Darius Rucker & Brew in the Zoo!

It seems like for the past couple of weekends we have packed them full of fun and I cannot complain!  This weekend, we continued the fun starting on Friday night.  We went to the Darius Rucker concert with Justin Moore and Jana Kramer.  It was a perfect night for an outdoor country concert! We had a lot of fun once we FINALLY got there.  The traffic was absolutely insane to park.  We joked about how we had made it to Columbia for an Eric Church concert in less time.  We did end up missing most of Jana Kramer, but got to enjoy the rest of the concert! There is nothing better than an outdoor country concert with an ice cold beer :)

I love summertime.  It seems like there is always something going on in Greenville. The best part is that it is usually outside so you get to enjoy the beautiful South Carolina weather.  On Saturday, the Greenville Zoo hosted Brew in the Zoo.  I was so excited about this! I mean how fun does it sound to sample a bunch of beers and get to walk around the zoo!  It was a great deal and I would LOVE to do it again.  I think they are having a wine one later in the summer that I will definitely have to attend.

My older sister, Kelley, and her roommate came down from Charlotte to go with us, as well as my Jackie, my best friend since kindergarten.  We also went with Kira, my new coworker!  Rusty and I had so much fun and he was such a trooper for going with 5 girls :)

I didn't realize how many animals would be at the zoo, although it was small they still had a bigger variety than I thought they would.  They also had several different beer samples, live music, and different food vendors.

The monkeys and giraffes were by far my favorite! I had to snap pictures of everything :)

It was such a perfect weekend.  Now I am enjoying a lazy, rainy Sunday after we beat the rain and were able to take the dogs on a long walk in the park!

Happy Sunday!

Insta-Lately

I feel like there is never enough time in the day (I know I always say this)! Lately it feels like the days are getting shorter and shorter the busier that I get.  A lot has been going on lately in my life.  Even though the house is being delayed and we aren't moving in until August, I am still busy planning for that day! I keep looking around at different stores for cute accent pieces and new furniture items.  Rusty and I have also done quite a bit of traveling on the weekends.  We have recently gone to Surfside Beach with a lot of friends and last weekend we went to Charlotte for the Wells Fargo Tournament and to do some shopping!

I am so happy that it is Wednesday...Friday is so close, I can feel it! This weekend will be so nice, we finally have NOTHING to do and I couldn't be any more excited to just relax and get things done around the house.

Here are a few snapshots of my life lately! 

My delicious pear preserve muffins!

 Movie night with Rusty with delicious Crescent wrapped brie with warm raspberry jam!

 The amazingly beautiful accent chairs that we bought for the new house

Rusty cooking a delicious and healthy grilled dinner

Grilled veggies, chicken, and potatoes!

 Pepper Jack and Spinach stuffed chicken, grilled corn, and homemade sweet potato fries

Guess you could say I am becoming quite the cook?

Finally a weekend away in Surfside Beach

Jeffy C the birthday boy!!

The boys after their golfing adventure in Surfside Beach

The whole gang!

my love!!!

I could seriously sit on this back porch forever and I'd be a happy girl!

Funfetti blondies that I made for my coworker Melissa's birthday

Birthday treats for Melissa!

Aren't my mom and dad the most precious people ever!

Enjoying an amazing dinner in Charlotte with the family at Bad Daddy's!

I am hoping to do a lot of cooking, baking, and shopping this weekend! Time to do some spring cleaning of my closet and replace all the clothes I am giving away with brand new ones :)

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Pear Preserve Muffins

My coworker, Laura, lives on 25 acres and loves to garden! She grows everything from corn to raspberries to pears.  With some of the pears that she grew, she made them into preservers with her husband. I love preserves, so she brought me a mason jar full of them this week!

Rusty and I are going to the beach tomorrow, so I decided to make some goodies with these preserves that I had.  I was toying between baking muffins or cookies. You can't go wrong with either, but I finally decided that muffins would be the best option.  I searched the Internet and finally found a recipe that I could improvise a little to make something delicious.

Yum...Pear Preserves!

The recipe was by Diana Rattray and it does not disappoint!

Ingredients: (I doubled the recipe to make 24)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk 
• 1/2 cup preserves

Preparation: 

1. Into a mixing bowl sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.
3. Form a well in the center.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the egg and milk; pour into the well and stir just util dry ingredients are moistened (about 25 strokes).
5. Batter will be lumpy.
6. Fill greased and floured muffin cups or paper liners about 1/3 full.
7. Carefully center 2 teaspoons of preservers over batter and cover with enough batter to fill muffin cups 2/3 full.
8. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Before putting them in the oven, I mixed together softened butter and cinnamon sugar to make a scrumptious mixture to top the muffins with (I HIGHLY recommend this!)

Fresh out of the oven 

So yummy and gooey! Definitely serve them warm

I brought some into work today and they were a hit! I hope that you enjoy these as much as I have!

Finally its the weekend! Have a great one :)

Life Lately

A lot in my life has changed in the last couple of weeks...it has been crazy!

I have officially moved in with my boyfriend in Greer while we are waiting on our house to be finished (or lets face it, be started!).  We did get good news the other day from our builder...he said that the house should be finished by early June! I cannot even start to explain how excited I am.  Tomorrow, Rusty and I get to meet with builder and pick out colors and all that other fun stuff.  This will be by far my favorite part of the process besides decorating the house when its finished! As the construction beings, I will upload pictures of the progress!

As if the house wasn't exciting enough, two of my very best friends had their babies in the last week and a half.  My friend from high school, Stephanie, had her daughter Riley Elizabeth on March 1st.  She is so adorable and I cannot wait for her to meet her "Aunt" Megan! As if Riley wasn't cute enough, my best friend and roommate from college, Megan, had her son Cash Jaxon on March 5th!  It is so crazy that now all of my friends are getting married and having babies (when did we become adults!?).  

This past Sunday I drove up to Fayetteville to meet Jordan and Leah at Megan's house to visit Baby Cash.  He is one of the cutest little babies that I have ever seen.  I could just love on him all day!

I love having weekends that are packed full of things to do.  I am not very good at relaxing or doing nothing all day, I guess my ADD gets to me too much! I spent this past weekend in Charlotte with my family.  It is always nice to have the family together. I got so much accomplished! I did some shopping, limited myself to just about an hour or I would have gone a little bit too crazy and I need to be saving for my house. I enjoyed a nice walk on the Greenway with my mom and little sister, Katherine.  I also treated myself to a much needed mani/pedi...which I must start doing more regularly! I finally had the time to bake these Skinny Funfetti Cupcakes, which were surprisingly delicious! And when I did get bored, I decided to sign Rusty and I up for the St. Patty's Day Dash and Bash this Saturday in Downtown Greenville.  We will be running a 5k, which should be interesting at 8am on a Saturday, but thought we could give it a shot and then reward ourselves with lots of Green Beer afterwards! I will let you know how this goes :) 

Gorgeous Greenway (old picture, but you get the idea!)

My Skinny Funfetti Cupcakes

Nails all ready for Spring!

Have a FABULOUS week! Tomorrow is Hump Day, woohoo!

One year in Greenville

I still can't wrap my head around the thought that I have been in Greenville for a whole year now! It has gone by so fast and so much has happened! I have now officially moved for the 3rd time since I have lived here and will soon be moving for my 4th (and hopefully) final time into my house that is slowly in the works!

Moving to Greenville was one of the scariest things I have ever done.  I only knew one person here and that was the one girl that I would be working with.  We were starting up our office in Greenville and I was asked (or begged) by my bosses to move down here.  I reluctantly agreed, but a year later I couldn't be any happier in my decision!

So many things have changed and I have learned a lot about myself and grown up a lot too! Work has had its ups and down, but overall I am very happy that I was given the opportunity to grow in my career.  I have made so many friends and met an AMAZING guy! None of this was what I had expected to happen, but I wouldn't change anything!  As amazing as this year was, I cannot wait to many more years here and what the future holds for me.

Here are a few of some of the memories I have made over the past year!

My first apartment was in a GORGEOUS converted Cotton Mill!

First date with Rusty at the Zac Brown Band concert!
Best concert ever :)

I couldn't resist getting a little puppy back in May! Harley is such a handful!

My first Beer Wiffleball experience!

Rusty and I spend a long weekend in Charleston

23rd Birthday with new and old friends :)

Best friends come to Greenville for some Clemson football

Gorgeous Falls Park in Downtown Greenville

Sunset in Greer! So pretty 

Design with Wine with Coworkers

More friends come to visit!!

There are so many more things that I have done and so many unforgettable memories I have made, but these are just a few snapshots of those! I cannot describe how excited I am for this year and all of the big changes that will be happening!

Have a fabulous week :)