Small Shop Saturday: Headbands (Part 2)

You might recall that back in July I finally got my hair cut and got rid of my quarantine hairdo.  It's now a little shorter than shoulder length which is pretty short for me.  I haven't had it this short since Eliot's and my honeymoon in March of 2013!  Back then, I got it cut before we left for Walt Disney World and it was so short that I couldn't even pull it back in a ponytail.  (I had pig tails our entire honeymoon.)  This time, I was sure to tell the hair stylist that I needed to be able to pull it into a ponytail for working out, cleaning the house and working on projects and mouse ear orders.

Part of the reason that I wanted my hair cut was so that I could start to wear it down more often when the weather cools off.  I'm notorious for putting it back in a bun and calling it good.  I used to actually take the time to do my hair, but staying at home all the time has made me lazy.  I'm hoping to start wearing it down more now that the fall is here... which means I need options to keep my wild red curls tamed.

Enter the headband.  Back when I cut my hair short in the summer of 2011, I went and bought a bunch of headbands from Claire's.  This time around, I've been obsessed with handmade designs found over on Etsy.  I already bought a bunch of them prior to my haircut.  (You can read about those here in Part 1.)  After I got my hair cut, I bought a bunch more and I thought I'd share those too!

I can't seem to keep myself away from Sew Tangled.  I've placed most of my orders from Tammy as she offers both knot headbands and stretchy knotted headbands.  I've received five more orders since the first one and I absolutely love them.  I've found tons of fun designs- from Disney Dooney inspired patterns, to monorails, to Mickey colors to the Bubblegum Wall and of course a few Harry Potter designs!  In fact, my most recent order arrived on Thursday- just in time to make it into this post!

I bought a lot of Halloween and fall headbands from Sew Tangled.  The candy corn designs are a personal favorite.  I'm pretty obsessed with candy corn and they'll match my Walt Disney World Candy Corn Spirit Jersey and my Loungefly bag from last year!

Sew Tangled also had Haunted Mansion patterns like the cast member maid costume and the tightrope walker's skirt.  I had to get the Mickey wallpaper design!  Of course, I also couldn't say no to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party cast member costume prints.  I love the Halloween Party and these headbands are so cute!!!

This time around, I also bought a few headbands from Custom Threadss.  I've been admiring a few for awhile now, and I finally purchased my favorites!  I absolutely love the Cinderella pink dress headband and how the knot bow is a tape measure!  I've bought a few Loungefly bags and dresses that match this theme so it's perfect!

I couldn't help myself; I had to have the Wilderness Explorer headband.  I'm also loving how the bow is fabric with all of Russell's patches!

I also bought this stretchy Rapunzel headband from Custom Threadss.  I love it!

A few years ago, I introduced you to my friend Maggie and her shop Elephant and Mouse.  She still makes mouse ears, but she's also branched out to making knotted headbands!  She's had so many fun designs so of course I had to get a few.  So far, I've bought one for fall and one for Christmas, but I've got my eye on a few more of her new plaid Christmas designs... and they've already found their way into my shopping cart!  (You'll probably see another post with those down the line...)

As you can see, my headband addiction has grown into a full blown obsession.  (Send help!)  Seriously, I love them.  I'm hoping to behave myself between now and when the rest of the Christmas designs start to show up... I guess we'll see how that turns out.  

In the meantime, Eliot and I are in the process of collecting supplies to make a display for my growing collection.  Then, it will be easy to find what I'm looking for each day.  I'll be sure to update you once the headband display project is completed, as well an update on how my collection looks a few more months from now.  °o°

Small Shop Saturday: Headbands

It's official... I'm completely obsessed with headbands.  I've always loved them, but with the new craze of knotted headbands taking over, it's become an obsession.  Not only are they cute, but they're also a great way to add a little pop of color (or pixie dust and magic) into your everyday wardrobe.  Plus, when you have crazy wild red curls just like Merida, you're always looking for ways to tame your tresses.

A few days ago, I finally got a very much needed haircut.  In anticipation of that, I've been purchasing handmade headbands from some small shops over the past few weeks.  I'm in love with them!  I thought that I'd get all of my new headbands together and share the small shops that I purchased them from!

The first shop that I purchased headbands from was Sew Tangled.  This was my largest order as I bought both knot headbands and stretchy knotted headbands.  I've been eyeing the Lilly Pulitzer prints for a while; I love how fun, bright and colorful they are!  I have a lot of pinks, blues, teals and bright colors in my wardrobe so these were a must.  I also loved the red, white and blue designs for the 4th of July.

Sew Tangled also offered stretchy knotted headbands.  I've always pictured wearing these while working out, but recently, I've seen a lot of people are wearing them everyday.  I thought these might be perfect for keeping my hair out of my face both at Disney and around the house.  I really love the bright colors!  Plus, I simply couldn't help myself with the Spaceship Earth and Galactic Purple Wall prints!

The next order I placed was from Whimzical Creationz.  I've wanted a Disney dogs headband for a while now.  Not only did Wendy have them, but she also allowed you to request a certain character placement on the bow.  I requested to have Pluto on the knot so it would match my new Pluto tank top.  I was so excited when I also got both the Dalmatians on one of the knots too!  I'm also loving the Mickey Buffalo Plaid headband.  It will be great this winter!

My latest order was from Enchanted Candy Carousel.  I've bought handmade clay jewelry and a fascinator from April in the past and she does amazing work.  I was really excited to see that she's started making headbands too!  I had to have both of the bright rainbow styles she offered.  I also loved the Magic Carpet design and it was so original and I hadn't seen one like it anywhere else.  Finally, the ice cream headband was my favorite so I had to get it in both the headband and scrunchie versions!  (I'm pretty sure that scrunchies will end up being my next big thing...sorry wallet!)

Finally, back in May I already posted about my two Disney Dress Shop headbands that I purchased from Thingamabows on Etsy- but I wanted to share them here again with these other headbands that I've purchased!  Ahh, I still love them so much!!!

As you can see, I've got quite a headband collection going... and I've got plenty more already sitting in my shopping cart waiting to be purchased, made and to come home with me.  I'm also going to start making some for myself.  I've pinned a few tutorials over on Pinterest and I'm planning to dive in once I get my sewing machine set up.  I'd love to have headbands to match the tote bags I made in my sewing class!

The next thing on my agenda is to find a way to organize and display all of them so they're easy for me to see and grab.  I've got a few ideas that we're currently looking into making... stay tuned for more on that once Eliot and I get it figured out!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my latest obsession.  If you're in the market for some new accessories or for a great gift, check these small shops out!  °o°

Fall 2016 IllusionEars Designs

Hi Friends!  I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner.  I've taken the past week to get well, rested and caught up on our everyday life!  Thankfully, I'm feeling much better now!

As I've mentioned, Eliot and I have been very busy making mouse ears over the past few weeks.  In fact, we've made 50+ sets of ears in the past month and a half!!!  Most of the ears were for my awesome Key to the World travel agent friends.  We sold about 30 pairs to them for our annual KeyCon conference!

Now that we're settling back into everyday life, I thought I'd show you a few of the new IllusionEar designs we've made recently!

I think my favorite of the entire batch are these cute Mickey Pumpkin IllusionEars!

Another Halloween favorite are these Mickey Ghost IllusionEars.

I practically begged Eliot to make the Mickey Candy Corn IllusionEars.  Cute!!!

Of course, Eliot's got a few tricks up his sleeves as well.  He surprised me by designing these New England Patriots IllusionEars!  I can't wait to make myself a pair!!!

Speaking of sports, a ton of my Key to the World friends are from Alabama.  I told Eliot that we had a ton of Crimson Tide fans so he put this design together for me.  We sold four pairs of these to my football loving friends!  Roll Tide!

Another one of my favorites are these Food and Wine Festival IllusionEars.

We made a Disney Dream design for the cruise, but I didn't get any good photos of the completed designs before we gave them to my friends!  (This picture is from when we were starting to prototype them.)  We'll have to make another set so I can get pictures!

Eliot's also working really hard on some tsum tsum designs!  Here's a sneak peek of a few that I posted on my Instagram page.  (We should have product photos soon!)

Finally, we also released a Key to the World Travel logo IllusionEars design.

These particular designs were exclusively released to my Key to the World friends for this 2016 year.  The Halloween and Food and Wine designs will be available to everyone though!  (As well as many sports teams...)  We haven't released them in my Happily Ever Hatter Etsy shop yet, but they will be listed soon!

Unfortunately, we knew that with our trip to Walt Disney World and the cruise, we wouldn't be able to fulfill orders for the Halloween and Food and Wine ears in time for this year's Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and Epcot's International Food and Wine Festival.  However, the good news is that we're already working on Christmas designs.  Hopefully we'll be able to release some of those over the next few weeks!

There's definitely a lot of designing going on for our IllusionEars collection.  I'll be sure to post more product photos when I have them!  °o°
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Fun Find: Elephant & Mouse

Hi friends!  I hope you enjoyed my Disneyland April trip recap from last week!  I really enjoyed reliving my memories through photos!  I've taken a blogging break the past few days to get caught up on a few other things.  But now, I'd like to return to our regularly scheduled programming and what better way to get back into the swing of things than by having a Fun Find Friday!  Today, I'm featuring Elephant and Mouse!

I first discovered Maggie's shop through Instagram.  I immediately fell in love with her ear designs and had to see more.  From her Instagram page, I hopped over to her online Etsy shop where I instantly favorited a ton of her designs.

When I discovered Elephant and Mouse, I was preparing for my trip to Disneyland, so I purchased a pair of Maggie's "Disney Park Doodles" ears with a fun hot pink bow.  A few weeks later, they arrived at our house!  Not only were they stunning, but they're sturdy and made exceptionally well.  And the pattern placement and scale was perfect.

Maggie was a pleasure to work with.  She messaged me as soon as I placed my ear order.  She was really easy to talk with and very nice.  I told her that I also run an Etsy shop and we bonded over the trials and tribulations of ear making and fabric ordering.

Over the past few months, I've watched her Instagram account closely, and when she listed her Epcot Flower and Garden Festival Spaceship Earth Ears, I knew I needed to get some.  Maggie created her own pattern of Spaceship Earth with a floral design.  I ordered some with a custom bow of hot pink and yellow.  I wanted something fun and bright to match the ears!  I absolutely love how they turned out.  They're beautiful!

During that transaction, I also ordered the People Mover Ears.  The People Mover at the Magic Kingdom is totally underrated.  It's a favorite of my family, and I have many fond memories of zipping around Tomorrowland.  (My personal favorite was when my Nana suddenly thought she was actually riding on Space Mountain... but that's another story!)  These ears are so cute.  I love the little People Mover cars.  And the shimmery silver bow is perfect for futuristic Tomorrowland!

Maggie has a ton of other original designs.  Some more of my personal favorites are her Mickey Waffle ears, Fastpass Ears, 50's Prime Time ears, MagicBand ears and her newest: the Spaceship Earth flower crown design.  I want them all!!!

In fact, I couldn't not get the Spaceship Earth flower crown with the beautiful jewel tone flowers.  I love how these turned out and I bought them as soon as Maggie opened her shop.  They'll be here in a few weeks so I can wear them at Walt Disney World this fall!

At the moment, Maggie's shop is closed so she can work on the orders she took last week.  Her shop opens up again on July 27th!  (Watch her Instagram account for more information!)  And if you want a pair, make sure you set an alarm like I did!  This past opening, the 15 slots sold out in about 2-3 minutes!  But Maggie's ears are totally worth it!  I make mouse ears myself, and I can tell you these are excellent quality!

I'm so glad I discovered Elephant and Mouse!  I'm sure that over time, I'm going to have quite the collection of ears from Maggie!  °o°

Note: All of these photos are from Elephant and Mouse's Etsy and Instagram pages. Maggie owns the copyright on them.  Please do not use them without her permission. 

Fun Find: Share Your Ears

Hello friends!  It's time for another Fun Find Friday!  Today I'm sharing something really near and dear to me.  If you haven't heard about it yet, Disney is donating $5 (up to $1,000,000) to Make-A-Wish for every photo of "ears" shared on social media with the hashtag #ShareYourEars.  The campaign was announced and launched last week right before the Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60 television special.

Photo Source: Share Your Ears

Since 1980, Disney and Make-A-Wish have granted more than 100,000 wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions.  Many children wish to go to Walt Disney World or Disneyland for their wish.  This cause is really important to Eliot and me, especially since we've been blessed to travel to Disney so many times.

Eliot and I have been fortunate to be able to contribute a little magic to some of these children.  We raised money for "Walk For Wishes" a few years ago with my aunt and cousin.  There were signs at the end of the 2 mile walk with photos of children whose wishes were granted.  About half of the photos were of children at Walt Disney World.

Eliot and I have also used our businesses as a way to help out.  Snowblade Creations donated soaps to a local child for his wish grant party.  We made him and his cousin a few packages of Mickey and lego soaps.

We also contributed to Scarlet's Wish.  Scarlet's Wish Granter bought an Elsa ear hat from my Happily Ever Hatter shop.  Eliot and I also included some snowflake hair clips, Olaf soaps and Mickey Mouse soaps in her package.  After the party, her Wish Granter sent me a few photos and told me Scarlet didn't want to take her new hat off!

I absolutely love this idea and how much publicity it's been getting.  You can learn more about the campaign here.  It only runs until March 14th and it's so simple to help out.  All you have to do is post a photo on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with #ShareYourEars.  If you don't have an ear hat or ear headband, you can make ears with fruit, plates, balls... basically anything round that could look like mouse ears!

Photo Source: Disney Parks Blog

You can also post a photo with this cool Make a Wish and Share Your Ears border on Facebook.  If you click this link, it will take you to the page where you can hit "try it" to change your profile picture.  Don't forget to switch to an ear photo first!  Here's Eliot and I with Mickey and Minnie at the Disneyland Diamond Celebration!

As Disney fans, we all truly know the power of a wish.  Please consider sharing a photo on social media.  Let's help make dreams come true!  °o°

IllusionEars Update

It's time for an IllusionEars update; it's been a while since I posted one!  Eliot and I have introduced a few more designs since I first told you about our idea back at the end of July.  Most recently, we've added two new designs to the collection:

I'm so excited about the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows ears.  This was one of the first designs we came up with.  I insisted we make Harry Potter themed mouse ears since I love Disney and the wizarding world so much.  This was literally one of the first designs Eliot made me.  He brought home the prototype months before we officially announced our business.  It brings me great joy to finally have these listed in my Etsy shop!

Our other new creation is the Monorail design.  This is Eliot's baby.  We both agreed the world really needed monorail ears and he designed these all on his own.  They've been through few designs tweaks, but we're both really happy with the end result!

I'm incredibly proud of how well they've been received.  It's a big deal to wear your own creations to the parks.  I got a ton of compliments on my Harry Potter ears while visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  The Universal staff loved them and I had some great interactions with some of the "cast".  (The Knight Bus conductor was quite impressed with my Transfiguration Spell gone awry.)  The monorail ears were very popular at Disney.  I got a bunch of compliments from both guests and cast members- most notably from Disney artist Larry Dotson when he was signing our art prints!

There are plenty more designs to come.  In fact, I'm working on a the finishing touches of one right now.  Eliot's working on a few designs that he really wants to surprise me with.  (I can't wait to see what he's cooked up now!)  And we've got a whole list of other ideas!  There's one thing for sure- we certainly won't be bored this winter!  °o°

Introducing IllusionEars

Well, the cat is out of the bag.  (Or in this case- the mouse is out of the castle!)  As you know, Eliot's sister Elissa visited us this summer.  When she left a few weeks ago, we sent her back home with a little bit of pixie dust.  I've hinted about something big going on around here a few times over the past few months- here and here.  The time has come to let you all in on our big secret!

We weren't planning on launching it quite yet.  However, this weekend Elissa was at Disneyland celebrating her birthday with friends.  She wore her newest accessory, and apparently, it's getting rave reviews and lots of "where did you get that?"  So, without further ado, I'm happy to introduce Happily Ever Hatter's new line of custom ear headbands: IllusionEars!!!

IllusionEars are the brain child of my husband Eliot and me.  We've been developing new designs, crunching numbers and doing behind the scenes work for a few months now.  We're not officially launching the collection on Etsy yet, but it should be live sometime in August!!!  (Stay tuned for more info!)

IllusionEars are light-weight ear designs that give the illusion of a character, building, ride- basically anything we can come up with.  Elissa's wearing one of our first designs- the Disneyland 60th Anniversary design.  These are the base model and we will have more options available such as bows, glitter, etc.

Eliot and I are so excited about these new products!  We've worked incredibly hard and it's so nice to hear that they've been well received!  I can't wait to wear my own pair of Disneyland 60th ears when I go this September!  I'm definitely going to have plenty of ear headbands and ear hats to choose from!!!  °o°