To get me out of the house, my husband has been suggesting more and more treasure hunting trips. Antique malls, flea markets, and thrift stores. Any place where we can walk and look at neat stuff. Well, apparently it’s a great time to do this, because I have found A LOT! So be prepared for a long post…

I have been on the lookout for some neat holiday decorations for a long time. I even had my entire family looking this year. None of us had any luck until last week! I found two blow mold pieces at a local shop, the snowman and the Santa in the above left photo. Then this past Saturday I found the little Santa plus the really large candle and what I think is a gnome. That gnome is the same size as CT. ha. I really love these types of decorations for the same reason as I love Mold-A-Ramas, the process behind how they are made is so neat and the colors are always so vibrant.

I also found a, new in package, plastic Santa garland. There’s 10 feet worth of Santa’s that spell out MERRY CHRISTMAS. How cute is that? All the pieces were still there and the Santa’s were in really good condition. I’m planning on assembling them tonight and hanging them tomorrow. I’ll post photos once their up.

I found the above wicker lamp at the ReStore. I walked past it a few times, I really wanted it but had no idea where I would put it. By the third time walking past I figured it out, it can go in my soon to be new sewing room! (The previous room got hid hard by Hurricane Sandy. and is the middle of being repaired, so I’m taking over another room permanently). I also found the glass ship in a bottle at ReStore, I just liked the way it looked.

The dad mug was found this past weekend at a thrift shop near my hometown. It’s milk glass, and I think it’s super funny. I like to think that illustration was done to look like someones actual dad.

Fun Fact: I can’t crochet (or knit), and it upsets me that I can’t. I have been wanting a granny square afghan for years, I tried to make one, but that did not go well. I asked my sisters to make one, but that also didn’t happen. So I started looking for them at thrift stores, but apparently everyone had the same idea as me. Finally this past weekend I found the mother load. An entire aisle of afghans!! I didn’t just stumble on one that MIGHT be the right colors, I stumbled on a bunch of choices. I picked out the above one b/c I liked the colors and the zig zag edges. It’s in great condition too! I’m thinking of placing it on the back of our living room couch. That room could use more color. HA!

No thrifting post from me is complete without some Disney and Pyrex. Well here is the Disney! I found that Disneyland cookie jar a few months back at an Antique Mall for $35, I really liked it, but didn’t want to spend that much. So I left it behind. Well last week I found another one, the one above, for $3! So of course I bought it. It has a small crack on the back that has been repaired, but I’m fine with that. The Minnie and Goofy mugs were the same story. I saw them super expensive at an Antique Mall, but then found them for less than a dollar a piece this past weekend. I just wish I could have found Mickey too.

… and here’s the Pyrex! I have been finding a lot of pieces for amazing prices lately. I haven’t been buying it all because it’s the holiday season and I need to spend at least some of my money on gifts. I was really excited to find the two gravy boats above. I have a bunch of pieces in both patterns, so if I feel like being super silly and matching everything, I can. The little red Pyrex was only $1 and I figured I could find a use for it, maybe for makeup? The best find out of the first photo is that deep pink colored casserole!! It’s so pretty. I don’t think I could use it, but I did find a place to display it in my kitchen.

The best find of all though are these Pyrex plates. Their all in perfect condition and really pretty. I found three sets of 24, plus a pile of desert plates. I only bought the plates and one set of 24. I don’t think I could have found a place to put them all, or enough people willing to trade for them. I had a hard time justifying the ones I did buy. I’m wondering if they came from some restaurant or diner? I know they come in other colors too, because I have some of the tea cups in blue. Anyone know if there are any other colors besides the two?

So those were all the finds I could get pictures of. We also found a complete Playmobil pirate set for super cheap, a littlest pet shop house, a kids Ikea table and chair set in perfect condition, another holly leaf Corelle platter, a few Hallmark ornaments, a bunch of Little Golden books, an awesome Strawberry Shortcake book, some Muppet Baby books and a Fraggle book. I don’t just buy stuff for me when we go out. I think CT makes out the best.

I have a pretty busy weekend coming up. I have a Pie Party to go to Saturday and then CT’s 3rd Birthday party is the next day. I also still have loads of sewing to do. So I don’t think I’ll be thrifting for awhile, but who knows.

Oh and a side note, it felt good to write this post, so I think I’ll be back to my normal blogging schedule soon.

One good thing that came out of it all was since he worked so much during the weekend, he was able to take off yesterday. We used the day to actually do some fun stuff! We went out to eat, did a teeny bit of thrifting (I found a Disneyland cookie jar and CT found loads of books), some “window shopping” and we saw a movie!! Everything was nice, but that movie was great!!

We don’t really have a way of going to the movies often, timing is just never right. If we want to go, it has to be a kids movie that all three of us want to see. It pretty much has to be cartoon and can’t be scary. We learned our lesson about scary when we saw Brave, I still haven’t seen the second half (though I did buy the dvd this past week, so I’ll know what happens soon) Anyway, we decided to check out Wreck it Ralph.

CT has been asking to go see this movie for months now! It’s been hard explaining that movies come out at different times, sometimes in theaters, sometimes on DVD. She’s starting to catch on. We didn’t tell her we were seeing Wreck it Ralph until we bought the tickets, just in case. She was excited once we got in. We all were, ha. Truthfully we’ve all been looking forward to seeing this movie, and I’m so glad we did.

It was seriously one of the best Disney movies I’ve seen in a long time. The characters were all done so well, and the story kept your attention the entire time. They were able to make you feel something for the bad guy, the main character Ralph. You wanted him to be the hero! CT loved Venelope the best, of course. She was adorable!! I won’t get into the full story line here, because I really feel that anyone reading this should see this movie! It has a nice retro feel, it has loads of video game references from different decades, it has a little love story and a hero’s quest! Perfect! I loved it so much I MAY try and convince the family to go see it again. Maybe when it’s at the $2 theatre.

Now it’s Tuesday and my week is about to get crazy. We are headed to my uncles for thanksgiving on Thursday, and I said I’d make a pie and some macarons. Then we are hosting our own Thanksgiving for my husband’s side of the family on Saturday, which involves a lot of cleaning, prepping, baby proofing and baking too. I’m also hoping to get some antique shopping in on Friday during a huge sale at one of our favorite shops. It will be my only plan for Black Friday. Hopefully.

I hope everyone else is having a calmer week than me, and a great time with family!!

(the above two photos were courtesy of disney.com)

Well, this past weekend my husband thought it would be a nice to go treasure hunting again. We didn’t have too much time to go all over the place, plus CT has been very curious and has to touch EVERYTHING, not a good thing when their glass everywhere. Even with those limitations we still found some neat things…

The two pieces of Pyrex in the middle weren’t from this weekends trip. The bread loaf dish on top my mom found and gave to me and the casserole on the bottom I found for $1 during a quick pop in at a Goodwill, a week or so ago. I try not to buy pieces that are similar to ones I already have, but it was $1 and it’s a good size to use for Thanksgiving (which I’m having at my house for JC’s family).

The blue and yellow mini casseroles were an awesome find! I have been wanting the 8oz size for awhile now and was so happy to find them. Apparently friends of mine had seen them too, but left them behind! Thank you friends! Ha.

The Pez are for CT’s collection. She didn’t have the weird blog monster in middle, which she has named the “milk man”, so I picked them up for her.

Another awesome find, from the same shop as the mini Pyrex, was this Disney themed metal dollhouse! It was 50% off! This thing combines two of my favorite things to collect, Houses and Disney! I already have a metal dollhouse in my library, but I think I like this one better, so I may be switching them out.

These awesome holiday themed Corelle plates were the last of my finds. Like, they were actually the last thing I found before checking out. I was super excited because they mostly complete my set. The woman in line in front of me was also excited and tried to convince me NOT to get them! Ha. Who does that?!? Apparently I’m not the only one trying to complete a set.

So now that I have these holiday plates, I guess that means I have to actually use them? Maybe I’ll do a family dinner or something. Maybe.

I have plans to go out again this weekend. I’m on the lookout for some specific types of holiday decorations, I’m in winter decorating mode. Is it to early?

I’ve talked about my Disney collection here before. It’s kinda big and is growing very fast. I just love Disney! So of course, I bought more pieces while we were at Disney World last month. I didn’t go too crazy. I made sure most of the pieces were small (with the exception of a large knit mickey that I didn’t take photos of).

I had a difficult time picking which Vinylmation figures I wanted. A lot of them cost more than I wanted to spend, and others just weren’t my taste. I was very happy when I found a solid white one during our last day there, and then I found the red polka dotted one at our resort the day we left. I prefer simple figures, and these fit the bill.

I also bought a castle magnet to match my Disneyland one, and a castle antenna topper just because it was cute and simple. I don’t have a car of my own, so of course it’s just going on the shelf. The little plastic mickey ears are actually a Mr Potato Head piece that they sell. I loved how it kinda looked like a vinyl toy piece. The last piece is the Mickey in the middle who’s head is kinda tilted up a little too far. I thought he looked a bit like my vintage Mickey’s, and he didn’t cost much, so I brought him home too.

After we got home, I went on ebay looking for something I forgot to get in the parks. While searching I found this pin for the 30th anniversary of Epcot. The date on the pin is just a few days before we were there, so I bid on it and won it for $1! It’ll go very nicely with our Anniversary button and CT’s First Visit and Celebration buttons. As a side note, apparently Epcot and I are almost the same age, I’m just a month older!

So, this was actually the least amount of souvenirs I’ve bought at Disney yet. I was proud of myself! Now I just need to find a spot for them all on my hutch.

Oh and on a side note, I’ve found I really love taking pictures of my toys. I’m even getting that picture above of the red polka dotted Vinylmation toy printed large for my sewing room, like 18″x24″ large.

Our original plan was to do the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party the second night we were there, just in case any of got sick or something else happened. Kinda get it over with before everyone was exhausted. Well, it rained that night, so we were able to switch our tickets over to the next party, which was the night before we left. So it was basically a party to celebrate the end of our vacation!

You may be asking what the difference is between the party and any other night at the Magic Kingdom? well, a lot! They have these events a few times a week starting in September and ending right after Halloween. It cost additional and tickets should be purchased before heading to Disney, and if you go on Halloween (like we did for our anniversary in 2008) you have to get those tickets months ahead of time. It’s a great time to have your entire family all dressed up in costume, because everyone else was! (CT was snow white, us parents ran out of time to make costumes)

They close the park to anyone who didn’t purchase the party tickets around 7pm, which is when they start all the fun stuff. The first thing they do is hand everyone trick or treat bags, this year they were paper bags with Wreck It Ralph and Frankenweenie on them. These are used for trick or treating all over the park! Sometimes its just a Disney employee handing out the candy, but other times its actual characters. Though this time I didn’t see actual characters doing it, maybe its just a Halloween day thing? Soon after all that they start the first of two special Halloween Parades…

We figured we’d just watch the second parade, since they’re exactly the same, and go ride some rides during since they’d be empty. But we got sucked in and had horrible spots, so sorry for the crappy photos. If there’s a next time, we’ll prepare better and wait it out in a good seat. The parade was all about the villains. The whole night was pretty much all about them. Everything was so neat looking and all the costumes were amazing. It really set the mood for the whole night.

After the parade we went to ride the teacups again. As you can see above, the teacups really were her favorite thing at the parks. When you ask her what the best things at Disney were, her first reply is the pool at the resort and her second thing was the teacups!

The Happy HalloWishes fireworks were amazing! Again, they were all Disney villain themed. During the fireworks show they would cast weird lights on the leftover smoke to make it all creepy looking, and they would also project images of different villains onto the castle. As you can see in the green colored photo above, one of them was Oogie Boogie from the Nightmare Before Christmas. There were many others, but I can’t remember them all. Wow, does Disney do fireworks right! They were basically all around, complete 360. As my husband says, what’s considered a grand finale for our local fireworks is just the beginning at Disney. It was all so pretty!

After the fireworks we went to go have dinner before the next parade started. CT had been up a little late every night we were at Disney, so we figured she’d be able to stay awake. We headed down to the beginning of the parade hoping to get a better seat. We had no such luck. Good thing for CT, her dad is tall and she was able to sit on his shoulder to watch some of the parade… She started to get drowsy halfway through and ended up falling asleep in her stroller. We figured we’d seen the parade before, so we would just slowly head out of the park. I took a bunch of pictures on the way out of course, always take advantage of the quiet and calm time you have when your child is asleep! (like me writing this blog post right now) We actually caught the parade at the entrance and ended up being trapped in the middle circle of main street! That’s where that photo on the right above came from. Luckily they let people through inbetween parade floats, so we were able to beat the rush to the bus. which was great, because carrying a passed out toddler, a stroller, backpacks, camera, etc on a crowded bus sucks!! (we know, we had to do it a few nights before)

As you can see, our little snow white was seriously exhausted. I know she had a great time though, because she has excitedly talked about it all nonstop since we got home!!

I’m really happy we were able to take her to Disney World, and even happier we could do the Halloween party. It’s one of my favorite things to do at Disney! It makes me wonder if the next time we go should it be for Halloween, or maybe mix it up and do the Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party? Has anyone ever done both? If so, which was more fun for little ones?

Well, this is the last post I’ll be writing about our actual trip. If you’re interested in seeing all the photos from this our Disney vacation, just head on over to my Flickr page, I uploaded everything finally!!

CT loved the tea cups the most, as you can see above. We rode that one more than once! She also really enjoyed the Peoplemover, “it’s a small world”, Peter Pan’s Flight, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Dumbo the Flying Elephant (which has an awesome waiting area now, fully air conditioned!!). she DID NOT enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean! that was a bad choice on our part. It was too dark and she didn’t like that first drop. She could have fooled us, because afterward she wouldn’t stop singing “yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me…”. Ha!

We stumbled on something really cool one of the days we were there. Disney is building a whole new section of the park, all the way in the back. It’s going to house a few new restaurants, rides, shows, and two new castles!! The Beast’s castle and Eric’s Castle, I believe. Most of it is already built and a little bit is open (like the new, double, Dumbo ride with that air conditioning I talked about). We were being really nosy while trying to take pictures of one of the castles (pictured above), when we found a hidden door to the new section. The “cast member“ guarding the entrance told us we could come in and test drive one of their new attractions! It’s called Enchanted Tales with Belle and is an interactive play. It takes places in Maurice’s house (her dad), which I have pictured right above. They take you in and choose different kids to be part of their interactive play, CT was chosen to be an enchanted frame. We were a little weary she’d freak out, but she seemed happy she was chosen. The play is a shortened story about how Beauty met the Beast. It was really cute! halfway through it was CT’s turn to get up and be part of the play, but instead of getting up she freaked out and started screaming. I guess she has a little bit of stage fright. It was really neat being able to see everything they’re building behind those hedges, and it really makes me want to visit again after its all finished, which should be in about a month and a half!

As with the other parks, we put aside a lot of time to meet all the characters we could. CT was able to meet Alice, Minnie, Buzz Lightyear, Tiana, Rapunzel, Flynn Rider and Cinderella with her Prince. She was also able to meet Snow White again, which as you can see from the photo above, she loved!! She filled up almost every page of her autograph book, which made her very happy. I’m thinking of scanning all the autographs in and making a little Blurb book for her. She loves books, so I bet she’d love a book with pictures of her in it! Have anyone of you used Blurb? How was the quality?

So, I have more photos to share from Magic Kingdom, but they’re all from the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, which really deserves its own post. Oh and as I’ve said before, if you’re interested in seeing more photos from our trip, you can find all of them in my Flickr account.

This time around we weren’t able to stay for an entire day, there just isn’t enough for CT at Epcot. It was actually the park we went to after our two hours at Hollywood Studio, since theres a ferry in between the two. We were able to see a few Disney characters, like Snow White and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). That was really neat! Plus their two of CT’s favorites! She actually sat down next to Snow White and got comfortable as if she was going to stay there all day!

Epcot has the neatest things to see, you can learn a little or a lot about each country showcased, it all depends on how much time you have. Like I said before too, the shops are awesome! We didn’t buy too much, just some little trinkets at the shop in “Japan” (we wanted a lot in there) and a plush, mounted, bear head in “Canada” (to go with my moose head I bought back in 2008)

Since we were there in October, it was also the International Food and Wine Festival. Its an annual event held in the World Showcase section of Epcot. Last time we were there (before CT), we tried out some of the food carts they have scattered around, but this time, Because of my issues with gluten, we stayed away. Everything smelled so good though! I was able to enjoy amazing mexican food at La Hacienda de San Angel. Pretty much everything on the menu was gluten free!

CT was able to ride two of the rides, without being too short or possibly too scared. She loved the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros and The Seas With Nemo & Friends. She talked about them for awhile afterwards.

We stayed for the fireworks, because they are so amazing at this park! We didn’t get a great view (I was standing next to a trash can and as you can see, there was a tree in the way) but it was still amazing. CT loved them and kept telling us “thank you for bringing me!”, which is really the best thing to hear from your child when you do something for them!!

IF (in capital letters for a reason) we take another vacation to Disney, we plan on staying in a resort off a monorail for once so we can get to parks like Epcot and Magic Kingdom easier and quicker. We just enjoy them more! This was my third trip to these parks, and everytime I see something new! It all makes me smile!

Just like I said yesterday, I took loads more photos than I could ever share on here, so if you’re interested you can see them all on my Flickr account. I haven’t uploaded all the photos from Magic Kingdom or the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party yet. Oh and I forgot about all the photos I took with my phone, so I’m up to about 800 photos now… I just love taking pictures of EVERYTHING!

I’ve been editing photos all week, while also fighting a slight cold we picked up the last day of our trip (I say that because symptoms didn’t show up until Sunday). I LOVE everything Disney, so of course I took over 1000 photos. I like to pare them down, and then color correct and crop the ones I like, which usually only gets me down to about 600 photos. I get attached.

Don’t worry though, I don’t plan on sharing all 600 photos here on the blog, that would be crazy. Be warned though, I will be sharing my super duper favorites from each park. Here goes…

Animal Kingdom is our least favorite park out of the four. It SEEMS hotter than the other parks every time we’ve gone, plus there really wasn’t much CT could do there. Because of the rules that small children had to sit in the middle of the car on the safari (and not be able to see much) that was out, and then all the other rides and such she’d be scared of. There was a really neat nature walk that had birds and gorillas, you can see a few photos above. CT DID enjoy that.

We wouldn’t have even tried Animal Kingdom out at all this trip if it wasn’t for the safari themed character dining I made reservations for. I was last minute making plans, so it was all that was available in CT’s age range. For those who don’t know, Character Dining at Disney Parks is when you have a sit down meal, served or buffet, in a large restaurant where a bunch of Disney characters are walking around. They guarantee each one will come to your table and see your child. They either talk to them, or in the case of characters with masks on, they hug them and then take a photo with your child. Oh and if you’re collecting autographs, like CT was, then they also do that.

CT was fine when we saw Donald outside the restaurant, as seen above , but when we finally sat down she wasn’t as thrilled. She ended up being scared of Goofy (who was super tall) and Mickey (We got a photo of him standing behind us, and it looks as if he’s with us, that was super nice of “him”). Apparently she only wanted to see Daisy. She freaked out about her actually.

All together I think we spent about two hours at Animal Kingdom. Maybe next time we go CT will be tall enough and old enough to enjoy more there. Maybe.

Another park we really didn’t have much to do at was Hollywood Studios. CT is 38″ tall and a lot of the rides there required her to be 40″s. CT loves the muppets, so of course we had to do the Muppets 3D show! Before this trip she hadn’t really experienced 3D in a theatre, or at all maybe. She loved it! She was reaching for all the things coming at you and all. It was really cute.

After that we tried out this little play area based on the movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids. It was really neat looking with all the oversized pieces and all, but as a parent it was the most stressful place ever!!! There were these tunnels that only kids could fit in, and they had lots of forks in them, so you never knew where you kid was going to come out. Plus there were loads of people and it was super loud. I was so afraid we would lose CT somewhere in there, so after about 20 minutes we left. We just couldn’t handle it anymore.

All the other shows and such at Hollywood Studios had an hour or more wait time, and no fast pass, so we ended up leaving after about two hours.

We only had about 5.5 days in our trip to actually go to all the parks and see everything. Before leaving we thought that was plenty of time. We didn’t take into account the weather (which was bad the first two days) or the fact that this time around we had a little person with us, who doesn’t walk fast needs to stop and see everything. It was our first real trip as a family, we needed to be able to actually enjoy it all. That’s why we were being so picky with the parks. Next time, if there is a next time, we’ll add two extra days to our trip, that way we can enjoy more without rushing through it all.

Heads up, I’ll be sharing more vacation photos tomorrow. Oh and if you’re interested in seeing more photos from our trip, I’ve uploaded all of them to my Flickr account, there’s a lot, and I’m nowhere near done.

I tried out several patterns before I was happy with the outcome. The first few were commercial patterns I bought at Joanns. They never quite fit CT right, and the sizes were all wonky. Very disappointing, and such a waste of my time. In the end I found one on Etsy by Ruby Jeans Closet. The pattern is called the Peony Flower Girl Dress, and is absolutely perfect for simple princess dresses. The instructions were super easy to understand, you don’t need any hard to find supplies and the sizes are perfect! I also like the pattern because it’s easy to change up a bit, so I can make each dress a little different to fit whatever theme I want. One pattern can yield so many different dresses. I was only able to finish four dresses before our trip, but I have plans for so many more once things die down.

The first dress I was able to finish was a Minnie Mouse inspired dress. My original plan was to make it red and white polka dotted, but I remembered last minute that Minnie wears PINK on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and CT knows her from that show. Luckily Joann’s has the same exact fabric in pink! I may go back and get the red and make a second dress, because it’s just too cute on her.

The only thing I changed on the pattern to make this dress was the waistband. In the instructions you’re supposed to put the band on the inside of the dress to hold the elastic, I put it on the outside to add a little detail. The next one I make I’m also going to put a little lace around the arm hole, just beacuse.

Oh and funny thing, CT is doing a robot dance in the first photo, It’s really funny and cute in person.

The second dress is Marvel Comics themed. This dress kinda happened by accident. While I was picking out the fabric for the rest of the dresses, my husband was wandering the store with CT. He found this fabric and asked me what we could make with it. I was still in “lets make dresses” mode, so I said I’d make CT a dress out of it. Since Disney is now associated with Marvel, I thought why not make it for the trip! I didn’t know what to call it, but by the end of the trip I said CT was dressed up as a comic book store. Ha, that totally confused people.

I did change the pattern a bit more for this dress. I cut the pattern on the line meant as a waistband guide, so that I could use two different fabrics (I thought an entire dress made out of this would be a bit much) I also added some of the patterned fabric to the sleeves as casing for the elastic. I think it added a nice little touch to the dress.

The third dress is actually my favorite one, and was a lot of fun to make. It’s a Snow White inspired dress, and was the dress CT wore as her actual costume for the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World. It’s super lightweight and very flowy, great for spinning apparently. A bunch of people called CT Snow White throughout the day, and after awhile she started to love that (I think she was a bit confused at first).

So the changes to this dress are very similar to the changes on the Marvel dress. I used the waistband guideline as the cutline again. I also used a different colored fabric for the sleeves, which I appliqued the red stripes on myself since I couldn’t find the right material in stores. I also added white binding around the sleeves as the elastic casing. Oh and I added the little red bow. I felt very good after making this specific dress and hope I can make all the princesses for her eventually.

The last dress! This dress is Alice in Wonderland inspired, though we were also told that it looked like Belle before she got that pretty yellow ballgown. Two costumes in one! CT really enjoyed wearing this one and everyone either called her Alice or asked if she’d met Alice yet (which she had, while wearing the Minnie dress).

This dress seriously took me the longest to make. It had a bit more details, had to be more precise and I had to free hand the apron pieces. I basically just winged it all! Ha! The way I changed the pattern on this one was kinda like the Minnie Mouse dress. I placed the elastic casing on the outside of the dress again, but this time I placed the apron pieces underneath the casing to make it look like all one piece. Because of the gathering around the neck, the apron pieces were only attached at the waist, their loose everywhere else. That way it laid flat. I didn’t attach the straps until I tried the entire thing on CT, that way I knew exactly how long to make them. It was a bit more work, but I’m beyond happy with the outcome. If I ever do it again, I’ll add some white casing to the armholes and some ruffles on the apron.

These dresses took me an entire week to make, but I’m happy I made them all. I think having themed dresses just added that little touch to our trip that we’ll remember for years to come!

Edit: I forgot the best part!!!… each dress cost me on average about $6 to make, and If I had a 50% off coupon for Joanns instead of the 30% off one I used, they would cost even less. 

I remember the first time I really became interested in the inner workings of Disney, not just the products, was after reading one of the many biographies of Walt Disney. I was 13, so I don’t remember exactly which one it was, but I do remember loving it! I read it after the Kurt Cobain biography, and my “punk” self thought Disney was WAY more interesting. HA!

I had to know more, so I went to the library and checked out two more of his biographies. I even did a report on him in middle school, I talked in front of the class and all! I’m really shy, so that’s a big deal for me. This was also around the time that I started to REALLY want to go to Disney World! I wanted to see everything this guy had built. It wasn’t great timing, my youngest sister was a baby, my family was going through some pretty crazy times and it just wasn’t looking like it would ever happen. I understood. I figured I’d just go when I got older.

Flash forward a decade or so… my Disney obsession had died down a bit. I was in LA with Heidi and Katie vending at one of the holiday Felt Club shows. One of the traditions with the local crafters was to visit one of the many amusement parks in their area. This time around they decided on Disneyland!! I was excited! I FINALLY got to visit a Disney park. I was very lucky too, because one of the girls boyfriend was a tour guide, and she had picked up on a lot. I got to hear a bunch about each and every ride. I think I may have wandered off a few (a bunch of) times. I feel bad now about making the group worry. I was like a kid in a candy store, I couldn’t help it!!

That trip started my obsession back up. It probably didn’t help that cable tv made it really easy to access NON STOP documentaries on Disney and their parks. If its about Disney, I’ll watch it! It was a few more years before I finally made it to Disney World. My sister in law had her wedding there! It was awesome. The trip made me so happy that my husband took us back later in the year for our one year wedding anniversary! Oh and to top off that year I was a vendor at another Felt Club, so we figured were already in the area why not go to Disneyland?

Three Disney trips in one year? My 13 year old self would have been SO jealous!!!

I became pregnant with CT pretty soon after, and we haven’t had a proper vacation since. Like I said last week, were headed back to Disney World in the Fall. I bet after reading this you can imagine just how excited I am!

As you can see from my collection, I prefer the Mickey Mouse figurines or anything that has to do with the parks! I collect both new and old Disney memorabilia. I like the bold, and colorful styled pieces. A bunch of the new pieces are from my four trips, I go crazy in the gift shops! I’m already saving up for the Fall trip. I have my eye on the new Vinylmation series. Especially this one. I’ve heard that there are even park exclusive pieces?!?! Ooooooooh!!! Haha!

We also have many pieces scattered throughout the house that are Disney, half belonging to CT. I just didn’t want to post a few dozen photos!! I chose my most favorite pieces to share today.

I did not expect this post to be sooo long and informative, but I just couldn’t help it!! Ha. Do any of you get this way about anything? Your favorite show? Your favorite band?