Guest Room Revamp!

The guest room in my house has been struggling. It's just been my room where I stored everything and put all my clothes. It didn't have any order to it and was really driving me crazy. One of my goals this summer was to redo the guest room. For the past 2 weeks, I've worked on getting it organized. I took all the junk and put it in the other room, so now we just have one "junk" room. I bought a new comforter, pillows, and curtains. I moved a few things from my house into the room and cleaned. Now I'm pretty happy with the outcome. The pillow I found had a great design on it and I found a tablecloth with the same design. My mom took the tablecloth and turned it into a curtain. It looks great!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I made the most scrumptious dessert ever last night! I saw this recipe on a blog and couldn't wait to make it. I love cookie dough, so a cookie dough cupcake had to be amazing. It only took about 1 1/2 hours from start to finish. It's a chocolate chip cupcake with a cookie dough filling. The frosting is amazing too. It's very light and tasty! Here's a link to the recipe. This is definitely going to be my go to recipe from now on.

My batter

Yummy!

My beautiful cupcakes!

Brent and Grayson love the cupcakes!

Good deals and the weekend!

It's been a really fast and relaxing weekend in the Jackson household. After having the kids spend the night with us, we were really tired on Thursday. On Friday, I babysat some of my girls and we spent the afternoon swimming. I had some spare time so I went into a children's consignment shop while I was running another errand. They were having a 50% off sale on their summer items. I didn't need a thing, but I did pick up 4 cute outfits for $20. Even though I don't have a child, I can keep them or give them as gifts. (I think I'll just keep them, because they are so cute!)

On Saturday, I spent the day at the pool and finished re-doing my guest room (pics to come soon). Brent brought me some beautiful flowers home. He's just too sweet to me! I watched Cupcake Girls on WE too. It's really cute! I love any show about cupcakes!

I've accomplished a lot these past 2 weeks. My goal this week is to move my stuff from my parents and then enjoy lots of time with our friends. I'm looking forward to it!

My beautiful flowers!

Maybe for our future golfer?

My good deals!

Slumber Party

Last night, we had a slumber party with the Iveys at our house. We've wanted to have the kids over for a while so we were so happy to have them over this week. We went to get them at the Jacksons and spent a little time with Baby J. We didn't get to our house until late so we had a snack and took baths. We all got settled on our pallet in the living room and got ready for bed. After a long night of sleep talking and kicking, we work up early this morning. I cooked pancakes and bacon and then we went for a walk. We spent the day swimming and watching Princess and the Frog. (very cute movie) We had a wonderful time together, but Brent and I are definitely worn out. We took a nap after they left. Also, I've never cleaned so much in one day. I feel like I was constantly picking up after the kids. We love Murphy, Maria, and Charlotte, but I don't think Brent and I are quite ready for 3 kids right now. Maybe just one. ;)

All the boys

4 sleepyheads 

So cute!

Movie time

Shadow Boxes

I've had 3 things on my to do list since last summer! I wanted to put my wedding bouquet in a shadow box, make a shadow box of favors from the wedding, and frame Brent's 2 Clemson jerseys. I finally got around to doing them yesterday. It was an all morning event. First, I took all kinds of goodies from the wedding and pinned them in a shadow box. I put Brent's boutonniere, the program, invitation, pictures, and other things from our wedding in the box. Second, I sprayed the flowers and arranged them in the box. I pinned wedding wishes on the back and then pinned the bouquet in the shadow box. It looks really good! I love it! Lastly, I pinned Brent's autographed Clemson jerseys in shadow boxes. They are going to look great in the Clemson room. I'm really excited to put these up in the house!

1st Anniversary

This weekend Brent and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! It's hard to believe how fast the year went by. We've been so blessed with a wonderful year together. This weekend we went to eat at High Cotton in Greenville. It was yummy! It was beautiful in downtown Greenville. We saw 3 weddings while we were there. On Sunday, we spent the day together. We looked through our old pictures, watched the wedding video and had our cake topper from the wedding. Even a year later, the cake was pretty good. We had so much fun spending time together and looking back on our wedding. We're planning a beach trip later this month to continue celebrating.

Here's some highlights and things I've learned from our first year of marriage:

• We had an amazing honeymoon and can't wait to go back to the Bahamas!
• We got to watch one of our best friends get married and one have a beautiful baby!
• We went to NYC!
• We chopped down our first Christmas tree.
• We now have a beautiful nephew, Jackson!
• I've learned that going to the grocery store every week isn't fun.
• I've learned cooking helps you gain weight.
• I've learned I love to keep my house clean.
• I've learned that taking classes while being married is exhausting!
• I've learned that I love being a wife!

Dinner in Downtown Greenville

My new bracelet

Happy 1 Year!

Our new ornament for our tree

The cake topper

June 19th

One year ago today I married my best friend and high school sweetheart! I'd been with Brent 8 years when we got married. June 19, 2010 was definitely the best day of my life! It was more than everything I had imagined. After 9 months of planning, the wedding was absolutely wonderful! This first year of marriage has been wonderful too!

My wedding day was everything I had hoped for. I got my hair done and ate lunch with my bridesmaids at the church. After we got ready we took lots of pictures. I was very calm and just ready to get the show on the road. It was a beautiful and hot day! Thankfully, we didn't have any rain. We got married at 5pm in a beautiful church service. Captivated, by Vicky Beeching was sung while we lit the unity candle. After the service, we had our reception at the Arts Warehouse. Everything was beautiful! My Mom is to thank for the beautiful reception. There were so many special and personal details. During the reception we ate, had cake, and danced. It was a wonderful night! We were so blessed to have so many friends and family to celebrate with all day!

Some of the highlights of my wedding day were:

• my pink shoes and monogrammed dress
• the orange sashes and orange ties
• the 4 cute flower girls with pink shoes
• the Tiger coming to the wedding
• our first dance
• Riley dancing with me while we were searching for my Dad
• the memory cards everyone filled out

The best way to recap our wedding day is looking at our pictures. It's been a wondeful and fast 1st year. So thankful for my wonderful husband! He definitely makes me the happiest girl in the world.

My monogrammed dress

The wreaths on the church doors

My Bridesmaids!

 Junior Bridesmaids

Flower girls and our pink shoes

Good looking Groomsmen

My family

Brent's Family

My favorite picture

monogrammed sashes

the Cake!

The Tiger and the Newlyweds

All of Brent's family

Saying Goodbye

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad! I have a wonderful Dad that has always done everything he could for my brother and me! He's a great example and has always made me feel special! Love you Dad!

Looking back: Bridal Luncheon and Rehearsal Dinner

One year ago today I enjoyed my last day of being single with lots of celebrations! The day before my wedding was absolutely wonderful! I was actually very calm and got to enjoy every moment of it. I remember thinking to myself that I needed to slow down and enjoy every moment so I would always remember these few days.

We started out the morning going to the Bridal Luncheon at Sullivan's in Anderson. Brent's aunts gave the luncheon and it was wonderful! We all had a great lunch then the bridesmaids gave me a scrapbook as a gift. Each girl made a page of pictures and memories of that bridesmaid and me. It was perfect and I will always cherish it! I definitely had the best Maid of Honor and bridesmaids! After we ate lunch, the girls drew a charm out of the charm cake. Each charm had a special meaning (luck, marriage, children, travel) and they wore it on their bracelet the next day. I gave the girls their gifts too! They had cute bags, flip flops, sashes for their dresses, and towel wraps! Everything was monogrammed and pink or orange! After the luncheon, we decorated the church and went to get our nails done.

Bridesmaids' Gifts

Charm Cake

All my wonderful Bridesmaids

That evening, we went to the church to rehearse for the wedding. I tried not to take over too much! :) The Rehearsal Dinner was in Clemson at the Tiger Den in the Stadium. It was a beautiful night and the view in the Stadium was awesome! We had a great dinner of BBQ and chicken. The Groom's cake was great, too! Of course, Brent had to have something dealing with Clemson. We had wonderful speeches from our Maid of Honor and Best Man. We also had the Tiger Cub come and visit to take pictures with us! After dinner and the toasts, we watched a slideshow of pictures. It was so sweet and really made us look back on our lives. We both have wonderful and supportive families. It was also amazing to look back on the 8 years Brent and I have been together. We've been blessed with so many opportunities and places to visit. We have so many great friends too! Every time I watch the slideshow, I always tear up. It's a great memory to keep forever!

My cute flower girls!

Getting ready for my practice run

Brent and I by the cake

My family with the Tiger

I remember leaving Brent that night and thinking... this is it! Tomorrow is the day we've been waiting on for so long! We were so blessed to have a great day before our wedding!

Wedding Props!

All kinds of different props are being used in weddings these days! They are so cute and perfect additions to any wedding. They make weddings personal and are wonderful for pictures! When I got married last year, we had several props we used to make pictures. We had I DO letters, a big frame, and a thank you poster. The thank you poster made a super cute thank you card! Of course, everything needed to have some pink!

We did the I DO letters and thank you poster from last year. This summer we've made a few more props for any type of wedding. Here is the Save the Date sign. This would be a great prop to use for Save the Date postcards to send to family and friends. It is also really cute to write "Thank You" on the heart. The letters can be any color.

The other new craft item we've made is chalkboard heart signs. They have endless uses. I used it for a Happy Anniversary picture. You can write thank you, Mr. and Mrs., or Save the Date. They would be great to use in pictures. You could also let guests write on them at your wedding and take pictures. Many great ideas!

All of these items are on the Etsy site. Come check them out! http://www.etsy.com/shop/alisonbroc