet we are like happier, like it's harder work, but I just love it. I love I don't mind. It's funny how it just it strips like there's no pretense, like our door is always open, people come all the in anytime you know, anyone is welcome. I will always be able to make a cup of tea for people. Um and like having a home that just feels welcoming to anyone, not tidy, and it's not it's never orderly. Um, but um I'm it's okay, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00I absolutely love that. What a gorgeous place to finish up. Thanks so much for joining me today, Emily.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it was very nice chatting to you today.
SPEAKER_00It really was. I love this conversation so much. Speaking to Emily felt like inspiring but also grounding at the same time. What I'm taking away from it is I think the importance of finding those little pockets of joy in everyday life. Um, it's really hard, it's really easy, sorry, to not bother. And whether it's you know drinking your coffee out of a gorgeous mug or making um, you know, dressing in a way that makes you feel happy, or just like allowing life to be a bit messy and full and real. I also love what we spoke about right at the end. The idea that life isn't about arriving at some perfect point where everything is finally sorted. It's really about enjoying the ride as it's happening, those ordinary moments, the chaos, the creativity, the connection, all of it. I've and I find it so inspiring hearing how Emily intentionally mixes things up in her life and work and how much she values novelty and that sort of following what feels true to her. You can really feel that throughout everything she creates, I think. I'm so grateful to Emily for such an honest and inspiring conversation, and I'd love to know what's one little thing you're taking away from this episode. If you enjoyed listening, it would mean so much if you left a review or shared the episode with someone you think would love it too. Until next time.