I also made some Brave-inspired cupcakes when the movie came out over the summer. Oh, and don't forget to look for my Muppet Cupcakes post, either!! They were my personal favorites. Enjoy!!
Monday, November 12, 2012
Wreck-it-Ralph Cupcakes!
So I brainstormed... and I came up with these:
Wreck-it-Ralph Sugar Rush cupcakes!! Yummmmm! I mostly used brick candy, which I was so happy to find! To read and see more pictures, head on over to my cupcake blog, Easy There, Cupcake!
I also made some Brave-inspired cupcakes when the movie came out over the summer. Oh, and don't forget to look for my Muppet Cupcakes post, either!! They were my personal favorites. Enjoy!!
I also made some Brave-inspired cupcakes when the movie came out over the summer. Oh, and don't forget to look for my Muppet Cupcakes post, either!! They were my personal favorites. Enjoy!!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
A New Mermaid Joins the Magic Kingdom...
Pretty soon the Starbucks Siren will be joining Disney World. Already part of Disney's California Adventure, Starbucks will be replacing Main Street Bakery in the Magic Kingdom. I hear they will be required to wear the same or similar outfits as the current bakery cast members, and that more locations will be opening in the other Disney parks and in Downtown Disney.
I am pretty upset that the Main Street Bakery is being replaced :( I also am upset that the Starbucks mermaid won't be wearing mouse ears on her head in their insignia. But the cups look pretty cute:
I am pretty upset that the Main Street Bakery is being replaced :( I also am upset that the Starbucks mermaid won't be wearing mouse ears on her head in their insignia. But the cups look pretty cute:
I got that picture from pulpconnection.com. Everyone's talking about it! And now so are you!
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Election Night!
Oh boy, it's election night!! Vote, vote, vote!! Just saw Orlando's projected vote on the news actually (I'm not obsessed, it was just on randomly). It'll be an exciting night!
Monday, November 5, 2012
I'm Gonna Wreck It!
Mike & I saw Wreck it Ralph the other night (the day it was officially released) and it was SO GOOD!! I definitely recommend it. Great story, great animation... I laughed, I cried, I got hungry... So looking around online for real-life food projects from the movie, I found one done at Disney World! This group made cars out of candy, just like in Sugar Rush! Here's the link. It's really cute. I think you should try this. In the meantime, I'm cupcake-brainstorming...
Saturday, November 3, 2012
By the way, I was the Little Mermaid for Halloween...
I wanted to tell you guys all about my costume!! I hope you don't think it's too late now that it's November. I mean, technically it was "Halloween" today in my neighborhood. Thanks to "Superstorm Sandy," the kids' trick-or-treating day was ruined, and moved to today. So really it's not that late.
So I was The Little Mermaid. Because of my red hair, really. Ariel is every girl with red hair's favorite princess. Anyhow, what a process. How to do the top, how to do the bottom, etc... First, I made Flounder. I was determined to have a Flounder purse as part of my costume, so if my costume alone wasn't that convincing, people would look to my purse and go, "ooooh!" I drew a picture of Flounder from a Google image search. Then I cut out a Flounder body shape and cut it out of felt. I sewed the pieces together:
It was a little difficult to add the bag bottom and give him some width, but I folded some pieces of paper this way and that and figured it out.
I added the fins and stitched the smile (all the stitching was by hand), then added the tail. Turned him inside-out and poof:
I was so pleased with this!! I stitched on some lace with little pearl beads on it as the strap, like sea foam, right before the trip to Disney. You'll see pictures of that later!
I considered many things for the top. I bought a shell at AC Moore, thinking I'd make a mold of it from papier mache. 2 real shells would be too heavy! Then I found 2 shell-shaped tin dishes at a thrift shop for $2. Well they were too small to be decent, so again I had to think of something else.
Finally, I figured I would get some dark purple fabric to attach to a nude strapless bra, and put some puffy paint around the back as the thin strap. I got a T-shirt at AC Moore (just $3) to cut up and use as fabric. It worked!! I folded 2 pieces into squares, gathered them at one end, and sewed them to the bra. Here it is before I sewed it. Again, I had to hand-stitch all that.
I hooked it closed and put it around a couch pillow and an old scrapbook to draw the puffy paint on the sides. It worked really well! I'd measured the width it was pulled to versus myself and all the little wiggles in it stretched out flat when I put it on. This took 2 nights because each side had to dry before I could do the other.
The skirt took a heck of a lot of work. First I bought some fabric and just sewed it on me. It was way too tight to walk around comfortably, especially if I was going to Disney World. The zipper was a disaster, because I hadn't followed any pattern. I had to trash my first skirt attempt. :(
Fortunately, my brother-in-law Hiro went to fashion design school in Paris and worked in Tokyo as a designer for years. He made a pattern to my measurements and helped me translate it to real-life size on tracing paper. From that, I cut the fabric, sewed it together, put on the zipper, and added the fins!
That's a picture from the first skirt, but I used the same design for the fins on the second skirt. Except I stitched all the sides over because that fabric had a lot of little strings hanging and pulling off. I stitched one light green square onto another, but sticking off the sides so it would form a tail shape! For the skirt, I used my sewing machine! It was a pencil-skirt shape with a slit up the middle so I wouldn't rip it walking around.
Finally, here's the finished product. You can see the full costume in this pic:
The top of my skirt was the very last thing I did. It was actually done like 3 minutes after the party started. I cut a length of the fin material, folded it over, and gathered it in the middle front. I sewed it onto the top of the skirt (at first it came apart and I was panicking, but my friends are all "fashionably late" so it was fine). I was still doing my hair when my first guests arrived! There's actually one of those bump-it things in my hair, and some bobby pins and little claw clips. I'm wearing green seashell earrings and a pink poofy flower :)
Here's a more "appropriate" version of my costume that I wore to Disney! You may have seen this in my MNSSHP post (and it's the only picture of the "sea foam" strap I put on Flounder, sorry!):
I bought a sequined purple tube top off ebay, and when it arrived I had to take it in (again, Hiro came up with the "how"). I also gathered the front middle to give it more shape! Let me tell you, sewing with sequins is HARD WORK. I also bought gold-glitter shoes from Wet Seal (much cheaper than the Toms version, and more comfortable) to look like sand, or just to make my feet less noticeable. Haha.
I had my dad take a picture of my hair because I didn't know if it looked alright all night (because this was after we came back). I was pretty happy with it :)
Hooray! It was a great Halloween. I'm sure we all want to be Disney Princesses sometimes :) By the way, you should have seen all the purple this top left on my skin!! I felt like Ursula instead! Hahaha. Hope you had a great Halloween! Please send me links of your costumes if you'd like :)
So I was The Little Mermaid. Because of my red hair, really. Ariel is every girl with red hair's favorite princess. Anyhow, what a process. How to do the top, how to do the bottom, etc... First, I made Flounder. I was determined to have a Flounder purse as part of my costume, so if my costume alone wasn't that convincing, people would look to my purse and go, "ooooh!" I drew a picture of Flounder from a Google image search. Then I cut out a Flounder body shape and cut it out of felt. I sewed the pieces together:
It was a little difficult to add the bag bottom and give him some width, but I folded some pieces of paper this way and that and figured it out.
I added the fins and stitched the smile (all the stitching was by hand), then added the tail. Turned him inside-out and poof:
I was so pleased with this!! I stitched on some lace with little pearl beads on it as the strap, like sea foam, right before the trip to Disney. You'll see pictures of that later!
I considered many things for the top. I bought a shell at AC Moore, thinking I'd make a mold of it from papier mache. 2 real shells would be too heavy! Then I found 2 shell-shaped tin dishes at a thrift shop for $2. Well they were too small to be decent, so again I had to think of something else.
Finally, I figured I would get some dark purple fabric to attach to a nude strapless bra, and put some puffy paint around the back as the thin strap. I got a T-shirt at AC Moore (just $3) to cut up and use as fabric. It worked!! I folded 2 pieces into squares, gathered them at one end, and sewed them to the bra. Here it is before I sewed it. Again, I had to hand-stitch all that.
I hooked it closed and put it around a couch pillow and an old scrapbook to draw the puffy paint on the sides. It worked really well! I'd measured the width it was pulled to versus myself and all the little wiggles in it stretched out flat when I put it on. This took 2 nights because each side had to dry before I could do the other.
The skirt took a heck of a lot of work. First I bought some fabric and just sewed it on me. It was way too tight to walk around comfortably, especially if I was going to Disney World. The zipper was a disaster, because I hadn't followed any pattern. I had to trash my first skirt attempt. :(
Fortunately, my brother-in-law Hiro went to fashion design school in Paris and worked in Tokyo as a designer for years. He made a pattern to my measurements and helped me translate it to real-life size on tracing paper. From that, I cut the fabric, sewed it together, put on the zipper, and added the fins!
That's a picture from the first skirt, but I used the same design for the fins on the second skirt. Except I stitched all the sides over because that fabric had a lot of little strings hanging and pulling off. I stitched one light green square onto another, but sticking off the sides so it would form a tail shape! For the skirt, I used my sewing machine! It was a pencil-skirt shape with a slit up the middle so I wouldn't rip it walking around.
Finally, here's the finished product. You can see the full costume in this pic:
Then I found a dinglehopper on the kitchen table :)
The top of my skirt was the very last thing I did. It was actually done like 3 minutes after the party started. I cut a length of the fin material, folded it over, and gathered it in the middle front. I sewed it onto the top of the skirt (at first it came apart and I was panicking, but my friends are all "fashionably late" so it was fine). I was still doing my hair when my first guests arrived! There's actually one of those bump-it things in my hair, and some bobby pins and little claw clips. I'm wearing green seashell earrings and a pink poofy flower :)
Here's a more "appropriate" version of my costume that I wore to Disney! You may have seen this in my MNSSHP post (and it's the only picture of the "sea foam" strap I put on Flounder, sorry!):
I bought a sequined purple tube top off ebay, and when it arrived I had to take it in (again, Hiro came up with the "how"). I also gathered the front middle to give it more shape! Let me tell you, sewing with sequins is HARD WORK. I also bought gold-glitter shoes from Wet Seal (much cheaper than the Toms version, and more comfortable) to look like sand, or just to make my feet less noticeable. Haha.
I had my dad take a picture of my hair because I didn't know if it looked alright all night (because this was after we came back). I was pretty happy with it :)
Hooray! It was a great Halloween. I'm sure we all want to be Disney Princesses sometimes :) By the way, you should have seen all the purple this top left on my skin!! I felt like Ursula instead! Hahaha. Hope you had a great Halloween! Please send me links of your costumes if you'd like :)
Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival!
Yaaaaaay! There were TWO special events going on when my dad & I went to Disney! Besides MNSSHP, there was the more mature, posh, international (which makes it really fancy) Food & Wine festival. I heard about it when I was there in February (let me reiterate, it is very RARE that I make it to Disney besides once every four years. I don't think we meant for that pattern to happen, but as a family, we went every four years. It had been four years since my last visit when Mike & I went, but this trip with my dad came out of the blue for both of us and I felt very special and surprised that I got to go again!). Anyway, we got the chance to attend both of these special events, and here's everything I know about the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot!!
First of all, you don't have to pay extra to attend. It started Sept. 28 and goes to Nov. 12 so you can still go!! They say you can "taste your way around the world," and it's true. But you also have to "pay your way around the world." Nothing is free, of course, but the prices aren't crazy! The highest we paid was $8 and change for the Fairy Tale Cuvee (fancy, exclusive-to-Disney champagne), and the cheapest was around $1.75 for the Dark Chocolate Mousse with Chili and Salted Caramel (both products I mentioned were things I heard about from a video I watched before the trip). Here's the video on some beverages (including the Cuvee!), and one on the food!
Duffy is so cute. I met him in his pumpkin outfit (you can see our picture in my MNSSHP post) but here he is for sale in his Chef Duffy outfit! How adorable! I have a little magnet plush that I keep on my bag, and I'm thinking of making him tiny outfits out of felt :)
Well, we started our tour around the world at the Terra booth, then went clockwise from Mexico to Canada. I believe "Terra" is Disney's vegan booth. I had the Chili Colorado with House-made Chips and Cashew Cheese featuring Gardein Beefless Tips:
It was alright, just too spicy and beef-flavored for me! I know it's not real beef, but man they did a good job making it taste like the real thing!!
In Italy we each had a Cannoli al Cioccolato (Chocolate Covered Cannoli). Yum!
In Japan, we saw the candy-maker Miyuki (that's also my sister-in-law's name :)) who isn't part of the festival--she's here year-round! And her candy creations are awesome. They donate the candy to children's hospitals!
At the Japan booth I got the Sake Strawberry Mist, which is a blended beverage, kind of like a frozen margarita, but with sake. It was soooooo good. Probably my favorite purchase of the food & wine trip!
Next, we passed one of the official festival shops, where they have all the festival merchandise. I read about this plate on the festival facebook page and had my dad pose with it. It's see-through and has a checklist of all the countries, and a spot on the corner for your wine glass! (We didn't see anyone using these but it's a cute idea.)
Also, there is an exclusive festival Vinylmation figure--the waiter from Lady & the Tramp, with spaghetti and meatballs on one ear, and a starry night sky on the other.
We took a break from all that food & wine and went back to Future World for Soarin' (we had a fastpass), Journey Into Imagination (an old family-favorite :)), Captain EO (which we saw YEARS ago), Turtle Talk with Crush (which was so much fun to watch), and The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Walking back to the food, we saw a beautiful rainbow!
A few moments later, it became a double rainbow!! But very faint, and only for about a minute.
In Australia, I had Shrimp on the Barbie with Pepper Berry Citrus Glaze!
Saw a raspberry plant:
And then had my Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee!
I feel like a princess with this drink!
Dad had the JH Selbach Riesling Classic from Germany (notice the small wine glass you get):
Then, of course, I was taken with the glasses at the little glass stand. Here's a mug with a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, and "Von Goofy Burgermeister."
Then we went to America! I had Linda Bean's Perfect Maine Clam Chowder:
Mmm. I love chowdah.
Then there was New Zealand, where my dad got Kim Crawford Un-Oaked Chardonnay. They also told him here that he looks like Steven Spielberg.
What do you think? (On a side note, I prefer my chardonnay oakey).
That's right, Australia!!
Nope, just kidding. France!
I really should have tried the Escargots Persillade en Brioche (Garlic and Parsley Snails in Brioche--just reading straight from the pamphlet here, translation and all). They were served as three little "boules" of bread like a hidden Mickey. But I didn't think that'd go with creme brulee!
I was pretty full at that point, but I wanted to try the Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki at Greece! So I did.
I loved the portion sizes all through the festival! It was like tapas!
Then we came to "Desserts and Champagne." I know, we should have started there first ;) Look at the cool kiosk with the fake windows and "people" inside:
With hardly any room left, we ordered two "Dark Chocolate Mousse with Chili and Salted Caramel"s. Sounds amazing, right??
Looks amazing, too (if small)! Well, it was TOO SPICY for both of us. I really wanted to like it, but my tongue and mouth just couldn't take it. Goodbye, yummy-looking chocolate. Straight into the garbage. Good thing it was the cheapest-priced dish we bought!
A giant glass of champagne was one of the decorations:
We stayed for Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, then hung out for a while after for Extra Magic Hours.
We rode Spaceship Earth and went to some shops (Mouse Gears, and the one by the back exit to the resorts), and continued on to Mexico.
Got some churritos (wanted plain old churros but this is what was on the menu). Still tasty!! With caramel dipping sauce:
There are some things that come out at night, like the special lighting on Spaceship Earth, the twinkling sidewalks, and this projection of the Food & Wine Festival sign:
So long, Epcot! See ya real soon!
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