Going to the Drive-In

It's no secret that Eliot and I have been super busy as of late, but we've still tried to make time to have a bit of fun.  The past few summers have flown by and I typically find myself wondering where it went once the calendar switches to September.  Thus, we've been carving out time to do a few summer activities in between all of the crazy.

With all of the new Disney movies coming out over the past few months, there's been a lot of potential to go to the movie theater.  We don't usually go that often, but we've been trying to make an effort.  (Even then... it took us about a month and a half before we finally saw Toy Story 4 in theaters.)  Instead of sitting inside the theaters to see a few movies, we've been able to go to our local drive-in theater!

Going to the drive-in has always been a treat for us as neither Eliot or I went to one as children.  (I also didn't grow up near one.)  Both my parents remember going to the drive-in as kids, but we didn't go to our first drive-in movie until Eliot and I moved up to Maine.  I remember driving by the one in Saco all the time when my family used to go camping in Old Orchard Beach, but for some reason, we never went to the theater.

This summer, we were really excited as the Saco Drive-In announced their schedule and there were a few weeks with back-to-back Disney movie showings!  Plus, it's only $20 per car to see both movies... which works out to $5 for each of us per movie- that's a steal!  So not only is it a fun experience, but it's also a good way to have fun without spending a ton of money.  (Gotta save up money to visit the mouse where we can!)

We usually make a plan to meet up so we can go into the drive-in theater in Eliot's car because it's taller than mine.  (He has a Jeep Patriot.)  This summer, both times we went, we also stopped in at a local favorite of ours (Amato's) to grab pizzas, drinks and snacks.  Then, we went to the drive-in early to get a good parking spot, get settled in and to enjoy a meal before our movies start.  It makes for a nice night out together!

The first back-to-back showing that we went to was Lion King and Aladdin.

I was so excited when I found out that the drive-in was playing a double feature of Aladdin and The Lion King.  I've been dying to see Aladdin again but I knew Eliot didn't want to pay to see it in a theater for the third time.  The week we went, The Lion King was the first movie at 8:45 followed by Aladdin at 10:55.

I dressed for the occasion with my new Aladdin t-shirt from Pixie Lee & Co along with my Simba necklace from Hot Topic.  A lot of people told me that they loved my outfit.

Eliot and I had a great time, even though the movies got out super late.  It was a bit hard to see The Lion King at the drive-in the first time as it's easy to get distracted by everyone around you.  Still, we enjoyed it.  Eliot dozed a few times during Aladdin but I soaked in every single second.  It was all I could do to not sing along to the songs since I had bought the soundtrack before seeing it this time.

The second back-to-back showing we saw was Toy Story 4 and the Lion King.

We decided to return to the Saco Drive-In to see another back-to-back Disney showing of Toy Story 4 at 8:35 and The Lion King at 10:25.  We really wanted to see The Lion King as the second movie since we had a hard time seeing it on the drive-in's screen the first time around.  (It wasn't dark enough outside.)

For this Disney double-feature, I wore my Toy Story Land t-shirt from BoxLunch.  I got a lot of compliments on my shirt this time too!

Eliot and I enjoyed seeing both the movies a second time.  We caught a lot more of The Lion King this time.  I was glad to see Toy Story again, even though we'd seen it the theater just days before going to the drive-in.  It was nice to hear all of the jokes again.  This time around, I was able to catch more of them since I knew the storyline.  I was still upset at the ending, but it wasn't as harsh because I knew it was coming.

As of right now, there aren't any more Disney double features scheduled so this is probably be it for us this drive-in movie season.  Both nights were a lot of fun and I'm glad that we made a little bit of time for ourselves to take a break from orders!  °o°

Lion King Movie Review

"Remember who you are..."

There are some movie quotes that just stay with you.  This is one of them.  Anyone who has seen The Lion King remembers the iconic words spoken by Mufasa.  That's exactly what the 2019 re-make of The Lion King did... it remembered who (or in this case, what) it was when it originally debuted in 1994.

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I was excited when I found out that Disney was making a "live-action" like version of The Lion King.  Eliot and I had seen The Jungle Book and I was amazed at how life-like the CGI animated animals were.  I was interested to see how that would play out with another CGI re-make of an iconic Disney movie.

The Lion King was pretty much the same as the original.  The greatest differences were a few of the quotes from Timon and Pumbaa, but they were hilarious.  My favorite part of the movie was actually the replacement to Timon's hula dance.  (I won't spoil it if you haven't seen the movie... but I was roaring in laughter both times I saw it.)

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Of course, the parts that were the most iconic in the original were the most iconic in this movie.  I got chills and teared up quite a bit during the opening scene with all of the animals in the Circle of Life intro.  The other part that was a bit emotional for me was when Simba takes his place as king and walks up Pride rock after defeating Scar.

I'm always a sucker for the music and costumes, but since they're all animals, there weren't any costumes to drool over.  The scenery was beautiful and life-like.  The music was good.  I'm not sure if I'll go out and buy the soundtrack but I might get it eventually.  (It wasn't like Aladdin when I left the theater on a mission to purchase a CD of the soundtrack immediately.)  I did enjoy The Circle of Life, Hakuna Matata and Can You Feel the Love Tonight.  I missed Scar's song, Be Prepared, but they way they did it made sense in this movie.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.

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I think the biggest complaint that I've read is that due to the animals "realistic" look, they aren't able to emote as well as an animated version.  I have to admit, I agree with this thought.  I wasn't sucked into the animals emotions as much because they looked like real lions.  The animals weren't able to convey feeling through the looks on their faces and that made it hard to get as into it as I was in the original 1994 movie.

Overall, I enjoyed the re-make of The Lion King.  The animators did a great job of making the movie look like it was filmed in Africa with real animals.  Did it leave room for improvement?  I wouldn't say that, but I wasn't as emotionally invested as I was in the original.  I'm sure that I'll watch it again but it probably won't be one of the Disney movies that I watch on repeat over and over again.  °o°

Tsum Tsum Tuesday- Feb 2016 Edition

Happy Tsum Tsum Tuesday!  It's been a few weeks since I first told you about my slight tsum tsum addiction.  If I'm being honest, it's only gotten worse...

Since then, Disney has released two series of their vinyl tsum tsum toys.  There have also been many more plush sets released online and at the Disney Store.  They're so popular, that as of February, Disney Store is releasing two new sets a month- on the first and third Tuesday.  Here's some of the additions to our growing tsum tsum family:

In January, Disney Store released the Lion King collection.  Jeremy went to his local store to buy me this set- along with an extra Simba and Zazu for Eliot!

Meanwhile, at home, I purchased the Valentine's Day box, mini ShellieMay, tsum bag and the medium ShellieMay and Dumbo plushes through the Disney Store online.

I got my new iPhone phone right after Christmas.  Of course, it needed a case.  Eliot found this one for me on eBay!  I'm in love with it and I admire it all the time!

Mid-January, stores other than the Disney Store and Target also started to carry tsum tsum merchandise.  JCPenney started carrying a ton of the original ones which I'd never gotten.  (They were released before I'd caught the fever.)  

I ended up getting all of the old ones I was missing.  (Eliot and I had JCPenney gift cards we'd been saving... they went to good use.)  JCPenney added a few new ones online after my first purchase, so I made two separate orders.  Not only did I get ones I was missing, but I also got the mini and medium pink Valentine's Mickey and Minnie which weren't released anywhere else!  (You'll recognize them from my Gimme "Tsum" Lovin Valentine's tsum tsum wreath.)

Meanwhile, Eliot was feeding the monster.  He brought home plenty of packs of vinyl tsum tsums.  They're pretty inexpensive and they're really cute.

There were also mystery tsum packages.  Eliot and I stood in Target one night trying to find a few specific ones.  We actually got 3 of the 4 contents of these packages correct!

Speaking of Target, a few weeks ago, I also stumbled across this tsum imposter in the middle of the sports section!  At first, I thought I was seeing things, but upon further investigation, it's a "Stadium Stacker" and it's basically the equivalent of a medium tsum tsum.  Of course, I had to grab it for my collection.  Go Pats!

Another thing the Disney Store has been doing is a tsum tsum subscription.  It's a monthly release where you get exclusive mini tsums as well as a "small" size you can only get with the subscription.  It doesn't look like I have much restraint, but I never signed up for it.  However, when I found out that Mickey, Minnie and Olaf were the first three months, I was starting to kick myself.  Luckily, I made a friend on Instagram who was willing to sell me the Minnie and Olaf boxes!  (Thanks @downwithdisney!)

The first Tuesday in February, Disney released the Zootopia set.  I behaved myself with that release, since the movie hasn't even been released yet.  Although, Eliot and Jeremy insisted that I at least get the two main characters, so I did.  And then I got a few of the Mickey and Minnie birthday tsums.  ("A few.")

Which brings us to today, when Disney released the Star Wars set.  I randomly woke up at about 4:00 am and remembered they had gone on sale.  I had a bit of trouble with the app, so I hauled my butt downstairs to my computer.  After a few minutes, I had all 12 of them ordered, along with an extra R2D2 for Eliot!  As much as it stunk getting up so early, I'm glad I did.  Four of them have currently sold out online!

Photo Source: Disney Store

As you can see, I've got quite the tsum tsum collection growing.  I'm still trying to figure out how to display them in my office.  Hopefully I'll get a group shot of them stacked together soon.  I don't even know how many I have but I'm pretty positive it's well over 100!  Although, I have no regrets.  They're cute, fluffy and irresistible!  °o°

Weekend Shopping

Last night, Eliot and I took an impromptu trip up to Portland to go shopping.  It doesn't take much for us to hop in the car to go for a quick shopping trip, especially when we both run crafty businesses and are always needing supplies.  In fact, I actually needed a few things from the craft stores and we also had some coupons.

On the drive up, my car's service light turned on.  We ended up going to Wal-Mart to check the oil just in case.  It needed some, so we went to Wal-Mart, which wasn't on our original to do list.  Of course, while there, we poked around a bit.  Eliot found Toy Story and Lion King pj pants for me and we decided to get them.  I don't have many pants in the thinner material.  These are so cute!  They'll be perfect this fall.

After Wal-Mart, we ran a few errands before heading over to the mall.  I wanted to see if Hot Topic had their new Dumbo bow.  I wanted to get one since Eliot's running the Dumbo Challenge next month!  Unfortunately, they didn't have it.  Instead, Eliot bought two of the Inside Out Mystery Minis by Funko.  I opened up Fear and he got Joy.

We walked through the mall over to the Hallmark store.  Before Eliot left for California, The Paper Source had all of the Inside Out itty bittys.  I was curious what they had in stock now.  Eliot went to another store while I looked around.  I realized they only had one Disgust left.  They also had two Rapunzel plush, but one looked a little wonky.  I decided to purchase those two since I was trying to behave myself.

I went to meet up with Eliot.  He saw my bag and asked what I got.  I showed him Disgust and Rapunzel.  He asked why I only got Disgust and I told him how there were plenty of the other Inside Out itty bittys left.  He then asked me how much each of them were.  Before I knew it, we were walking back across the mall to Hallmark!  Eliot had cash on him and he bought me Joy, Fear, Anger and Sadness!  He's the best husband ever!  My little itty bitty collection is slowly growing!

We had dinner at Chipotle before heading to JoAnn Fabrics.  I needed blue sparkly fabric for one of the Disneyland projects I'm working on.  I had a few great coupons to use so the timing was perfect.  After seeing the coupons, Eliot disappeared for a few minutes and came back with the Olaf fabric he's been admiring for a while.  He got four yards at 60% off and it was a great deal!  He's got a special project in mind for it that we'll try to work on sometime this winter.  I'll share photos once it's completed!

All in all, it was a great spur of the moment shopping trip!  Now I have a few more craft supplies to keep me busy with projects for our upcoming trips!!!  °o°

New IllusionEars for D23

Hi friends!  We've been busy around here as usual.  I find the days flying by without time for me to even think about writing.  I'm holding the fort down while Eliot's away.   He's been home in California all this week.  A good family friend passed away unexpectedly last week and he went out for his memorial service.  Since Eliot was already flying out Thursday for D23 this weekend, he just stayed the entire week!

In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy.  My friend Shelly's baby shower was this past Sunday.  It was so nice to see my Wentworth girls again!  Lately, I've only seen my college girlfriends once a year and this was really special.  Shelly's sister did a great job with the storybook theme!  I was right in my element with the little Disney touches.  Shelly's niece was stunned when I told her I "borrowed" Cinderella's coach for our wedding.  She was so cute!

The shower was a lot of fun.  I love the cute baby outfits!  Of course, I had to spoil her little one with lots of Minnie Mouse stuff.  We had a great time and it was so good to reconnect with my friends!  Hopefully I'll see them again sooner rather than later!

It was right back to work after the shower.  Since Eliot had to leave early, that left me finishing the new IllusionEars for D23.  Thankfully, Eliot finished the designs before he left.  I've been putting the finishing touches on them and mailed them out earlier today.

Eliot's sisters agreed to be our models for the weekend.  We had them choose their themes- illustrating the sky is the limit when it comes to designs for IllusionEars.  Elissa wanted Inside Out Anger ears and Sara wanted a Lion King design.  Eliot ended up designing Simba ears for her.  They came out pretty cute and they also show off two more design options for our IllusionEars: painted one color or two colors!  (I'm currently working on a set of Disneyland 60th ears for myself with other options.)

If you're at D23 or Disneyland this weekend, keep an eye out for the IllusionEars!!! °o°

Fun Find: Kyle Landry- Pianist

Hey Guys!  I'm sorry I haven't dropped by lately.  It has been another busy week at the Cady house.  Eliot's grandfather has been very ill and he passed away Wednesday night. Understandably, I've taken a break from my blogging to spend time with my husband.  Pa Joe was a wonderful man and I'm glad to have known him.  He will be greatly missed.

Eliot will be in California with his family for the next week and I'm hoping to get a few Halloween projects completed while he's away.  (I've had them planned for a while now.) In the meantime, I wanted to share another Fun Find Friday with you!  Before I left for my trip to Walt Disney World, I stumbled across some videos on YouTube.

I was looking for piano versions of "Let It Go" when I came across pianist Kyle Landry.  I immediately stopped everything and watched at least five of his Disney videos.  He's very talented and he composes his own versions of the songs!

I absolutely love his version of "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid.  I've listened to it at least 10 times since I discovered his Youtube channel.

His version of "I Can Go the Distance" gives me chills every time I hear it.  

Kyle even has a whole playlist of his Disney songs!

These compositions are not only beautiful, but there's something relaxing about listening to the piano versions of my favorite Disney songs.  They're perfect to listen to in the background while I'm working on some of my projects!

Enjoy!!!  °o°