Living with Disney

So I was having a think about what my next blog post should be (it's been a while since my last....) and realised the reason I was finding it hard was because it's almost a year since I was last in a Disney park and there is no sign of a visit anywhere soon.  So how do I live with my love of Disney when I can't get to the parks?

To some people that might sound a silly statement to make but for those of us with a deep love and appreciation for Disney, and in particular the parks, it can sometimes be a difficult task.

Social media is great for finding out all the latest news but when you can't get to experience any of it in person watching your news feed can become quite a challenge. I will admit that sometimes I can be jealous of those who are gleefully experiencing all things Disney; or at least a strange combination of feeling happy for those getting to do Disney but tinged with a sense of petulant 'I want to be there' (imagine a toddler tantrum!!).

So here we are at the end of January 2016 and my mind drifts back to this time last year and my preparations for our visit to Disneyland Paris; even Facebook reminded me today with this photo!

New hat ready for exploring Disneyland Paris in February!!

And then I realised that we have no Disney vacation to look forward to this year, and part of the whole visiting Disney experience is the build-up to getting there. So what do I do to keep myself sane and the love of Disney strong?

Well I suppose I am lucky in that I co-host the Disney Dream Girls Podcast and get to talk with my good friend Michelle and our listeners most weeks about the parks, the news, the happenings and of course the food! (we always get onto food somehow!!).

I keep Disney close to me every day as I always wear something with a Disney connection. Most days I will wear one of my three Mickey Mouse watches, a bracelet with 'Mickey's' in it, a silver ring that is a mix of bling and 'Mickey's', my new Mickey Mouse necklace (birthday pressie from Simon) and always a pair of earrings and yes most likely Mickey shaped! My mobile phone has various covers; the current one is from Walt Disney World and it also has a case that is embossed with Mickeys! My handbag is covered in Mickey's and Minnie's and so is my purse! And my car is always adorned with a Mickey antenna topper; current one is a sparkly affair!! And then we get onto clothes; I have lost count of the number of t-shirts, tops, one dress, scarves and numerous hoodies with a Disney theme, never mind the pairs of socks and knickers!! I also have my four Disney tattoos to keep me company...soon to be expanding tattoos!!  More on this in another post!

Oh and don't forget pictures, posters, ornaments, soft toys, magazines, pins, toys and lots of mementos from park visits - I have all the park maps and time schedules from every visit going back to our first in 1991!! And then add onto this the books and DVD's & Blu-rays and it becomes pretty apparent the large part that Disney plays in my life. Even my most recent purchase will help to keep me distracted with a Disney vibe;

So while I may not get to experience Disney in person any time soon I will keep it close to my heart and appreciate it any way I can!

Black Thread and a Heat Gun

So here we are into the New Year and my last few days off before work starts again and what do I find myself doing? Well it involves black thread and a heat gun!

I have spent the afternoon sewing (by hand!) and Simon has been heating and moulding foamex....so let me explain.

In July of this year Simon and I will be attending Star Wars Celebration in London; this is a 3 day event celebrating all things Star Wars. As Simon this year celebrates one of those 'milestone' birthdays we thought we ought to do something special to mark the occasion and as he is a big Star Wars fan this seemed the ideal thing to do, plus we get a three night stay in London without the kids!

Now almost as soon as I'd booked the tickets Simon commented that if we were going to do this then we ought to throw ourselves into it and go in character/cosplay...to which I said that's fine as long as I don't have to wear the Princess Leia metal bikini!

After an initial look at buying cosplay outfits it quickly became apparent that to do it properly would cost an awful lot of money unless we made it ourselves! Now this really appealed to Simon's artistic and creative side and gave him the chance to go back to his childhood and actually 'make stuff'. But what should we go as? Well we decided that we ought to either go as the same characters or one's that complemented each other but if we went as the same then it would have to be something that could be either male or female. This is when Simon came up with the idea of being Mandalorians, or to help clarify think Boba and Jango Fett from the movies and you'll get the idea.

Well the lengthy process of making our costumes is now well under way with great progress being made since we started last July. Please note that when I refer to 'we' I do of course mean that Simon is making them whilst I offer lots of support, the ability to hold something still whilst it is cut or heat moulded and of course provide cups of tea and/or coffee as and when needed.

So what have 'we' made so far then...well...

...his and hers blasters! I get two!! These were made first and involved wood, foamex, piping and a surprising array of household objects...nothing gets thrown away now without first consulting Simon to see if we can make use of it somewhere!

 

We've made from scratch our belts each with handmade pouches...each pouch was covered with pleather (fake leather) and then had a piece of pleather attached over to give each pouch a closing...this meant stitching 16 individual pieces, thankfully this was all done by sewing machine.

Various pieces of armour are also being made, these pieces are our knee armour complete with mini blasters!!

But under the body armour we need flak jackets which we are having to make ourselves. For this we had to devise our own pattern as the ones we found on-line just didn't seem to fit right, so we tried lots of paper patterns before we committed to fabric. This is Simon's; the body part and shoulder pieces were made with pleather and a cotton lining which were all constructed with the help of the sewing machine. This was the first time I have ever used a sewing machine...ever!

I then had to hand sew the shoulders onto the jacket which I have managed to complete today.

The paper attached to the jacket in this photo are the templates for the body armour Simon has been making today.

Here is a collection of what we have made so far including our helmets and gauntlets. Most of this is now ready for the final stages of painting and weathering so that they will match the blasters and look as though they have seen some battle action!

Through all of this construction we are trying to be as true to the movies as we can possibly be and so we have joined an on-line forum run by an organisation called The Mandalorian Mercs. This is a world-wide non-profit Star Wars costuming organisation comprised of, and operated by, Star Wars fans and volunteers. It has proved to be a great source of ideas and encouragement. And much like the Disney community we are making a heap of new friends from across the world and some surprisingly local to us as well!!

We are hoping that once our outfits are completed we can meet the high standards for official entry into the Mercs and join in with their future events and charitable fundraising initiatives.

I shall keep you posted as we get closer to the completed outfits!

Reflections and Moving Forward

So as is customary at this time of year I thought I would take a look back at 2015 and see what's on the horizon for 2016.

So 2015 has been rather a tough year to be honest. As those who read my blog will know early on in the year my mum very suddenly passed away and this left rather a big hole in my life and had a big impact on this year. It has been hard going at times but with amazing support from Simon and friends I am 'getting there'.

We did manage a short trip to Disneyland Paris back in February and I've wrote a number of blog posts that cover the trip as well as general overviews on eating at Disneyland Paris and Disney's Sequoia Lodge resort. Being able to visit a Disney park was great fun although it did make me miss Walt Disney World even more!

I have continued to record the Disney Dream Girls podcast with my very good friend Michelle and have enjoyed watching and listening to Michelle's trips to Disneyland this past year - she is even there now as I type this...the lucky thing!!

Simon and I have continued with our cosplay creations as we get ready for Star Wars Celebration in London next year. I have discovered that I am a very good assistant when it comes to moulding things with a heat gun and using a hot glue gun is quite good fun too. I've even used a sewing machine for the first time in my life!  I will endeavour to do a blog post in the New Year cataloguing our achievements so far.

So looking forward what does 2016 have in store...well the main thing at the moment will be our trip to Star Wars Celebration in London in July. We have tickets for all three days of all things Star Wars which also means we get a great short break away in London...without the kids ;)

I will also be getting some new Disney ink completed this year; in fact only yesterday I was talking to my amazing tattooist Rachael Huntingdon (Rampant Ink) about making a start on what will be a full sleeve!

Will we make it to a Disney park this year? Who knows? It will be 25 years this year since I visited Walt Disney World for the first time so it would be lovely to think we could re-visit 25 years on but as I write this it is looking highly unlikely....but never say never!!

I hope that 2015 has been kind to you and yours and that 2016 will see you happy, healthy and having a ton of fun.

Happy New Year!!!

Season Greetings

Well...Happy Holidays to one and all and a big fat apology for the length of time in between posts of late! I think my New Years resolution should be to put finger to keyboard more often!

So what has kept me away from the keyboard since early November...well it all comes down to not having enough hours in the day. I have been busy with work; it's a busy old  time working in education during the run-up to Christmas what with parents evenings, concerts, parties and fairs. There have been numerous recording sessions for the Disney Dream Girls podcast (including one with Michelle and I singing Show 82....it has to be heard to be believed!). Simon and I have been busy with making our very own cosplay for next years Star Wars Celebration in London...well Simon has been the busy one while I take on more of a 'support' role ;)

And then there has been the usual run-up to Christmas happenings; decorating the house, making cakes and puddings, buying presents, wrapping presents and that last minute shopping that always seems to happen. Plus December brings along two birthdays in this household, first it's mine and then it's my eldest who turned 18 this year - where has that time gone! We also enjoyed a couple of burlesque evenings and then there was of course the much anticipated event of the year...Star Wars The Force Awakens.

We have now seen the new Star Wars film twice, the first time was the standard 2D version (on the day of release here in the UK) and then just today we saw the 3D version. Now I have to say (with no spoilers) that I loved the film it made me smile, gasp, cry and laugh. I though it was put together brilliantly and evoked all that the original movies were about, but see it in 2D, how it was intended to be seen, the 3D isn't worth the extra cash to see it and while it doesn't spoil the film it doesn't make it any better either.

My birthday and Christmas brought about additions to my Disney wardrobe from t-shirts to jewellery to a pair of classic Vans. I did manage to get a new addition to my Disney Christmas ornament collection;

Boxed

Unboxed

On display with some of my other Disney Christmas ornaments

I have to confess that although my collection has a certain festive vibe about it I love it so much that most of them stay out on display all year round!!

I even managed to find myself a Christmas Disney pin in my local Asda (Walmart for my American friends);

So we find ourselves in between Christmas and New Year. We are very fortunate in our house that we are all 'off' for the holidays which means we all get time to chill, relax and perhaps indulge in some 'me' time that can be so difficult to find the rest of the year. We have spent time with family and friends, we have had birthday meals out, shopping trips, visits to the cinema and time just spent at home. I have even found time to start a Christmas jigsaw...I wonder if it will be finished by the time I go back to work?

I hope everyone out there is having a fabulous Christmas no matter where you are, who you are with or what you are doing. Enjoy the season, enjoy the time with those you hold dear and be happy!

Halloween 2015

We have always celebrated Halloween, and usually done so with a party and this year was no exception.

Some of our Halloween decorations

Although due to lots of reasons it was a much quieter affair than in previous years!

So we decided that as we are busy preparing for next years Star Wars Celebration in London by making our own Mandalorian armour that this years party would be Star Wars themed...

Boba Fett style!

So not a full set of armour just yet...Boba Fett dress but helmet and blasters all made by my fantastic hubby, Simon, with a little assistance by yours truly!

A Bit of Baking!

Now readers of my blog will know that well over a year ago I embarked on a new healthy eating lifestyle and therefore a post about baking may seem a little strange.

I have always enjoyed baking, when I got the chance, but nowadays my baking skills tend to be reserved for charity bake sales at my pre-school!

Most recent endeavours for pre-school cake sale

While I was making these I remembered an old recipe that me and my mum used to make when I was a child for an apple and oat cake; I searched high and low but just couldn't find it anywhere. I was convinced that I had a copy of the recipe somewhere but when I couldn't find it I decided that it must be at my parents house. Now as some of you will know my mum sadly passed away earlier this year so I couldn't ask her about it. Mum was great at 'throwing' ingredients together and making some fantastic bakes whereas I like to follow recipes, so even though I had a rough idea of what was in the recipe there was no way I'd attempt to make it without the recipe in front of me! So me and my dad had a good hunt through my mum's old recipe books but alas it was no where to be found.

I even searched the internet as I was convinced it was a recipe that we had gotten off a children's TV program called Blue Peter back in the late 1970's/early 1980's...but even the internet couldn't help me :(

Fast forward to last weekend and my thoughts turned towards a bit of Christmas baking! My mum always made the Christmas cakes and puddings for the whole family (and even friends some years!) and in the days before having children I followed the family tradition, and family recipe, and made my own cakes and puddings. But in the last few years I had relied on my mum providing me with a cake that I would then decorate....Disney style of course!

Mickey snowmen he he he!

So now the mantle has passed to me and it was time to go hunting for the family recipes. Now I like to think I'm quite an organised person and on my kitchen bookshelves I have all my Christmas cook books together and I had an inkling that the recipes would be inside one of these books. Sure enough inside a book from Marks & Spencer, bought a lot of years ago...

Dated 1990!!

...I found my recipes for Christmas cake and pudding...

Handwritten recipes, passed through our family.

But guess what else I found, hiding amongst the handwritten recipes? The apple and oat cake recipe I'd been looking for a few weeks earlier!

 A well used piece of paper with recipes 'typed' up on a proper typewriter...just shows how old this recipe is; I have distant memories of typing this as a young girl!

Well as I'd found it there seemed only one logical thing to do...get baking!

Ready to go in the oven

All done...and yummy too!

So with a week off work (our half term break!) I decided to use my time wisely and make my own Christmas cake and puddings following our family recipes leaving the house with a lovely smell of Christmas and me a feeling of accomplishment. I even ended the week with a spot more baking making rocky road muffins and cappuccino muffins ready for our Halloween party. And then Molly got in on the act by making cookies; chocolate marshmallow and snickerdoodles - yummy!!

I think that'll be all the baking for a while now....ok a few weeks as I have a Christmas Fair coming up for pre-school which might just require a few more cakes...

Food In DLP

Many apologies for the delay between posts on my blog but finding the time of late has been tricky; busy at work, busy at home but now I'm able to grab a few minutes to put finger to keyboard!

One of the things that we like to talk about on the podcast I co-host (Disney Dream Girls) is food, and the range of options that can be available in Disney parks.

So I thought how about writing a piece all about the food I experienced at Disneyland Paris?! So here goes...

I think I should mention at the very beginning that when I visited Disneyland Paris it was back in February this year; it was very cold and it was what would be classified as 'low season' and I think both these factors had quite an impact on our food experience.

Also we were visiting as a family of four, but remember our two children are teenagers and so there were no children options to be had; we were in fact feeding four adults. Also we had picked this time of year to visit predominately from a cost point of view and so our budget for food was also limited. We knew that we were unlikely to be eating at any table service restaurants and that we would be relying on counter/quick service eateries.

Now each day we had breakfast as part of our hotel package and so we made sure that we took advantage of this and had plenty to eat! I've spoken about the breakfast options in a previous post - Disneys Sequoia Lodge Hotel Review Part 2 - so please check this out for more information and photos.

I think the main thing we became aware of very quickly was that the counter/quick service menus were pretty much the same no matter which part of the parks you were in. The menus were filled with the standard range of burgers, chicken nuggets and fries with occasionally (very occasionally!) something themed to the restaurant. For example Toad Hall Restaurant had fish & chips; and Restaurant Hakuna Matata had kebabs and Hakuna fries. I have to say that we all really enjoyed the food that we had at Restaurant Hakuna Matata especially the fries it was just unfortunate that we weren't able to eat here more often. Healthy options were also few and far between and were basically limited to salads - chicken, three cheese and vegetarian (whatever that means!).

Because of the time of year we were visiting not all of the restaurants were open all of the time. Having done my forward planning I was very aware of this and had made a note on my park map which days each restaurant was open. Luckily Disney had been very sensible and made sure that there was always at least one restaurant in each land that was open each day. So although this limited the choice available we found that over the 5 days we were there we would have been able to visit all restaurants (had we wanted to) as over those 5 days each restaurant was open at least once.

My park map with notations of which restaurants were closed/open

At Disneyland Paris they also have a number of restaurants that offer 'Buffet' service. Most adult options were priced around 27euros or £20/$30 which included one drink. Which for us as a family of four adults would have meant paying £80 ($120) minimum per meal which our budget simply wouldn't stretch to. We were therefore quite content to stick to the counter service options on offer.

The trouble with this plan however was two fold; firstly the choice of food as I've already mentioned was rather 'samey' and the second being the operating hours of the restaurants within the parks.

Now as I mentioned it was low season and restaurants had limited days they were open; this wasn't a problem because in theory there would still be enough restaurants open spread around the park. However one problem that we encountered, and on more than one day, was finding an open restaurant towards the end of the day. And by end of the day I am talking around 5.30pm/6pm in the evening which is what I would consider a prime eating time and was still 2 hours before the park closed at 8pm. In fact one evening we walked through three lands and tried numerous restaurants before finding one that was open. We even experienced restaurants that had unlocked doors and lights on but when we entered found there was no food being served and were asked, rather rudely, to leave by the cast members there! It all seemed very strange and very un-Disney!

Perhaps because of our experience of the US parks and their wide variety of counter service options our expectations were maybe set too high but we were really quite disappointed in what Disneyland Paris had to offer. In fact so much so that we decided on more than one occasion to leave the parks in search of food and ultimately ended up at Earl of Sandwich in the Disney Village.

The infamous 'gold brick' - yum yum!!

The choice at Earl of Sandwich was great (as always), really good value (hate to say it but much better value for money than in the parks!) plus they had free wi-fi (not yet available in the parks). We ate here more times than I can remember and had great food every time; we loved the soups on offer which were very welcome with the intense cold! I would definitely recommend eating here...just wish we had them over here in the UK!

Another downside of the time of year (and it being very cold!) was that those restaurants that had lots of outdoor seating weren't really where we wanted to be eating! Stopping for food or a drink was a chance to go inside and get warm. On one occasion the only place we could find open was Casey's Corner and with limited seating inside we had no choice but to sit outside to enjoy our hotdogs! On the plus side we did have prime viewing for the parade while we ate our dogs!

The lack of indoor seating also meant that quick stops like the Cable Car Bake Shop for a coffee and a muffin resulted in being unable to sit inside and having to wander out and about to find somewhere to sit down. On one occasion we found another restaurant with it's doors open but no food being served so we, along with other guests, took advantage of finding seats indoors. But we then had a cast member suddenly appear and although nothing was said it was very evident her task was to clear up after everyone as quickly as possible and encourage everyone to finish up and leave!

Now I am very aware that I have painted quite a poor picture of food available at Disneyland Paris but I have explained some of the reasons that I think led to this poor review. I do know friends that have eaten at the table service restaurants and have nothing but good things to say and I am sure during peak season with more restaurants being open the options available become much better. But let this review be a warning that food options in Paris are not the same as the US Disney parks so please don't go with high expectations if, like us, you will be relying on counter service restaurants.