Sunday, October 31, 2021

Halloween 2021

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!  Eliot and I have had an action packed weekend full of frightful fun!  It was excited when I found out that Halloween was on a Sunday this year.  After all the craziness of 2020, it was nice for everyone to be able to extend the holiday out for an entire weekend.  And what a weekend it was!

We had planned to have our Neighborhood Block Party on Saturday so the kids had Sunday to recover from the excitement.  However, the forecast for Saturday was rain all day, so Thursday morning we decided it made more sense to push it up to Friday night instead.  That left me and Eliot scrambling a little bit, but we pulled it all together.  

Eliot was able to buy candy for all of the kids Thursday night after work.  So that left me with figuring out what to do for the Trunk or Treat.  I wasn't going to bother with it, but we didn't put much effort into it last year and everyone else had really cool displays.  

During the day Thursday, I scoured Pinterest looking for an idea for Trunk or Treat that was cute but not too complicated.  I came across a lot of fun ideas, but they were all too much to pull together this late in the game.  (I started a private Pinterest board for those so I can plan ahead for next year!)  Thankfully, at some point, I randomly came across one pin that lead me to an idea... and that also gave me my costume idea! 

Friday afternoon, Eliot came home from work early carrying a few pieces of card board and some large paper.  I could already hear people gathering outside so I quickly set to work with my black Sharpie and some scissors.  A few minutes later, Eliot and I were moving the truck to the end of the driveway and setting everything up!

Before we knew it, Cookie Monster (the truck) and Elmo (me) were all ready for our Halloween Block Party!  It came out pretty cute considering we pulled the entire thing together last minute.  Our neighbors appreciated my commitment to my Elmo costume- Eliot's red sweatpants, my red sweatshirt and the Elmo headband we bought at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg last month!  I even wore my Pair Eyewear Elmo toppers!

The kids had a blast at the block party.  We had all of the neighborhood kids and one of our neighbors had their grandkids up from MA.  Then, a few of the kids had friends over and a few kids from other local streets came over.  They loved Trunk or Treating and running around playing!  Meanwhile, the adults all gathered around to talk.

After it got dark, most of the adults moved over to the Haunted Trail.  This year, they decided to make it a walking trail instead of a Haunted Hayride.  Eliot and I joined the others who planned to help man the trail to scare the kids.  (Spoiler Alert: Melissa dressed up as Elmo is not scary!)  We went into the "Haunted House" part which was a little maze our neighbor cleverly made from giant trash bags attached to trees.  There were a few corners where you could hide.  I made my way to the outside and banged on the "walls" of the "hallway" since I wasn't visually very scary.

Most of the kids weren't scared at all.  I think they actually had more fun scaring each other.  But, I have to admit, it was a bit creepy.  The fog machine was the best addition; you couldn't see very well through it, and that lead to the spooky ambiance!

After that, Eliot and I visited with our neighbors for a few more minutes near the bonfire before calling it a night.  The kids were all going to watch the new Under Wraps movie on Disney+ on our neighbors outdoor movie screen, but we knew we had too much to do.  We said goodbye to everyone and headed home to get dinner and work on orders.

On Saturday, we worked on more orders and did a bit of cleaning.  My brother Jeremy arrived at our house around 5:30 Saturday evening.  After showering and changing into my Halloween outfit, the three of us headed up to Portland to do some shopping.  First, we went to Kohl's to look for the Minnie pillow I was missing after to trip to MA.  We hit the jackpot!  Not only did I find Minnie right away, but Jeremy spotted another one and Eliot found another Mickey!  They also had the Mickey red truck pillows!  We left with two Minnies, one Mickey and two truck pillows.

Then, we made a quick stop at Lowes to check out the Disney Christmas stuff.  Most of the stuff that was there last time was still there.  Eliot ended up buying a few of the Airdorable inflatables, but we decided to wait on the rest for now.  Next, we made another quick stop over at Target.  When we got back in the car, Jeremy ordered his Pat's Pizza.  We had 20 minutes to kill before it was done so Eliot and I went into Homegoods.  They had a ton of Halloween stuff on sale and we found a few Christmas treasures!  Then, we picked up the pizza on the way home.

Once home, we watched the last 10 minutes of the Sharks game.  (They scored a few minutes into overtime!)  Then, we watched all of the Dug Days shorts on Disney+ since Jeremy hadn't seen them yet.  All three of us were in stitches laughing.  Then, we watched a few of the Chip and Dale Park Life shorts before we called it a night.

This morning, we all got up and did a few quick projects around the house.  Eliot and I figured we'd take advantage of the extra set of hands.  Then, we all showered and got ready.  (I went all out in my candy corn outfit!)  We had breakfast/lunch at IHOP.  Eliot and Jeremy both got lunch since it was 2:00 pm by the time we got there, but I wanted breakfast.  I asked our waitress for pumpkin pancakes with the Cinnastack toppings and she was able to do it!  (Ok, so I accidentally asked for pancake flavored pancakes at first and I couldn't figure out why everyone was looking at me weird... I'm sure that Eliot and Jeremy are never going to let me live it down.)  But my "pumpkin" flavored pancakes with the cream cheese icing were really good!!!  

After that, we said goodbye to Jeremy as he was heading back down to NH.  Eliot and I went over to Biddeford to do a quick shopping run.  We went to Walmart to get a few cleaning supplies and toiletries that we'd run out of.  When we went back outside, it had rained while we were shopping and there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky!

Next, we stopped at Kohl's to see what pillows they had.  I found 5 of the Mickey Red Christmas Tree Truck pillows so I bought one more of those as a gift.  Then, Eliot and I went over to TJ Maxx.  They had a ton of Halloween stuff on sale.  We bought a few Halloween items as well as some Thanksgiving and Christmas items that we found!

On the way home, we drove past the local church in town where they were having their Halloween Trunk or Treat event.  It was packed with people!  Now I know why we never get trick or treaters at our house!  They're all down the road at the church!

After a busy weekend, Eliot and I spent Halloween night having a quiet evening at home.  We watched a few Hallmark Christmas movies in the background while we worked on orders.  We'll be up late tonight waiting for the Loungefly pre-orders at midnight and the Shop Disney merchandise release at 3 am before we finally go to bed and bid adieu to another fun spooky season!  I hope you had a great weekend too!

Happy Halloween!!!  °o°

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Candy Corn Crazy

It's National Candy Corn Day!!!  Something you probably don't know about me is that I'm obsessed with candy corn.  I have a board on Pinterest devoted to it.  I always grab candy corn merchandise whenever I see it in stores.  I have a candy corn wreath from Joann.  I have the candy corn bear from Build-A-Bear.  It's also why Eliot and I make so many variations of our candy corn mouse ears.  (I'm also working on a "few" more samples now... which is basically an excuse for me to have more candy corn ears!)

I'm not really sure where the obsession started.  I eat candy corn candies, but usually only one bag each Halloween.  (They're too sweet for me now.)  Maybe it's the fun combination of colors... orange, yellow and white automatically make me think of Halloween.  And I absolutely love how bright they are when paired with black!

Through the years, I've picked up quite a bit of candy corn themed merchandise.  The past few years, it's as if companies have finally caught on with it's popularity.  (I have acquired quite a bit more candy corn items during this time.)  Today, I thought I'd share some of my candy corn finds.  A few of these were also in my Halloween post a few weeks ago, but I wanted to have it all in one place!  It's about to get corny over here... 

As I mentioned the other day, Eliot and I both have candy corn colored tie-dye Mickey Mouse shirts that we wore to our first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  I also bought a matching candy corn tote bag (from Etsy) and did my eyeshadow like a candy corn- white on the inner corners, orange and then yellow on the outside.

A year or so later, I discovered Hokey Donuts on Etsy and I bought numerous pairs of her earrings.  One of my favorites were the candy corn Mickey design I got!

At some point, I also discovered these Mickey and Minnie candy corn buttons.

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I was so excited when Disney released their candy corn collection for Halloween two years ago!  I ordered the Walt Disney World candy corn Spirit Jersey on Shop Disney.

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I was obsessed with the sparkly black design and the candy corn ombré lettering!

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That year, they also released a matching Loungefly bag.  I love the black sequins and the candy corn bow.  Even the zippers have candy corn coloring!  I really wish they would make more candy corn items!  Everyone seemed to love them!!!

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Last year, Eliot and I bought the candy corn ceramic tree from Michaels when we saw it.  I also got some candy corn colored bottle brush trees from Walmart!

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We also got last year's Candy Corn Castle Countdown from Shop Disney.

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I wasn't able to grab the Minnie Mouse Candy Corn Witch Mug before it sold out, but Eliot and I found it when we went shopping at the Disney Outlet in Merrimack.

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I also added a few different candy corn headbands from Sew Tangled to my collection.

Last year, Harveys released a bow, wallet and bag.  I behaved myself and only bought the bow, but I'm kind of regretting that now.  But knowing how popular the candy corn collection was, and how much it's worth now, I'm really hoping that Harveys notices and that they make more candy corn themed items someday!

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Another thing that I was completely head over heals for was the "candy corn" stripe sweater from Unique Vintage.  I first discovered it during the fall of 2019 when I saw someone wearing it online and I was really disappointed when I realized that I'd missed it.  Thankfully, I was able to get one last year in April when they restocked!  It's perfect for fall.  The colors aren't as bright as other candy corn merchandise, but I still love it!

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If that sweater wasn't amazing enough... Her Universe picked up on all of the magical candy corn vibes and released their sweater.  (More about that release here.)  I knew I had to get it as soon as I first saw it on Instagram!  I bought mine from Hot Topic after stalking the website for weeks!  I am 150% obsessed with this sweater.  It's fun, bright, magical, colorful, warm, comfortable and perfect for fall in Maine or a nighttime at the parks.  The best part, is that it's also a Disney Candy Corn Sweater!!!!  I love all of the magical patches along the arms.  I would have wanted this sweater either way, but the fact that it's candy corn and Disney totally sold me on it!  Plus, now I have a sweater to match all of my other candy corn stuff!  I'm probably going to live in this every fall.

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A few days after I bought the sweater, a saw an ad on Facebook for Baublebar's new Minnie Candy Corn Witch Earrings!  I signed up for their emails and got a coupon code a few days after that.  I ended up ordering these earrings along with another pair.  They are so cute and they will match the sweater perfectly!  I love them!!!

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This year, I also picked up this Unique Vintage candy corn dress as soon as I saw it online.  It's stretchy and super comfortable!

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Unique Vintage released another candy corn sweater later in the season.  (Mine arrived earlier this week.)  It's a chunky sweater and it's loose, cute and very comfy! 

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Loungefly also released a Halloween backpack and mouse ear set that has little candy corns sprinkled all over the design.  The candy corn stripes on the backpack are too cute!  And I love the candy corn bow on the mouse ears too!

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Another personal favorite was the Stitch Shoppe by Loungefly Candy Corn Halloween Dress.  I am completely obsessed with this pattern.  It's so gorgeous in person!!!

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Eliot and I also happened across these Mickey pumpkin candy corn socks on one of our many trips to TJ Maxx.  (I also have some Snoopy ones here somewhere!)

Finally, I added a bunch of Femme de Bloom earrings to my candy corn collection this year.  I bought a ton of her earrings when they were on sale; now I have lots of options to mix and match with my candy corn outfits!  (And tons of Halloween options too!)

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I also ordered these felted Mickey candy corn earrings that arrived today at our post office.  (We'll have to pick them up on Monday!)  I kept missing them when she added them to the site, but I was able to grab a pair from her last restock of the season!

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As you can see, I've amassed quite a candy corn collection through the years!  I've got a few things that I'll probably make myself since I can't quite seem to find them.  There used to be these cute candy corn shoes but at this point, I can't seem to find them anywhere.  Instead, I'll probably just make my own!  I've also been looking for a striped candy corn skirt.  Finally, I've got quite a few candy corn earrings, but I'd like to make myself a necklace and bracelet to match my outfits!  (Michael's has glass candy corn beads that would be perfect to use!  I'll have to grab them once they're back in stock!)

So, now you know about my obsession with all things candy corn!  I'll have to share more of my candy corn finds with you as my collection grows!

HappNationaCandy Corn Day!!!  °o°

Friday, October 29, 2021

Fun Find: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party 2019

Happy Friday friends!  Halloween weekend is here and it's time to get our spook on!  

One of my favorite ways to celebrate is Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  I have to admit that I'm missing it a bit.  I haven't been in two years, and that's also the last time that Walt Disney World hosted a traditional Halloween party versus the simpler version (Boo Bash) that they're doing this year due to the ongoing pandemic.


Today, I thought that I'd have my own Halloween party to get into the spirit!  I have gathered a bunch of videos from Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in 2019 so we can have our own virtual Halloween party!  Get dressed in your costume, grab some tasty treats and sweets and sit back as we travel to the Magic Kingdom!

First, we're stopping at the castle show, the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular!!!


You can't go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party without watching Mickey's Boo to You Parade.  Be prepared to sing this song all weekend while it's stuck in your head!


Finally, we're ending the evening the best way possible, with some Disney Halloween fireworks!   I have to admit, I'm still a little salty about them getting rid of HalloWishes since that was Eliot's and my favorite fireworks show, but Disney’s Not-So-Spooky Spectacular was pretty good.  Even I have to admit that the projections on Cinderella Castle are ridiculously crisp and top notch.


I hope you enjoyed this fun and festive kickoff to Halloween weekend!  I know I also did this back in 2015but I thought I'd do another one with some updated videos!!!

Have a wonderful Halloween weekend everyone!!! 

Happy Halloween!!!  °o°

Thursday, October 28, 2021

#tbt Our First MNSSHP

Today, I thought I'd take a quick walk down memory lane to Eliot's and my first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Parties.  We went on our first solo trip to Walt Disney World in 2010.  That trip happened to fall over the week of Halloween and during that trip we went to two parties- the first was on Halloween night and the second was on 11/1.

I remember being so excited to go to the Magic Kingdom on Halloween night.  I could barely contain my excitement!  Our first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party being on Halloween made the whole thing that much more magical.  

I went all out with Eliot's and my Halloween themed outfits.  I had special candy corn colored tie-dye Mickey shirts made for us from a small shop on Etsy.  I made myself a Halloween ring to wear.  I painted my nails Halloween colors with my thumbs having candy corn colors.  I did Halloween make up with candy corn eyeshadow and a little Mickey head.  I even found a black and orange Mickey bracelet at the parks the day before!  (Sorry the picture of my hand is so blurry.  We were on the bus and this was 2010... phone cameras weren't that good back then!)

When we arrived, I was totally geeking out about everything- the cast costumes, the food, the decorations, the signs, the music, the lighting and more. 

I was so excited to see the signs and the special decorations everywhere.  There were giant inflatable pumpkins on the entrance gate to the Magic Kingdom (where you pay for parking).  They also had them right at the entrance turnstiles.

It was overwhelming, but we tried to take everything in and do as much as possible.

We took photos in front of the Magic Kingdom Train Station before going into the park.

Each step we walked down Main Street lead to more Halloween magic.

Eliot and I took pictures in front of the castle.

We got pictures with the Seven Dwarfs.  We waited quite a while for this experience, but since you can only get photos with all seven of them at MNSSHP or MVMCP, it was something we really wanted to do.  It was so cool and definitely worth the wait!

The Haunted Mansion was really cool.  They had it lit up with green and purple lighting and there were fog machines everywhere outside.  Both of those effects really added to the creepy ambiance!  Plus, they had a cool PhotoPass location with the hearse!

We had to get a photo with Cinderella Carriage!!!

We also took photos with Cinderella Castle after it got dark out.

Eliot and I both really loved the Boo To You Parade!!!!  The song is so catchy!

We were both completely blown away by the HalloWishes Fireworks!

We also made sure to get photos with Donald and Daisy outside Toontown.

We ended the evening with a few more photos at Cinderella Castle.

Eliot and I both had so much fun that we wanted to go back to experience it again!  We hadn't planned on going a second time, but when we found out that tickets were still available, we jumped at the opportunity.  This second time, was the last Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party of the year on November 1st.  

Eliot and I hadn't planned on going a second time, so we just wore the same thing that night.  (I just switched my purple leggings out for gray ones!)  When we entered the park, we took more photos at the Train Station.

This time, we made sure to prioritize meeting Mickey and Minnie.

We took more photos at Cinderella Castle.

And we watched the parade and fireworks again!

We both had so much fun at our first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Parties!  We've gone to many more since then and we always enjoy them.  The HalloWishes fireworks are our favorite WDW fireworks.  And the parade music is always stuck in my head every year at this time!  The Halloween Parties are definitely a favorite of ours!  °o°