Creating Disney Fridge Magnets

How to create custom Disney Fridge Magnets.

By: Shendl

I received a Map of Walt Disney World from my Disney Vacation Planner and I have had it on my fridge held on with fridge magnets. It worked but I couldn’t see the other side of the map featuring the different park maps.

I got to thinking about how I could create my own Fridge Magnet using the maps I already had.
Here is the process that I went through to create the Map Magnets.

    •    I took my map to my local Copy Centre and had both sides color copied to an A3 size (the maps I had were slightly larger than A3, so I had them reduced to the size I wanted)

    •    Once they had trimmed them and I was happy with the copies, I had them laminated individually to make sure that they stay nice and neat and do not get damaged.

    •    A trip to the craft store was necessary to purchase the Magnetic Tape to allow my maps to attach to my fridge.

    •    I purchased a 2m x 1.75mm roll of magnetic tape (the one side has peel off tape to allow it to stick)

    •    I cut the tape to the sizes that I wanted, removed the peel off tape and stuck it to the back of my laminated maps. (TIP: make sure the magnet has stuck properly onto the laminated map, otherwise you will have your map on the floor and your magnets still stuck to the fridge- I speak from experience on this!!)

I am so happy with how they turned out.

I still have my original map so if the copies get old then I can have new ones made.  You can do this with anything you want to have on your fridge.
Park Maps (the ones you collect inside the parks)
Postcards (you could have a few photocopied together and then laminated)
I live in South Africa so I am not sure what the costs would be in the US Stores but I can give you an idea what it cost me in South African Rands. – the Total amount I paid was R100, which works out to about $10 for the copies and laminating and the magnet strips.
Some Tips to help you along your way:
    •    Go to a Reputable copy store to have this done, you don’t want to pay for their mistakes if they copy the maps incorrectly.
    •    Put enough Magnet on the back of the finished maps ( I would say at least a 20 – 30 mm piece for each corner)

I really hope that you enjoyed this project

Thanks to Disney Musings Blog for asking me to write the article. It was a lot of fun!

Author: Shendl Rewitzky (East London, South Africa)

Epcot's Le Cellier Steakhouse

By: Nick

Back on March 2nd, my wife Barbie and I took a day excursion from a family cruise to visit Epcot. We chose Epcot over other parks primarily to photograph the topiaries for the International Flower and Garden show. We decided to have lunch at a restaurant we hadn't visited in a while.

Arguably one of the most popular restaurants in all of Walt Disney World is Le Cellier Steakhouse, located below the Chateau in the Canada Pavilion in Epcot, and for good reason. The food is delicious.

Le Cellier translates into "The Cellar", and that is what the stone arches, windowless walls, and intimate lighting make this restaurant feel like, the wine cellars of 2 of Canada's grandest château-style hotels: Fairmont Château Laurier and Fairmont Le Château Frontenac.

Wine bottles are displayed behind beautiful wood and glass showcases further adding to the ambiance.

Our friends Laurie and Angelo joined us.

Left to Right: Laurie, Barbie, Nick and Angelo

I've always found the service at Le Cellier to be very friendly and this visit was no exception.

We started with bread. Specifically, perhaps my favorite bread in all the World, the Pretzel Bread.

There are other breads, each representing a different area of Canada, and there is a story behind them. I'm not proud to admit it, but I really never hear this explanation, as I'm too busy drooling over the Pretzel Bread. And the butter comes with salt and a hint of Maple sugar! Excellent!

This is wonderful to enjoy while perusing the menu. And that little bit of sugar on the butter may help the medicine that is the appetizer and entree prices go down easier!

Let's address the elephant in the dining room now. This is not an inexpensive meal. At one time lunch was only 1 credit on the Disney Dining Plan, now it is 2, and to justify this, prices have gone up accordingly. It has been several years since I've eaten here, but I am pretty sure I didn't pay $10 for a bowl of one of Le Cellier's signature dishes, the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup, made with Moosehead Beer and Smoked Bacon.

Don't get me wrong, it's delicious, though my wife remembers it as being better, but I still love it, and it is very hearty. Laurie describes the soup as divine.

I tried a bite of Laurie and Angelo's Kurobuta Pork Belly, Braised Pork Belly, Apple Butter, Jicama, Lucky Sorrel, Maple Gastrique, and it was absolutely amazing. Moist and juicy, and what I had hoped the pork belly at Citricos would taste like, but didn't. This appetizer is $14.

For his entree, Angelo had the Five Spiced "Maple Leaf Farms" Duck: Roasted Duck Breast, Confit of Leg, Blended Rice, Edamame, Grilled Baby Bok Choy, Roasted Duck Jus, for $42, and he was very satisfied with his choice, saying he would absolutely get it again.

Please note, certain menu items, such as the duck, rotate in and out seasonally, and may not be available when you visit.

My Angus New York Strip, a 12-oz Strip Steak with Potato Pavé, Wilted Spinach, and Vin Rouge Reduction - $44 was tasty, a good solid choice. But I'd ordered it medium rare, and it was delivered more medium than I was happy with, which in my opinion makes it much less juicy and takes away from the flavor. I'm sure they'd have cooked me another, but as I wanted to eat with my dining companions, and Barbie and I only had a few hours to enjoy Epcot, I didn't send it back.

Barbie and Laurie both had the other signature dish, the “Le Cellier” Mushroom Filet Mignon - 8-oz AAA Canadian Beef Tenderloin with Wild Mushroom Risotto, White Turffle-Butter Sauce, and Micro Chervil, for $44.
Both described it as tender, juicy, and flavorful, Barbie adding it was cooked to perfection.

We were all too full for desert.

Overall, Le Cellier's food is still very good, but, as previously mentioned, very pricey. Each couple paid over $120 for lunch, and that was with a 20% Tables in Wonderland discount, which, to be fair, does include an automatic 18% gratuity.

Would we eat here again? Absolutely! But I'd order the soup and pork belly, rather than an entree, and Barbie said she would forgo an appetizer and just get the filet.

Muppets Most Wanted : Mostly Spoiler Free Review

by: Nick

I grew up with The Muppet Show and the Muppet Movies in the 1970s and 1980s.

2011's The Muppets was a wonderful return. So I was really excited to see Muppets Most Wanted, which opened Friday, despite the fact it was not going to star Jason Segel, who was instrumental in making The Muppets so great. I've been purposely avoiding reading too much about Muppets Most Wanted, so as not to be spoiled, but did catch a snippet or two of reviews stating that the newest Muppets fell short of The Muppets. In a nod to the high expectations of this follow up to that instant classic, Most Wanted, which literally begins immediately where The Muppets ends, acknowledges the fact that sequels rarely live up to the original in it's own opening musical number, aptly named "We're Doing a Sequel." By the way, if you are keeping track, this is actually the 7th sequel to the original original, The Muppet Movie.

Most Wanted doesn't have the heart that Muppets had, and the songs are not as memorable, though, upon listening to the soundtrack, which I bought on iTunes as soon as I got home, they are starting to be.

Not once did I shed a tear (several, actually) like I did in Muppets. But what both Barbie and I did do was laugh. A lot. I actually think that Most Wanted is a funnier film than Muppets. It's more along the lines of one of the Muppets earlier caper type movies, and I look forward to seeing it again, as I was laughing over some of the dialogue.

My one complaint, I'd like to have seen more of Ty Burrell, who stars as Phil, my favorite character on one of my favorite sitcoms, Modern Family, as French Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon, who teams up with my favorite Muppet, Sam Eagle, to solve a crime spree.

Is Muppets Most Wanted better the The Muppets? No. But it's just as good, in it's own way, in my humble opinion.

As a bonus, there is an animated short before Muppets Most Wanted  titled Party Central, featuring the characters of Monsters University, that manages to pack in more laughs in a few minutes than all 1 hour and 42 minutes of the Monsters University feature film. It alone is worth the ticket price.

by: Barbie

Ty Burrell starring as an Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon with Sam Eagle.

A match made in heaven! These two should be be in multiple buddy movies!  

I was amazed to hear that many people who saw this movie before us were panning it. Maybe that was why I was so happy with it. This movie had me laughing out loud in the movie theater with the anonymous people sitting all around me. We were all having a great time, and I was so happy we were.

The Muppets Most Wanted reminded me of the classic Pink Panther, Abbott and Costello and Dirty Dozen type movies my Dad and I would watch when I was younger. People mention an emotional connection, but really, it's not necessary. It was fine to have a fun slapstick comedy without any tears!

Thank you Muppets. I had a great time laughing with you again!

An Interesting Disney Find

By: Gaylin

I have very little luck finding Disney memorabilia at thrift stores in my neighbourhood, fortunately for me, my sister finds me great things!

She gave me this as a present, and wow, how cool!

December 22, 1956, Saturday Evening Post – with an article about "Disney: Birth of Snow White". Since I don't collect for the monetary value of things, the condition of this magazine is of no concern to me. The article inside is intact and that is what counts.

The article is written by Diane Disney Miller (as told to Pete Martin) and is actually Part VI of a series. This part referred to as "Disney's Folly". The following magazine would have had an article in it called "The Mouse at War". There were 8 articles in all.

The starting page of the article looks like this:

Here are close ups.

The caption beside this photo says " Walt, who often pretends he's overlooked as the only male in the house – sneaks a snack for Lady, the family's French poodle, just after getting home from work.

One thing that stands out to me about this article is the length of it. Today's magazines have such brief articles without much real information in them, this article is quite lengthy and very informative. I thought about typing it out here but it is much too long.

One nice thing is that the article has some of Diane Disney Miller's recollections in it. "When my younger sister, Sharon and I grew old enough to hang onto a steering wheel and shift a gear, we learned to drive –by driving Dad's car around the studio lot while he was roving inside the buildings. I was practicing backing up in the studio parking lot one day when I backed over a water pip and a geyser gushed up." She goes on to say how understanding he was "We'll come and get the car and take care of everything".

It article goes on at length about Snow White, the innovations, the time and the cost. One part I liked that I didn't know "Of the seven dwarfs, Dopey turned out to be the public's favorite. He was always trailing aimlessly behind the others, and he couldn't talk. the dwarf named Happy explained Dopey's speechlessness by saying, "He just never tried." But the real reason he couldn't talk was that Dad couldn't find a voice he thought suitable for Dopey."

Did you know that on its first time around the world, Snow White grossed $8,000,000!!! At the time the article was written, that number had reached $15,000,000, a heck of a lot of money in 1956.

The money from Snow White let Walt and Roy build their movie and animation studio. Again, to quote the article: "The new studio housed 1500 employees. There were 100 students in the Disney training school alone – a school that had grown from a class of twenty in 1933. In effect, it trained artists for the entire cartoon industry; as nearly as Dad can figure it, 90 percent of all cartoon artists now in the business wherever they work –came out of his training school."

A lovely piece of history that my sister found in a garage sale, she said the magazine was dusty and so was the little old lady who was selling it!


Editor's note: Gaylin's article reminded me that I have several issues from this series in my attic somewhere. When I find these, I will be sure to share them here.-Nick

Muppets Most Wanted Merchandise at the Disney Store

by: Nick

Disney's Muppets Most Wanted opens today in theaters, and the Disney Store is carrying some great merchandise to promote it.

Our Godson, Flynn, with a plush Animal

There are mugs for $12.95, tee shirts for adults ($19.95) and children ($12.95), iPhone cases at $19.95, a journal for $14.95, and a postcard set.

 The postcard set is $8.95. 

There are several plush Muppets for $19.95.

 This play set is $12.95.

A couple of interesting articles are this Animal Journal for $16.95...

 

... and this stationary kit at $16.95

We'll be seeing Muppets Most Wanted this weekend, so please stop back for a review.

 

Epcot in Full Bloom

By: Nick

Back on March 2nd, Barbie and I took a cruise, with one of our stops being Cape Canaveral. We took an excursion over to Epcot to have lunch at Le Cellier and to photograph the topiaries throughout the park for the International Flower and Garden Festival, which officially started on March 5th and runs through May 18th.
Spring arrives today in the Northern Hemisphere, so I thought it would be the perfect time to share some photos of those topiaries, as well as other flowers in bloom.

Directly behind Spaceship Earth, we find these beauties depicting Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto.

The flowers around and in the water features in Future World are beautiful.

Heading into World Showcase, we are greeted by Sorcerer Mickey, as well as other characters from Fantasia.

Around to Canada, we find Bambi, Flower, and Thumper.

 

The gardens in Canada are lovely regardless of time of year.

The United Kingdom has several Topiaries as well as a Tea Garden.

Around to France, where there are Princesses and their Princes, as well as trees blossoming. 

Beauty and the Beast topiaries can also be found here as well.

Continuing around World Showcase, we have Miss Piggy and Kermit, promoting "Muppets Most Wanted", which opens in theaters tomorrow!

In Germany, we are greeted by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Even though Barbie and I took several photos of this display, we managed to miss getting a photo of Happy.

Rafiki and Simba at the Outpost.

Pandas in China and a troll in Norway.

There were a few areas that weren't yet viewable when we were there, as well as topiaries we probably missed, so there is even more to enjoy at Epcot if you visit during the Flower and Garden Festival!