Homemade Disney Subway Sign

August 21, 2015August 20, 201518 Comments

Sorry for the delay in this blog post. This project took just a tiny bit longer than I had intended. But, without further ado, here is the project.

I wanted to make something for my coworker Kelli, who is a major Disney fanatic. Without her, I wouldn’t be in the position that I am in and I wouldn’t enjoy going to work as much as I do. So because of this, I wanted to make something for her as a thank you.

Do you remember the pillow that mom bought from Disneyland? If you don’t, you can click here to see the post. Well, I like the design of it, so I decided to put it on a sign for Kelli.

The first thing that I did was I found some scrap wood that dad had left over from building some cat huts for our friends shelter. They were all about the same length, so I placed 8 pieces next to each other for the width of the sign. I then took a 9th piece and cut it to fit on the back of the sign. I then took the two pieces for the back and nailed all the pieces together.

Next came the fun part, painting! Yeah!

I knew that I wanted the sign to be white and have black writing on it. So, I painted the wood white…and of course the spray paint just soaked in. Urgh! So, I had to spray a few coats on the sign and then it was ready to be drawn on.

Once the paint had dried, I brought the sign inside and was ready to start the fun part. I found a picture of the pillow online and with some maneuvering in Microsoft word, I was able to take the picture and make it fit on my sign. I covered the back of the paper with pencil so that I could draw on the front to have my design come out on the wood.

This was harder than I thought it would be for a few reasons. 1: I had to put the pencil on really thick so that I could see it on the wood. 2: some pieces of the wood was rough and I could hardly see the pencil marks. 3: some of the pieces of wood were so rough that I had to free hand that part.

But with all of this bad, I was able to get a design that I absolutely fell in love with on the sign. I used a sharpie to draw on the sign and used a fine point sharpie to add detail. The final things to add were varnish and picture hangers. I added two on the back because I wasn’t sure how heavy it would be.

And here it is! The finished product is beautiful!

I love how it turned out and it didn’t take that long to make. I hope that Kelli loves it as much as I do. And hopefully, I can make more because they turned out amazing!

Bound for Disney

August 13, 20154 Comments

Attention! What I am about to present to you may change the way that you visit Disneyland forever! Be prepared (yes, that is a Lion King reference).

Before my family took our trip to Disneyland, my mom introduced me to a concept called Disneybound. Trust me, if you look up Disneybound on Pinterest, you will find hundreds of ideas. But before you go and look at Pinterest, finish reading this blog post so you know what you are getting yourself into.

Disneybound is the basically where Disney and fashion collide. It is where you can dress in your own clothes to look like a Disney character. You can dress as whoever you would like and dress how you would like.

So…let me give you an idea of what we did on our trip to Disneyland!

So, this is what we wore when we went to California Adventures. Haley was Hades from Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mom and Dad were Sally and Lightning McQueen from Cars, and I was Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove. So I will use my outfit as an example and show you what Disneybound is about.

Here is Emperor Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove. Notice that he is wearing a red “dress”, black sandals, blue earrings, and a gold crown. Now go back to my picture and look at what I am wearing. A red jacket, black sandals, blue earrings, and a gold headband. I also threw in a gold llama necklace since Kuzco turns into a llama in the movie. I also put my hair in a fan bun so that it looked more like his crown in the movie.

See? Simple as that!

Now here are our Disneyland pictures.

So in Disneyland, mom was Lady from Lady and the Tramp, dad was Chewbacca from Star Wars, Haley was Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, and I was Snow White. So, we still had a lot of fun when we were dressed up! A cast member even “recognized” me as Snow White.

So how easy it is to Disneybound? Anyone can do it! All you need is a character who you like and you think would be fun to be. We picked characters who we like from the movies and who we thought would be easy.

Here are some other characters that I dressed up as for the sake of the blog.

Jessie from Toy Story 2

And Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. PS, I wore heels just for the picture. I don’t recommend going to Disneyland in heels.

This is my take on Ursula, from Little Mermaid.

We had a lot of fun trying out different outfits. If we had pieces we needed, we went shopping at thrift stores for them. Have you heard of Disneybound or have you tried it? I would love to hear about your experience!

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation-Part 2

August 3, 2015August 1, 201519 Comments

I’m back today with Part 2 of our summer vacation! If you want to read Part 1, click here. We spent our first day at California Adventure, so day 2 was all about Disneyland!

We arrived soon after the park opened. Our first stop was the Kennel. What!? Why? And Disneyland has a dog kennel? Yep! The only reason we made it our first stop, was for the mural painted on the wall of the play yard. On this trip, we decided to Disney Bound. Another new concept? It was for me too! You dress in Disney character inspired clothing, not costume, just same colors, styles or accessories that go with it. Lauren will be covering more about this next time. Anyways, Lady from Lady and the Tramp, is one of my favorites, so I wanted a picture with her and the kennel was the only place I knew of to get one. The castmembers were very nice (of course) and let me go in. By the way, it’s a great facility too, if you ever need to leave your pet there.

Now that I accomplished that, we could actually go in the park! Once again, we split up for a bit so my husband and I could get lockers and the girls could get Fastpasses for Space Mountain.

Then we met up at Star Tours. The line moved very quickly and this little guy kept us company while we waited.

After the ride we went on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, where I once again failed! Then it was time for our Fastpasses to Space Mountain. Love these rides!

We headed out of Tomorrowland and over to Frontierland/Adventureland/New Orleans Square. They all kind of merge together. We grabbed more Fastpasses to Indiana Jones Adventure and walked over to Splash Mountain. The line wasn’t too long, so we waited.

We met a few critters along the way…

and waited…

and finally the ride!!

What a riot! Haley knew exactly how she wanted each of us to be for the picture and it turned out great! The only problem? We got absolutely soaked! I have never gotten that wet on Splash Mountain before! After we came down the hill, the water completely flooded the inside of the log. Wow! We were dripping! Lauren wasn’t too happy about it either!

At least the weather was fairly warm, so we were able to dry out.

We rode Haunted Mansion (while wet) and got to see the new ghost-The Hatbox Ghost. The Hatbox Ghost was in the ride when Disneyland first opened in 1969. The idea behind The Hatbox Ghost was for his head to vanish from atop his shoulders and reappear alternately inside his hatbox, in time with an adjacent bride figure’s beating heart. Unfortunately, he never worked quite right and was removed. This year, he was revamped and placed back into the ride (sorry for the blur)!

We met some pirates

and then grabbed some lunch and then were able to meet up with my niece and her family. Her little girls are 2 1/2 and 7 months. So much fun! We went out to Pirates Island and the 2 1/2 year old had so much fun exploring all the caves. Haley enjoyed some Pirate Treasure!

Of course, The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is a must! Haley was Disney Bound as Jack Sparrow!

The little girls enjoyed the Tiki Room and we enjoyed watching them! So fun to see these things through little ones eyes!

We took a break from rides to go in search of Mickey and Minnie. The 2 1/2 year old is in love with Minnie Mouse! Thankfully they were meeting and greeting up on Main Street.

As the day was coming to a close, we enjoyed the water show Fantasmic…

and the fireworks…

Sleeping Beauty Castle at night…

and the 60th Anniversary Paint the Night Parade! This was such an amazing parade, I couldn’t decide which pictures to post. These are just a few!

We ended our night in Fantasyland hoping to ride Peter Pan, but the line was still long! So we took these crazy pictures (it was almost midnight) and called it a wonderful, memory filled vacation!

Thanks for following along on this v e r y long post! I would love to hear about your Disney memories too!

NOW ON FRIDAYS! CORNER NEWS!

July 30, 2015July 31, 201513 Comments

Hey everyone! I know we haven’t been here on Fridays in the past, but we have decided to add something new.

Corner News will be just a little about what has been going on with us during the week. Nothing fancy, no big posts, just a little about us. So enjoy!

I scored this awesome beverage cart at a yard sale this last weekend! I can’t wait to fix her up and put her to good use again. Not sure what I will be doing yet…I am still looking for inspiration!

The shelves can be removed and become trays. So awesome!

I ~~took~~ was given this awesome aerial picture from my dad. This is the refinery where he worked for over 30 years. See the little building right in front of the trees at the front of the picture? That’s where we used to pick up my dad after he got off work! This picture was taken at the very beginning of its existense. The refinery became much larger in later years, but is now closed down. I just love the history of it!

This is what I have been busy with this week-more painting! This time in Haley’s room. She was very tired of turquoise with pink blobs on the wall! So it is a sophisticated grey with turquoise and white accents. More coming soon!

One more thing-just remembering what a great time we had at Disneyland and can’t wait to go again!

Have a great weekend!

What We Did On Summer Vacation!

July 30, 2015July 29, 20159 Comments

Hint: It’s the happiest place on earth!! Did you figure it out? Disneyland! We love Disneyland! We made a very short, whirlwind trip for our vacation. My girls are older, so we don’t have to worry about going on every ride, or taking naps (although I could have used one!), or how long the lines are. Each daughter took a friend, but we all hung out together. We had great weather and a great time! I have a few websites that are my go-to place to get good tips. LIke I said, my kids are older, so some of it doesn’t apply. But since we have gone so often during the years, we are always looking for new and different things to do while we are there.

These websites are wonderful!

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disneyland-60th-anniversary-diamond-celebration-guide-tips/-tons of information on all the Disney parks and the pictures are incredible!

http://www.mousesavers.com/-Great practical tips and money saving ideas

http://www.yourmodernfamily.com/never-seen-tips-disney-kids/-Just found this one, but she has some good tips too, especially what to do when the park get busy!

http://funcheaporfree.com/2015/03/disneyland-on-the-cheap-part-1/ So. Much. Information! She covers everything!!! It’s pretty awesome. This is one to definitely check out, especially if you are going with small children. Did you know there is a Disney Nanny?!

We left very, very early (like 3:30 am!) in the morning in order to get to Ca. Adventure right around opening time. We were determined to get on the Radiator Springs Racers without having to wait too long. While my husband and I rented a locker, the girls ran to the Fastpass line and then we all met at the ride. We still had a bit of a wait, but 45 min. is nothing compared to the line later in the day. We also scored Fastpasses so we could ride a second time! There are lots of fun and interesting things to see while waiting in line too (besides people watching!). There are also Hidden Mickeys around. Look for one in the plants in the que line.

I wish changing the oil would only cost $.20! Did you know that Route 66 runs through these states and in this order? We did have some issues with rides breaking down during the day, but they did all eventually start running again. Disney will accept Fastpasses anytime during the day if the ride has broken down. After Radiator Springs Racers we went to Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. Even though the girls and I had seen it before, my husband and the other girls had not. I did take a few pictures, but most were blurry. I was trying to figure out the best settings to take pictures in the dark rides. TheTouristDisneyBlog has lots of great tips for photography. We ended up riding R.S. Racers again with our Fastpass before we even could get on another ride. We spent some time on Hollywood Lane, while waiting to see if Tower of Terror would reopen. We love going into Off the Page and playing around with the different stations. I liked the look of the lamps in the reflection of the Magic Mirror. There is also the Beast’s Library where you have your picture taken, answer specific questions and the book will tell you which character you are most like. Haley’s friend got Belle. After having some lunch, we headed back to Tower of Terror and waited in line. It went pretty quickly and the ride is definitely worth the wait! Right next to Tower of Terror is the Hyperion Theater which has the most amazing Aladdin Show. We have seen it many times, but it never ceases to amaze. The Genie is absolutely hilarious!! He is the reason we keep coming back! Look for the Hidden Mickeys here too! If you haven’t seen it before, make sure it is one of your stops next time! We also rode on Soarin’ Over California, which, in my opinion, is the best ride ever! I love it! We even got Fastpasses so we could ride again at the end of the night. We rode Toy Story Mania which is like a shooting gallery. None of us had been on this one, so it was a lot of fun. I actually did pretty good, compared to the laser kind, like Buzz Lightyear. I’m awful at that one!! After dinner at the Wharf, we headed back to Radiator Springs to watch the Sh’Boom. Don’t know what that is? Neither did I, until I read these great blogs above! You know how in the movie, the lights slowly go on, at each store, all the way up the street? Well, that’s what they do here too! It was very cool! When the lights come on, you really feel like you are in the movie set! Another thing to look for-go to the Cozy Cone Office. Look through the back window and find Buzz Lightyear! We headed back to the center area of Ca. Adventure to watch World of Color. The show is a water show where different scenes from movies are projected onto the water. It’s pretty hard to get pictures, plus we were kind of close, and the camara kept getting wet. I like the show, but I don’t like the standing. After being on your feet all day, it is really hard to stand. The show was good though. It honored Walt Disney and everything he accomplished. It showed a lot of the history and quite a few of the old movies. After riding Soarin’ Over California one more time, we finished off our first day. We were pretty exhausted since we had been up so early. We were ready for some sleep before tackling Disneyland the next day!