but what I’d really like to say is:
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Adventurering Kat…
Oh my. January?! New job, traveling, I’ve been so busy. But good busy, not miserable at work busy.
So where did I go? Well…
First I went home…
That would be a photo of a ferry crossing Puget Sound taken from the Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington.
And then I went to the OTHER Washington…
I waved at the President. I’m pretty sure he waved back.
And then on my way home after the Bi-Washington trip, I went to Orlando for one of my favorite annual events, Megacon.
I saw Kick-Ass…
AND I got a print from one of my favorite artists, Jasmine Becket-Griffith.
All of this has been well and good, BUT I have not been to Disney in over two months! I miss my mouse!! I miss blogging and sleeping too, but I’m finally starting to feel like I have the time to do those again, so visiting Mickey can’t be too far off.
Meet the new job, it’s the same as the old job…
O.k. well, perhaps not quite the same. But it’s close enough. And it should finally afford me the time to blog again. And oh, how I have missed my movie Fridays.
P.S. criminal court clerking will suck the light out of your life faster than you can say warrant.
Oh Christmas Tree – Polynesian Resort
Honestly, if I ever have the opportunity to stay at Disney’s Polynesian Resort for Christmas, I’m probably going to decorate the tree with lots of flowers and wooden tikis, but since that doesn’t showcase much in the way of ideas, here’s are some others.
I included Lilo and Stitch because of the breakfast, and cocktails because of the Tambu. I would have liked to have found something to represent each of the longhouses, but most of the ones I found where white ornaments with a picture of the location and were frankly not too attractive. So skipping that idea and going with a more tropical theme, and thinking it would be fun to throw some vacationing Santas in.
All items found on Amazon.
Oh Christmas Tree – Port Orleans French Quarter
I loved creating my Port Orleans French Quarter tree last year. I started with a base of green, gold/yellow and purple ornaments, and added some green, gold, and purple snowflakes I found at Target.
For the other ornaments, most of what I used was re-purposed items from the Mardi Gras Outlet. We bought several necklaces with masks as the featured bead, and used the necklace beads as garland and the masks as ornaments, as well as buying Mardi Gras themed ornaments and items that fit the color scheme. As long as you can find the items you want in the right colors, you can really have a lot of fun with this one. Some ideas:
Also, here’s a look at our actual tree for last year, with our Mickey Mouse Santa in his Mardi Gras mask. The purple star on top was something I found at Target as well, but was actually an ornament. It was open inside so it was easy to affix to the top of the tree, and I put a light inside of it to give it a little glow. Unfortunately, that didn’t photograph well, but it looked really pretty when the lights were out.
Hopefully I can do another tree or two tonight, I just don’t know which ones yet!
Oh Christmas Tree – All Star Music
New job keeping me very busy this week so no time for fun things like putting together Christmas trees. But I’ve managed to do two more, and I will see if I can do a couple more before we leave for Orlando tomorrow.
Here’s some ideas for an All Star Music. I don’t see us ever staying there for Christmas, but I think it would be a fun tree to put together, especially for a music fan. All items were easily found at Amazon for this one.
I picked Lumiere and Cogsworth to represent the Beauty and the Beast musical. And while they aren’t showcased at the resort, I’d probably add a couple of ornaments to represent some of the other Disney Broadway musicals if I ever made this tree.
Next up, Port Orleans French Quarter. I actually did that tree!
Oh Christmas Tree – Animal Kingdom Lodge and Villas
Moving right along…well, maybe not right along. Did I mention I have a new job that takes up all my time now? Sigh. It’s good to have a job, but I miss having time to blog, and write, and all that good stuff.
Anyway, lets look at an Animal Kingdom tree. I really thought it would be easy to find lots of small wooden carvings of animals and such, and I did find a few, but really what I had in my head wasn’t out there. You can also find plenty of African masks around, but unless your tree is the size of the ones they have at the park, I don’t think they’d make for very good ornaments.
If I was doing this tree, I might make a visit to the Animal Kingdom and probably the Animal Kingdom Lodge’s gift shop to see what they have that might be reworked to decorate the tree. That being said, fortunately, there were lots of animal themed ornaments out there, event if they weren’t as rustic as I had hoped.
All of the below were found on Amazon, except for the” three kings” masks which were found on eBay. By way of explanation, the wine glass ornament is included because there are lots of great African wines at the Lodge and Villas. Just a little homage to the resort and to my other blog.
Next up is an easy one. All Star Music.
Oh Christmas Tree – Pop Century
Disney’s Pop Century Resort is our home for this Christmas. Coming up with a tree for this resort didn’t necessarily prove difficult, just a bit garish. It just doesn’t have much imagery that lends itself well to a “classy” tree. So it’s going to be bright and a bit obnoxious, but it will suit the location.
I would start a tree like this with a base of plain colored Christmas bulbs that represent the main colors around the resort and then add some ornaments that represent either icons around the resort, like the Mickey Phone, or an era represented at the resort, like the peace signs.
You’ll note that some are not ornaments at all, but party favors and such which can easily be repurposed as ornaments. We figured out last year when we did the French Quarter tree that is was easier to find certain items, and certainly cheaper to buy some items, by using party favors to decorate.
A couple of other ideas for picking up imagery from this resort would be getting a few foosball men (they are available in all sorts of colors) and turning them into ornaments, or taking the tiny Play-Doh containers and repurposing them as ornaments as well. If you’re real crafty, you could even try recreating the little animals that are in the Play-Doh container at the resort!
All of the items above were easily found in places like the Disney Store, Amazon, eBay, and for party supplies, sites like the Oriental Trading Company.
Oh Christmas Tree…
Well, we’ve stuffed ourselves with stuffing so I guess it’s time to embrace the Christmas season now. I just can’t prior to Thanksgiving. I hate it when they are playing Christmas music the day after Halloween. It’s just wrong. But Black Friday is over and Christmas is everywhere, so if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
Starting soon (tomorrow, next week, anytime now really) I’m going to start posting my ideas for Disney Resort themed Christmas trees. As I’ve mentioned before, we usually spend Christmas there. After several years of a tiny tree with simple Mickey Mouse head ornaments, I decided last year that I was going to theme the tree to our resort. So I did. We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and I went with a Mardi Gras/French Quarter themed tree. It was a fun tree to put together and now I can’t imagine our Disney Christmas without a resort themed tree.
This year, we’ll be staying at Pop Century. I expect this tree to be somewhat bright and garish, and probably not very Christmasy, but we’ll work with it. After I do that one, I’m going to tackle some ideas for other resorts. Our original plan for this year was the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and I’d still like to “create” that tree so I’ll look at some others as well. And even though I’d never in a million years stay there for Christmas, I’m even planning to do one for All Star Sports.
Stay tuned.
Farewell Food and Wine 2012…and other stuff
Epcot International Food and Wine Festival for 2012 ends this weekend. Was hoping to make it up there one more time this week, especially since it’s the final weekend, then there were the races, and of course the other blog’s anniversary… But life does sometimes get in the way of fun so here I sit. Happy I at least got to make the one visit this year though, and I enjoyed everything I tried. But next year it will be at least two weekends, hopefully three. Maybe four. Maybe all of them. But it will definitely be more than one.
Speaking of life getting in the way of fun, while the new job got off to a bit of a bumpy start, it seems to be settling down some now. Without saying too much, I am working for a government entity in my county now. It’s a little strange to go from working with 2 or 3 people a day to working with about 35, and those are just the ones on my floor. I haven’t interacted with this many people on a daily basis in about ten years. But, most are friendly and I’ve already found a few with whom I have things in common with so that’s good. Still not sure I want to be doing what I will be doing, but there is room to move around, and I’m also keeping an ear to the ground in case that perfect opportunity (otherwise known as another part-time, well-paying paralegal job) turns up. But with week two in the books, and a three-day weekend ahead, I’m not dreading going in on Tuesday so that’s a good thing.
Finally, I’ll just go on the record as saying I have no issue with Disney buying LucasFilm. I think if you are a Disney fan, you probably don’t either. The two are so entwined in head already, with the ride and Star Wars weekends,in my mind, it really doesn’t seem like it will make much of a difference. And is Disney really going to make a film that is worse than Ep I? I seriously doubt that. So no issues here. Just crossing my fingers for that cantina at the Studios.
