Where is the American Crafts Warehouse Sale?

I bet some of you are excited to know that American Crafts and their other brands including Pebbles Inc Imaginisce, Bazzil Basics, We R, Crate Paper, Pink Paislee, Studio Calico, Becky Higgins and Heidi Swapp are having their annual warehouse sale in November this year. American Crafts has come a long way since I first wrote about American Crafts products  (2007) and they were just the American Crafts brand back then.

Address for the BIG Craft Sale is
475 N. State street Orem Utah
(you know, the old Kmart building)
MAP

They do have carts and even a few of the old Costco carts if you need to hall the kids along with you.

I stocked up on some craft papers including some glitter scrapbook paper for some holiday projects. Everything from paper cutters to scrapbooks to mini staplers can be found at great prices. They are also giving out a bounce back coupon for $2 off a $20 purchase so you can get something free. I got a cute heart punch out paper punch with my coupon.

A lot of the items are at least 50% off. The selection is HUGE. It's set up to easily walk up and down the lanes and find what you want quickly.
A few of my buys were a 24 pack of premium ribbon for $5 regularly $14.99

This sweet snowflake Christmas Garland kit for handing Christmas cards or even advent items.

We also got some other great stuff and will be posting some Christmas project over on Sweet and Simple by April in the next week or so for the holiday season.
Go wander and snap up some crafting and scrapbook supplies at a super great price. I'm thinking Christmas gifts, ornaments, neighbor gifts, a scrapbook for Grandma....

SIGN UP for updates on specials and giveaways for American Crafts here.

Product provided by American Crafts.

Sweet Eats in The Valley * D Boys BBQ Orem

I have found BBQ heaven right here in Orem. D Boys BBQ makes amazing smoked meats but they don't stop with the meats. They also know how to serve up the savory smoked morsels. For the salad lovers a delicious smoked turkey with pecans and cranberries over a bed of lettuces is very satisfying. See the thick slice of garlic bread on the side? Most if not all the time when a meal is served with some garlic bread or bead its a second thought, almost, just a mediocre filler item, not with D Boys BBQ. Their thick slice of garlic bread is perfectly toasted and BOTH sides garlic buttered making it a nice even balance of flavors.

{The smoker at D Boys BBQ}

The smoked meats a sooo good! D Boys BBQ uses cherry wood. If you have smelled cherry wood smoke you will know the sweet smell that brings memories of summer camping, winter evenings by the fire and a good smoked meat. It is the kind of smoky smell that is mellow. The kid you don't mind lingering in the air. The Diamond boys have created a great blend of smoked meats with their own rub mix and a very special BBQ "nasty" sauce.
At D Boys BBQ even the kids menu items are great. I love it when a kids menu offers more than chicken nuggets. We tried the kids Wrangler Dinner that included a side of choice such as sweet potato fries, coleslaw, baked potato and other such goodness. This is what a kids menu should look like.
How about the Shooters? They are only $1. Time to trade up your dollar menu meal to their tasty smoked pulled pork or beef. Try it. I know you will love it. I tried all the meats and everyone of them was perfection.
Have a look at the whole menu, click here: D Boys BBQ Menu 

Sweet Tip:
ValPak has some great coupons for D Boys BBQ including a free shooter and 2 BBQ Sandwiches for $10


D Boys BBQ
294 N State Street

Orem, UT

Facebook: D Boys BBQ




{food provided by D Boys BBQ for review but as always I only write about the products and food I like. }

Mother's Day * Azalea Spa and Salon

Did you get your Mother a gift for Mother's Day yet? No? Head over to Azalea Day Spa & Salon's Facebook page to get 10% off a Gift Card for Mother's Day- Less Stress and More Love!
Facebook: Azalea Day Spa & Salon 


Thanks to Azalea for sponsoring Sweet Life in The Valley. Do you want to be a Sweet Sponsor email me at sweetlifeinthevalley@gmail.com

Bijou Market * Happenin in The Valley

Next weekend is the Bijou Market. There will be an amazing selection of items from local artist and artisans including my friend and designer Heather Carson.


Location:
Historic Soutworth Hall
116 West Center Street
Provo, Utah

Happy Easter!!
xo

The Hunger Games Event with Azalea Salon and Day Spa

Azalea Salon and Day Spa in American Fork is hosting a super fun pre-movie event. 


The Hunger Games

Join us for the Games March 22... This is what you will get:

* Exclusive early viewing of The Hunger Games -No waiting in line!
*20% off Aveda products the day of event - with a ticket
*Pre movie primping- makeup touch ups, etc.
*Entered into a drawing for prizes (see below)
*A goodie bag

Hunger Games starts at 7:p.m. on March 22. Be one of the first to see this epic series.

Call for details  801.756.9619

Space for the Azalea event is limited- Reserve your seat today!

Pre-Movie Events
Must have movie ticket

10:00-4:00: FREE makeup appointments. Get fresh spring ideas and tips
5:00 -6:00: Prepare yourself for The Hunger Games with FREE makeup touch-ups, hand massages and styles
6:30-7:00: Let the Games begin as we draw for door prizes in the theater

Drawing Prizes:
The Hunger Games book set, Services to Azalea, Aveda product, Hunger Games signature nail polish, and more...

Tell your friends and join us for an exciting evening.
Space is limited so reserve your spot now.

(No one under 12 years of age, please - due to movie rating)

Azalea Salon & Day Spa (right next to the theaters)

741West 100 North

American Fork, Utah 

Cinemark American Fork
715 West 180 North
American Fork, UT 84003

Happenin' in The Valley * Coneys Frozen Custard Orem

This week we visited Coneys Custard in Orem. Somehow this great eatery has been on our list to visit but we just hadn't made it in until this week. Wow, it was sure worth the visit. Coneys is more than just Frozen custard.

Their hot dogs are amazing. They are some of the best I have even eaten and friends I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. {Chicago is known for it's hot dogs}These dogs are good. They are  Nathan’s100% beef hot dogs. We tried the Sonoran Dog {left} Chicago Dog {right.}The Sonoran hot dog is topped with with caramelized onions, bacon, pinto beans, melted cheese, fresh hand-cut salsa, guacamole, cilantro cream sauce and cilantro Yum! Loved it!! The Chicago dog is topped with sweet green relish, pickle slices, onions, tomatoes, sport peppers, yellow mustard and celery salt.

My daughter had this to say, " Mom I don't like hot dogs but I LOVE this hot dog!" She had one of the Sonoran hot dog.

My son had the double cheese burger. He told me, " Mom I am so full but this cheeseburger is so good I can't stop eating it." I love the artisan buns. They make a huge difference.

The Frozen Custard

 this.stuff.is.so.creamy! 

Why.. I asked them. It's because they slow freeze the custard which makes the little frozen crystals teeny tiny and thus a smooth frozen custard. They have cones, sundaes, shakes, malts and their cyclones. We had cycles. You choose a flavor or frozen custard and mix in toppings. I had a peanut butter with marshmallow  cream. It tastes like peanut butter fudge. My kids had a red raspberry and peanut butter with chocolate fudge. They have a great selection of toppings.

We loved everything we had. The whole family recommends checking it out and trying some good food.

Coneys Frozen Custard

Coneys – Orem
242 East University Pkwy
Orem, UT 84058 Map
801.371.0500

Coneys – American Fork
598 West Main St. Suite A
American Fork, UT 84003 Map

facebook.com/coneyscustard

twitter.com/#!/coneyscustard

thanks so much to Coneys Frozen Custard for hosting us for this review and providing a great meal.

Happenin in The Valley * Pioneer Day Weekend

There a ton of things happening for Utah's Pioneer Day weekend. Two of my favorite are the Pioneer Days Celebrations at the 125 year old Homestead Resort in Midway and the Taste of Utah at The Shops at the Riverwoods in Provo.

{photo by Erika}

A group of fun bloggers from our Utah Bloggers Meetup group headed up to the Zermatt & Homestead Resort last weekend. Half of the group went scuba diving in the hot springs crater and the other half went on a adventurer in the mountains on the Razor UTV's. I love all the great activities the two resorts offer. This weekend for the Utah Pioneer Heritage days The Homestead has a bunch of free and almost free activites for the whole family.

Friday, July 22nd
9:00 PM - Campfire Stories w/Sparky

Saturday , July 23rd
10:00 AM - Petting Zoo
11:00 AM - Taffy Pull
12:00 PM - Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Making
1:00 PM - Crafts & FREE Pioneer Games
1:00 PM - Family-Style Chuck Wagon Dinner in Fanny’s
RESERVATONS RECOMMENDED
3:00 PM - Taffy Pull
4:00 PM - Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Making
5:00 PM - FREE Pie & Watermelon Eating Contest
6:00 PM - Dinner on the Lawn
($6 - $12.50 for dinner)
7:00 PM - FREE Summer Concert
(Dyer Highway )

Activities $1 - $2 / child unless otherwise noted.
Concessions $1 (snowcones, cotton candy, popcorn, etc..)

{photo from Pizzeria 712}

This weekend is also the Taste of Utah on Saturday July 23rd at the Shops at the Riverwoods presented by the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce. You know the Riverwoods Mall ;) Each of the participating eateries from around The Valley set up tasting booths. Each person receives a punch card as they enter and you go around tasting all the eateries have to offer. I attended the on in SLC and it was so much fun and delicious. Some of the restaurants include Pizzeria 712, Gloria's Little Italy, PF Changs,  Cupcake Chic, El Azteca, Goodwood, Pepsi and the restaurants at the Riverswoods too.

• Date and Time: Saturday July 23rd, 11 am- 3 pm
• Price of tickets: $10 per person, $38 for family of 4
• Live music
• Fun for the entire family/splash pads for the kids
• Sample cuisine from local restaurants and vote on your favorite
• Win raffle prizes

Click Here to Purchase Tickets 

Taste of the Valley on Facebook

The Shops at the Riverwoods

4801 N. University Ave.

Provo, Utah

Utah Bloggers Summit * at Le Chateau in Provo

It has been a busy past few weeks and I have another busy next few week ahead. Over the past busy few weeks I hosted the first annual Utah Bloggers Summit in Provo, Utah at the beautiful event & reception center, Le Chateau. We are so happy the Le Chateau offered to host our location. It is THE premier events & reception center in Utah. As you enter Le Chateau you come to a beautiful fountain. The outside is covered in ivy and nestled into the trees next to the Provo River. My favorite thing is that it took very little effort on our party to create a beautiful event. Since the event center is already full of beautiful decor.

We had some great talented people speak and share their expertise including Social Media presented by Scott Duehlmeier {aka @Paco_Belle} & Darin Berntson {aka Doc}, PR & Media Kits presented by Lyndsey Payzant Wells, SEO presented by Janet Meiners Thaeler, Being Media Ready presented by Pamela Baumeister, Tauni Everette- Utah Transit Authority and Anne Williams from Intrepid spoke on working with brands.

By request of some of our Utah Bloggers Meetup group members we had 3 open discussion rounds tables. The Creative Bloggers round table was co-headed by Shelley Smith of House of Smiths & Amy Huntley of The Idea Room. The Food Bloggers round table was co-headed by Maria Lichty of Two Peas in Their Pod & Carrian Cheney of Sweet Basil. The Lifestyle Bloggers Round table was co-presented by Jenny Eckton of Formerly Phread &

We had a delicious dinner catered by Utah Celebrations Catering. The fresh fruit display was stunning, the pulled pork was moist and tasty and the pineapple vinaigrette on the salad was a nice surprise favorite.

After dinner and great inspiring speakers we had a great time socializing and eating yummy cupcakes from Cupcake Chic, Orem's Cupcake Bakery.

The hair stylists from Metropolitan Salon in Provo styled our hair before we snapped some photos in the 'Stash in a Box Photo Booth.  So much fun!!



Thanks to our Sponsors for making our first annual Utah Bloggers Summit so wonderful...

Le Chateau Reception & Event Center

1675 N Freedom Blvd building 10G Provo, UT 

"Like" them on Facebook for updates & deals Le Chataeu

801-687-5264 

Beautiful linens for our event by Utah Linens 

Thanks to the crew at Simply the Sweet Life Magazine for their time & talents 

Thanks to the UPS store of Utah for providing signs and printing for our event. 

Disney's Cars 2 Movie Premier * Sweet Family Life

When Joanie & I were off checking out the Zermatt Resort our kids went to the premier of Disney's Cars 2 with Grandma compliments of Any Hour Services-Utah Plumbing Heating Air Conditioning and Electrical & Half Price Utah. The kids {teens & little ones} had a great time.

My teens were 8 & 10 when the first Cars movie came out. My 8 year old was obsessed. He collected all the toys, looked up route 66 on Google maps and even wanted to move to Arizona. When he heard about Cars 2 coming out he was excited of course in a cool teen way to be excited about your favorite childhood movie.

Now their little cousins are big fans of the movie. I love it when the big kids & the little kids can see a movie together and enjoy it.
Have you seen it yet?


Thanks to Any Hour Services & Half Price Utah for inviting our family to a wonderful night of family memories, goodies, and a great family movie. Everyone was impressed with your attention to details.

4th of July Weekend Plans * Zermatt and the Homestead

Do you have plans for the 4th of July weekend? We are heading up to The Homestead in the beautiful green Midway, Utah. They also happen to be celebrating their 125th anniversary. You may have heard about their cool hot springs crater where you can swim and scuba dive. This weekend will be full of super fun family actives for the Fourth of July.

I went up take a look around and check out the area. I LOVED that the temperatures are a bit cooler since it is higher in elevation. This is the list of all the fun things happening this weekend at both The Homestead and the Zermatt Resort {right across the road}.

The Homestead Resort
Fri:
- 8:30pm Campfire story telling and songs

Sat:

- 9:00am Pancake breakfast

- 11:00am Old Fashioned games, races & prizes {free}

- 1:00pm Carnival

- 6:00pm Dinner on the lawn

- 7:00pm Concert on the lawn {free}

Sun:

- 10:00am Sunday Brunch

- 5:00pm BBQ & Root Beer Floats
- 7:00pm America's Birthday Cake
Mon:
- 1:00pm Watermelon Eating Contest {free}
- 2:00pm Pinata {free}
- 8:00pm Bonfire
- 9:00 pm Fireworks from Memorial Hill

Other activities- Spa treatments, swimming, golf, horse back riding, biking, fly fishing, soak swim & snorkel in the crater, carousel ride and more.

Twitter: @HomesteadResort
Facebook: Homestead Resort

{the tasty seafood buffet at the Zermatt Resort including a table full of delicious desserts}

Zermatt Resort
Fri, Sat, Sun & Mon:
- Seafood Buffet in Schneitter's Restaurant
Every Friday Night 5:30 - 9:00 pm

- Beer Garden 5:00pm-10:00pm Brand, Beer & Music

Twitter: @Zermatt_Resort
Facebook: Zermatt Resort

784 West Resort Drive, Midway, UT





This post was sponsored by the Zermatt & Homestead Resorts -all opinions are my own.

Local * Yogurtland Orem YUM!

Summer = frozen treats. This month for our Utah Bloggers Meetup we headed over to the new Yogurtland in Orem across from the University Mall near Sunflower Market.

Yogurtland is a self serve yogurt shop based out of California. If your from Cali you know how wonderful it is already. They provide mini sample cups so you can try out all the flavors. Everyone started sampling away thinking up combinations of flavors and choosing their favorites. What are my favorite flavors you ask? To my own surprise Red Velvet {I'm not a huge fan of the cake} Toasted Coconut, Blueberry, Fresh Strawberry, New York Cheesecake, Key Lime Bar,  and drum roll...... Root beer Float.

My favorite is to layer up the flavors to create your own desserts. From bottom to top layer graham cracker, New York Cheese Cake, Fresh Strawberry, Blueberry and top with almond slivers, strawberry slices and cheese cake chunks. A perfect cheese cake combo.

{photo from Lindsey of Cafe Johnsonia of her favorite combo}

A few favorite combo's from fellow bloggers...
Emmie's coconut frozen yogurt with Almond slivers
Aimee's coconut flavor, especially with coconut flakes on top

Lindsey's coconut, pineapple guava tart, and acai yogurts and then loaded up on toppings--fresh blackberries, strawberries, mangoes, pineapple, shredded coconut, lychees, mango and strawberry popper.

A few of my favorite things about Yogurtland... It's made from all natural ingredients. It is only .33 per oz. They offer fresh fruit and nuts as well as the treat topping such as crushed candy bars and Oreo cookies. The franchise to locally owned. And it is super delicious!

They're social too!
Twitter @YogurtlandOrem

Facebook I Love Yogurtland of Orem

Yogurtland Site

Yogurtland Orem

534 E University Parkway
Orem, UT 84097
801.225.5440

Would you like to sponsor one of our Utah Bloggers Meetups? Email me at sweetlifeinthevalley at gmail

Sweet Shops * Apricot Lane Clothing

Our May Utah Bloggers Meetup took us to a lovely NEW boutique in Provo- Apricot Lane. I love this store! You can actually find beautiful stylish dresses. They have a wonderful selection.

The great thing about it being a boutique is that they ordered a limited number of each style so you know your not going to run into a friend or neighbor wearing the same thing. It's a good sized shop full of designer jeans, clothing and amazing accessories. We found some sweet lace leggins, cute leather cuffs and charming necklace.

I wore this gorgeous bracelet on our channel 2 Fresh Living segment last week when we made our Lemon Chiffon Cake. LOVE IT! Another thing I love about the shop is that you can come with your teen daughter or your 50+ mom and everyone will find something they love.

A few of the brands they carry include...
Vintage Havana
Big Star
Rock Revival
Dawn Stark Designs
Joe's Jeans

Another great idea is their shopping parties. You can host a party for your friends free! and they supply you with refreshments as well as a nice discount. You cannot beat that deal. Throw a party invite friend have a nice place to hang out and shop AND get a discount!

See what other Utah Bloggers had to say about Apricot Lane...

Cait Create

Fruit Heights Friends

Green Ruby Designs

Love Stitched

Season Atwater Photography

Karinas Challenge

A Happy Girl

{You can find Apricot Lane here}

Apricot Lane's social links-

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Apricot-Lane-Provo
Twitter: twitter.com/ApricotLaneProv @apricotlaneprov
Website: apricotlaneprovo.com

Address:
Apricot Lane
4801 N. University Avenue
Provo, UT, 84604
801.224.4432

Would you like to sponsor one of our Utah Bloggers Meetups? Email me at sweetlifeinthevalley at gmail