Barre

I tried out Barre Evolution in Mount Pleasant yesterday and I absolutely LOVED it. I had been wanting to try out a class for some time now and was absolutely floored with delight to see a Living Social deal for it last week.

I was shaking during many of the exercises and I'm in some pain today, but it's the good kind - you know, the kind that tells you it works. You absolutely MUST try this exercise method. The ladies at Barre Evolution, Nancy (owner) and Marie, were very welcoming and friendly. The studio is very chic and the girls in class were all so nice - they ranged from all levels of fitness. I can't wait for my next class.

I encourage you to check out Barre Evolution today!

Check out my post on Skinny Mom about barre classes today.

Stay Cool with Zoku

This is simply a must-have item for your kitchen…The ZOKU Quick Pop Maker

Popsicles are a hot commodity in our house during the summer months. Today, we pulled out our Zoku after a long hiatus (also known as, winter). I took some lowfat vanilla yogurt, a mixture of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries that I chopped up in the food processor and started layering them into the frozen unit (had to be in the freezer for at least 24 hours before using). In 7 minutes, we had frozen popsicles! My kids loved being a part of making them and it is so much more fun than just buying a box of them at the store.

I’m still a little novice as far as my decorating skills with them, but I’m going to learn…and hopefully my popsicles will start looking a little more like this:


What I like best about it is that I know exactly what is going into the kids’ popsicles. I can make them super-healthy with just some fresh fruit ingredients. I think popsicle-making will be our mommy & sons project on the weekends…how else are we to survive this Charleston, South Carolina heat?

Rebecca Taylor Collection {Hampden Clothing}

I've lived in Charleston for 7 years now, and I haven't taken advantage of getting downtown to the amazing fashion district that King St. has to offer as often as I should (two loud boys in tow can provide some shopping challenges!)

I've had the recent pleasure of visiting a stylish little boutique - Hampden Clothing. I first heard about it from a fellow style blogger here in Charleston, Chassity Evans of Look Linger Love {pssst...if you haven't checked out her blog, you simply must.} Check this place out...you'll never want to leave:

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I'd die to have that chandelier in my own home! Just the style of it reminds me of the great boutiques I'd seen while living in Los Angeles and Orange County.

They've got a great collection of high-end fashion - many great designers to choose from. I particularly loved the Rebecca Taylor collection...

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The collection is so fun and flirty for spring and summer. I love the bright florals and the cute chic dresses in solids that are perfect for a night out on the town. I particularly fell in love with this Fit and Tied dress:

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The bright orange-y red color just screams for attention - and what girl doesn't crave a little attention while out and about?

Hello.

Hello and welcome to Style Oyster! I've been in the blogosphere for a while, but in the past I've struggled to find my niche. I was bouncing between a few blogs, one for design/style/DIY, one for fitness and one for my family...and after a little blogging rut, I took a short hiatus {VERY short; I just couldn't stay away that long!} to figure it out. I shut down my other blogs, other than my family blog at Love, Laughter & Happy Ever After. Once I did, I was able to clear my head, brainstorm and find the direction I saw for myself...and Style Oyster was born. I am excited to share with you my views on style - all things art, fashion, interior design and well, life related. Life should be lived in style. I hope you'll find some inspiration here. Visit my About Page to learn more about Style Oyster.

P.S. I will still blog about fitness, but that is going to be 100% over at Skinny Mom. I contribute to their website every Wednesday and Friday, so I encourage you to check it out.

Summer Fun & Plans

School is out and summer is officially in full swing!

I really wish I had a summer break because there's so much I want to do and I know I only have so many summers before my kids are grown and would rather spend every moment with their friends instead of their Mom & Dad.

I've made a promise to myself to make the most of this summer. I want our weekends to be chock full of fun activities. We've already gone to the zoo and last weekend we went to a birthday party for one of Tanner's friends. This weekend we are having a Kindergarten Graduation party at our pool with a few of our friends that also have boys that just finished Kindergarten. We plan on heading to the zoo again on Sunday with some friends and their kids who are pretty much the same age as Tanner and Breckin (I bought the yearly membership and I vowed I would use it as much as possible - plus it's just an hour and a half away, so it makes for a fun day trip for the family.)

This summer is going to be really special because we are actually going to Idaho to visit my Mom and Dad and some old friends. It's been almost 5 years since Tanner and I've been back. Breckin's never been. Jake hasn't been there since we packed up and moved to Charleston a little over 7 years ago. It's so terrible that it's been so long...plane tickets are crazy-expensive for just one person, let alone a family of four. We will be there the first week of August and I absolutely can't wait!

Here are some pictures of our summer so far:

Summer = Lots of Popsicles

At the Zoo

No Zoo Trip is complete without a little meltdown...

Mommy and the Boys...so memorable :-)

Daddy always gets the good smiles...oh how I love these 3 men of mine!

Writing Prompt: Sweet Summer Days

Linking up with Mama Kat this week for her weekly writing prompts...

I chose:
5.)  Remember Summer? The warm air, blue skies, and endless days in the water? Me either. Share a photo from last Summer that brings you back.

This will likely end up being one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken. It was a beautiful moment in a beautiful place with my boys. I can't wait to make more special moments like this at the beach this coming summer. With Breckin walking all over the place now, it's bound to be interesting! He'll be running by then!

Keepin' Up With The Smith's - Update

I know since splitting up my blogs to one organizing/decor/household blog and one mommy/family blog, I have spent much more time over at Style Oyster and not nearly posting enough on this blog with my mommy and family updates. I promise to be better. Truly. I enjoy blogging about my kids, mommy fitness, mommy triumphs, trials and tribulations...I just haven't been allowing myself ample time to do it...and I'm going to make more of an effort.

As for the boys - they are doing wonderfully. Tanner is past the half-way mark in his 1st year of school. We have definitely had the ups and downs of adjusting to Kindergarten and all the structure that is expected. It can be hard with a child as energetically-charged as Tanner, but it wouldn't truly be parenting if it were always easy. We are proud of how far he has come in this journey and we know he will only continue to improve. He has been enjoying swimming lessons with his classmates this past week and with the weather warming up, we are getting back into after-school play date mode. He also can't wait for beach outings and the neighborhood pool to reopen!

Breckin is now 18 months old, fully walking and scurrying about the house. He is so cheerful and sweet. He says a lot of words and we are told is above average in his language skills for his age group. The poor guy has been plagued with ear infection after ear infection since about 5 months old, so we may be considering tubes for him soon. It breaks my heart to have to do that, but I know how awful he feels when he gets infections all the time. His current favorite place to be is outside on the swing hanging from our tree fort. He lovingly calls it the "weeeeeeeee" and when he's not out there, you can almost always find him whining at the backdoor crying out "weeee...weeeeeeee". He's definitely all boy - loves balls, cars and the great outdoors.

Jake has recovered nicely from his shoulder surgery last August and is looking forward to getting back into beach volleyball this spring and summer. (Something tells me we will be at the beach a lot more this summer than last. But I don't mind.) He has been helping me with a lot of updating the house projects, such as a new pantry, window trim, laundry closet shelving...bless his heart for trying to keep up with my growing list of to-do's.

I am still working for Boeing and it has definitely involved a lot of weekend work. (Hence my lack of time for blogging.) I enjoy the extra pay, but it is definitely tiring, especially when it cuts into quality time with my family. (I truly am jealous of the mommies that stay home as full-time bloggers! I want to do that someday!) I am doing my best to keep things organized at home for everyone and spend my time wisely. Unfortunately, my love of fitness has been on the backburner the last few months - don't get me wrong, I've been working out, but just not as often as I used to - it has really started to get to me, so I am now finally truly getting back into the swing of things (starting Mommalicious again will definitely help!) I bought my first Groupon this week - 10 Bikram Yoga Classes for $35 - not too shabby! I am making a gym date after work each day - keeping a gym bag in my car. I am running at night and still signing up for 5Ks. I did not do one in February, but did one in January and am signed up for the St. Patty's run in March. I have my first 10K - the Cooper River Bridge Run - coming up in April. I knew it was time to get serious when I signed up for that...so I am working on my distance running at night after the boys go to bed (can't wait for the time change!)

So that's pretty much the "goings-on" with the Smith's. I do plan on keeping up better with this blog...so I appreciate your readership.

I'll be back today or tomorrow to post some pictures of the boys! Stay tuned...

The Stank Eye

I was given the stank eye by my boys for the majority of last week...due to no fault of their own though! Both my babies were plagued with conjunctivitis and on top of that, Breckin had yet another ear infection. Jake stayed at home with them Thursday and I stayed with them Friday. It's officially that time of year. At this age, with them both in school and daycare, they will be bringing a bit of everything home I'm sure. I'm glad Jake and I managed to dodge the conjunctivitis ourselves - lots of handwashing! Guess we'll just try to keep the vitamin-intake consistent and make the best of cold and flu season. At least we all got our flu shots out of the way.

Has your home been plagued with illness yet this year?

Happy Birthday, My Dear Hubby

Today is my wonderful husband's 34th birthday.

Happy Birthday to this wonderful man...who does everything in his power to provide for his family and be a good father. Thank you., Jake, for loving your boys and me every single day with all that you are. We love you more than words can say and we are so blessed to have you.

We hope you have the most wonderful birthday and that you know just how special and wonderful you are to us.

Love you and Happy Birthday. xoxo.We love you so much.

It's Been 2012 for TWO WEEKS?!

It is January 14th. It has already been two weeks since ringing in the New Year. Why does time keep flying by?

I've spent this last couple weeks in a blur of work and household organizing. I've spent 60 hours a week at work each week...(I know, where the heck do I find the time to blog?) And I've got so many other household projects going on that I'm trying to keep up and chronicle on my other blog - A Bright Idea. (Psst...you should go check it out...I've redesigned it and I'm so happy with it.) I've been tearing out closets, rearranging furniture, refinishing furniture, rummaging stores for great deals on cute organizational items and tools, clearing out the clutter and donating to Goodwill...I don't think I've stopped to breathe in quite some time.

The boys are also keeping me busy as usual...Tanner's working on reading and math and we're helping him every evening with that. (I thought you got to stop doing homework once you graduated? Apparently that goes out the window when you have school-age kids.) Breckin, well, he's just a little firecracker...and he's always all over the place. I've always got my eyes and ears open for the next bit of mischief he tries to get into. He's talking so much...his daycare teacher thinks he's very advanced in his speaking (good news, since he took forever to get walking! We were worried for a while there....just kidding.) But at 17 months, he can say all of his daycare playmates' names, he constantly tries to repeat things that Jake and I say and he's always in babble mode regardless of whether or not we can really understand any of it. He's just a bundle of laughter - we're so lucky to have such a happy baby. I can still call him a baby at 17 months, right? Well, either way, I'm going to.

It really doesn't seem like things will be slowing down any time soon. I've got major projects on the brain, Tanner starts baseball soon, Jake and I have decided to start a 60-day round of Insanity together next week, family pictures are just around the corner and before I know it, it's going to be summertime and we'll be beach-bound just about every weekend from May to September. But 2012 is the year I'm going to stay motivated and get things accomplished...an organized, healthy, fit and happy life...that's what it's going to be!

How's your New Year treating you so far? How's that list of resolutions going?