Tag Archives: mickey

Collections: Adding More Disney Pieces

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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.

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Our Disney Vacation: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

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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!!

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Thrift Finds: August 28th thru September 6th

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What started as “lets just go to one yard sale, the one right down the street” turned into an all day thrifting adventure! We stopped by the yard sale down the street, which wasn’t that great and then we drove around looking for more. We figured we were already passing by some of our favorite stops, so why not look around? In the end we stopped at every Flea Market, Antique Store and Thrift Store within our, normally 20 minute, drive to Frederick.

I found a bunch of great stuff, but I didn’t buy it all! I’m getting better!

First off is this awesome embroidered yarn deer art already framed. I passed by in several times trying to figure out if I had room for it in my house. I finally just put it in my cart and decided I’d find room later. I have a lot of deer artwork in my house, It fits right in. I’m actually thinking of putting it above the hutch in our library.

The Raggedy Ann piggy bank and the Mickey and Minnie salt and pepper shakers were no brainers! They go great with my collections. I’d seen them a bunch of times at the more expensive antique shops each going for more than $15 a piece. So of course I picked them up when they were less than $3.

How neat is this industrial lamp I found? I have been dreaming of one of these for my sewing room for awhile, but they were too expensive online. Especially for a room that only I see. So of course I was excited when I found this one for $15! It’s in great condition, it just needs to be re wired. (I may ask my brother in law for help with that). I can’t wait to hang it!

Of course no thrifting post is complete without some Pyrex! I also found some more holly leaf Corelle to go with my other pieces. I may just have a complete set by the holidays. My favorite find is that blue and white casserole dish in the middle. I had stopped by the Re-Store to look for some cabinets for our mud room. I was just walking around and saw this out of the corner of my eye in their dishes section. It was $2! Tasha helped me identify it too, she said its a Meadow casserole dish.

I don’t know how much thrifting we’ll be doing these upcoming weekends.

  • I have very large plans to finish CT’s room (that I will share along the way)
  • I’m making her a few princess dresses for our upcoming Disney trip (plus a totoro dress, hopefully).
  • I’m switching our art room and our guest room soon to make it more efficient for everyone. One is upstairs, one is in the basement.
  • I want to finish a few of the quilts I have half started
  • I’ve also started a bunch of handmade gifts for Christmas, I want to be done early this year so I can actually enjoy the holidays!

The list keeps going past that too, apparently I’ve given myself a lot to do. :) I’m totally fine with that, I like being kept busy.

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Collections: Disney

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Today I’m sharing with you another one of my larger collections. I have a thing for all stuff Disney. Disney shows, Disney parks, Disney books and especially Disney memorabilia. I don’t know exactly when this all started, but I’m assuming I was young, and I bet commercials had something to do with it.

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?

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Thrift Finds: July 15th thru July 26th

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Our thrifting and antiquing trips haven’t been happening as much as they use to. It’s just too darn hot out, and most places don’t have efficient air conditioning!

Even with the heat, I have found some neat things during our short trips.

I have been searching high and low for a Plasticville model set that was ready for assembly for months now. It all started with that little yellow house I bought back in April. I found a cute little diner at my local hobby shop that I picked up, but I really wanted a house! I just love building houses. I found this one at a local shop for $5! They had a bunch. The rest were $20 or more, and the assembled ones were even more. If I really love assembling this set, I MAY go back for more. Building things is very therapeutic for me, and $20 is cheaper than a therapy session, right?

Oh and if your interested in little plastic houses too, check out my Pinterest board I started!

Of course it wasn’t a successful week, unless I found some Disney items! This time around I found another plastic Mickey and a Donald Duck to match my red Mickey from last time! My husband found me this awesome Small World 7″ record with read along story book insert. I’ve looked through every page and can not find the illustrator, but they are seriously awesome looking! Were planning a Disney trip for the fall, so weve been getting CT all excited about the rides and such, so things like this def help!!

I’m planning on showing all of my Disney memorabilia next week as part of my collection series, so if your interested please check it out!

The little blue guy was a funny find, it’s a rubber version of “Sulley” from Monsters Inc. The funny part about him is hes SKINNY! he’s not supposed to be skinny, he’s a big chubby monster. It was so weird we had to bring it home.

Oh and the random Brunswick soda bottle? We have been accidentally collecting soda bottles, and thought this one was neat since we live in Brunswick, MD. Simple.

As with the Disney stuff, I can’t seem to leave a place without at least one travel plate. This time I couldn’t seem to leave without TEN travel plates! They were mostly theme park and tropical island themed this time around, and not a single one cost more than $2!

I finally found a place to put all of them in the house! Once I’m done hanging ALL of the plates, I’ll make sure to share it here!!

Do you have weird compulsions to buy certain things at thrift shops? I’d love to know I;m not alone.

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Thrift Finds: June 26th thru July 14th

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We’ve been having some great luck at the thrift shops and antique malls lately. Maybe it’s because we go more often? Or on better days?

 

So first off we found an awesome globe with all the current countries in the correct places for $5! CT loves it. I found some glasbake soup bowls, one says “souper bowl” and the says “soup’s on”. Their a great weight and really big! I also found a teeny tiny plate for my plate wall!!

We stumbled upon a load of books at our local Goodwill, all new and in perfect condition!! Most were around $1 some or the larger ones like the Martha Stewart cooking book and Weird US were around $2.50. The pile shown is mine, my husband had a pile all his own but he put them all on the shelf as soon as we got home! No pictures! I also found a few vintage Raggedy Ann (and Andy) books with beautiful illustrations inside, plus a  Raggedy Ann paper doll kit, also in great condition. I LOVE Raggedy Ann, and Andy, since I was little. I had a few dolls and books, plus 3 foot tall stuffed versions!! (they went great with my 3 foot tall smurf that I STILL own). I now wonder how I wasn’t scared of them as a small child??

Last weekend we took a day trip up to a few spots in PA and thats where I found the awesome vintage Pyrex pictured above! I finally have a square casserole AND a snowflake piece. Plus I picked up a Mickey Mouse Club glass and an Avon bottle in the shape of the Capital!! (I love travel related stuff, plus I’ve lived close to DC my entire life). CT found a bunch of Pez she didnt have, and has already incorporated them into her collection (shes up to about 116 pieces now!!)

The bright red mickey shown wasn’t from a thrifting trip, I found him on Ebay, I just really wanted to share him! He looks like he came out of one of the Mold-A-Rama machines back in the day. I’ve loved those machines ever since seeing one in the show Wonderfalls. Ive only ever seen one in person, and it was at the Field Museum in Chicago, I got a green dinosaur! Does anyone reading this live near one of these awesome machines?? Or does anyone live near Rotofugi in Chicago? (they have a machine now with a TIM BISKUP design in it!!!!) Let me know, I’d love to trade some jewelry or such for a molded wax figure!!

Ah, and again last on my life of finds was from my mom! I saw these at a thrift shop near here house a few weeks back, but it was all bundled up and I really only wanted to shakers. So I passed on them. I regret it about 30 minutes into our drive home so I called her to see if she could pick them up. She went back the next day and bought them, and they were even cheaper!! She just dropped them off last week and I am so excited to have them!!! :) Though I’m only keeping two, I’m giving the other set to a friend who has a way bigger Pyrex collection than I could dream of!

Due to the Fab sale, I probably wont be doing much thrifting for a bit. When I do start again I’ll of course share it all here!

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