Sunday, July 31, 2016

July 2016 Photo Challenge

Before July ends I wanted to share my photo challenge pictures from Instagram!  Each month, the Disney Colors Facebook group does a Disney photo challenge.  Here are the links for my posts from the May 2016 and June 2016 photo challenges.



I always have so much fun with these.  I love sharing my photos and seeing what everyone posts for each day's theme.  This month, I also went through a lot of my photos from past trips.  It's a great way to go through your older Disney trip photos!

Without further ado, here are my photos for the July challenge:

Day 1: Part of Your World- The Little Mermaid Ride at Magic Kingdom




Day 2: Black and White- Bridal Portraits at the Grand Floridian Resort



Day 3: Thank the Phoenicians- Spaceship Earth at Night



Day 4: A Salute to All Nations- The Main Street Electrical Parade at Magic Kingdom



Day 5: Faith, Frust and Pixie Dust- Meeting Tink at the Magic Kingdom



Day 6: Wishes- From the Top of the World Lounge



Day 7: Need For Speed- Flo's Cafe in Carsland



Day 8: Splash Mountain- From our Disneyland Trip in 2009



Day 9: Shining Magically- Bridal Portraits at the Magic Kingdom



Day 10: Purple- World of Color



Day 11: Life is the Bubbles- The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland



Day 12: Good Old Summertime- Blizzard Beach



Day 13: All the Colors- World of Color



Day 14: It's Good to be Bad- From Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party 2010



Day 15: Reflection- Bridal Portraits in Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom



Day 16: Firework- Our IllumiNations Dessert Party after our Disney Wedding



Day 17: Tale As Old As Time- France Pavilion at Epcot



Day 18: Castle Party- Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom



Day 19: Kingdom- A concept rendering of the new hub design of Magic Kingdom



Day 20: Green- Topiaries at the Disneyland Hotel



Day 21: Fab Five- Our version of the Fab Five at our wedding reception



Day 22: Galaxy Far Far Away- BB-8 at Star Wars Launch Bay in Disneyland



Day 23: Imagination- Mickey and the Magical Map at Disneyland



Day 24: Ice Cream- Mickey's Kitchen Sink Sundae



Day 25: Princess- Riding Disney princess style after our wedding



Day 26: Curiouser and Curiouser- Mad T Cups at Disneyland 



Day 27: Once Upon A Time- Every Once Upon A Time deserves a Happily Ever After



Day 28: Warm Hugs- Hugs with my favorite teddy bear!  I miss you Duffy!!!



Day 29: Ohana Means Family- Lilo and Stitch at Animal Kingdom in 2010



Day 30: Details- Dazzling Diamond Details at Disneyland for the 60th Anniversary



Day 31: Highway in the Sky- Please Stand Clear of the Doors



This was a ton of fun!  I'm looking forward to another month of challenges!!!  °o°
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Friday, July 29, 2016

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Hi friends!  It's been another crazy week in the Cady house.  I had planned to get back here sooner, but I've barely been at my computer since last Friday!  This is the first chance I've had to sit down and blog.  Here's a little bit of what we've been up to!


Mid-July, Disney released their new Emoji Blitz game.  I don't really get into online or phone games; however, on July 16th, I decided to give it a try.  I've been hooked ever since!  I've had way too much fun collecting emojis.  I've found that it's a great way to take a quick break throughout the day.  I'm definitely still learning, but I must not be that bad at the game because I'm currently on the top of the leaderboard!


We're still working hard on our house.  Recently, Eliot and I saw a bunch of Finding Dory themed bathroom accessories (at JCPenney and Kohls).  We had been planning to do our guest bathroom with an M&M theme since we already had a shower curtain and ideas for it.  But, Eliot fell in love with the Finding Dory stuff.  (It's cute, so I don't blame him.)  We've decided to go with a Nemo and Dory bathroom theme instead!

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Eliot and I have also been hard at work making new IllusionEar designs.  We haven't had much time to work on our collection since we launched it a year ago.  A lot of loose ends are getting tied at the moment and we're going to be releasing a lot of designs soon.  I'll be sure to post pictures when they're done!  I'm so excited about them!


Last weekend, we went up north to my parents' house.  We had plans to go Downeast to my Nana's camp to help her move stuff.  It was an emotional weekend since I have so many wonderful memories there.  While growing up, my family, aunts, uncles and cousins used to visit Nana and Papa there every summer.  I haven't been there for a few years and it was bittersweet to be back under the circumstances.  I really enjoyed sitting down by the water and soaking in the natural beauty and my view of the lake.


When we returned from our weekend away, Eliot and I got right back to work down here.  I spent most of last Monday putting things away in our master bedroom.  Our new mattress was delivered at the beginning of the month, we finally got the base in place and we were just waiting for the sheets to come in the mail.  They arrived this week and we've now officially spent three nights in our actual master bedroom!  Yay!!!


Both Eliot and I have been busy at work.  I've barely seen him this week.  Wednesday night, he met up with me at my office so we could go to dinner and run a few errands together.  We've been eating at Chipotle once a week.  (They're running a Chiptopia rewards program for a few months.)  We had our free meal this past Wednesday!


Finally, we're gearing up for another busy weekend around the house.  It's supposed to be a rainy weekend.  We didn't have any big plans so we've decided to hang out here and try to get some more stuff done.  Hopefully, we'll take a few fun breaks in between projects!  I still want to check out the ice cream place down the street...  °o°

Sunday, July 24, 2016

One Step Closer to D23 Expo 2017

Hi friends!  It's my 100th post of 2016 and I've saved it for some exciting news!!!


On July 14th, tickets went on sale for next summer's D23 Expo in Anaheim.  Eliot's Dad purchased tickets for the entire family the other day!  Which means, if all goes as planned, we're one step closer to going to the event next summer!!!

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As you may recall, Eliot attended D23 Expo 2015 last summer with his family.  He had a great time even though it was pretty chaotic and confusing.  He was able to get some pretty cool exclusive merchandise to bring home though!

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I've got to admit, I'm really excited.  I've always wanted to go to a D23 Expo.  There's so much to see and do... between the movie sneak peeks, theme park info, meet and greets, and exclusive merchandise, it's a Disney fan's dream!  Hopefully, it will be another Disney dream come true!  °o°

Friday, July 22, 2016

Fun Find: Elephant & Mouse

Hi friends!  I hope you enjoyed my Disneyland April trip recap from last week!  I really enjoyed reliving my memories through photos!  I've taken a blogging break the past few days to get caught up on a few other things.  But now, I'd like to return to our regularly scheduled programming and what better way to get back into the swing of things than by having a Fun Find Friday!  Today, I'm featuring Elephant and Mouse!


I first discovered Maggie's shop through Instagram.  I immediately fell in love with her ear designs and had to see more.  From her Instagram page, I hopped over to her online Etsy shop where I instantly favorited a ton of her designs.


When I discovered Elephant and Mouse, I was preparing for my trip to Disneyland, so I purchased a pair of Maggie's "Disney Park Doodles" ears with a fun hot pink bow.  A few weeks later, they arrived at our house!  Not only were they stunning, but they're sturdy and made exceptionally well.  And the pattern placement and scale was perfect.


Maggie was a pleasure to work with.  She messaged me as soon as I placed my ear order.  She was really easy to talk with and very nice.  I told her that I also run an Etsy shop and we bonded over the trials and tribulations of ear making and fabric ordering.


Over the past few months, I've watched her Instagram account closely, and when she listed her Epcot Flower and Garden Festival Spaceship Earth Ears, I knew I needed to get some.  Maggie created her own pattern of Spaceship Earth with a floral design.  I ordered some with a custom bow of hot pink and yellow.  I wanted something fun and bright to match the ears!  I absolutely love how they turned out.  They're beautiful!


During that transaction, I also ordered the People Mover Ears.  The People Mover at the Magic Kingdom is totally underrated.  It's a favorite of my family, and I have many fond memories of zipping around Tomorrowland.  (My personal favorite was when my Nana suddenly thought she was actually riding on Space Mountain... but that's another story!)  These ears are so cute.  I love the little People Mover cars.  And the shimmery silver bow is perfect for futuristic Tomorrowland!


Maggie has a ton of other original designs.  Some more of my personal favorites are her Mickey Waffle ears, Fastpass Ears, 50's Prime Time ears, MagicBand ears and her newest: the Spaceship Earth flower crown design.  I want them all!!!


In fact, I couldn't not get the Spaceship Earth flower crown with the beautiful jewel tone flowers.  I love how these turned out and I bought them as soon as Maggie opened her shop.  They'll be here in a few weeks so I can wear them at Walt Disney World this fall!


At the moment, Maggie's shop is closed so she can work on the orders she took last week.  Her shop opens up again on July 27th!  (Watch her Instagram account for more information!)  And if you want a pair, make sure you set an alarm like I did!  This past opening, the 15 slots sold out in about 2-3 minutes!  But Maggie's ears are totally worth it!  I make mouse ears myself, and I can tell you these are excellent quality!


I'm so glad I discovered Elephant and Mouse!  I'm sure that over time, I'm going to have quite the collection of ears from Maggie!  °o°

Note: All of these photos are from Elephant and Mouse's Etsy and Instagram pages. Maggie owns the copyright on them.  Please do not use them without her permission.