Saturday, November 30, 2013

December 2013 Calendar

Hi Everyone!

Here is my Mickey and Minnie calendar design for the month of December!  I can't believe that another year is coming to an end!  This one certainly flew by!

Download the December 2013 Calendar PDF here.

Enjoy the calendar and have a happy end of 2013!  °o°

Friday, November 29, 2013

My Birthday Celebration Continued

As I mentioned in my birthday post, I was able to celebrate my birthday multiple times over the past week since we had a late Thanksgiving this year.  It's always fun to spread the birthday cheer over a few days!

Image Source: It's a Disney Thing.
This year, the one thing that I really wanted to do for my birthday was to get together with my some of my girlfriends.  I haven't been able to see them all at once in a long time!  In fact, the last time the Fab Five (Eliot, Katie, Katie, BJ and I) were together, was this past New Years Day.  It was definitely time to correct that.

I really wanted to go see the Hunger Games: Catching Fire with the girls.  Eliot and I had seen the first one when it came on Netflix.  After devouring the three books within 48 hours, I was completely hooked!  My friends also loved the books and first movie, so we've been planning to go see the new one together for a few months now.

Image Source: Mae Uy Society 6.
Note: I know that Hunger Games isn't Disney, so if you're not a fan, feel free to stop reading from this point forward!  This particular birthday was mostly Hunger Games themed.  If you are a fan of both, please continue reading!  I went on Pinterest to find a few Hunger Games and Disney related pictures to add here and there.  As I've mentioned before: Disney, Harry Potter and Hunger Games are all my weaknesses. Disney is definitely the predominant one.  Anyways... you get the picture.  Now back to the story!

Image Source: Pinterest Pin.
We decided that we'd get together last Saturday.  Before the movie, we gathered at Eliot's and my house.  My friends gave me my birthday gifts.  Kathleen got me an awesome pair of Mockingjay earrings to wear to the movie.  They are so small and cute!  

Katie and BJ got me a Christmas Pascal who is adorable.  He is so cute with his red stripes and Santa hat.  I love him!  They also got me a Hunger Games lanyard with Peeta and a District 12 Tribute bracelet to wear to the movie.  

Image Source: Pinterest Pin.
My best friend Katie got me two beautiful pairs of earrings from the jewelry store she works at.  She also got me a pink dream box and a stone elephant made of Adventurine. She knows all about my job hunt and my self-employment dreams.  The Adventurine helps to bring career success, creativity and imagination.  My dream box and I definitely have a date to add my career dreams to it!

Image Source: Pinterest Pin.
After opening presents, the ladies went to the local IMAX movie theater.  (Eliot and BJ stayed at our house and played video games.)  The movie was great!  Catching Fire is my favorite book in the series, and I was not disappointed.  It's so hard when you make a book into a movie, but I felt like they did a great job with it.

Katie, me, Kathleen, Jenn and Katie at Catching Fire!!!
Once we returned from the movie, we met up with the boys and went to Longhorn for dinner.  Katie and I got our favorite: the watermelon margarita!  Yum!!!  After that, we said goodnight to Jenn and Kathleen and BJ, Katie and Katie spent the night at our house.  We had Tim Horton's for breakfast the next day, and then everyone left.  Eliot and I had a quiet afternoon at home; but after taking a short nap, I was restless.

Image Source: Pinterest Pin.
I basically begged Eliot to go see the movie again with me Sunday night.  And then I saw it again on Tuesday with my cousin Karen who was unable to attend on Saturday.  

Me at Catching Fire Sunday Night with Eliot.
Ok, I'll admit it.  I'm typing this post while "watching" The Hunger Games with my Dad. Eliot and I told him that we'd go see Catching Fire with him over Thanksgiving weekend. (In my own defense, that was before I realized that I'd have already seen it 2 more times...)  So now, after tomorrow night, I'll have seen it 4 times in 8 days.  Oie!  At this rate, I'll singlehandedly help fund Mockingjay Part 1... and maybe even Part 2.

Image Source: Pinterest Pin.
I did get one more mini birthday celebration.  My cousin Kaitlin and my cousin Matt's wife, Samara, also have November birthdays.  Each year we have a small gift exchange for us girls.  This year, my Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Moe gave me this awesome Disney mug!  It looks like it's a vintage one!  I love all of the characters on it, and it reminds me of when I first went to Walt Disney World as a kid.  I'm thinking that I might put it in my office on display with some of my other Disney items.


I had an awesome 29th birthday celebration!  Here's to a great last year of my 20's!  °o°

Note: I had to source these photos with their Pinterest pins because I couldn't find all of the original sources!  But I did try!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

This past week has been incredibly hectic and I haven't gotten to write the posts that I'd planned on doing.  I had a great Thanksgiving craft project to share that didn't work out exactly how I'd planned it.  We've all been there.  You have some great idea, and once you start working on it, the idea changes, or doesn't turn out how you thought it would. So I've scrapped it for this year and will have it ready to go for next Thanksgiving!  I'm sure this won't be the last time an idea I have goes wrong.  You live and you learn right?

Image found on onthegoinmco.com. Copyright Disney.
I did want to get online to write a Thanksgiving post.  It's been an amazing year and I wanted to take a few minutes to express my thanks and gratitude.

This year, I'm most thankful for Eliot's job opportunity and all of the awesome things that have come because of it:

A little over a year ago, Eliot had gotten an amazing job offer.  I had been working in a large retail chain as an assistant manager and I had big dreams to run my own business someday.  I worked long hours, nights and weekends, and I didn't have a lot of time that I was able to spend with my family and friends.  After a quick pro/con deliberation, Eliot decided to take the job offer.  I left my retail job mid-December and we moved up to my home state of Maine (from Massachusetts).

We weren't sure what to expect from Eliot's new job or our new city.  Now, not quite a year later, I'm very happy to report that Eliot really enjoys where he's working.  He likes the challenges and problems that he has to solve.  He's got great coworkers that he hangs out with outside of work, and he feels like he fits in well at the company.

We love where we live.  We have a beautiful house that we rent, an awesome landlord who is the nicest guy, and we live in a quiet, country neighborhood only minutes away from all of the shopping centers.  (We really do get the best of both worlds!)  We are also closer to my parents, family and my cousins who live in Southern Maine.  We are basically the central location for all our friends to meet up.  We couldn't have asked for a better place to live!

Since Eliot got this amazing job, I've been able to help take the time to move us from one state to another.  I've had time to organize our stuff and get us unpacked.  This is the first time I've felt "settled" since I left my parents house to go to college.  Everywhere else has just felt incredibly temporary.  We're proud of our house and all of the little touches that make it our home.

Over the past few months, I've been able to explore job opportunities that I'm passionate about.  I loved my coworkers at my old job, but retail was not the atmosphere that I would thrive in.  I constantly felt trapped.  Since I haven't had to work this year, I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time researching and planning for my Etsy businesses.  I also have gotten the opportunity to become a travel agent for a great company.  I'm so excited about what I'm doing now and that's the greatest feeling to wake up to everyday. I'm really looking forward to what 2014 will bring!

This year, I decided to start this blog on a whim.  I wanted something to take up some of my free time, and my friend recommended blogging.  It's blossomed into something that I really enjoy doing.  I love sharing my stories and my crafts with all of you online.  I'm thankful that you have decided to read my blog and join me in my Disney adventures.  It brings me joy to know I can sprinkle some pixie dust into someone else's day.  I love all of the Disney blogs and Facebook pages that I follow.  It makes me feel connected to a larger community: a big happy Disney Family!

Finally, I'm thankful for Walt Disney and the big dreams that he had.  I'm thankful that I grew up wishing on stars, believing in magic, and knowing in my heart that dreams do come true.  °o°

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday, I officially started the last year of my twenties.  Wow!  It feels like I just turned 25 yesterday... my how time flies!

Aside from the dental procedure that I had to get done, I had a great day!  I wasn't sure how I'd feel after the appointment.  But after the Novocain wore off, I felt great and was even able to eat the steak and the lobster mac & cheese that I'd really wanted for dinner. I also enjoyed a piece of chocolate cake!  I was incredibly relieved that the appointment went well since my Mom, Dad and brother drove all the way here to celebrate with Eliot and me.


No birthday in our family is complete without a little bit of Disney magic.  We have a saying that "it's not your birthday until Winnie sings."  A few years ago, Eliot and I bought my mother a Winnie the Pooh plush from the World of Disney store that used to be on 5th Avenue in New York City.  He plays the "Happy Birthday" song, although he's seen better days.  (I think it's time for Winnie to get a new battery!)  Every birthday since then, Winnie the Pooh has played us all the birthday song while we blow out our candles!


This year, my brother Jeremy also added a sprinkle of pixie dust.  He and I have a large plush collection.  It's basically an unspoken tradition that we get each other some kind of plush toy for every birthday and Christmas.  We used to play with our plush toys for hours together when we were younger.  They were always some of our most favorite toys growing up.

This year he surprised me with two plush for my birthday!  First, I got a small Bumble bean bag plush.  (From the claymation Ruldolph movie which is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies.  I'm somewhat obsessed with Bumble... but that's another story.)


Then, he gave me a Tigger plush to go with my Tigger collection.  The Tigger is holding a small plush Eeyore!  It was absolutely perfect and I love it!  I don't think that I've ever shared the Tigger and Eeyore story with you, so now is probably a good time.


When Eliot and I started dating, he was a closet Eeyore collector.  He didn't want anyone to know that he had a collection of Eeyore plush.  When he and I started hanging out, I told him about my Tigger plush collection that I've had since middle school.  He confessed that he had an Eeyore collection, and I was somewhat skeptical.  (Ok, I admit it.  We had just started dating and it seemed like way too much of a coincidence.  Right?)  

The first time I went over to Eliot's dorm room, a few days after he had told me about the Eeyores, there they were!  He had about 5 Eeyores on his dorm room bed, and the rest were still at home in California.  So, ever since then, Tigger and Eeyore have kind of been our special connection.  I guess it was love at first plush collection?

Anyways... all of our friends and family go out of their way to find us Tigger and Eeyore stuff, and we love it.  (We have Pez dispensers, tons of coffee mugs, Vinylmations... etc.) So my brother's gift was really special.  It's not everyday you see something with both Tigger and Eeyore together!



Eeyore even seemed pretty excited to have some new friends!

I also got a few other surprises that are not Disney related, but are still part of my birthday fun so I'll share them anyways!



Our waitress at Longhorn Steakhouse gave me this awesome ice cream, complete with candles.  (I couldn't get my usual watermelon margarita due to my dentist visit, but I was pretty excited that the ice cream came in a martini glass!)


I also got this beautiful flower arrangement from Eliot's family.  The chick on the side of the vase is really cute.  I'm thinking that I'll use him for an Easter floral display this spring.


Overall, 29 has been great so far!  And the celebration isn't close to over yet!  This weekend we're having our friends come over for a Fab Five reunion, Catching Fire, and more cake.  And I'll have a few more birthday surprised next week at Thanksgiving with with the other two November ladies in the family!  Yay!


Next year, I'll have to try and plan something BIG for my 30th!  Perhaps a trip to Walt Disney World might be in order?  I still haven't been to Disney on my birthday... and it's on my Disney Bucket list!  I guess we'll see if next year is the year!  °o°

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Craft Fair Recap

Hey Everyone!

As you can see, I'm back (finally!) from a crazy week and weekend!  After working hard all last week on craft fair items and then going home to my parents' house for the fair, we're back home!  I really missed writing for my blog over the last week, so be prepared for a bunch of posts this week to make up for it!


I'm happy to announce that the craft fair was a big success!  We sold a lot of items, made over $130, and people generally seemed to like all of our products even if they didn't buy anything!  It was our first time attending a craft fair ourselves, so I'm really glad that it went well.  (My Mom and Nana did one for us 2 years ago since we couldn't attend.)  In fact, we also have another one coming up in our town on December 7th.

I thought that I'd do a recap for the craft fair.  You know that we had to include a few items that were Disney inspired!

Eliot made Mickey soaps for his business Snowblade Creations.  (Become a fan here.)


This is the first time that we've put fragrances in them and they went over really well. (The peppermint smells just like a candy cane!)  Kids loved being able to pick the samples up to smell them.  And they were so excited when they recognized Mickey!


Eliot's planning on making more for our next craft fair.  His mother will also be selling them at a few craft fairs in California between now and Christmas.  If you see something that you're interested in, visit his Etsy shop and send him a message.  We'd be happy to spread some Mickey Mouse soap holiday cheer!  (If you tell him that I sent you from my blog, I'll use my wife powers to see if he can send you a private discount code too!)

I also painted a few of my Mickey and Minnie flower pots!  They're kind of out of season for Mainers right now, but my Mom insisted I make some for the craft fair since she loved the ones I made myself so much.  


My Mom also insisted that I let her display some in my Dad's office so his clients can see them when they come to get their taxes done.  I'm hoping to make a lot more of the characters for next spring!

I made a ton of t-shirt scarves.  They're a lot of fun to make and probably a new obsession of mine.  I wasn't planning to make these Disney inspired, but this scarf really reminds me of Ursula and her tentacles.  


And this one reminds me of Rapunzel... if only it were a lighter purple and pink color.


I'm planning to actually make some that are Disney inspired soon!  I'm dying to make myself a Mickey Mouse colored scarf to wear!

Finally, I made Frozen inspired snowflake hair clips!  I had been planning on making snowflake hair clips since last year and I stocked up on a ton of snowflakes.  I'd also gotten a bunch of blue Mickey rhinestones to put on them.  I thought that they would be cute accessories to wear at Disney in the winter.  


A few months ago, I realized that they would be perfect to wear for the release of Frozen! (Talk about good timing!)  I sold a bunch of them this weekend and I can't wait to wear a few of them myself when I go to see the movie.  


A lot of people at the craft fair didn't know what Frozen was, so I can only imagine how many I'll sell on December 7th after people have seen the movie and they find out that Elsa actually has snowflakes on her braid.  I better get working on some more hair clips...


These snowflake hair clips will also be for sale soon in my soon-to-open Etsy store Happily Ever Hatter!  If you're interested in getting a few for yourself, stay tuned on my Facebook page for more information on Happily Ever Hatter's grand opening!

I'll keep you all informed for our next craft fair.  We're planning on making more items, so who knows what we'll think up over the next 3 weeks!  °o°

Monday, November 18, 2013

Happy Birthday Mickey and Minnie!!!

Happy 85th Birthday to Mickey and Minnie Mouse!!!


Mickey and Minnie made their film debut in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928. That makes them 85 years old today!  Every year, I get excited for their birthday since I share a birthday week with them!  (My birthday is this Wednesday.)

I thought that I would celebrate by posting some of my favorite pictures of me with Mickey and Minnie through the years.

It all started with a mouse... so what better place to start than the beginning?  

This is the first time my brother, Jeremy, and I met Mickey Mouse.  I still have my first Minnie Mouse ear hat!  I also included this photo of Eliot meeting Mickey for the first time!


Unfortunately, after these adorable photos, I have to jump ahead to photos of Eliot and I with Mickey and Minnie closer to present day.  I've mentioned before that project "raid my mother's family photos" will be in effect this Thanksgiving and Christmas... then I'll have a lot more of our family photos through the years!  (For those of you who have followed my blog, there are a few familiar photos from other posts.)

Here we are with Mickey Mouse in January of 2009.


And with Minnie Mouse in January of 2009.


In June of 2009, we visited Mickey and Minnie during my first ever trip to Disneyland.


We also saw Mickey in California Adventure.


We visited with Mickey and Minnie again during October of 2010 for our first ever Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.


Of course, we couldn't have a Disney Wedding without inviting our favorite mice!  In September of 2012, they joined us at our Walt Disney World Wedding Reception. 


 Dancing with Mickey, Minnie and our guests at our reception was a dream come true.


They also helped us cut our wedding cake.


And we posed for a few pictures before they had to leave.


Scuba Mickey arrived later on in the reception with a special message for us.


A few days later, we visited them again at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.


Finally, we visited Mickey and Minnie at Chef Mickey's for the first time during our Disneymoon to Walt Disney World in March of 2013.


Hopefully, the next time I see Mickey and Minnie, it will be when I'm crossing the finish line at the Walt Disney World Half Marathon in January!!!  °o°

Monday, November 11, 2013

Happy Veteran's Day

Hey Everyone!

I'm sorry that I've been slacking on the blog posts lately!  I've been really busy gearing up for a craft fair next weekend!  Eliot and I are doing two events this year, so we've been busy making soaps, jewelry and other items.  I've also decided to make some scarves so I spent all afternoon cutting yarn and starting to make scarves.  Five down... many more to go!  (If only I could find yellow yarn, I'd already have a brand new Mickey scarf...)

I really wanted to stop by to wish everyone a Happy Veteran's Day.  Thank you to everyone who has served our country, protected our freedoms and sacrificed so much for the rest of us.  I truly appreciate all that you (and your families!) do!  Thank you!!! 

Photo credit: http://disneyparksmerchandise.com

I will try to be back with more posts soon!  I have a few more fun Thanksgiving projects that I'm going to try to fit in between craft fair projects!  It's going to be a crafty week!   °o°

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Mickey and Minnie Pilgrim Decorations

Well, I was planning to spend this evening cleaning our house.  But here I am, typing away!  (I guess it's a good thing that I was really productive earlier today!)

I was playing around on my computer trying to plan more Thanksgiving decoration ideas, when I stumbled across an idea that was too good to pass up.  And then I actually sat right down and made it.  Because I'm apparently very compulsive.  Anyways... 

I found these cute DIY Mickey and Minnie Pilgrim Candy Boxes on Spoonful.  They have the cutest Disney crafts, coloring pages and printable projects.  So obviously, my crazy Disney holiday obsession often leads to me browsing their site.


I was originally looking online for inspiration to draw some more pictures to put on my cupboards.  I have a few Thanksgiving designs that I'd made a few years ago, but now that our kitchen is WAY larger than my first apartment, I'll need a lot more to fill the cupboards.  I had originally planned to draw a pilgrim hat and to add Mickey Mouse ears, but when I saw these I had another thought.

Why not make the printable candy boxes into cupboard decorations?

Next thing I know,  I'm downloading both of the files.  Of course, they're way to small to print out as is.  They'll be the candy box size.  So I zoomed in on their heads (each individually) and took a screen shot of the enlarged head.  I cropped them down to size and decided to try printing them.  Perfect!


I cut them both out, being careful to just get their faces.  Then, I added some Scotch tape to the back and viola!  I have created simple Mickey and Minnie Pilgrim cupboard decorations!  Don't they look cute?


If you'd like to make some of your own, but don't feel like going through all of the steps I did, I've posted my modified files below.  I do not take any credit for creating these! They are property of Disney and Spoonful.  I just modified them to fit my needs! Ok? Got it? Good.  :-) 



These would also make a fun project for kids to make their own masks!  Enjoy!!!  °o°

Monday, November 4, 2013

Halloween 2013 Recap

Hey Everyone!

I'm sorry that I never got back to do my Halloween post over the weekend!  Saturday Eliot and I were really busy with taking all of the decorations down and packing them all away.  Then Sunday threw me completely for a loop with the time change.  I keep thinking that it's 4 or 5 in the afternoon and then I look at the clock and it's only 1:30 or 2. (That happened to me at least 2 times today.)  I keep feeling like I am getting extra hours all over the place, but I'm completely exhausted too.  I went to bed "early" last night and my bed is already calling me now... anyways!

Here is the Halloween Decoration post that I promised!  We went a little crazy with the outside decorations.  As I've mentioned before, this is the first time that we've had a house and a yard to decorate!  I've become used to decorating a small apartment porch with a few light strands so we had fun this time around.  Here are our outdoor decorations at dusk.  (I wanted to take a few pictures before it got really dark.)


We brought our Kermit and Captain Jack Sparrow jack o'lanterns out on our porch for the night.  We also have our Mike and Sulley door greeters and my inflatable Vampire Tigger!


Here is what our house looked like when it was dark.  We never ended up having any trick or treaters, probably because it was pouring out.  But we ventured out to take a few photos!  (We really need one more orange rope light to complete the garage side...)  We also got cool pathway lights.  Eliot went light crazy and added a few of our Christmas netting lights to some of our bushes.  But it did help light up the path.


Our window display was my big project this year.  We used my Mickey Candy Corn garland for the top of the display as well as some Halloween garland.  We also added Captain Hook Mickey and Tinkerbell Minnie door greeters.


Halloween Duffy, Mickey, Minnie, Red Sox Tigger and Sailor Duffy made appearances facing towards the outdoors.



This is the display at night with the outside lights from our porch.


The lights outside made our window clings glow and it looked pretty cool.


And this is the window view from the outside.  Our porch looked all orange from the lights!


Since it was raining, I brought Mike and Sulley inside and put them on the bookshelf in our entryway.  We also had a few welcome signs and my large Tinkerbell sign that I got from the DisneyStore online a few years ago.


Our Mickey and Minnie figures and snow globes from Wal-Mart were tucked into our wine shelves in the dining room.


And as you've seen before, here are my Halloween kitchen cupboard decorations.


Halloween isn't complete without the candy!  I couldn't find my large candy bowl, so I improvised with a Halloween bag that my Nana made me when I was little.  I did a quality assurance test  on the candy mid-day to make sure that it was ok.  (he he...)


Finally, the Many Adventures of Eeyore continue.  Since Eliot and I have no kids, or pets, and had no trick or treaters Halloween night, and I couldn't even find Nightmare Before Christmas OR Hocus Pocus on tv, we had to have some Halloween fun somehow.  I surprised Eliot earlier in the day by making Eeyore a costume.  Eliot loves the San Jose Sharks hockey team, so I decided to modify Eeyore's usual jersey that he wears for games.  His Build-A-Bear jersey usually is number 00, so the only possible way to make him a "Shark" for the day was to make him #88, Brent Burns.


Brent Burns had been growing out a beard so he could raise money and then shave it for charity.  (Which he did the other day.)  But I knew that this was the perfect costume for Eeyore and that Eliot would get a kick out of it.  So, Eeyore "grew" a felt beard, I changed his jersey numbers with stickers and he was Brent Burns for Halloween.  He even got a trick or treat bag to complete the look.


I did mention that we were a little bored, right?  Anyways, I took photos of Eeyore with a few of his "friends" around the house.  And I thought it would be funny to stuff some candy in his treat bag.  I was actually really, really disappointed that we didn't get any trick or treaters, so Eeyore was forced to make up for it.  (Apparently, he really likes Kit Kat bars and M&Ms.)

Finally, we "gave" Eeyore a small Duffy bear that was his size.  I used a Duffy keychain that Eliot had his Mom grab at Disneyland and took the keychain part off of it.  Ta-da! Instant small teddy bear.  I personally think that it's adorable.  I know that we're nuts... but you have to admit that he looks cute in his costume sitting next to Duffy.


So, that was our Halloween 2013!

We're already coming up with ideas for next year.  We bought some Disney window clings that were on sale after Halloween at Walgreen's.  As I mentioned in my Jack O'Lantern post, I'd like to add some Haunted Mansion Hitchiking Ghosts to our collection. I had a million projects that I wanted to do this year but I just didn't make the time to do them!  Next year, I'm hoping to add some Haunted Mansion inspired quotes to my word printables.  We've got a lot of wall space.

I have some wreaths that I need to make.  I bought some supplies with they first went on sale at ACMoore but I didn't actually make a wreath with them!  I also had some ideas for some throw pillows and some outdoor decorations.  I guess between now and next Halloween I'll be really busy making Halloween 2014 awesome!  °o°