Sweet Crafty Creations * Thanksgiving Pinecone Turkey Craft

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving- the pies are in the oven, the bird is ready to defrost and everyone is planning their trips to visit the relatives. We have a simple Sweet Crafty Creation for the kids on Thanksgiving day. It is made from items you most likely already have around the house.

{Thanksgiving Pine Cone Turkeys}

Gather some pine cones, colorful scraps of paper, craft glue and scissors.

Cut paper into small feather shaped pieces. For older kids fringe the feathers by making tiny cuts around the edges of each feather. Cut out a beak by folding a small piece of paper in half. Cut a small triangle on the fold. Cut out a red wattle (the little red giggly part below the beak on a turkey).

 

Set your pine cone on it's side where it will settle without rolling. Glue feathers about 3/4 of the way back. The glue your beak and wattle on the front end of the pinecone. Easy fun and cute! You can also make these for name card for your dinner by writing the name on a small card and placing right in front of the feathers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet Business Life * Hands on Small Business with Kirtsy

 

 {vaNIElla & chocolate cupcakes from last week's class from Sweet Tooth Fairy yum! photo by me}

Guess what?! Did you want to come to one of the Kirtsy classes this past few weeks and couldn't make it well...We added one more Kirtsy Hands on Small Business sponsored by Microsoft to the Salt Lake City area. Woohoo! Tuesday November 24th at 7PM you can come and learn about how to use:

-twitter

-Kirtsy

-Office Lives file sharing workspaces and how to build a FREE website

We will be having some great treats and some great learning. YES you can attend even if you do not have a business. All of these applications can be used for managing your home too.

Where:

Tuesday, November 24th, 7:00pm-9:00pm

• Location: Western Community Bank
• 1376 N. State Street Orem, Utah 84057
• (801) 222-9006
• Click here to Register for this Event

Time: 
7pm-9pm


Bring:
Laptop iPhone, Blackberry, Google phone etc if you have one. This will be hands on learning.


Who:
Everyone men and women business owners or stay at home moms and dads college students etc... everyone welcome.

Oh & be sure to bring a friend!

Christmas Gift Idea 2009 * blabla Giselle Ballerina Doll

I absolutely love this soft pretty knit doll for girls. The Giselle Ballerina Doll by blabla is one of my favorite choices for girls for Christmas. The pictures really do not show how pretty she really is. It's great for little girl as well as older girls. Her details such as the cute braided buns and her ballet skirt and slippers are all sewn in to her body. Blabla also makes a whole bunch of soft dolls from dressable to kitty cats to finger puppets.

Sweet Family Life * Disneyland Christmas Time

Today we are at Disneyland with our Guest Winners enjoying the Christmas Time rides and fun. I will be posting next week about our Disneyland Christmas trip. Until then check out the great coloring pages, wish list, the build a snowman game, plus more on the Disneyland Holidays Site. Have a great weekend! You can check out our Whrrl story here http://whrrl.com/e/gMPyt we will be adding to it throughout the weekend.

Sweet Crafty Creations * Thanksgiving Turkey Marker Holder Center Piece

This is such a cute crafty way to entertain the kids at your Thanksgiving day dinner. Make this cute Turkey Maker or Crayon Center Piece, cover your table with butcher paper and let them color away. See the complete instructions plus more great Thanksgiving crafts for kids on Family Fun.

Happenin in The Valley * FYI The Provo Posh and Chic Boutique Expo

The Provo Posh and Chic Boutiqe Expo still has a few vendor openings available for their fun Black Friday Boutique Expo which will take place Friday November 27th 2009.
You can contact Emily Page mybowdaciousbows@gmail.com or 801.979.2165 for more details.

Christmas Gift Idea Guide 2009 * Jessie Steele Audrey Houndstooth Apron

 A lovely hostess gift for those ladies or for yourself who love to host the Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas parties and Christmas dinner. Jessie Steele has this nice Audrey Houndstooth Apron to wear over your holiday frocks keeping you clean yet still stylish while preparing the treats, snacks and meals during the holiday season. The Audrey apron is as nice as the clothes you will be wearing to your party or dinner. Love the button detailing, quality fabric, nice cut as well as the handy pockets.


Given a sample by vendor/agency/brand to review

Midweek Giveaway * Oh Sweet Sadie Art and Gift Show

The Oh Sweet Sadie Show is here again. They have over 80 local handmade artisans with things from lovely jewelry to toys to handmade quilts.
We are giving away a wonderful gift basket with a personalized single tag necklace with birthstone charm from KellyAnnie, a copy of Family Comfort Favorites CookBook By Kim Warren, a magnet board and 5 new bottle cap magnets of their choice from Tika Kids, a sash and flower clip of your choice from Demi Do’s and $20.00 worth of notepads from Jot It Down.



Midweek Giveaway:
- fill out this form Oh Sweet Sadie Giveaway Entry This Giveaway is now Closed
-get extra entries by tweeting include @sweetlifeinthe in tweet, Facebook update with link, posting on your blog about this giveaway with link
-giveaway ends Friday November 19th at midnight

{Oh Sweet Sadie Art & Gift Show}
Show Schedule:
Wednesday, November 18th through Saturday, November 21st from 9:30 am until 8:00 pm. Live music Saturday from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.
Where?
SoDa Row, Daybreak's New Retail Shopping District, in South Jordan(map)

Find of The Week * 100% Pure Makeup and Skincare

You all know how I love pure natural skin care and make-up. I found 100% Pure products a while back and loved their lip glosses. I recently tried their eye shadow, body lotion and eye cream. Love love love the all natural scents that are used in the organic body lotions. My favorite thing about the eye shadows is that they are all natural and they use fruit pigment to color them. 100% Natural products are a great addition to our Sweet Home Spas.



Given a sample by vendor/agency/brand to review

Crazi Beautiful Giveaway * doTerra Dr Mom Kit

Over at my other site Crazi Beautiful we are giving away a full Dr. Mom kit from doTerra. This is the prefect set of pure essential oils to have on had during the cold and flu season. I use the Breathe oil to make an all natural vapo rub. It's so much better that the other petrochemical filled store brand. The Dr. Mom kit is worth about $150.00 It includes Lavender, Lemon, Peppermint, Melaleuca, Oregano, Deep Blue, Breathe, DigestZen, and On Guard.

In This Season of Giving

This past week two of my kid's cousins passed away. Joanna, mom and Kayla, daughter were in a fatal car accident. In this Season of Giving if you happen to have a few extra dollars to help out a hard working loving father pay for the funeral for his wife and daughter as well as the hospital bills there is a trust fund set- up at Wells Fargo for the Russel Anderson Family. 

Out and About * California Travel Itinerary

Are you heading Out & About with the Family to southern California for the holidays? Our wonderful Field Editor on Out and About with the Family Lauren Horsley put together a the perfect Southern California Travel Itinerary for young families. She has some great suggestions from experience for a fun family trip.

Fun Free Fridays Giveaway * Dream Dinners

Have you heard of Dream Dinners? Have you tried it? If you haven't it really is a great way to plan and prepare your family meals. I was recently invited experience a week in the life of a mom who uses Dream Dinners. At Dream Dinners you spend the evening preparing meals ahead of time so you can easily pull them from the freezer and have delicious healthy dinner ready a a moments notice. We loved our week of easy to prepare dinners. The food and recipes are wonderful. Orem is lucky to have a Dream Dinners. One of the great things about Dream Dinner in Orem Utah is that you really don't need to know all that much about cooking to make wonderful gourmet dinners for your family. You simply measure spices, seasonings and other ingredients into a container freeze and then follow basic direction at home to prepare.
Dream Dinners has offered a free Chicken Parmigiana Dream Dinner from their November Menu to one of you!

BONUS: For Sweet Life Readers get 5% off their first order if you tell them you heard Dream Dinners on Sweet Life in The Valley!

Fun Free Fridays Giveaway
-fill out the form Dream Dinners Giveaway Entry Form
-get extra entries by tweeting include @sweetlifeinthe in tweet, Facebook update with link, posting on your blog about this giveaway with link
-giveaway ends Thursday November 19th at midnight


Dream Dinners Utah- Orem
845 N 100 W #105
Orem Utah
801.225.7655

Christmas Gift Idea Guide 2009 * One Line a Day Journal

When I first saw this One Line a Day Memory Book journal from Chronicle Books I knew I was just the sort of thing I needed. I rarely have time to enter an entire journal entry everyday but I do have time for one line everyday. Who doesn't have time to write at least one line every morning or night about the day. I also thought this would be the perfect gift for those people in your lives who seem to have everything. Mom, dad, grandma, aunt, nanny, assistant etc. will thank you for this pretty perfect journal.

One Great Recipe * Fluffy Walnut Apple Muffins

Last year in our local paper they featured some great fall recipes. This one for Apple Walnut Muffins caught my eye, so I gave it a try, and
they turned out to be delicious! They're a perfect fall treat. So when fall came this year I was anxious to pull out this recipe again. They were just as good as I'd remembered!

I highly recommend making them with the cupcake paper liners because the first time I made them they didn't have them and even though I greased the pan they didn't want to come out. The result was a bowl of muffin crumbs! (This picture is from my second attempt- much more successful.)

If you'd like to make them too here's the recipe...

Fluffy Walnut Apple Muffins

Serves 6-12

• 1/2 cup butter

• 11/4 cups white sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 cup milk

• 2 cups peeled, cored, diced apples

• 1/2 cup walnuts


Cinnamon Crumble:

• 1/4 cup white sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons butter, cubed


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat top and insides of jumbo six-cup muffin pan or 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray, or line with muffin papers. In large bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar, vanilla and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at time. Mix together 1 3/4 cups flour, baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir in flour mixture alternately with milk, mixing just until incorporated. Fold in apples and walnuts. Scoop into muffin cups to fill 3/4 full. Lightly sprinkle tops with cinnamon crumble.


To make Cinnamon Crumble: In small bowl, combine 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 3 tablespoons flour and 2 tablespoons cubed butter. Mix together using pastry blender or two butter knives. The crumble topping should resemble small peas. Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. If they are browning too quickly, cover with tin foil. Remove from pans, cool on wire rack.

ENJOY!

by Laura {Sweet Life Contributor-click here to learn more about Laura}

post sponsored by HugaMonkey.com Baby Slings starting at $25

Christmas Gift Idea Guide 2009 * Sorel Boots

It's here, our 2009 Christmas Gift Idea Guide. We will be posting some of our favorites for women, men, teens, tweens, children and babies throughout the coming weeks leading up to Christmas.

{click to enlarge- photos by me at Sundance Resort}

Our first pick for women and teens is Sorel Boots. I love the cute choices Sorel has this year from the faux fur topped Joan of Arc to the stylish yet warm Shila suede boots. Since winters can be cold slushy and snowy here in The Valley the girls will love these boots. No need to sacrifice being stylish to stay warm and cozy. Check out all the Sorel Boots for men and kids too.

{click to enlarge to have a closer look}

Photography * Fall Mini Sessions

{click to enlarge}

This is what I did this weekend. I photographed Heather one of our Sweet Life readers and her family. Her kids were wonderful! It was a perfect fall day.

Living The Sweet Life * Pioneer Woman

{photo via Pioneer Woman}

I am sure you have all heard Pioneer Woman Ree has a new cookbook out. This past week she stopped by Salt Lake City for a book signing. We were able to meet her and chat for a second and give her a basket of Utah products including Real Salt and my ever most favorite M2SkinCare. She is as sweet and down home as her blog post. The photo above is of a group of Utah bloggers with Ree in the center.
Back left to right:
Vanessa Becky Me {April} Joanie Carol Emily and Janet upfront.



Have you seen her book yet? The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl. It is filled with great recipes for the whole family. The book includes sections like Sunday Dinner, and even a Keeping it Real section- perfect for your recipe collection. Enjoy!

Sweet Business Life * We Love Local and Handmade

If you are selling your own handmade items, run a little business {sole proprietor}, are having a boutique etc. and would like to advertise on Sweet Life in The Valley we have a special advertising price for you. Please email me with your products or services for consideration. Please be sure they are relevant to our Sweet Life in The Valley readers and content.

sweetlifeinthevalley@gmail.com

Happenin in The Valley * Bijou Market

{click to enlarge}

Zoony's Zippers headbands &

Ritzy Misfits monogram charm necklace

Both at the Bijou Market this weekend. Even better we are giveaway away one of each!

Midweek Giveaway
-fill out this form Bijou Market Giveaway Entry THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
-get extra entries by tweeting include @sweetlifeinthe in tweet, Facebook update with link, posting on your blog about this giveaway with link
-giveaway ends Friday November 6th at midnight

Bijou Market
Saturday November 7th
10am-4pm
501 N. 900 E.
Provo Utah
across from Gold's Gym

Announcement * Giveaways

I have decided with all the opportunity for giveaways on Sweet Life in The Valley I will be posting Midweek Giveaways from now on as giveaways become available. They will be random and might last for one day or a whole week so check back often.

One Great Recipe * Autumn Apple Crisp

Apple Crisp

• 6 tart apples
• 1 cup cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

This is the perfect easy to make autumn recipe. It is as simple as can be.

Peel and slice apples. This handy peeler is the Apple Pro Peeler. Love using it to peel apples. It's so easy and easy to clean. You can either use an apple corer slicer like I did or slice the apples by hand in thicker slices.




Mix together 1 cup of sugar and 1 table spoon of cinnamon then toss into sliced apples.
Place cinnamon covered apples in 9x9 greased/buttered baking dish.
Mix together 1 cup cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup room temperature butter, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg with fork. Butter will make the mixture lumpy. Sprinkle mixture over apples and bake at 350 degrees for 24-30 minutes until bubbling and apples are slightly soften but no mushy.
Enjoy with crème fraîche, freshly whipped cream or a good vanilla ice cream.



Given a sample by vendor/agency/brand

Sweet Life sponsor HugaMonkey.com Baby Slings starting at $25

Sweet Life Book Club * Double Feature

This month's Sweet Life Book Club read is "The Actor and the Housewife" by Shannon Hale. You may recognize her name from the award winning young adult series "The Books of Bayern" or her previous adult novel "Austenland." Hale's newest book explores an improbable relationship between a Mormon homemaker and a famous actor.



Don't forget to join us in our Sweet Life Book Club Goodreads group to tell us what you think about "The Actor and the Housewife."


This month we are having a double feature due to our December Sweet Life Book Club read "Knit the Season". "Knit Two" by Kate Jacobs is coming out in paper back this week and will be our second read for the month of November. We want to make sure you have read "Friday Night Knit Club" {we read it last year in our Sweet Life Book Club} and "Knit Two" so you can enjoy "Knit the Season" by Kate Jacobs in December.



So this month join us in reading "Knit Two" along with The Actor and the Housewife" for November.

We have three copies of "The Actor and the Housewife" to give away! AND we are also giving away a copy of "Knit Two" in paper back.

Click here to enter to win:
Sweet Life Book Club Giveaway Form

If you would like to organize a Sweet Life Book Club in real life group please contact us at Sweetlifeinthevalley@gmail.com with Group Leader as the subject. We will get you the details about setting up a group.

By April & Jessica {Our Sweet Life Book Club Group Leader}

Sweet Business Life * Hands on Small Business with Kirtsy and Microsoft

Just a quick reminder we are having another Kirtsy Hands on Small Business Class this Tuesday Nov. 3rd. Please note the location change. Here are a few questions you may have about the classes:

What are they teaching?
We will learn how to use
-Twitter
-Kirtsy
-Microsoft Office Live to share files photos and more
-Microsoft Office Live to build a free basic website

Do I need be have a business to come?
NOPE! You can use any of these applications for your personal life too.

- Learn how you can use Microsoft Office Live to build a business or family website.
- Learn how you can share everything from recipes to photos to business files on Microsoft Office Live
-Learn the basics of Twitter & Kirtsy


Will there be treats?
Of course! I always bring treats!

This week our treats are cupcakes from Cupcake Chic. Thanks Trista! Yum!

Can I bring a friend?
Yes! The more the merrier.

Does it cost anything?
Nope it's FREE sponsored by Microsoft Office Live.

Can I attend more than one class?
Yes! We have some new handouts from Microsoft Office Live. We want to interview some of you to be on the blog with Kirtsy and we are giving away Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 at each class. It's worth $500 girls so yahoo! A great prize for the business or soon to be business owners out there.

*Remember to bring you laptops iPhones, Blackerry's, Google phones etc. and business cards to pass around.

Tuesday, November 3rd, 7:00pm-9:00pm

• Location: Western Community Bank (this is a new location)
  
• 1376 N State St Orem, UT 84057
• 801-222-9006
• Click here to Register for this Event

Sweet Family Life * Taking Time for Photos * Clothes DownEast Basics

{Photos by Marcel Walker}

When choosing clothes for your family photography session choose something that is you. If you are a casual family be casual. Matchy machty is out. Coordinating is in. Choose a color palette rather than one color.
Our color palette for our casual family session was boysenberry, grays and black. I loved that DownEast Basics hascoordinating prints for my daughter and I. Her Sweetheart Belt is the same boysenberry & white polka dot as my top. Her Love & Linger Top matches the boysenberry in the belt perfectly. The boys had on shades of gray for their tops, one is a Vintage Polo and the other a Pocket Tee.
Have fun with your colors. Choose something you are comfortable wearing and your photos will turn out better because it will show in your face and the way you hold yourself.