Who's Driving
Who's Driving with Wesley Turner & Steven Merck is all about the entertaining stories we share and brainstorming topics we discuss as two best friends would on a long road trip. Come along for the ride as we check in with friends & offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media, and all things Home and Garden.
Who's Driving
Who's Driving- Dermatologist Visits To Holiday Trends: Real Talk On Skin, Style, & Small Business S3 E35
from skin care and cold exam rooms to hot holiday trends, and choosing joy without guilt. Along the way, we debunk fresh greenery myths, map the Ralph Lauren Christmas rise, and share the only method that actually helps greens last.
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Beep beep. Rum rum. It's time. Here are you. For another episode of Who's Driving? Welcome to Who's Driving? I'm Wesley Turner. And I'm Steven Murphy. We're Two Best Friends and Entrepreneurs. Who's Driving is an entertaining look into the behind the scenes of our lives, friendships, and businesses.
SPEAKER_02:These are the stories we share and topics we discuss as two best friends would on a long road trip.
SPEAKER_00:Along the way, we'll check in with friends and offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media, and all things home and car.
SPEAKER_02:Buckle up and enjoy the ride. You never know who's driving or where we're headed. All we know is it's always a fun ride.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, look at you go. Are you feeling fested? That was your inner Mariah.
SPEAKER_02:That was my Mariah coming out. I mean, hell, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I'm on it's already a big blur to me. I know. Um, for once in a while, uh, I don't know how long it's been. We're back in the studio. Is that what we're gonna call it? We sound so professional. We're so jack-legged, bootleg uh podcast. We I don't even know what you want. It's just a shit show. But hey!
unknown:Hey y'all!
SPEAKER_00:Hey, you do. I forgot to see if I had any notes on what's irritated me this week, but let's start off very today. You went to the dermatologist. I did. Tell me about it because you started telling me about it. You were sitting cold in a room with clothes on.
SPEAKER_02:I love my dermatologist, first of all. So I'm just, you know, but it was cold today. It was just cold out. Yeah. And you know, you have to go in there and strip down so she can, you know, go over your body, which is very, very important. If y'all aren't going to the dermatologist, you need to go at least once a year, especially if you have blonde hair and blue eyes. So, um, but I was cold. Yeah, and I wanted a blanket or something. I felt like I was getting ready to have a pap smear or something. Oh god. I mean, it would I was naked and cold. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_00:Do you take your underwear off?
SPEAKER_02:No. Oh, she don't check the junk. I was like, little billy's just oh, she would have had to dug for him today because I was cold. I was cold up in there today. Oh my gosh. Um, no, but it it went well. Yeah. Um, and I had what I would have sworn was skin cancer on my leg, wasn't it? Wasn't some kind of a of an an age spot like you had on your face. I know, right?
SPEAKER_00:But I mine was so I went, it was a it was the year of March. Mine started, but I was kind of got nervous because it started getting big kind of rapidly. It was there for a long time, but mine started as a pimple, I remember it, and then I messed with it too much. It was almost like a pimple but ingrown hair, and I think that caused um scar tissue, but then it started growing. She was, but she acted like, oh yeah, that's just some old spot and cut it off or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think we get at a certain age. I just think we're like an old ship. We just start getting barnacles growing on. Exactly. And I'm some of my decide I need to do it. I'm not here for it. Do it. Oh, skin tags?
SPEAKER_00:I can remove those for you. No, you remember my skin tag. Did I know you when I had the skin tag on my back? Oh my gosh, I finally cut it off myself because I was too nervous to go to the I take, I remove all of mine. I was too nervous to go to the dermatologist. I'd never been until like a year and a half ago at all. Oh, I have a method, it works beautifully. And so I forgot what I did, but I had one and it got decently, it was like a pet tick back there, suckering on. But it was right at my pants line, and I would get nervous like it was gonna catch on it or something. Or if I bent down and my shirt came up, there it was gonna be like flapping in the wind and hanging out. So I finally I cut it off myself with sharp, like, you know, the really thin, sharp scissors, like manicure scissors. I don't even know what you use them for, like grooming scissors. But it, you know, it was harder than I thought, and I had to like chop through it a few times, and then it bleeds. Well, I have a way of doing it. We're getting more personal and more personal in this podcast than you ever thought you wanted to hear about us, but that that's it. I don't have any skin tags right now, I don't think. But what's your method? Tell me your method of doing it.
SPEAKER_02:I actually pinch them with my fingers really flat, as hard as I can, and then I twist. No. And twist. No. And twist and then I leave it. And they turn dark and fall away. That's it. That it's not even a big deal.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, God, that sounds so because I feel like they're sensitive at the base wherever they are. I mean, you know, they're not, but uh let's move the hell on. Um, well, I'm glad you went there. Did you have any, you know, on your face? You've had little skin cancers on your face before, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, my and my arms.
SPEAKER_00:Um you have any this time you gotta get?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. One here, one three, one up here, on your forehead. On my forehead, one here, one here. On the cheek and one on the nose.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Um, are you what do you gotta do? Get them frozen off, scraped out.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Yeah. She was like, Oh, you're gonna be scabby for two weeks. Do you want to wait till after the holiday?
SPEAKER_03:And I'm like, No, no, let's go ahead and do it.
SPEAKER_00:I'll still be pretty. That's funny. That is too funny. So we are in the middle of the holiday season, if you don't know. I mean, if you follow us at all, then you know, but you probably don't really know. But we are in the thick of it. And tonight, um, so you will have already missed this. We're doing a live sale in the nested fig app at my home. So if you missed it, you can go back and watch the live replay. So if you don't have the nested fig app yet, download the nested fig app. Just search the nested fig. How many times can I say that? Search the nested fig in your app store and you can find us and you can watch the replays and continue to shop there as well. But I wanted to hit on something. I think I wanted to give myself, you and myself kudos that I forgot to talk about last week. And and that is if you're on social media at all and looking at Christmas and getting in the Christmas sphere, I know Steven and I are ahead of time because it's the industry we're in. Most people, I feel like, don't decorate until after Thanksgiving, which is normal. Do you? I like this.
SPEAKER_02:If you love Christmas, if you love Christmas, if you love the holidays, don't go into retail. Yeah, sure. Don't because it it ruins it forever.
SPEAKER_00:But what is every the buzz, the buzzword on social media for Christmas is Ralph Lauren Christmas. Everyone's calling it Ralph Lauren Christmas, which I totally get. Uh, and then, like someone said, well, really, Ralph Lauren or Lauren. It's Lauren. Yeah. Christmas is just a very well put together traditional Christmas. It's not really like that. But when you say Ralph Lauren Christmas, you can picture what that looks like. But what I was wanting to mention, and I wish we could go back and dig this up, but we can't because I ain't got the time. You and I called this as being the trend two years ago. And I was actually surprised. We even said, so at Christmas 2023, you and I said, we're gonna lean more into for Christmas 2024, the Ralph Lauren, Lauren. Lauren is Lauren. Lauren, look. Um, and we did a little bit, but when we went to market, we were kind of like, I'm surprised we didn't see more of that. And so that was for last Christmas. And then this Christmas, when we were buying, we're like, okay, we're seeing more of it. But I didn't really feel like anyone was talking about it like public-wise. Like you and I were like, this is where we're going. You know, this is what people are gonna be into. And then it just this month, it's blown up. You're hearing it. We called it though. That's what I'm saying. We called it before any damn body years ago. I'm suing somebody. I don't know who. You can't, but I just love when we, you know, this is a good thing and a bad thing with Steven and I. Um, we tend to try to pick up on trends, and I feel like we're really good and in tune with it most of the time. But sometimes like this, we were a little early. We end up being a little early a lot of times, is my point. Even at the retail stores with stuff, uh, you know, back when, for example, when we opened Roots back in 2009, I started out, I was like, oh, terrariums and glass planters are the cool thing. And people loved it, but it I was like, what in the hell are you doing?
SPEAKER_02:This beer you bring it back 1983.
SPEAKER_00:Then when I was tired of it, like a year and a half later, it was the craze, and we had to keep it going for like another two years, and that's kind of like this. Like last year, I was ready for this big Ralph Warren like look, and now it's here, and I'm kind of like, oh, well, that's been in my brain for two Christmases.
SPEAKER_02:I know, but here's the thing which is always that Ralph Warren look is kind of always my look. Right. So it is happy. I'm just happy that I'm on trend right now. Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_00:But I mean, I'll be off trend soon enough. Right. And that's the thing we've talked about with Christmas in the past when coming back from market and the trends. Christmas is Christmas. You can do whatever trend, if that's what you want to call it, anytime that you want. It it doesn't matter. Like if you want to do gingerbread right now, do gingerbread. And if you want to do pink and bright colors, do that. It's Christmas, it's best.
SPEAKER_02:I think Nate Burkis said it best, but is talking about trends. He said, just buy what you love, right? And don't focus on the trends, and you'll always be happy.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And that's true. That's my point, is you've always done this sort of thing. That's always a hot zone is a Raf Lauren, a moody um colors and more natural. And it never looks out.
SPEAKER_02:No, that's what I'm saying. It's just uh more on trend now than ever, even with the antique mixing antiques in with more contemporary. Right. It's just really hot right now. But it's never, you never walked into my house and went, right. No, well, I don't think maybe somebody did.
SPEAKER_00:Probably somebody. No. But that's okay. Um, but I just thought that was kind of fun. Just talking about we spotted that, that it was going in that that direction. Um, and there's different ways you can get that look. Like yours is gonna be very, and by the way, if you want to see Steven's home, we're gonna do a live sale from there this coming Sunday, which would be the 14th, 15th, 16th of November, November 16th, 8 p.m. Eastern, inside the Nesty Fig Out. We're gonna tour his home. Uh and you'll get to shop that as well. But yours is very, even though it's Ralph Lauren look, it's still got a little natural twist to it and more like greens and earthy. It's not as um bright red plaid. So you can take it and kind of go that way.
SPEAKER_02:I typically never do bright red. Um always. Yeah, and I like bright red, like I love your tree. I think it's the prettiest tree I've ever seen. You do. I love it, but I've always done more of an oxblood red or a burgundy. Right. Um, I don't know why, just because.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, but the and I love those colors too, but I always here at our home, since we have it's alabastered the grape room, I just feel like that's the tone, the brighter red. And I have little some burgundy, but not the oxblood wine like you like to use. But I just feel like that matches the tone of the red. It does. I don't know, and it makes sense pop.
SPEAKER_02:But I love what you do, and you know, everyone has different homes, and they can design what looks really good in the I feel a little bit like Martha Stewart at Turkey Hill right now, but not in a bad way. Yeah. Mossy and pine cone and honestly, that's what I love. Yeah, it's I mean, I I love a look like you're in a 200-year-old cabin in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_00:That's the look. That's that's your soul. You need a 200-year-old cabin in the middle of the woods. Um, speaking of that, I do have kind of a like, um, I guess you it's not an it's not an ick. It's more of a PSA, I guess. So start talking about Christmas and decorating. I feel like it's early enough. If you are, because I've seen this going around on social media a little bit. If you're gonna use natural garland or natural cut greens, I'm seeing this soak it in your tub and it'll last all season type thing. We just love giving things some baths in the holiday season everything. We just love it. So, okay, so I'm gonna break this down for you. Well, first of all, the stuff is cut and it is on its way out to death. There ain't no stopping it. But there is some things to it. You can maybe soak it and rehydrate it if it's maybe feeling slightly dry, it would still have to be fresh enough for it to absorb the water.
SPEAKER_02:If it's fresh, get me correct me if I'm wrong. I'm trying to remember. But if it's fresh from the farm, you can soak it and put it in something that kind of seals the cut places. That's what I was gonna say. The whole, is that right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, you can. So the thing is, unless you're really going out and cutting this yourself or getting it from a farm where you know it's super too late, baby.
SPEAKER_02:Now it's too late. Right. Your shit's gonna die.
SPEAKER_00:It's true. You're gonna let it dry in place. But um, unless you know it's fresh, because let me tell you, we've sold thousands of wreaths. We used to sell thousands or a couple of thousand in the holiday season. Um, we used to set up a big tent at the garden shop, and we had our little elves out there working. That's what Daniel did for so long. But so I've seen it all, I've been to the farms. They start cutting like your Christmas tree has already been cut. They start cutting like Halloween. Yeah. Like they're already cutting and shipping, they're already being transported. Now they'll store them in coolers and that sort of thing. But even though they're in coolers, that's keeping them kind of like fresh, like a flower would. But as soon as you pull them out, they're starting the drying out process. Um, but my thing is okay, so yes, you can hydrate your greenery in a tub and try to get it to absorb water. The thing is, it is like anything else, let's just use a sponge, for example, it can only absorb so much water when you soak it. It doesn't matter if you soak it 10 hours, 20 hours, one hour. It's going to absorb what it can and that's it. And then as soon as you pull that out of the tub, it is going to start immediately drying out again. So by doing all of that work of just dunking it or floating it or sitting it in a tub of water, is only helping you for maybe a day or two because it's just gonna dry right back out. You know what I'm saying? It's like taking a sponge out of water, laying it on your kitchen counter and it drying out overnight. It's gonna do the same thing every three days, but who the hell is going to be a little bit more? What are you gonna do? Take your garland down. Exactly. So when you're seeing that soak your garland and it will last all season, no, it's really not going to. Maybe a day. You're gonna, it's gonna make it maybe, yeah, like a day or two difference than it would if you didn't do anything at all. So why do the work? Now, back to what Steven was saying, there is a product and there's different brands, but something like no wilt or wilt proof, wilt proof, I think is the one we use, uh, that you can add into the water. Do not do this in your tub inside. Do not do this in your tub inside. Um, but if you cut really fresh greenery that is hydrated, so it's just off the bush, you can soak it in a solution which is water, and you would add this um wilt proof to it. And basically you soak it in there, and it's almost like um uh Elmer's glue kind of solution in your water. And what it does is it uh seals it seals up all the pores, all the cuts and everything, and that traps all the moisture into your garlic. Now it does work, your wreath. And yes, that does help because it helps it when it gets hot, keeps it from perspiring, so it keeps it all trapped in. And that really does make a difference. The best thing to use is a kiddie pool. Yes, that's what we used to use is a kiddie pool, like a plastic kiddie pool. We'd always go at the end of the summer and be like, make sure we got our kiddie pool, so that at Christmas time we could um, you know, when those hard formed kiddie pools we could dunk our wreaths in. Now, the other thing is if you do want to do this solution because you're just love doing fresh greens, which I love doing fresh greens too, and I'll tuck them in like, you know, after Thanksgiving when I only want them to last a couple of weeks or whatever. But if you're gonna do this, make sure you are using the dunking method because it will say on the bottle, like you can put it in like a pump-up sprayer or a spray bottle, but that doesn't, it really doesn't, it's not enough. You can't spray all the cuts and all the pores and everything to make a difference because it really needs to be dunked and that seals and wraps around you know everything.
SPEAKER_02:And one thing, if you're gonna use greens inside, and I love, love, love fresh greens, um, and I do the same, you know, when it gets after Thanksgiving, I usually bring some home from the garden store. Right. Smell of your fresh greens, if something bothers you, do not bring it in. It's going to get stronger in your home as it does dry out. And last year I brought in, I'd never done this before. I brought in a green, I don't remember what it is. You told me what it was. I don't even remember this. It drove me insane. It smelled like cat pee. Was it boxwood? No, it was not, it was something else. You said it was um I can't remember. It was one of the evergreens. Oh my god. And I they were beautiful. I brought fresh wreaths and put them inside in my foyer, and they were really pretty. And I was like, oh, it'd smell like a tree. It'd be great. Oh my god. It drove me. I could not wait to throw those things away. Yeah. Nothing cut it either. And I was like, what is this? Like, what is it? And it was the it was it was the evergreen. So just smell of it. And if you're like, oh, I love this smell, you're fine. Yeah. But if there's something, a mix that is in there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because when you take it in your home and you have the heat on it, yeah, and you have the heat on that's gonna, you know, make it the aroma smell stronger. Yeah. So that's my Christmas PS. Are we doing worsh workshops this year? Uh I meant to ask you that. We need to. It's uh it's on the plan, but we're getting we need like we're it's gotta happen this week. Yeah, I gotta call tomorrow and see if we can make that happen. Yeah, we had planned to do wreath workshops. We're having a little business meeting right here. Hold pause a moment now. We had um planned to do wreath workshops, but I haven't um verified that. But we would have to have them in like three weeks, so we be the week after Thanksgiving would be like three weeks. So I think it's doable. We could do like two. Yeah, let's just do two nights. Back into it and do two nights. We were gonna do a whole week. We were overzealous back in um August when it was slower and not as much going on. But now every day keeps sleep slipping away. So I'm like, I don't know if we can do a whole week of workshops, but we'll um I think we should do stuff. We have the stuff for it and everything. So maybe do two workshops and then um, you know, because we got to do live sales and all the fun. But I do love the wreath workshops.
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, I kind of miss them. They may we may bring them back and I might decide I don't. Um, but if if that's the case, we won't do them anymore. That's right. That is true. Uh, but it is fun, and it is fun to see what people do. Um, you know, because people think outside, and some people really do good, some people not so much. Yeah, it's and I always tell them I'm like, if your shit's ugly, do not tag us.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we do. You know, you know if your shit is ugly, and it's been so we stopped doing wreath workshops with COVID, so 2020. And and then we moved, like, you know, we couldn't do them 2020, 2021, it was weird. Then we moved the garden shop and it was smaller, so we're like done with workshops or whatever. And um and then we thought, we'll do it at the top house. Yeah, but how much social media has changed since 2020? Because we used to always joke, don't go home and tag us if you don't do the work here at the workshop and make a gorgeous wreath, as we've instructed and guided you. Because some of the ladies, they just want to come in and have a little wine time and get drunk, and they'll just throw a little something, something in their wreath and be like, I'm done. And I'm like, that is fine, but don't go tagging us on your wreath and say, Look what I got at you know, the nested fit garden. You tagging and say, Look what I did. Yeah, look what I did. I had I got drunk and made this.
SPEAKER_02:Don't put it off on the because I will call your ass out. I'm like, mm-mm. You got drunk and crawled on the floor and did that. We used to have some good times at those workshops because people, it is crazy how they'll but you know, as the season get went would go, it got and I would get tired and and more tired and more tired at the end. I'm like, that's when I was like, uh, don't tag us. You know that ain't right. But they it you know, it's just fun though.
SPEAKER_00:Wine and design, wreathshops. Yeah, it is it is a lot of fun. But what I was gonna say is it's also fun to see everyone starting with the same, you know, they had the same material options and um and then how each wreath looked different.
SPEAKER_02:And some were really good. I mean, didn't you need a job? Come on, yeah, it was impressive uh a lot of times, and I also really loved like some of the color combinations they came up with, stuff that I really wouldn't have thought about doing that was really cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There were more good than bad. That was the good, yeah, there were more good than bad. What did get irritating at the end though? I'm gonna call some of y'all out because y'all might be our customers, and it was kind of good to have a break for this reason. Well, we we were too nice. But so the wreath workshop, you would start with a plain fresh wreath. We did fresh fur wreaths, and then in the buckets, we would have buckets or boxes or bins. We would have like cryptomeria, magnolia, boxwood, um, pine, pine, whatever greens, and you fresh also, and those were included in the workshop. So your wreath and all of the fresh materials, and we had wine, was all included in your wreath workshop. But then you could shop the store and add in if you wanted like fairy picks, like faux berry picks, or maybe you know, fun ornament picks, or a snowman, or if you wanted us to make a bow and that sort of thing, you that was extra. That was add-on to your wreath. I know what you're gonna do. Some of those all heifers, they started bringing their stuff back from the year before.
SPEAKER_02:With glue stuck on it.
SPEAKER_00:Stuck on it.
SPEAKER_02:Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_02:That's a DIY at home.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, come by the wreath at home and you already got the stuff.
SPEAKER_02:You got your shit.
SPEAKER_00:We're here to sell you something. Yeah, and make something new and creative. Some of this stuff by the end, because we started doing these in 2009. I mean, they were bringing back the same stuff for like seven or eight years. And I was like, you cannot dip this in any more glue. That shit looked like they had done stole it out of somebody's wreath. No. Come in with their ziplop bags of all their well, you know, I would tell them like, what are you what are you doing with this? The good thing is some of them would bring it, like, not the ones that would bring it year after year. I knew after like three years, I knew the ones that were gonna bring it year after year. But some of them be like, Oh, I brought my stuff back from last year, and then they would get there and see everyone else's, and they'll be like, I can't use this. And I'm like, You're right, at least you read the room.
SPEAKER_02:So I stopped by, I had a little minute to kill waiting on you today. And um, so I walked through.
SPEAKER_00:Did you say it like that? I was working.
SPEAKER_02:I know, I'm kidding, and I saw this wreath, and I almost got it. Yeah. You may go back and get it. Yeah. But it was someone had handmade it and they had taken all of the vintage ornaments, all the different ones, and just some random stuff and put in it. Oh, it sounds like it's those are so cool. It was expensive, but it it's like this thick, and it's probably just covered in just vintage ornaments. Yeah, and then it would have random. Oh, it was so cool. I mean, that would look cool.
SPEAKER_00:With your Christopher Radco collection that you're building up. How big was it?
SPEAKER_02:It it like uh 27, 28. You might could hang it like on your hutch by your tree next to you. It was it's really cool. I think you need to treat yourself. Yeah, I'm thinking I need it. It's really pretty, and I think it was there last year, and I was eyeing it, or maybe they made a different one because I remember it having a little dot. The last one last year had some kind of little doll in it. Yeah, this one didn't have it, but it's really fun. It's nice being in the retail business when you can go somewhere and see something exciting or that I want to buy, yeah. Because you know, if listen, we are in the business, we've been in this so long, we know where everything comes from. So if we go shopping, we're like, oh yeah, we know where to get that, and it kind of ruins it for us. Like there's no shopping, it does, but but if it's something special and made, yeah, that stands out.
SPEAKER_00:It does kind of ruin it, but because you said that a couple of times, but the trade-off is it's more fun on the other side. Like I love going to market and shopping for everything.
SPEAKER_02:So we create the trends for our trading area, right?
SPEAKER_00:And it's so it's more fun to go hunt. We we do our shopping and thrill of shopping at different times and on a different level. Like we go shop for Christmas in January. So, like, literally in two months. Wait, where are we? We're um November 10th. Literally in two months, eight weeks, we will be at the Atlanta market shopping for Christmas 2026. Yep. Kind of makes you want to puke when you say that out loud. But that's it's good because it's fresh.
SPEAKER_02:And we've in and what you don't realize is um we we really, really analyze our buying, what we did, what we did well, what we could have done better, what we just flat out did wrong. We do that every year. Yep.
SPEAKER_00:We're already making notes like ah we could have used a little more of this, or we missed the boat on not buying this, or you know, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_02:We gotta keep it, we got to make it better and better and better. Fine-tune it and different. Yeah. And sometimes it's just making um, I don't think this quote unquote Ralph Lauren look is going any going away anything.
SPEAKER_00:No, I think it's gonna be the trend for the next few years. There'll be different variations of it, just like anything, they go in trends, like it'll be more like your color this year. If you again watch the live or follow Steven on Instagram, it's gonna be like green on green with some of the brown with a little bit of burgundy in there.
SPEAKER_02:It'll be that look, and then they'll add gold into it, and then it is then you'll see some vintage ornaments added into that look, and you'll see just dip some glitzy gold added into that. It's gonna be variations of the same.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And then because we've been in, if you think about it, for the last maybe the last two really last year was the big transition, but the last two, but before that, for like five years, everything was glitter and bright, and you would have the pink. Not that you still don't have the pink, that's still a thing, but it was a very glitzy, glittery look, and now it's swinging, it's gonna be more and more natural, more and more velvet, tone on the colour.
SPEAKER_02:What has never flown in Greenville? Ever what? Is the hand spun type, the the felt, no, the handmade looks like does that go anywhere?
SPEAKER_00:I see it, but I never see it. It just somewhere. I see it at market, but I never see it in actual life, like the home.
SPEAKER_02:The felted ornaments, yeah, and it just does not sell. Yeah, I don't know. You know, there's stuff that looks like you did in vacation Bible school.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, I know.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not knocking it, no, but I'm seeing because we all have those ornaments we made in vacation Bible school and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00:And one of our big vendors has sold felt ornaments every year for years. And I'm like, Who buys them? Who buys them? I've never seen them out and about, so there must be a market, a submarket somewhere. You know what I'm saying? Maybe I don't know if that's a West Coast thing. Is it a mountain thing? Or is it a mountain thing?
SPEAKER_02:Tourist mountain.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I don't know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02:I think I could see that being sold in a Christmas shop in Pigeon Forge.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but but then the people, the general public, mix that in with their regular decor.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know about that. I mean, we should just go around and be like, we're here to inspect your Christmas.
SPEAKER_03:We should do that.
SPEAKER_02:Hello, we're here to just inspect your Christmas tree if you don't mind. We'll be in and out in less than 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_00:And we're gonna take pictures. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That would be fun.
SPEAKER_02:Wouldn't that be fun? So funny. Okay, let's do this street. Yeah. Just not Christmas tree inspectors.
SPEAKER_00:We're gonna be like oh hell, you need a you need a complete tear down. We have a we have prizes for the best tree on the street and the worst tree on the street. Oh my goodness, it is funny. Do we need to have any type of little um therapy session this week? I feel like we did really good last week talking about your kitchen and you know, I feel like we need to not, we can't get too far away from, you know, Steven feels the need to defend himself for not using something that that he has. He he tried to do it the other day on his TV that he really doesn't use in the the living room. I was on the phone with Dylan and he said, or was on the phone, I was somewhere. Dylan was there. I think we were I had you on speaker. And Dylan was said something about oh, the TV we don't ever use, and Steven, yes, we do. We use that TV, and we're Dylan's like, no, we use the bedroom TV.
SPEAKER_02:You know, it is it there's some there there's there was serious trauma in my childhood that made that I feel a level of guilt. Yeah, because you know, and I feel I did it when we got when I got here tonight. I said, you know, um my car's going in for service on Friday, and uh I'm not getting me a new car, but it is time for Dylan to get a new car. Um, I mean, it yeah, it is time, and I don't have a problem with that. But I told Wesley, I said, you know, I'm thinking about getting that really big Lexus SUV. Um, and I may keep it, I may drive it or I may give that to Dylan. I don't know. But I'm like, you know, that would that would last like 15, 20 years.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And I said, the hell, the hell, you gonna drive a car for 10, 15, 20 years. You ain't gonna do that. You always gotta justify or feel just I love new, but I don't like paying for new. Well, I know, I know. I don't like paying. I get that, but my point is don't don't justify. Just say, I do justify every I do.
SPEAKER_02:It's just um I I don't know. I that when uh you were so rudely analyzing me.
SPEAKER_00:No, we had a great podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Um I honestly think it it is tri it's all from my it's trauma from my childhood. My my my mom's parents were very um focused on not wasting and you save every penny. Yeah. And if you spend it, you feel guilty.
SPEAKER_00:No, you don't feel guilty. See, my thing is can you not flip that into feeling like a reward? Like, oh my gosh, I worked hard and have made myself successful enough that I can buy whatever it is, and it should be. And not feel guilty about it. You should feel like, oh my gosh, look what I accomplished. Look at Miko.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But because, like we said, everyone's level of success is different and what they want to do with their success. So, like if you want to have 10 cars, that's your comical cars, it then enjoy them.
SPEAKER_02:It's sad and comical at the same time because you know, my grandparents did very, very well for themselves and they worked very, very hard. And they um, you know, they were able to save a small fortune, especially, you know, for country people. Right. And but they did without things, like little thing, like little things, they always kept they had a beautiful home and they kept a new car, but they would say, Oh, we don't need to buy that rug. Yeah, or that one's fine. Yeah, or they would really want something new, but they don't get it, and then they die and leave all of this money in my lazy ass cousin and aunt. I mean, they're taking the money and they're driving Mercedes like they earned it, they're enjoying it. Yeah, they're buying new Mercedes like they earned it. Right. And they ain't earned a damn thing.
SPEAKER_00:But that's why your grandparents should have enjoyed it. They should have enjoyed it. Because why do all that work for nothing? You're right.
SPEAKER_02:I know. I'm saying logically, I saw that with my own.
SPEAKER_00:Me personally, if I am going to be that way and do without, and like we don't need anything, then I'm gonna live at that level and work at that level. Yeah, that's true. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, if I'm comfortable enough to be like, I can do without all this stuff, I'm gonna live simply, I'm gonna work simply, I'm gonna work to pay the bills or need to be paid or not for times and be happy. That would be, I could see that. But why work yourself to death and accumulate this stuff and not enjoy it, and not enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and it was honestly, it was a big turning point in my life. If you look back at my at my habits, um, I changed a lot after my mother died because I thought, you know, when you lose your parent, when you lose one parent, um, that's when your own mortality slaps you in the face. And you're like, oh shit. Right. My you know, I'm not gonna live forever. Right. Yeah. And um, you know, that that came that slapped me in the face. And then when I saw what my family did, my grandparents away. Yeah, with my grandparents that worked so hard. I mean, most of the estate was stolen from me, basically. But what what small amount I did get, you know, I don't look at that as a pivotance of of my inheritance. I look at it as I know how hard my grandparents worked even for that. Right. And I have so much respect for them and their hard work. Right. You know, personally, I would never ever use their money, that inheritance. This may sound crazy too. I would never use that to go buy Mercedes because that would have disrespected. I know what they would have thought of it. Right, right. And I would rather do something like put that in an investment property or something more substantial. Right. But it's interesting people that haven't made the choices to be more successful in life. Right. Because they it was a choice with my family. Yeah, they made choices, right? And um, so they never made um a crazy good living. Right.
SPEAKER_01:But they got that, and we're just like, hell yeah, we're gonna go get us a damn Mercedes. We're gonna get us a Mercedes.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh, that's so crazy.
SPEAKER_01:It's funny though.
SPEAKER_00:I do think though, but my grandparents should have been enjoying that. Yes, they that's my point. And you should be enjoying your money in the time. Right now, not that you should frivolously spend your money and not have any to live on later, but that you know what you can afford and spend your money on. So when you do, you just need to enjoy it and not justify it and not beat yourself, oh, he has buyer's remorse remorse for everything. I'm surprised I've never taken a car back. I am too. I but I do think here's what I think, here's my new thing. What I think you and Dylan, at some point, not like this year, but y'all need to build a house. Y'all need to build a house. And when you do, you need two kitchens. You need one on the back, just like off to the side, that is an actual working kitchen that Dylan can cook in whenever he wants. And then you need one that's like your your main kitchen, no, your party kitchen.
SPEAKER_02:No, when okay, so when I grew up, this is what we everybody needs this. I ain't lying. My my grandparents and my aunt, my aunts, my aunts about the age of most people's grandparents. Um, but we grew up with like outdoor kitchens. Yeah. And I know that sounds weird, but like my grandparents had theirs was not fancy, it was just um a wood house in the back that had uh old reclaimed windows. It was really cute. Yeah. And it had a wood stove and a sink. What you needed, yeah, the the minimal. And that's where my grandmother would can.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because it was out of the house, it didn't stink up the house. Get her stuff together. She would also cook down um the the hog fat to pour up the lard and that. Yeah. And my aunt had a nicer, she had a big, a big outdoor kitchen, big, big, but it was just a separate kitchen, and that was for um canning and well, that's what y'all need in your house that you're gonna build.
SPEAKER_00:I decided. It can just, you know, have the essentials nicely. I must make it like a commercial kitchen, is what I picture. Lots of tile, stainless steel sink. Well, what's nice?
SPEAKER_02:And then in your house, you have your fancy with your li poo-poo oven and but you can have out there, you can put you can put a wood burning stove, well, you ain't doing freezers.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just saying if you're wood burning stuff. But if you wanted to go back, I'm just saying where he can cook and it can smell and you know it's fish and just stink it up. Yeah, I think you should make it like a commercial kitchen with big exhaust and everything, and so Dylan can cook in there and not get reprobate. Well, but he could just cook dinner. It won't he can cook as long as I'm not there and it doesn't smell. Well, you can't burn dumplings, and you can't cook anything with the spice, you can't do anything that smells like broccoli or see, you can't do anything that has a scent, has oil, or could possibly burn like shit or fish.
SPEAKER_02:So sorry.
SPEAKER_00:That's why you need a separate kitchen. So, you know, we live Dylan, get out back. It needs to be connected to the house, but it just needs to be off to the side, completely sealed, very clean, something you could just hose down the whole thing or whatever, and that's where Dylan can cook you dinner. So, one of my pet peeps, I love living in the mill.
SPEAKER_02:I do. Um, obviously, it's worked. I've been been there like nine and a half years. So I do like it. But but but but but well, there's a butt to everything. There is a but to everything. The one of my little irritants, and there's nothing you can do about it. Our our loft always smells delicious because it's clean and candles are burning and it's it's like a showroom.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, but unfunctional, non-functional.
SPEAKER_02:People cook some nasty shit, and you can smell it all in the hallway. In the hallway. I'm like, ooh, they've cooked shrimp. I I know certain things that they've cooked Brussels sprouts, shrimp, and broccoli.
SPEAKER_00:When you have that many people at dinner time, there's a lot of mixes. I've been there before and I'm like, Thanksgiving is horrible.
SPEAKER_02:Thank God. Here's what I'm thankful for. I smell nothing inside inside. Oh, you would be. Well, you would be out of there. Be gone. I'd be gone. It's you call me gone. You would be gone. No, I would be, I wouldn't be there. But no, you can't smell anything inside. But you can walk by somebody's door and I'm like, damn.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. How's it going? We got to wrap this up because we got to get a live sale. But one more question moving on. How's it going since the fire at the loft and the cleanup? Can you could you ever smell smoke like in the in there?
SPEAKER_02:We didn't um knock on wood. We had nothing, no negative. It's everything is kind of under construction. It's quite uh a lot of sheetrock dust. Uh so I just keep towels down.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, I saw that. What did you post a picture? Or no, you were showing me something had gotten delivered, and it was like the FedEx picture, like you know, they snapped when they delivered it, and I was like, what is at your door? And you're like, oh, I keep a towel at your door, cut out all of it. So no dust comes in under your door. So you are so cut it out. You are so weird.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we used to have, you know, in a good weird well, that's the I mean, I'm I'm certifiable nut job, but it's okay. I could be worse. It's true.
SPEAKER_00:All right, we gotta pull this baby over. We're going to work, we're gonna start seconds.
SPEAKER_02:Well, damn, Heat. You give me a completely sock evaluation, take my inventory, and you're like, okay, Bango.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like this is maybe we're working through it with some of our listeners too. Maybe they're going, hell yeah, I need to appreciate and not feel guilty for what.
SPEAKER_02:Just go out and waste all your money, is what he's saying. That is not just waste it all.
SPEAKER_00:That is not what I say. And be very vulgar about it. Enjoy it. Enjoy it when you can afford it. Burn through it when you have your accomplishments.
SPEAKER_02:Enjoy your accomplishments. Just waste ever dumb you can get your hands on and just feel good about it. Can I borrow some money?
SPEAKER_00:I'm kidding. All right, we're gonna pull over and remember to watch us on the Neste Fig app. You can see my home and Stevens this Sunday, 8 p.m. Eastern, right there inside the Nested Pig app. We got some perdy stuff. Remember to leave us a review wherever you're listening to our podcast, but if and only it is a good review. Five stars or no stars. Uh, and join our online community at who's drivingpodcast.com. That's where you can go and log into our online community and watch the podcast episode. If you don't want to watch it, you can still go there and listen for free at who's driving podcast.com. Thanks, see you next week. Bye.