I'm doing a Mother's Day drop of signed copies of Find Yourself At Home

Plus, four outrageous things I've asked for when holidays role around.

The moms in your will love my book! So I’m doing a Mother’s Day drop of signed copies. I’m happy to also inscribe to your favorite person who loves their home.

I’m going a Mother’s day drop of signed copies of Find Yourself At Home!

The cost is $25 and includes shipping in the contiguous United States. Simply Paypal me at emilygrosvenor [at] gmail.com, or Venmo with your intended address and inscriptions:

Here are some house blessings I’ve included in book inscriptions in the past:

For people who have moved / are moving

May you always feel at home wherever you are!

With best wishes on this next move!

For moms who deserve all the love

With so much love to you and your home!

For seekers and people in the midst of change

May you always find what you are looking for!

For someone who just loves their home

Wishing you all the joy, comfort, and happiness at home.

For anyone who needs a little magic

May your home fill every day with magic and love!

Am I a terrible gift receiver? Usually, I just as for what I want. The key, I think, is to just throw every single crazy idea out there regularly to your family and not have any expectations of what will stick. Here are some things that really made my whatever.

A flower crown from Dearhouse Collective

My friend Katelyn Stewart runs Dearhouse Collective, a floral studio for the “polite and wild.” One year, I asked for a flower crown and then wore it around the smalltown where we live with my family. A happiest moment.

38 gold balloons

My favorite room in a museum is at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, where a bunch of silver Mylar pillows float around in this weird, joyful expansively dreamy installation. So for a couple years I asked to wake up to gold star baloons. Then, in my 38th year, Adam made it happen! At $38, a very cheap and memorable spectacle.

A drawing of this 1980s Bean Bag Bunny

A drawing of Hashimoto

The actual Hashimoto is a Japanese scientist who in 1912 first connected the presence of thyroid antibodies to an autoimmune disease affecting 10 million Americans. Unfortunately, I can’t find it the Japanese anime version of Hashimoto’s disease that my kids drew a few years ago, after I got diagnosed.

If you consider yourself hard to gift to, I hope these ideas will inspire your own weirdly specific, fun/silly gift!

TARIFFS ON HOUSE STUFF

“Your Home Without China” — a breakdown, by room (even the garage!), of the way tariffs on Chinese-made products will effect the prices on household goods. Example: 97% of children’s car seats are made in China and subject to the country’s 145%

VINTAGE SHOPPING

“How Facebook Marketplace Became Ubiquitous, Essential, and Unhelpful” — a screed against Meta’s loss leader, which quickly edged out competition but makes no money and supports Internet scams. The most compelling argument, I found, not to use it, might be that for sellers, it does not suggest pricing based on similar items as Poshmark and other second-hand sites do.

FUNNY/GROSS

A 6th grader tested cat butts to see if they got on furniture, etc., for a science fair. The takeaway was that if you have cats with long or medium-length hair, you’re good (PHEW).

Still my favorite pic of me and our boys.

📖What design book are you rereading right now?

Too many design books say the same old thing, just with new lovely pictures. Not so for Jeffrey Bilhuber’s Everyday Decorating. I LOVE THIS BOOK. It’s a little older, but it never surprises me with its ingenius way to rethink spaces.

🎥 What are five dialogue-driven shows to listen to while mudding and painting walls?

Dawson’s Creek, Schitt’s Creek, Young Sheldon, Girls5eva, AP Bio.

🎧 Are you coping better with your media-addicted kids?

Here and there. My youngest child has been struggling with this a lot lately (when there is any free moment he wants to pick up my phone; he would be online gaming all day long if he had a choice). This week, he stayed home sick, and I returned to find him meditating to a Buddhist audio on YouTube. WIN.

🏡Why is home design media so maddening?

Real home work takes forever — even the quick projects, like painting a room. This isn’t news. Everyone knows this. In the end, it’s just about personal taste. Do you like giant changes and a visual shock of the new? Or do you like a collected space focused on storytelling? I’m for the latter.

😦What have you been doing differently?

I completed the 30 different veggies in one week challenge during dinner on Sunday. It wasn’t that difficult, but perhaps the most interesting part of this whole food charade was that I didn’t stop eating other vegetables and fruits, I just had to add more to reach my goal. I get a monkey sticker.