Color Runs

Yesterday, Eliot and I did our second Color Run.  You might recall us participating in our first Color Run last year.  We did it with a ton of our friends and had a blast.

We've been planning this year's event with our friends for months.  Last year, we wore Pocahontas themed shirts that I designed and we were Team Colors of the Wind.  This year's Color Run 2015 theme is "We Shine" and the race included a shiny glittery powder.  Of course, I automatically thought of pixie dust and Tinker Bell.  Thus, our theme this year was born.  We decided to wear t-shirts and lime sparkle skirts.  I came up with the slogan "faith, trust, sprinkle me with pixie dust" and made a design with Tinker Bell for our shirts.  (Even when I don't run at Disney, I still run Disney.)

We couldn't get the shirts screen printed in time for the race, so Eliot and I decided to try ourselves.  Eliot bought a screen printing kit, but it didn't go as planned.  We didn't want to be "prinkled with pixie" by a scary fairy version of Tink.

We were running out of time, so Eliot printed the design on iron-on paper I did them the night before.  Eliot's sister Elissa and I made the fabric strip skirts.  Those also didn't go as planned originally.  However, we modified the design and got them done in time.

I also made cute pom poms to surprise the girls with the day of the race!

We were ready to have a great time.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature wasn't on board with our race day plans.  It was pouring out.  I was drenched before we even got the start line.  My shoes were also soaked and I was terrified that I'd ruined my brand new custom orthotics.  It was raining hard, windy and cold out.  Not fun.

Eliot, Elissa, Katie and I met up with the rest of our team under a porch near the start line.  Thankfully, we got to dry out for a few minutes while we waited for my cousin Karen.  We changed into ponchos and took a few photos.  Sadly, we never took a team before photo.  But we did get a cute photo with all of our shoe pom poms!

The Color Run race itself wasn't completely awful.  They started people whenever they arrived.  We were some of the last group to start but there were still tons of people behind us.  I was miserable the first mile.  Once I took my glasses off, I could actually see so that helped.  My poncho kept me dry for the most part.  My shoes were so wet that puddles actually felt good after a while.  The colors on our shirts ran together so we were all the colors of the "rain"bow.

I have to admit: I was pretty excited that we got a finisher medal this year.  The medals are pretty cute and I love the bright rainbow ribbon!  

Eliot and I saved our powder packets so we could enjoy them some time when it wasn't raining.  At this point, we have enough powder to host our own mini Color Run!

Once we all finished, we took a few team photos before calling it a day.  Eliot and I had planned to host another Disney Side BBQ after the race, but we were definitely rained out.  Instead, Eliot, Elissa, Katie and I went back to our house to shower and change into dry clothes.  Then, we enjoyed a great lunch at our local Longhorn Steakhouse.

While we didn't have as much fun as we did during Color Run 2014, we're definitely planning to do it again next year.  We're also thinking that our Tinker Bell costumes deserve a little bit more love, so look for more rainbow fairies next year!  °o°

I'm Going to Disneyland!!!

Well, it's officially official.  I'm going to Disneyland!!!

If you're a frequent visitor here, you're aware that we've been planning to go on this trip for a while.  However, now that we've booked our flights, I consider it official.  Ahhh... I'm really going to Disneyland in a few months!  I'm so excited to be visiting during Disneyland's 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration.  I've been daydreaming about seeing it since they started to announce plans for the event.

I haven't been to Disneyland since my first time in 2009.  I went with Eliot's family after his sister Sara's high school graduation.  A lot has changed in the six years since I've been there!  When we went, they were just building the fountains for World of Color and the Little Mermaid ride.  That quickly puts things into perspective!

We'll be visiting over Labor Day weekend and the following week.  Eliot's signed up to run the Dumbo Double Dare which is comprised of the 10K on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday.  Eliot's Dad, Rick, is also doing the half marathon.  After seeing the possible design for the 5K medal, I'm kicking myself for not doing it.  It's so cute!

There's so much I want to see and do!  I already started on my Trip Bucket List weeks ago... I haven't seen the Soundsational Parade, World of Color, or Mickey and the Magical Map.  I can't wait to go on the Storybook Land canal boats.  I love those tiny models!!!  I've missed Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Snow White's Scary Adventures!  They bring back memories of my childhood days at WDW.  I'm also daydreaming about eating a Tigger Tail.  Plus, I can't wait to see the changes at California Adventure.

And don't even get me started on everything for the 60th Anniversary!!!  I can't wait to see the Paint the Night Parade!  The Disneyland Forever fireworks look incredible.  I'm so excited to experience the anniversary edition of World of Color!  I also have my sights on some of those special diamond anniversary snacks and treats.  Yum!

There are a few things in Downtown Disney and at the resorts that I can't wait for as well!  I can't wait to see what fun Disney outfits Build-A-Bear has.  I also want to check out the Wonderground Gallery!  I'd also really like to go to Trader Sam's.  I've heard rave reviews online and I'd love to go check it out with Eliot!

Finally, no Disney trip is complete without a few mementos.  After seeing tons of 60th anniversary merchandise photos online, I've started a wish list!  I always get a picture frame, ornament and scrapbook.  I'm also intrigued by some of the accessories like the wallet, scarf and phone cases.  I'm a sucker for blue and silver together, and anything shiny or with glitter... diamond celebration... diamonds... sparkly... come to think of it, I'm doomed.  My wallet is probably going to wish it stayed home in Maine.  Time to get working on some more Happily Ever Hatter hats to help pay for this trip!  

I really can't wait to walk in Walt's footsteps again.  Only 67 more days.  °o°

Scrapbook Swap: Patriotic Picnic

I've done another swap with my Disney Scrapbook Facebook group!  In the past, I've also participated in the Christmas in July Card Swap, the Christmas Layout Swap, the Valentine's Day Layout Swap and the Easter Layout Swap.  I really love these, especially when they're holiday themed!

The process for this swap was the same as the others I've participated in.  Some of the choices included: fireworks, flags, stars and stripes, picnic table, picnic basket, BBQ grill, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Chip, Dale, photo mats, border, and a title.

I selected flags.  Some of you might recall the 4th of July Mickey Flag printables I designed for 4th of July last summer.  When I saw the swap theme, I had an idea of what I wanted to do based on that design!  

I didn't have any design files for my Cricut, so once again I used my trusty paper cutter, paper punches and my own creativity.  For the Mickey flags, I designed a pattern and then traced it onto my card stock.  Then I cut them all out by hand.  I added the white stripes I cut with my paper cutter.  Then I glued them all together.  Finally, I trimmed the edges of the stripes down and added the silver stars!

Overall, it probably took me about 6 hours to make both sets of flags.  It's definitely a lot of hard work when you're cutting everything by hand.  But I think it was worth it.  I love how both designs came out!  Here are my flags all packaged and ready to get mailed to the swap coordinator along with my $6 for my cuts to be mailed back to me.

My package arrived the other day and I love it!!!  This has to be one of my favorite swaps so far.  All of the designs were so creative!  Plus, I'm a total sucker for the 4th of July, BBQs and Picnics.  These are a few of my favorite designs!  I love Mickey fireworks!  I really like the Mickey and Minnie pennants.  The frames are cute and I love how one of the journal cards is a Mickey ice cream sandwich!  The little ants are adorable.  They'll go perfectly with the picnic table!  My absolute favorite from this swap has to be the Mickey Mouse grill.  It's so cute.  I might have to save that for scrapbooking our Disney Side BBQ from last summer!

This was a ton of fun, and it isn't over yet!  I mailed out my next swap yesterday!  And I have another I'm working on that needs to be mailed out in another week or so.  That design will require me finally using my Cricut for a swap!  Yay!  °o°

Birthdays & Puzzles & Toys, Oh My!

As you can imagine from my lack of posts, we've had a few busy weeks here.

Eliot and I went to my parents' house about a month ago to celebrate my best friend Katie's Birthday.  We went out to a few of the local places in Bar Harbor, neither of which I'd been to before.  It was a great night, with great friends, blueberry cosmos, sangria and a MacAttack burger.  (It was a plain burger with macaroni and cheese on it.  Surprisingly delicious!)  It was nice to take a break from our normal routine.

Before we left Ellsworth, we met up with my brother who was on his way to stay with Mom and Dad during his vacation week.  While we had dinner, Eliot and I talked with Jeremy about our top secret business plans and he shared a few of his own.  (We're three peas in a pod with the way we all think!)  Jeremy also gave us the Little Mermaid tsum tsums he was able to get us from the Disney Store!

Back home, I've been hard at work on a few different projects- mostly scrapbook swaps and making Happily Ever Hatter orders.  I mailed out a swap a few weeks ago and I'm currently working on two more for June!  I'll be sure to post those once I get my packages in the mail!  I think they're going to be awesome!!!

I've had two custom orders for Happily Ever Hatter.  I've been working with a customer for about a month and half on a custom Jungle Cruise Ear Headband design.  We wanted to get it just right and I'm so pleased with how they came out!  I think the ears were a great tribute to the ride.  They're definitely very detailed!

I've also been working on another custom design for a friend who wanted a pair of Jake and the Neverland Pirate ears for her nephew and Elsa for her niece.  I've been wanting to design a pair of Jake ears for awhile now so this was the perfect excuse to push it to the top of my to do list.  I love how they came out!  Aren't they cute?

I'm missing Disney a lot right now.  Between the 24 hour parties and the start of Disneyland's' 60th, Eliot and I have been having major withdrawals.  We ordered our WDW Annual Passholder Magic Bands the other day.  It was exciting to get those even if we aren't going for a few more months.  I won't complain about Disney mail!

We've been checking out items in our local stores to get a bit of a Disney fix.  One of our favorites are the TsumTsums offered at Target.  We bought Donald, Dumbo and Eeyore.  We also found Thomas Kinkade Disney puzzles!!!  We've been collecting these for a while and have quite a few.  (We put them together and frame them to use as artwork!)  We brought Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty home with us.

We've also had a few Disney finds at Wal-Mart.  While we were home for Katie's birthday, we found a Frozen Fever beach towel!!!  I've been looking at the Disney towels where we live for weeks and I've never seen a Frozen Fever towel!  (Needless to say, that "jumped" right off the shelf and into our shopping cart.)  We also found a few more Thomas Kincade puzzles.  This time we brought home both the Bambi and Snow White puzzles.  Then, we stumbled across something wonderful... 

Our big find was a Fisher Price toy.  About now, you're probably thinking that we're crazy.  We currently have no children to play with this toy, but it was too good to pass up.  I stumbled across it while Eliot was in another aisle looking at puzzles.  There it was, sitting on the shelf calling out to me.  I took a closer look and realized it was a mini Magic Kingdom/Disneyland all rolled into one.  The toy has a castle with fireworks, a train, It's a Small World ride, Dumbo, and the tea cups.  There are also Disney details just like the theme parks.  I showed Eliot and he caved too.  It was too perfect of a toy to pass up.  Hopefully someday we'll be blessed with children who can play with it.  (In the meantime, we might be tempted to play around with it ourselves, ha!)

We can't complain.  While we may not have been at the 60th Anniversary kick off in person, we've still gotten some diamond celebration magic delivered to us.  Eliot made a personal shopper friend in one of his Vinylmation groups online and she was willing to get us the Cinderella Carriage and Blue Mickey Balloon popcorn buckets!  Yay!  In addition to those, Eliot's family bought us some Disneyland 60th merchandise while they were there for the 24 hour party.  He's told me we're going to receive a package sprinkled with pixie dust at some point.

In the meantime, we're gearing up for Elissa to come stay with us for a month!  I've got a few ideas for projects we can do while she's here.  I'm also planning to get working on more new designs for hats and headbands!  My to do list keeps growing, but I'm really excited for what's in store!  °o°

Eliot's Olaf Birthday Party

Well, we pulled it off!  Eliot's surprise Olaf birthday party on Sunday was a success!!!

I've been planning this party for a while.  In fact, I've been planning it since we went shopping for my Tangled 30th birthday party supplies back in November.  I saw a giant Olaf balloon at the front of the party store when an idea hit me... why not have an Olaf themed party for Eliot?  Eliot absolutely loves all things Olaf.  Surely there was enough Olaf themed birthday party stuff to pull it off?

After consulting with a few friends on the best time to have it, we chose the weekend before his actual birthday.  (Which was yesterday.)  I told my parents and we began planning.  The hardest part was trying to plan it while keeping it a secret.  It's not easy to plan a surprise party that you're hosting at your own house!

Thankfully, my family is awesome and they really helped me out.  Mom, Dad and Nana are the reason I was able to pull the party off.  After having dinner Saturday night, they went to the party store to get all of the supplies for me.  (I distracted Eliot by taking him to buy Eeyore an Olaf Hawaiian shirt at Build-A-Bear.)  They hid all of the party stuff at their hotel for the night.  Nana even babysat the giant Olaf balloon for us!

Sunday morning, Dad took Eliot up to Sears to buy his birthday present.  Mom and I had decided that was the most reasonable way to get the guys out of the house.  After that, Dad's job was to do anything to keep Eliot away while we prepared.  (Apparently, they went to Home Depot and then they killed more time looking at cars and houses.)

Meanwhile, Mom and I went grocery shopping.  Then Mom, Nana and I prepped the food and decorated the house.  We couldn't do too much in the time we were allotted, but I was happy with it.  Most importantly, I didn't think Eliot was on to us.

Our guests arrived right as scheduled!  I was really excited to catch up with BJ, Katie and Jenn since we hadn't seen them since New Years.  (Katie, Kathleen, Karen and my brother Jeremy all had things come up last minute.)  I also brought out Eeyore, Duffy, Brother and their mini Olaf.  Both Eeyores were in their Olaf Hawaiian shirts for the occasion.  They couldn't miss the party!

Eventually, Dad and Eliot made it back and Eliot was completely surprised!  Yay!!!  We had a great time hanging out with our friends and my family, laughing at stories, and munching on the snacks we'd gotten.  Everyone loved the cupcakes and cake.  Thank you Wal-Mart bakery!  I couldn't cook a cake or cupcakes with Eliot around!  However, I did personalize the cake a little by adding the Olaf marshmallow pop that I've been hiding in the cupboard since Christmas.  (Don't worry... it doesn't expire until 2016.)

Eliot got some great Olaf themed goodies from our friends, as well as some of his favorite raspberry sugar cookies from Nana.  Mom and Dad bought him the jig saw he's wanted for over a year.  (Now he can work on all of the projects we've cooked up!)

Most importantly, Eliot was thrilled and I know he was touched that we went to so much work to celebrate his birthday with him!  °o°

June 2015 Calendar

This year is flying by!  Wasn't I posting my May calendar the other day?  Anyways... Happy June!  Here's my June 2015 Mickey and Minnie Free Printable Calendar!

These calendars are always some of my most popular posts!  I'm incredibly honored to share another year of calendars with you and to and bring joy to so many Disney fans!

Here's the link to download the June 2015 PDF version of the printable.

These calendars are perfect for trip countdowns or for teachers and Disney themed classrooms.  They're also perfect for training calendars for runDisney events!

Feel free to link this post up to Pinterest or Facebook so your friends and family can have a fun Mickey and Minnie calendar too!  Let's spread the Disney Magic!!!  °o°

Note: I've made calendars through 2015.  However, I don't post the PDF links on my blog until the beginning of each month.  If you're looking for a particular month and would like me to email it to you ahead of my post going live, you can send my blog an email at mydisneylifeblog[at]gmail.com.  Then, I'll send you the PDFs directly.  :-)