Fun Find: San Jose Sharks Pixar Night

Hello again everyone and happy Friday!!!  (Two posts in one week... who dis?)  I just couldn't help myself, I had to pop in again quickly.  I haven't done a Fun Find Friday post in forever... but I had something that I couldn't help but share with you all.

This past Sunday Night, two of our worlds collided when the San Jose Sharks had an official "Pixar Night" during their home game against the Colorado Avalanche!

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Naturally, you're all probably assuming that we went to it... but sadly we didn't.  Eliot and I both really wish we could have gone out to San Jose for it, but with my big birthday trip coming up, it wasn't in the cards.  However, because of how much we both love Disney, Pixar and the San Jose Sharks, I still wanted to share the details with you!

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You're probably wondering why the Sharks had a Pixar Night.  (To my knowledge, the Sharks are the only NHL team hosting one.)  It appears that the evening was officially sponsored by Disney and Pixar as an Inside Out 2 Promotional event to coincide with the release of the movie on Disney+.  Since hockey plays such an integral roll in Riley's world, it seems fitting that they chose an NHL game to host this promotion!

Photo Source: San Jose Sharks Newsletter Email

As if all that wasn't already cool enough, one of Eliot's and my all time favorite Disney artists, Jerrod Maruyama, created all of the artwork and marketing for the evening!

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For most of the marketing, they used an Inside Out Pixar poster with the nine emotions.  But if you look closely, you'll also notice a re-design of Sharkie!

Note: As soon as I saw the Sharks email about Pixar Night, I remember thinking that the artwork style looked familiar... I think my intuition had put two and two together that it was designed by Jerrod but my cognitive thoughts hadn't gotten there quite yet. 

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Jerrod even dropped the puck for the ceremonial puck toss before the game!

They also created Sharkie Pins with his artwork.  Apparently, the lines to get the pin were ridiculously long, but Eliot's parents were able to get us one!

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I also have to share a fun fact about why I think it was appropriate that the Sharks were the NHL team who hosted the event.  Our very own Sharks announcer, Randy Hahn, has made a cameo in both Inside Out and Inside Out 2 as a hockey announcer!  In addition to that, Kendall Coyne Schofield (a professional women's hockey player who plays for Team USA) is also in Inside Out 2 as a hockey announcer and she has worked on the Sharks network along with Randy!  How cool is that?!?!  

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Throughout the evening, I enjoyed hearing Pixar music on the broadcast.  We obviously didn't get the full game experience, so I missed whatever they did during commercial breaks or intermission, but it was fun to hear it sprinkled in during short stoppages in play.  I caught three definite Pixar songs, Un Poco Loco (from Coco), You've Got a Friend in Me (from Toy Story), and Nobody Like U (from Turning Red).

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After the event was over, Eliot and I noticed Sharkie had posted more images of himself as all of the emotions!  (I didn't think this night could get any cooler... but it did.)

It looks like it was a really fun night!  Hopefully, this will be the first of many official Pixar Nights at the Shark Tank!  Eliot and I would love to attend one!  °o°

Find The Fun

This has certainly been a rough week.  What started out for me as a bit of sadness from Disney attractions closing (including Aladdin- a personal favorite of mine), turned into a wave before the week was over.  It seems like loss is everywhere I look at the moment.  This past week alone, we have lost so many to cancer: David Bowie, Alan Rickman, René Angélil (Céline Dion's husband and manager) and Brian Bedford (the voice of Robin Hood in the Disney movie).  It's really depressing.

Alan Rickman is the one that hurts the most for me personally.  And I don't think it's even fully hit me yet.  I heard his voice during the "Alice Through the Looking Glass" preview Thursday night and it was like a punch in the gut.  For me, Alan will always be Professor Snape.  He was an amazing actor and he brought Snape to life for me.  It's hard to think about seeing him in the Harry Potter movies.  And I don't think I'll ever be able to watch that one scene in the boathouse again without tearing up.

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One of my favorite Harry Potter book quotes is "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." said by headmaster Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  In other words, you may be going through a rough time, but you should still try to "find the fun" and look for the positives like Joy from Inside Out would.

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As long as this week has felt, there have definitely been some positives over the past few days.  While I was home for Christmas, I discovered that Burlington Coat Factory had the Cinderella bracelet I'd been looking for forever.  I ordered it and long story short, they didn't have it in stock.  I finally ordered the necklace instead, with the intention of making one into a bracelet.  They came in the mail this week!  I'm so happy I found it.  My Grammie loved butterflies and I thought of her as soon as I saw it.  I also love the "never underestimate magic" quote on the back.  It's perfect!

About a week ago, I discovered tsum tsums on JCPenney's website.  I finally was able to get a few of the original ones that haven't been sold in a while.  They came the other day and I'm excited to add Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and friends to my growing tsum family.  They also had a few exclusive pink Valentine tsums!

Speaking of tsum tsums, my Disney Store package arrived the other day.  I opened it yesterday and it's always like opening a little bit a of magic.  I love the ShellieMay plush!  The Valentine's Day chocolate set and Dumbo are cute too!

I had a little bit of birthday money left over, and I was excited to find a few holiday Hallmark itty bittys on sale.  The Star Wars holiday plush were 50% off!  I ended up getting three of them along with Ariel.  It was a great deal!

Work has kept been keeping both Eliot and me busy lately.  I enjoy my job and talking with our patients.  Another perk of work is playing with Bear.  Lisa works down the hall in our office (we share a space) and she brings her black lab dog, Bear, to work.  On Thursday, I watched him for about an hour and I loved every minute of it.  I pet him and he brought me his toys.  We played with "Hedgie" his plush hedgehog and I rolled his ball back and forth with him.  I admit, I really miss having a dog to play with.

I've also been busy with a few Happily Ever Hatter orders.  Yesterday was National Hat Day and I worked more to get my shop name out there.  I'm hoping to set my sights on getting new designs together once I get my office organized!  Hopefully Eliot and I will be able to tackle it this weekend!  I need to re-arrange some furniture!

Speaking of Eliot, he's a sweetheart.  Last week, he showed up to my work with a Wal-Mart bag and insisted that I open it.  He'd found some Disney slipper socks and bought them for me as a surprise.  I have a weird obsession with socks!  They're awesome!

Then, this week, Eliot came home from work on Tuesday with another surprise.  He'd seen a tsum tsum poster posted online and went to the store to investigate.  He came home with the poster, along with Inside Out stickers, and two door greeters!!!  We love door greeters and we've never seen Valentine's Day ones!  Now, we have Minnie and Elsa- who I think also works for Easter/spring!  Yay!  (We later went back to the store to buy Mickey.  Minnie needed Mickey.  It is for Valentine's Day after all!)  He's the best!

After this long week, I'm looking forward to spending today and tomorrow home with my husband.  We don't have any huge plans, other that watching the Patriots play off game later on this afternoon.  At some point, we'll have to clean off the driveway since we're having another winter storm today.  There's something peaceful and serene about it though, so I don't mind.  I'm excited to spend time together working on our house.  Eliot started putting his Vinylmation away and he's going to have me help him arrange them.  Hopefully we can work on my office a little bit too!

This was a long week, and I'm relieved that another new week is just around the corner.  Sometimes you just have to be wiling to find the good things in life in order to be truly happy.  I'm thankful that I've always been able to find the fun.  °o°

Tsum Tsum Tuesday

Happy Tsum Tsum Tuesday!!!  Those of you who follow me on social media know how much I love these small plush toys.  Tsum tsums are a craze that's sweeping the Disney fandom.  What once started out as a mobile device game, has turned into a huge fad with tons of merchandise people line up hours for.  I'm not immune.  After all, how can you resist these adorable little fluffy friends?

Photo Source: Target

Eliot and I started collecting a few of them here and there.  We were going to get our favorite characters and call it good.  Then, Disney announced they were making a new set each month.  We still weren't completely on the band wagon.  However, over the past few months, I've definitely caught the fever.  Now, we're getting most of them from each new set that's released as well as a few from previously released collections.

Photo Source: Target

The Disney Store releases a new set of mini tsum tsums the first Tuesday of each month.  (Hence, the name Tsum Tsum Tuesday.)  Over the past few months, they've released a ton of tsum tsums including Big Hero 6, Lilo and Stitch, Inside Out, Marvel, Little Mermaid, Nightmare Before Christmas and Aladdin.  This month, they released Peter Pan, a Christmas set and a Frozen Fever set.

Photo Source: Disney Store

On another note, Target now carries tsum tsums too!  They usually have some of the previously released collections like Toy Story, Alice in Wonderland, Mickey and friends and more recently Frozen.  There's debate as to whether or not they're the same quality as the Disney Store tsums, but they're all cute and fluffy to me.  Honestly, it's been nice having them at Target since we don't have a Disney Store nearby.

Our little tsum tsum collection has grown a lot in a the past few months.  It's not so little anymore!  I didn't even realize how many we had until we packed them all up for our move.  We filled three one gallon zip loc baggies with tsum tsums.  We owe most of that to my brother Jeremy.  He's been going to Target and his local Disney Store to see what he can find.  (Every time he finds some, he sends me a photo of them stacked up in his car or his apartment.)  Eliot and I have bought a few from our local Target, but Jeremy really deserves the credit for our growing collection.  

In fact, I want to publicly acknowledge my "little" brother.  I've mentioned how awesome he is on my blog before, but he really deserves a lot more credit and recognition.  This morning, Jeremy text messaged me around 8:00 am saying he was in line at his local Disney Store waiting for it to open.  (I thought it opened at 9:00 am but and it didn't until 10:00.)  Not only did he go stand in the cold for two hours to be one of the first in line- he was second from the front- but he also had asked for the day off of work just so he could get me the newly released tsum tsums.  If that's not an amazing show of brotherly love and dedication, then I don't know what is.

Thank you Jeremy for your time and efforts searching for tsum sums at both the Disney Store and at Target.  You're really the best brother ever!  I love you!!!  °o°

Weekend Shopping

Last night, Eliot and I took an impromptu trip up to Portland to go shopping.  It doesn't take much for us to hop in the car to go for a quick shopping trip, especially when we both run crafty businesses and are always needing supplies.  In fact, I actually needed a few things from the craft stores and we also had some coupons.

On the drive up, my car's service light turned on.  We ended up going to Wal-Mart to check the oil just in case.  It needed some, so we went to Wal-Mart, which wasn't on our original to do list.  Of course, while there, we poked around a bit.  Eliot found Toy Story and Lion King pj pants for me and we decided to get them.  I don't have many pants in the thinner material.  These are so cute!  They'll be perfect this fall.

After Wal-Mart, we ran a few errands before heading over to the mall.  I wanted to see if Hot Topic had their new Dumbo bow.  I wanted to get one since Eliot's running the Dumbo Challenge next month!  Unfortunately, they didn't have it.  Instead, Eliot bought two of the Inside Out Mystery Minis by Funko.  I opened up Fear and he got Joy.

We walked through the mall over to the Hallmark store.  Before Eliot left for California, The Paper Source had all of the Inside Out itty bittys.  I was curious what they had in stock now.  Eliot went to another store while I looked around.  I realized they only had one Disgust left.  They also had two Rapunzel plush, but one looked a little wonky.  I decided to purchase those two since I was trying to behave myself.

I went to meet up with Eliot.  He saw my bag and asked what I got.  I showed him Disgust and Rapunzel.  He asked why I only got Disgust and I told him how there were plenty of the other Inside Out itty bittys left.  He then asked me how much each of them were.  Before I knew it, we were walking back across the mall to Hallmark!  Eliot had cash on him and he bought me Joy, Fear, Anger and Sadness!  He's the best husband ever!  My little itty bitty collection is slowly growing!

We had dinner at Chipotle before heading to JoAnn Fabrics.  I needed blue sparkly fabric for one of the Disneyland projects I'm working on.  I had a few great coupons to use so the timing was perfect.  After seeing the coupons, Eliot disappeared for a few minutes and came back with the Olaf fabric he's been admiring for a while.  He got four yards at 60% off and it was a great deal!  He's got a special project in mind for it that we'll try to work on sometime this winter.  I'll share photos once it's completed!

All in all, it was a great spur of the moment shopping trip!  Now I have a few more craft supplies to keep me busy with projects for our upcoming trips!!!  °o°

Fun Find: Inside Out Emojis

It's time for another Fun Find Friday!!!  Today, we're taking a look at Inside Out Emojis!

Those of you who use Facebook Messenger are probably well aware of the stickers you can send to your friends.  If not, I'm about to blow your mind.  You can "download" stickers to send to others on Facebook.  (Read more about how to do that here.)

A lot of movies have designed stickers to promote their movies.  I've also downloaded stickers from Hunger Games, Minions, Frozen and Disney-Pixar.  However, my newest obsession are the Inside Out emoji stickers.  I've actually had these on my Fun Find list for a while.  They've been available since before the movie was released!

Since the characters in the movie are based on emotions, these are perfect.  Eliot and I use them regularly now.  In fact, we can have entire conversations just in emojis.  Our wallets crying like Sadness seems to be a regular trend.  (Disney, will you stop with all the cool merchandise already?!?!)  I'd also like to note that in both these examples, Eliot's sending me links to cool merchandise.  He's clearly an enabler.

Aren't these fun?  In the second conversation I can picture Eliot rolling his eyes at me like Disgust while I'm saying "you know you love me!"  The best part is that there are multiple images of each character.  Here's what the entire collection looks like.

Image from Facebook

If you like them go download them to your sticker book before they're no longer available!  I've heard that people who didn't already get the Frozen stickers can't get them now!  (Which is a tragedy- ecstatic jumping Olaf is another personal favorite sticker of mine!)  Have fun expressing your thoughts and emotions.  °o°

New IllusionEars for D23

Hi friends!  We've been busy around here as usual.  I find the days flying by without time for me to even think about writing.  I'm holding the fort down while Eliot's away.   He's been home in California all this week.  A good family friend passed away unexpectedly last week and he went out for his memorial service.  Since Eliot was already flying out Thursday for D23 this weekend, he just stayed the entire week!

In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy.  My friend Shelly's baby shower was this past Sunday.  It was so nice to see my Wentworth girls again!  Lately, I've only seen my college girlfriends once a year and this was really special.  Shelly's sister did a great job with the storybook theme!  I was right in my element with the little Disney touches.  Shelly's niece was stunned when I told her I "borrowed" Cinderella's coach for our wedding.  She was so cute!

The shower was a lot of fun.  I love the cute baby outfits!  Of course, I had to spoil her little one with lots of Minnie Mouse stuff.  We had a great time and it was so good to reconnect with my friends!  Hopefully I'll see them again sooner rather than later!

It was right back to work after the shower.  Since Eliot had to leave early, that left me finishing the new IllusionEars for D23.  Thankfully, Eliot finished the designs before he left.  I've been putting the finishing touches on them and mailed them out earlier today.

Eliot's sisters agreed to be our models for the weekend.  We had them choose their themes- illustrating the sky is the limit when it comes to designs for IllusionEars.  Elissa wanted Inside Out Anger ears and Sara wanted a Lion King design.  Eliot ended up designing Simba ears for her.  They came out pretty cute and they also show off two more design options for our IllusionEars: painted one color or two colors!  (I'm currently working on a set of Disneyland 60th ears for myself with other options.)

If you're at D23 or Disneyland this weekend, keep an eye out for the IllusionEars!!! °o°

Camp Cady- Part 1

It's been busy around here as you've probably noticed from my lack of regular posting. Eliot's sister Elissa was visiting from mid-June to mid-July and we wanted to spend time with her.  It's been a few weeks since she went back to California, and I'm slowly getting back on track with my blogging.  Eliot and I had a blast and we were sad to see her go.  But we're going to see her again one month from today at Disneyland!  Yay!!!

I wanted to write a recap of her trip and I'm just getting to it now!  We've dubbed Elissa's long summer visits "Camp Cady".  She had a list of things she enjoyed last summer that she wanted to do again this year.  Eliot and I were more than happy to oblige. (Her list included a few of our favorite food places.  Yum!)  It was a great trip and we had a lot of memorable moments together.  Here's an overview of the fun we had during her month long visit to Maine!

The first weekend Elissa was here, we took her down to Massachusetts to Six Flags New England and the Yankee Candle Village.  We really wanted to take her last summer, but there simply wasn't enough time to do it.  This year, we planned ahead, even having her come out a week early so we could fit it in!  It was a blast.  I'm not a roller coaster person, but Eliot and Elissa had a great time riding them.  Their favorite was the new "Wicked Cyclone," the old wooden coaster that was just converted to steel tracks.  The first day there, Eliot and I went on Blizzard River, a ride like Kali River Rapids.  That's more my speed.  Unfortunatley, we got soaked and it had just started raining when we went on the ride.  We stayed at the park a little while longer before calling it a night, going back to the hotel and getting changed into dry clothes.

That night, we decided to go see Inside Out since it was the first weekend it was released.  We went to the local theater and it was so much fun.  The theater had a painting on the window with T-Rexes, Minions, Anger and Fear.  We loved the short "Lava" before the movie. It's one of my favorite Pixar shorts now!  Inside Out was amazing too.  We really enjoyed it and all wanted to see it again.  After the movie, we took photos with the giant Inside Out sign.  Then, Elissa found an Inside Out photo booth so we took a few photos in that!

The next morning, we got up early and headed for the Yankee Candle Village since it was still raining.  Our plan was to spend the morning and early afternoon there.  By the time we would be leaving, the rain would have ended and we could go back to Six Flags for a few hours.  However, things didn't go quite as planned.  We ended up spending twice as much time in the Yankee Candle store.  (Ok let's be honest, I knew that would happen... the store is awesome!)  The store was really quiet, although it was the Sunday of Father's Day.  It probably isn't usually that empty!

We enjoyed having most of the store to ourselves; we took photos, found gifts for family members and got a few things for ourselves.  Shortly after arriving, I found a rainbow Minnie Mouse plush that fell in love with instantly.  In fact, I carried her around the entire store before purchasing her.  (She's going to live on my desk!)  There was a good sized Frozen toy display that I enjoyed browsing through.  (I'm such a kid.)  I never realized they sold Jim Shore Disney figures!  I also admired those for a while.

In fact, the store had quite a few Disney things on display.  The best one of all... the Frozen village set with Elsa's Ice Castle. Over and over I told Eliot we didn't need it, but he insisted we get it since he knows how much I love Frozen.  (He's the best!)  I can't wait to put it on display this winter!  It's stunning lit up.

After shopping, we took our bags out to the car and went back inside to get something to eat.  Yankee Candle has a great selection of food and we ordered plenty.  We sat next to the fountain while we enjoyed our meal.  Afterwards, Elissa ran over to get some gourmet popcorn and then we bid the Yankee Candle Village goodbye.

We went back to Six Flags for a few hours that afternoon.  Coke was running a promotion where you could make a small soda can with your name on it.  We really wanted to do that so we headed there first.  We also got cans with my parent's names on them.  (My Dad loves Coke items.)  Afterwards, Eliot went on Bizarro, the insanely tall roller coaster they got me on a few summers ago when his other sister Sara was visiting.  Elissa and I ate ice cream bars while waiting for him.  Before we left, Eliot and Elissa went on Wicked Cyclone one last time.  Our weekend getaway was a great way to kick of Elissa's stay!

Back home, we found plenty of things to keep ourselves busy.  Elissa hung out at the house while Eliot and I were at work.  At night, we'd try to watch movies.  We also hit up a few of the local stores.  Elissa and I enjoyed looking at craft supplies at Michael's, ACMoore and JoAnn's.  Elissa was a fan of JoAnn's selection of Disney fabrics.

We enjoyed wandering around Wal-Mart.  Our local store had a great section of Disney stickers and posters.  One night, Elissa and I went to Kohl's and found the Lauren Conrad Minnie Mouse collection red skirt in my size!  (And it came home with me.)

We also went to the mall a few times.  Hot Topic is a personal favorite of ours.  They carry a lot of Disney items.  Elissa and I were on a mission to find Inside Out items; we weren't disappointed!  We both left with Bing Bong shirts and Inside Out socks.

The following week, we took Elissa to Old Orchard Beach to watch the fireworks.  Over the summer, the city has fireworks on the beach every Thursday night.  Eliot and Elissa bought Pier Fries and I got an ice cream and we enjoyed the beautiful sunset and people watching.  The fireworks display was a lot longer than I expected!  It was a great show.  After, we played on the beach for a little while before calling it a night.

The second weekend Elissa stayed with us, we had the Color Run.  (Read more in my Color Run post.)  Long story short, we had a good time even though it poured.  It was really great to see our friends!  We also had fun making our Tinker Bell inspired outfits!

Just like that Elissa's trip was already half way over!  Check back in a few days for the recap of the second half of her stay with us!  °o°