ASK BRIANNA OCTOBER 2019| ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS FROM INSTAGRAM @BITSOFBRI

Hey Loves! I posted a q+a on my instagram stories (I’m @bitsofbri over there) and tried to answer as many questions as I could, but there were so many I couldn’t answer on stories, so I figured I’d answer some of the most popular ones and as many as I can get to today over here.

What is your favorite season or holiday to decorate for? I think Christmas is my favorite- and all that is coming soon!!! Cannot wait to share the Christmas decor for 2019, but am enjoying the new spooky Halloween decor a lot right now! So truly fall is a very close second!

Favorite thing about fall? Besides decorating our home for fall and sharing it with all of you, definitely going to a pumpkin patch with the kids! It’s so much fun to be outside and enjoy the crisp fall weather with them too!

Any more gorgeous babies? Aww that’s so sweet of you to compliment Landon and Presley too. We hope so. Praying on it.

Baby name ideas you decided against? I loved the name Benton (Benny as a nickname) and Adam said no way. Landon would have been Lydia if he was a girl. Presley would have been Paxton if she was a boy. It’s funny, I clearly was stuck on the first initial when pregnant with each of them and deciding names! We have no idea for names on the next baby….it always seems to be something I “feel” when pregnant. I promised my dad I would use Rosalina as the middle name if we have another girl, as that was his grandmother’s name.

What workout routine are you doing? I usually ride my stationary bike for 45-60 minutes 5 days a week or more. Then I run around and clean up after two kids, a dog, and my husband. 😉 I love doing quick workouts from Lucy Wyndham Reed and Anna Saccone when I need to add in some variety.

What is your cleaning routine? How much time a day do you spend cleaning? With two little kids and a dog and husband, I’ve always got something to clean or laundry that needs to be done, so it really depends on the day and our activities. I try to stay on top of cleaning or clean as I go, but sometimes it gets overwhelming and I need to stop, let it build up, and tackle a complete disaster of a mess in one swoop. I do have a “Sunday cleaning routine” and if you want that free printable, just sign up for my newsletter and I’ll email it to you. It’s a great way for me to get ready for the week ahead and start off Monday on a good note.

Do you set a personal goal/dream for yourself? Yes- I am a very goal-oriented person. Whenever I’ve taken personality tests, it always categorizes me as “achiever” and I struggle with perfectionism. It’s a double-edged sword of blessings and curses. You get recognition for doing things well, yes can stress yourself out over not having everything in your life perfect. But becoming a mom has forced me to stop worrying about a lot of things that just don’t matter anymore because the kids come first. So grateful for my babies. But back to the question- goals really help me, as I’m sure they do most people, to focus on what I should be working on. I did have a goal for my business this year, and recently hit it early (YAY!!!), and I have goals on where we travel to and house projects (we did it this year! double YAY!!!), and I also had some goals around getting into a routine for myself after this tough year, and taking better care of myself (which is being worked on). I do have a financial goal to pay off our home in 3 years, so I’m going to keep trying to achieve that!!!

How many hours of sleep do you get a night? Wondering how you do it all! I make sure I’m in bed before 10 PM and I wake between 5-5:30 (my body has adjusted and sometimes I wake before my alarm goes off, so I just roll with that!) So at least 7 hours a night.

How do you deal with anxiety? Since we’d like to grow our family, I wanted to try to figure out natural methods to help my anxiety. I cut out caffeine, and that helped tremendously. I try to follow the Mediterranean diet (I don’t do this perfectly, but I think it allows me to make very healthy choices most of the time). I try to get adequate rest each night (7-8 hours is when I function best). And I workout nearly every day- whether it’s on the exercise bike, doing something outside with the kids, or cleaning around the house (which seriously, cleaning is cardio for me, lol). Sometimes as mothers, I think we push our basic needs to the side because we’re so focused on our kids. So once I got a reality check of “you’re a human who needs to be taken care of too,” and started focusing on my basic need: food, water, sleep, and exercise, I think I was able to function much better and handle anxiety waves when they hit me a lot better than when I was exhausted, drained, and hungry. If you’re dealing with anxiety or any feelings of depression, I would encourage you to talk to someone. My therapist has helped me so much (I still talk to her, and it still helps!). Here is the link to the online therapy site I use because it helps so much to do it from my own home and around my busy schedule. I hope it helps you too if you’d like to talk to someone and feel better.

Where do you get all of your house shoes? They are super cute! Aww thank you- here’s the link to my favorites right now.

What kind of lipstick are you wearing? It’s from the Kylie Jenner momager kit. Here’s the link to the one I’ve been wearing all fall. I love all the eye shadows in this kit too- they’re what I’ve been wearing all fall too!

Where did you get your buffalo check pillows? You can find them on this Amazon home decor list.

When are you getting your new car? I wasn’t in love with anything we test drove enough to get something new, so I ended up buying out my lease, but hopefully will find something after the car show deals!!

How long did it take for your YouTube channel to take off? I was not posting consistently until I had Presley, so my channel has always been slow to grow. I saw a lot more growth when I posted 3x a week consistently. If you want to read my post with advice on how to start a channel, here is the link.

Is Adam still working full-time? Adam is still working full time. He’s a marketing director.

Will you be updating Presley’s room to a big girl room? Yes- coming soon!

How did you know you were ready to be a mother? My whole life had the desire to be a mother. I was actually always worried I would have trouble conceiving because my mom had quite a few miscarriages between my sister and me (we’re 6 years apart in age), but I feel very grateful that God gave us Landon and Presley, and I watch and feel so much for couples sharing TTC and IVF journeys because I cannot imagine that sort of pain.

Best and worst qualities of all four of you? This is a doozy. When I’m hurt by someone I love, I can say mean things. It’s the worst thing about myself and I wish I could be hypnotized to never be that way. Best quality- probably my energy. If I channel it right, I know I can accomplish a lot. Adam is really strategic. I’m always impressed by how competitive he is at games and how he wins pretty much every fantasy football league he’s in. Worst quality- He’s a packrat and it drives me nuts. But at least he gives me lots of decluttering material for my channel. lol Landon is honestly the most thoughtful and empathetic little guy. He seriously blows my mind with how considerate he is of other people. Presley is confident and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks, and I hope she never loses that. And I don’t have a worst quality share for my kids because I think they’re perfect and they’re growing and developing so it wouldn’t be fair to say they have a worst quality. I love them so much!

How do you clean your house when you are unmotivated and depressed? Listening to motivating music or books that I learn something while doing it helps me feel extra productive. But honestly, I think watching cleaning videos seriously gets you up and moving!!! Here’s the link my playlist and I hope it helps you get cleaning motivation!

Are you happy with your house? Yes- there’s always things in my mind I think that we could do, and I know Adam wants to move because he wants a bigger, flatter yard, but I love this house and feel so blessed to call it our home and raise our family here!

Are you doing daily Christmas vlogs again this season? I don’t think so. If anything, I’ll do an abbreviated version of 12 days of Christmas. It really burned me out last year, and it was a very emotional time for me, and I expect it to be worse this year without my dad, so I think I’d like to just play it by how I feel and not promise something to you all that I can’t keep.

How has life been since you’ve lost your dad? Therapy helped me so much- before he passed and after. Days are overall good and happy- I’m very blessed to have my children and a career I love. But I have lots of waves of sadness when a song comes on the radio, or I see something my dad loved to eat on a menu, or one of his favorite movies comes on. Or even a smell can trigger the tears. So I just try to feel it, remember him, send love up to heaven for him, and continue living in a way I hope he’d be proud of me for.

Favorite holiday? Thanksgiving. I love that it’s about family, and food, and no presents, and there’s the anticipation of Christmas coming!

Favorite color? Rose gold

What is your favorite book? So hard- I love so many books! Probably have to go with the Harry Potter series. I love “The Wedding” by Nicolas Sparks (it will never be a movie though, because they ended the Notebook movie differently than the book, so it wouldn’t make sense anymore…). And Landon was named after a character in another Nicolas Sparks boo, “A Walk to Remember.”

How many kids do you want? I would love to have 3 or 4.

What was your favorite Halloween costume growing up? Probably when I was Princess Jasmine. She’s my favorite Disney princess.

What is your favorite scented candle? Currently Cider Lane by Bath and Body Works.

What happened to RHOYT? I think just like most peoples’ friendships throughout their life, there are some friends you have forever and some who are there for a season. I know they’re all working hard for their families and wish them all nothing but happiness and success.

Do you ever feel like taking a social media break? I set a timer on my phone because I don’t think it’s healthy to scroll for hours. And there are days where I do what I need to do and don’t spend time on it “for fun” if it’s not a good mental health day. If I ever needed to take a true break, I see no harm in that. If you’re not getting positive energy from social media, you shouldn’t be spending time on it.

Favorite thing about being a YouTuber? Meeting some really amazing people around the country and around the world. The feeling of connection and having people to go through this journey with is beyond cool.

How do you stay so confident? It’s so hard in the world of social media to not compare? I totally fall into the comparison trap. But when I catch myself doing that, I look at the persons strengths, and I try to learn from them and send them positivity and happiness for their success. And I try to make myself better by learning from their example. I think the energy we put out can come right back, so don’t waste your energy sending out jealousy and negativity because you don’t want that coming back to you.

Extensions? Yes- I just got Halo extensions and I love them! They’re so easy to pop in and out. I’m still using Monat and I feel like it’s made my hair healthier, but I can’t achieve the volume I want after postpartum hairloss, and this is so fun to style! If you’re not feeling confident about your hair postpartum (I think a lot of us feel that way at some point), I feel like this is giving me so much more confidence already! I’m glad I got them!

How do you keep your teeth so white? I drink my coffee through a straw. Hack I learned back in journalism school from other broadcast majors because I could not afford teeth whitening back then. The habit stuck.

Did you plan your own wedding? Yes- it was so fun for me. I also baked my own wedding cake. I did everything I could to cut costs!

When are you going back to Disney? We’re going back in 2020!! I can’t wait!

Can you show us your at home Gordita recipe? Yes- it will be in a vlog next week!!! They turned out so good. Can’t wait to share!

Alright, I hope you enjoyed this q+a. I tried to answer as many questions as I could, but my timer is going off, so I’m cutting them off here. I’ll do another q+a soon. Hope you all have amazing weekends, and that you’ve been enjoying Vlogtober on the channel!

Love,

Brianna K

xoxo