You're not Cinderella, you're the ✨Bippity Boppity Boo✨

A pep talk for when you don't know what's next; plus, questions no one asked me.

I’m Emily Grosvenor, a design magazine editor and the author of the book Find Yourself At Home. Sometimes, I write pep talks in the form of poetry.

Photo by Griffin Diesburg. I may have cleared my desk off instead of doing my bookkeeping.

Well, it’s been a long week with all the parent/teacher conferences and dental appointments and time shifting and emails. I’ve been feeling the opposite of sparkly — geez, so I’m matte now? — so I wrote myself this pep poem to remind me of the lesson I have to learn again every season.

You’re not Cinderella, you're the ✨Bippity Boppity Boo✨

You not Cinderella,

you’re the bippity boppity boo.

Not the one in the gown,

not the one with the shoe.

It’s no use waiting

for your guide to the ball.

You are your own oracle,

Robe, hood, and all.

Your twinkling scares horses,

Your talent shocks mice,

Your words – incantations

In lieu of advice.

Your chin – left the building,

Your dress? Flowy lines.

But you get to orchestrate

Multiple primes.

What’s your next pumpkin?

To where with your powers?

Which unit can measure

Your soul by the hour?

You know there’s a sparkle,

But when will it dawn?

You were always the magic,

you are always the wand.

P.S. Did you know Verna Felton, who sang Bibidi-Bobbidi-Boo in Walt Disney’s original Cinderella, was 49 or 50 when she sang it? Just over here, waiting for my gravelly voice to set in.

Questions no one has asked me

📖How are you feeling about your body today?

Well, I started Pilates a year ago and I feel stronger than ever. But lately I’ve been slow-devouring this Melissa Febos essay on the feminist case for getting a breast reduction (I’m a 34 H you guys). I don’t really need a feminist case to consider getting one, but I have so much gratitude for one of the world’s most interesting writers to let me into her mind as she explores the procedure.

🎥 What did you think of Best Picture winner Anora?

I made Adam watch it. He promised he would stay for a few minutes but was there through the whole thing. What struck me the most was 1.) how she started off naked and got more and more clothes on throughout the movie, like a reverse strip tease, and 2). how there was NOT A SINGLE GUN IN THIS MOVIE, and yet it had the most high-stakes, ramped up tension I’ve felt in a film in a long time.

🎧 What are you doing in those moments when you want to change your life?

I washing dishes and binging through the Hot Designer’s Club podcast to see if I want to become a full-on interior designer or just want to carve out some other kinds of space in this industry. This podcast really opens you up to what Liz Gilbert calls the Sh*t Sandwich of any job — the really bad with all the good. I’m so thankful for that. Going in clear-eyed.

🎨 How’s that art mom era thing going?

I’ve always thought it’s funny that people go all in on genealogy as they age, but now I’m in my 40s and making Lino prints and also apparently there was a Grosvenor School of printing in England in the early 20th Century, so maybe it’s in my DNA. I’ve done some Lino print before, but I’m restarting with a project focusing on mid-mod chairs.

🏡 What is obsessing you in your home right now?

We have exterior paint scheduled! Whoa — spendy… but I’m stoked. The kids are annoyed that we’re changing the color. More soon.

😦What have you been doing differently?-

I’ve been making mood boards for rooms of the house — so that’s new. It’s good practice and I think there is a way to do it without going all in on products and consumerism. My life’s purpose is to avoid Wayfair. I’m using Canva, and it’s super easy. I thought about making a video on how to do it to share but there’s a ton out there, so here’s a good place to start.

Terroir Creative Writing Festival registration is open!

If you’re local or within an hour of McMinnville, you might come to our hometown writing festival, organized in party by, you guessed it, me! I love doing this work and am excited that this year we are moving to Stoller Family Estate (the Experience Center), one of the best wineries in the country to visit. Registration is open now. We will sell out, so buy a ticket today!

I’m most excited about:

• Tove Danovich’s workshop on Writing Wild Animals, find her here on Substack. She wrote one of my favorite chicken books.

• Judith Barrington’s workshop on memoir. I read her book Writing the Memoir in the early 2000s in Thom Haller’s nonfiction class and can’t believe she is coming!

• Our first-ever wine writer, Samantha Cole Johnson, talking about how to serve your readers. Amazing!

Terroir is also for readers, so even if you don’t identify as a writer, you will have a fantastic time.