Yesterday we brought our new family car home, and the kids love it! I recently shared the top three SUVs we were considering now that we have three in car seats, and so many of you sent recommendations that helped us feel confident in our choice. I’m sharing everything that went into our decision plus photos of the one we picked…

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Update: I originally published this in April 2026 while I was pregnant with my fourth baby, sharing everything I used with my previous baby (Elliott). Now that Clive is 5 months old, I’ve updated it as of October 2026 with the items I’ve been using and loving this time around, plus a few brands I didn’t discover until after he was born. You’ll see my update notes throughout! Hope this helps you navigate your registry if you lean more holistic like me :)

This is my fourth baby so there's no registry this time around. But if I were doing this for the first time, this is everything I'd put on one. It's a pretty comprehensive list and I spent quite a bit of time thinking through each category, what I use and why I use it.

With Jadyn I had a baby shower and the guests were so generous. I had diapers for a year which, as a 19 year old young single mom at the time, was the biggest relief!!

That was almost twenty years ago though, and things were simpler then. The baby gear world wasn't what it is today, and my budget made most of the decisions for me anyway (I did splurge on a rhinestone sparkly pacifier, so I wasn't completely practical about it). And I also got into credit card debt at Gap because I would always buy her new flats when I got my paycheck (another story for another time). Being a different era, non-toxic materials weren't something I thought about. It was more about what she needed and what looked cute.

With Poppy, fourteen years after Jadyn, I felt like I was starting over completely. I bought SO much. Things that looked essential on every list I found, things other moms swore by, things that came highly recommended and lived in a drawer for a year before I donated them. With Elliott I got smarter, bought less but better and did a real deep dive on why non-toxic mattered for what he was eating, wearing, and sleeping on. With this baby I feel much more prepared and clear on what I'll be using the most every day.

When I’m looking at any product for a new baby, the main thing I’m thinking about is what’s touching their skin. Babies absorb so much more than we do and they’re in close contact with everything around them from the moment they’re born. The materials I try to avoid, especially for a newborn, are synthetic fragrances, flame retardants, PFAS, phthalates, and phenoxyethanol. What I opt for instead is organic cotton, glass, solid wood, and stainless steel where I can. GOTS and USDA Organic certifications matter because they mean someone outside the brand verified the claim.

You don't have to be perfect about any of this. Do what works for your budget and your life. But if you're going to prioritize somewhere, start with what your baby is against the most. The mattress, the sleepers they're in around the clock, whatever they spend hours touching every day. We co-sleep and I babywear for naps, so for us that means an organic cotton mattress, organic sheets, and an organic wrap. Every family looks different but the question is the same: where is your baby spending the most time, and what is that thing made of?

Quick note before we get into it: everything here is based on my own research and what I've chosen for my kids. I'm not a doctor or a toxicologist, just a mom who has spent way too many hours reading ingredient labels and falling down research rabbit holes comparing different products and marketing claims.

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Before Poppy was born back when Jay was my only one, I remember being shocked when I found out someone I knew when I was younger ended up having four kids. I kept thinking, how do you even manage four kids?? And now here I am, a mom of four myself thinking about a possible fifth baby down the line!

Ever since Clive was born I’ve kept coming back to the same question. How do you know if you should have another baby? Do you just know you’re done one day, or is it a decision you make? I’ve talked to women who tell me no, they’re DONE done, like they couldn’t bear the thought of another one and they’re already stressed as it is in the thick of it. I get it, I definitely have my overwhelmed moments too, but I’ve never had that feeling where I knew I was done. Then on the drive down to Boca I listened to a podcast with an economist who’s a mom of eight herself. She spent years interviewing college-educated moms (like me, I have a poli sci degree) with five or more kids, all planned and none of them surprise pregnancies, about why they chose to have big families when most people stop at one or two. By the time we pulled into Boca, I finally understood why I’ve never felt done.

And if you’re reading this thinking, five kids?? I’m just trying to figure out if we should go from one to two, this conversation still applies. Whether you’re thinking about your second baby or your fifth, the question is the same, how do you know when your family feels complete? So much of what she talked about applies no matter how many kids you have. And before I dive into my thoughts, I’d love to hear from you. How did you decide to have more kids, or how did you know you were done? Tell me in the comments!

I have four kids. Jadyn is turning 20 in January and is a sophomore in college, and then there’s Poppy, Elliott, and Clive, who I had this past May at 39 (I wrote all about it in How Old Is Too Old to Have a Baby?). When we had Poppy, Anthony and I thought we’d have two together and be done. Jay always wished she’d had a sibling growing up, and with fourteen years between her and Poppy, I at least wanted Poppy to have someone close in age. Then Elliott came, and even though two together was the plan, we both knew we wanted to try for another down the line, and now we have sweet Clive, who I can’t imagine my life without. These days Poppy and Elliott run around the house together all day (and fight, like all siblings do), and Jay loves watching them bc it’s what she always wished she’d had growing up.

When I was younger I never dreamed of being a mom, and it’s a big reason I struggled so much when I got pregnant with Jadyn at 19, feeling like this was NOT supposed to be my life. I didn’t think I was maternal at all. I babysat all the time and thought the kids were so cute, and I was good enough at it that I got referrals, but I never once left a babysitting job thinking wow, I can’t wait to be a mom one day!

It wasn’t until I had my own that I realized how much I love it, and I’ve fallen harder with every baby. And then she said something that put into words what I’ve been feeling about our own family, something I’d never once heard anyone say about deciding you’re done.

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I’m so basic… I love a pumpkin spice and autumn is my favorite season of the year so this drink is a must for me! But I don’t want it super sweet with all the added syrups. I still think one of the best pumpkin spice lattes I’ve had is from Erewhon. It has a thickness and it’s heavily spiced just like their pumpkin pie. That’s because of the pumpkin puree which gives it that thick and creamy texture. Bc there’s no Erewhon in TN, my own version will have to suffice, sweetened with maple syrup and topping it with a pumpkin spice whipped cream that makes it feel like a treat.

It’s still somewhat hot here during the day but we’re starting to have chillier mornings. Right now I’m still drinking it cold and will switch to warm a little later so I’m sharing both versions below. Plus the recipe for homemade pumpkin spice whipped cream:

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I love so many pieces from The Row, but at this point in my life with little ones it’s hard for me to justify spending that much on one piece of clothing. The Row is best for the materials if you want all silk, cashmere or leather, and it’s perfect for an investment piece. One of my favorite pairs of jeans is from them that I’ve had for years and believe me I wear them again and again, and I LOVE the quality of their handbags. But I also want to buy things for the kids and plants for the yard, and if I can get that same look for less I won’t be stressed when it gets messy with the kids.

So I’m sharing everything I ordered below, and the deals are SO good because I have a code for an extra 20% off the sale prices. I’m also sharing a couple of designer twins that aren’t on sale but are still such a good price, including The Row Gala pant lookalike that sold out last time and the jeans that apparently fit just like the viral Saint Laurent pair.

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As a mom of littles, I’m not just making decisions for myself, I’m making so many of theirs too, and the decision fatigue can be draining! I used to have such a hard time trusting my own decisions… I’d go back and forth and second guess myself constantly (for a variety of reasons I won’t get into here). Over the years I’ve become so much more confident, especially as a mom. Anthony has always been the “just make a decision and stick with it” type, and being around that steadiness helped me trust myself more. Now once we decide something, I stick with it instead of going back and forth with “wait, are you sure?”

Something that has helped me so much is having default decisions. These are things I decided once (some more intentionally than others), like what we eat when there’s no plan or what I wear when I can’t figure out an outfit, and now they’re more of a habit. Some are small daily routines and some are bigger choices about holidays and money, but either way, we already know how we approach them.

Here are 39 of mine (this list could have kept going, I didn’t realize how many of the same things I do constantly).

1. Halloween costumes that aren’t scary. This year Poppy picked a butterfly and Elliott picked Lightning McQueen, and both are so cute for pretend play after Halloween is over too! (Last year Poppy was a horse and Elliott was a dinosaur and they still run around the house in them playing) I’m between these options for Clive: either a chicken, highland cow or this pumpkin that Elliott wore before. All so cute!

2. We treat our credit card like a debit card. We followed Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace class to pay off our credit cards and student loan debt, so I know he would NOT approve of this one (sorry Dave!). I get what he means that it can be a slippery slope (having a credit card is easier to spend than using cash or a debit card where you can see the money coming out), but we’re really disciplined with it. We only use it for the points and pay it off in full every month.

3. When we walk in the door, the first thing is hands washed and nose spray for everyone. We wash our hands with soap, and the nose spray has propolis and oregano in it to help clear out whatever we picked up while we were out. Everyone has their own bottle and I mark them with their initials so nobody shares the same one.

4. We only drink filtered water, never from plastic bottles. If I was starting over and had to pick only one change, this would be it. We drink so much water every day, so it’s an easy way to cut down on things like microplastics and what’s in tap water without changing much else. The filters we use are third party tested and share their results, and when we travel I bring a bottle with a built in filter (it’s saved me so much money bc I don’t have to buy water on the go). This is the size that I got for Jadyn’s dorm. Every time I fill up, electrolytes and trace minerals go in too.

5. My go-to outfit is jeans, a white tee and a black leather jacket. Over the years I’ve been more drawn to a classic look and this always feels fresh to me. I’m not one to wear much color… I used to try to talk myself into it. Like should I be wearing more color?? Now I know what I feel confident in and I don’t overthink it. It works for day or night and I like a slimmer leather jacket like this one or this one because it makes the whole thing feel more put together. For white long sleeve white tee (wearing it in size L in this post here. Or my short sleeve, both 100% cotton. Jeans I like a slim and straight leg high rise.

6. Anything I don’t want to forget goes into a voice note. I set this up once, and now anytime something pops in my head (whether it’s a to-do or something I want to look into later) I just talk into my phone and it sends me a reminder to follow up on it. Then I decide if it goes on the calendar or what the next step is during review. I don’t have to stop and figure it out in the moment, so I can do what I call a “mind dump” and let it go. I shared how to set it up in this post here. I LOVE this!

7. A rainy day means a Christmas movie and the fireplace, even in Oct! I got this candle with that in mind (beeswax and essential oils with a wood burning wick for the crackle, it’s so cozy!). This is more the default for a rainy weekend day, during the week we don’t have our TV rolled out.

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A month after Clive was born I was getting everyone out the door when I thought, I need to call to reschedule Poppy’s dentist appointment. By the time we were in the car, I jumped on a different call and forgot. I remembered right as I was falling asleep and I thought, shoot, it’s the weekend now and they’re closed! Ugh. Then the gift I kept meaning to order popped in my head and the fence quote Anthony asked me about three days before, and that’s not counting all the content ideas for our business. Everything was on a running to-do list in my notes app and calendar reminders, but that list was so long I was never getting through it in a day, and that night I knew I needed something better, more intuitive.

I’m not the most organized person but I’m VERY creative, so I’ll have all these ideas while I’m driving and then a text or an email comes in and I’ll have to get back to it after, usually writing it down in my notes (with sometimes no context). With so many ideas the decision fatigue of figuring out which one to do first was real. I’d be folding laundry and think, wait, should I really be doing this right now or should I be starting that other project I keep thinking about? Even sitting with the kids I’d catch myself thinking about what I needed to do next, which is the opposite of how I want to spend that time. I read that it takes about 23 minutes to get back into what you were doing after you get interrupted, and in a normal day being a mom to little ones that can happen every few minutes. That was exactly how it felt, and our brains can’t really multitask, we just bounce back and forth and lose a little focus every time.

When we moved from CA to TN it was for many reasons, but downsizing our lifestyle was one of them. I used to have an assistant who managed my calendar and kept track of everything in Monday.com, and a nanny I could hand the kids off to when I needed to jump on my computer. When we moved we decided not to bring that help with us. Their childhood is going to go by so fast, and of all the things to outsource, time with my kids wasn’t one of them (I learned that lesson the hard way with Jadyn (my oldest who is now in college), I felt like I was always too busy for her and on the go which I share more about in previous posts). I figured I had to be a lot more strategic with my time but I still wasn’t the most organized with it. I was winging it half the time!

Around that time Anthony was helping small businesses automate the mundane tasks that keep them running so they could spend more time on the work they love, and I said to him, why can’t we do this for our house and our own routines? What I needed was something like a house manager, with systems that stay a few steps ahead for me. And that’s what he created for me. I’m not techy at all (I joke that I’m IT challenged!), and I wouldn’t be where I am today without Anthony because I come up with the ideas and he figures out how to get it done. That’s how we started the blog back in 2013 when I had the vision for it and he built the website to bring it to life, he’s always been the systems person. So we sat down and talked through everything that was stressing me out. I wanted to be more present mentally with the kids and stop worrying that something was getting forgotten in the background. We started putting it in place before Clive was born, and as I healed and got back into my routine after, I kept adding to it once I realized how much more I needed handled automatically.

I still have my reservations about AI. Will I ever let a robot in our house? Absolutely not and Anthony agrees that’s a hard pass. But if it can take the mundane stuff off my plate so I have more brain space for my kids then yes I’m in! Anthony first built our automations with Claude Code, which is what he uses for his business clients. Last month, Meta (Facebook/IG) came out with an app called Muse, and that’s what we’ll walk you through step by step. The difference is I don’t have to keep prompting it. It’s more like having a house manager who’s already a few steps ahead and brings things to me before I think to ask. You just need to know how to set up the different automations and how to prompt it.

It’s become such a normal part of our routine now that I didn’t think twice about it until I was explaining my setup to a friend who’s also a creator, and she said “HELP, you need to show me how to do this.” She hadn’t heard of Muse or set up any automations and was mostly using ChatGPT to look things up, which is how I used it at first too. And when I told Jadyn what we were working on, she asked me “wait, what’s automation?” With how much we hear about AI now I assumed more people were using it like this, but those conversations made me realize not everyone is using it like this at all. It could help so many moms, especially if you don’t have help at home or someone to think through these systems with you. Anthony has become the go-to for our friends whenever they’re stuck with AI, so we’re teaching it together step by step so you can set it up too.

Here’s the normal things I stopped doing myself:

I stopped trying to remember it all.

Now when something pops into my head I press the action button on the side of my phone and create an actionable voice note. For example “Book Poppy’s dentist for sometime in November.” “Remind me Thursday to pull the frozen meat out for stew.” “Sometime this month I need to research best low tox gift ideas for kids”

From there it takes care of the rest. Each note gets sorted into the right category and any day I mention either goes on my calendar or becomes a reminder. Every morning I see my top three things that NEED to get done that day based on priority. This is super convenient when I’m out with the kids or in the middle of something because I make the voice note and move on with my day knowing it’s being handled in the background.

Anthony put together a how-to guide for this one, so if you want to set it up yourself you can sign up here and we’ll send it to you.

I stopped trying to remember the priorities of the day.

At 6pm every evening my automated routine sends me a short recap showing what got done that day and what’s still open. That includes everything from my voice notes along with reminders from the other automations I’ll explain below. Then at 6:30am the next morning it sends me my top three for the day that have to be completed, already in order so I know which one comes first.

Now I wake up to three things and a clear place to start. You can choose how many priorities you want each morning but three has worked well for me, and I’ll show you my system for it.

I stopped trying to keep up with my inbox.

Not all emails need a reply but there’s still something I want to remember, like a seasonal event I don’t want to forget or a sale coming up that I don’t want to miss. Those little things were easy to lose track of in between everything else.

Now my automated routine goes through my emails as they come in and flags what needs me, without deleting or moving anything. Anything that needs a response gets flagged first, and the ones that just need an action later get turned into a reminder for the right day. If something is waiting on a reply from me it stays on my list until I answer it, and if I emailed someone and never heard back it reminds me to follow up. I can also ask if there’s anything I need to respond to right away.

So in the morning I know which ones need a response and will prioritize by importance. Plus not forget action items for the other things in there (like that sale!).

I stopped losing my ideas.

Anything I say in a voice note that starts with “idea” is automatically saved to its own list. Then every Thursday my automated routine emails me all of that week’s ideas so I can go through them and decide what to keep. I like getting all my ideas out when they come to me and reviewing them later to decide which ones I’ll act on and which ones can wait. Some of them I end up deleting off the list after seeing all of them as an overview. It helps me seeing it all in one place.

I stopped saving IG posts I’d never find again.

I’m a serial saver and SO many of my saves end up buried in a folder I never open again. I even file them into different categories, but when I go back to look I can’t remember which one I put it in. Now my automated routine keeps track of my saves for me. When I need one I just ask something like “what’s the paint color I saved last week?” and it pulls it right up. I still save it, but if it’s not in a perfectly categorized folder, I know I can still find it easily at a later date. I will also during brainstorming use this to grab ideas, like pull any of my saved paint posts. I have the report sent via email with links to the posts.

I stopped running our calendar by hand.

With everyone’s schedules and both our personal and work calendars, it’s easy for things to overlap. My automated routine reads the details of the event or appt and adds to our calendar for me. If it overlaps with something we already have, it lets me know before adding it so I can decide what to do. It also blocks off the drive time so I know exactly when we need to leave. My work blocks and my own time are already on there, so it schedules everything else around them.

Then every Friday EOD I ask it what the following week looks like and it gives me an overview. It tells me which days are too full and flags anything I need to prep ahead, whether that’s a gift for a birthday or the supplies for a recipe I’m baking that week or an appointment I need items for before we go.

I stopped keeping track of seasonal activities myself.

There are so many things to manage and not miss, especially during the busy holiday seasons. My automated routine keeps a running calendar of seasonal activities like all the fall festivities starting here. When I see an IG post or an email about something fun I let my automated routine know. It also searches our local area for events that are a good fit for my kids’ ages.

Two weeks before anything comes up I get an email with what’s coming and a plan for it. For October it sent me the pumpkin patches near us with their hours, which ones are best for little kids and which weekend we had open to go. For birthdays it reminds me to order the gift in time. If your kids are in sports or school activities this would work well for those too. It’s always thinking ahead of schedule.

I stopped the 5pm “what’s for dinner.”

So many of you told me meal planning is your biggest struggle, and it used to be mine too! I want my kids eating nourishing meals but weeknights need to be quick. Once a week I just say “plan my week” and my automated routine picks five easy seasonal dinners from our usual rotation, and I swap out anything that doesn’t sound good that week. It checks against the stock list I update once a month, then gives me one grocery list that marks what to pick up at the farmers market and what goes on our delivery order, plus a reminder when to place it.

Because our dinners come from the same rotation I’m not buying random spices for one-off meals anymore. It also means I can buy our organic staples in bulk, which I’ll share more about in a future post. This system is working really well for us.

I stopped tracking packages in my head.

We order from so many places, and none of those apps talk to each other or tell you when a return window is about to close. My automated routine pulls every order confirmation from my email into one list, whether it’s from Amazon or Target or various shops, so I can see what’s arrived and what we’re still waiting on without checking multiple apps. Sometimes a small package never shows up and I don’t realize it until it’s too late to do anything about it. It flags anything that should have arrived by now and keeps an eye on return windows, so the package that never came doesn’t turn into money we lost.

I’m assuming this will be especially helpful at Christmas with orders coming from so many different shops, excited to have a better system to track it! Last year I was doing it all via notes and marking them as they got delivered (but would forget to mark some when they came!) Not the best system.

I stopped letting subscriptions ride.

Once a month my automated routine scans my email for receipts and renewal notices and pulls every recurring charge into one list, from streaming services to the apps I signed up for once and never used again (the amount of times I do this!). It sends me that list with what each one costs and when it renews next, so I can catch the ones I don’t use and keep paying for what we love. The list shows up on its own so I never have to remember to go looking, and all I have to do is make the decision on what to keep.

I stopped spending hours researching.

When we need to look into something I mention it in a voice note while I’m going about my day, and my automated routine takes it from there. Later there’s a “findings report” in my email with the top pick, pros and cons, customer reviews/ratings and the best price. Most recently we were comparing new family cars, so it pulled together the safety reviews for each one we were considering. It also looked into whether dealerships had end of year offers and whether certified pre owned would be the better choice for us based on how well it holds its value. What I got back was a short summary of what it found, so I could decide on the next step without feeling overwhelmed (and yes it’s best to negotiate end of year! so we’re waiting until then).

It’s just as helpful for house maintenance and anything that needs a quick decision but I don’t want to be on my phone doing the manual typing and want to review at a later date.

I still have days where the kids need me in five directions at once, but I’m not having to remember all the little things that keep our house running smoothly. And this is not all perfect! It’s a work in progress as we continue to learn what works best for us, the cool thing is you can customize it to what works best for you. I would try things for a week and then think, no, this needs a tweak, and Anthony would figure it out for me. Recently it even rescheduled a passport appointment for me. I used a voice note to say “remind me to reschedule my passport appointment,” and later it asked if I wanted it to handle it for me. Could I have done it myself? Of course! But I’d rather let my automated routine do it so I can spend that time on something else.

Anthony put together a step-by-step guide for each of these so you can set them up too, and the first one on voice notes is out now. Sign up here to get it and be notified when the next one drops!

Thank you for being here!

xx Brittany

I like knowing what we're having for dinner each week, so usually on the weekend before I'll plan out recipes and go to the farmers market to get all our meats and whatever veggies they have, and then I do Whole Foods (doorstep delivery is so nice!!) or Sprouts for the rest. This week all the meals were 20 minutes of prep or less. Everyone eats the same meal for dinner and we don't do snacks after they wake up from their nap so they're ready to eat by the time the food is ready. The other day they had pumpkin spice popcorn with me while I was making dinner (it's sooo good!) and that ruined their appetite a bit. But even when they're not hungry at dinner we still all sit together and pray to thank God for our meal, and they know we can warm it up later if they're not hungry for it right now. And that’s what they did on popcorn night. Either way we're all eating the same thing and I think that's why my kids are pretty adventurous eaters! I'll usually double a recipe depending on how big the serving size is and eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.

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These are the things I find myself using almost every day. I shared them on Instagram and wanted to add them here too, including the play mat we take everywhere and a few little things that make getting out of the house easier.

Play mat

This is great for the beach too! It folds up, snaps closed easily, and has a handle on top for carrying.

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I used to be VERY passionate about sleep training. I sleep trained Jadyn (my oldest, who's now 19) I remember reading the Babywise book, which explains you feed your baby every few hours on a set schedule and put them down for naps awake instead of nursing or rocking them to sleep. The idea is that full feedings during the day mean they don't need to eat at night. Plus learning to fall asleep on their own means they can settle themselves when they wake up. As a young mom who was worried about losing sleep, I thought it sounded great! A baby sleeping through the night early? Count me in!

I found it was pretty easy to implement with Jadyn. She was a mellow, go with the flow baby who went on the schedule naturally and slept through the night with little fuss. When pregnant with Poppy and on our babymoon in Santa Barbara, I reread Babywise and decided that we’d get Poppy on this same schedule too. It would make everything seamless, and I could jump back into work the way I was planning to. Easy right? Wrong!

I did everything the book said. I was so concerned about her getting the right amount of milk at the right time that I would pump and feed her the pumped milk (extra work for no reason, I know, I know) at set hours. It had worked for Jadyn, so I thought it had to work for Poppy too. She slept in a bassinet for the first couple of months in our room, and when she was around three or four months old I moved her down the hallway into her own room and crib. Co-sleeping wasn't something I'd even consider. All the schedules recommended babies sleep in their own bed and fall asleep on their own, no rocking and certainly no nursing to sleep. Bad habits! I would think, as if my baby would be using nursing as "a crutch." I thought I just needed to be more scheduled and start the day at the same time and wake her up from her naps to get her on the same nap schedule daily.

Every night I kept the baby monitor on my night stand, and when I heard her cry I'd run down the hall to get her, always in the biggest fog. It took so much effort to get out of bed and get to her. Anthony and I got so little sleep. I was so set on her sleeping through the night on her own, but some nights we'd cave and try bouncing her back to sleep. I was so confused about why she wasn't sleeping through the night that I thought I must be doing it wrong, and wondered why it had felt so simple with Jadyn. I remember being exhausted, trying to work and keep up with everything on four to five hours of sleep. I'd read mom blogs about babies on Babywise who fell right into the routine and never needed to be nursed to sleep. Their babies seemed relaxed and ready for bed, which made me feel even worse about it all. Meanwhile I was always asking what Poppy should be doing, whether she should be sleeping now or eating now, instead of going off of her cues. I would research “sleep regressions” and how we could skip them (as if a 4 month old had read the book and just needed some reminding). There was so much information that it felt like I was failing all the time.

So by the time I was pregnant with Elliott, we said there was NO WAY we were doing the schedule with him. I kept thinking back to simpler times, before anyone had written a book on how to sleep train a baby. What did moms do then? They wore their babies and kept them close. I wanted it to feel simple and practical for us. Scheduling definitely works for some babies (it worked for Jay!), and maybe I’d feel differently if Poppy had done well with it too, but if Elliott was going to be anything like her it was a hard no. So I donated my baby scheduling books. What we did instead gave us the best sleep we’d ever had with a newborn, and it made us want to do the newborn stage all over again.

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For about four years I made it a daily habit to keep up with my TikTok scrolling for "viral research," to save the sounds I kept hearing over and over, find the videos that were doing well, and figure out how to put my own spin on them. If I jumped on a trend early it had a better chance of taking off. Chasing virality was the formula that was working for me, and reach was all I cared about back then, which I explain more in my recent post Is the Influencer Era Dead?. When I first started going viral I was posting twice a day on Tiktok, then it was once a day consistently, and I kept that up from 2020 until the middle of 2024. The first post that really took off was me sharing my story of being a young mom, and from there it was styling outfit transition videos, then the funny videos like me “acting like my Gen Z daughter”.

I gained so many followers from that stretch and for a while it felt like I'd cracked the ever elusive algorithm code. But the people who came in from those videos were there to be entertained. They’d comment “I followed you from the Gen Z video,” and I’d think well, that was one video, and most of what I post is nothing like it. They’d followed for the funny videos and were waiting for the next one, and if my next post didn’t also go viral, most of them were never going to see it anyway because of how the FYP was structured.

When a video did well I was happy that all the research, planning, filming, and editing felt worth it, and when one didn’t I’d get down on myself, like the hours I’d spent creating and editing were pointless because it didn’t get the views. I tied it back to the feeling when I would get an A on a research paper in college, that I did everything my professor was looking for and got rewarded with the grade. This was of course completely different but it felt like my performance was tied to views and creating for what I thought other people wanted to see and it left out the part of building a deeper connection with my audience. At that time, going viral was the thing that helped boost someones account and set them apart from other creators, got them ins with brand deals or shot up in fame that opened other doors, there were many how-to create viral video tutorials and many others were thinking there has to be some secret to this and if they could only crack the code. But I’m here to tell you, viral is a poor game plan. Sure, if you create something that was true to you and it resonates with many people, thats one thing but creating for the idea of going viral can be left in the past.

It took me awhile to get to this point, after years of trying to stay on the “viral train” it’s hard to get out of that mindset. The part that would keep popping up in my head was remembering why we started our blog in the first place. When I quit my job to pursue blogging full-time (more about that in this post) it was to have the time to work on it during the day and also to be there for Jadyn for after school pickup, and somewhere along the way and in those most recent four years I’d started to feel like a slave to the content and that this job was owning me. Anthony and I would have these conversations, this feels draining and pointless, if we’re only looking at it from the money side we could do something else to make money, it didn’t feel like I’m helping anyone. At the same time it’s also not that deep, it’s videos and photos. But I felt like it could feel more meaningful, especially with having to stay motivated to want to keep creating, I lost my why. I wrote about our move to Tennessee and the season that led up to it in these posts here so I won’t go through all of it, but that’s where the real change happened, when we stopped and asked ourselves how we wanted to live and how we could keep doing this at a pace we chose and why going viral is the last thing I want now…

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I don’t follow every trend, just the ones that feel like me and still feel classic, which is really why I love watching the runways. It’s less about copying a look and more about getting a visual for colors and textures, then figuring out what I’m inspired by and what I’m fine skipping. So after going through my favorite designers’ fall 2026 shows, here are the six trends I really love and how I’ll bring a little of each into what I already wear without spending a fortune. Everything listed below is under $300.

The thing I loved most about this season wasn’t a single piece, it was the styling. Prada sent models out who changed their look on the runway in real time, and one stylist said it made her want to go home and see what else she could do with what she already owns. Celine did it with rings and belts, Bottega and Tory Burch did it with a collar peeking out of a crewneck, Valentino did it with a sash. It’s a good reminder to get creative with the pieces I already own, and it got me thinking about the few additions that would make my closet feel new again, which is where this list comes in.

I’m drawn to cotton and natural fibers when I can find them, especially for the everyday basics. If it’s a base layer I’m going to wear three times a week, a tee or a sweater or a button-down, I want it to be cotton or wool or cashmere, because those are the pieces that hold up. If it’s a more structured, stylish top, something for an occasion, or outerwear (especially anything that needs to be waterproof!), I’m not too picky about the materials. But gone are the days of spending quite a bit on a top I think I’ll wear again and again, only to find out it’s an itchy 100% polyester.

I kept all of this in mind when selecting the pieces below, being as mindful about materials as possible:

I love the styling of a full-length trench. It just reads more luxe, it moves better, and it makes even a tee and jeans underneath look so chic. What I’ve been drawn to lately is that English countryside look, the kind of thing you’d wear to walk a garden in the Cotswolds (I’ve never been, but it’s on my list, it looks gorgeous!). Being out in my own garden and inspired by fall, I’m interested in pieces that are weatherproof but still versatile for everyday life, and it turns out the runways had the same idea this season. Ralph Lauren, Hermès and Stella McCartney all sent out riding boots and tailored jackets, Chloé did check blazers belted with what looked like horse tack, and Acne Studios and Paloma Wool went country in their own way too. Stella McCartney even had ponies at her show. Tweed and waxed cotton were everywhere with it, the heritage fabrics that only get better as they wear in, and a cropped tweed jacket over a white shirt is the fastest way to get the whole look in one piece. There were also beautiful funnel-neck coats, like this one I just got.

The styling I loved most was at The Row, where the trench was worn with gray tights and nude pumps. I usually think of a trench with boots or flats, so seeing it with a heel turned it into an evening look without changing the coat at all.

Here’s my favorite picks for english countryside:

• a full-length trench coat

• a relaxed trench in beige

• a wool-cashmere cocoon coat

• a tie-belt wool trench

• a twill safari jacket in khaki

• the corduroy barn jacket in camel

• an organic waxed cotton barn jacket in forest green

• a workwear jacket

• the casual waxed jacket

• a cropped tweed lady jacket

• Luxe woven tote in dark chocolate

I didn’t currently have anything cobalt in my closet. Then I watched the Chanel, Givenchy and Bottega Veneta shows back to back and it was the only color I remembered and how effortlessly it was styled multiple ways. Mugler put it right next to chartreuse just to prove a point (chartreuse is not my vibe, I'll leave that one on the runway, but I love the blue). The bigger idea on the runway was two bold colors worn together, which Marc Jacobs, Valentino, Prada and Tory Burch all did. Tory Burch and Bottega did it with just a collar or a cuff of blue under a crewneck, and that's the version I'm stealing. I love this way to style it:

It feels like a fun color to add while still keeping it true to my personal style. I love adding it with accessories if you don't want to go all in with a sweater, and the cinched waist of a belt is a really cool way to incorporate it. Here’s my favorite picks for cobalt:

• cashmere scarf

• a midi trench in blue

• a blue denim jacket

• an organic cotton boyfriend crew in sapphire

• a cashmere crew cardigan in blue

• a cashmere knit scarf in blue

• a cashmere and wool triangle scarf

• a pleated cummerbund belt

• a leather shopper bag in vibrant blue

• a blue shoulder bag

• a cinched blazer in cobalt

• a funnel neck buttoned jacket

Red is always so stunning for fall, and poppy red is the fresher version for this year. It was everywhere on the fall runways, in long red dresses at Valentino and Fendi, red leather at Ferragamo and Balenciaga, and bright red knits at Chanel, Alaïa, Prada and Celine. I love it with a trench most of all. I just got this red scarf and I already know I’ll wear it constantly, knotted at the neck with the trench or tied around the waist. Here’s my favorite poppy red picks:

• a collarless tailored blazer in poppy red

• an oversized cotton cable sweater

• an oversized V-neck sweater

• a red boatneck sweater

• the wild rag scarf in carmine

• an embroidered cotton cap

• a mini shoulder bag in red leather

• a half-zip cotton sweatshirt in red

• a stand-up collar jersey top

• a cinched blazer in red

• a scoop rib knit cardigan

• a funnel-neck jacket in negroni

• a long red trench

• a draped top

Plaid is the one print I’ve never gotten tired of, and this season it was everywhere, but what I loved is that no two designers did it the same way. Acne Studios made it feel like horse country, Celine and Dior made it feel like a private school uniform in the best way, Chloé went soft and bohemian with it, and Chanel turned the classic tweed jacket into something that almost looked like chainmail.

It’s also a little nostalgic for me. I recently went to a dinner for Boden and the whole theme was tartan, which took me right back to high school. I was on the cheer team at Glendora High in CA, and our team name was, no joke, the Tartans. The mascot was a Scottie dog in plaid, other schools loved to point out that we were named after a piece of fabric, but the cheer uniforms were always so cute and I spent four years decked out in plaid and grew to love it.

Here’s my favorite plaid/argyle picks that feel fresh for right now:

• a checked cotton twill shirt

• a plaid poplin overshirt

• a cropped cardigan in brown and navy argyle

• a cropped barn jacket

• the quilted jacket with the tartan collar

• a cashmere tartan scarf in oatmeal and red

• an alpaca argyle neckerchief

• a blouse in navy and lemon plaid

• a plaid zip top

• a check flannel trench coat

• a plaid hooded jacket

I’m all for oversized looks, but this season was more about tailoring. You can still wear an oversized shirt, but the waist is cinched so perfectly. The silhouette moved closer to the body. Ralph Lauren and Jacquemus did skirt suits, Jonathan Anderson restyled Dior’s Bar jacket, and the tailoring at Givenchy, Gucci and Saint Laurent was sharp and fitted rather than slouchy. The theme was define the waist. An easy way to do that is belting what you already own, tucking in your shirt, or sizing down on your next jacket, which is a great way to make something you already have feel fresh again. But if you want one new piece, make it something with a waist.

This blazer I wear so often. I’m 5’10” and wearing a size large, and I could have gone down to a medium for an even more tailored fit, but I love the cut of it. It’s not under $300, but I’ve worn it so many times I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth!

Here’s my favorite picks for a cinched waist:

• a belted wool-blend wrap coat

• a fitted jacket with a defined waist

• a cinched jacket

• a fitted black top

• a fitted-waist cotton shirt in white

• a cinch-waist long sleeve top

• a peplum sweater tank

• a knit fitted-waist tee

• a fitted-waist interlock top

• a long waisted blazer in black

• a linen vest with an elastic waist

• a cinched-waist peplum sweater in black

The jewelry on the runways was one big piece instead of a stack. Chanel did chunky collars that looked like sculpture, Chloé put oversized charm pendants over turtlenecks, Nina Ricci brought back the choker in a Marie Antoinette way, and Saint Laurent sent out necklaces so big they were paired with earrings just as big. The idea is that one heavy piece carries the whole outfit, and for someone who loves a white shirt and jeans, that's something I was really drawn to. Here’s my favorite statement pieces:

• a layered freshwater pearl statement necklace

• a gold and brown pendant necklace

• a sculptural gold necklace (I just got this one and it looks so cool with a turtleneck or a tee, and the pendant comes off so I can wear it as a plain gold chain too, love it!)

• beaded statement earrings

• flower pendant earrings

• polished brass bow earrings

• embossed metal earrings

• a statement stone necklace

• a gem pendant necklace

• molten glass statement studs

• a gold-plated topaz statement ring

• a molten metal pendant necklace

My favorite shoes for fall

Not really a trend, more the ones that work with every outfit above and that you'll wear again and again:

• black leather ballet flats: love the square toe

• a glove flat in camel: these are sooo comfortable and zero “breaking in” period, which I worry about with new flats sometimes and getting blisters. Not these ones, I have them in caramel color.

• penny loafers in chocolate brown leather: I just got these in the chocolate brown and they feel very luxe.

• a pointed toe suede: love the shape of these and suede always adds beautiful texture to an outfit.

• leather boots: I love the flat heel on these and the rounded top.

• a heritage western boot: I’ve worn cowboy boots here so often mainly because a classic pointed toe looks so chic with jeans, and these are so durable in any weather.

• classic nude pump: perfect for that Row trench look.

The elevated basics underneath

Not a runway trend exactly, but every outfit above starts here, and this is where I hold the line on natural fibers. Chanel did a lot of tan and cream this season and Pantone's color of the year was a soft white, so a cream tee and a good pair of jeans are more on trend than ever and feel very fresh!

• a balloon-sleeved cotton blouse

• a merino wool tee

• white long sleeve tee

• a 100% cotton long sleeve white tee: I just got this and it fits SO cute.

• a 100% cotton oversized sweater

• Pima cotton tank: these are my favorite tanks, I have in white and black.

• soft white turtleneck

• elevated button-up

• low-slung baggy jeans

• high-rise wide-leg jeans

• classic dark high-rise jeans

A few I’m leaving on the runway

Not everything grabbed me, and that’s the point of following your own taste. The Art Deco moment was beautiful, all those beaded flapper dresses and drop waists at Chanel and Fendi, but drop waist isn’t flattering on me (especially after multiple babies). Animal print is having another big year, and I was there two years ago, wore it constantly, and just donated two leopard coats, so I’m sitting this round out. Chartreuse and bright yellow are not my vibe, however good they looked next to cobalt at Mugler. And sheer, which Prada and Khaite did so well, is one I’ll admire on other people but doesn’t feel as practical for me at the moment.

xx Brittany

We’re currently at the park, and the kids are smacking sticks together saying they’re playing music while I make these voice notes. I’ve been thinking about a few things lately and wanted to get them all out, so if this feels a little jumbled, it’s because I’m doing voice notes on my phone.

First of all, I’ve seen a couple of posts recently from what

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Since posting last week on Instagram about how old is too old to have a baby, I’ve gotten so many questions about how we conceived Clive. Many were about if we went through IVF (no, we didn’t). And other questions were about what helped me get pregnant naturally at 38? I filmed four videos documenting those months, the two week waits, the negative test, the morning I found out, but nowhere did I have it all listed out in one place for an easy reference. So that’s what I’m doing here… writing out everything I did during those six months, what I did differently the cycle we got pregnant, and what I’d do now if we were trying again.

Some of this came from my functional health doctor, some from my chiropractor and acupuncturist, and some I picked up from researching how to boost my health to not only conceive but have a strong pregnancy. I’m not a doctor, I’m sharing my own personal experience, and hopefully some of these tips could help you if you are in that trying to conceive period or are thinking about it in the future.

As I sit here writing this I have a chonky 4 month old boy on my lap (18 pounds!) and remember the feeling of finding out I was pregnant last Labor day weekend and waking up Anthony at 6am with the test strip saying, it worked!! Everything we had been doing (many daily prayers included) was for this little life, and now he’s here and the biggest joy! I’m the kind of person that likes information to make a decision, so that’s how I approached trying to conceive, I was also 38 so I wasn’t in the mindset of “if it happens it happens” and “wait and see”, no I’m going to not only support myself for optimal health but I wanted to optimize all of it, here’s everything I did:

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We love ice cream here (especially with simple ingredients), and it's my kids' favorite dessert, with this chocolate date syrup and sprinkles. When Jay was here our favorite ice cream was sold out at Sprouts (the organic Strauss one is so creamy), so I wanted something like that to make at home. No churn means you don't need an ice cream maker, just a mixer and a container, and I usually make it the day before so it has time to freeze up. This base is so easy to make and I love these little ice cream containers to store it in. Plus you can add whatever mix-ins to make it how you like.

We’ve made sprinkles and chocolate chips, strawberry using strawberry puree, and cookie dough and chocolate flakes was more recent. The fun part is doing it with the kids, Jay was shocked it was homemade with how creamy it was and how easy it was to put together with no churning. It's fun to be creative with it, plus you know all the ingredients. Everyone's favorite is the rocky road with homemade marshmallows.

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I recently took a weekend to complete the areas that were bothering me the most and it felt so good after! As a mom of three little ones working from home (and one in college, but she organized her room before she left thankfully), my house is not in pristine order daily. There are toys usually spilled out to be played with and they get cleaned up before we go to bed. I want my house to feel lived in and my kids to feel it’s a safe space to run around and be kids. But I don’t like clutter and keeping something because I’m not sure where else to put it, what I’ve found is that when there’s LESS in the house to begin with, I feel more at peace and the cleaning up goes faster.

UCLA studied families in their own homes for years, and the moms who called their houses cluttered had higher stress hormones, and it went up as they walked from room to room. So maybe they’re onto something and it isn't just in my head. A house with less in it to me is a calmer house.

Fall is when I like to do this because the holiday season gets pretty busy. This also gives me a good idea for Christmas presents for the kids because we clear out what isn’t useful and can be more mindful of what we get them (I don’t go crazy with Christmas presents for the kids like I used to in previous years, lessons learned but that’s for another post!). I used to get decision fatigue where I wouldn’t know where to start first and would get really stuck on the decluttering part (I would always find some reason to keep something). Here’s what I’ve found to help me get the job done quicker…

I start with whatever area is bothering me most, which is almost always the playroom. Recently it was our entryway too, so I worked on both, and I'll keep going through the other areas this month. Break it up into manageable tasks, like today I do my closet, tomorrow the bathroom drawers. Saying it will all get done in one day isn't practical and hasn't worked for me in the past. Then I follow the same order for every spot in the house: declutter, deep clean, then make it cozy.

Part 1: Declutter

I break up the house into rooms or categories. For the playroom the category was toys, I like putting everything in one pile so I can see it all at once. So for example, here’s the before:

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I'm very picky when it comes to sales, but that wasn't always the case. I used to talk myself into every one, calling it "saving money." Now I’m much more intentional about it, I keep a running list of things I need from brands I already love, and I wait. Labor Day is fun because so many brands have sales. Here's what made my list, and the one question I ask before anything goes in the cart: would I pay full price for this? Most of the home pieces featured are from Lulu and Georgia, they have 25% off sitewide and it’s really good because that doesn’t happen often:

The living room

We haven’t painted the living room yet or hung art on the walls but I love that we moved and all the pieces still work in this house too:

The Merrit sideboard is a little long for where I have it right now, but I love it so much I’m keeping it here for the time being. It might need to go in the entryway but I haven’t styled that area yet. It’s the collab with Sarah Sherman Samuel and I love her interior design, I bought it when we were in San Marino.

The Baird swivel chairs come in so many prints, but I still think they’re so cozy in the brown, and these wool light filtering curtains.

The wool throw in the color rust lives on our chair and we use for movie nights. This one is perfect in brown too. The Olema handwoven wool throw I’ve had since 2023 and it’s still in good shape.

Our round coffee table is sold out, but this one is the one I'd buy now. I love a round table with little ones. When they start walking I’m not worried about sharp corners, we had a square marble coffee table in our first house with Poppy and I was always nervous about her falling into it, so I’d keep her out of the living room. That’s not practical, I want our living room to be cozy and a place for the whole family. And the kids loveee this sheepskin ottoman, especially when we light the fireplace.

Our Chiltern rug is thick and cozy and the quality is great. Mine is the colorway with more pink in it and I wish I’d gone a bit darker like the copper color.

The Kemble woven basket holds our firewood and looks pretty next to the fireplace. It’s from the Heidi Callier collab and her rooms are always so warm and elevated at the same time.

The Deep Silence print is in Anthony’s office waiting to be hung. We’re behind on a few house projects but it will be up hopefully soon! Here’s what it looked like at our previous home:

The dining room

The Raphael sideboard is in our dining room and I love how light it is next to the other furniture. I still need to hang prints and style that area more. I’m borrowing Jay’s lamp from her room, I just ordered this one.

Our bedroom

The lamps, the nightstands, the full length mirror are all from the collaboration with DISC Interiors, who do beautiful work out in LA. We need to paint our room still, not loving the grey walls it has currently, but here’s how they were styled in our previous home:

My bedframe comes in so many prints.

I love this Lee tall dresser I use the inside shelves for folded sweaters and joggers for the fall and it makes it easy to see everything alongside having drawers.

The Vekki bedspread is on our bed now. I originally bought it for Jay’s room last year, but with her new room here the mattress was smaller so it was too big. See Jay’s room before and after here.

Avocado mattresses. Every mattress in our house is an Avocado because the materials are truly clean, organic latex, organic wool, and organic cotton with no foam, no chemical flame retardants, and no fiberglass. Up to 20% off mattresses and 15% off bedding and bath.

The kids’ rooms

The kids both have Lorena Canals washable cotton rugs in their room (see them in this post), these are some of my favorites, dog pillow, checkered rug, line rug.

This dresser and Anastasia mirror are in Poppy’s room. I painted it Incarnadine Red from Farrow & Ball most recently:

It’s adorable in the white too, how it was in her previous room:

In Jay’s room (see them all featured in this post): the Birchly chandelier, the Monroe velvet pillow on her bed, and the Duna organic towels in her bathroom. The bath sheet is huge and so cozy, and the hand towels can be personalized, which gives it that hotel touch.

My kids’ both have avocado toddler pillows and Elliott has the crib mattress and Poppy has the kid mattress. See how I styled Poppy’s room in this post.

Boden is 15% off new kids’ styles. I had to get this jacket and dress for Poppy (thinking would be perfect for Christmas), sooo cute!

I love Hanna Andersson, especially the matching print above. Their site is 40% off and code FUN20 takes another 20% off your order. These toy story PJs in 100% cotton are adorable! I love this dress and this for Poppy, this and this for Elliott, and this and this for Clive.

Elevated closet staples:

Madewell is up to 50% off sale, plus 25% off fall selects with code LONGWEEKEND.

I love this look: my jeans, shirt, belt, shoes. I’m 5’10 and wearing a size 27 Tall in the jeans, if you’re over 5’9 the tall length is perfect. The jeans have a tiny bit of stretch:

Left: Low slung baggy | Right: Low Rise Loose (both in the tall length)

Other items I’m loving from Madewell: woven bag, tank I own in barn red, loafers.

MATE the Label organic cotton basics that hold their shape after washing. Their Long Weekend Event is 20% off sitewide I love their biker shorts and leggings.

Other honorable mentions:

Helmi pendant, the Kalani pendant (we put this in the stairway of our Pasadena house), the Garda sconce, a dried strawflower wreath for fall, the Dori linen placemats, the Pearl stoneware, and wavy dinnerware I use nightly. the Darcia vase, and the Olivia candlesticks. The Villers compote bowls

The KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer is $100 off and Crate and Barrel is giving 20% back in reward dollars on top. I use it every day and it’s worth the money. With the holidays coming it’s nice to catch it on sale.

xx Brittany

I’ve been in this space since 2013, which means I’ve been through different waves of people saying it’s over, or that it’s not a long-term plan, and lately it’s being talked about more than it has in years. There was a Vulture piece called “The Influencer Recession,” about aspirational content losing its grip and creators turning to what the writer calls brand-safe rage bait just to get seen.

Jennings’ argument is that this is a supply problem. Too many people want to work in the attention economy, and attention runs on supply and demand, so the formula that worked ten years ago, post something aspirational enough consistently enough and an audience finds you, has stopped working. She points out that individual creators are now competing against clipping farms, companies paying people thousands of dollars to flood platforms with clips, which means an average post has almost no chance of reaching anybody new. On top of that, the aspirational stuff reads as tone deaf now, and luxury has gotten too common to signal anything, with one creator telling her that everyone has an Hermès these days. So people are reaching for rage bait instead, because anger still moves. She's right that it's happening, but I don't think it's a great strategy (more on this later).

NPR followed in August with an episode titled “The influencer era is dead. What’s next?” And talks about streaming as what comes next, and brands buying their way into the background of somebody’s live stream, then paying clippers pennies to spread those moments around. That’s the billboard model again, just cheaper. I’m no streamer, but when it comes to fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands, that’s not what I’m seeing. Brand budgets were at their wildest around 2020 and they’ve tightened since, but the deals didn’t disappear, they got selective. Brands are being much more careful about who they work with, and what they’re asking for isn’t eyeballs anymore.

I started my blog right after we got married in 2013, called Thrifts & Threads (my then IG handle too), thrift store finds mixed with whatever was already hanging in my closet. I loved fashion but we were also doing Dave Ramsey’s envelope system to pay off our credit card and student loan debt, so I didn’t have much extra to spend on my clothing budget, and finding cashmere or leather at a thrift shop and styling it was how I grew my blog. I was so excited when a brand reached out wanting to send me an item to feature in my email blast, because I could get the clothes I loved without increasing my clothing budget, and when another blogger told me I should be making a rate card and charging for those features and getting paid for my time, my mind was blown. This is was my first rate card:

My husband and I got really strategic and were so consistent, working on the blog on the weekends to make sure we had posts ready for the week while we were at our corporate jobs. Once I started making a little money at it, I also had a weekly section about how to start a blog and grow on Instagram, and my email list ended up being those who wanted outfit ideas plus other potential bloggers trying to build their own site.

I packed up my desk of my corporate marketing job at an insurance firm, in June of 2015, right as Jadyn got out of school for the summer. The blog had been outearning my salary for six months in a row and I wasn’t planning to leave if it hadn’t. I remember standing there thinking I really hope this keeps going, because it felt so freeing, no more late nights and weekends working on the blog, now I could be productive during the day with it! I also didn’t want it to be a failure and I didn’t want to waste the momentum my blog had going as my readership kept going up and that helped book even more blog post jobs. My CEO and CFO at the time were so supportive but I’m sure were a bit confused about what I was doing, because at the time I put in my notice I had 50k followers on IG and they were shocked it was making me money but also happy for me. I drove home that day thankful and completely determined to stay consistent and help people even more than I had been. Anthony left the following year after the business matched his salary six months as well.

Quitting meant I could pick Jadyn up from school and she no longer had to do the after school care, and it was the first time I ever felt like I had a flexible job to be there for her. She was eight and loved my blog because in her mind that’s why I was there every day at pickup.

We kept posting and focusing energy on hitting the Instagram algorithm to increase my followers, and every week I’d watch the numbers go up when I posted specific photos at certain times of day. I’d post ripped skinny jeans holding a coffee on a Thursday evening and it would do so well. I knew exactly what to post and when, and I’d hit some kind of flow.

I won Breakthrough Blogger of the Year at the 2015 Bloglovin’ awards and got my first agent for sponsored deals, and every deal we booked made us more excited that we’d made the right call going full-time.

My first designer fashion show was Chloé, fall 2016. And I only got invited because I’d bought one of their bags and worn it on repeat and kept using their #chloegirls hashtag, and someone in their PR office noticed and invited me. I’d never even been to Europe before; I had only recently traveled out of the country for the first time ever for our honeymoon. Anthony said well, we’re going, we have no clue what we’re doing but we’ll figure it out! They sent me an outfit and bag to wear to the show, and I sat in there certain I wasn’t supposed to be there, because my blog was called Thrifts and Threads and this was designer fashion. But I was so inspired, already thinking about getting home and writing up the trends I’d seen and the outfits I’d worn. That trip was where we figured out we loved traveling and loved not being tied to an office, and it made us want to work even harder to keep the whole thing going.

Nobody paid me for that bag. I bought it, I wore it constantly, I tagged it, and a person at Chloé happened to see it. That was the entire mechanism back then, and nobody was measuring anything. It was all happening organically, and I was very excited that I had saved up for that bag, believe me I was going to be posting it everyday!

The early deals were blog traffic and email inclusions, then Instagram got added on, so it was a blog post plus a grid post. When Snapchat and Stories showed up brands wanted the daily check-in, you walking through your day on video, and I was terrible at it. I’d been shooting outfit photos in sunglasses for years and suddenly I was supposed to talk to a camera without them, and I felt so awkward. I forced myself to get over it and learn it anyway, because you either evolve or die in this business. A deal by then was a feature plus a post plus stories, sometimes all three.

I only got on TikTok because of Jadyn. It was her favorite app and I didn’t understand it at all, so she’d sit and show me videos, and what I noticed was that I was barely seeing any fashion on there. That looked like an opportunity. I started in 2019 and was posting from the shows in Milan and Paris that March, right before COVID hit, and it opened doors to brands I wouldn’t have reached otherwise. Then the pandemic came, with everyone stuck at home the whole thing took off, and I gained millions of followers in a few months. At one point I was posting two TikToks a day, heavy on outfit transitions, and the editing ate hours because of all the clips, and that was on top of Instagram photos and the blog (which by then had become brittanyxavier.com). Everyone was trying to crack the code on going viral and brands were paying whoever managed it. Something had to give, so we stopped posting on the blog and put everything into video. We also grew my YouTube channel to over a million by focusing on strategy for that. Audiences followed whoever was most viral then, and brands paid for my reach.

But something began to happen…

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I walked into the ADU (where we set up her room so she has her own space for the summer) out of habit, said "Jay," and then it hit me, she's not here anymore, and I got emotional in there. All summer that was my little routine, poking my head in to see if she wanted matcha, or to come along for whatever I was doing that day, and the kids were always running in there to find her (usually waking her up much earlier than she was planning). Now it's quiet, and I got so sad standing in it, her bed was neat and she left her room all organized.

We just got back from dropping Jay off in Boca Raton for her sophomore year at Lynn University. This letter is the whole weekend, an hour into a 13-hour drive and she's on the wrong freeway, the dorm room rearrange, and the goodbye in a hotel lobby that got all of us teary eyed...

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We’d never been to 30A, (I hadn’t even heard of it until we moved to Franklin). People here kept asking if we’d been, and it’s the way many people here visit the beach without getting on a flight. It’s about a seven hour drive, and if you leave early enough in the morning you’re there by the afternoon, so it’s doable with kids. We left later than we wanted to and and stopped more times than originally planned, we ended up getting in by 10pm, but we eventually made it!

The area is named after Scenic Highway 30A and the communities are strung along it one after another, Seaside, WaterColor, Grayton Beach, Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach, and Seagrove, which is where we stayed. Each one has its own feel, some planned out and some older and more lived in. There’s a paved bike path running the whole length of it so people get around on bikes and golf carts, and the water is so clear and turquoise it almost looks like the Caribbean.

We were looking in Seagrove specifically. It's right in the middle of everything, Seaside a few minutes one way and Rosemary Beach a few minutes the other. It's one of the older parts of 30A too, it grew on its own instead of being planned out all at once, so it's live oaks and magnolias and beach cottages mixed in with the bigger houses. I loved the trees and nature along the houses, I kept forgetting the beach was so close.

Top | Pants | Headscarf | Earrings

The house we stayed at is called 10 Palms 30A and it has ten bedrooms! That sounded like way too much house when we were first looking at it and then we counted our six, plus everyone who wanted to come, and it ended up being perfect. There was enough space to have the kids nap in a quiet area while everyone was being loud in another part of the house. And traveling as a family of 6 now means we'd most likely need two hotel rooms, especially as the kids get bigger. So finding a house that felt like a hotel resort but we had our own private pool and space felt so nice! People usually book it for bigger groups too, company retreats, bachelorette parties, a few families going in together, etc.

My friend Jenna met us there with her husband Kevin and their two little girls who are five and one. Jenna and I met at cheer tryouts in high school in 2001 at Glendora High School in CA and we've been close friends ever since. She's in Colorado now and we would typically see each other when she'd visit CA, her family has a beach house in Newport Beach. But we hadn't seen each other since we moved to TN and had been trying to figure out if we would go out to her or she would fly to us, and they had been wanting to check out 30A too and had never been. So we thought this would be the perfect spot to go and for both of us to have a beach vacation. Our friend Jeff came from Miami, which would be a nine hour drive for him, so he flew. We originally met him in 2016 when he was shooting street style photos in New York, and he and Anthony connected at our first Coachella and have been friends ever since (10 years!) And Anthony's family drove down from Tennessee for the last half of the trip. None of us had been before so we weren't sure what to expect. It was also the last trip we did before Jadyn went back to college, so having all of us together was what I was really looking forward to.

We booked through 360 Blue and Natural Retreats. It felt like staying at a hotel but with the ability to make food and do laundry, that was key, I packed so much lighter knowing I could wash clothes there. There was concierge service the whole week, so if we needed anything I could just text them and they’d handle it, they were so great!

The beach access with the house was private. It was a three minute walk, you go down the path off 30A to a gate, and there's an attendant who walks you over to your set up, chairs and umbrellas already out for all of us, every morning. It's right next to the public beach and so much less crowded. The water was so clear, and my kids would not stop talking about how soft the sand was, it was really powdery and white!

(I’ve had this swimsuit for two years and it’s one of my favorites! It’s sold out in red but linked the black one)

It was Clive’s first time at the beach. The water was so warm I could let him splash in it for a bit, and he sat there chewing on his hand, happy, the water coming up over his feet.

Our days were spent with beach for the first part of the day, back to the house to swim in the pool once everyone was hot and hungry, then the walk back down for golden hour, which was SO pretty. At night we’d put a movie on out by the pool and the kids would swim while it played (we did ISR swim lessons earlier in the summer and this trip was even better knowing my kids could swim!). It reminded me of our Disney Cruise in a way, because we would go to the beach off the boat and come back later and swim while they played a movie on the deck, Anthony said the same thing too.

There was a coffee shop called Prema Organic around the corner and we walked over each morning and got their Balance Latte.

The house had a golf cart so we took it around and explored, and we ended up at Coastal Rancher for eggs and snacks, they had grass-fed beef, pastured eggs and raw milk too, which is not what I expected to find on a beach trip. And we got donuts delivered from Heirloom, which fries theirs in beef tallow.

We cooked together every night in the kitchen. With a large fridge we shopped for groceries when we got there and I brought supplies to bake and that made it convenient to eat as a large group, going out to eat would have been a bit tricky with more than 10 people. Anthony made his burgers, which are my favorite because I love how they’re seasoned:

Anthony’s Burgers

2 lb ground beef
1.5 tbsp salt
1.5 tbsp pepper
1.5 tbsp onion powder
1.5 tbsp garlic powder

Mix, roll into balls, smash down into patties.

Poppy turned five while we were there. The kids swam most of that day while I worked on her cake and made sourdough for dinner, and then we walked over to see golden hour at the beach and came back and she opened her presents.

On her actual birthday we did a 5 year old pancake which is a yearly tradition, and she wanted the chai tea from Prema around the corner, so we walked with me to get it that morning and she felt special, she told me she “felt like she was 5 now!” So cute!! Also how has it been 5 years since she was born??

Towards the end of the trip we took a pontoon boat out to Crab Island, set up by 360 Blue with Destin Party Pontoon (you can set up excursions through them too). It was one of our favorite moments of the trip! Clive, Poppy and Elliott had their life vests on for the ride over (I was dying with how squishy Clive looked in his!), and once we docked the kids took theirs off to swim out to the raft with us.

My linen button-up (size Large)

The water there is so shallow that people are standing around in it playing and swimming, and it’s so clear it felt like swimming in a pool, everyone hanging out on their boats and so many kids out there. Clive was on the raft with us for a while and then slept on the boat for his nap, and Anthony’s mom was there so she kept wanting to snuggle him while the rest of us swam. Poppy and Elliott were jumping off the rafts the whole time. There was a fresh fruit boat going around taking orders that we were able to have coconuts delivered too.

As for the house, there was so many different areas to explore… ping pong, shuffleboard, the views from the fourth floor deck, the kids never ran out of things to do. It felt relaxing because we didn’t have an itinerary.

My dress | Bag | Heels

We’d end up around the couch or the table talking too late and the kids would be off playing together in the house. We originally thought we’d go out and explore the downtown areas more but we were all content hanging at the house and being together.

White one piece | Earrings

On the way home we stopped at Salty Bottle, which is a popular spot Jadyn saw on Tiktok and wanted to try it, and it was so good, there’s something fun about trying out cute new coffee shops.

There’s so much of 30A we didn’t see, and we already know we’re going back, everyone was saying it in the car. Next time we’ll explore more of it!

xx Brittany