Happy Holidays!

Hello everyone! I wanted to hop on my blog and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Today is such a special day, its about spending the day with the ones you love and remember why we are all here. Many of you might be getting ready for the Christmas ceremony at Church or cooking for a large family dinner... Or just waking up from a fun night out doing a Christmas bar crawl!
Once you strip away the decorations, the presents, the music, holiday cartoons and the food... You’ll see faith and family (this can be blood family or the family you create with others). Remember to love one another and as this year is starting to come to a close and we’re all preparing for the New Year to bring love into the picture.

For today Bryce, Holly, and I are spending time with one another and visiting his family (we’re here in Florida). We’re so blessed Bryce’s parents were able to fly in from Colorado to be with us. The main subject topic is how much we love and care for each other and the faith we have that next year will be just as beautiful as this year.

I also want to thank each and every person who reads my blog, follows my instagram, and has subscribed to my facebook page. Your love and support means the world to me. As 2019 has a lot of tough decisions I have to make I know this blogging is something I can do to touch someones soul.

With love,
Brittney

Trip to NC + Being Far From Home on the Holidays

Now that I’m home and unpacked from my early Christmas in North Carolina I felt I should talk about a little bit of what I did up there and how I feel being so far away from Family + Friends during this time of year.

What I did in NC:
- Spent time with my parents, siblings, and their children. I spent some one on one time with my only remaining grandparent; Nanny.
- I had a major girls night sleepover with two of my dearest best friends. We exchanged gifts and did what we used to do (have some wine, laugh, listen to Pandora, etc).
- Met up with my best friend from College Brianna. She went to England recently so she had me a special gift plus my Christmas gift. We had margaritas (classic B&B drink), went to downtown for a girls night, and had a night out at some of our old college hot spots (which aren’t so hot anymore).
- Went Christmas gift shopping with my mom. We love window shopping together and spending time looking at items to one day purchase for my home.
- Went Christmas shopping with my Dad. We have a tradition where we go to one of the major cities in NC to buy gifts. It felt like old time (plus Holly).
- Helped my Dad decorate his house for Christmas; this is another tradition of ours.
- Helped my Dad cut firewood for his house; yes I can use an Axe!
- Had Chinese food... In the area of Florida I live at there isn’t any Chinese restaurants. I grew up eating Chinese food at as treat; therefore... I needed my ’treat’ (I purchase fried rice and brought it back to Florida to eat!).
- Went to some of the local food places I grew up on: Bojangles, CookOut, Mayflower.
- Took some old clothing I had in my Childhood bedroom to a consignment store; then donated the rest.
- Visited the Nordstrom in NC and the area I used to manage the Flagship Abercrombie & Fitch; sadly they closed the store down which oddly enough, made me feel a bit depressed.

How I feel being 700+ miles from my Family and Friends:

I’ll be frank, its hard. I see my family and friends all posting fun photos and events on their facebook - instagram - snapchat - etc and I’m having to watch from a screen. I miss everyone dearly and it was hard having to celebrate my favorite Holiday weeks early knowing that on Christmas Eve I will not have my parents and sibling with me. Holly, of course doesn’t understand yet. I hope down the road it’ll be easier on us all. We pray we can get into a nice house large enough to have my family come visit during Holidays.

I don’t want to throw a pity parade... I know some have it worse. Some are overseas away from loved ones. Some are on planes going to work on Christmas. And some are completely alone. But it's always hard being so accustom to a certain tradition and then having to 100% adjust. In general it's hard being so far from family. If I had a bad night with little sleep, I don’t have family nearby for help. If I’m ever sick and unable to tend to Holly, it would take my mom 11 hours to get to me. But the holidays make that reminder that I’m far away much more noticeable. Don’t get me wrong, I love Florida. I love my Husband. I love he has an incredible job that currently I can stay at home with Holly everyday. Its just hard realizing that there’s certain milestones that I want my family to witness but sadly they aren’t able to. 

Sweater Pilling + Razor?

This post is perfect for if you noticed your Ugly Christmas sweater has some pilling and need a quick fix. (Of course this is for anytime of the year if you notice your clothes is having some pilling issues!!!!).

There’s very few options of repair and some can be costly.
1. Take the sweater to the cleaners and see if they will fix it for you at a price.
2. Purchase a Fabric Shaver (FYI: I’ve had the WORST luck wit this. I’ve purchased 3 in one year because the blades break!).
3. The “Old Wives Tale” use a simple razor.

Since many of us might be in a rush and the cleaners is something you have to give time.
The Fabric Shaver can work but  if you’re in a rush - like at a hotel - this wont work.
So we gotta try the Razor..... Scary right? Taking a razor you use to shave to... Repair your pilling garment..?

Today I decided I will test this “Wives Tale” to see if it actually works! I’ll have photos below.

Results: YES. This shockingly does work.
My tips:
- Do the sleeves first and to shave towards you in small groups while holding the garment down with your other hand.
- Use a very simple 3 blade razor (not a fancy one or electric razor); this style of razor can be purchased at a drug store or if you were at a hotel they would have these available at the front desk.
- Do not wet the razor.
- Do not use the razor on your skin before or afterwards!!!!!!!
- For me to do my entire Cardigan inside - out it took about 20 minutes because I wanted to find a good system and was wanting to be extra careful with the detailing within the sweater.

I hope this quick and simple post will help anyone who is in a garment pilling crisis!

Best,

Brittney “Pomp and Palms"

Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe!

Happy Christmas Everyone! Like promised, I wanted to give my Christmas Cookie Recipe for anyone who wants to make beautiful cookies the traditional way. I also have directions on how to make boarder icing and flood icing for the decorating! Of course you can use other decorations like sprinkles, gummy pieces, chocolate chips, and gold flakes to make your cookies unique to your liking.

Enjoy!

Best,

Brittney “Pomp and Palms"

Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated white sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 egg

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. Cream the butter and sugar with a mixer 

3. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and almond extract

4. In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder and flour. Add this mixture a little at a time to the wet ingredients (keep mixing while you are adding it in). If the dough becomes too stiff for your mixer, you can finish kneading the dough by hand. 

5. Divide the dough into two batches. Roll the dough onto floured parchment paper, but be sure not to roll it too thin! The dough should be 1/4 inch thick. 

6. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, depending on your oven. Let cool completely before decorating.

For the border icing:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring extract
• 2 - 2 1/2 tablespoons milk or water
• Food coloring (optional)

For flood icing:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring extract
• 2 1/2 - 3 tablespoons milk or water
• Food coloring (optional)

Tools for the icing:

• Squeeze bottles - 1 for the border icing and 1 for each color of flood icing
• Small funnel

Our Christmas Decor

Todays post is giving a quick look at what the Mills Condo is looking like for the Holidays!
Of course I posted at the end of October on my Instagram (follow here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!!!!) that I was traveling to see my family in North Carolina for Early Christmas!
With that being said, my Christmas decor had to come up in the first week of November since I will be 700 miles away from November 30th-December 18th.

Since we’re in a Condo and house hunting, we decided to keep the Christmas decor classic and simple. We hope to have a house in 2019 that we can invest more in new decor (and hopefully a fireplace mantel!)
Our Christmas Tree is this beautiful deep green with the clear lights that have random twinkle feature. We have glass ornaments in deep red, light gold, and dark gold. I threw in some amazing cheap target dollar bin ornaments too and these holly branches are from the dollar tree! 

Our Wrapping paper for gifts are the classic green and red plaid. I enjoy keeping gift wrapping to compliment the tree decor. 

Our Kitchen decorations is this Martha Stewart Pug cookie jar Bryce purchased for me on our 1st Christmas to match all the Kate Spade New York items. The Kate Spade + Lenox Collection is in “Arbor Village”. I have the entire dinner set, Salt + Pepper shakers, Serving dish, apron, and dish towels + oven mittens. 

Our Christmas Wreath is one I made to match my tree. It has the same ornament colors but plastic instead of glass. 

Stress-Free for the Holidays TIPS!

This is a post I was very excited to do... Why? I love helping people; especially if it’s something I’m familiar with. Stress during the holidays is something I know all too well. 

FLASHBACK: in my retail management days I was having to balance a stressful work and personal life. So many associates calling out or no showing, strict bosses who expected the store to look spotless during the busiest shopping months of the year, and THEIFT. Then my life of having family members to see, presents to purchase+wrap, at the time I was single so having to have the perfect excuse why I’m STILL single, and making sure I don’t pick up any ‘holiday blues’. 

As you can see, I dealt with some Holiday stress and over time I discovered the magic recipe to have the “Stress-Free” holiday spirit!

Below you’ll find some tips and tricks I do to keep my life Stress-Free during this busy and beautiful time of year!

1. DON'T wait till the last minute!
This is a major and I mean MAJOR. I always witness the most stress on folks who wait the week... day... hour before Christmas to shop for gifts, wrap gifts, or prepare their house for guests. Today this post is going live at 7:00AM central time Tuesday... You have 3 weekends (3 Fridays, 3 Saturdays, 3 Sundays = 9 full days) don’t waste that time!

2. Get your rest.
Rest is important for being positive. Even if you have a million and two things to do remember to get a good nights sleep.

3. Calendars and Sticky Notes.
Have A LOT of holiday parties to attend? Worried you’ll forget them? Bookmark it! Sticky Note it! Calendar it! I like to hand write on a calendar and at breakfast time I glance over to see what my week has in store. When I see an event is approaching I’ll double check to make sure I have everything I need.

4. Don’t drive out of the way in holiday traffic for something unnecessary.
Okay, gotta have coffee to get the day started; thats fine. But if you’re having to drive 20 minutes out of the way to get your red Starbucks cup before you walk into HomeGoods it might not be top priority and is cutting into your time (which is stressing you out). 

5. Ask for help when needed!
For some reason everyone thinks help is non-existent... But it’s not! If you’re need to buy the Holiday Ham and your Mother-in-Law is on her way to pick up a prescription; simply ask for her to pick on up and pay her back. It saves time, money, and gas! This is also important if your have a Toddler like me. Ask for help or hire a sitter for a few hours to get all your tasks complete without chasing down a little one!

6. Not EVERYTHING is important. 
When planning out your holidays there might be some things on your list “To Do” that A: isn’t important or B: can be combined with something else. 
Example: My 13 month old is too young to understand Christmas lights; so take that off the “Holiday To Do” list. 
BUT instead of wrapping some presents on 12/4 and the rest on 12/12 maybe try to combine the dates and wrap them all at once!

7. Know when to DRAW THE LINE.
Sometimes you’ll catch yourself adding more to the list of things to do and forgetting to enjoy the Holidays. Know when to stop and say no. 
Yes, it's fun to help the Preschoolers do their Christmas class party - go out and buy those mini Christmas stockings and popsicle sticks to make homemade Christmas ornaments... But maybe leave the Christmas play to the Church instructors so you can sit and enjoy the show. :)


I hope these tips help! Also don’t forget that sometimes Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat) can be more of a distraction and can get in the way. Turn the phone off and I’m sure you’ll see a big difference in how much you get completed before Christmas Eve!

Best,
Brittney “Pomp and Palms"

LifeStyle: How to get the wax out of used candle jars

For today I wanna crack into a helpful “LifeStyle” post. When I go shopping at some of my favorite boutiques I always end up getting adorable candles with the most beautiful jars and lids. But once the candle runs out what to do? I’ve got a helpful trick on how to get that extra wax and wick out without using a knife and scratching the jar (or throwing the jar away).

I love using the jars with lids to store travel size/sample beauty products, jewelry, and small trinkets. They also make great Christmas gifts too! (Imagine, a super cute jar with some Holiday candy and a gift card to Ulta <3)

Super Easy Steps:

Step One: use the candle till it can no longer burn.

Step Two: Boil water (enough to fill the entire jar) and pour into your candle jar (make sure to fill it to the top).

Completely used up candle. As you can see there is some wax left.

Once the water is boiled; pour into the jar to the top. Wait a few minutes then put the top on the candle.

Step Three: Let the water sit over night to loosen up the remaining wax and the wick base.

Water is filled to the top. You can already see wax loosening/melting from the bottom.

Once you let the water sit you’ll notice the wax makes a film on top. Just pop the film and remove the water.

Step Four: Next day, pour the water out and remove the wick base (properly dispose the wick base), and clean the inside of the jar out with some dish soap.

Pouring out all the water. And I dispose the wick into the trash can.

Clean the jar out. If you need extra help getting the wick out of the jar (mine was glued to the bottom) use some Dawn! It works wonders.

Step Five: Dry the jar out with a dry cloth or paper towel. Vola! You now have a cleaned out candle jar!