Purchases, Surprises, and DIY Projects

One of the things I love about our Disney Vacations is planning our itinerary and coming up with great surprises for my family. Since the kids aren’t going with us this time, I am stumped as to how I could make the trip special for my DH, L.J. and Brianne.

I have been pouring over trip reports and threads on the DIS to come up with some ideas. One idea that I swiped from several people on the disboards was to call the Coral Reef to set up a diver banner and personalized menus. The management is still deliberating a policy change on whether or not they are going to start charging for this service, so this surprise is still on the shelf.

I love making DIY projects for our trips. My cubicle in the garage is outfitted with most of the things any self-respecting crafter would own. I have my trusted PC with Adobe Photoshop installed, a nice printer, a laminator, a binder, a sewing machine, my cricut with the Disney cartridges, scrapbooks, cardstock, and an insatiable urge to make crafts.

So far these are my purchases, surprises, and DIY projects:

• Disneyshopping purchases—I happened to be checking my email early one Friday morning when Disneyshopping.com sent me an email about an awesome weekend sale they were having. I saw several things that I thought would make a nice addition to LJ and Brianne’s gift bag. Well I put the items in my cart, but was undecided about going ahead with the purchase. Sonny chimed in with his thoughts that I should just go for it since the prices were so good.
  
  Fast forward to that evening. I was peeved at myself for not buying more items from the sale and set out to make another purchase. Everything that I had bought that morning had gone up in price. The site was still heralding this great weekend sale, but the prices that evening were nothing like the prices I saw that morning. I am so glad that I went ahead with my purchase. SCORE! I apologize to everyone on here who wasn’t able to get their items at the lower price.

Check out my super low price loot:

The Mickey knit Henley and flannel PJ set that I picked up for LJ for $5.99. Also pictured are the luggage tags, picture frame, and anniversary pins I picked up on our last trip.

Lavender polo for $4.99 and the Mickey Cable-Knit Hat and scarf set for $5.99--all bought for me!

• Amazon purchases: One thing that I know is definite is that we are putting together an anniversary bag for LJ and Brianne. I purchased the bag on Amazon.com for $3.50, so I hope that the bag is nice. I am going to just pack everything in an extra suitcase and put it together once we are there.

Well the bag came in and it is pretty nice for $3.50. I was able to get some graphics from the nice ladies on the Creative designs board and personalized it myself.

I found a sale on desk calendars on Amazon.com and scooped up some gifts.

The Dilbert calendar will be for Sonny to put on his desk at work. The other one is for Brianne. Trust me when I say that we have been friends for so long that I KNOW that she will bust a gut laughing when she sees that calendar.

• Mousekeeping envelopes

I downloaded the envelopes from Mouseforless.com, cut and folded them.

Originally I was going to print clipart on to sticker paper and make the seals for the envelopes. I ran out of sticker paper, so I had to improvise. I printed the images on cardstock, ran the cardstock through my Xyron, and then punched each picture with my 1 1/2” circle punch. I think that they turned out super cute.

• After reading this thread on the restaurant board about custom cakes I decided to order a 10” for our dinner at the California Grill. I will tell you more about the flavors when I get back.

• Hopefully, no one will be offended by my next DIY project. Please remember it is all in fun and we are a married couple.

I scraplifted this great idea for a wedding gift on the Cricut forum. The brain starts working to make it fit my anniversary trip and my next project was born. The original project was made into a ring-bound book, but I wanted something that could be made entirely with scrapbooking paper since I have a ton in my office. And I corrected the title on the finished project to read "Naughty but Nice coupon box". I was going to ask for suggestions for other coupons, but that might really get risque!

The original project can be found HERE. My thanks to Laura Harbron for the idea and permission to borrow.

Well that is all of my DIY projects for now, but I am sure that I will have a few more to tell you about before we leave. Comment and let me know what you think.

Savannah Side Trip pt. 4--One More Wish Granted

After we left the taping my MIL thanked Sonny and I profusely for bringing them to Savannah. She commented that the cherry on the top of the trip would be getting to eat at The Lady & Sons before we went home. I pulled out the map and got directions to the restaurant. As we circled the corner we could see that the line from the check-in stand went around the block. We all agreed that the line was too long to wait, so we would just grab a bite to eat elsewhere and go back to the hotel.

We parked the truck in the garage and walked over to the Whistle Stop Café located behind the Savannah Visitor Center. You can’t eat at the Whistle Stop without trying the Fried Green Tomatoes, so that was our appetizer. My smart thinking FIL ordered three baskets for us to share. Each basket was hipped high with crispy dip fried tomatoes with a raspberry dipping sauce. I think that the tomatoes rated as some of the best I have eaten, but none of us really cared for the raspberry dipping sauce.

After the green tomatoes I can’t remember what anybody ate. The food wasn’t bad. It was just that we were exhausted after the long drive and then getting up super early for the taping. We browsed the Savannah Visitor Center some more and peeked at the museum.

Everyone agreed that it was time for a nap and the sight seeing would have to wait for later in the evening. It was so refreshing and we almost felt naughty about taking a nap in the middle of the day. The best part was that we didn’t have little people with their feet in our back or pestering us to wake up.

We woke up pretty late from our nap hungry as a pothead with the munchies. Not that I would know what that is like! Anyways, we decided to take a ride to see what we could nosh on and rode past The Lady and Sons again.

The plan was to jump out, get some cookbooks, and head somewhere to eat. Once we turned the corner, there was no line. Not one single person was waiting to get in and I made Sonny stop the truck in the middle of the street so I could inquire at the podium.

The young lady was less than enthusiastic to see me and told me that she could not seat us as they were booked up for the rest of the night. I must have been dragging the jowls because she immediately asked how many we had in our party. When I said four adults she handed me a laminated card and directed me back to the front entrance. At the front entrance the hostess stopped us dead in our tracks. When I presented my magic ticket she cleared the way and told us to take the elevator to the third floor. Yeah!!!!

We were seated right away near the bar and the buffet. These people know how to make a fat girl happy. Our server soon followed with hoe cakes and garlic biscuits and took our order. Today’s success with the Fried Green Tomatoes prompted us to try another order at the home of the Southern Fried Queen. Sorry Paula, but I have to admit that the tomatoes were lacking. Especially after the ones we had earlier in the day.

Except for DH, we opted to eat the southern buffet. We enjoyed every morsel and almost didn’t have room for dessert. I will now submit for your viewing pleasure some food porn.

Hoe Cakes and Garlic Biscuits

Sonny’s Wedge Salad

My big plate from the buffet

Overall, our meal at Lady and Son’s was good, but it will probably be a one time thing. Most of the food we ate is food that we cook at home on a weekly basis. When we go out to eat we want to feel like we are eating something different and extraordinary. My MIL was happy thought because she got one more wish granted.

That ended our wonderful time in Savannah and we are making plans to go back soon and explore the city.

I guess I have digressed long enough (I am trying to drag it out so you have plenty to entertain you in the next 70+ days till we leave.) and it is now time to start talking about my plans for Disney.

Side Trip to Savannah--Part 3

When we last left our travelers they were fighting their way through a monsoon off the coast of Savannah.

I am a nervous Nelly by nature and I do not do well in stressful situations. At this point I am ready to faint I am so nervous about the low visibility. My DH on the other hand never seems to act rattled and drove on like there was no rain. The rain eventually subsided and we start looking for the road to the restaurant.

A Public Service Announcement: If you are at any time going to Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House for dinner or for the show be forewarned that internet directions are not always right! Both times we have come I have printed directions from the hotel to the restaurant as a safety precaution. (I’m Nervous Nelly remember?!) Anyways, both times the directions have told us to turn left off of the main highway and the restaurant will be immediately on the left. Wrong! It is a right turn off the interstate. The last show we almost didn’t make it in time because of the wrong directions. Once we arrived at the set I met another lady who had run into the same problem.

Once we arrived to the holding area for the audience my MIL started to get really excited and could not stop asking me questions. I answered as many as I could and a lady behind us heard me. She came over and introduced herself and said that she was going to become my new best friend because I seem to know what was going on. Sonny says I have this way of attracting crazy people to myself. :-0 Just kidding! She was very nice and not crazy at all, but now I had two nervous, excited woman bombarding me with questions.

Pretty soon one of the assistant producers came out and ran through a list of rules and “no-no’s” that we were to follow during the taping. I believe that my MIL spaced out during this part and followed none of the rules.

After everyone was allowed to go to the potty in groups, one of the producers came out and surveyed the audience to see how she wanted to seat us. I was hoping beyond hope that the producer would like our look and seat us close to the front like the last time. She pointed to Sonny and I and asked us to come with her. I got excited there for a moment because she led us into the studio and starts looking at the café seats that are right behind Paula as she cooks. As she is walking toward the café she inquires if there are just two of us. When Sonny corrected the count and said four she stopped mid stride and looked at us again. “Oh,” she says as she stops and turns directions. My heart did a flop. No soup for me! I tried not to be disappointed as she led us to the last table at the back of the room right next to a curtain. But this spot would be instrumental later on.

During the show three special guests came on and helped Paula make apple pie, oven fried sweet potatoes, and other things that I can’t remember. I won’t give away who the three guests for the show were, but the theme for this show was “TV Dinners”. Two of the stars I was familiar with, but I don’t watch American Idol so I had no clue on the third.

With our table being so far away from the main cooking area we were not able to converse with Paula like we did last time. I was a bit bummed about that but my MIL kept assuring me that they were having a great time. Between takes we could hear Paula laughing and talking to Gordon Elliot behind the curtain. My MIL said that it was annoying to be so close to Paula and not be able to talk to her. Before I knew it she was getting up from the table and parted the curtains. I was completely mortified! I told Sonny it was his mother, so he had to go and retrieve her.

A second later we recognize my MIL’s and Paula’s laughter from behind the curtain. They are talking and laughing like old friends reunited. They chatted about Katrina, grandchildren, and even swapped emails to share recipes. Well shut my mouth! Paula Deen is truly a southern lady and a gem. She was so personable with my MIL and never seemed upset or impatient. I can’t say the same for some of the assistant producers. One of them rushed up as soon as she saw my MIL and was trying her best to make her go back to her seat, but she and Paula kept right on talking until it was time to tape the next segment.

Needless to say that was the highlight of her trip and I have cemented myself as her favorite DIL.

Savannah Side Trip pt. 2

Around 3 p.m. I start panicking because I remembered that I hadn’t called the producer. After a few tense moments I am finally able to be connected to her extension and the news wasn’t good. It would seem that I had indeed forgotten that pesky “s” on the email address. This is when panic really starts setting in because we are barreling down the highway at 70+ miles an hour and I don’t have internet access. I do have my laptop, so Sonny suggests that we pull over into the Mickey D’s parking lot and use their wi-fi. No soup for you! McD’s wants to be paid for your ride on the World Wide Web.

I am racking my brain for a solution when again I get a suggestion from Sonny—call my SIL. Easy as pie she hacks into my email account and resends the original email. The producer confirms that she got the email and all is well. The guys will get to go to the taping with us after all. I chose not to point out to my DH that he could have saved me this stress to begin with if he had just let me include him in the beginning.

After that it was a pretty uneventful drive, but we had to stop so many times for my IL’s to go potty that I felt like I had the three kids with me. What can you do? You can have a little bit of fun at someone else's expense!

We finally made it into Savannah around 10:30 and breezed through the check-in process. A friend had pointed me in the direction of an awesome discount at the Marriot Courtyard in downtown Savannah that saved us $100 a night on each room. Score!!!

We had a choice of a courtyard or Savannah view. We chose the Savannah view and I am so glad we did. Seeing the city at night all lit up was beautiful. I only wish that I had been able to use my new camera correctly to capture the scenery.

Our instructions from the producer were to arrive at Uncle Bubba’s by 7:30 a.m. for the taping. I admit that I was acting a bit bossy and told everyone they had to be ready to leave at 7:00 or they were getting left. This is Paula Deen we are talking about!

I guess my MIL being excited helped the schedule because she was downstairs at breakfast waiting for me. With the directions in hand we left the hotel and were on our way. We were making good time and then the heavens opened up and just started dumping on us. The rain was falling so hard that traffic came to a crawl around us because visibility was low.

Side Trip to Savannah--Part I

Sonny and I had the opportunity to take a side trip to Savannah at the end of September. Can you keep a secret? Only a few of my closest friends know about this, so shh!!!! We went to see Paula Deen on the set of her show Paula’s Party. I love me some Paula Deen and so does my MIL. She about permanently turned green when she found out we went to see Paula Deen in January and begged us to take her. Being the wonderful DIL that I am I obliged and planned a trip. I think that this has earned me the place of favorite DIL from here on out.

We were all set to go when I get a phone call from my sister (read “babysitter”) that she and my mom are in South Carolina and will not be back until the end of the month. What?!!! So both options for babysitters are gone and it looks like we are not going to be able to make the trip. Just a few days before we are scheduled to leave we are able to coerce my brother and SIL to keep two of the kids and one of my bestest friends agrees to keep the baby.

Then my MIL calls and says that the doctor is threatening that she will not be able to go if she can not get her blood pressure down. In the end he prescribed some different pills and told her to rest as much as possible, but she could go ahead with the trip.

A few days before we were scheduled to leave, Sonny tells me that he and his father can’t find anything that they want to do while we are at the taping. So….? Well, he was thinking that maybe I could call the producer and get their names added to the guest list. I got knots in my stomach just thinking about having to call and ask a favor. Much as I love him I don’t know if I can do this.

I let him talk me into calling and the producer was nothing but nice. She just asked me to send her an email with all of their pertinent information and pictures for security and she would see what she could do. The last thing she told me on the phone is to be careful that I typed in the correct email address. Her email address had a “s” on the end that people usually left off. Also, I was to call on Wednesday afternoon to confirm the changes with her.

We were hoping to leave home bright and early on Wednesday morning since we had an almost 10 hour drive to Savannah, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. We actually got on the road around 11:00 a.m. and headed to Sonny’s job to drop off a package. A quick stop turned into a 30 minute gab-fest and then we forced ourselves to get back on the road.

Stay tuned for part 2...

An Early Anniversary Present

Our entire trip to WDW in January is geared around celebrating our anniversary and no anniversary would be complete without a fabulous present. Simmer down. I am not discounting the love, happiness, and commitment. But let’s keep it real. This is about the gifts!

As soon as my anniversary is over in January, Sonny will start asking me for hints for the following anniversary. For most of this year I have been begging him to upgrade my Cricut. For the uninformed—a Cricut is a die cutting machine with interchangeable cartridges. (Two of the cartridges I have are the Disney cartridges.) I use it like crazy for my scrapbooks, card making, invitations, and other craft projects.

I know to the untrained eye they don’t look different, but trust me they are. The first one only cuts items on a 6 x 12 mat, whereas, the second one can cut on a mat 12 x 24. Can you imagine the Disney projects that I can make with that baby? I wake up at night dreaming about the mickey heads I will cut out of magnetic and sticky paper. I fantasize about the homemade autograph books that my children will proudly carry with them from park to park.

So every few week my DH would confirm with me that I still wanted a new Cricut. I even had someone lined up to buy my smaller one. Everything was coming together nicely. Then the DIS threw a kink in my plans. How you ask? Well I followed a link over to the photography board and started looking at everyone’s gorgeous pictures. Pictures that I knew I couldn’t squeeze out of my pitiful point and shoot camera. Hey, they even have a family over there. I want to be a part of the family! And everybody on the DIS is so willing to tell you all about the great sales that you just can’t miss.

Before I knew it I was chatting with my DH on Skype telling him all about this camera that I just had to have. I mean if it is good enough for the folks on the DIS then it has to be good enough for me.

My poor husband—for the last 7 months he has been secretly checking out Cricut prices and cartridges, convinced that I would be receiving that for my anniversary and here I was changing the game plan. I have to say that he was a good sport about it and I am happy to report that I got my anniversary present early this year.

Drum roll please! My sweetie bought me a Canon PowerShot S5IS which is a major upgrade from my last camera.

Sonny’s rationale in buying it early was that it would give me a few months to get accustomed to the camera. That way I can take the best pictures possible at WDW. The funny thing has been that he seems to be using the camera just as much if not more than me.

I have to say that I am in love with this camera and I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface on all the things that I can do. Here are a few of my initial shots with it—tell me what you think. On second thought just leave me with my deluded dreams that my pictures will pay the bills some day.

I would love to take credit for this one, but my DH had the artistic eye on this one.

Where Will We Lay Our Heads?

The first decision we had to make was when we were going. L.J. had recently started a new job and with no vacation days built up yet, he wanted to miss as few days as possible. The easiest solution was to plan around the holidays when everybody would already have a few off days scheduled. Plus, Sonny and I could get in another trip on our AP’s from January. December 28- January 4 started looking like our target dates.

The first time we celebrated our anniversary at Disney it was right after the Christmas holidays. The crowds were unimaginable and we said that we would never go back to Disney during the holidays. Never say never because here we are. But our reasoning this time is that with four adults we should be able to handle the crowds with proper planning.

We recently became Disney Vacation Club members and our first trip home was this past January 2007 at Saratoga Springs. Then in May 2007 we stayed at BWV. For all of the SSR lovers let me just put it out there: The resort is absolutely beautiful! The rooms are absolutely beautiful! But this resort and the Downtown Disney area is just not where we are absolutely happiest. Given a choice we prefer the Epcot Area and Boardwalk Villas, but every trip we tell ourselves that we will try somewhere new and every trip we end up right back at the BW. This trip I figured there is no sense in pretense—we wanted to stay at BWV again.

So our challenge now was finding a 2 bedroom villa at BWV for December 30, 2007 – January 4, 2008. But so did everyone else in the free world! The best the CM could do was to book us at Saratoga Springs for the first and last two nights. We went on the waitlist for the middle days that we needed and hoped for the best.

As any true Disney Planaholic knows, we don’t do well with waitlists or probability. I will play nice for a little while, but I need a confirmation number NOW to write in my Passporter! I sweated my husband something fierce about what I should do about the room situation. Out of desperation the poor man suggested that I just book concierge rooms at the BWI. That sounded really nice at first, but as I started checking out prices I realized that the cost of the two rooms was outrageous during the holiday season. No thanks. I will have to find better way.

To save points I did go ahead and book All Star Movies for the first two days of our trip (Friday and Saturday night). We stayed here last September with the kids and thought it would be a nice start to our trip.

But I started to get really antsy about not having our room booked so I called Member Services constantly. After a few weeks, I was on a first name basis with several of the cast members. Finally, the first of September I confessed to Sonny that I was afraid that the waitlist would never come through. Several phone calls to Brianne and we decided to move the entire vacation back one week. So our dates changed to Jan 4-11, 2008.

I called Member Services and received the bad news that they could not get us into a 2-br at BWV for the week. We would again have to go on the waitlist, but our chances would seriously improve with this being the start of value season. The waitlist came through for all but the last night! I am so excited that I would not be upset if we were at SSR for the last night.

Let the Planning Begin...

One of the hard parts about taking relative newbies to Disney World is impressing upon them the sheer amount of planning and the endless decisions to make the trip magical. Brianne’s first questions to me was, “How much money do you think that we will need for the week?” How do you answer that question? It is almost impossible to succinctly answer that question. So instead I begin to ask her questions. I asked her how many days she thought they would like to go to the parks. What kind of eating habits do they have on vacation? Do you see yourself wanting to do a lot of side things like Disney Quest, Pleasure Island, the Water Parks, Cirque…? Well you get the idea.

Her eyes got big and she said she had no clue as to how to answer any of those questions. So I replied that I didn’t have a clue how to answer her question either because it is not a simple equation one does to come up with a definitive number. My suggestion to her and request of her was to educate herself on Disney.

I pointed her to Mousesavers and Allearsnet to start her research. She called me a few days later in awe. It never dawned on her that Disney was so big and offered so many things to do. As she started reading she started making a list of the places they might like to eat, rides they would be at the top of their wish list, and nighttime activities they wanted to check out.

Let me digress here for a moment. My DH and I have taken quite a few people to Disney with us over the years and we always end up being the designated tour guides. The “keeper of the schedule” as it were. Everyone blindly follows us everywhere we go and never once volunteers preferences or opinions. So every trip we feel responsible for everyone’s’ good time. That is a lot of pressure on two people who are struggling with their own good time. So DH decided to make one condition on Brianne and LJ if they were to come with us. Their vacation happiness was dependent upon them. We were going without our children and so we aren’t planning on babysitting anyone else. Does that sound harsh?

Anyways, Brianne decided that she liked the process of getting ready for our trip, so I ordered her a Passporter to do some serious planning. I also through a recommendation from timandlesley decided to sign up for Tourguidemike. The jury is still out on whether or not I feel like this was money well spent.

“Disney Through Another’s Eyes”

I have been reading trip and pre-trip reports over on the disboards and I have to admit that I would love to achieve the following that some of the reports have gained. Admitting that may sound vain, but at least I am being honest.

I admit that I am late to the game and not usually up on the cool places to be, so I only recently read UtahMama’s trip report from 2006. And I am going to follow her admonition and not post any “disclaimers, warnings, or apologies”.

So let’s jump right in by introducing the crazy cast of characters:

There’s me your storyteller and vacation planner. I am a Domestic Goddess with three genius level children, a miniature Dachshund that I believe has ADHD, and a wonderful husband who deals with my ever changing moods and obsessions. I can honestly admit that Disney is one of those obsessions and at times I have been known to start planning our next trip before we are home from our current trip. I never get postcards or pin codes attached to my name because Disney knows two things about me. They know without a shadow of a doubt that I will keep coming back year after year. And two that I have been known a time or two to pay rack rate.

Sonny my DH is the person who started my Disney obsession and he recently told me that some days he wishes that he had never taken me to Disney World the first time! He was only half-way joking. He funds our trips by working as a Drafter for a small company and occasionally does free lance work on the side.

We are planning this trip to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary and I can’t wait to see what surprises he has in store for me. I guess that sounded a bit egotistical, but my DH has planned a wonderful surprise for my anniversary almost every year. Check out what he did one year that we stayed at Disney's Boardwalk Inn.

Joining us this trip will be Brianne and her husband LJ who are celebrating their 5^th anniversary. Brianne and I have known each other all of our lives. As most friends do we have experienced some rocky times, but we always manage to get through it. When Brianne and LJ were dating we would all get together and go on date nights. After about 6 months of dating LJ decided he wanted to pop the question, so he asked me first what I thought she would say. Ah…yes!!! So I got to help him plan the proposal and her to plan the wedding.

One of the things they thought would make their wedding special would be for me to be a bridesmaid and Sonny to perform the ceremony! We still talk about how sweet it was to watch their relationship develop and then to have such a special place on their wedding day. Plus, our anniversaries are in the same month 9 days apart.

This past summer Brianne and I worked really hard to surprise her parents with an awesome anniversary party. During the planning phase we would talk on the phone and email each other daily. Once the party was over we found that we really missed talking to each other, so our friendship grew.

Through the course of the daily conversations between Brianne and I, we started talking about plans for our anniversaries. With our recent purchase of DVC, Sonny and I knew that we would be spending a week visiting our favorite cast members at the BWI and Villas. Brianne and LJ are in the process of trying to buy a house, so Brianne was unsure of what they would be able to do.

The last few years we have taken different couples with us to Disney World for our anniversary. One year we took my brother and his wife, one year we took my parents, and earlier this year we took DH’s parents. I don’t remember how we came to the conclusion to invite Brianne and LJ, but I am so glad we did.

Since my first trip to Disney in 2001 I have done whatever is necessary to go back at least once a year. In total we have gone as a family or as a couple a total of 11 times. When someone asks us, “You’re going to Walt Disney World again?!!” we point out all of the new things there are to do and see.

LJ and Brianne, on the other hand, are relatively newbies when it comes to WDW. The last time LJ went he was 10 and has only vague memories of the parks. Brianne was 3 and remembers little to nothing. There is nothing better to a Disney Planaholic than planning a trip as if you are showing someone the world for the very first time. This trip we will get to see Walt Disney World through another’s eyes.