National Waffle day is coming up on March 25 and what better way to celebrate then with Mickey Mouse shaped waffles? If you have a traditional shaped waffler, it will work, but there is just something magical about a Mickey Shaped Waffle – especially smothered in an amazing bananas foster sauce!
Continue reading “Disney Inspired Treats: Bananas Foster Mickey Mouse Waffles”
When doing my research for our Disneyland trip 2 years ago, it was hard not to become completely sidetracked by the pictures and reviews of all the amazing foods Disney has to offer in their parks. There are blogs dedicated solely to sharing the world of Disney eats and one could easily spend a large portion of their time in the parks hunting down and enjoying a variety of sweet and savoury treats plus fine dining meals.
I hope you all had a great Christmas! It is time for a New Year and a bit of a new focus on Dolled Up Design.
My lovely sister shared with me that, instead of a list of New Year’s resolutions, she was focusing on one word for the year: Believe. I loved this idea and In order to give myself some clear direction and motivation with my blogging this year, I decided to try and come up with a similar simple mantra to follow.
To princess dress or not to princess dress? That was the question I faced before heading to Disneyland. We have no shortage of princess dresses to select from, but they are all very delicate and not made of the most comfortable material for a full day of wear. They are also all pretty long and I worried about my daughter tripping or getting caught up on it when getting on rides.
BUT I was also afraid after seeing all the other little girls in the park wearing their Princess dresses that she would be upset. In the past month, she definitely hit the terrible two stage full-on and has become very headstrong if there is something she sees and wants. Before the trip, I downloaded the Disneyland app to my phone and she repeatedly went to the Fantasy Faire section to pull-up the pictures of the princesses to point to the dresses and proclaim “I want dat!”. I know they do sell much better quality dress-up costumes in the parks, but there are still a lot of itchy materials and the length issue to consider.
I ended up getting this lovely Cinderella Deluxe Dress from our local Disney Store and hoped it would be a good enough compromise for my dress obsessed little girl. The bodice is a nice cotton so she was comfortable throughout the day and the skirt portion was short enough that she was not tripping as she ran through the parks and stepped onto the rides. The extra layers at the skirt did make it a bit heavy, but I don’t think my little ‘Rella even noticed.
She was with me when I bought it, but I tucked it away and surprised her with it for our second day in the Disneyland Park when I knew we would be visiting Fantasy Faire. She was so excited and proud to get the dress and she ran/pranced/skipped the entire way from the hotel room to the park that morning.
The dress worked perfectly and the adorable photos of my princess were well worth the cost of the dress. Her faced absolutely beamed every time she was called a princess that day or was told how pretty her dress was! It is better made then most of the dresses in our dress-up our collection so it should stand up to the daily use I know it will get now that we are back from the trip.
For the other days in Disneyland, she was happy to wear her Minnie dress, and her favorite Frozen outfit. The more frills and tulle for my girl, the better! I did have a frilly new Minnie outfit for our last day in the parks, but she insisted on wearing the Cinderella dress for a second day. I think she would have worn it the entire trip given the choice.
How do you deal with princess dresses in the Parks? I figure my little girl will only be little for a short time so I want to embrace this phase as much as I can. Seeing her excitement in the park just made me excited for the next time we go when she will be able to get the full princess experience with a Bibbidy Boppidy Boutique makeover!
Disney Under 3 also shares a great idea to use Princess Dress-Up Aprons on your visit to the parks. I came across this too late to have time to order any this trip, but I will definitely keep this in mind for our next Disney adventure.
For our upcoming trip to Disneyland, I was on the fence about whether or not I wanted to come up with an autograph book. In past trips I have not bothered with any character photos or signatures, but I have also never had young children along. I am still not sure how into it my kids might be, but I know I don’t want to regret not having one in case it is something they are excited by. We do have a character breakfast booked for our first morning in Disneyland Park and I figure at the very least we will be able to get signatures and hopefully a couple photos of the kids with the characters there. Continue reading “Designed to Sign: DIY Disney Autograph Book”
Today I am sharing a simple DIY printable I designed to count down to our Disneyland trip next month.
To make this countdown, all you need is an empty 4X6″ photo frame with a glass or plastic insert, a printed copy of my attached printable, scissors and a dry erase marker. (I found my dry erase marker as part of a cute Frozen themed set from Dollar Tree.)
dolledupdesign.net 