DIY Disney Closet Divider Tags

DIY Disney Closet Tags

When I saw these shapes in the Silhouette store, I knew I would need them. I am an organizer, a planner and I prepare. And this is never more true than when we are going to Walt Disney World. When I pack, I pack in outfits. I like to know that I'll have everything I need to look put together all in one place. It all gets laid out by day, and then put together in the suitcase as one. Ziplock baggies are especially helpful in this department and come in handy if you have wet bathing suits to bring home. And I love not having to think about things like what to wear when we are at the parks.

As an aside, I highly recommend unpacking your suitcase when you arrive at your resort. There is nothing worse than trying to decipher which clothes are dirty and which are clean when you are running late to your ADR. (And we are always running late. I assure you.) Also, I always designate an empty bag or drawer for dirty clothes. That way we are not tripping over one another's ish in a tiny space.

With these tags, I can easily mark which outfits are to be worn on what days; no more arguing with the kids. Even better, I can see at a glance if I have packed enough clothing, or not. Once it's all together, it goes in a big ziplock bag, tag included. When we arrive at the resort I simply hang the entire outfit together on a hanger and pop the tag over it. Done! Everyone knows which outfit is for which day. I can even plan an outfit for a special character meal that I know will look good in the photos later on. So no matter who is helping Happy get dressed, they know what he should wear and I don't have to interrupt what I'm doing to pull out clothes. Let's foster independence where we can, shall we?

I used my basic scrapbooking supplies to create these tags; mostly using paper and ribbon. I themed them to the Classic Disney Characters, but you could do these for any set of characters that mean something to your family. I may try and do a set based on Phineas and Ferb for Doc; his clothes will be in a separate room from ours. These tags represent, Sunday - Minnie, Monday - Mickey, Tuesday - Donald, Wednesday - Goofy, Thursday - Pluto, and Friday - Daisy. I know, I don't have Saturday; won't be needing that one on this trip. Too bad. We'll just have to remedy that another time!

And for those who may need to know, the design ID numbers for these Hanger Tags are: 32018, 32017, 32016, 32015, 32014, 32012, 32011. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney T-shirt Yarn Baskets

Remember how, long, long ago, I was creating a Disney T-shirt quilt? Well that project is still underway. It's just that it takes A LOT of T-shirts to create a quilt and I seem to be short by about nine. So until such time as we have more shirts than we can cycle through (that may be a while!) the project is on hold.

BUT, I did wind up with a bunch of t-shirt scraps from the bottoms of the t-shirts, and I wasn't keen on throwing them all away. So I scoped out Pinterest and found a couple tutorials on how to make t-shirt yarn (so simple), and how to join t-shirt yarn (a little tricky, but I finally got the hang of it), and then whipped up some cute and functional baskets from the scraps! I LOVE it when my projects are functional as well as pretty.

Now if you were really on top of things, you might try and theme the colors to your favorite Disney characters: red, yellow and black for Mickey, blue, red, white for Donald, etc. I was feeling lucky to just have enough scrap to make baskets big enough to hold my yarn projects! In fact, it didn't take nearly as much yarn as I thought it would. If you'd like the pattern I used for these baskets, you can find it here. I made the first one with the handles, and the second one without. I also went up a size on my crochet hook for the white basket, as my yarn was thick and it was difficult to pull it through. Sizing up a hook was exactly what I needed to make it easier.

Now to get on with that T-shirt quilt! Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Daily Agenda for Your Room

I found some adorable Disney-themed magnetic picture frames at the dollar store and an idea dawned on me for how to use them. As the planner-in-cheif, I am constantly being asked by the kids what we are doing each day - what's the agenda. With two of these little frames I can keep the kids informed about our daily plan and stop them from asking me every 10 minutes what we are doing! Must be the former teacher in me, but anything to make them just a little more independent is a good thing for me.

I made sure to get two frames. In our case this is one for today, one for tomorrow. If you like to park hop, you could always use one frame for the morning agenda and one for the afternoon. For each frame, I created a 4x6 daily agenda (with picture for the little ones) to let them know the plan for the day. I simply printed them out on card stock and put them in the frames. Easy and effective!

As I mentioned, these frames are magnetic, so you could put them on your refrigerator in the villas. But they also have a traditional easel back, so you could prop them up anywhere in your room. This is how it looks on my lockers in the studio. We're big Phineas and Ferb fans in the cottage!

If you'd like to download these agendas to print out, they are available right here. I created two for each park, the "start in" and the "go to" versions, for those of you who park hop, you can print out the "start in" for your morning park and then the "go to" for your second park. And those of you who stay all day in one park, simply use the "go to" version in your frame.

I hope you enjoy these simple and easy daily agendas. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Disney Roadtrip 101| Organizing your DVD/Blu-Ray Collection

We have a rather large Disney movie collection here at the cottage. In fact, we have been replacing our outdated DVDs with Blu-Rays. The thing is, the Blu-Rays are great at home, but in the van, we need the DVDs. And most of the Disney Blu-Rays come with a DVD. It gets to be a hassle when the kids want to watch Frozen, but the case with the Blu-Ray is in the van, or vice-versa.

To solve this problem, I decided to put all the DVDs in old CD jewel cases and keep them all in the van. This way, the movies are available in the house and on the road as well. Less arguing and disappointment all around. And that is something we can ALL get behind! And as it turns out, they take up less space in the van this way too. Win!

Our littles aren't readers just yet, so we rely on the picture on the cover to remind them what each movie is about. So, for each movie, I did a google image search for the movie poster. I then printed it on card stock and cut it down to 4.75"x4.75" to fit the jewel case cover. This way we can still show them the picture. I also took apart the back of the jewel case, turned the paper inside out and wrote the title of the movie on the spine. This way it will be easy for me as I am driving (or co-piloting) to get the movie they want. It's not exactly what you'd get in the store, but it's functional, and that's what matters to me.

I hope this trick helps make your Disney road trips a little easier. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY DIsney Momma Planner | Back to School

I am an organizer. I love organization and I love to know what is coming and who is going; it would appear that I am currently the ONLY one in the cottage who's like that. There's still hope for the little two, but I'm not holding my breath!

But as we have expanded our family, I have found it more difficult to keep all the details straight, even with my smart phone. And since school is upon us here in the midwest - Doc starts back this week - it's time for this Disney momma to get organized!

I had never used a Mom Planner before. There are tons of them out there and amazing resources on Etsy if you just browse around. There are also all sorts of free printables out there. I started by searching Pinterest for Mom Planner and Blog Planner. You don't have to customize your pages like I did to get a personalized planner. But I am picky and I wanted mine to have everything I needed, and nothing I don't. I also wanted to include some blogging resources, as my inspiration seems to strike no matter where I am or what I am doing. 

So I started a list of what I needed in my planner, and printed out enough pages to last 6 months. Here's the final breakdown:

1. A monthly overview including those items that happen only once a month (and are really easy for me to overlook). I also wanted a place for special events that month and cards to send. I wound up designing my own pages for that:

2. A weekly to do list. I needed to be able to put my week on paper and see a reasonable list of things to do. I also wound up making my own of those pages, and printing them front to back so I didn't have even more bulk than necessary:

3. Meal Prep. We are members of a vegetable delivery service called Green Bean Delivery. I needed a way to be more conscious of using the vegetables we received. This downloadable meal planner was the perfect thing for me. Check out her shop; she has the cutest downloads!

 4. A place for all those recipes that sound amazing but I just can find when I want them. I converted a pretty file folder in to a folder for this planner and then printed out the recipes for the week (along with our invoice for our veggie box) so I can get to them when it's dinner time.

5. And finally, a place for my running ideas for the blog. I will admit that this is a bit of overkill, as I already have a binder for the blog; but this makes me feel like I won't miss an idea once I have it. I found this printable list at My May Sunshine.

6. The Cover. I had some old cardboard lying around from a photographer friend. I used that for the back and front of the notebook. I cut out my mushrooms and title using the Silhouette SD. I adhered them to the cover and then covered it with packing tape, as I knew the beating it was going to take! I used my Zutter machine and some 3/4" binding rings to put it all together. I am IN LOVE with the final result. I've been using it to about two months and feel like it really helps me to stay focused even on those wild days. I took a couple days to get it all together, but it was totally worth the effort!

Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Closet Divider Tags

DIY Disney Closet Tags

When I saw these shapes in the Silhouette store, I knew I would need them. I am an organizer, a planner and I prepare. And this is never more true than when we are going to Walt Disney World. When I pack, I pack in outfits. I like to know that I'll have everything I need to look put together all in one place. It all gets laid out by day, and then put together in the suitcase as one. Ziplock baggies are especially helpful in this department and come in handy if you have wet bathing suits to bring home. And I love not having to think about things like what to wear when we are at the parks.

As an aside, I highly recommend unpacking your suitcase when you arrive at your resort. There is nothing worse than trying to decipher which clothes are dirty and which are clean when you are running late to your ADR. (And we are always running late. I assure you.) Also, I always designate an empty bag or drawer for dirty clothes. That way we are not tripping over one another's ish in a tiny space.

With these tags, I can easily mark which outfits are to be worn on what days; no more arguing with the kids. Even better, I can see at a glance if I have packed enough clothing, or not. Once it's all together, it goes in a big ziplock bag, tag included. When we arrive at the resort I simply hang the entire outfit together on a hanger and pop the tag over it. Done! Everyone knows which outfit is for which day. I can even plan an outfit for a special character meal that I know will look good in the photos later on. So no matter who is helping Happy get dressed, they know what he should wear and I don't have to interrupt what I'm doing to pull out clothes. Let's foster independence where we can, shall we?

I used my basic scrapbooking supplies to create these tags; mostly using paper and ribbon. I themed them to the Classic Disney Characters, but you could do these for any set of characters that mean something to your family. I may try and do a set based on Phineas and Ferb for Doc; his clothes will be in a separate room from ours. These tags represent, Sunday - Minnie, Monday - Mickey, Tuesday - Donald, Wednesday - Goofy, Thursday - Pluto, and Friday - Daisy. I know, I don't have Saturday; won't be needing that one on this trip. Too bad. We'll just have to remedy that another time!

And for those who may need to know, the design ID numbers for these Hanger Tags are: 32018, 32017, 32016, 32015, 32014, 32012, 32011. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!