We were thinking, "How can we help our listeners have a wonderful season during this chaotic, often stressful when it should be peaceful time of year? Wait, we did a pretty good job of it last year." So here's our gift to you. Obviously, we're not above re-gifting. Here’s why we are bringing you 10 Tips for More Meaningful Holiday Revelry… as we all dive into THE holiday season, it’s easy to feel like we are just cramming holidays into our overcrowded lives. How do we avoid celebrations that feel empty and just like any other gathering? If we can’t infuse our holiday celebrations with meaning, why do them? In this episode, we’re talking about all the holidays we celebrate - even National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. You’ll hear the stories of our favorite holiday experiences, traditions we don’t want to give up, and you will learn our tips and tons of ideas for celebrating holidays with more heart and soul.

Do you wanna play? Name a creative art and Meghan DeRoma has most likely played with it or practiced it with discipline. These days Meghan makes thoughtful things to delight kiddos. And that, you know, delights their parents. Her love for art in any form led to a career in the chaotic world of branding, graphic design, and marketing; working on brands like Target and Old Navy. Meghan’s unique mix of creativity + experience has manifested into her company Wannaplé. Leading it with her cofounder and sister-in-law Christine, they make a wonderful character-building brand called Silly Street and another fabulous game called Animal Act. Still flexing her creative muscle for brands like Tom’s along with creating children’s books and expanding Wannaplé, Meghan has found a way to piece together a life that gives her the opportunities to chase her creative whims and dreams - all while parenting two young guys of her own with her creative director husband.

Fear is a funny thing. Funny as in odd. But also... funny; as evidenced in this conversation about fear of all kinds. We’re reminiscing about childhood fears, family stories about spooky events, and movies that scared us. We share some cry-inducing laughs over scaredy-cat moments in our relationship. We also dive into fears such as anxiety, insecurities + self-doubt, fear of the more devastating kind, and so on.

59: Chasing a Dream Bigger Than You w/ Sarah Hartley by Randy + Misty Bradley

The root of creativity must be nurtured and tended to if you long for it to grow into something meaningful and prolific. And maybe “nurturer” is one of most accurate titles that could be given to Annie Kate Jones. It’s hard to define Annie and that’s a good thing. She is a dreamer + writer + illustrator + friend + mentor. She prefers to focus on the qualities she wishes to possess rather than titles or description. Annie has been an artist of words since middle school and continues to grow in various creative expressions. Our conversation with her is tainted with wisdom and wonder and we chat about education, innovation, collaboration, creative empathy, poetry, Seinfeld, music, and how a Love List rescued some of us from the jaws of depression.

Are you ready for a spirited conversation about curiosity, desire, and a little something on the side? You may remember Caitlin Horton from episode 45: Boldly Go + Get Things Done. You know, the cool girl living in Shanghai who holds four degrees, speaks multiple languages and is currently learning another. She is a published author + brand designer + business strategist. We invited Caitlin back to talk about side projects aka passion projects. We chat about exploring and adventuring (this girl gets around!), her newest endeavor, co-hosting Memphis Type History the podcast, and the book that started it all.

We are blown away by the candor and wisdom of wildly successful artist and illustrator Marta Spendowska. She chats with us about artistic influences, self-awareness, passion, and how art has brought healing and restoration to her life and relationships. We learn how showing up is more important to creating than mere inspiration and hear her best advice to aspiring artists. Marta is every bit as deep and beautiful as her paintings.

55: Weird is Wonderful — Part 2 by Randy + Misty Bradley

We’re redeeming weird and laying it down as gospel, weird is wonderful. Weird has long been that slur used when we don’t understand something or it feels too foreign. What’s weird anyway? Most people jump to their odd eating quirks but we’re talking next level; because is any food combo really weird? or is it just foreign to you? Go a little deeper, what is your weird? Our childhood quirks should be celebrated and explored, they hint to our future selves if we are careful not to shave them down to fit into cookie cutter molds. This conversation is about how we whittle ourselves down and the ways we try to shape the people around us to make us more comfortable. Randy shares some personal oddities that make Misty go hmmm??? and Misty describes her desire to get noisy. We discuss how we all should embrace our weird but first we have to find our freak unique. Unfortunately, we may have hidden it so long, we aren’t sure where to find it. Time to go digging through the clues.

Has your summer been all work, no play? We sure hope not! Summer was created for play! While we have made room for lots of fun, and are still trying to cram more into our last few weeks of summer break, we’ve also been burning the midnight oil on some pretty big projects and dealing with some heavy family stuff. All the stress has reminded us how much we need hefty doses of laughter.These crash courses on how to revel when the s#@*! hits the fan are depleting! So we’re going on vacation... or having a staycation... or a mix of staycation + mini road trips. We really don’t know what to call it. Honestly, it has been such a wacky summer for us and Randy is just now able to carve out a bit of time off work. It’s last minute and we’re designing our downtime around the beginning of soccer and appointments we can’t cancel and all that kind of stuff. While we love travel, this time together will have to be about relaxing, enjoying each other, finding new things to explore, and filling our time with as many belly laughs as we can. Why are we adding the pursuit of laughter to our vacation plans? You already know the positive effect of laughter on your emotional state, but laughing has surprising health benefits and we believe it’s key to healthy relationships, too. Just check out this episode where we peek into the science of laughter and explore a swarm of ideas on how to have more laughs. And we enjoy a few crack-ups in the process! Has your summer been all work, no play? We sure hope not! Summer was created for play! While we have made room for lots of fun, and are still trying to cram more into our last few weeks of summer break, we’ve also been burning the midnight oil on some pretty big projects and dealing with some heavy family stuff. All the stress has reminded us how much we need hefty doses of laughter.These crash courses on how to revel when the s#@*! hits the fan are depleting! So we’re going on vacation... or having a staycation... or a mix of staycation + mini road trips. We really don’t know what to call it. Honestly, it has been such a wacky summer for us and Randy is just now able to carve out a bit of time off work. It’s last minute and we’re designing our downtime around the beginning of soccer and appointments we can’t cancel and all that kind of stuff. While we love travel, this time together will have to be about relaxing, enjoying each other, finding new things to explore, and filling our time with as many belly laughs as we can. Why are we adding the pursuit of laughter to our vacation plans? You already know the positive effect of laughter on your emotional state, but laughing has surprising health benefits and we believe it’s key to healthy relationships, too. Just check out this episode where we peek into the science of laughter and explore a swarm of ideas on how to have more laughs. And we enjoy a few crack-ups in the process!