Disney Around the Kitchen – Part Three

Well, how could any self respecting Disney lover not be using these?

As for a review of them: if you get them, hand wash and dry them with a towel instead of placing them in the dish washer. They tend to stain easily. They are fun and you may find deals for them on Ebay. They come 4 place settings to a box.

Sunday Morning Flea Market Find

Even I have been known to bring home a Disney item or two, and when I saw this little Figment sitting on a table amidst the clutter, my heart started to pitter-patter. How did my husband miss this? Does he already have this and that's why he passed it up?

No, I know that he was oblivious. I know where certain things are hidden; I know the vendors; I stop and chat and they know me by sight, at least. So when I went up to the lady and asked her some questions about the Figment, she was surprised he wasn't marked like the other Disney figures were, and gave me a price I couldn't refuse. I looked him over more carefully and gave her the money!

I gave him to Nick at the end of the isle when all our friends got together again and Nick did not have him. He was shocked and happily surprised!

He is stamped 1982 Disney and Japan on the bottom.

Tigers at Animal Kingdom

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I'm kissing the School Bread from the Norway Pavilion, I'm so thankful for it!


Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. I hope you have a wonderful day where you want to be, enjoying the people you want to be with, and eating the foods you love! If you are in Disney at this time of the year, all the food is great!

Dear Tink, This Post is for You!

Well Tink, I have succumbed to "Dear" pressure. Last weekend I picked up framed Disney prints and they now reside in the living room, where I originally kept an antique mirror and equally old framed print. For all those who are confused, please refer to the post entitled "Barely Reluctant Today," and you will see the living room as it used to be! I will get into the whole Disney tree thing in a later post. Including the fact that it is already up and fully decorated!

The 40th Anniversary Plates are Up

The second post I did was describing these 40th Anniversary plates. They are now hanging proudly in the kitchen, and I think they look great. This was an investment in Disney joy.

Donald Duck

My great Aunt and Uncle lived in Florida when we were very young. My father decided to drive us down to visit them and it was a long three days for all of us. My Dad took us to Disney World for the afternoon. I was sick from all the driving and enjoyed none of Disney World; in fact, the Country Bears only made me feel worse! I remember none of the joy of Disney, how sad is that, except for the part where he let me pick out a toy. That was a treat. I though long and hard about that toy and picked a stuffed Donald Duck. I loved that Duck for years. I wish I knew what happened to him.

In 2009, on one of our trips to Disney World, after stopping in to Mickey's Philharmagic, as we were wandering out of the show, I ran across this vintage style Donald Duck in the little shop. Seeing Donald sitting there brought all the memories back and I grabbed him up quickly! He wound up being a special 75th Anniversary edition. His number is 2233 of 2400. I am lucky to have found him!

Disney Around the Kitchen – Part Two

Continuing on the theme of "Disney in the Kitchen" we turn towards the sink. All sinks need a strainer, and fancy ones need a strainer holder. Disney may not have intended for their kitchen strainer to be so lovingly displayed, yet here it is, in all its glory. Who knew that it would fit so perfectly in a Mickey mug? The Disney husband did, of course!


Not to be outdone by the sink, the refrigerator needed embellishment as well. Who am I to turn down a fridge's most meager request? These Disney towels suit the fridge nicely and keep with the Disneyfying of the rest of the kitchen.


More will follow...

Disney Around the Kitchen – Part One

The first installment of "Disney Around the Kitchen" is to show you just how easy it is to slip Disney into the Reluctant Disney Lover's House! It starts off slowly, and then one day you open a drawer to pull out some tongs or a spatula, and to your horror, someone has replaced most of your utensils with their Disney cousins, and where were you? Yes, you let it happen! Even the cat isn't immune. (How many do you see in the drawer?)

Disney Charms

I don't know what possessed me to pick these up years ago, I guess I thought I would make a little necklace or choker out of them. Unfortunately they have been languishing in the back of my jewelry box until now. Does anyone out there know anything about these little charms? They are plastic, embossed on both sides, and are dark copper in color.

Disney Husband–Gone Wild

While trying to clean up the house, I decided that a small compartmentalized shelf that we were under utlilizing would be a great place for my Disney Husband to display all of his smaller Disney toys and the like. So as he was doing his bloggie thing in the kitchen, I was measuring out the distance between the windows, writing down measurements and thinking about the tools I needed to get from the basement. I cleaned off the shelf, set it up on boxes so I didn't need to ask for any help and ran to get the tools. DH got suspicious when I marched up from the basement with a drill, hammer, stud finder and assorted boxes of nails and screws; but not suspicious enough to search me out to see what I was up to!

After I got the shelving unit up, I grabbed some of his Vinylmations (that I was glad to get off the bookcases!) and ran them upstairs to see how they'd look! Now I piqued his interest and he followed me upstairs! There was no stopping him after that!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all of you out there! There's nothing better than celebrating the holidays, any holiday, at a Disney Park. It doesn't have to be on the day of the holiday, Disney plans ahead and makes sure their parks are decorated well in advance. If you can plan to vacation at Disney during the holiday season, I certainly suggest it.

Disney's Hitchhiking Ghosts, An Early Morning Project

This morning my husband asked me if I could print these out, from the Disney Parks Blog site, so that we could make them together. Yeah for Disney crafts day.

Barely Reluctant Today

This morning, my husband, sitting on the couch declared, "We should take this artwork down and put up some more Disney artwork." Just like that. The lovely antique prints and mirror I've had for years, relegated to the attic, so the husband could have more room for Disney.

No. Please, Honey!

Not this time. Let there remain a little bit of my influence over the decorating of the house.

My Favorite Lunch

Disney's Animal Kingdom has a great restaurant called the Tusker House. It was at one time a quick service restaurant. I would look forward to our visits to that park because I knew we would stop at Tusker House for my favorite lunch, the vegetable pita sandwich. Heavenly!

Imagine my disappointment when my husband told me one year (2007) that the Tusker House would be changing it's format into a buffet restaurant and their menu would obviously be altered drastically. I thought to myself, nothing could be a good as that veggie pita! Nobody will make me change my mind, I refuse to like the new place: I can be ridiculous and stubborn at times.

I wrote to them letting them know how heartbroken I was, that if I couldn't have the vegetable pita sandwich there, then maybe they could send me the recipe and I could make it at home? Well, Disney is accommodating with reasonable requests if nothing else, and I was immediately e-mailed back with a friendly letter letting me know that I would love the new Tusker Buffet and the recipe I asked for. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 clove garlic minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 medium tomato quartered and thinly sliced
1 small cucumber, halved, seeds removed, thinly sliced
1/4 red pepper, seeded, thinly sliced
1/4 green pepper, seeded, thinly sliced
6 kalamata olives, pits removed, chopped
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
2 oz fresh spinach
2 oz feta cheese, crumbled
Pita, sliced

Directions:
Mix garlic, lemon juice and olive oil together. Keep separate. In large bowl toss tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and peppers together. Season with salt and pepper, add garlic dressing and toss. Taste and adjust seasoning. Finish by tossing in spinach and feta. Stuff your pita pockets with the mix. Enjoy!

The Tusker House Buffet is a wonderful place to take your family and friends. The staff there is super friendly and even though I still mourn the loss of my lovely vegetable pita sandwich, Tusker is a great place to go.

Ichabod Crane and Mr. Toad

Being married to a Disney Lover, there are certain rituals that you have to follow, reluctantly or not. The DVD "The Adventures of Ichabod Crane and Mr. Toad" comes out of hiding and is welcomed into the Disney movie rotation every October. This set of animated shorts is a tradition for us every autumn. Mull some cider, pop some popcorn and set up the couch to settle in for a great night. This is a Disney tradition I can really embrace and recommend!

Ichabod Crane is the new lanky schoolteacher who dreams of wooing the town's most lovely maiden, Katrina off her feet. The town bully, Brom Bones, who also has a thing for Katrina, doesn't like this one bit and gets himself involved trying to break up their budding romance. The ghostly tale of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Headless Horseman is told at a party one evening by Brom. He makes sure that Ichabod is listening to the tale. Spine tingling things happen next...Bing Crosby supplies the narration, character voices, and songs. (1949)

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is brimming with high-spirited adventure, brilliant animation, and captivating music. The Wind in the Willows follows the wild ride of J. Thaddeus Toad, squire of Toad Hall. Smitten with all things mobile, the wealthy and reckless Toady drives his closest friends Mole, Rat and Badger into an all out frenzy! Can they save their friend Toady from any whim that strikes his fancy?

"Lonesome Ghosts" from 1937, is an animated cartoon short featuring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy working as ghost-busters. They get a call from some lonesome ghosts hoping to prank the ghost hunters. Hilarity ensues, and one of the fab three even exclaims, "I ain't afraid of no ghosts!" (I would say that "Ghostbusters" the movie, was highly influenced by this short!)

Halloween at the Disney Parks

Holidays are a special experience at the Disney Parks. I'm specifically talking about Halloween for this post. Disney really knows how to put on a party, and if you get a chance to go to "Mickey's Not So Very Scary Halloween Party," I highly recommend it! The Magic Kingdom is cleared out at 7:00pm for official party-goers only. The Park stays open until midnight and there are two showings of the "Boo to You Parade," which I think is the best parade Disney has to offer. The music is catchy and fun, the characters are dressed up and you get to see many of the ghosts, villains and other assorted creatures that aren't allowed in any other parade!

Now the park has been decorated for the season with all of the Halloween trappings, pumpkins, scarecrows and the like. There is no end to holiday decorations and revelry. It's the guests and their costumes that make the party such a treat to attend. Many of them put a lot of time and effort into their looks. I have been lucky enough to attend a couple of the Halloween parties and I had a blast planning and dressing up for the events.


The first Halloween Party I went to I was caught unaware, and unprepared. But when I was told I was going to another "Mickey's Not So Very Scary Halloween Party" I went as a hippy, while my husband went as Fred Flintstone. I should have planned that one better and dressed up as Wilma, but I really wanted to show off the overalls I found at a thrift-store. How often do you get to wear something like those out and about? Many of the party-goers ribbed me about that!

"Where's Wilma?" they kept calling to my Fred. Well, my Fred found a Wilma! Can you believe that; and she looked awesome with her Fred, Pebbles and BamBam in tow.

This is your chance to be a kid again, and did I mention the candy stations placed around the park where everyone goes trick or treating? Ah yes, this could certainly make a Disney Lover out of even the staunchest protester.

Here is our group. We definitely planned things better this year! The Big Bad Wolf, Red Riding Hood, Grandma, and the Huntsman, Shrek, Puss and Boots and our Belle.

Your Disney Pins–What to Do Next!

So now you love pin trading as much as I do. It can really enhance your whole vacation experience, right? But now you're home and have a sack full of pins and you don't quite know what to do; put them away in a drawer or suitcase until your next trip; absolutely not! Let me give you some options that I have found to keep the magic alive longer.

My first option was to put my pins into pin bags, designed especially for Disney pins. I found some on ebay and I found my favorite one at a thrift store! Into these books went many of the pins, categorized and lovingly placed. I pull them out and add to them on occasion. My husband calls this "Pin Joy."

Another option is to go to your local arts–craft store and buy a stretched canvas which you can hang on the wall. Poke your pins through the canvas and replace the backings. Here is my Pluto board and a close up of it.


You can make designs out of your pins, maybe a hidden Mickey head even, and presto! Instant artwork! I have canvases hanging all over my workplace wall and everyone who comes over loves to check out my pins! I even got a few co-workers hooked on pin trading. Does that make me a pusher? Here's my Mickey board. I wanted to make a Hidden Mickey head, but didn't have enough room with all my pins, I decided to add photos of our Disney vacations to the boards instead.
Here is a side view of my Stitch board. If you like this idea, remember to get the stretched canvas with the wooden frames.

If you have limited wall space, or already have artwork up on the wall, you can use the pins in place of thumb tacks on your bulletin board.


Many people use a single pin as jewelry on their lab coats or clothing, rotating the character daily depending on their mood. One lady wears her lanyard as her ID holder. She is hardcore!