My Top Five 2011 Posts

This year has had a lot of ups and downs for our family.  My poor little blog here has been sadly neglected, though I hope to change that as we head into the new year and we get a fresh start.  I have a lot of projects ready to go, now to make the time to create them and share them!

Here are my top five posts of 2011:

#5 Retired Disney Cricut Cartridges
I have finally collected all the Disney cartridges.  If you are still looking to purchase any one of these cartridges, I have still seen some available on ebay, as well as Cricut.com itself.

Getting Organized ~ Using Your Cricut to Label Your Totes

Joey's Totes Labelled for His Toys
Cricut Cartridge Used ~ Mickey Font

This year, I discovered how to cut vinyl with my Cricut machine.  I since have become a labeling machine, especially when it comes to my children's toy totes.  In order to cut vinyl, you do need to purchase the Deep Cut Blade Housing (this comes with the needed blade).  You also need to purchase the sheets of vinyl, which, for the Cricut brand,comes in several colors:

• Billiard (green)
• Burnt Umber
• Chocolate
• Cotton
• Dark Blue
• Gray
• Ice Blue
• Latte
• Light Brown
• Lime Green
• Peacock Blue
• Raven
• Rose Pink
• Ruby Red
• Yellow

A Tote Tip for Getting Organized in 2012

This is about 1/10 of the number of totes we have!

As we start to put away all the new things that Santa and family members have given to our kids, I am always looking for ways to keep their toys organized, yet have them easily accessible when they want to play with them.  I actually purchase totes for each type of toy for the kids' rooms.  This has become a great way to keep things organized, but yet have all the pieces they need to play something all in one place.  Totes can become a very expensive investment, but I was given some advice by one of the associates at our local Wal-Mart.

I had been looking for totes to organize my scrapbooking paper.  There was only one left of the particular type I was looking for. When I asked an associate when they would be restocking the totes, she gave me the best advice.  She said that if you go to Wal-Mart.com, you can order totes by the case.  Not only can you get multiples of the same size, but they have never been opened.  This means that they won't be dusty and scraped up from sitting on the store shelves.  She also added that by purchasing them by the case, they are much cheaper than buying them in the store.

I raced home to see just what they had online.  I was quite excited that the online selection was of course much more diverse than in store.  On the particular item I was purchasing, I saved $1.50 per tote purchasing it online instead of in the store.  Even better, I used the "Site to Store" option, meaning as soon as they were in, Wal-Mart e-mailed me my pick up slip.  I drove to Wal-Mart and picked up my totes, which meant no shipping costs.  I used this method for the kids' toy totes too, which I bought by the case.  The particular type I purchased had six to a case.

In the end, I probably won't need to buy any more cases that include six of a particular size, but it is definitely a cost effective way to get started with your organization if you are looking to purchase totes.

How do you keep your kids' toys organized?

Make sure you check in tomorrow to see how I use my Cricut machine for come quick and easy labels for our totes!

Rules for Dating a Marine's Daughter

I came across this article today from a tweet on Twitter, and I just had to share it.  I am the daughter of a Marine, so I had a good laugh with this one from the Marine Corps Web Log.  Enjoy!

Rules for Dating a Marine's Daughter

Hallmark's 2010 Snowman Band Gains a New Member and Continues Their Holiday Tour into 2011

Last year, I purchased Hallmark's Wireless Snowman Band.  This was a great addition to our holiday decor.  If you have not seen the Snowman Band, you can find them, as well as a video of their 2010 Holiday Tour in my post Have You Met Hallmark's Snowman Band?  This year, they have gained another member - Trombone Tony, who has brought along two more songs to add to their playlist ~ Joy to the World and Good King Wenceslas.  We were all very excited to see this series continue.  Hopefully, Hallmark will continue to add members for years to come.  All three kids are waiting for a Snowman Drummer to appear!

We also have discovered something new this year that we did not know from last year.  If you press and hold down a button on one of the snowmen, they will randomly play one song about every two minutes.

Here are the two songs Trombone Tony brings to the band (you can find the rest of the band's playlist in the post I listed above):

Minnie Mouse Thank You Cards

My youngest daughter recently celebrated her fourth birthday (hard to believe she is 4!!).  One of the things I instill in my children is letting people know you appreciate them coming to help celebrate their birthdays and to show thanks if they should happen to also bring a gift.  I am not a big fan of the store bought thank you cards, but that is simply because I can rarely find ones that reflect my children's personalities or the ones that have room for my kids to "write" in them.

For every thank you card they write, the first line is always a thank you statement, followed by something they liked about the gifts they were given or something that they did with that person while they were at the party. It is a great way to get my kids to express themselves and also to see just how they viewed each of their gifts, meaning which part of a gift was most impressive.  For example, my daughter was given a doll with all sorts of accessories.  When we were writing that thank you (to her sister - Emily insisted on writing that one not me!), she said, "thank you for my new doll.  I really loved the princess spoon to feed her."  Of all the things that came in the pack with this doll, she was really impressed that her new baby had her own princess looking spoon. Who knew?

Ever since my children could hold a crayon, they "signed" their own cards.  This year, all three of my children could sign their actual names.  Sniffle, sniffle - another milestone I am excited about but also that means they are growing up!!  Just a few years ago, most of their signatures were swirls, slashes or any other type of marking they could fit into the space of the card.  So with all that, this year Emily and I created Minnie Mouse thank you cards to coordinate with her Minnie Mouse party.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of all the different versions of the card.  For each thank you card, she personally chose which color bow the Minnie should have.  The one you see here is for my mom and dad.  Emily decided to give my parents a green bow because Grammie loves Christmas and green is a Christmas color.  Other versions of the card included bows with yellow checkered paper and some had blue with stars.

One of my favorite Cricut cartridges
& the one I used for this project

Materials to Create the Minnie Thank You Card

• Red Card ~ 4-1/4" by 5-1/2"
• White Cardstock ~ 4" by 5-1/4"
• Black Cardstock
• Skin Tone Cardstock
• White Cardstock 
• Pink Cardstock
• Various Patterned Paper for Bows
• Cricut Mickey Font Cartridge
• Cuttlebug Seeing Spots Embossing Folder

Steps to Create

1. Run the 4-1/4" by 5-1/2" white cardstock through the Cuttlebug using the Seeing Spots Embossing folder
2. Center the embossed cardstock onto the front of the red card and adhere
3. Using the Mickey Font Cricut Cartridge, cut the Minnie face shape using the black cardstock at 6" using the "minnie" key
4. Cut the face layer from the skin colored cardstock using the "charm" function key, then the "minnie" key

Wilton Halloween Crafts Part 1 ~ Candy Necklace Kits

Wilton has many easy to create craft kits for you to make with your children.  From candy necklaces to gingerbread houses to cookie pops.  I do attempt to make a lot of things from scratch, but sometimes having a kit comes in handy.  Besides, sometimes purchasing the kits makes it cheaper than trying to create them yourself.

If you are looking for a quick and easy project to do with your children, Wilton offers a wide selection of Candy Necklace Kits.  They have themes for just about every holiday, as well as many Disney characters.  I wrote about how we create these (and some quick tips for making them easy to make for little ones) in my post Wilton Easter Candy Necklaces and Crafts with the Girls. I am sharing this today because I found several kits on clearance at our local Michael's store for $1.99!  You can also purchase them at Wal-Mart for $3.24.  Joann Fabrics has them at regular price for $3.99, but you can always find a 40% off coupon online, which make them just $2.39.

A Virtual Tea Party for Rapunzel ~ Projects and Treats

Some of my friends and I have come together to celebrate Rapunzel's induction as a princess.  If you are looking for a way to celebrate her big day, head over to my friend Jackie's site, Delightfully Disney.  She is the host and has a list of everyone who is participating.  We each chose a princess and shared a project to represent that princess.

To join in the fun, start over at 

Delightfully Disney

with Ariel's Seashell Centerpiece

More Retired Disney Cricut Cartridges

In August, Cricut has retired two more Disney cartridges.  I did a quick search on eBay and both still have plenty of availability, though if you want to make sure you have them before they disappear, or before the prices for them skyrocket, you may want to consider purchasing them soon.

The first is Disney's Dreams Come True cartridge.  This includes images and sayings from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin/Jasmine and Pocahontas.  I wrote a review of it back in January in my post Cricut Cartridge Review ~ Disney Dreams Come True.

Feelin' Fab Friday Blog Hop

I was so excited to see this blog hop being hosted by Lynn at My Pixie Dust Diary because I am about to burst with the great thing that has happened at our house this week!

Today is the end of one of the best weeks in a long time. Of course, I am speaking in terms of a medical issue we have been dealing with with my daughter for almost three years.  I will spare you all the details, but let's just say on a trip to Walt Disney World back in 2008, my daughter was so scared of how loud the toilets were in one of the bathrooms, that she refused to go to the bathroom and physically stopped going.  What began as a behavioral issue soon turned into a physical one. 

After almost three years of struggling with this, and plenty of "advice" from just about every person we know, something has clicked with Hayley and this week, she has conquered the physical issue and behavioral issue all in one.  It couldn't have come at a better time because at her 5 year check up, just a week ago and a half ago, I broke down crying telling our pediatrician how frustrated I was and how Hayley's behavior was getting worse (she would have flair ups and the tantrums were out of control - the only way to describe them was to say it was like she was possessed).  There were days I really felt like my little girl wasn't in there anymore. 

Before all this started she was a happy go lucky kid.  At the age of two she could put a show on that would make you smile for days.  Once this nightmare began she slowly started losing that.  We have been one week of things "working" correctly and that little sparkle in her eye has returned after so many years of missing it.  I don't know what was different about how we treated this over the last week, but I am thankful something has worked.

"Feelin' Fab" cannot even begin to describe how I am feeling right now, but let's just say, after three years of stress, this is quite a weight lifted from my shoulders.  I can hardly put into words how great it is to have my sparkly-eyed little girl back!


Just a note, my daughter was diagnosed with encopresis, which occurs in only 1-2% of all children with less than 20% being girls.  If you have a child who has struggled with this, feel free to leave me a comment.  At this point, I feel like I am the only person who has gone through this and most people haven't believed me over the years that Hayley could not control what was happening.

Things I've Been Meaning to Do Blog Hop

Well isn't it fitting that I head over to Jenn at Disney Babies Blog and see she joined the Things I Have Been Meaning To Do Blog Hop.  Then, I see that Diane over at Can Do It Mom also joined in the fun.  The reason I say that is that today is the day that I am getting my life back to at least a little bit about me.  Here are the things I have been meaning to do and am putting systems in place today to get started:

1. Run:  I love to run, I really do.  Before kids, I would run 5 miles a day at least 5 days a week.  I loved it!  It was a stretch of quiet time that I could turn on my favorite music and just go.  Today, I am starting to get back into a routine of running.  Since now that I have three kids, I probably won't have time to run 5 miles 5 times a week, but I definitely will be running.

2. Scrapbooking: One of the things I really enjoy doing in my spare time is scrapbooking our family's life moments, particularly our Disney trips.  I am so far behind that I am embarrassed to say that I am still working on our 2006 trip scrapbook, even though we have been in 2008, 2010 and about to go this fall.  I am so far behind.  I just haven't taken the time to work on them but I am going to try to get back to my New Year's Resolution of one 2-page scrapbook layout per week.  As of today, that resolution has been an epic fail, though I plan to change that. (You can see what little I have accomplished on that goal at Scrapbook Layouts Resolution.)

3. Family: Whenever my husband has time off, we usually spend it working on things around the house.  With my grandmother passing away this past week, I realize that I need to make more time to do things with family.  The things around the house aren't necessities, and we can certainly take more time to make sure we get together with aunts, uncles, cousins and anyone else in the family tree.  I have always said I want to have a family dinner/potluck once a month.  I plan on starting that in September.

4. Photo Montages: I love creating photo montages for the family of all our different events throughout the year.  Normally I create one "yearbook" type montage for the grandparents.  I have fallen significantly behind on those too.  The last one I created was 2008.  Seriously, I need to get it together.  The kids love watching them and I love making them.  I just need to make sure I take the time to do it.  (You can find my 2008 montage on my You Tube Channel - 2008 ~ A Year in Pictures.)

5. Trying new recipes: When it comes to cooking, I love trying new recipes. I get bored very easily, which I have with cooking lately, since I haven't tried a new recipe in months.  I already bought the ingredients today to create a new dessert.  For the first time in a while, I am excited to cook!

6. My Cricut: Now I should say that I think the Cricut is one of the greatest creations ever.  Really!  I have used this for cards, scrapbooking, wall hangings and labelling.  I purchased all the materials to work on a glass etching project using the Cricut I saw on You Tube 6 months ago.  All the materials are still sitting in the same spot as they were when I brought them home.  I really need to test this out because it could potentially make some great holiday gifts! (You can check out some of my Cricut creations on my tab Creations of a Cricut Rookie)

Well, there is my list.  The great thing is that even though I haven't taken the time to do any of these things I love, I have certainly been busy playing with my kids and enjoying every moment I have with them.  But even though I love Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and all that, I have reached that point that I need to start doing a few things for myself here and there.  Seeing that this blog hop will be the first Monday of each month, I am hoping all these items will be checked of my list because I am sure there is long list of things waiting behind them!  Which brings me to my final and most recent revelation - to do lists are created to complete things, but in my experience as a mom, my to do lists just get longer, never shorter, even though I am constantly crossing things off them.

Celebrating a Birthday and Remembering My Grammie

Today is a very exciting and sad day all in one.  It is hard to believe that my "little" Hayley is turning five.  It seems like just yesterday, I was bringing her home from the hospital in the take home outfit I wore home from the hospital!  While we celebrate, we are also sad to say good-bye to my grandmother.  She passed away yesterday afternoon.  I knew this day was coming because we were told she wouldn't recover from the pneumonia, but it is still hard.  I thought I would share a few of my favorite pictures I have of her.

My brother, my grandmother and I at Storybook Forest
This was taken some time in the 80s

A Full Plate to Say the Least

So every now in then in my life, and I am sure this is not special to just me, there are times that it seems that my "plate" is overflowing with things to do, matters to handle and family emergencies.  I do believe that these things come in threes, so my three things are here and I am dealing with them. Here are the last 8 days of my life in a nutshell:

1. This is the least important, yet still stressful, item on this list.  My computer crashed.  And when I say crashed, I mean it is completely dead.  Now in the grand scheme of life, is this tragic?  No.  But in the life of a mom who is working full-time on a website and has lost all documents for the website, it is stressing and will be very time consuming to recreate all that I have lost.  Lesson learned:  Back up everything because YES, it can and will happen to you!

2. Last week, my grandmother was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.  She is 90 years old and we were told that she is failing and won't recover.  The hospital has sent her back to her nursing home because they say there is nothing else they can do for her.  She has been unconscious, other than a few moments here and there for a week now.  Apparently, patients that have similar cases to my grandmother can live for days, weeks, months and even years.  This has become very stressing for the family because it is hard to see her in the state she is in.  Luckily, at this point, she isn't in pain.  My grandmother has always been a dreamer and encouraged me to pursue any idea I may have, no matter how crazy it is!  Lesson Learned: Make sure the people you love know you love them before it is too late.

3. This is the most difficult of the things happening this week.  My mom went into the hospital the other day for chest pains.  We found out she had a major blockage in one of her arteries and was told she needed to immediately have a procedure done to see if they needed to put a stint in.  It has been a week and she still hasn't been seen by a doctor because apparently no one has a spot in their schedule.  This actually occurred the exact day my grandmother went into the hospital.  My mom has always been someone on the go and never sits still.  Now, just walking around her yard or up a flight of stairs has become difficult.  The frustrating part is the doctor's lack of participation in helping get my mom into the cardiologist.  Lesson Learned:  No one is more of an advocate for you than you.  If you aren't going to speak up for yourself, no one else is either (by the way, this is also a great tip for parents with school-aged children).  My dad has been on the phone constantly trying to get my mom in for an appointment without response.  I think our health care system, especially in our area, is pathetic.  I would never wish what my family is going through on anyone, but too many doctors have become numb to what families are going through.  Bedside manner has been lost by some and I think they need to take a step back and consider what it would be like to be in the shoes of someone who is sick and looking for help or in the shoes of the family of someone who is dying.  Don't get me wrong, there are some great health care professionals out there, so this is not a blanket statement for all.  It is just my two cents of what has been my family's experience over the last week.

Though the week has been tough, we have a lot to celebrate and look forward to.  My brother and his family will be here from Texas today, and I can't wait!  My youngest nephew is walking now and I can't wait to see him walk in person!  Friday, my daughter turns five, and we are having a full out Princess/Fairy/Rapunzel celebration.  We will all be spending some quality family time together this week.  It comes at the perfect time because it is just what we all need.

So, if you are still reading this (I know, this is very lengthy!!), you'll know why I haven't been around much the last few weeks.  But enjoy and love the time you have with your family and friends, and don't take for granted that they know how you feel!

Thanks to Lynn at My Pixie Dust Diary for the invite to join the Wonder Wednesday Blog Hop!

Summer Drink Series ~ Rachael Ray's Lava Flows

My summer drink series is a way to share some of my favorite summertime drinks with you.  I have found so many great recipes after a lot of searching and experimenting that I thought this would be a good way to share some fun recipes with you and save you the time from having to search them out yourself. 

Rachael Ray's Lava Flows are one of my favorite summer time drinks.  I found this recipe in her cookbook 30-Minute Meals: Get Togethers. The first time I made these, I was hooked!  They are easy to make and always a crowd pleaser. 

You can find the recipe at

Lava Flows ~ Pina Coladas with Rivers of Strawberries

Wilton Helps Bring 4th of July to Your Celebrations

Here we are on the 4th of July
last year getting ready for the
fireworks over Lake Winnipesaukee

It is hard to believe that we are just about to the 4th of July.  As I am starting to make our grocery list and menu for the holiday, I thought I would look up some fun ideas for a themed dessert.  Of course, my first stop is always Wilton's.  You may have noticed from some of my previous posts that I really love their products, and they are a great resource for inspiration.

As with every holiday, they have plenty of ideas to choose from.  You can see all of them at Celebrating the 4th of July with Delicious Treats and Fun Decorating Ideas from Wilton.  They have plenty of ideas for cakes, cupcakes, cookies and more.  I am leaning toward the One Flag for all Cupcakes, but we will see as it gets closer.

Which of the 4th of July ideas did you like best?  Are you going to give it a try for your 4th of July celebration?

Retired Disney Cricut Cartridges

As you probably already know, I am a huge Disney fan.  So when I purchased my Cricut machine, my goal was to get my hands on every Disney cartidge they have.  I have all but one, and in a recent search to find Pooh Font, I realized it is now retired as of this month.  It is still available in many places, but I can only imagine that the announcement of its retirement will significantly increase the price on ebay (my number one source for cartridges at this point). 

Here are the Disney cartridges being retired this month (if it has a link, it will bring you to my previous posts that I used these cartridges for):

• Happily Ever After (A Disney Princess Cartridge)
• Mickey Font
• Pooh Font (the one I am still in seach of)
• Cars
• Tinker Bell and Friends

If you want to see the entire list of retired Cricut cartridges, you can find it over at Cartridge Library.  After searching ebay, and even the official Cricut site, these cartridges were all still currently available, so if you plan to purchase them, you may want to do so soon!

Which Disney Cricut cartridge is your favorite?

Wilton 2012 Yearbook Update

My Wilton Romantic Castle
Cake creation ~ Sleeping Beauty
July 2009

Good news! 

You can now order the 2012 Wilton Yearbook online with free shipping for $14.99.  The site says that if you order online, it ships within one to two days.  If you want to wait, it will be available at local retailers sometime in July.  For more information, you can head over to the Wilton website:

2012 Wilton Yearbook

Summer Drink Series ~ Konk Coolers

I am always in search of a new drink, whether that be online, searching through cookbooks or creating my own.  I've decided to share some of my favorites over the summer. 

The Konk Cooler I discovered over at Cooking with Mickey.  This is a drink served on Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.  I love that this drink is a fruity/pina colada combination that is not as sweet or heavy as drinks like this can sometimes be.

You can find the recipe at Cooking with Mickey: Konk Cooler.  While you are there, make sure you check out all the great recipes and cooking tips, as well as travel tips, Kristen shares each week.

Happy Father's Day!

You may or may not know this, but I tend to go overboard for all holidays. Normally, I have the perfect plan in place to get everything ready - food, decorations, and anything else I can squeeze into the day- but I don't always plan in enough time to complete all I want.  That's just what happened for Father's Day this year, so this is a little late.  But I wanted to share a photo montage I created for my husband last year.  It is a compilation of pictures of all three of my children over 5.5 years.  As you watch, the pictures rotate in the same order - Joey, then Hayley and then Emily.  I am very lucky to have a husband who is such a great father.  He's a softie and the kids pretty much get away with just about anything when he is around, but that is fine by me, since in the long run, the memories he has created with them far outweigh any of the things he lets slides.

So, without further ado, here is my Happy Father's Day montage!

2012 Wilton Yearbook Cover Revealed!

I am a huge fan of Wilton products, whether it be cake decorating, candy making or kid's crafts.  Every year I look forward to the new Yearbook.  My collection goes back to the 70s with copies of my mom's, and I had continued collecting as I got older.  Well, I just opened my inbox and there was an e-mail revealing the cover of the 2012 Yearbook.  It will be released June 2011, and I can't wait to pick up my copy!

Here's the sneak peak:
2012 Wilton Yearbook

Wilton Easter Candy Necklaces

I am always trying to find new crafts to do with my children.  Some I take the time to buy all the materials and organize them myself.  Others, I enjoy buying the kits you can find in stores.  Last Halloween, I posted about the Halloween Candy Necklaces we made.  My daughters loved these!  So when we saw the Easter candy necklaces in Joann's, we had to buy them.  You can also purchase these at WalMart, but it just so happened I had a 50% coupon for Joann's, which made it the better buy.  It cost less than $3 for the entire kit.

The kit comes with materials to make 8 necklaces.  What is even better, each set is individually packaged,so my children get exactly the same number of beads, without me having to count them out.  I give each child their own dish with all the beads from the pack.  I then tape the string down to the table to make it easier for them to keep the beads from slipping off the end.  This activity is great for those fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination. 

On a recent trip to WalMart, I also noticed in the party supply section many Disney versions of the candy necklaces.  We saw Mickey Mouse, Tinkerbell, Princesses and Toy Story.  I look forward to testing these out too!

Contribution to Vacation Field Guides

I am so excited!  My Spring Garden Kid's Craft Project is posted over at Vacation Field Guides.  It was so fun working with my girls to bring a little spring into our house, as we wait for the snow to melt.  If you want to check out this simple and fun craft you can do with your kids, go to Epcot's Flower and Garden Project.  The best part about this project, we had all the materials on hand and my girls keep talking about all the things we need to add to our garden.  We have many more crafts in store to make this spring garden full of life!

Cricut's Best of Pixar ~ It's a Bug's Life

When I first purchased the Best of Pixar Cricut cartridge, I was pretty excited about all it had to offer.  I had a little concern about the difficulty of creating some of the characters because Disney cartridges are so detailed, but since I am a huge Disney fan, I just had to have it!  In my post Cricut's Best of Pixar ~ Nemo, I found the Nemo characters I created were not as difficult as the princesses or Cars characters (these links will take you to my reviews of each).  I took this as a positive sign that maybe this cartridge would be a little simpler.  On the scale of difficulty, the Bug's Life characters fit somewhere in between the Cars images and Nemo images.

Whenever I get a new cartridge, I always "test" out the images at 4 inches.  This is simply because if I were making a card, this would be the size I would use.  I decided to create Flik first.  Flik only requires 4 cuts: the base, his exoskeleton, outer eyes, and eyes.  The body pieces were very detailed and narrow, but they were easy to cut and remove from the cutting mat.  But, the eyes were so tiny, I couldn't use them.  (See my photo of the eye by a centimeter ruler).  So, at 4 inches, my little Flik had no eyes.  I then recreated him at 6 inches.  I was more successful at getting the eyes off the mat at a larger size.

One of the things I really looked forward to with the Bug's Life selection on this cartridge was for my Disney's Animal Kingdom pictures, especially the ones of the Tree of Life. Unfortunately, there is a limited selection for Bug's Life.  There are 6 images (3 characters, 3 icons) I can make: Flik, Princess Atta, Dot, the Bug's Life logo, a princess saying, and a leaf.  Not much selection compared to the Nemo characters, though I do understand it is not as popular a movie as Finding Nemo.  Of course, if they were to add all the Bug's Life characters there would be the same issue for the level of details and difficulty, and most likely, they wouldn't all fit on one cartridge.

So, though I do really like the images I can create from the Bug's Life section of the cartridge, I was a little disappointed in the limited selection.  It would have been nice had Hopper been included, but that is because he would be a great addition to my Disney scrapbook pages dedicated to the Disney's Animal Kingdom attraction "It's Tough to be a Bug."

You can find my Flik in my post over at Vacation Field Guides.  He makes an appearance in a Spring Garden craft I created with my girls!  See if you can find him!

Cricut's Best of Pixar Cartridge ~ Nemo

I am so excited that I finally have purchased the Best of Pixar cartridge!  I had a little time to test it out yesterday.  This cartridge includes images from five Disney-Pixar movies - Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles, and Wall-E.  Since there are so many images on here, I decided I will review each movie over the next week or so. 

Finding Nemo is a personal favorite of mine.  This was the main reason I purchased this cartridge.  Not only are the characters great for all types of projects, but they will work perfectly for all my scrapbook pages for The Seas with Nemo and Friends Pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World.  The characters include Nemo, Marlin, Dory, Nemo's school friends, Crush, Squirt, Bruce and Nemo's friends from the fish tank in the dentist's office.  In addition to the characters, there is an icon for each.  These include anything from the logo for the movie title, to jellyfish, to Bruce's shark buddies.  I love the icons because not only will they be great embellishments for Nemo themed projects, but also any ocean themed projects I might create.

We made a Dory (Emily's favorite) and a Nemo.  Normally, I find the Disney cartridges to sometimes be a little tricky to cut and put together, but that is simply because of the tremendous detail to each character.  If you read my review of the princess cartridge, you know that I find those to be most difficult to use.  But making the Nemo characters was actually quite simple.  For the Nemo I created for this card, I only needed four colors and four cuts. Dory required six colors, but was still easy to assemble.  So far I really like this cartridge!

Cricut Deals on eBay

With my most recent "deal" found on eBay, I decided this would make a great entry for my blog.  I had never been on eBay in my life.  One of my friends mentioned she had gotten some great deals on Cricut cartridges through eBay.  Around here, the only craft store within 30 minutes is a Joann Fabrics.  It is so small though, they do not carry Cricut cartridges.  You have to order them.  This isn't great for someone who is looking to pick up a cartridge that day, but it does make me really consider the ones I am going to purchase - no impulse buys!  Other than that, the next store that sells Cricut cartridges is over 45 minutes away, and I rarely make it down there since my daughter has severe car sickness.

Surprise Your Valentine-Make Your Own Take Out

As you know from my previous post, My Top 5 Rachael Ray Cookbooks, I love that Rachael Ray's cookbooks feature "make your own take out" recipes.  We love to cook and it is a great family activity, since the kids like to join in on the fun too.  Around here, and I am not exaggerating, there is no good place to get take out.  So we either have to drive quite a distance or make our own.  Luckily, we have found a few recipes to make our own Chinese food feast.  Not only is this a money saver, but also a great way to make sure the food is healthy and fresh.

Here are a few of our favorite recipes.  With just the five of us, we usually make two of the items, but last week, we made all these and easily fed 6 adults and 5 children. Even better, all the recipes use a lot of similar ingredients, which means you can cut once for two or three different dishes and save time getting dinner ready.

Dressing Up is Now Easy to Do

Both my girls love to dress up in their princess dresses, jewelry, hats and shoes.  Unfortunately, we had collected so many things over the years, that our dress up bucket was overflowing.  The girls could never find what they were looking for, or if they did find something, half the contents of the tote fell out onto the floor as they were trying to pull it out to wear it.  Finally after about 3 days of having our computer room floor covered with fairy wings, dresses and countless plastic necklaces, I had enough.  The girls and I made out way to WalMart yesterday and made some purchases to better organize our dress up area. 

Disney Scrapbook Layout ~ Downtown Disney

I am a little behind on my New Year's Resolution of creating a Disney scrapbook layout each week, but I am catching up!  I have been busy with my Disney blog, Pursuing the Magic, getting ready for the next Magical Blogorail Blue loop and writing guests posts for a couple of my favorite Disney blogs, Meet the Magic and Growing Up Disney. 

Downtown Disney is one of my favorite places to visit when we are in Walt Disney World.  There are a lot of great photo opportunities, plus a lot of great shopping!  On Joey's first trip to Walt Disney World, he LOVED the stuffed animals in Once Upon a Toy.  I remember him trying so hard to get out of his stroller to get his hands on them.  When I let him loose, he went straight for a huge Pooh, which as you can see from the picture was about the same size he was.  My mom and sister-in-law Kelly were with us, since all the "boys" had gone golfing for the day.  It was a relaxing day to say the least and we enjoyed being able to peruse the shops without anyone rushing us.  Here's my 2-page Downtown Disney layout from our 2006 trip to WDW.

Move Over Photoshop, Make Room for Cricut!

My Cricut has come in handy yet again!  After many frustrating hours of trying to create a logo for my Disney blog, Pursuing the Magic, on photoshop, I decided it was time to turn to my Cricut.  What I ended up creating was just about exactly what I was looking for. 

Since the base paper I was going to use was a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper, I decided I would use that as my logo size.  I didn't see any need in cutting it.  I adjusted the size once I scanned it into my computer.  I then used my Storybook cartridge to create the blue frame.  To get this to just the right height, I used the "Fit to Length" feature (you can see my post Cricut's Fit to Length Feature & Toy Story Green Alien Glasses for more information on this feature).   As you can tell, I went to my most favorite cartridge again, Everyday Paper Dolls, to create my three kids.  I didn't plan to include that part in my logo, but how could I talk about pursuing Disney magic and not have that directly related to my kids?  My son did inform me after I was done that I forgot to make Emily's bear, which is never out of her hands and even has made the last two trips to Disney with us.  That  may need to be a later addition.  For the title, I used the Mickey Font cartridge, which I am finding to be one of my favorite font cartridges, especially since I have been working on my son's first year scrapbook.  I also used the Mickey Font cartidge for the Mickey Ears on my Joey paper doll and the Mickey Ears Icon on the "P" in pursuing. 

This came out much better than any attempts on Photoshop, though I am sure that is simply due to my photoshop skills, not the program itself!

Cricut Cartridge Review ~ Disney Dreams Come True

As you may already know, I am a huge Disney fan, so as soon as I purchased my Cricut, my goal was to get all the Disney cartridges available.  I was very excited when my family purchased the two princess cartridges, Dreams Come True and Happily Ever After, for me.  But I now have a love/hate relationship with them.  Let's start with what I love.

First, between the two cartridges there are 8 princesses, along with princes and supporting characters.  Dreams Come True includes Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and Pocahontas.  Happily Ever After includes Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Mulan.  My daughters love all of these princesses, so I have tested out both cartridges extensively.  Just for an example, we'll talk about Jasmine.  You have the option of creating Jasmine in several poses, including two with Aladdin, as well as individual Abu and Genie.  There are also several icons to make, such as an elephant, the magic lamp, a slipper, Jasmine's headwear, and several others.  There is a great selection of embellishments that can be made just from the icons!  Each princess has her own collection from her story.  There are also frames and corners to match each fairy tale.

On Our Way to Meet Buzz Scrapbook Layout

2006 was my son, Joey's, first trip to Walt Disney World.  He was just 14 months at the time and about the best little boy you could ask for.  He rarely cried, loved to play, loved to cuddle and his favorite thing at the time was Toy Story.  If he could have talked, he would have told you that Buzz Lightyear was by far his favorite character of any story or movie.  Just the mention of the word Buzz and he would be beaming ear to ear.  So, for this particular scrapbook page I could have called it something like "Joey's 1st Ride on a Disney Bus" or "On Our Way to MGM Studios."  But when I see this picture of him sitting on a Disney bus seat with this big smile, I recall every second of that moment.  The bus was still parked at the bus depot at Port Orleans Riverside, of course, or he would have been in someone's lap.  As we waited for others to board, I asked Joey, "Are you excited to go meet Buzz Lightyear?"  I clicked a picture and here it is - smiling ear to ear!

When I scrapbook, I cannot put a picture to paper that I didn't take myself.  I find scrapbooking a way to display the emotions of the day or those special moments that for whatever reason you remember every small detail of what happened.  This is one of those pictures.  Most people would probably look at it and think a little boy with a big smile.  I see a little boy anticipating his first trip to infinity and beyond to meet someone he loved . . . . Buzz Lightyear.  Of course, the other picture is of Joey and his other buddy, Grampa!

My Biggest Endeavor Yet

Four and a half years ago, my husband and I made a decision.  We were living in Massachusetts, both had great jobs, my son was 14 months old and I was pregnant for our second child.  We decided that since we were having children, it was time to move home, we were both from New Hampshire, and raise our children near family.   My husband was able to transfer within his company to a place in New Hampshire and I made a very emotional decision to give up my job as a third grade teacher.  Because I had such a strong resume, we figured I would have no problem finding a job in the area I grew up in.  We both agreed that this decision was best for our children, and to this day I don't regret it because the time my children have spent with my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins has been amazing and the bonds they have now since moving here are so much better than had we stayed in Massachusetts.  But since it has been four full school years since I last taught, I have come to realization that it is time to give up on my love of teaching.  I have applied for so many jobs here and every single one of them has been given to a first or second year teacher.  Basically, the economy has determined who schools can afford to hire.  With my MEd and my years of experience, I am much too high on the pay scale.

My Top Rachael Ray Cookbooks

During the holiday season, I shared a few recipes with Natalie over at Meet the Magic (if you haven't checked out her site, you should.  Great Disney tips and stories!  Plus, every Tuesday she gives a new strategy to save for Disney and ways to save in Disney!).  She asked where I got the recipes and I explained my collection of Rachael Ray cookbooks and how I taught myself to cook (see my previous post A New Recipe ~ Blueberry Almond Buckle).  When she asked what my favorite Rachael Ray cookbook was I was inspired to post my favorites.  Initially, I planned to post my top three, but I couldn't leave some off the list, so I ended up with my top six. 

A few things to know about Rachael Ray recipes.  First, they sometimes make a lot more food than it says.  A lot of recipes say they feed four, but we could feed four a couple times on some of the meals.  Second, she loves food spicy.  Our family loves spicy food, but not like Rachael Ray.  I have learned the hard way to reduce the ingredient which causes the heat to about 1/4 or 1/2 of what she suggests.  So, beware!  Next, she loves pasta.  Many dishes include a significant amount of pasta.  I am not such a big pasta person, so I do sometimes reduce the amount the recipe calls for.  Finally, these really are 30-minute meals, though it does take me a couple times of making a recipe to complete it within that time.

With that said, here are my top 6:

Disney Scrapbook Layout ~ On Our Way

I'm very excited to say that we are in week two of my New Year's Resolution of creating one Disney scrapbook layout every week and I am keeping up! Ok, so pretty easy to keep up just two weeks in, we'll see what I am doing around week 6!  If you missed my first one, I posted my Port Orleans Riverside 2-page layout.  It is one of my simplest layouts, but it does my pictures justice.

For this week, the page I created is from pictures we took before leaving for the airport.  I remember that day because it was -8 degrees that morning and freezing.  My parents had driven down from New Hampshire to our home in Massachusetts.  We were flying out of Logan and all driving in together.  New Hampshire had a tremendous winter storm just days before and my parents had been out of electricity for almost three days.  They were on the verge of canceling the trip because with the frigid temperatures at that time, they couldn't leave their house without heat and not knowing when the electricity would come back on.  Luckily, late afternoon the day before we were to leave, their electricity came back on.  Disney magic already at work!  My husband and I were very relieved because this was Joey's first trip to WDW and we would hate for them to miss it.  Plus, my brother and sister in law were already in Disney waiting for us to arrive. 

Port Orleans Riverside Scrapbook Page

In celebration of our 2011 Disney trip, I've decided to hold to my New Year's resolution to create one 2-page Disney scrapbook layout per week.  My son, Joey, was just 14 months for his first trip to WDW in 2006.  Since we will be staying at Port Orleans Riverside in October, and I just paid my deposit, I figured I would use my excitement to inspire this scrapbook page.  I have most of the 2006 scrapbook done, but this was one page I just couldn't seem to put together.  It has been a while since we visited POR, so before beginning, I took to the internet for a little inspiration.  What I came across not only inspired my scrapbook layout, but also exponentially increased my excitement for staying at POR!  All Ears (one of my favorite unofficial Disney sites) posted a video of the resort: Port Orleans Riverside for AllEars

For the background paper I used sheets from DCWV paper stack Old World.  I had searched and searched through all my Disney paper and just couldn't find anything to fit this theme.  While working on another scrapbook project, I found this paper and it seemed to be just what I needed.  When I tried to use frames for the pictures, it just didn't work, so this is one of the few layouts I have done without them.  The picture of the resort is actually the postcard in our packet of information we received when we checked in.  The little Mickeys are embellishments I came across some time ago. 


What is your favorite Disney resort scrapbook page?  Leave a link or a comment below.  I would love to see it!