One Week Until London!!! 🇬🇧✨🧚

It’s a very happy Topiary Tuesday because one week from today Eliot and I will be landing in London!!! ✨🇬🇧✨ I can hardly contain my excitement, but it's hard to focus on the actual trip when we still have so much to do.  Still, I wanted to pop by really quickly to share this photo of my adorable little plush pal at the Tinker Bell topiary near her fairy garden in the United Kingdom Pavilion of Epcot from our trip in April. 🇬🇧🌸🌿🌐🌳🌼 

Eliot and I are hoping Tink can spread a little magic because we’re going to need quite a bit of faith, trust and pixie dust to get through the mountain of things we still need to accomplish between now and our trip!!! 💚✨🧚✨💚

But we're slowly making progress.  We had a giant 4th of July order for Happily Ever Hatter that we just finished and sent out... but it's been requiring a lot of the printers' time.  So now Eliot and I plan to 3D print, assemble and finish as many Etsy orders as possible between now and next Monday before we leave for the airport.

Last week, we were very busy checking things off of my personal to do list- switching cell phone plans, moving storage units around, blood draws, helping Mom change her postal address.  It was a whirlwind, but it felt good to get things done!

Now, Eliot and I are in overdrive mode and this week is going to be mayhem.  Between finalizing plans, packing, finishing our business stuff and making sure that we are prepared to leave the country for a week, it's going to be busy!  I've also got a few blog posts that I'm trying to get wrapped up between now and when we leave if possible.  I can already tell this is going to be another whirlwind week... especially with 4th of July and America's big 250th birthday this weekend.  But I couldn't let that pass without writing something to celebrate this big milestone in our history! 

Basically, I'm sure that I'll probably be trying to do multiple things at the same time... so by the end of this, Eliot and I will have earned that vacation!  Bring on the insanity!!! 

And so begins my own personal salute to all countries... but mostly America.  (On here we're starting the week with Canada and winding up in England). ✨🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧✨

Happy Stitch Day 💙💜💙

It's 6/26, a day that Disney fans have affectionately dubbed as "Stitch Day".  (As you may recall, Stitch is also known as "Experiment 626" in the 'Lilo and Stitch' movie.)  A few years ago, I shared a bunch of Stitch photos on a post here.  Today, I wanted to re-share a special one of those photos from our Disneyland trip a decade ago.  

Eliot LOVES Stitch and he was so excited that he was the featured character at the Disney Visa Cardholder photo spot at California Adventure during our trip in June of 2016.  They change characters at the private meet and greet, so you have no idea who you will get to see.  But luck was in our favor because it was our favorite blue alien! 

We took a few photos with him.  And Eliot was also able to get a big hug from Stitch while we were there... resulting in this special photo!  We love Disney character hugs!!! 

Happy Stitch Day!!! 💙💜💙

Halfway to Christmas ✨🎄✨

We're officially halfway to Christmas!!! ✨🎅🏻🎄🎁🤶🏻✨ 

Today, I wanted to share a Throwback Thursday to 2024 when Eliot and I spent the evening playing at the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!!!  

That Friday morning, Eliot and I had disembarked from the Disney Wish and we were definitely feeling sad after having the most magical time.  But thankfully there wasn't much time to be gloomy, because we had tickets to MVMCP for that evening!  Eliot suggested that we wear our new Disney Cruise Line holiday spirit jerseys... and it was the perfect way to go from cruising with Mickey to playing in the parks. 🎄 

We skipped all over the Magic Kingdom having a wonderful holiday time.  And wearing our spirit jerseys made it that much more magical.  We took a ton of Photopass photos, and one of our photographers on Main Street insisted that we get the back of our spirit jerseys after we told her that we'd literally just gotten off the Disney Wish that morning.

For our next cruise on the Disney Wish, we won't be going to any holiday parties after disembarking- but we are going to visit the theme parks for two days before heading home!  (I'm so excited because heading home right after our cruise sounded really depressing.)  And the Halloween decorations will be out... so we'll get to enjoy those!  

We love cruising with Mickey and visiting the theme parks!  This was definitely a magical holiday adventure rolled into one day that I won't forget!!! ✨❤️🛳⚓️🐭💚✨ 

National Pink Day 💕

Happy National Pink Day!!! 💖💕💖 

If you've hung around here at all, you know that pink is my favorite color- whether it’s a bright, hot pink or a softer baby pink.  It's always called to me... so much that Eliot's and my wedding colors were lipstick (magenta) pink and lime.

Today I wanted to share a special photo with you.  These beautiful pink flowers at Mom and Dad’s house bloom every June right around their wedding anniversary. ✨ 

Last weekend, we went up to clean the house out some more- since we're planning to put it on the market in late summer/early fall.  I specifically picked this weekend; I knew it would be a hard one anyways due to cleaning the house.  But on top of that, Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary was last Thursday and Father's Day was on Sunday.  Still, I had to go this weekend in order to see these in bloom one last time.

As soon as we pulled into the driveway, I immediately looked across the front yard at the giant rhododendron bush, and there it was all of it’s beautiful glory. 🦋🌳🌸🐝 

I spent a lot of time watching that bush this weekend.  It had a lot of visitors... from little bees buzzing around, to butterflies fluttering around the flowers, to a small bird sitting on one of it's branches.  And of course there was me... I spent some extra time at it, photographing Mom and Dad's rhododendron bush, trying to capture as many of the delicate flowers with my phone camera as I could- praying the photos might do it justice.

This is probably the last time that we will ever see it in bloom, and I’m definitely in my feelings about it. 🙁 But Eliot and I have talked about getting a rhododendron bush for our yard… and I can only hope it will be as beautiful as this one. 🌸🌳🌸

First Day of Summer and Father’s Day

Happy First Day of Summer and Father’s Day!!! ✨☀️✨ 

Today I wanted to share a photo of me in my natural summer habitat… 💙⚾️❤️ I HAVE to get my baseball hat ice cream (with sprinkles!) and this is exactly how I’ll spend many of my summer nights… 😊 It doesn't matter if we're watching the Portland Sea Dogs or Boston Red Sox... when Eliot asks me what I want to eat, this is usually the answer. 🍦  

There's nothing better than a cold ice cream on a hot summer day at the ballpark.  And if you're already paying that much for ice cream, you might as well get the souvenir ball cap bowl!  (We have so many...)  In fact, my baseball hat ice cream is such an inside joke between me and Eliot that I own a Sea Dogs ice cream baseball hat… and I might also have the Red Sox hat, t-shirt and matching socks. 🤣

I'm sure there will be many of these in my future... along with sun, BBQs, beach, pool, lakes, ocean, mini golf, s’mores and all of the fun in the sun that summer brings!!!  ☀️

A Toy Story #tbt In Honor of Toy Story 5 💛💙❤️

Today I'm popping in with a quick Throwback Thursday to Eliot and me hanging out with some of our favorite Toy Story friends in Andy’s room at the Funko Hollywood store.  It’s hard to believe that we have loved these characters for over 30 years now.  

I remember going to see Toy Story 3 in theaters with Eliot (back when we lived down in Massachusetts) and how I dressed up for the movie.  I left the theater with tear streaks down my face after bawling at the ending.  After that movie, I really thought that was the end we'd see of Woody and Buzz Lightyear on the big screen.

Then came Toy Story 4- much to my surprise.  It was emotional, but I admit that I didn't really like it that much.  I haven't committed that one to memory as much as the others.  And I wasn't a fan of the ending.  But I absolutely adored Forky.  In the years since that movie was released, I've found myself feeling kind of bitter about the ending, wanting better for my beloved toy friends.  (You can read my review of Toy Story 4 here.)  

Now we're here at the dawn of Toy Story 5.  I'm so excited that our friends are going to "get the gang back together" in this film.  I'm encouraged because I've heard good things about it so far.  I'm excited about the Taylor Swift song "I Knew It, I Knew You" and what it could potentially mean for Jessie.  And mostly I'm looking forward to seeing Woody & Buzz together again!  Hopefully Eliot and I won't wait too long to go see it!

Who else is excited to see our toy friends' new adventures in Toy Story 5?!?!?! 💛💙❤️

National Mascot Day

Happy National Mascot Day! 🙂 

If you've hung around here at all, then you know that Eliot and I love our mascot friends from our favorite sports teams!  From local favorites Slugger, Beacon, Bananas and Moxie, to our professional mascot friends Sharkie, Blades, Pat Patriot, Wally and Tessie... the love of these larger than life characters is strong in our household.

Pair that love with our adoration of mouse ears, and you have lots of mascot mouse ears!  Eliot's made us Slugger ❤️⚾️💙 and Beacon 💚🤍💙🥅🏒🔱 mouse ears to wear to our local Sea Dogs and Mariners games.  We're working on finishing up the designs for our favorite brother-sister duo in major league baseball… ❤️⚾️💙 And I’m thinking we also need some for our favorite Shark and the coolest mascot in the NHL. 💙🥅🏒🦈  

These are only a fraction of the mascot photos we've taken through the years... so I'll have to put together more for next year!  (And hopefully we can get more photos of our friends while we're wearing our mouse ears.)  Happy National Mascot Day friends!!! °o° 

National Sewing Machine Day

It's hard to believe that I've been sewing for almost a decade.  I first started taking my adult education sewing class back in the fall of 2017.  I had always wanted to learn how to sew, and my Nana insisted that I take a class- so I did.  I was immediately hooked and my instructor Lori hasn’t been able to get rid of me since. 

In the fall of 2023, I convinced Eliot to join me.  I figured he’d take one session and know enough to use the combination sewing and embroidery machine that he bought from Goodwill.  Here we are years later... and he hasn’t stopped going either. 💖 

Eliot and I love the freedom to create that sewing gives us- and you have probably gathered that we are both especially fond of making fluffy friends. 💕 Today I wanted to introduce you to Sparkles the Seahorse.  I’m really proud of her and I love how she turned out.  To this day, her belly is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever sewn and I’ll tell anyone who will listen… even if you can’t see the perfect seams inside of her. 🤣

I'm so grateful to my Nana for giving me an appreciation for sewing.  I'm thankful that I've learned so much from Lori.  I'm blessed to have met many wonderful people in my classes.  And I'm so glad that I can share this experience with Eliot.

Happy National Sewing Machine Day!!! ✨ 

100 Days... ✨🛳 ⚓️🐭✨

Happy Wish Wednesday!!! ✨🛳✨ 

Our final cruise payment is due in 10 days… which means we’re only 100 days away from our 14th wedding anniversary cruise aboard the Disney Wish!!! ❤️🛳✨💙🐭⚓️💛 

Eliot and I are in full preparation mode because we've got London, our cruise and a few other things that are in the works.  Earlier today, we were looking at flights, hotels and transportation options for our cruise trip.  But a lot of that is dependent on our adventure following that one... and another one that we're trying to take next year.  Needless to say, there are a lot of balls being juggled around here right at the moment!  

A dream is a wish your heart makes... and my heart is dreaming of magical outfits for our trip.  So naturally, I'm already working on putting together outfits and planning what mouse ears we'll need to make.  Not only are we going on our cruise, but we might have a day or two at the parks as well.  Of course, I'm also in full wedding anniversary celebration mode... so I'm trying to tie that in.  And since it's a Halloween on the High Seas cruise, we've got to have some spooky outfit and accessory options too! 🎃 

With our trip to London less than a month away, I'm probably going to need all 100 of these days before our cruise to get everything together.

If anyone needs me, I'll be busy preparing and counting down days... ✨🛳 ⚓️🐭✨ 

Eliot's Birthday 🎂

Today is Eliot's Birthday!!! ✨🎂✨

As those of you who have followed me for years already know, Eliot shares his birthday with none other than Donald Duck!  I usually share the photo of him and Donald from 10 years ago when we were actually at Disneyland over Eliot's birthday.  (We made sure to seek out Donald and we even got an extra birthday button to give him!)

However, this year I wanted to share one of our newer photos.  Two years ago, Donald celebrated his 90th birthday and at my insistence, we finally made some special mouse ears for the occasion.  And Eliot made himself a pair that said "Happy Birthday Donald" so he could wear them every year- and not just for Donald's 90th birthday.

Eliot's not wearing his mouse ears today, but he has to work.  As of right now, we don't have any big plans for today.  But Eliot did like my idea to get some ice cream at our favorite local place, so that's probably what we'll end up doing tonight.  Yum!!! 

Happy Birthday to Eliot and his birthday buddy Donald!!! 🎂💙❤️💛 

One Month Until London 🇬🇧

The countdown is on!  Eliot and I only have one month until we leave for London!!! 🇬🇧

Things are coming together and we're starting to prepare for our week overseas.  I've started to make mental lists of what we will need to pack.  Eliot and I have both been hard at work preparing the businesses for our departure.  And the most exciting thing is that we've made a list of what we want to do while we are there!

Obviously, we have included all of the "normal" touristy famous landmarks... Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, London Eye, etc.  Eliot's sister and I are both huge Harry Potter fans, so we have also included a Warner Brothers Studio tour and visiting Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station.

And naturally, I had to include a few Disney things- like visiting the Disney Store in London!  (Quick side note: Eliot and I were actually trying to get over to France to visit Disneyland Paris for a few days, but it didn't work out this time.  But our passports are shiny and new; hopefully we'll be able to give them a workout over the coming years!)

I'm sure things will start to take shape more over the coming weeks as we finalize plans with Eliot's family.  We're both really excited about our upcoming London adventure!!!

Let the countdown officially begin!!! ✨🇬🇧✨

One Month Until 250!!! ✨🇺🇸✨

Only one month until we celebrate the United States' 250th Birthday!!! ✨❤️🎂💙✨

As of right now, Eliot and I don't have any big plans for it- other than potentially going to a few baseball games.  The Sea Dogs are home that weekend and I believe they're having fireworks displays both Friday and Saturday night.  But since it's our nation's big 250th birthday, I feel like we should go all out and party like it’s 1776!!! 🇺🇸

Since the 4th falls on a Saturday, we might end up having a BBQ or something with Mom and Jeremy that weekend.  I would love to go swimming somewhere... so maybe we'll hit up a local waterpark.  And I always enjoyed playing mini golf at Pirates Cove while home in Bar Harbor, so I think Eliot and I will have to put that on the agenda.

But no matter what we end up doing, there's sure to be lots of red white and blue!!!

I also wanted to point out something- because it's not lost on me that literally a few days after we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence from England, Eliot and I are traveling to... England. 🤣 (Not gonna lie, every time I think of that, I chuckle a little.)

So here's to our big birthday America.  I'll spend this next month working on some actual plans for the big day.  I'm thinking that weekend needs to include things like cake, flags, eagles, hot dogs, stars & stripes, apple pie and fireworks. 🦅🇺🇸🌭  

Try Everything 🐰🏃‍♀️🏰

Happy National Running Day! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ As most of you know, Eliot and I have done a bunch of RunDisney events over the past 12+ years.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once again… doing events at Disney is basically the only place you’d ever catch me even remotely attempting anything with the words 'race' or 'run' in it. 🏰 

RunDisney events are fun for so many reasons.  My favorite part has always been how dedicated people get with their costumes.  In the past, I've Disneybounded at most.  However, these past two races at Springtime Surprise in April were the most I’ve ever committed to a costume.  (I dressed up as Judy Hopps and Eliot was Nick Wilde.) 🐰🦊 

And while I had a good time, I think after these past two races, I’m headed back into RunDisney retirement again.  (Unless I can get into a 5K that isn't in April in the future.)

But I’m so dang proud of myself right now... especially after everything that I’ve been through over this past year.  I quite literally went from being officially diagnosed with endometriosis last April, to spending all last summer basically on the couch, to finally having my endometriosis excision surgery in September, to months of surgery recovery, to participating in two RunDisney events this April. 💕

Looking back, my Judy Hopps costume was appropriate with my "try everything" attitude towards race weekend.  I pushed myself back out of my comfort zone to sign up for two races right after my endometriosis diagnosis.  Then this April, I completed the Zootopia Springtime Surprise 5K on Friday, and then I turned around and attempted the Winnie the Pooh and Tigger themed Springtime Surprise 10K on Saturday.  After the 5K, I knew the 10K was going to be a real challenge on my body, but I tried anyways.

I probably could have finished it, but the ridiculous Florida humidity was too much for me.  And I really didn't want to hold Eliot back when he was doing the challenge.  I'd also walked about 24,000 steps the previous day, so I got my 10K in.  (I want to add that the most steps I've walked in one day in over a year has been 12,000 steps.  With endo, 10,000 steps usually is my limit before I start having severe pain issues.)

Reflecting back on my past races this National Running Day, I’ve got a lot of RunDisney bling.  But I don't think I've worked harder and earned one more than my medal from the Springtime Surprise 5K... and because of that it might just be my favorite one of all. 🏅

The Dawn of a New Horizon

It's been a while since I gave you all a business update... and today I've got a very exciting one!  About four weeks ago, Eliot and I sat down to watch the "maiden voyage" of our newest 3D printer down in the basement.  For years, we've talked about getting another printer... but we have hesitated with what direction to go in.  After what feels like forever, (and many pro and con lists), we finally settled on a Bambu printer.

I won't deny it... I sat in complete awe at how quickly it printed the tiny sample boat.  Our current 3D printers are a decade old at this point.  However, we are both in agreement that they are work horses and we still plan on utilizing them for the bulk of our business prints.  But both Eliot and I have also found ourselves wondering "what if" on numerous occasions.  After all, technology has progressed so much in 10 years.

So we finally decided on one and bought it.  Ironically, our new 3D printer resides in the basement because we don't have anymore electricity bandwidth available in Eliot's office without blowing a fuse.  Both of us are loving it so far.  Besides the incredible speed, our new Bambu printer can also print in multicolor.  For over a decade, Eliot and I have created layered mouse ear designs that we could glue together.  Now, Eliot has designed our first set of ears that are totally 3D printed in three different colors.  He's also re-designed a few of our current designs so we can print pieces faster. 

Of course, this new printer also opens the doors to many new possibilities.  We've got a few other business ideas that we have wanted to do, but up until now, they haven't really panned out how we had planned.  But now that we can print things in multicolor, some of these ideas will be much easier to put into action.  Eliot and I both already have lists of new products and design ideas that we're excited to tackle.

So the dawn of a new horizon has arrived.  Welcome to the family Bambu printer!!!

Daddy's Birthday

It's June 1st… what was once a day of joy is now full of mixed emotions.  Today is my Dad’s birthday- and it’s the third time we’re celebrating without him. 💔 

But instead of posting something about the pain that today brings, I’m trying to focus on the positive. ✨ Today is also the start of Pride Month. 🏳️‍🌈 So today I want to focus on bright rainbows and love. 💕 Daddy loved his family more than anything.  Even the fact that I’m trying to focus on the positive today kind of feels a rainbow after the storm. 🌈 

I want to celebrate love and happiness.  I love equality.  I love celebrating people for who they are.  I love rainbows and bright colors.  And above all, I love love. 🏳️‍🌈

So Happy Pride Month Everyone. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜  

And Happy Birthday Daddy. 🎂 We love you and miss you always. 💖