Style Me Bloggers - What Inspires Me

Hey, hey, happy Friday! Today is the LAST link-up for the Style Me Bloggers link up, today's topic is What Inspires Me. At first I wasn't going to do this link up, I just wasn't sure if I wanted to participate and quite frankly I just didn't want to think that hard. But after Deena asked me, are you sure? I thought, you know what? I'm going to just do it, I can do this!

But before I start, I have a big announcement for you all. We're all super excited about it, but you're gonna have to wait for it, haha, see what I did there?

Okay now onto what inspires me.

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This girl: My Sister

I don't talk about my extended family much, but she really does inspire me. She has the most amazing work ethic, is one of the most loyal people I know, and is the life of the party. She walks into a room and the whole atmosphere gets a lift in spirits. She has her business that she works tirelessly into the night/early mornings and then into the next day.  No matter what happens nothing gets her down, she's always trying to stay positive. She inspires me to know that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. I hope and pray she gets everything in life, she deserves it.

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My friends, that's so cliche so I'm going to point one out specifically to make it a little less cliche. This girl:

I met her almost 2 years ago at a Christmas cookie exchange. I remember thinking she was so bubbly and was ALWAYS smiling. You know those people when you meet them and you just know that you have to be friends with them? She was that person. I just knew I wanted to be friends with her.

And this is what she brought to the cookie party, these cakes in little mini jars, how absolutely adorable is that?! She basically cookie red velvet cake, then cut them into squares that would fit down in there, the layered them with some frosting.

Anyway enough about the dessert. She and her fiance have the two best kids. They are constantly on the go and taking their kids to new experiences. She inspires me to not be afraid of doing things, she wants to do something and she just does. She inspires me to always smile and to be a positive person. Plus she's the best baker and makes really yummy desserts, so that's a bonus in a friend right?

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When I saw this quote it really spoke to me. I feel this exact way about my kids. My kids inspire me to be the best person I can be. When they look back at their childhood, I want them to remember the times that we snuggled on the couch watching Frozen/Spiderman for the 100th time instead of me doing the dishes. They can wait, they won't ever remember the messy house but they will remember how it felt when I was with them. I want them to always feel loved, nurtured and cared for. They inspire me to go outside of my comfort zone because it makes them laugh...Yep I'm that person doing ring around the rosy in the check out line at the grocery store because they wanted me to.

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When I got pregnant with Baby Fox I joined Baby Center, doesn't everyone? I joined my specific due date month group, just to talk to other people going through the same thing as you. Fast forward 5 years and a group of us branched off and made a FB group and have stayed friends since. I haven't met a majority of them but I feel like they know me almost better than my friends in real life do. We are always there for each other. They inspire me to always be encouraging. To always uplift each other, even when we're having a bad day, they are too, and we can bring each other spirits up. They don't judge and always encourage to do what's best for you and your family.

The other internet friends I've made are the Style Me Bloggers! I found this group of ladies because we all had the need to feel better about the way we looked. Yep we needed help getting dressed, so we all clicked yes, paid the money and got a list of clothes. What we didn't expect was to find a group of ladies who were so encouraging you couldn't help but smile at every single one of the awkward outfit posts and then wish you could look that beautiful/genuine being that awkward too. We have come from all walks of life, all different circumstances, but we all have a love for shopping and looking/feeling great!

That being said here is my big announcement! This will be the last Style Me Bloggers link up, but guess what? We've come to the conclusion that we've outgrown our Style Me Bloggers name, it brought us together but what is going to keep us together is a new blog, called The Blended Blog, it's going to be a collaboration of all of us, we realized that each one of us has a different strengths and weakness so we figured, hey lets add a little more to our plate and create another blog where we can share everything we know. So get ready for more info on the Blended Blog to be launched Fall of 2015!

Here's a sneak peak:

If you're interested in doing a guest post for something that you're passionate about, send me an email or comment below!

Now go check out the other ladies and see what inspires them.

Shoes to Shiraz | Two Teens and Their Mama | The Blondissima 

R Squared  | Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy 

  Daily Style Finds | Quilty Joy Joy

Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After | Foxy's Domestic Side
Puppies & Pretties | Making the Most of Everyday
Mishaps & Mayhem of Solitary Life | A Lovely Little Wardrobe

An InLinkz Link-up


Linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites, September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday! April and the girls for Five on Friday, and Jennie for Friday Favorites

Style Me Blogger - Summer Eats and Go to Treats

The Style Me Bloggers are back with another round, this time we're talking about our favorite foods and treats.

Hands down my favorite thing to make in the summer is my BBQ Lime Shrimp, to die for and I can eat it by the hand full. Easiest thing in the world to make too.

I also love tomatoes with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil drizzled on top, yum.

I love all of the fresh fruit that is out too, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, watermelon. Speaking of which here's a quick video on a cool way to cut watermelon up for your kids. Baby Fox absolutely loves eating it like this, easy and less messy too.

These homemade oreo cookies are pretty much the bomb.com...okay I don't know first hand but I do know that everyone raved about them, and several people asked for the recipe and then made them for the next party I went to at their house. Tip: the recipe makes 36 sandwich cookies, so if you just wanted 12 then 1/3 the recipe.

The last thing that really reminds me of summer is homemade ice cream. I know my kids love it and it's so much fun to do too when you have friends over.

What are your favorite summer eats and treats? Go check out everyone's food picks, I'm sure I'm going to get hungry just reading all of them!

Shoes to Shiraz | Two Teens and their Mama | Nick and Nik 

R Squared  | Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy 

The Mishaps and Mayhem of Solitary Life |  Quilty Joy Joy

 Daily Style Finds |  Foxy's Domestic Side | Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After 

An InLinkz Link-up

 Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites, September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday! April and the girls for Five on Friday, and Jennie for Friday Favorites and Faith, Heather and Daily Momvitity for Mommy Moments

Style Me Blogger - My Summer Go-To Style

The Style Me Bloggers are back and we're talking about what our go-to summer styles are. I always find myself grabbing for the same outfits. So here we go.

This skirt is on repeat right now. I actually wore it on Monday to work with a tucked in tee and a jean jacket. I wanted to wear my vest but sometimes the office is cold, and I thought it was weird to wear a jean vest and then a jacket or sweater over that.

This top is on repeat for sure, and it's on sale right now! I think it deserves it's own category, seriously, I love this shirt so much in fact that I've just gotten it in another color. Seriously it's so comfortable, everyone needs one! And the high sides, just a little flirty for summer, but you can always wear a camisole under it too, a little pop of color on the side, cute, cute, cute.

On repeat: tops and bright or patterned shorts. I'm sort of digging the lose fit shirts right now, I can eat a lot and when I get hot my clothes aren't sticking to me.

My kimono's, I think it has to be on my summer go to list. It's a great completer piece (as some of those fashion people would say), but they are light weight for those nights out with friends and family. I feel like these outfits would be so boring without the kimonos.

This kimono is only $12, so if you're on the fence about them, get this one, not too expensive, super cute and not breaking the bank if you don't like it.

This one I got off of Jane.com and they don't have it any more. But if they do I'll let you guys know.

Last year I was all about the long maxi skirts, this year is all about the short sun dresses. Add a sweater, jean jacket, my new jean vest, statement necklace and call it a day.

What's your favorite summer style? Go check out my other bloggy besties to find out what their go to looks are.

Shoes to Shiraz | Two Teens and their Mama | A Lovely Little Wardrobe | 

R Squared  | Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy 

The Mishaps and Mayhem of Solitary Life |  Quilty Joy Joy

 Puppies and Pretties | She Thought She Could 

 Foxy's Domestic Side | Once Upon a Time &Happily Ever After 

 Nick and Nik  | Daily Style Finds 

An InLinkz Link-up

Also linking up with Tucker Up, Because Shanna Said So,  On Trend Tuesday, Cappuccino and Fashion, Sydney Fashion Hunter, Pampers and Pearls, Happiness at Mid Life, The Pleated Poppy, Shopping My Closet, Get Your Pretty On, Let It Shine, More Pieces of Me,  Pumps and Push-Ups, Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites, September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday! April and the girls for Five on Friday, and Jennie for Friday Favorites

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on a link and purchase an item - I may receive a small commission.  THANK YOU!

Syle Me Bloggers - My Summer Reading List

Hi there! The Style Me Bloggers are back and we're talking about what we're reading this summer. Admitedly I don't read that much, usually after a long day of work I like to veg out in front of the TV for an hour or so before bed...but these are books that I've bought and really are sitting on my night stand. I have a problem buying books (yes real books, I just can't do the Kindle yet, I am holding out, last man standing, who's with me?!) and then not reading them, but I'm getting there, I promise. So here we go:

Right now, while getting my allergy shots I started reading the first book in the Gentleman Bastard Series. I'm only a few pages in, but so far so good. I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

The Storyline:

The Lies Locke Lamora: An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.

I won't go into the other books, as I don't want to giveaway anything, but I've only heard good things about these books.

I've wanted to read the Husband's Secret for a while now, it's been on my nightstand for a while now, My mom said it's a great read, I can't wait to read this one either.

The Storyline:

At the heart of The Husband’s Secret is a letter that is not meant to be read...

My darling Cecilia,
If you’re reading this, then I’ve died...


Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not only the life you have built together, but the lives of others as well. And then imagine that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive…

Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything—and not just for her. There are other women who barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they, too, are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Funny, I didn't realize What Alice Forgot was from the same author as the Husband's Secret, but this is on my list of books to read as well. I don't own it yet, but next time I need to get to free shipping on Amazon, you getting believe this is going in my cart.

Sidenote: Most of my books are aquired because I need to get to $35 for free shipping on Amazon. Anyone else do that?

Another book on my nightstand, I've only heard good things about this book. When am I going to find time to read all of these books?!

The Storyline:

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

I'm a big Jodi Picoult fan, Every book she has written I have loved. while looking around for books to read this summer, I discovered this one, came out only 2 months ago.

The Storyline:

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.

Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who’d originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers.

As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish. A deeply moving, gripping, and intelligent page-turner, Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult at the height of her powers.

I was just browsing Amazon and found this book. It got 4.6 stars with over 13,000 reviews...in my book that's a winner. 

The Storyline:

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Now go check out all the other ladies to see what they're reading this summer!

Shoes to Shiraz | Two Teens and their Mama | A Lovely Little Wardrobe | 
R Squared  | Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy 

The Mishaps and Mayhem of Solitary Life |  Quilty Joy Joy

Making The Most of Everyday | Puppies and Pretties | She Thought She Could 

 Foxy's Domestic Side | Once Upon a Time &Happily Ever After 

Sprinkled Just Right | Nick and Nik | The Blondissima | Daily Style Finds | A Little Bit Of Cheer

An InLinkz Link-up

Also linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites, September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday! April and the girls for Five on Friday, and Jennie for Friday Favorites