Celebrate Flag Day with Margaritas!

Hello readers! Did you know it's flag day in Mexico today? I think a little margarita celebration is in order, don't you? Let's take a look back at one of my favorite Cinco de Mayo posts ever!


In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we decided to do our own Disney Margarita Tour. If you are a margarita fan, you will no doubt know that La Cava del Tequila is THE place to go for some of the best and most inventive margaritas on property. But it's not the ONLY place. We chose to recreate some new and some vintage recipes to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with some of the the old crew. What a blast!

And special thanks to the hubs for the incredible food!

Here are the recipes we tried. We salted all of our glasses with pink Himalayan salt. Enjoy them! And until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Sun-Kissed Margarita
From Mickey's Gourmet Cookbook
(Outer Rim, Contemporary - which is no longer there)

Lemon Rind
Kosher salt
1.5 oz 80 percent oak-aged tequila
3/4 oz brandy-based orange liqueur
3/4 orange liqueur
4 oz sour mix
crushed ice
lime wheel
1 oz orange juice

Rub the rim of the cocktail glass with lemon rind & dip into kosher salt. Combine tequila, liqueurs & sour mix in a shaker filled with ice. Shake well and strain into salt-rimmed cocktail glass. Top with orange juice. Garnish with lime wheel.

Seven Seas Sunset -- same as above, but substitute cranberry juice for the orange juice.

Avocado Margarita 

La cava del Tequila - Epcot's Mexico Pavillion
(recipe from Disney Food Blog)

1/2 ripe Haas avocado
2 oz white 100% agave Tequila
1 oz Midori melon liquor
juice of one lime
1 oz. Agave syrup
Ice

Blend all ingredients in a blender until very smooth and creamy. Serve in salt rimmed glass. (use Hibiscus salt if you can. Look for it at the market next time you're in the Mexico pavilion in Epcot!)

Habanero Lime Margarita
available at any resort lounge
(Recipe from Party Through The Parks)

1 part Patron Silver tequila
3 parts Mr. & Mrs. T's sweet & sour
pour ingrédients over ice and add a good drizzle of Monin habanero lime syrup and the juice from half a lime




Agave Nectar Margarita
available at any resort lounge
(from Party Through The Parks)

1 part Tierras Organic Blanco tequila
3 parts simple syrup made with agave nectar (50% agave/50% water)
Pour ingrédients over ice and add the juice from 1/2 a lime





Jalapeño Margarita Recipe
(Cava del Tequila - Mexico pavilion, Epcot)

1/4 fresh cucumber (peeled and seeded and then cut into 1.5" pieces)
2" piece green bell pepper (seeded)
1/2 of 1 small jalapeño (seeded and cut into 1.5" pieces)
1 shot Silver tequila
Fresh lime juice
Triple Sec - orange flavor
Simple Syrup / agave nectar

Method: place fruit in the bottom of your glass and muddle to release some of the juices. Don't go crazy here, muddling shouldn't create a mush of fruit, just sufficiently bruise them. Top off the glass with ice and add 2 parts tequila, 1 part triple sec, 2 parts lime juice, 1 part simple syrup made with agave nectar. Shake and serve in a Himalayan salt rimmed glass.

Walt Disney World 101 | 10 Of Our Favorite Touring Tips

We are gearing up in the cottage for a Spring Break trip to Walt Disney World! It's been a while since we have braved the madness of a packed theme park. And a little refresher is always a good idea! So today I share my Top 10 WDW Touring Tips with you.

These are tried and true and used on every Walt Disney World vacation we take. Some are obvious, some are not. Some have taken us a while to realize, some have been with us from the very beginning (and I do mean from the VERY beginning!). I can still hear my dad shouting, "Left side, Amy!" I hope you enjoy them and they come in useful for you and your touring party too.

1. Stay To The Left. This may be the single most important tip we have. Our American tendency is to stay to the right. And most tourists will choose the line or the attraction that is to their right. As we've continued to travel to WDW this rule has morphed somewhat into, take the path farthest from the door (or humanity). You'd be surprised how much faster you can get your burger and fries if you just move to the farthest line.
2. Wait To Leave The Parks. It sounds a little nutty, but if you don't have toddlers having historic melt downs, then stay a bit after the fireworks and linger in the shops or buy one last sweet treat. Let the transportation crush happen without you. Waiting to leave the park (especially the Magic Kingdom) can make everyone's night much better.
3. Arrive Early. If you can't manage the late nights, consider arriving for rope drop. The MK has a fun celebration prior to opening and all parks are clean and sparkling early in the morning; often you can get some nice photos with just your family in them.
4. Make A Dining Reservation For The Hour Before Park Opening. Some character meals allow for early entry to the parks. You must have a reservation and all the members of your party before you can go in, but you can eat in the park before it is officially open. This has two advantages; obviously you can maximize your time in that first line or two and you can get some really great photos without the crush of humanity.
5. Get A Haircut At The Harmony Barber Shop. This is strictly a Magic Kingdom experience, but I love doing this! Our first kid had the privilege of having his first haircut there. I HIGHLY recommend this! There was all sorts of kitsch and celebration and they are excellent with a wiggly kid.
6. Watch The Parade From Frontierland. Again, this is specific to the Magic Kingdom, but we have had excellent luck finding a good spot for viewing the parade and it's usually much less hectic. This is not the best plan if you want to see the fireworks after the parade. And as an added bonus, we can hit the Pirates of the Caribbean on the way out!
7. Hit Your Favorite Rides During the Evening Entertainment. If you are not watching the parade, the fireworks, or Illuminations, this is an excellent time to ride your favorite (usually crowded) rides. E-ticket rides were the most expensive and usually most desired rides when Disneyland and Walt Disney World opened. We still have a tendency to refer to them as such around the cottage.
8. Use The Single Rider Lines. If you are not opposed to riding next to someone you don't know, the single rider line can be a great time saver. Usually Mr. Photos From The Parks and Doc can ride the same coaster, or consecutive coasters and come out beaming. 
9. Grab A Button At Guest Relations. Especially if you are celebrating a birthday, first visit, or anniversary, get a button! The cast members are wonderful at making a little extra magic happen. You can even request a birthday phone call at your resort when checking in! 
10. Talk To Cast Members. They are incredibly willing to help, share Disney trivia, tell jokes, trade pins, hand out stickers and trading cards, and just in general make your trip enjoyable. One of my favorite interactions was with a street sweeper in Animal Kingdom who kept my kids entertained with jokes as we were all headed to the exit together. 

Remember to try and stay positive while you're touring and enjoy the time you have, even in the small moments. It's the happiest place on Earth, and you deserve a great vacation! Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Magical Coffee | Tinkerbell Coffee Cup Cozy

Sometimes a project just falls into your lap: you realize that you have all the supplies you need and suddenly you go from idea to finished project in less than 48 hours. This Tinkerbell Coffee Cozy is just such a project. and I really love the way it turned out!

Last Thursday I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while. As we were chatting with one another we suddenly realized that we went to the same very small college but had just missed one another by a year! It's not something that happens too often and so we had to do all the requisite reminiscing about our alma mater. Later, she mentioned that she loved my Mickey Coffee Cozy (which I almost always have with me!) and further mentioned how she needed one (like NEEDED one) that was Tinkerbell. So how could I resist? I knew I needed a new project for the blog too, so voila! Here you go! Magical Tinkerbell coffee at your service!

This one is not knit, it's crocheted; so you'll need to get your hooks out! But if memory serves, March is national crochet month, so it's the perfect time to dust them off and get this party started! If you want all the details on how to make one for yourself, you can see my notes on Ravelry. I didn't make an actual pattern for it, but if you are willing to do a little guess work, and you don't mind fudging a little bit on the pattern, it's fairly simple. 

I'm really pleased with how this project turned out! I would love to hear if you have done anything like this yourself. Let me know in the comments. And until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Life Get's In The Way

You know, I had this great blog post all written up about this amazing Adventures By Disney trip that I was going to take with my niece. We were going to head to London and Paris and be pampered like queens. We were going to meet Beefeaters, and make our own English tea and cycle around Versailles. I was SOOOO looking forward to it. And then, our oven broke, and our furnace crapped out and there goes my vacation budget right down the drain! I'm not going to pretend I'm fine with the whole thing, I really wanted to go on that trip! But, I am going to brush myself off and get busy saving again so we can try to go next time.
And here's my plug for travel insurance. You just never know when things like this are going to happen. I feel like a healthy gal like me probably wouldn't need to "waste my money" on something like travel insurance. But today, if you ask me if it was worth the $700 to get the other $9000 back? Yes it was. Every single penny. Did it seem superfluous at the time? Yes. Was I hesitant to get it? You bet I was. Am I glad I did? So glad.

Life happens. Parents get sick, kid's fall and break bones, and furnaces decide to give up the ghost. We can't control that sort of thing. But we can invest in our own peace of mind. I highly recommend getting the travel insurance. As a travel agent I have seen far too many trips have to be cancelled for circumstances out of our own control. Do yourself a favor and don't skimp.

Have you ever had to cancel your Disney vacation? I'd love to hear your horror stories too! Leave them in the comments below. And until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney's Bambi Valentine's Day Onesie

It's almost Valentine's Day and I thought I would re-post this adorable onesie from 2014. We have a lot of new readers who may not have seen this post and honestly, I just love it so much I wanted to share it again!

Have a very happy Valentine's Day.

We have a new little addition around the cottage these days, and I just couldn't resist whipping up a Bambi inspired Valentine onesie for her. It was so simple with the Silhouette SD and some fabric paint.

I used the baby deer shape (Design ID #5505 ), the hearts from the sheep card (Design ID #25095), and the font Coolvetica. The text is lifted from the main musical theme from Bambi, "Love Is A Song." I made sure that my design would fit a 4"x4" box, which was just right for a 0-3 month onesie. 

Once I had everything placed as I liked it, I cut out the shapes on stencil vinyl. This tutorial from the Silhouette blog was extremely helpful in getting it transferred to the fabric. From there, I painted the shirt with two coats of fabric paint and let it dry. Voila! A cute Disney themed valentine for our sweet new bundle of magic! I'm tempted to make one in an adult size for me. Happy Valentine's Day to you and your family. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!