To Orlando, With Love

Orlando, it's been a really rough week hasn't it?  I've sat down to write this so many times, but I couldn't seem to find the words to describe the events of the past few days.

Heartbroken.  I think that's the only word that really matters.

We heard about the shooting of Voice signer Christina Grimmie when Sara and Elissa were watching the news one night.  We later found out she passed away from those wounds.  I couldn't imagine how someone could end the life of someone so talented.  I don't watch the Voice and I didn't follow Christina, but I was still saddened and upset by the loss of a young person with so much more potential and more dreams to fulfill.

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Unfortunately, the sad news didn't end there.  I was the first one of us to learn of the Orlando nightclub shooting since I woke up really early Sunday morning.  I started playing on my phone when I saw the news on Facebook.  A few hours later, the death toll climbed from 20 to 49.  I was sickened at the very thought.  Honestly, I still can't wrap my head around it.  49 people died for no reason.  49 lives were cut short.  49 stories ended abruptly.  How could this happen?  What's happened to humanity?

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I think of Orlando as the home of my happy place.  To me, Walt Disney World has always been a place filled with laughter, fun, happy memories and most importantly, love.  I spent our last day at Disneyland with my heart, thoughts and prayers over in Orlando.  Our little "Disney bubble" had shattered a bit.  We might be across the country, but you could still feel the sadness and sorrow.

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A few days later, as I was slowly trying to come to terms with what happened at the nightclub, a two year old boy lost his life to an alligator at my happy place.  Walt Disney World turned into a place of nightmares as rescuers did everything they could to try to find him.  The story did not have a happy ending; although, I am incredibly thankful that rescuers were able to find his body so the family can have some closure.

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My heart aches for the parents and sister of the little boy.  I'm also heartbroken for Christina Grimmie's family, friends and fans.  My heart breaks for the family and friends of the victims of the nightclub shooting, as well as the entire LGBT community.

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Sometimes, I really wonder about humanity and where our world is headed.  Things like this make me question humanity as a whole.  But there are always good stories to come out of the bad ones.  I still believe that good will always outnumber evil.  "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me 'Look for the helpers.  You will always find people who are helping.'" -Fred Rogers

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Orlando has pulled together just as Paris, Boston, New York, and other communities have in the aftermath of horrific events.  I'm especially impressed with the theme park industry.  This must be an incredibly hard time for them.  Still, the staff, cast members, performers and characters have all banded together in a show of love and support.

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And I think that's what life's all about.  Kindness, love and laughter create happily ever after.  The world already has too much hate in it.  I think we need to spread more love.

Stay strong Orlando.  Know that my thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

"How do you spell love?" -Piglet  
"You don't spell it... you feel it." -Pooh (-A.A. Milne)  °o°

(Note: The Disney cast member photos were all shared here.  They're from different people but they've been shared so much I couldn't find all of the original sources.)

Back from California

Hi friends!  Eliot and I are back home in Maine after another amazing trip!  Ok, so we technically got back to the house yesterday morning but we were only here long enough to take a nap for a few hours, then to shower and head into work.  When we got home last night, we both crashed!  But our California vacation was totally worth it!

I don't think we've ever crammed so many fun events into one vacation before.  I'm completely exhausted, but we had such a great time!  I'll be sure to tell you all about it but it will have to wait for now.  This is the first chance I've had to catch my breath and I need to get caught up with a few other things... mainly laundry and grocery shopping!

I'll be back soon to post our bucket list results!!!  °o°

Congrats Elissa!!!

Today, Eliot's youngest sister, Elissa, graduates from high school!!!  Wow; time flies.  I first met Elissa when she was only nine years old.  I remember when we used to talk about her graduating from high school like it was far off in the future; yet, here we are!

We're very proud of the young woman she has become.  We're also really excited that she'll be coming across the country to join us in Maine as a student at UNE this fall!

The rest of this week we'll be playing and celebrating at Disneyland.  I came across a few items on Etsy and Instagram that were too perfect to pass up.  Here are the Disney themed graduation gifts Eliot and I bought her for our trip to Disneyland this week!

The first is a Disneyland Just Graduated Button from Vivid Buttons.  I saw this on Instagram and I had to get her one to wear!  It's so cute!!!  She'll love it!

Our other gift was this cute Disneyland Graduation Shirt from Mad Cutter Designs.  I searched on Etsy for Disney themed graduation ideas and this shirt was perfect!  It's fun, bright, colorful and a wonderful nod to the classic Disneyland logo!

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Congratulations to Elissa and the KJHS class of 2016!!!  °o°

Disney Pixar Blog Hop- June 2016

Welcome to the Disney Pixar Blog Hop!

Disney and crafting are a magical combination, and we are so happy you joined us to day for this blog hop.  Some of the crafters participating in this event have been doing this together since 2011!  Over the years the hop has grown but one thing has always stayed the same . . . amazing crafting projects that feature your favorite characters from Disney and Pixar movies.

For 2016 we are going to have a hop every other month for the entire year!  If you missed the one of the hops we already had this year, you can still go back and see the projects.  For February click HERE and for April click HERE.  If you are on Facebook you can like the group page so that you can be the first to learn about each upcoming event.  Just click HERE to go the the Facebook page.

To make sure you don't miss any of the fun, be sure to start at Shawn's blog to see all of the projects.  Just click HERE to head over to her blog and then follow the hop line up at the bottom of the post to see everyone's projects.

For my project, I wanted to make something bright, colorful and fun for spring.  I've had the idea to make a little Tinker Bell fairy garden bouncing around in my head for a while now.  I'm so excited to finally bring it to fruition!  It was easy to make and it took less than an hour to complete.  Here's how I made it!

Materials:

Lantern
Bright Silk Flowers
Tinker Bell Figurine
Glitter
Paint Brush
Green Felt (not pictured)
Elmer's Glue
Hot Glue Gun

Scissors
Bottle Cap (if necessary- not pictured)

Steps to Make Tinker Bell's Fairy Garden Lantern:

1.) Cut Silk Flowers and Leaves Off the Bunch

First, cut a few flowers and leaves off of your silk flower bunch.  I cut off about 7-8 flowers, and 5-6 sets of leaves.  (Make sure you're cutting the plastic part of the stems, otherwise, you'll need wire cutters!)  Set the leaves and flowers aside.

2.) Glue Glitter to Tinker Bell and Fairy Wings

Next, put some glue on Tinker Bell's wings.  Spread the glue evenly using a paint brush.  Sprinkle some glitter over them to make them shine.  I used diamond dust glitter.  Optional: you can also add glitter to Tinker Bell's shoes and dress.  I found lime glitter so I made her dress sparkly.  I also added glitter to her shoe pom poms!

3.) Prepare Lantern

Please be very careful when preparing your lantern.  (Mine had small shards of glass on the inside when I opened it.)  Clean your lantern and the glass if necessary.  Then, cut a piece of green felt large enough to cover the bottom of the lantern.  Glue it into place using the hot glue gun.

4.) Glue Leaves and Flowers

Glue the leaves and flowers to your felt base.  I started by putting 4-5 leaves around the outer edge.  Then, I started adding a few flowers on top of them.

5.) Prepare Tinker Bell Figurine (if necessary)

My Tinker Bell figure came in three pieces.  I found her on eBay by searching under figurine.  (I think she's technically a cake decoration.  She came in a package of six fairies for about $10.)  Glue Tinker Bell's wings to her back and her feet to her base.

6.) Attach Tinker Bell Figurine

Glue Tinker Bell's base to your garden.  I glued her to one of the flower petals.

7.) Secure Tinker Bell Figurine (if necessary)

Unfortunately, the petal I glued Tink to wasn't very sturdy.  She kept flipping back and forth.  I found a bottle cap that was the right size to keep her still.  I glued it behind the leaves and petals.  After it was tucked in, you'd never even know it was there!

7.) Finish Flower Garden

Finally, finish gluing flowers into your garden.  You can put as many or as few as you want.  I put enough flowers in there so you can't see Tinker Bell's base, the bottle cap or where I glued the leaf stems to the felt base.  Close the door and you're done!

Isn't this cute?!?!  I absolutely love my Tinker Bell Fairy Garden Lantern!  It actually turned out better than I imagined it would.  The best part of this DIY project is that it's so easy to customize.  You can spray paint the lantern, decorate the lantern with glitter or vinyl, add a battery pack of fairy lights, and more!  And I still have five more fairies... I don't think this is my last lantern fairy garden.

I think I'm going to put Tinker Bell in my office so I can enjoy the bright colors year round.  It reminds me of our Disney Wedding.  (Our colors were lime and hot pink!)  If you make a fairy garden lantern for yourself, I'd love to see pictures!  °o°

Before you go, make sure to enter to win our prize for this hop . . .

We have a paper and sticker variety pack from Reminisce!  There was so much I could not get it all into the photo.  These papers will be perfect for your Disney crafting.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Good luck, and enjoy the rest of the hop!

The full blog hop line up is below.  

Shawn

Ellen

Tammy

Melissa

Miranda

Jenny

Live the Magic

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to leave for California and Disneyland this evening!!!  I literally can't contain my excitement!!!  Watch out West Coast... here we come!!!

I have to admit, this was probably the easiest Disney countdown I've experienced.  I got a taste of Disneyland back at the end of April, and though it's not the shortest time between Disney trips, that award went to our crazy September of 2015, this was pretty breezy.  Once we're at Disneyland, it'll have officially been 37 days since I was last there.  And this past month flew right by... in a good way!

As always, if you see Eliot and me at Disneyland, please come say hello!  We'd love to meet fellow Disney fans!  I promise we don't bite!  (Unless you happen to be a candy apple.  Then, I make no promises!)  Even if you aren't walking in Walt's footsteps at Disneyland this weekend, you can still virtually follow along with the fun from the comfort of your own home. Come Live the Magic with us!

If you aren't already, follow My Disney Life on Facebook for pictures, posts and updates.  I'm also on Instagram as @MyDisneyLifeBlog if you want to follow the photo fun there!  In the past, I tend to be more active on Instagram during our Disney trips.  I like to post photos "live" from the parks.  Don't have an Instagram account?  If you follow this link, you should be able to see all of my photos online!

I've given up on using my Periscope and Snapchat accounts, but I'm still on board to try Facebook's new "live" feature.  The videos don't go away and I think more of my followers would have access to it!  So if you are following me on Facebook, you might be in for a few treats!  You should get an alert when I'm live.  If you can't tune in to the live feed, you should be able to watch the videos at your own convenience if you go to my Facebook page.  Hopefully, this will allow more people to see my videos!

In the meantime, I'm going to go double check my packing list, wait for Eliot to get home from work, and probably do a lot of pacing back and forth.  Or, maybe I'll crank up my Disney songs and get my groove on.  Ha!

Stay tuned for lots of Disney photo and video spam... See ya real soon friends!  °o°

Disneyland June 2016 Bucket List

I can't believe we're leaving for California tomorrow!!!  It's the final countdown!!!

Of course, that means it's time for another trip bucket list.  Since I started my blog, it's become a tradition to make a bucket list for each of my Disney trips.  Here are the bucket lists from my past Disney trips: October 2014 KeyCon trip, January 2015 WDW trip, Disneyland September 2015 trip, Diamond Celebration, KeyCon Universal 2015 trip, WDW Fall 2015 trip and Disneyland April 2016.

I've actually found them to be really helpful.  Instead of stressing me out, they make me more focused and I feel like I accomplished something at the end of my trip.  I've also been able to make sure that I experience a few new things each trip!

I've compiled all of the lists from the results of our September 2015 Disneyland trip, my April 2016 trip, and my Diamond Celebration list to come up with the following goals!

Melissa's Disneyland June 2016 Trip Bucket List:

°o°  1.) Buy a Mickey Mouse Balloon
°o°  2.) Eat at ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney

°o°  3.) Watch the new Frozen Show at the Hyperion Theater

°o°  4.) Meet Tinker Bell and the Fairies in Pixie Hollow

°o°  5.) Buy a Disney Princess Letter Name Painting of my Name

°o°  6.) Live Broadcast a Few Disneyland Shows and/or Parades

°o°  7.) Go to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar with Eliot

°o°  8.) Take Pictures with the Diamond Celebration Characters

°o°  9.) Go on the Matterhorn
°o° 10.) Collect the rest of the 60th Anniversary Pressed Coins

°o° 11.) Ride in the Front of the Monorail
°o° 12.) Do another autograph book

°o° 13.) Buy Disney art work at Wonderground Gallery

°o° 14.) See Mickey's March Along

°o° 15.) Order a Drink with a Diamond Glow Cube
°o° 16.) Take Pictures at the Diamond Celebration Photo Stops
°o° 17.) Get drinks and lobster nachos at the Cove Bar
°o° 18.) Go on Radiator Springs Racers with Eliot

°o° 19.) See the Newsboys in California Adventure

°o° 20.) Get our picture taken with Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde

I think this Disneyland bucket list is definitely do-able!!!

In addition to my Disneyland Bucket List, I've got a few more goals this trip:
°o° 21.) See Elissa Graduate from High School 
°o° 22.) Go to the San Fransisco Disney Store

°o° 23.) Go to the Walt Disney Family Museum
°o° 24.) Go the Little Mermaid in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl
°o° 25.) Go to my first game at the Shark Tank to cheer on the San Jose Sharks!

It's sure to be a super fun filled nine days!  I'm so excited for all of the new experiences this trip!  I'll check back when Eliot and I return to let you know how we did!!!  °o°

June 2016 Calendar

Hello June!!!  I love this time of year.  School is ending, the weather is beautiful and we're gearing up for a wonderful summer here in Maine.  This year, we're also heading to California and Disneyland for a little over a week!  I love me some Mickey... and speaking of Mickey, here are my free Mickey and Minnie Mouse Printable Calendars!

This year, I've also made a blank version (without the holidays) to make them more versatile.  My calendars have been used for many things over the past few years including: Disney trip countdowns, teachers' Disney themed classrooms, training calendars for runDisney events and to surprise kids with a Disney vacation!

Here's the link to download the June PDF version of the printable.

Here's the link to download the Blank June 2016 PDF version of the printable.

Feel free to link this post up to Pinterest or Facebook so your friends and family can have a fun Mickey and Minnie calendar too!  Let's spread the Disney Magic!!!  °o°

Note: I've made calendars through 2016.  I don't post the PDF links on my blog until the beginning of each month.  If you're looking for a particular month and would like me to email it to you ahead of my post going live, you can send my blog an email at mydisneylifeblog[at]gmail.com.  I'll send you the PDFs directly as soon as I can!  :-)