DIY Disney Incredible Superhero Cuffs

With Halloween on the horizon (I like to plan ahead!), I thought this would be a great rerun for today. Enjoy!

Both of our littles have been very into playing dress up lately; especially pretending they have super powers! It's something the big one never really liked. So we were a little sparse in the costume/superhero department. When I started scouring the inter-webs for some quick and dirty costumes and accessories, I found these incredibly easy (pardon the pun!) superhero cuffs from Kate's Creative Space. How could I say no?

When I say easy, I mean it. This fits well into the department of nap-time friendly crafts. Kate has the tutorial and the printables all on her blog. All you need is a couple of empty toilet paper tubes and some glue, and you're all set. She shows you how to embellish them a bit too, if you're so inclined. I just love how these turned out. And talk about budget friendly too! I don't care what Happy decides to do with them. I didn't invest much time and they didn't cost me a dime. It's hard to beat that kind of Disney magic. It might even make you feel a little Super.

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

DIY Disney Mousekeeping Envelopes

For those of you Disney newbies, Mousekeeping is the Disney version of housekeeping. These are the people who make your room look like new when you walk in. They even make some fun shapes with towels and play funny games with your stuffed animals. Tip them well. They work very hard.

Side note, if you are staying in one of the DVC villas, you should note that housekeeping does not come every day unless you request them to. We find the standard service to be enough. Others in our Disney family do not. It's something to consider as you plan your next stay at the Disney Resorts. If you do wish to have addition Mousekeeping services, remember to request them at check-in, or press the mousekeeping button on your room phone.

And on that note, WDW Prep School has some terrific Disney themed Mousekeeping envelopes free to download! There are several designs to choose from, so have some fun printing these out. It helps Mousekeeping know that the money is for them, and it keeps my little guys from trying to give it back to me! (Or pocketing it for themselves!)

Be sure to check out Shannon's entire site for all sorts of really helpful Disney planning tips, especially if you are just starting out. As my dear friend Fauna says, it feels you need a B.A. in Disney Planning, and a minor in Disney Dining to make your first trip successful! WDW Prep School can take some of the edge off of that for you.

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

DIY Disney's Mary Poppins Spoonful of Sugar Chore Chart

Mary Poppins' Spoonful of Sugar Chore Chart

I know there are many of us out there who love the Disney Classics. Mary Poppins most certainly qualifies on that score! I can remember going to the drive-in as a little girl with my best friend, both of us propped up on Charles Chips cans in the back seat watching Mary Poppins and Burt traipse across the rooftops of London. It was magical! (I'm certain I am aging myself here: Drive-in? Charles Chips?! Does anyone even know what that is anymore??)

As I was rummaging around in my craft supplies recently, I ran across these adorable spoons from 7Gypsies (hard to find now, but Ebay might be a good place to search). I had been playing around with the idea of a Disney themed chore chart and immediately had the inspiration that these "spoonfuls" would be perfect on a chore chart featuring everyone's favorite nanny!

I wanted to make this simple for Happy - he's only 2, so we are working on a morning and evening routine right now. I designed this Mary Poppins printable chart which I am happy to share with you for free! All you need to do is print it on regular paper - not cardstock - and adhere it to some pretty Poppins-themed scrapbook paper. I pulled this out of the bottom of the stack, but I liked how the butterflies reminded me of Mary's bouquet of flowers/butterflies on her Jolly Holiday with Burt. You remember that, right?

To create the spoon magnets, I used some magnet strip I had on hand. I adhered it to the bowl of the spoon, and the handle end. I first tried some magnetic dots, but they were not strong enough to hold the spoon through 2 pieces of paper (this is why I recommend using regular paper when printing the chart).   I also curled the handle of the spoon just a little to get the handle end to touch the paper and adhere to the fridge. Of course, you could always just make some paper spoon magnets, or use other magnets altogether. (What about those pressed pennies?) You could even cover it with contact paper and make it a write-on, wipe-off board! Make it your own.

Let me know if you use this idea at your cottage. And until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Sitting With Grandmother Willow | Carla of WDW Travel Prep

This article posted in December as I was in the midst of dealing with all manner of flu, the hubbub of the Christmas season and the craziness of life in general. As such, I wanted to re-run it this month and give Carla her due! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

As part of our on-going series, Sitting with Grandmother Willow, I am happy to introduce you to Carla of WDW Travel Prep, and Etsy store Magic Travel Prep! This series of blog posts highlights artists and fellow bloggers of all stripes with one thing in common: a passion for Disney!

Carla has incredible planning tips and planners on her blog and in her Etsy shop, sure to give even the most seasoned planner a little help in making the most of the magic! As most of us know, the more you plan, the better your Disney vacation can be. And as the Disney experience grows, so does the need to get your ducks (or mice?) in a row! Carla is a terrific resource for making all those Disney plans. I'm so glad she could join us on the blog this month!

Disney by the numbers (with apologies to Harpers):

# of trips you have made: 3

Date of first trip: December 2011

Date of next trip: January 2015

# of Resorts stayed in: 3

Usual # in your travel party: 2, just me and my boyfriend

Pairs of mouse ears in your cottage: 2

WDW or Disneyland (or other)? Both!

How do you usually travel to Disney? Plane

Do you have any tips for trips? My favorite tip is to not over plan! Although Disney planning is my favorite thing to do, it’s important to make sure you don’t try to lay out every single second. Give yourself some wiggle room. 

Do you have a favorite place to eat while in Disney? There are so many to choose, but the only place I go to every time is Aloha Isle for some Dole Whip. 

What is your absolute DON'T MISS attraction? Expedition Everest is a must for me. 

Stage shows, yes or no? Yes! The ones at Epcot are wonderful. 

Parades, yes or no? Yes! Festival of Fantasy is my new favorite. 

Best Fast Pass to get: Toy Story Mania.

Favorite park: Magic Kingdom

One piece of advice you'd give a novice about WDW/DL: It will always be more crowded than you think!

How do you create extra magic for your family? We buy matching pins to wear

How can we connect with you? You can check out my website for all my current social media links! Wdwtravelprep.com

Quick New Year's Eve Disney Printables

Spoonful's Mickey Glitter Ball Printable

Can you believe it's New Year's Eve already? We have a local celebration for the kids at noon today, so the party for them will end well before midnight. But I wanted to offer a few fun activities for them while the grown ups get ready for our annual hors d'ouvers and TV viewing celebration.

Spoonful to the rescue! If you've never visited, Spoonful is Disney's DIY blog with tons of fun and clever ideas. For tonight's celebration they have some cute and quick printables to make your evening fun! I love the Mickey's New Year Wishlist. We don't do resolutions around here, but we do set intentions and I love how this would work right into that. And the Mickey Mouse Glitter Ball Mobile is too cute! I can see that dangling from the light over our dining table. Perfect for the kids. There's a lot more on the Spoonful website, including all manner of hats and crowns, a celebration banner and even some recipe ideas. And all the decorations can be printed right from home! Easy for a last minute party.

Happy New Year, Mousekateers! Until next time, may your new year be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Incredible Superhero Cuffs

Happy has been very into playing dress up lately; especially pretending he has super powers! It's something Doc never really liked. So we are a little sparse in the costume/superhero department. When I started scouring the inter-webs for some quick and dirty costumes and accessories, I found these incredibly easy (pardon the pun!) superhero cuffs from Kate's Creative Space. How could I say no?

When I say easy, I mean it. This fits well into the department of nap-time friendly crafts. Kate has the tutorial and the printables all on her blog. All you need is a couple of empty toilet paper tubes and some glue, and you're all set. She shows you how to embellish them a bit too, if you're so inclined. I just love how these turned out. And talk about budget friendly too! I don't care what Happy decides to do with them. I didn't invest much time and they didn't cost me a dime. It's hard to beat that kind of Disney magic. It might even make you feel a little Super.

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

DIY Disney's Mary Poppins Spoonful of Sugar Chore Chart

Mary Poppins' Spoonful of Sugar Chore Chart

I know there are many of us out there who love the Disney Classics. Mary Poppins most certainly qualifies on that score! I can remember going to the drive-in as a little girl with my best friend, both of us propped up on Charles Chips cans in the back seat watching Mary Poppins and Burt traipse across the rooftops of London. It was magical! (I'm certain I am aging myself here: Drive-in? Charles Chips?!)

As I was rummaging around in my craft supplies recently, I ran across these adorable spoons from 7Gypsies (hard to find now, but available here; Ebay might be a good place to search too). I had been playing around with the idea of a Disney themed chore chart and immediately had the inspiration that these "spoonfuls" would be perfect on a chore chart featuring everyone's favorite nanny!

I wanted to make this simple for Happy - he's only 2, so we are working on a morning and evening routine right now. I designed this Mary Poppins printable chart which I am happy to share with you for free! All you need to do is print it on regular paper - not cardstock - and adhere it to some pretty Poppins-themed scrapbook paper. I pulled this out of the bottom of the stack, but I liked how the butterflies reminded me of Mary's bouquet of flowers/butterflies on her Jolly Holiday with Burt. You remember that, right?

To create the spoon magnets, I used some magnet strip I had on hand. I adhered it to the bowl of the spoon, and the handle end. I first tried some magnetic dots, but they were not strong enough to hold the spoon through 2 pieces of paper (this is why I recommend using regular paper when printing the chart).   I also curled the handle of the spoon just a little to get the handle end to touch the paper and adhere to the fridge. Of course, you could always just make some paper spoon magnets, or use other magnets altogether. (What about those pressed pennies?) You could even cover it with contact paper and make it a write-on, wipe-off board! Make it your own.

Let me know if you use this idea at your cottage. And until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Mousekeeping Envelopes

For those of you Disney newbies, Mousekeeping is the Disney version of housekeeping. These are the people who make your room look like new when you walk in. They even make some fun shapes with towels and play funny games with your stuffed animals. Tip them well. They work very hard.

Side note, if you are staying in one of the DVC villas, you should note that housekeeping does not come every day unless you request them to. We find the standard service to be enough. Others in our Disney family do not. It's something to consider as you plan your next stay at the Disney Resorts. If you do wish to have addition Mousekeeping services, remember to request them at check-in, or press the mousekeeping button on your room phone.

And on that note, WDW Prep School has some terrific Disney themed Mousekeeping envelopes free to download! There are several designs to choose from, so have some fun printing these out. It helps Mousekeeping know that the money is for them, and it keeps my little guys from trying to give it back to me! (Or pocketing it for themselves!)

Be sure to check out Shannon's entire site for all sorts of really helpful Disney planning tips, especially if you are just starting out. As my dear friend Fauna says, it feels you need a B.A. in Disney Planning, and a minor in Disney Dining to make your first trip successful! WDW Prep School can take some of the edge off of that for you.

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

DIY Disney Themed Paper Take-out Sacks | Back to School

I think one of the best things that Disney (and especially Pixar) does is create an entire world you can believe exists. I love the detail that goes into these movies. And one of my particular obsessions is Disney's fictional brands: Lightyear Tires, BnL, Dinoco, etc. So for this particular project I thought it would be fun to make take-out sacks for those lunches that require disposable packaging. (Our field trip days are always like that!)

These are two of my favorite fictional restaurants, Tiana's Palace, from The Princess and the Frog, and Gusteau's from Ratatouille. I created a couple of PDFs using some custom shapes and Adobe creative suite. The font for Tiana's Palace is Edwardian Script. You probably already have it on your computer. The font for Gusteau's is Futura. It's one of my favorites. If you would like to download these free PDFs, you are welcome to use them! You can find Gusteau's here, and Tiana's Palace here.

To print, simply load the bag into the left side of the printer bottom down, bottom fold facing away from you. Don't worry about it looking upside down, it should be. Also, ignore any cropping warnings you get. It should print out properly, but I would recommend running a test copy on paper before putting your bag through. And if you need more visual instructions for printing the bags, check out Geeky Paper Ideas. There was a small learning curve with loading the bags for me. One went in flawlessly, the other was eaten. Ah well. Not everything is sprinkled with fairy dust!

I'd like to design a few more of these in the future, but until then, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Lunch Box Notes | Back to School

It's back to school time and those first few weeks can be rough getting back into the routine! If you have a student (or frankly, a teacher) in your life you know how hard it can be. These sweet lunch box notes are a perfect mid-day pick-me-up. There are lots of these out there but these are my favorites. Add a little magic to your loved one's lunch.

Disney Family has a cute selection, both boy and girl themed. These are the boy selection.

Disney Stationery has lots of great notes including these wonderful Wall-E notes. Check out the link for more from Mickey and the gang, your favorite princesses, a pirate and a few dwarfs.

And finally, if your kids are a bit older and enjoy trivia from the parks (*cough*, Doc, *cough*), then here are 6 from the cottage. We hope you enjoy them. Simply click here to download them for yourself. Special thanks to Disney Trivia for the questions and answers!

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!