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Summer has arrived! Grab the sunscreen, hit the beach, light up the BBQ grill, fill the cooler, or hop on your bike—all things we do to celebrate the days of summer without even thinking. Actually, though, we do need to put some thought into biking safely, sharing the space and showing courtesy to others on our leisure paths and roads.
Get in the Loop: Join the Don Ryan Center for Innovation
CycleBar blends the dance club experience with a pulse-pounding workout for the most fun you’ll ever have breaking a sweat
Sound, in and of itself, is a miraculous thing. Taken at its simplest, most granular level, it is merely a vibration, a rippling of the air molecules all around us that generates a sympathetic vibration in everything it touches. Sound can shatter glass, or it can heal emotional wounds. It can move the soul, or it can start an avalanche. Sometimes, it does all those things at once.
If there is a silver lining in the dumpster fire of a year that was 2020, it is this: all of us have gained a deeper appreciation for our own mental health. Even the most steadfast among us had their cages rattled this year, leading to the widespread popularity of the notion, “It’s okay to not be okay.”
For many people, including me, two of the hardest words to say are: help me! But they are the two words that have the most potential to positively impact your quality of life or perhaps even save you.
If you’re feeling a little moody these days (and who isn’t?) do yourself a favor before you snap off another head or cry yourself to sleep: get moving! Walk around the block, take a spin on your bicycle, run in place, or do 10 jumping jacks—anything to get your blood pumping—because exercise may just be the closest thing to magic when it comes to improving your state of mind. Don’t believe it? Here’s evidence.
Friends, we’ve all had a rough year, and we most definitely should commemorate the end of 2020 by exchanging tokens of affection and friendship. After all, nothing says “happy holidays, and congrats on surviving this insane year” like swapping thoughtful gifts over food and cocktails. This year, however, there are guidelines, and there are certain gifts that should be left off of Santa’s list. Not sure what you’re getting people yet? Allow us to narrow it down by process of elimination. Here are 10 gifts that 2020 has deemed either redundant, inappropriate or just plumb useless. You’re welcome in advance for saving you money.
In the year 2000, Michael Kelca was forced to make a complete change in careers when he was employed by an area quartz distributor as controller, and the only option of compensation was to trade some slabs for salary owed. Prior to this, Michael had always worked in corporate finance, traveling the country auditing various mills and manufacturers. The countertop world was one that he found intriguing. He has a natural talent for art and creating and loves a good day of hard work. To turn slabs into countertops and other surfaces was a challenge he welcomed. He was determined to make lemonade out of sour grapes!
Raise your hand if you are exhausted: your multi-tasking, people-pleasing personality keeps you going through the motions, but your body, mind and spirit are screaming for a break. If you find yourself living in this constant state of stress and overwhelm—taking care of everybody else’s needs with no time for yourself—stop it! Because running around like a headless chicken is (a) unattractive (b) draining the life out of you, and © stealing your joy. It’s time to start looking out for number one.
Can’t concentrate? Can’t sleep? Can’t stop binge-eating your feelings? In a year of unparalleled anxiety—from Covid-19 to an election year for the books—people everywhere are sharing stories of stress eating, binge drinking, cancelling appointments (who can possibly sit through any more Zoom meetings?), and putting themselves to bed for a week.
A Q&A with Local Artists
All year, you tried your best not to look at your dreary, dated kitchen cabinets.
With lockdown, it got even harder. Suddenly you found yourself housebound, the entire world now shrunk to the space within your four walls.
Blinds, shades, shutters—what is the difference? And is neutral the way to go, or is this a good time to spring for pattern and color? What about installation, embellishments? And before we go any further, how much will I have to spend?
Passion peeks out from behind a hot pink facemask as Afton Ryan calls a cheerful, “welcome in” to the customer who has just stepped into her charming Bluffton boutique, Egan + Ella. In spite of a pandemic that shut her doors just three months after opening, Ryan’s eyes gleam with a contagious energy you’ll want to catch.
I don’t want a flat stomach,” said no person on the planet ever. If you’re still walking around with that stubborn belly pooch in spite of all the crunches, planks and mountain climbers you’ve been doing (or not!), it might be time to add Pilates to your workout routine.
It can be a little tricky to take the long view these days, with so much still so uncertain about what the next few months or even the next year will bring. But one thing is certain: each of us is going to have a “where I was when the pandemic broke out story” that we’ll carry around forever. Much in the same way you may remember where you were when you heard Kennedy had been killed, you’ll be able to recall exactly what those first few weeks were like. For educators, those stories will be particularly harrowing.
Before they were the Traveling Wilburys, they were just Jeff, Bob, Roy, George and Tom—five guys who had already changed the world of music. When they came together to form the legendary supergroup, it wasn’t because of each individual’s status in the pantheon of rock gods. It was because they just enjoyed hanging out with each other.
If you really want to learn about anything, you should take notes from those at the top of their game.
That’s exactly what we did this month as we interviewed eight local golf professionals who represent some of the best clubs in the Lowcountry. In addition to the CH2 girls getting a lesson from each (see the video on our Facebook page), we chatted with the pros about where they like to play golf, which club they like using the best and what tournament is the most fun to watch.
Even when you’re a first-team All-American and ACC Player of the Year and have a family name synonymous with success like Bryson Nimmer, there is no magical fast pass to PGA Tour fame. To earn stardom among thousands of wannabe legends, the 23-year-old Bluffton native knows he must first surrender to the process—one to two years on development tours (the PGA’s minor leagues), constant travel, and Monday PGA Tour qualifier pressure cookers, fighting for a big-league tee time in tourney fields full of teen phenoms and 50-year-old former stars.
Dave Lavery was a known commodity in the Lowcountry creative community long before he had the best five-minute meeting of his life. He’s had news footage on every national network, won a litany of awards for his commercials and short films, and impressed national brands and worldwide celebrities with his videography.
Why are YOU here? This is a question I ask myself a lot about people in my life. I think the universe/God/the spaghetti monster (shout-out Kelly Stroud)/whomever or whatever you believe in, puts...
Mason Carmel is not your typical golf instructor. That’s not to say in any way that he isn’t an effective golf instructor. Far from it. It’s just that there’s a maverick streak in him that urges him to zig when others zag.
They are two professions at the core of the growth and soul of Hilton Head Island. Yet, while there are more than 3,000 registered real estate agents in the Lowcountry, only a handful of those realtors are getting paid doing the musical side hustle.
After successfully and innovatively writing insurance on the coast since 1981, what better move for Anderson Insurance Associates than to expand into one of the greatest coastal locations: Hilton Head Island?
Finding high-quality healthcare is about to get easier for residents of southern Beaufort and Jasper counties. This month, Beaufort Memorial Hospital (BMH) will open its long-awaited Okatie Medical Pavilion, offering a wide array of practices and services from basic primary care to complicated cancer treatments.
If there was an advantage of growing up poor, it was not knowing I was poor. You can’t long for or miss what you don’t know exists.
On paper, First Tee exists to teach young people the game of golf. But then again, on paper, the game of golf is just putting a ball into a tiny hole. Like so many things, it’s not about the goal, but how you get there.
Invest in resiliency. It sounds like a catchphrase you might hear in a commercial, but for Beaufort County Treasurer Maria Walls, CPA, it became a mantra and a concept to live up to, both in leading her staff and delivering services for residents.
A Q&A with Taime Downz, Billy C, Rob Foxx, and Jani St. James
Bluffton’s new police chief was sworn in on Monday, October 12, and on behalf of Town Council, Town Manager Marc Orlando and all the men and women who serve the Bluffton community, we are thrilled she is here. Chief Price was the former assistant chief of police for Savannah, Georgia, and she plans to make Bluffton her new home. Her conviction, compassion and dedicated to best practices made her shine among the more than 100 candidates who applied for this position.
You may be familiar with Benjamin Franklin’s quote, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” What I know for sure is our town is never planning to fail, and we never fail to plan. Planning is synonymous with all of our actions, and we rely on the planning process to guide our path forward to the future.
Since 1981, Forsythe Jewelers has been bringing the world’s best designer jewelry and gifts to Hilton Head Island. Carrying the most popular designer brands, this family-owned business delivers an unhurried, small-town shopping experience to every customer who enters the store. Over the past three decades, Forsythe Jewelers has established itself as an island landmark, where customers are able to slow down and shop at a pace that only a vacation can provide.
Here in the Lowcountry, we find no shortage of things for which to be thankful: beautiful surroundings, good-hearted neighbors, and delicious food abound. Thanksgiving is a time to express gratitude, tell the stories of our history, honor long-standing traditions and share an indulgent meal with the people we love most.
We live in an ideal place for growing delicious produce: rich soil, plenty of rain and sunshine, and temperate winters make the Lowcountry a farmer’s paradise. From watermelon to peaches, sweet potatoes to peanuts, The Palmetto State produces countless agricultural crops year-round. This time of year, sweet potatoes, greens like kale and collards, carrots and herbs are all being harvested by local farmers right here in our community. What better way to enjoy the holidays than by building a feast around locally grown foods sure to impress your guests, delight your tastebuds and nourish your body well, all while supporting your neighbors who love cultivating this land we call home.
Imagine yourself moving down here for the first time. Let’s even imagine that you’re moving down here all the way from Ohio (and statistically, you probably did). Now imagine trying to coordinate the building of a home—not just any home, but your dream home—over the phone. Through Facetime. Through text messages. Now try to imagine doing all that in the middle of a global pandemic.
In the real estate world, there’s a certain hesitance to use the word “boom.” A decade since the housing bubble burst, lingering memories remain of the downward spiral that followed the dizzying heights of the early 2000s. For every boom, it stands to reason, there must be a bust.
Owning a home costs a lot of money. The mortgage itself eats up a big chunk of your housing budget, but property taxes, furnishings, and insurance bump up your monthly financial commitment even more. Homeowners insurance protects your home, which may very well be your largest investment, and gives you a sense of security. A standard homeowners policy will provide the following:
Open the door to Sergio Raynal’s understated, runway-adjacent Hunter Road office park woodworking studio, and you immediately realize you’re in for an inspiring encounter. The bass guitar-shaped piece of rare Hawaiian Koa wood hung on the greeting room wall and the nine-foot-long family table forged from a once-in-a-lifetime timber find with a human silhouette in the grain clue you in to his craft (the latter a 10-year-old creation Raynal reacquired after his client moved and commissioned a replacement).
I remember listening to my Grandpa Ross sing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” at the Ross Madison House (a restaurant he owned with my grandma) in upstate New York when I was just a child. It’s strange that this particular memory is burned into my brain.
If there is a single moment that defines the American spirit, it’s the moment in which someone decides to start their own business, fearlessly putting all their chips on the table and betting everything on themselves. It’s a moment of pure courage, and one whose stakes get even higher based on how much time one has already invested in climbing the corporate ladder.
Draperies or shades can transform any room, adding warmth and style to a once drab space and enhancing views out any window. The right window dressing will even create an illusion of more space in a room by exaggerating the appearance of ceiling height.
Contractor horror stories are so plentiful that they have become clichés. HGTV has launched shows all about cleaning up the mistakes of crooked handymen. Internet recommendation services meant to solve the problem have instead created another layer of glossy smooth talk that makes a disappointing end result all the more soul crushing.
The husband-wife duo navigates the uncharted waters of COVID-19 to continue delivering exceptional legal representation.
We asked seven popular Lowcountry musicians to come up with seven questions for their musically- inclined peers. They opened up about everything from the importance of original songwriting and what songs make them cry to what local musicians they like to listen to and their least favorite part of the job.
In just a short time as part of the Lowcountry music scene, Kyle Wareham has become an icon among diehard fans and fellow musicians. He melts crowds with his piercing crooner vocals and lyrics as part of bands like Pretty Darn and Soundboy and has elevated the sounds of some of the island’s best singers as an increasingly trusted album producer—all in about six years on Hilton Head Island.
“Troy Dolin, Gutter Pro” is more than the name behind the owner-operated and locally invested business. The phrase represents a philosophy and promise to keep it simple and personal for a purpose: “From phone call to sign-off,” Dolin assures, “you’re going to get me directly.” It’s a commitment to the first-person handling of your project and an individualized attention to detail.
There’s a certain look to Lowcountry homes and businesses, one that is often emulated beyond the confines of the 843 area code, but never truly duplicated. It lies at the intersection of comfort and sophistication—where nickel-gap shiplap accent walls and craftsman style millwork in crisp whites meet the rustic grain of reclaimed wood and the dull sheen of hammered copper.
A Q&A featuring artists, Sammy Lee Passaloukas, Dallas Ackerman, Billy Martini, Derrick Ludaway, Brian Eason, and Frank Weber
On a steamy August morning, artist Pam (PJ) White answers the door at her Sea Pines home, her sassy blond hair casually tousled to complement her “office” attire (shorts, T-shirt, sandals, and work apron). She disarms her security monitors (two suddenly vocal Bernese Mountain Dogs), whisking them to a back room and beckoning me to her garage/studio. The doors are rolled up, inviting in the day. This is where the magic happens.