Anybody out there looking for some awesome party favors, stocking stuffers or just neat stuff?

 

I have made some one of a kind Vanellope Von Schweetz candy hair clips that I am selling on eBay and soon my etsy shop.

 

I am using the funds for a super-secret 30^th birthday trip for hubby next year!

 

If anyone is interested in purchasing these cuties, you can buy them here for $6 (plus shipping). You get 3 clips per order and they vary.

Each set has three alligator clips:

 

One random gummy bear

One sparkly peppermint

One marshmallow shape

 

These are all handmade and one of a kind. If you have any questions, comments or requests please comment and I will get back to you 🙂

Dressing for Disneyland Paris

Ok, I lied. Sorry but I thought I would be able to go from that last post to Paris and be fine but I have been driving everyone I know crazy bouncing off the walls on a excitement filled, pumpkin spice latte fueled Paris frenzy and now… it is your turned to be driven insane  

See, it isn’t a bad thing, now is it?!

I can’t help it, really the unknown of this Disney trip is really a new thing for me, being a seasoned Disney pro, so this excitement is brand new type.

I was packing and planning my wardrobe and hubby brought up something I would never worry about at Disneyworld or Disneyland California, clothes for photos.
I mean it is Disney right? Why does wardrobe matter other than the prerequisite that it should have some touch of Disney in it.

But he was right. This is Paris, a place of fashion, style and chic people. So I had to rethink living in my new Disney World 1971 hoodie the whole week (I am intending on wearing it but more on the plane and at night.)

I mean it is an awesome new piece of my Disney closet and I love it. However, here is my chic and functional welcome to Paris Disneyland look.

I LOVE color, I know not the best for Paris, I have heard over and over again, “wear black,” so I will. However, I will also have my color in my accessories.

So first we start with my awesome clip on Minnie ears, I can’t go to the park without them but they are small so I can stash them in my purse for the flight and the train ride there.

Next, remember the black bleach Mickey head shirts we made for WDW? Well I figured it is a chic version of my Mickey shirts and it is mostly black, so that is my top.

I added a coral cardigan since we are going from 90s here in Texas to low 60s in Paris.

Also, I am a scarf fanatic, so I am using the fact that the Parisians love scarves as a chance to don all my Disney scarves. Multi colored Mickey scarf today!

For the bottom half a pair of black skinny jeans and my new black Delaney boots and viola!

We are ready for Paris. I also added my Peridot version of this ring because I love it and it is Disney.

So in less than 24 hours, we will be boarding our plane for Paris and I hope I am chic enough for the adventure. I will let you know when we return!

Disney Anniversary Trip Report- Day 6- Downtown Disney, Characters in Flight, 1900 Park Fare & Grand Floridian Easter Egg Display

Good morning everyone, today we will finish up day 6. From the Animal Kingdom we hopped on the bus to our hotel then got on one there to go to Downtown Disney. We got off at the Marketplace and went to visit Kristy at the DVC beside customer service in the Marketplace. We also did some pins trading and checked out a few stores while waiting to talk with Kristy.

We found this fascinator, thought it was so cute.

Before we left for the trip, I had written about buying tickets on Groupon for the Characters in Flight (for more info about Characters in flight, read my first post  here) and we wanted to get to ride it but at that moment it was docked. However after chatting with Kristy we noticed that they put the balloon back in the air, so we hurried over to ride it before our 7:30 reservation at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian.

On the way there, we saw this neat street performer

Characters in Flight

At the booth you can also get these posters and a certificate of flight (for an additional price.)

Regular prices, adult $18 each, child $12, so with out group on we saved $16, nice!

Wow, we are going up there?! 🙂

Up there!

Here is Buzz on the hand painted balloon

Under side of balloon

Going up!

View of Cirque de Soleil

Pleasure Island

We can see all the way to Epcot

Us at 300 ft up

Saratoga Springs and some other resorts

Downtown Disney and Beyond

View of Florida

Our Shadow looming over Disney

View directly underneath us

Epcot ball

Dolphin Hotel More Hotels

Balloon

Hubby in the air

Candy Cauldron

We were up about 300 ft (instead of the full 400) and there were only 9 of us on board (which is a 1/3 of the balloons capacity) due to the winds, but it was a really cool view and something neat to share with the whole family, I recommend checking it out when you have some free time downtown.

When we were down we realized we were closer to the Westside bus stop than the Market place so we got to the bus stop and picked the first bus heading towards the Grand Floridian, it was the Contemporary bus, so we took it, then got the monorail at the Contemporary to the Grand Floridian.

View from Monorail at Contemporary

1900 Park Fare

1900 Park Fare is a character dining experience, this one includes Cinderella, Prince Charming, Anastasia, Drizela and Lady Tremaine. You go check in and like Ohana (as well as the other character dining experiences) they take your picture and you can purchase them if you don’t have the photopass + after dinner.

Here are our shots

After our photo session we were sat and congratulated on our anniversary and told we had about 20 minutes before the characters came out, so we went to scope out the buffet

We were also given these lovely place mats to keep for our anniversary, I thought they were super cute!

This buffet had everything from sushi to paella to strawberry soup and gummy bears (yes, we got some with dessert!)

I tried the sushi, the chicken marsala, the paella and some pasta salad

Kris got some of the roast, mashed potatoes and some stewed chicken

Hidden Mickey?

Then Cinderella and Prince Charming came out and had their first dance

Drizella

For our anniversary they also brought us the Mickey celebration cupcakes

How cute is this chocolate Mickey?

First came Prince Charming and Kris asked him for tips on how to keep his princess (me) happy for ever. The Prince told him to always smile and that will help with our happily ever after 🙂

Kris and Prince Charming

Me and Charming

Lady Tremaine

Kris and Lady Tremaine

Me and Lady Tremaine, I was trying to look snarky too but I think I just look scared, lol!

Dessert complete with Strawberry soup and yes, gummy bears 🙂

There is cheesecake, carrot cake, chocolate mousse and a lemon custard here

Anastasia and I

Kris and Anastasia

Anastasia was trip, Kris was telling her about our anniversary and she told us to show Drizella my engagement ring, because she would be so jealous (since it is green, which is her favorite.)

My rings (gratuitous wedding picture)

After that Cinderella came by and she was really full on Cinderella, she was very sweet and was so happy that I had found my prince like she had (reminded me of Giselle  in Enchanted.)

Me and Cinderella

My handsome prince with Cinderella

Cinderella’s autograph

Then Drizella came over, she was our favorite, she asked if we had had Cinderella clean for us. Kris told her no, that we were taking it easy on her. She responded, “Why, that is why we invited her, to clean. That is why she is wearing gloves!” Lol

After that we showed her my rings and she was just overwhelmed with them and very jealous, she was too fun.

Us with Drizela

The step families’ autograph page

We had alot of fun and after we ate and met with all the characters, we decided to head out and hit the Magic Kingdom for some shopping and our Sorcerer’s of the Magic Kingdom cards, but as we were leaving we found this

The Grand Floridian’s second annual Easter Egg Display

Huge Hand painted Chocolate Easter Bunny

Pink egg with filigree and flowers

There was a beautiful Tangled egg, it was our favorite

Maximus and Rapunzel

The Magic flower topped the egg

Rapunzel and Flynn

A lion King egg, Hakuna Matata theme with Zazu perched on top

Wall-e egg with little bug on top

Wall-e and Eve inside

Aladdin egg

Robin egg, Lion King and Fairy tree

Dumbo’s Circus

Gold leaf egg & flower egg

Flower egg with Dragon Fly

Gold leaf egg

Tea Party egg

Queen of hearts egg
Alice tea pot egg with Dormouse

Filmstrip egg

Snow White Egg

Seven Dwarves

Sleeping Beauty egg- Aurora

Prince Phillip and Fairies

Brave Egg- Merida

Her brothers as bears

Mickey egg

Happy Easter

Cinderella’s mouse made dress egg

I was blown away by the artistry of these eggs and the entire area smelled of chocolate, was a really exciting holiday themed display. If you go to Disney during a holiday be sure to check the Grand Floridian, they always seem to do something Disney special (like the huge gingerbread house during Christmas.)

We did our pin trading and some shopping at the Grand Floridian before we left (I bought a present for someone special, a Trixie pin for hubby, and a figment pin for me.)

Surprise- still has not been given to recipient

It’s just a dinosaur! 

Figment 30th anniversary pin buttonWe got back on the monorail and went to the Magic Kingdom.  We got in during the parade and ran to the firehouse, got our cards, then to customer relations for pin trading, and off to the Emporium to get some souvenirs for our friends.

This precious Mickey even has a rattle inside, for our friends new little one

And this awesome tank which says, “one shoe can change your life” and has a shoe for each princess, for Steph 🙂

Did I mention I love the emporium, has something for everyone.

It was getting cold and late and the water pageant didn’t seem like it would be around our side anytime soon, so we got on the bus and watched the fireworks as we headed back to our hotel. Was a perfect ending to our night.

Day 7 will be a full day of Epcot starting with a character breakfast at Akerhus.

Disney Anniversary Trip- Day 3- Hollywood Studios- Meet n Greets, Tower of Terror, and Hollywood and Vine and a special annoucement!!!

Hi guys, so yesterday was the last post for day 2 of our trip, however I just wanted to add one more sweet thing for our anniversary, when we got back to our room that night, we found this 🙂

A congratulations picture from Mickey and Minnie, too cute! This is why I love Disney.

Ok now onto day 3, Hollywood Studios! So as many of you know I have been anxiously awaiting the meet n greet with Ralph and Vanellope from Wreck it Ralph, especially meeting Vanellope cause she’s adorable!! So I made a hoodie and some hair clips inspired by her, to show her when we met her today 🙂

My hoodie

“Candy” hair clips and “red vine” hair tie

We hopped on the bus and we were there in no time, trip is pretty short from Art of Animation.

Awesome Sorcerer Mickey topiary outside the park

Us in front on the studio utilizing our photopass for sure today

Hey, where was this hat when I was fighting Cruella?!

So we were running over to grab our fast passes for Toy Story Mania when we stumbled upon the Wreck it Ralph meet n greet, so we  went there instead.

Fix it Felix Jr

Look there they are, lucky kids!

Love the back drop, even has Vanellope’s car 🙂

So we got in line at Game Central station and I loved the signs, Super Mario Bros. Tunnel clogged! Lol!

Zelda closed : missing a Link 🙂 Watch out there are cybugs in the tunnel

Happy Anniversary Fix it Felix Jr

Bad ANON meeting at Pac man and a Star Wars reference as well

Contra code

Hubby being attached by cybug

I will save you!!

Uncharted 2- Train Derailed

Uh oh, a game out of orderFinally to Sugar Rush

Now about Ralph and Vanellope, they too have big hands and do not sign autographs, but they give you this awesome card with them and their autographs on it and it also functions as a photopass in case you don’t have one, another free souvenir!

Finally getting to meet Ralph and Vanellope

The photographer and Kris showed Vanellope my hair clips and outfit and she LOVED them, she hugged me and we bounced around in circles, was so much fun. I would say this is one of my favorite character interactions this time.

Really made my day to see how much she appreciated my work and I loved that they caught it on camera 🙂

My new friend Vanellope

Once we were done with the meet n greet we proceeded to get our Fast Passes to Toy Story Mania and then ride the Tower of Terror before we ate , so I wouldn’t get sick.

On our way to grab our fast passes we saw this

And a green army man, too cool 🙂 I am totally glad we got our fast passes so early in the day we were already at 7:40pm for our fast pass and it wasn’t even 11:30am and the park closed at 9, so we almost missed getting a fast pass and the line wait was at 90 minutes already, eek!

Now we are off to scare me to death,  I don’t really like up and down rides in fact they make me feel like I am going to be sick, so I did this for Kris and I trudged reluctantly up and rode the Tower of Terror, now I can at least say I have done both parks, but I can’t say it has got any easier, ugh!

Hollywood Tower of Terror

I was super nervous and wanted to distract myself so I focused on the beautiful theming and little touches that made this area look like Old Hollywood

The First thing I noticed was the Bougainvillea, it really reminded me of our trip to Disneyland in 2011 and driving through LA

The garden area was beautiful but I blinked and…She got closer! Ok, maybe not maybe I moved closer, but still, it is creepy 🙂

The aged patio area with its empty water fountains was a nice touch too

Plus the mix of real and fake vines was cool

Once inside the architecture is amazing, I have always wished Disney would make a hotel that looks like this but with the same aged touches and cobwebs 🙂

Tables still set up from the Hollywood era before whatever happened in this hotel happened

Food cart covered in dust

Dead roses still sitting on food cart

Dusty concierge desk

Hollywood Tower Hotel Tapestry

Awesome Owl display in lobby covered in cobwebs

Front Desk

Fireplace detail

Foreboding service elevator
Even more foreboding furnace
 

And the ride itself, I am sure you can see Kris looks fine, I on the other hand am totally screaming my head off, lol!

In case you couldn’t find me

Phew, ok we survived! I will say this though, the show is a billion times better in Hollywood Studios than at California Adventure, it is longer and the elevator actually moves on a track before the horrific event.

Now that I am successfully shaken up, lets go get some lunch.

Kris was looking for a buffet so we went to Hollywood & Vine, little did we know till we got there it was a Disney Jr character meal. Oh well, was fun to watch the kids since we had no idea who these characters were and the food was really good.

Mural at Hollywood and Vine

Great way to start a meal, Chocolate covered Marshmallows

Parmesan chicken, corn pudding, pasta, pork, mashed potatoes, chicken nuggets and lobster and crab mac and cheese

There is actually something green and leafy on hubby’s plate

I felt guilty and got my own leafy greens, beans and more lobster and crab mac and cheese

I am not sure who she is but she was cute

Dessert

Brownies, cheesecake, marshmallows, chocolate covered fruit, red velvet, carrot cake and coconut bars (we shared this plate)

The food was really good, my fave was you guessed it, the crab and lobster mac and cheese and the parmesan chicken was really yum too.

That is where we will stop the trip report today to give you some very awesome news!

 I got home last night and these beautiful balloons, mickey, flowers and a folder were waiting downstairs for me

Then I looked over on the wall and this was on the chalkboard!

Omg!! Hubby booked us a trip to Disney Paris for the 20th anniversary and hopefully the Halloween stuff will be going before we leave!! Yay!! I am so excited!

5 months, 2 weeks to Paris, it is my birthday present (does he know how to do birthdays or what?!) I can’t wait!

So that was the big news, it was really big news, huh?!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post, tomorrow we will see some stunt shows, ride some more rides and enjoy the Brown Derby for dinner, hope you visit tomorrow to end day 3 of the trip report.

Up “Balloon” earring Tutorial

Hi guys, Friday is here and with that comes the last of my Up projects for Valentine’s day. This project is actually a cluster style earring that I made to match the dress I bought for Valentine’s day and the Adventure is out there/grape soda badge necklace.

Since I already had the house and the balloons and my dress had multiple colors, I decided to make some colorful cluster earrings to simulate the look of a bunch of balloons.

Here is what you will need

Supplies

• Beads of your choice (I used 9 for each since these were large beads, but you can use as many as you chose depending on the length you want to achieve)
• eye pins (one for each bead)
• Jump rings (one for first bead and one for every two after)
• needle nose pliers
• earring posts

Step one

string eye pin through bead and create loop at top, secure and cut off excess.

Continue this until all beads have been done.

Step two

Add Jump ring to first bead (this will be the bead at the bottom of your earring)

Step three

Add two beads to another jump ring  and attach it to the  first jump ring.

Step Four

continue adding two beads to jump ring and attaching them to the jump ring before until you reach desired length. Then add to earring post.

Repeat steps 1-4 on other earring and that’s it!

Here are the finished product!

Super cute and my elephant mug seems to really like them!!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, now go out and get creative! Have a great weekend!

Up Themed Valentine’s day

Hi guys,  we are almost to the  final post of the Up themed Valentine’s day picnic.

I wanted to show you how the whole thing came together, I think it turned out super cute.

I got a paper mache mail box at hobby lobby for $4.99 (was going to buy the cartridge on cricut to make one for the same price, but I had less work with this one)

It was small so instead of doing the hand print, I painted them on and did our names as well.

Then I cut what seemed to be a million little hearts with my cricut and wrote various this I love about my hubby on them. And I hide the UP movie inside all the hearts.  Look at that stuffed mailbox!

Here is hubby opening the mailbox, apparently he got lots of mail 🙂

In my last post I showed you how to make the “Ellie Badge” and this is how I presented the one I made to my husband.

I made some little love badges on paint and colored them and added them to a strip of construction paper, to look like Russel’s sash.

Then I made a letter on Photoshop explaining the gift, turned out really pretty.

The Card: I made the envelope with card stock and littered it with my favorite foam adhesive hearts (probably used about 200 of them this Valentine’s day)

The card was all designed and cut on the cricut, I made the up house with various shaped and glued it all together. I used the same technique for these balloons as I did on the adventure book (glue the strings to each individual heart and then glue to card.) I drew the windows and door with black sharpie.

The inside was also made with the cricut, except the bow, I used a small hole punch and some scissors. Glued the string in spots to get the loops. I was really happy with it 🙂

I had to get grape soda for the picnic, so I got this NuGrape from World Market and created my own grape soda labels on Photoshop.

It was too cold for a picnic outdoors, so I turned the living room into our picnic local. Hung some lanterns from the ceiling fan to mimic balloons.

Sat out our new colorful Valentine’s plates from target in a picnic basket with a plaid napkin

Got a paper Mache house from hobby lobby for $6 and painted it to best look like the house, then I made fruit skewers to look like the balloons 🙂

To go with the picnic themed I made mini heart shape sandwiches, Ruben’s and Cuban’s with balloon and badge toothpicks, I made.

Here is one of the table top pics.For Dessert, I decided I would make Smore Cupcakes. They turned out beautiful and I finished them off with the remainder of the toothpicks

Pretty hefty cupcake, you can see the graham cracker crust in this pic.

And last but not least, my prince finally got his adventure book!

A very successful Valentine’s day picnic and mostly home-made. I hope you enjoyed this post, I was very happy to share it 🙂

Valentine’s Disney UP themed jewelry tutorial

Hello everyone, today I wanted to share with you my Up themed Ellie Badge for hubby and my Ellie/Adventure necklace for myself I made to go with our Valentine’s day UP theme that I created for my hubby.

As many of you know The Ellie Badge is the Badge that Ellie creates in UP when they are children, it is a grape soda bottle cap and a safety-pin. Carl wears it throughout the movie as a touching reminder of his wife.

I decided to go with an UP theme, because of how much romance there is in the growing old together and sharing the adventure of being together, and it seemed appropriate for our first Valentine’s day as a married couple.

So of course, I needed to make an Ellie Badge for Hubby. Then I thought, I want one too, lol! So I made a necklace with two sides for me 🙂

Here is what I used

Two metal bottle caps – I found two of my BIL’s and used them (the frugal way) or you can buy blank ones at the craft store for $3 for 6 caps

silver paint if using something other than blank bottle caps

Grape soda image (printed out at 1inch)

1 inch hole punch or scissors to cut out the grape soda logo (when I was at hobby lobby, I did notice they have grape soda bottle caps, but the image is not the one from up, but you could go that route if you didn’t mind the difference)

Modge Podge to adhere the grape soda (or adventure) image to bottle cap and seal it

paint brush

1inch clear circle acrylic stickers to cover the grape soda image and give it that raise finished look (got mine at Michael’s 24 in a pack for $2.99 plus 40% off)

a hammer and nail to punch holes

one large safety-pin or one eye pin if making charm

needle nose pliers

Step 1:

Paint the bottle caps silver (if you are starting with blanks go onto step two)

Step 2: Use hammer and nail to put holes in bottle caps (two across from each other for safety-pin or one on top for charm)

Step 3: Remove the safety part of safety-pin if making badge and string through back of bottle cap, secure safety back on and close.

if making charm string eye pin string through hole, twist around the back of eye pin to secure the top.

(pictures of steps 1-3 completed below on each project)

Step 4: Adhere your images to bottle cap with modge podge (necklace one in and one outside)

Step 5: Seal image on outside with modge podge as well

Step 6: Adhere your epoxy sticker on top of sealed image to give protection and 3d effect, you are done with grape soda pin, next step necklace only

Step 7:  add chain to necklace

Now wear your new treasures and enjoy!