Happy Birthday Mickey and Minnie!

Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?  M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E!!! I'd like to wish a very Happy 88th Birthday to my favorite mice!!!

I love celebrating Mickey and Minnie's birthday.  Plus, their birthday is only two days before mine!  It's the perfect excuse to celebrate all weekend long!  I've written posts on their birthday in the past (2013 & 2015), but I wanted to do another one so I could share our more recent Mickey and Minnie memories through photos!  Here we go!

Here's my family with Chef Mickey at Walt Disney World in January 2015.

Visiting with Sorcerer Mickey in Toontown at Disneyland in September 2015.

Eliot and me with Diamond Celebration Mickey and Minnie in September 2015.

Eliot and me with Mickey Mouse (and our donkey friends) at WDW in October 2015.

Us with Minnie Mouse (and our donkey friends) at WDW in October 2015.

Eliot and me during our first (and so far only) visit with talking Mickey Mouse during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom in October 2015.

Me with the boss himself during Disneyland Spring 2016 Dapper Day!

Twinning with Minnie Mouse during Disneyland Spring 2016 Dapper Day!

Cady kids with Diamond Celebration Mickey Mouse at Disneyland in June 2016.

Eliot and me Disneybounding with Mickey at Disneyland in June 2016.  (Unfortunately, his line was closing and we didn't get a copy of this photo from PhotoPass.)

Quite possibly my favorite character interaction and photo ever: Me Disneybounding and twinning with Diamond Celebration Minnie Mouse at Disneyland in June 2016.

Eliot and me with Diamond Celebration Minnie Mouse at Disneyland in June 2016.

A dream come true!  My first Disney Cruise and a picture with Captain Mickey!

Eliot's and my first picture together with Captain Mickey during our first Disney Cruise!

Eliot's and my first picture with Sailor Minnie during our first Disney Cruise!

Mickey and Minnie have given us many magical memories throughout the years.  I honestly don't know what my life would even be like without them.  To quote Walt: "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing- that it all started with a mouse."

Happy Birthday Mickey and Minnie!  Here's to many more magical moments!!! °o°
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November Adventures

As I mentioned yesterday, the past few weeks have been busy.  In fact, Eliot and I have been busier than ever- if that's even possible.  Our work schedules have kept us busy, and when we haven't been working, we've been trying to get everything else done.  I'm coming to the realization that I'm always going to feel like I'm behind.  I've got too much that I want to do, too much that I want to create.  There will never be enough time to get "caught up" and I'm just going to have to get used to it.

At my chiropractic job, we're back to our five day work week.  I'm back to my normal schedule of working four days a week, but my work days are a little bit longer than they used to be.  But that's not a problem.  My co-worker retired this past spring and the important thing is that I'm getting things done and the work load isn't as overwhelming as I thought it was going to be!  Plus, extra hours means a little extra money!

Eliot's been busy with work too.  He's got a deadline coming up before Thanksgiving, so that's going to mean a lot of late nights.  But, I'm used to being home alone for a lot of the evening, and it doesn't really bother me.  I wish he was able to help me with a few things around the house, but hopefully his project will get done and be over soon!

When Eliot hasn't been at work, he's been designing new IllusionEars.  I think I've created a mouse ear making monster.  Not only has he designed a few new ears, but he's also gotten deeply involved with the painting process.  Most nights, I find him at the table painting something, but at least he's having fun with it.  Plus, it means that we'll have that many more designs that we can debut in my shop soon!

Speaking of Happily Ever Hatter, I'm working on a few custom designs for my travel agent friends.  Tis the season and custom mouse ears are the perfect gift for a Disney fan!  I've also got a few holiday designs in the works for one of my past customers.  I'm really excited to be working on new designs.  I can't wait to see what I come up with!

I'm definitely getting into the Christmas spirit.  In fact, Eliot's already brought home a few Christmas things.  A few weeks ago, he came home with a bag from Target and he told me that he'd "been bad" and spent more than he should have.  However, I couldn't be mad at him.  He had bought himself a Santa Mickey shirt, pj pants, and a Mickey Christmas sweater, and he got me the Mickey Christmas sweater I'd had my eye on.

A few days after that, he brought home the Santa Mickey door greeter that I'd spotted in Walmart.  When he purchased Mickey, there were still two Minnies left, but of course, when he went back to get her she was sold out.  Thankfully, my Dad and I found her at our other local Walmart last Friday!

Eliot also surprised me with a Tsum Tsum stocking.  It was perfect timing since he got it right about the same time that my custom Tsum Tsum Christmas fabric came in the mail.  They almost match each other perfectly!

Speaking of Tsum Tsums, I finally settled on a bathroom theme for our downstairs bathroom.  We were going to do a general Disney theme and use the shower curtain and stuff that I had when I got my first apartment.  However, I know Eliot doesn't really like that set, and I wasn't 100% feeling it myself.  The other day, I came across some Tsum Tsum towels from Kohls.  I kept it in the back of my mind.  Then, I discovered that Bed, Bath and Beyond had an actual Tsum Tsum bath collection.  The set is adorable and it's perfect.  I'm so excited to finally have a theme for that bathroom!

In fact, this past weekend, my Dad came down to help Eliot and I work on a few projects around the house.  Daddy helped me clean out the downstairs bathroom, behind the washer and dryer, and inside the washer components.  We organized the laundry closet, painted the bathroom, and started to paint the garage entryway.

We got a television mount for our master bedroom.  We installed the fancy new shower curtain rod in our master bathroom.  Dad and Eliot put all the summer stuff away for the winter.  And most exciting for me, we picked out a shiny new kitchen faucet and Dad and Eliot installed it Sunday afternoon!  We're still far from finished, but the house is feeling more and more like our dream home every day!

Most recently, I've gotten really excited about the upcoming Beauty and the Beast live action movie!  Have you seen the trailer yet?  (If you haven't, you must see it!)  It was released on Monday and it looks amazing.  I'm so excited to go see it in March.  I'm hoping there will be tons of Beauty and the Beast merchandise released like there was for Cinderella.  Eliot's favorite princess is Belle and I'm sure he'll be thrilled!

As you can see, it's been pretty busy around here!  The rest of this week will be no exception.  My birthday is this Sunday.  (I can't believe it's already here!)  In addition to that, Eliot's sister Sara is flying in on Saturday and will be joining Eliot, Elissa and me for Thanksgiving break.  Eliot thinks it's been at least 10 years since he was in the same place as both of his sisters for Thanksgiving so this will be special.  Thursday, we'll be joining my Mom's side of the family for our annual Thanksgiving meal.  Then, Eliot and I are hoping to do something fun with the girls that weekend!

I'm sure it'll be a whirlwind, but I'll be sure to check in when I can!  °o°

Election Reflections

Hi friends.  I'm back from my (very) unplanned blogging break.  In fact, I'm at least 5-7 blog posts behind where I planned to be by now.  The end of October and first half of November haven't gone how I imagined...  It probably goes unsaid that Eliot and I have been insanely busy.  But it's more than that.  I just felt that I needed a little break.

It did simply start out as being incredibly busy.  Eliot and I had so much to do once we got back from our trip.  I still haven't even done my post trip bucket list recaps- which is unheard of!  After last week's election, everything felt like it went into overdrive.  I've spent the past week listening to my heart, and have been taking a break from the internet and Facebook for the most part.  But now, it feels right to be back.

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There's been a lot of negativity spread around lately.  I've seen posts of despair, outrage, sadness, frustration, and hatred.  I admit, I've had a lot of feelings swirling around in myself the over past week.  I've felt fragile, inspired, scared, sad, hopeful, upset, ashamed, terrified, blessed, disgusted, fearful, proud and disappointed.  But, after riding the tide of emotions, the one that I think I've finally settled on is privileged.

How blessed are we to live in a country where we can elect our leaders?  We can let our voices be heard and we have a say in what happens- even if we aren't happy with the outcome.  We have the right to voice our opinions, whatever they may be.  We aren't prosecuted or physically harmed by voicing those thoughts.  In many places of the world, women can't voice their thoughts, much less decide who they want to be our next leader.  I feel privileged to live in a country where this is possible.

No matter what the outcome of the election was, our next president was already up against re-uniting our country after a hard fought political campaign.  While I admit that I didn't see this as a possible outcome, I'm looking to the positive.  My mother always comforts me in times of uncertainty.  While speaking with her last week, she said, "who knows.  Maybe he'll be the best president we've ever had."  And maybe he will be.

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I've always considered myself to give people the benefit of the doubt.  And I've caught myself slipping up a few times over the past week.  I haven't been ok with most of the campaign rhetoric.  Bashing others is never ok in my book.  Heck, half the reason I haven't been near my blog over the past week was because I wasn't even sure what to write, where to begin, or if I should say anything at all.  But this feels right.

In the end, we're all in this together America- whether we want to be or not.  This is a trying time for our country, as it's quite divided at the moment.  The world needs more love, hope and positivity- and me avoiding the internet isn't going to help with that.  So, I'm going to get back to my posts and try to help spread some Disney magic.  I have a feeling that we're all going to need a little bit of faith, trust and pixie dust.  °o°

October 2016 Photo Challenge

As you know, I've been trying to participate in the Disney Colors Photo Challenges on Instagram.  This past month, I've been far too busy to remember to post daily.  But I didn't want to miss all the fun.  Instead, I decided that I'd post them all on here.

Most of these photos were taken on our recent trip to Walt Disney World and our cruise.  I didn't have any for a few of the days, so I had to go through my past photos, but I did pretty good!  (After checking, all of them but four were from our trip!)  Enjoy!

Day 1: Years of Magic- Magic Kingdom Celebrates 45 magical years.

Day 2: Earth- Spaceship Earth lit up at night.

Day 3: Under the Sea- Journeying Under the Sea with Ariel.

Day 4: Autumn- I love the autumn decorations and the Liberty Tree.

Day 5: Fireworks- Fireworks at the end of the Little Mermaid ride.

Day 6: Tomorrow- Tomorrowland Clock Tower.

Day 7: Circle of Life- Simba in Disneyland Forever (not from this trip).

Day 8: Shining Magically- The Golden Mickey's shine magically on the Disney Dream.

Day 9: Electrical Parade- Our last time seeing the Electrical Parade at Magic Kingdom.

Day 10: Brave- Merida in the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

Day 11: Pixie Dust- Finally at Castaway Cay after lots of faith, trust and pixie dust!

Day 12: Neverland- Peter Pan and friends in the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

Day 13: Wicked- The Villains take over Celebrate the Magic.

Day 14: Maps- I loved these cute map lights in our Disney Cruise stateroom.

Day 15: Orange- Mickey pumpkin wreaths make me happy!

Day 16: Villain- The poison apple disco ball at Club Villain is so cool!

Day 17: Teacups- Mad Tea Cups at night (not from this trip).

Day 18: Memory- My newest favorite Disney memory, walking onto the Disney Dream!

Day 19: PhotoPass- I love taking cool PhotoPass photos!

Day 20: Green- Crush on the wall of the Living Seas at Epcot.

Day 21: Treat- I love Mickey Cake Pops!

Day 22: Snow White- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in Festival of Fantasy.

Day 23: Pumpkin- Mickey Jack O'Lantern and Cinderella Castle.

Day 24: Lake- The Seven Seas Lagoon from the Wedding Pavilion (not from this trip).

Day 25: Monorail- The mural at the entrance of Epcot (not from this trip).

Day 26: Imagination- The home of Imagination and Figment!!!

Day 27: Flower- Tinker Bell surrounded by flowers in Festival of Fantasy.

Day 28: Space- Space Mountain lit up at night from the PeopleMover.

Day 29: Character- Meeting Joy and Sadness!!!

Day 30: Parade- One of my favorite floats in the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

Day 31: This is Halloween- Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party 2016.

They aren't hosting a photo challenge for November.  Honestly, I'm happy for another break!  But, hopefully I'll be back with more photos in December!  °o°