Rainy Day Dangles Giveaway! - CLOSED

When Rachel contacted me I was beyond excited :) Rachel is a mother to two adorable boys and lives in Idaho, but when she isn't busy doing that she is creating these adorable Dangles. My first thought when I saw her stuff was, "Oh man, my sisters would LOVE this stuff." But really what girl wouldn't?! I love all the great colors and combination's of the feathers she uses and the versatility of how you could wear them!

See for your self and check out her blog and her etsy shop. 

 

I was really really excited to get one that had a bright pop of yellow :) Of course.

Lucky for you guys today Rachel will be offering a giveaway! 

 It is a pretty good giveaway to so get ready for it... Rachel will be giving away $30.00 to use in her shop! What a lucky winner! You could get so much with that. But what is even better, Rachel is offering a win win for everyone, by giving readers a discount on her etsy shop of 10% off. All you have to do is enter the word PARTY. Pretty great right? 

Since I know I would love this giveaway I am offering tons of different ways for you guys to enter to win :)

How to Enter:

Leave a comment for EACH separate entry.

(one entry)

Be a follower of the Crowley Party

(second entry)

Visit Rachel's SHOP and tell me which dangles you would get if you won!

(third entry)

Follow Rachel's  BLOG!

(fourth entry)

Follow me on twitter and tweet about the giveaway. Make sure to @mention it to me!

(fifth entry)

Follow Crowley Party on BlogLovin'

All right folks, I think I thought of every possible way for you to enter! GOOD LUCK! :)

THE WINNER IS #71  dani
please email me!

I love you, Bye :)

 

 

Top: LuLus Vest: F21 Jeans: f21 Shoes: Forever Young

3 days down for the 30 for 30. I know, I have been really slow on posting these, I need to catch you guys up! I need to start posting these more. I will try and be better!

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So the other day something pretty dang embarrassing happened. I am a receptionist at the front desk of Administration at the University Library. While getting off a phone call I ended with, "I love you, bye." YUP that happened. I guess this is a good thing in a way because it shows I talk to my loved ones a lot and have a habit of ending my phone calls like this.... but awkward. I hung up before I even noticed that I did it.

Hopefully I made the persons day instead of freaking them out? haha

Giveaway winner announced! :)

Sopapilla Cheesecake

This past weekend while Trevor and I were down in Provo apartment hunting, I stopped by a Blog Swap Party :) I will give you details on the party later, but until then I wanted to share the recipe of the dessert I brought. When I saw this recipe I got excited because I had read about Sopapilla. Sopapilla is a kind of fried pastry and a type of quick bread served in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, northern Mexico, New Mexico, Peru, Texas, and Uruguay. I have three brothers, two of which both served LDS missions in Mexico, and my little brother Alex is currently serving in Chile. I am sure this recipe is as far from authentic as you can get to the real Sopapilla but it made me think of my little brother out in Chile, who I have been missing lately.

According to good ol' Wikki, depending if they are served as a pastry or bread Chilean, sopaipillas are served with either mustard, ketchup, manjar, chancaca sauce (sopaipillas pasadas), hot butter, or pebre, a sauce of onion, tomato, garlic, and herbs. In Chile sopaipillas are traditionally made and eaten during days of rain. Well.... it isn't raining, and these are more of a dessert, so I don't think they count as Chilean. They can just be my American version :) But I wish my little brother auckie was here to have some with me.

3 cans Pillsbury butter crescent rolls
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup butter (melted)
Cinnamon & sugar 
(this recipe has so many possibilities, you could add raisins or nuts or whatever you want inside with the filling. I think these would even taste good with some syrup and make it like a pancake! be creative!)

Instructions:

Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. 

Trevor had some before we left for Provo and he really liked them. I am pretty sure everyone at the party liked them too!

ENJOY!

Life Should Be A Party!

I have decided to change up my learn something series and make it a little more fun. While it is important to learn something new every day and throughout the week, I think what most people need is a pick me up! Since one big theme of my blog is life being a party, I figured we could start celebrating our lives! Having a blog is one form of documenting our lives and celebrating it right? I figure if you have a blog, that is something you like to do and are already doing. If you guys have read the "about us" section of this blog, you would know why I decided to name this blog Crowley Party (it had to do with Trevor's proposal!) Our last name is Crowley (derrr) and we want our life to be a CELEBRATION. We think life should be a party! Sometimes it is hard to always stay positive, and when you are having a rough day or week, or month, (or even a yearrrrr! haha) finding and looking for the good things in our life is not always easy to do HOLD that thought, looking for the good in our lives can be easy if we are willing to look at our lives in the right way. Learning how to look at our lives in a positive way ALL THE TIME can be hard though.

But lets work on it together, kapeesh?

What is usually the most dreaded day of the week? Monday! Because that means, back to work, school, life, back to a schedule again. I am always sad because the weekends seem to be the only time Trevor and I have to really spend quality time together. I was thinking we can start giving Monday a better reputation. Lets start the week off with a bang and really celebrate the things in our lives that are currently making us smile, laugh, giggle, feel happy, surprised, special, thankful, or loved, and on and on, you get the idea?! Find those things in your life that you can celebrate, and focus on them throughout the day and the rest of the week, as well as continue to look for more things happening in your life that brings you happiness. 

If you want to LINK up to this weekly, you can do so at the bottom of this post! If you want to link up here, you need to have a "Life should be a Party" button on your blog.
If you are interested in doing a guest post of your Life Should be a Party on MY blog, go here. 



<center><a href="http://crowleyparty.blogspot.com/2011/06/life-should-be-party.html"><img src="http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee25/alycialeavitt/lifeshouldbeaparty.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></center>

<center><a href="http://crowleyparty.blogspot.com/2011/06/life-should-be-party.html"><img border="0" src="http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee25/alycialeavitt/2.jpg"/></a></center>

If you want the moving image I have on my blog, simply just email me for the html code. Once you have the code you just add it to an html widget on your sidebar!

 One more quick thing...

I am under no illusion that people are going to be "happy" 24/7 BUT as long as we are always trying to find things in our lives that we can be happy about and celebrate them, I think that will make a big difference and go a long way.

I truly believe you will find whatever it is you are looking for. So lets look for the GOOD.

Start Celebrating your life today!

Just fill out the form below. Put your name and blog title in the "Link Title" area. (If you wanna start doing this regularly, it's probably best to just make a blog label for your Life Should Be A Party Posts and link THAT up. okee dokee artichokee?)

Lets link it up!

Interested in having YOUR Life Should Be a Party Post being featured on the crowleyparty?! Submit your post, read more about the process here.

Monte Carlo & Little Sisters.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Monte Carlo for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

So one reason I am getting excited about moving to Provo is the fact that my little sister will be there. My little sister Sarah is moving from San Diego to attend UVU this summer. I still can't believe she is going to be in college... ah! Anyways, I can't wait to hang out with her all the time. I plan on having lots of girl time and even having some girls night sleepovers :)

Unlike my husband, I know that she will go with me to see all the movies that I want to see :) For example the new movie coming out this summer on July 1st, Monte Carlo is one that I think we should go see together. Not only because she would have just got here (she moves to Provo this weekend!) but also because she just graduated from high school like the girl does in the movie before she goes to Paris.

Admit it, you know you still love these kinds of movies?! I know I do :) &who doesn't love Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy?! Oh and did you see Finn from Glee in there too? Yup, Love him. Or anything do with Paris?! The scenes from the trailer are breathtaking.

Check out the trailer people :)

If you are interested you can check out and "like" the official Monte Carlo Facebook page.

Starting on 6/29, get tickets ahead of time at Fandango.

is that a costume?

 Top: Lulus Jeans: Anlo from Piperlime Shoes: Lulus Hat: Target Necklace: Nordstroms

Two days down for the 30 for 30, so far so good right? I know I have been slow on posting these, I promise I will be doing more then one a week, haha.

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So the hubberz is still learning. I guess he never got advice from someone that said, just LIE to your wife if you don't think she looks good, HA. I thought I was the type of woman who could handle the truth, but the thing is, I didn't even ask! Here is the break down so you guys understand what the heck I am talking about...

Alycia walks out in her new high waisted bell bottom pants. Pants she has seen around and loves, and has been trying to be daring enough to buy a pair. She found some, was feeling brave, so she bought them. She feels a little self-conscious in them as it is. I mean just cause they look good on other people doesn't always mean they will look good on you. I learned that with the ray ban optical glasses.

Husband sees wife in these said pants, and gives her a funny look. Then says...
Hubberz: Those pants you are wearing are ugly.
Me: Oh um thanks, that was really nice!
Hubberz: Well they just look like they are straight out of the 70's.
Me: Well I guess that is kind of the point of them.
Hubberz: Well it looks like you are wearing a costume, about to go to a 70's party. If that's the look you were going for then, yeah....
Me: Hey I really like these pants! &if you knew anything about clothes you would know they are coming back!
Hubberz: They are coming back? (still not convinced)

This is where I get a little pouty, because what girl wants to feel like they are dressed ugly when going out on a date with their husband?
Hubberz notices the sad face. 
Hubberz: Why are you sad? I never said you looked bad, I said the pants did. Like you said I don't know anything about clothes, why listen to me? 

Trevor imitates the sad face while saying, I am sorry, your beautiful.

The hubberz is still not convinced these jeans are not a costume.

At the end of the day, I have been trying to be more daring when it comes to my clothes and style. There are so many things that I have liked in the past, but was too scared to try. I am no longer going to let that happen. If I like something, I am going to get it, and wear it proudly. I love these pants, even if my husband thinks I look like I am off That 70's Show. Plus I love the 70's :)

sneak peek.

Can't wait to share more of what this is with you guys :)

wisconsin cauliflower soup (zupas)

The first time I ever went to Zupas was while living here in Salt Lake. I don't think they have this restaurant in San Diego, but they SHOULD. I love all of their food and soups! My favorite soups are the Lobster Bisque, the Mushroom Soup, and their Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup. I would say I take turns with rotating through these soups when I go, but lately I have only been wanting the Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup. It is just such a great comfort food soup, and I am a big lover of cheese :) So I thought I would look up recipes to see what I could find, and came across this. Now if only you could replicate their mushroom or lobster.... yum.

Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup
2 tablespoons margarine or butter (1/4 stick)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 spoon salt
2 cups milk
1 can (13 3/4 to 14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
1 head (2 1/2 pounds) cauliflower, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup Sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup Pepper Jack cheese

In 4-quart saucepan, melt margarine or butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour and salt; cook 2minutes, stirring frequently. Gradually stir in milk, chicken broth, and 1 1/2 cups water; add cauliflower and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes. In blender (with center part of blender cover removed to allow steam to escape), blend cauliflower mixture at low speed in small batches until very smooth. Return cauliflower mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups cheese until melted and smooth. Garnish soup with remaining cheese to serve. 

ENJOY!

p-town.

Top: Billabong Dress: BCBG Outlet Boots: Steve Madden Belt: New York & Company

First day of the 30 for 30, kind of excited, kind of scared :) Lets see how I can stretch and assemble these items. Ready, set, go!

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So if you are from Utah you would know that p-town stands for Provo. As you guys have read, Trevor is going to BYU Law School in the fall, which happens to be located in Provo. I have a confession to make to everyone. I swore to myself that I would never live in Provo. Sorry to all you Provo folks out there! I mean no offense :) Growing up Mormon outside of Utah I think is very different then growing up as a Mormon in Utah. Anyone else agree? Even though I am a Mormon, moving to Utah was an extreme culture shock to me. Everywhere you turn there is an LDS church, there are Temples scattered all over the place, when you run into someone the chances they are Mormon are pretty good... I mean this place is covered in Mormons and the culture of our religion is everywhere. I am not saying this is bad, it is one of the reasons I decided to go to college up here. But it sure is different. It is really different if where you grew up there are only a handful of Mormons at your school, and some people don't even know what a Mormon is. Provo gets a bad rep outside of Utah, and if I am being honest, even sometimes in Utah. It has been called "the bubble" many times. While I have grown to love Utah, the strong presence of the church here can still be very weird for me. I grew up somewhere where your religion just didn't really matter to anyone else because there was so many people, there was no such thing a dominate religion. In Utah so many people are dominantly LDS that I am sure it can make some people feel "out of place." Even as a Mormon I am still getting use to it. Trevor insists that I will love it down there, and so many of you commented that I will as well. Some of my older siblings went to school there and loved it. I am sure I will love it too, but I am still trying to get use to it here in Utah, even after four years!

I guess it is time for me to change my attitude about Provo, and embrace the town for all the good things it has to offer me :)

memory lane, eh?

Now most of you may know from reading this blog, that I am Canadian. I was born in Canada, my parents grew up in Canada, and the majority of my extended family is from and lives in Canada as well. Even though I grew up in California, I have this love for my home country. Some Canadian traditions and things obviously found their way into our household growing up. One of those, was the love for the Royal Family. For those of you who don't know, Canada is a commonwealth country, which means the British Royals, are the Canadians Royals as well. You bet me and my mother were on the phone talking about William and Kate's wedding for days :)

Anyways, me and my mother spent some time in London after my graduation, and I loved it there. This is a long round about way to tell you why I was so excited to go to these two shops here in Salt Lake City. I have lived here for four years and drive past these shops all the time. So when my parents were up for my graduation I decided we all had to go together. It ended up being a real treat, and we all had a blast.

The store was like memory lane, because so much of the British candy is the same as in Canada. We had so much fun wandering through the store and reminiscing over our favorite candies, and things me and my parents grew up eating. I normally don't get to see this stuff unless it is in a Christmas package from my grandparents.

Then imagine our surprise when Trevor started recognizing foods and snacks on one of the shelves. He kept saying how they had this on his mission, and that, etc. Then I noticed the sign on the shelf, it was a South African corner! Trevor served his mission in the Johannesburg South Africa Mission. He got so excited he ended up getting some jerky he use to eat all the time down there, which was nasty by the way, haha. Then we headed over to the other shop which was a bakery with English goods, we got us some Cadbury Hot Chocolate, which me and my mama enjoyed.

You got to love the William & Kate flag :)

Trevor excited to find the South Africa corner!

"Mind the Gap" made me think of when me and my mother were traveling around London :)

My Dad with a Harry Potter wand :) haha love him.

I drank Ribena a lot when I spent time in Scotland, and other parts of Europe. Love this stuff.

Meat pies and pastries galore!

I remember eating these as a kid :)

Me with my Cadbury hot chocolate and free British Newspaper :)

If you are in the Salt Lake City area and you are interested in going the stores they are the London Market and Elizabeth's Bakery & Tea Shop!

It was such a fun afternoon, and brought back memories for all of us!
Speaking of Europe you all need to enter this amazing Paris giveaway!

30 for 30 Remix

“Fashion is something you buy… Style is something you possess.”

I am not sure if I would say I am someone that has a lot of "style." On this blog I have done a couple different fashion posts. But what I would really like to learn how to do, is work with the clothes I already have. I need to face the fact that I have a lot of clothes and always seem to think I have nothing to wear, sound familiar? I think I know what my personal "style" is but I would like to dig deeper into that and get more creative with my closet, and find out more about myself and my style. I have been hesitant to ever join the 30 for 30 challenge, but.... I think I am finally up for it. I like the idea of working with outfits that you already have instead of seeing your clothes in only one way, did that even make sense? I want to stretch the use of my clothes. I also would like to try the challenge of not buying any more clothing during the challenge. Since getting married I think I have been pretty good at this... but there is a little shopper inside me that is always trying to come out and over spend on clothes. I love how Kendi has reiterated that this is suppose to be a fun challenge that participants don't need to worry about posting "every day." With that said, I am going to try and do my 30 different outfits in 30 different fashion posts, I am shooting for two posts a week. So this is going to take much longer then 30 days folks, but that is better for me because then I can stretch out the non spending for the whole summer... at least that's the plan ;) Plus, I don't know about you, but I just don't always have the time to post an outfit every single day?! 

So here it is folks, the break down and the plan for my 30 for 30 challenge. 
I will start sometime this week! ah!

 

 

Anyone out there trying the 30 for 30 this time around? I hope I don't regret attempting to do this! haha Wish me luck!

tulip festival.

Since Trevor's parents were up in Salt Lake City for my graduation we decided that we should get together with some family that lives near by and go see the tulip festival they have up here. It was really beautiful, but I am not going to lie, the tulip fields they have in Carlsbad in California are way better. While the flowers are better in Carlsbad, the landscape and features of this place was much cooler. Where in Carlsbad there are just fields and fields of gorgeous flowers, here it was like a maze of gardens, and there was a gorgeous house, or mansion really, on the property, waterfalls, you name it, they had it.

It was a great afternoon with family, and the sun was finally coming out in Utah, hurray for that!

It was a gorgeous day :)

p.s. these are Trevor's infamous cut off shorts he makes every time he gets holes in his jeans. please tell him they are not as amazing as he thinks they are, haha.