Pokemon, Amorette's, Ghirardelli, and More Merch from Disney Springs!

My parents came to visit my brother and me last week and the closest timeshare they could find was in Kissimmee, which is right outside Orlando.  So of course we all went to Disney Springs together!  First of all, if you are staying outside Disney property, definitely check out local stores, outlets and gift shops.  There are tons of souvenirs around!  I went to CVS and they had aisles of stuffed animals, mouse ears, and Disney mugs!  I bought a towel there!

So I haven't had a good margarita since I moved down here.  I went over to Dockside Margaritas in Disney Springs and got this Patrón Añejo Margarita (I had to look that up from the site).

Exactly what I had been craving!  You can read the menu here.

Then of course we went to the World of Disney!  I hadn't seen these mugs last time:

These are just 2 of the many cute designs like this!  The ceilings are always fun to look at in this store.  Here are Ariel and Pocahontas, and a little mural of Mickey and Minnie on a magic carpet ride with Aladdin and Jasmine!

These Mickey magnets are so pretty, but a little bit expensive in my opinion.  I bought three for my classroom, but I also got to use a resident discount!  I don't know if that's new this weekend, only on weekends, or for a limited time... But it was 15% off last Monday when we were there, and becoming 20% off the next day!  It was still 20% off when I went back this weekend!

Pokemon Go isn't going unnoticed at the Springs!  I haven't heard much about it in the news lately (we must be getting used to it), but a couple weeks ago Basin announced some limited edition Pokeball Bath Bombs!  Aren't they adorable?  I finally went back and bought one yesterday haha.  I was just too curious to see what was inside!  (I'll show you in my next post!)

Also, Starbucks was giving out free samples of a PokemonGo "Team Instinct"-inspired Mango Lemonade!  It was actually really tasty and refreshing!!  Where do I sign up for this team? 

We stopped by a new shop called Amorette's, which is a french patisserie that has these adorable Mickey-shaped financiers (like almond sponge cakes, according to Google.  Wish I had known this.  I would have bought one!) You can read the menu here.  

The financiers and most pastries are $8, and I was surprised that the mini cakes (which are decorated exquisitely) are only $15!  They also have boxes of beautiful pastel macarons.  The big-ticket items are the Mickey and friends cakes which are $65.

But so cute you can kind of justify it...

This woman is painting the ears (probably with chocolate).  There are decorations around suggesting an artists' workshop, and I was happy to find this painting of one of my favorite Disney parade costumes from the Festival of Fantasy:

And I love this wall of sprinkles in color order!!

Speaking of Sprinkles, I finally made it inside! 

I loved the Sprinkles in NYC and this is very similar.  They also have ice cream!  I was hoping they'd have some special Disney cupcake (maybe they do--I didn't read the menu), but I didn't find anything.  I was hoping they'd have 3 of their fancy dots on one cupcake to make a Mickey, or at least have one on display like a hidden Mickey!  

They had this adorable dollhouse-size display of their shop which I absolutely loved:

And I highly recommend buying the mix if you can--I tried the chocolate one (the cylinder with blue on the bottom)--it's my favorite mix yet!  It also makes you feel like you're doing it from scratch since you have to prepare various ingredients that aren't in the package (but that's what makes it so fresh).  I posted about it in my cupcake blog a couple years back!

I haven't tried it yet, but Sprinkles also has the first-ever Cupcake ATM!  I imagine it's only open during business hours because it's probably someone physically placing a cupcake in the little window.. I really don't know.  But it's a cute idea!

We stopped at Ghirardelli to get some ice cream treats:

Mine was the "Treasure Island Sundae."  It had a warm brownie in it, along with hot fudge and walnuts drizzled over the ice cream.  SO GOOD!

Before we left, I stopped by Arribas Brothers and found some cute glassware designed like Disney characters (like this Mickey vase--it's the only one I could get a clear photo of since the sun was shining right behind the window)

I love this Chihuly-looking chandelier!

 There were some cute miniatures in glass like the Genie, the Toy Story Aliens, Tigger, Pooh, and more!

My favorite was this gorgeous pegasus unicorn!  Reminded me of Fantasia!

A couple addenda to my previous post... I took a photo of B.B. Wolf's Sausage Co. menu (click for larger image):

So while they don't have turkey or chicken sausages, they do have a vegetarian option!

And here are some photos of the UNIQLO patches that I believe were not pictured in the website image I'd posted before.

Until next time!

Proof That Tokyo Disney is the Cutest Place Ever

If you didn't believe the evidence of my first two Tokyo Disney posts, here is some more proof.  I recently went to Mitsuwa, the closest Japanese supermarket to our house, with my brother and brother-in-law.  There is a Japanese bookstore right next door, so we looked around.  I mostly looked at the cute stationery and then some magazines because obviously I can't read the books.  Well my brother David found this AMAZING Japanese Disney fan magazine... called Disney Fan.  Genius.  It was shrink-wrapped, so I couldn't tell what was inside, but it came with a calendar... so obviously I bought it.

I'm sure some of you at home have the ability to read that.  More power to you!  I mean, you'd buy this too, amiright?  So inside is a lot more writing I can't understand (I got the gist of some of it from my brothers), but here are some pictures and what I can remember of the translations.

This one I didn't ask for a translation of... but I thought it was cute.  Some kind of chariot Mickey on parade at Tokyo Disney Sea.  I remember that large body of water by the entrance of the park where they have character parade floats.  They have all the main characters in Roman chariot racing outfits.  I wonder why they picked that theme...

Ok so I scanned some pages too (in addition to taking pictures).  Here is a Japanese celebrity explaining the new limited-time-only line of snacks available RIGHT NOW in Tokyo Disney!!  The featured item is a Mike Wazowski sponge cake made of green tea and whipped cream.  Oh my GOODNESS is that ever cute??

I would totally spend my hard-earned money on that!!  Maybe I'll try to recreate it myself!!

Above are some more snacks... My fave on this page is the souvenir cup full of TINY WAFFLES WHAT!!??  with tiny dipping sauce... Oh my god.  How do they do it.  Just when you thought Mickey waffles couldn't get any more awesome.  There's also a whole bunch of different warm drinks there.. one with a heart-shaped marshmallow with Mickey & Minnie kissing on it.  Then there's, well, a brownie.  Sorry guys, not really shocked over that one.

Moving on.. There's pages and pages of adorable things.  Of course I'd just sit down with you and show you the entire magazine if you were here, but you're not, so here's just some more snippets.  This page has a Duffy-shaped box of chocolates with Duffy- (and his girlfriend-) shaped chocolates inside (just their heads.  But still.  You don't see that in American Disneys).  Teapots are ALWAYS cute... Oh and don't mind that CHOCOLATE MIKE WAZOWSKI on the bottom left.  STOP, Tokyo Disney, just stop with all the cuteness.  I can't take it...

 

And just another spread of snacks available..  There's some fancy desserts with Peter Pan and Dumbo attached on what looks like edible paper..

Then there's these adorable cream puffs with pink mouse ear hats on them!!!  And a Donald..bread..thing but it's really awesome too!

And I totally want this teapot.  I don't care how impractical it looks.

Here's the back cover, advertising some deathly cute new line of toys available only in Japan I'm sure...

Ugh Disney, I cannot afford another trip to your Tokyo kingdoms for some time!  Stop teasing me!  I know I'm only asking for it... Anyway.  We'll see what the future brings ;)  In the meantime I am TOTALLY inspired to finally make those Disney cupcakes I'd been wanting to make since my last Disney trip!  Wish me luck!