Creative New Mouse Ears: Christmas in July 2020

One thing I pride myself on is my creativity.  I'm always dreaming up new products, new designs, and ways to personalize the decor in our house.  My brain is always brainstorming creative new ideas whether I want it to or not.

I'm very proud of Happily Ever Hatter and how far it's come since I first opened my Etsy shop in January of 2014.  In 2015, Eliot and I started making 3D printed mouse ears.  (As far as we know, Eliot and I were the first to create 3D printed mouse ears; we were definitely the first to start selling them on Etsy.)  In 2017, 3D printed mouse ears became an entire genre of ears... which is something we never even imagined.

Since then, Eliot and I have tried to keep pushing the boundaries with our 3D printed mouse ear designs.  Unfortunately, having many fellow 3D printed ear shops means that we have to keep coming up with new creative ideas to make our ears stand out from the rest of the pack.  We really haven't made many changes to our original ear design, but we have tried to come up with lots of new designs.  (To date, we have over 400 listings in our shop and Eliot's probably created at least 500-600 individual ear designs... probably a lot more than that but we stopped counting.)

Because we're always coming up with new designs, I thought that I'd start sharing a few of them over here every once in a while.  I've started this new segment called "Creative New Mouse Ears" to showcase some of those ear designs.

This past week, Eliot and I worked really hard to print, paint, glue, glitter, finish, and photograph seven new mouse ear designs for our Happily Ever Hatter social media accounts as part of my Christmas in July week.  We got a good response on Facebook and Instagram so I thought this would be the perfect way to kick off this new segment!

Glitter Santa Candy Apples

The first new pair of ears that we posted were mouse ears that I almost finished back before our Disney cruises and WDW trip back in December.  I ran out of time before finishing the Santa hats, so I finished them to start our week with some sparkle!

Mickey Cocoa Mug

I was so excited about this new design; it turned out so cute!  Eliot and I have been working on these since before Christmas of last year.  With all of our traveling last holiday season, we weren't able to make the edits and finish them in time.  Eliot just made the edits and we got them printed and finished.  I love how the Mickey sprinkles look on top of the whipped cream!  The details really make the cocoa design pop!

Mickey Dreidel

Of course, we had to include a Hanukkah design even if it's "Christmas" in July.  (Eliot is Jewish so the two holidays are usually grouped together in our minds.)  I had him make the Mickey dreidel design as it was the one I was most excited about.  We've also got other Hanukkah designs in mind.  There aren't many shops that sell Hanukkah mouse ears; we wanted to make sure Jewish Disney fans had a few options as well!

Candy Cane Hearts

I loved the Disney Christmas Treats collection from the parks last holiday season.  Eliot and I both have matching Spirit Jerseys.  I also got the Loungefly backpack, t-shirt and leggings.  We decided that the candy cane heart design from those would be a fun pair of mouse ears so we created this fun design that matches the park merchandise!

Christmas Toy Story Aliens

Eliot and I both love the Toy Story Alien popcorn buckets available at the parks the past few years.  (Ooh... the holidays!)  Eliot had the idea to make these ears last year and like the Candy Apples, we never had a chance to get them finished with all of our traveling.  We finally finished them this past week and I love how they came out!  We even glittered the ear edges on our sample to add a little extra sparkle!

Christmas Flower Crown

I love making flower crowns and I've been trying to finish this one for a while now.  I've had the red mouse ears and a few of the greenery pieces set aside in a ziplock bag for a while but every time I tried to finish them, I wasn't feeling the creative flow.  Friday afternoon, I cranked up the Hamilton soundtrack and started playing around with the placement.  After gluing the greenery bases, it needed more and I added the smaller pieces with the pinecones.  I love how they turned out!  They really sparkle too!

Glitter Disney Cruise Line

We finished our week of holiday ears with our Glitter Disney Cruise Line ears.  This design wasn't the original one we planned on using, but it worked in a pinch.  (The original design was wanted to finish with is very complex, has a lot of parts and we didn't want to rush finishing it.  It's my favorite Christmas design that we've made thus far and I want to do it justice!)  I love these glitter ears though.  We took these on our Disney Christmas Cruises and they were my favorite ears that I made for the trip!  

It was so much fun to make all of these new mouse ears for Christmas in July!  I'm excited to add them to our Christmas and Hanukkah ear collections.  We've got so many more holiday designs on our to do list!  Hopefully we'll be able to work on some more of those between now and Christmas!  I hope you enjoyed getting some behind-the-scenes insider info of some of our new 3D printed mouse ear designs!  °o°

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!  I hope you had a joyous day with your loved ones!  Eliot and I have had a wonderful Christmas.  We've had a relaxing day, we've enjoyed spending time with my family and Santa completely spoiled us, as always.

And I kind of gave a Christmas present to my blog... yesterday was my 500th post!  I had actually planned for this to be my 500th post, but apparently I lost track along the way!  That's ok!  I'm proud of my little blog and so happy to celebrate this milestone! 

It's been a great day, but I'm totally exhausted.  We're getting ready for bed since we had a late night last night.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!!! °o°

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah!  Eliot and I are spending the first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve with my family gathered in the living room around the Christmas tree.  Eliot's electric menorah is lit, and Daddy's Christmas lights are twinkling along to the music outside.  (It's our own spectacle of dancing lights.)  This is as close to perfect as we can get.  All is well.  It's a beautiful night no matter what you celebrate.

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday weekend with your loved ones!  Wishing you a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!! °o°

Flashback Friday: Chrismukkah Edition

Happy Chrismukkah!  Eliot and I love to celebrate both of our holidays, and this year it truly will be "Chrismukkah" as Hanukkah starts on Christmas Eve.  In honor of them colliding, I thought I'd do a special Flashback Friday.  Since we're still getting our house situated, we didn't get a changed to decorate.  (Boo!)  I wanted to share pictures of our decorations from the past so you can see what's in store when we finally can decorate.

These pictures are from my apartment in Marlborough, MA.  This was from Christmas 2008, my first few months out of college, when I was unemployed and when I lived alone in a one bedroom apartment.  I had plenty of time to decorate.  And I had a blast!

Wall-E was Eliot's and my big obsession back in 2008.  Eliot got the large robot and I found a few smaller ones.  I made a Hanukkah display with one Wall-E holding the blue Christmas lights and the other one getting ready to light the menorah.

I also decorated my kitchen.  I made the decorations for my cupboards.  If you look closely you can also spot a "little chef" near the stove!!!

This gingerbread Mickey and Minnie snow globe was my gift from Eliot.  This was our first Christmas dating and wanted to get me something special.  I absolutely love it!

Finally, Tinker Bell in a Santa style dress used to be my Christmas tree topper.  I was so excited to get her from the Disney Store.  She still works, but since she's made with fiber optics, we don't light her up as often.  I don't want the fiber optics in her to die!

These next pictures are all from Eliot's and my apartment in Woburn, MA.  We moved in together when Eliot was finishing up college and we had a beautiful two bedroom apartment with a loft.  These pictures are all from Hanukkah/Christmas 2010. 

This is the first year I went all out with Hanukkah decorations.  I had a lot of them, and we had them everywhere.  I had window clings on all of the windows.  I found Winnie the Pooh with a dreidel at a local craft fair.  Of course, I had to get him!

These little Mickey, Minnie, Stitch and Eeyore snowballs were cute to add to the blue and silver Hanukkah vibe.  I love the Mickey Hanukkah banner that I found on eBay.

I got snowflake Tigger from the Disney Store.  Then, Build-A-Bear had the kippah (or yarmulke) and the tallit as a set.  I bought a few of them and was thrilled when it fit! 

Then, when it was time for Christmas a few weeks later... it looked like Christmas exploded in our apartment.  It was great!  Our bright red couch fit right in...

We put a ton of our Disney Christmas plush on it.  Most of these are the ones that Eliot bought himself.  He loves Eeyore and Stitch!  I really love how I had the idea to put our Grumpy and Tinker Bell Santa hats on the throw pillows!

Of course, we always have plenty of Mickey and Minnie plushies around!

This is Eliot's little table of Christmas Eeyore plush.

Here's our Christmas tree of mostly Disney ornaments.  On the counter, you can see my Cinderella Castle figure and the singing Tigger Jeremy got me one year.

This is our side table.  I love the little Mickey and Minnie plush.  This is the only time I've put up my Toontown Christmas Village.  It took me for-ev-er to track all the pieces down on eBay, and I paid a pretty penny for it.  I'm looking forward to it making it's grand re-appearance next year!

We added a little pizazz to the television area with a bunch of my Tigger plush.

Then, the rest of my Christmas Tiggers were placed on the stairway to the loft.

Here's a better view of our light up Disney lamp post.

I really loved having the open stairway to decorate!  I had so much fun hanging all of the stockings!  Plus, at the top of the stairs, I put Santa and his reindeer on display on the half wall of the loft.  (Eliot bought me all 9 of them for Christmas one year.)

Finally, here's my Mickey Wreath advent calendar that we bought at Walt Disney World years ago.  I'm so excited to countdown to Christmas next year!!!

As you can see, we have a lot of fun holiday stuff!  (And this isn't even all of it...)  Yet, another year goes by without having any of our holiday decorations out.  I won't lie, I'm a bit bummed out.  But, that only makes me more motivated to finish unpacking and painting the house!  I'm really hoping we can go all out next year!  It will be our own Chrismukkah Disney Winter Wonderland!!!  °o°

Hanukkah 2015

Ok, here's the last of my 2015 holiday posts!  (I'm finally caught up... yay!)  As I had mentioned in my Chicago post, Eliot's family spoiled us with Hanukkah gifts.  We got wonderful gifts and I wanted to make sure everything arrived home safely.  Eliot and I took two extra suitcases with us to make sure everything was packed safely and securely so things wouldn't get broken in transit.  Thank goodness for Southwest allowing two checked bags per person!  All of our gifts arrived home in one piece!

It was nice to spend time with Eliot's family on a few nights of Hanukkah.  It's the first time I've ever celebrated it with them.  During our gift exchange at the hotel, we lit a menorah.  The girls sang a bit of the Hanukkah prayers.  Then, we exchanged gifts.

Sara wanted everyone to open her gifts first.  She pampered me with Disney princess presents.  First, I got a Cinderella winter scarf, adorable gloves and a small wall art print.  They're all so cute!  Next, I opened some Disney princess bubble bath!  I can't wait to use it!  I also got a pack of Disney princess bowls.  The little containers are charming!  Finally, she got me a large princess coloring sheet pack!  I love to color!

Elissa gave Eliot and me our gifts next.  She had a shared theme with both of our presents.  She gave me an Olaf infinity scarf that I absolutely love!  It's perfection!

Elissa got Eliot a plush Olaf holding a San Jose Sharks blanket.  The Sharks and Olaf are definitely two of his most favorite things.  He loved it!

Eliot wanted to give me one of his gifts for Hanukkah and he insisted he bring it with him to Chicago.  I was thrilled when I opened a Hawaiian Minnie Mouse tsum tsum!

Rick and Nori got us each eight gifts, one for each night of Hanukkah.  I wasn't able to take pictures of everything, but I tried to get most of the gifts!  (Some of them, like my nutcracker Mickey, are breakable so I kept them packaged for Christmas storage.)  All four of us kids each got a fleece blanket.  I got Ariel and Eliot got Olaf!  Eliot and I got lots of holiday goodies including Mickey and Minnie Santa hats and plush.

Eliot got a Mickey snow globe and I got the matching Minnie globe.  We also got a few Christmas ornaments for our tree.  We definitely need a separate Disney tree now.  In fact, we might even need two to hold all of our Disney ornaments!

I got an awesome (not officially licensed) San Jose Sharks shirt that says "Sharks Fan By Day, Disney Princess By Night."  I love it and I'm sure Eliot does too!

Speaking of Eliot, he also got some Disney apparel in the form of two new Vans hats.

He also got an Olaf night light.  It'll go perfectly in our basement bathroom!

Can you tell we really love Olaf?  Haha.  Rick and Nori also got me these awesome Olaf earrings!  I've actually been admiring them online for a while now but I never ended up getting them!  They'll go perfectly with my new Olaf scarf from Elissa!

They also got me a Disneyland 60th anniversary photo album and a Winnie the Pooh Christmas Frame.  I love them!  We took so many photos at Disneyland!  And I love the picture frame.  I'll have to find a special Christmas photo of Eliot and me for it.

Eliot and I loved the Main Street Electrical Parade Mickey and Minnie shirts!

Finally, each of us kids received a Mickey Mouse blanket from the Disney Store while we were in Chicago.  It was on a special sale that weekend and it's so soft.  We definitely won't get cold during the long Maine winter with all of our new blankets!

Lastly, it wasn't a Hanukkah gift, but Nori was able to purchase the Disneyland Paint the Night parade ornaments that Eliot and I had really wanted.  I've always loved the ear hat ornaments and I wanted to put this set in a display case in my new office.  I figured it was a long shot since they were so popular, but she found them!  Yay!!!

Eliot and I are so thankful for all of our new gifts.  However, just like with Christmas, we're glad we had the chance to spend time with his family during the holidays.  We don't usually see them this time of year, so it was nice to have a few days together!  °o°

Catching Up

Hi Friends!  I'm back after a short hiatus.  Eliot and I had a craft fair this past Saturday. Then Sunday we put up our Christmas Lights.  And on top of all that, I'm still sick.  I thought that I'd gotten the advantage over my cold, but it seems to have manifested itself into a sinus infection/head cold.  The good news is that I switched medicine and I seem to be back on the mend, again!  After about 10 days of this, I'm really ready to be healthy Melissa again!  

I haven't written about our daily adventures in a while, so I wanted to do a quick recap of everything from Thanksgiving until now.  I feel like I'm playing catch up!  Here we go:

We had Thanksgiving at my parents house this year with my Mom's family.  It was a great day filled with lots of yummy food.  I love getting together with my family and my cousins and I always share some laughs together.  Eliot and I even dressed Eeyore up for the occasion!

Hanukkah also fell over Thanksgiving which kind of threw us for a loop.  We worked really hard to get our Thanksgiving decorations up.  Then Eliot and I were away for 4 nights of Hanukkah since we stayed the whole Thanksgiving weekend with my parents. By the time we got home, Hanukkah was half over.  We discussed decorating for it, but Eliot didn't want to bother.  Then, I got sick the day after we returned home, so I wouldn't have been able to decorate anyways.  Sadly, Hanukkah passed with no decorating this year.  But next year, Hanukkah falls in mid-December (December 16-24) so we'll be ready to have a giant Christmukkah celebration!

We did get our Hanukah gifts from Eliot's family.  We both got a Mickey or Minnie cell phone charm/zipper pull.  Eliot also got a keychain with his Hebrew name on it.  I got a really cute "M" necklace with a super small Mickey head on it.  I've looked at the monogram Disney necklaces a lot, but I've never gotten myself one.  This will go nicely with the rest of my Mickey Mouse jewelry!

Leading up to the craft fair, I had a lot of scarves to make so I decided to have a "Once Upon a Time" Marathon last week.  My best friend Katie had been sick over Thanksgiving and she told me that she got hooked on it through Netflix.  (Thanks to moi.) I decided that it was the perfect show to re-watch while I was feeling sick, and it was great background television for scarf making!  I made about 20 scarves in two days from the comfort of my couch!

The rest of the week consisted of me helping Eliot make more soaps.  We ended up sending out a bunch of the soaps and scarves for his mother to sell in California.  Then we made more with the new scents that we got.  I also worked on more Mickey rhinestone earrings for Eliot, as well as some more Frozen inspired snowflake hair clips.

The craft fair itself went pretty well.  We didn't do as well as we'd hoped that we would, but it was still fun.  The kids loved the soaps and I got lots of compliments on my scarves.  We're hoping that next year we can participate in a few more fairs.  And I'm also planning to add some of the leftover scarves to Etsy at some point!

On Sunday, Eliot and my Dad put up our Christmas Lights.  I helped with a few of the lights, so I should probably give myself a little credit.  As I've mentioned before, this is the first year that we've had an entire yard and house to decorate.  I've got a few photos from the initial decorating.  (We're planning to take some more photos and videos, so I'll make sure to add those once I take them.)

I put lights on our back deck that we're planning to keep up year round.  They're red, orange, blue, green and yellow.  I figure that they'll be bright and fun colors for the summer as well.  After all, who doesn't like pretty lights and a cozy backyard barbecue? (Ooh and don't forget the s'mores!!!)

This is the side of our house.  (It looks a lot better at night when you can see the lights.)

And here's the front!  We have a Mickey, Minnie and snowman inflatable front and center. We also added a few more lights since this photo was taken.  This is a panoramic picture so it's a little bit skewed.  We're planning to add our tinsel penguins and flamingo soon. And you also can't see the wishing well.  I'll work on that.  (It's really hard to take a picture of the entire house from our front yard.  I might have to go to our neighbors across the street.)

Over the past few days, we've also started to bring our Christmas decorations up from the basement.  I'm hoping to get them up in the next few days and over this weekend as long as I'm feeling better.  I love this time of year and all of the fun Disney decorations that we have!  Stay tuned for a fun photo tour!!!  There's a lot of Disney stuff to see!!!  °o°