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°

November 2015 Calendar

Hello November!  We're right in the middle of my favorite time of the year.  I love when fall shifts into early winter with the holidays around the corner.  I'm looking forward to so many things this month: my birthday, Thanksgiving dinner with family, Mockingjay Part 2 with my girlfriends and Eliot and I officially living in our new house!!!  Of course, this also means it's time for my free Mickey and Minnie printable calendar!

My printable calendars are always my most popular posts!  I'm incredibly honored to share another year of calendars with you and to and bring joy to so many Disney fans!

Here's the link to download the November 2015 PDF version of the printable.

These calendars are perfect for trip countdowns or for teachers and Disney themed classrooms.  They're also perfect for training calendars for runDisney events!

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.  Then, I'll send you the PDFs directly.  :-)

Fun Find: MNSSHP Halloween Videos

I can't believe tomorrow is Halloween!  It seems like just yesterday Eliot and I were running around the Magic Kingdom at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! (MNSSHP)  Today's Fun Find Friday is in honor of the spookiest time of the year!  I've found a few videos taken from Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party this year.

The Boo To You Parade is one of Eliot's of my favorites.  I love the catchy music.  They have a Haunted Mansion section with Madame Leota's tombstone, the hitchhiking ghosts, dancing ghosts and the always popular gravediggers!  (I love them!)

The Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular was new this 2015 season.  I loved the movie Hocus Pocus growing up.  I'm at that age where I associate Halloween with Hocus Pocus.  One does not seem complete without another.  I really enjoyed this show!  It seems to be pretty popular, so I'm hoping Disney will keep it around for a while!

Finally, no Halloween Party is complete without watching HalloWishes!  These are Eliot's and my favorite fireworks.  Both the music and show are incredible!

I hope you enjoy these Halloween videos!  I'm really thankful we already had some Halloween fun at MNSSHP!  Eliot and I aren't doing much celebrating this year since we'll be right in the middle of our move to the new house.  I'll probably be quiet this weekend with our move taking place.  Have a fun and safe weekend everyone!

Happy Halloween!!! °o°

Free Halloween Printables

Today we're all about the treats- no tricks!  I'm bringing back a few of my Halloween printables from when I started my blog back in 2013!  I had a blast making printable designs- back when I was less terrified that my laptop was going to spontaneously combust at any second.  (I think I'm going to need a new one soon!)  In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd re-share those since so many of you are new to my blog!

My favorite design is my Halloween Activity Sheet!  It's perfect to keep little ones busy while waiting for the Boo to You Parade at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

My next favorite is my Mickey Candy Corn design.  I used this printable for everything from scrapbooking, paper ornaments hanging from the chandelier, kitchen cupboard decorations, gift tags and garland!  The possibilities are endless!

Finally, I made a "Boo to You" and "Trick or Treat" design.  (Can you tell the Boo to You parade music was stuck in my head?)  I cut these out and put them on the wall above our kitchen cabinets using rolled tape.  I created the design in a few different versions.

Boo to You and Trick or Treat - Black

Boo to You and Trick or Treat - Color Yourself and Printer Friendly!

Boo to You and Trick or Treat - Orange and Purple (shown here)

I had a blast making all of these designs.  I can't wait to decorate with them next year when we're not busy moving!  I'm also hoping I can make more for other holidays in the future!  In the meantime, enjoy these not so spooky treats!  °o°

Moving Forward

Whew, I'm certainly glad last week is behind me.  I know everyone has their ups and downs, but last week really stunk big time!  Thankfully, things are looking up at the house.  I'm back to being excited about our big move next weekend!  By this time next week, we'll be officially living in our new house!

We've been busy moving forward with projects around the house.  I had a conference for work most of the weekend, but I was able to meet Eliot there Friday night and Sunday afternoon for some super productive work time.  After seeing how much we accomplished, I'm feeling a lot better about it!

Eliot's finished most of the master bedroom painting.  There are a few places we need to repair the drywall tape.  (My Dad is going to help me with that on Friday.)  Eliot also touched up the ceiling paint in the master bedroom.

I painted the ceiling of our larger guest bedroom.  I also worked on finishing Eliot's office.  There are a few places where we needed to touch up the ceiling and re-paint where the lime green accent wall meets the turquoise walls.  The room's not quite finished, but it's a lot less daunting now.

Eliot and I also started working on our master bathroom last night.  He's painted the ceiling and we put one coat of turquoise on the walls.  He put three coats of yellow over the tan and it's still not working.  The new plan is to paint the accent wall white and then go back in with the yellow.  Unfortunately, it was pretty late last night by the time we painted the turquoise and we didn't think to take pictures of it!

Finally, I worked on touching up the ceiling of my office.  It's really hard to see the white painted on white once it's dark out.  I have a little bit more of the wall to touch up, and then my office will officially be done!  I'm so excited to start moving things into it!

We're really liking the colors so far!  Eliot and I love fun bright colors and I'm so excited for our house to reflect our personalities!  My aunt and uncle swung by our house the other day (when we weren't there) and they peeked into the windows.  My Mom told me that my aunt said it definitely looked like we lived there with all of the Mickey and Disney stuff in the living room!  It's not home without a little bit of magic!!!  °o°

Fun Find: Halloween Decor

It's that time of year again: Eliot and I have been hoping around our local stores to see what they have for Disney Halloween decorations!  (And we've already found a bunch of Disney Christmas items, but let's not go there quite yet.)  I thought I'd share a few of the Halloween merchandise items we've seen with you for today's Fun Find Friday!

Photo Source: Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is the home of Disney Greeters.  Eliot and I love these things.  We have far more than I'd like to admit to.  My brother Jeremy bought us a Tigger and Eeyore for Christmas a few years ago when he worked at Sears, and it's all gone downhill since then.  We have them for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving, fall... and if they had them for St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day and 4th of July, we'd have those too!

This year, Wal-Mart has a ton of Star Wars greeters!  They're really fun and they haven't lasted too long on the shelves at our local store.  Eliot and I bought R2-D2 for Jeremy as a thank you for his hard work last weekend.  If you're interested in getting some, a few characters are still available online!

Photo Source: Wal-Mart

Another fun treat Wal-Mart carries for the holidays are their inflatables.  Eliot loves checking all of these out.  This year, our Wal-Mart had Mickey and Minnie but they were similar to the ones we already had.  One night, we went to browse the Halloween section and we stumbled across a Jack Skellington inflatable!  It was the last one our store had, so we grabbed it.  After all, what's Halloween without the pumpkin king!

Photo Source: Wal-Mart

Target doesn't have much Disney Halloween decor this year.  (Of course, both Wal-Mart and Target have a ton of Disney Halloween costumes.  Disney basically has it's own aisle in both stores!)  However, Target does have different options for pumpkin decorating!  Naturally, Eliot and I had to get an Olaf kit.

Photo Source: Target

These pumpkin decorating kits are perfect for last minute designs.  They're easy to use, quick, and not as messy as pumpkin carving.  Plus, you can save them to use year after year!  We have a few from previous years including Mickey and Minnie.

Photo Source: Target

Surprisingly, our local Target still had a ton of these left the other day.  I honestly expected the Halloween section to be picked over.  I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few Star Wars, Mickey, Minnie, Elsa, Iron Man and Olaf pumpkin decorating kits sitting on the shelf.  It might not be too late to snag some if you're looking for a quick way to decorate your pumpkins!  They're also all still available online- and they're on sale as of today!  I think Eliot and I are going to get the Cinderella pumpkin coach kit to remind us of our Disney Wedding!

Photo Source: Target

Unfortunately, Eliot and I aren't going to decorate our new house much for Halloween this year since we're in the process of moving.  In fact, we're planning to do our "big move" Halloween weekend.  Boo!!!  But that doesn't mean you can't get into the spirit with these decorations!  Have fun making your house frightfully spooky!  °o°

Making My Own Magic

Hello friends!  I've got to admit, it's been a really busy and stressful week.  Eliot and I are working against the clock to get our house ready for the big move.  The universe seems to be against us and it can get frustrating at times.  I'm trying to relax and stay positive, but it's proving to be easier said than done.  Hopefully we'll be able to get more done over the weekend and next week!  I keep telling myself that once it's done, it's going to be done and it'll totally be worth all of our hard work these past few weeks!

In order to distract myself from things I can't control, I've tried to sprinkle pixie dust and make my own magic.  I've found simple things to distract from the crazy.  Oddly, one of the most relaxing things I've found to do is to go on Instagram.  It's my favorite form of social media right now.  It's simple, easy to use and I can lay in bed while scrolling through my photos to relax.  I find it incredibly inspiring and I've found a lot of cool crafters and artists through it.  I've also found out about a few awesome sales!

Photo Source: Cakeworthy

I was on Instagram the other day when I realized that one of my favorite t-shirt and accessory shops, Cakeworthy, was having a pre-order for some of the new items from their Wicked Ones collection.  I've seen a few of the items and I'd been thinking about getting them but they keep selling out.  I decided to look into the pre-order.

Photo Source: Cakeworthy

I ended up ordering the Sorcerer Mickey inspired Sorcerer Beanie.  Then, I decided to treat myself by ordering one of the shirts I've been admiring since it was released, the Hitchhiking Ghost Flannel.  They won't be ready for 6-8 weeks, and then they have to be shipped to me, but I'm excited to have the order in so I know I'll get them!

One of my favorite Instagram finds has been Enchanted Candy Carousel.  April makes the cutest Disney treat inspired accessories.  She has an Etsy shop as well as an Instagram account.  I've been admiring her creations for a while now.  The other day she had a ready to ship Instagram sale and I fell in love with one of her Candy Poisoned Apple Brooches.  I had to get it and I'm so glad I did!  I absolutely love it!

Eliot and I also received a package from Disneyland the other day.  Although we knew what was inside it, but it was still fun to open it up.  We had asked Eliot's Mom to get us some of the merchandise we didn't get while we were out there.  Our big splurge were the Haunted Mansion Stretching Portrait figures.  She also found the nearly impossible to find Disneyland Attraction Posters that match our WDW ones!  We also got our Halloween plush.  (The Disneyland passholder discount is a lot better than WDW's so we decided we'd have her get them instead of buying them in Florida.)  Finally, we got our Disneyland 60th t-shirts and she surprised us with a 60th anniversary print!

These items have definitely brought a smile to my face.  I love receiving a little pixie dust in the mail.  Plus, I can't complain about the extra boxes being delivered to our doorstep.  All the extra packing material has proven quite useful.  Ha ha!

I'm sure I've got another interesting week ahead of me, but I'm going to try to take it all in stride!  After all, all it takes is a little faith, trust and pixie dust!  °o°