Happy New Years EVE!!!!!

Happy New Years Eve and a belated Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Kwanza! 

I know I've been MIA for a couple weeks but family commitments, work, and the holidays got in the way a bit. Trust me when I say there were times that I wished I was blogging! :)

I have some great ideas for "Making My Fairy Tale" and one of my New Years resolutions is to blog much more often! I always feel great when I blog and writing was always a thing that I loved doing since I was in elementary school. I can be me without worrying about others judging me and I find it so much fun to share interests, trips, tips, and other fun things with people who are like minded.

Since we are saying a fond farewell to 2011, I thought it would be nice to end the year with a post recapping the things that happened to me this year that will forever remind me that amazing things do happen and every day is a new adventure that shape who we are as people.

- I joined twitter in 2011 and met some amazing people! The highlight was being able to meet some of those people in Walt Disney World this past fall. Adam and I also made friends with a couple on our cruise who were just like us... only from the midwest! We laughed and had so much fun with them! In only a weeks time I felt like we had made life long friends! We booked out next cruise together and I can't wait to see them in September 2012.

- I found a love for all things cooking. In my life I spent a good amount of time bouncing around and never got to explore my love for cooking in my own kitchen. This year however i was able to find new recipes, techniques, and a passion for cooking. I came from a home where, as a child, my dad would cook all the time and he taught me a lot. There is nothing I love more than working in the kitchen to create a delicious, healthy meal and seeing the family and friends eating it with pure bliss on their faces!

- I went out of the country!!! Up until 2011 I had only visited places along the east coast. (Disney mostly of course) But this year not only did we do our first cruise aboard the Disney Magic, but I left the country. Everything about it, from getting our passports to going through customs, was an adventure. We now have a new love of cruising and visiting new places!

- This year me and my best friend from cross the pond decided that its time to get the pond out of the way and meet in person. Stacey and I started planning our highly anticipated meet up for 2012. This makes me uber excited! Stacey and I have been friends for years, we skype, email, tweet, and FB each other almost every day and the chance to meet her in person is totally epic!

- I got a new job! For the longest time I felt terrible about myself regarding my employment status. My late high school/early college years were very hard for me for personal reasons. After two years of college the right thing to do was to get a job and move into my own place and figure out who I was as a person. I became a secretary and was one from 2006 to 2011. I always felt that I was not living up to my full potential. I was very depressed about it. Whenever people would ask me what I did for a living I would hate answering "I'm just a secretary..." I knew if someone would just give me a chance I could prove that I was more than that! I am happy to report that someone did give me that chance and I am now an Accounts Manager for a dental office! I was so thrilled about it personally that I think I may have scared some of my co workers with my enthusiasm but I can't tell you what a relief it is to me to have more responsibility and feel like I have a job with a purpose.

These are just a few of the many highlights from 2011. I am looking forward to 2012 and tomorrow I'll have a new post about all the things I'm looking forward to, resolutions, and I promise to update my trip report! :)

Have a fantastic New Years Eve everyone! Be healthy, happy, and safe tonight!

xoxo

More Warm and fuzzies!

Hey guys!

I've done tons of online shopping and experimenting with different cookie recipes! The holiday warm and fuzzies are in full swing! Last week we talked about how sending out Christmas cards gave me the warm and fuzzies. Tonight we're going to talk about O' Christmas tree!

Normally Adam and I have always gotten real trees. Last year we got a lovely tree, it was one of our biggest yet and I was totally in love with it. However my loving puppies kept drinking the water from the tree stand and whenever they bumped into it TONS of the needles would fall off. I tried to convince Adam to get a real tree again this year but he was pretty adamant that he didn't want to deal with the hassle again. I looked online at some department store websites and all of the fake trees were so expensive! I brought this to Adam's attention and I suggested that maybe get one last real tree and then right after Christmas when all of the fake trees go on sale we'll get one for Christmas 2012. Which he agreed too.

On black Friday we decided we would go get out Christmas tree. On the way out the door Adam asked if we could stop at Home Depot so that he could buy a new drill set that was at an awesome price. FINE! ugh men! We get to Home Depot and right at the entrance is a beautiful fake tree that was originally $150 for only $49.99 on black Friday only! There were only 5 left and we decided we would snatch it.

We got it home, turned on the Christmas Pandora station and got out the decorations. Every year since Adam and I have been together, we've LOVED decorating the tree together. Something about working together to make the tree as beautiful and festive as possible gives me.... the Warm and Fuzzies!!

Without further ado... here is our tree!

I love how the tree has some fake holly on it... Really adds a special touch!

Got to have some sparkley ornaments!!

What would out Christmas tree be without some Disney??

And here is the whole tree both with and without flash! 

How do you decorate your tree?? 

WILDRZ!!

Are you a tech fan? Do you have kids that love being active, playing in the dirt, and enjoy learning? Do your kids love animals? Well then you’re in luck! I’ve recently come to know an amazing person who has created an iPad App geared to kids ages 7-12. The app is called WILDRZ (www.wildrz.com). Below is a description about the app and about the creator. 

WILDRZ: Turtle Trouble iPad app for kids ages 7-12

Taking a step forward in multimedia storytelling, "WILDRZ: Turtle Trouble" is a Graphic Novel+ app in development for the iPad.  Aimed at children ages 7 to 12, "WILDRZ: Turtle Trouble" (www.wildrz.com) weaves comics of three fictional siblings with a real-life biologist to protect a turtle breeding ground that also happens to be a suburban soccer field.

Combining 60 pages of comics, 10 mini-games, 20 minutes of video featuring a turtle biologist, access to the biologist's blog, and additional content, WILDRZ (pronounced "Wild-ers") brings children into the action, including 230 speech balloons in the comics that readers can record using their own voices.

WILDRZ takes advantage of multimedia technology available on the iPad -- telling a fun, rich, interactive and compelling story about real-life animals in jeopardy and the three fictional siblings who help save those animals. My team and I are developing an app that kids will enjoy playing and parents will feel good purchasing because the WILDRZ Graphic Novel+ app lets kids experience the adventure of saving wildlife from the safety of their iPads.

I am a former producer for Hasbro Interactive's Tonka line of computer and console game software, an app developer and award-winning photographer, using Kickstarter (www.wildrz.com), a funding platform for artists, designers, and filmmakers, to raise the $100,000 needed to finish development of the WILDRZ app.

Additionally, by supporting WILDRZ on Kickstarter at various levels, backers can purchase great holiday gifts like:

• The "WILDRZ: Turtle Trouble" app.
• WILDRZ "skinz": a vinyl wrap that goes on the front and back of your iPad, sporting the "Turtle Trouble" cover artwork.
• "Adopt a Momma Turtle," in which backers donate a specialized Radio unit that biologist Mark Grgurovic will use to improve his ability to track and find the female turtles' nests and improve the survival rate of baby turtles. Backers can name the turtle, receive a photo and get periodic updates on her from the field.
• Get transported into the WILDRZ universe with your likeliness or that of a loved one drawn as a character into the WILDRZ story line.
• An eco-adventure weekend for four to help biologist Mark Grgurovic on the very turtle study that inspired the WILDRZ app.

The Kickstarter initiative ends Dec. 25th.

Ok so why am I helping promote this? Other than the fact that Paul is a great guy and I would love to see this project take off, I see a lot of this as being EXTREMELY Disney-esque. Walt Disney was all about education through entertainment, and using the most modern technology to do it. At EPCOT’s Innoventions all of the exhibits and games are very technological and promote learning through fun! The WILDRZ app would fit nicely in EPCOT don’t you agree? 

As it stands now, WILDRZ still needs to reach that goal of $100,000.00 in order for it to continue to be developed. I would love to see this App really take off, not only because of all the work Paul has put into it, but also because there are so many mindless things on TV and on the internet. This is something I’m sure kids would love (Heck I love it!) and they would learn something too. I think it would make a wonderful holiday gift! Thinking down the road it would give your kiddo something to do on the plane ride to Disney ;)

If you’d like to help the WILDRZ hit that goal and continue to make more episodes please tweet, facebook, or word of mouth it, to anyone you think might be interested in it. Paul has many more episodes lined up that I’m sure the children in your life would love! 

We're on a BOAT!... Really, we are!

Hey guys! Hope you're all getting into the holiday spirit! It's almost time for the weekend! woohoo! Now let's get back to our fantastic voyage trip report. 

After our little bus ride we pulled into Port Canaveral. Our first glimpse of the Disney Magic was simply breath taking! I couldn’t stop bouncing up and down in my seat. I couldn’t wait for the bus to park so I could trample... Uhh.... I mean get off the bus in an orderly fashion.

Going through security was a breeze! We got up to the check in desk and the CM helped us fly through check it. He gave us our room keys and said that it was open boarding so all we had to do was go through the mickey ears and up the gangway.

I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. You have to remember that I booked this cruise in February of 2009 as Adam’s wedding gift so I had been waiting over two years for this cruise. It seemed almost surreal to me walking up to the ship.

When we entered the amazing atrium we were greeted by a CM who was wearing a white naval looking suit. She asked who we were and what stateroom we were in. I told her and she pointed us in the direction we needed to go... as we started walking we hear over the loud speaker... “DISNEY CRUISE LINE, LET’S GIVE A BIG WELCOME TO THE ‘Z’ FAMILY!!!”.... Oh Em Geeeee!!! I could’ve died I was so excited! Adam and I were laughing and thought it was so cool! 

I’m going to now share with you a tip... I’m sure there are people out there who think this is a good idea but looking back on it I think I could’ve spent the money on something else but either way here are my two cents...As we were walking down the hall to try and find out stateroom a CM asked us if we would like to purchase a case of bottled waters and a DCL beer mug. Had I not been in a state of over stimulation I probably would NOT have bought the case of water. The DCL glass beer mug did come in handy for Adam but the more I think about it now the whole case of water thing was a dumb purchase on our part... i mean all non-alcoholic beverages on the boat are free. Why were we paying for water? We did take two of them with us to key west because it was really really hot that day but honestly that was it. Towards the end of our cruise we actually were TRYING to drink them because we didn’t want to leave full bottles behind. But that is just my opinion of it...

Ok so after our water purchase we found the nearest elevators and took it to deck 6. Our stateroom # was 6635. We were told that they were currently delivering all of the luggage and that ours should be there by now. We got off of the elevator and looked at the signs posted on the walls. We found the one that had our stateroom # on it and started our adventure down the hall. It was utter CHAOS! There were people walking up and down the tiny hall trying to find their rooms, CM’s putting luggage in front of the stateroom doors, families with too much luggage cause traffic jams in the halls... holy moly I was feeling VERY claustrophobic! We finally found our stateroom and we couldn’t get in it fast enough!

This leads to my next piece of advise. (I have many from this trip) If you’ve never been on a cruise ship and you have no idea what is going on when you first get on board... ITS OK! DO NOT PANIC! I’m saying this because Adam and I were freaked out enough just trying to find the room, never mind what we discovered when we entered the room. They are TINY! Adam and I started to get nervous that maybe we had made a mistake and should’ve stayed at WDW. So, if you are new to cruising or to tiny spaces in general mentally prepare yourself for this experience. 

After some deep breathing we decided it would probably be better to go to one of the top decks to get some fresh air. We explored the top decks of the ship until it was time to leave Port Canaveral. I think we both felt much better learning where things were on the ship and getting to know our surroundings. I would’ve taken more pictures but there were too many people out and about and in my way!

Before we knew it the announcement came over the loud speaker that it was time for the sail away party. I LOVED the sail away party. I got my little streamer and danced around waving it around. This is a quick video of the building at port canaveral and deck 10 at the very beginning of the party... you can see some streamers and hear the music. 

Sadly Adam wasn’t into it as much as I was. Looking at him I knew he wasn’t feeling well. After the sail away paty we went back to the stateroom and relaxed until it was time for dinner. 

This was probably the best decision we made that day. Adam climbed into bed and took a nap while I figured out how to utilize the space in the room. Another tip for first time cruisers... Take the time to empty your clothes and belongings out of the suitcases and organize them! Use the closet, shelves, ect. I felt much better after everything was organized. The room seemed bigger when everything was in its place. 

This is where I’m going to end... I hope all the pics and the video redeem my last trip report post. Now lets recap...

Katie’s 3 tips for first time cruisers:

1.) Unless you know you’ll need it I wouldn’t spend the money to buy the case of water. All non-alcoholic beverages are free on the boat. If anything bring your own water bottle from home and use that.

2.) Do NOT panic and mentally prepare yourself to be a bit overwhelmed when first getting on board and seeing how tiny your stateroom is.

3.) Take the time to empty your luggage out and utilize all the storage space in the stateroom. It’ll make the room feel bigger!

Until next time! :)

Happy Birthday Walt!

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them...

Today is Walt Disney's birthday. He was an amazing man, innovator, entrepreneur, and human being. He was so full of life, love, and dreams! From his vision came some of the most amazing theme parks, movies, cartoons, inventions, ect. There isn't enough I can say about him so I'm not even going to try!

It is because of him that I am the way I am... A big kid, day dreamer, and always trying to make my own life as much as a fairy tale as it can possibly be. (Notice the title of my blog) And to be honest I wouldn't want to be any other way! He is one of my favorite people and I admire all he accomplished.


That being said HAPPY BIRTHDAY WALT DISNEY!

We're on a BOAT!!...Almost

Good Morning and Happy Sunday everyone! I know I've taken a couple posts to write about other things but its time to get back to the trip report.

This was our first Disney Cruise, which means this is the first trip report I've ever done for a cruise. Writing trip reports about Disney World is always so easy and interesting because we're always out in the parks doing something. With the cruise we were vacationing at a much slower pace. That's not to say that we didn't do tons of stuff... it was just tons of stuff with lots of relaxation in between. The other thing (which I will get into shortly) is that my poor Adam got sick. Not seasick but he got a nasty cold that left him a bit cranky, and he didn't want to do a whole lot the first couple days onboard. The reason I'm saying all this is so that I can prepare you.. I don't know how good this is going to be! hahaha!

October 1st, as I'm sure you know, was the 40th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom. I woke up that morning knowing that we would be heading to the boat in a few hours. We got a letter from the Magical Express Department telling us that a cast member would be coming to our room by 8am to pick up our luggage and they would be transporting it to the ship. I, of course, was up at 6am and I worked tirelessly to get everything together. A pile of stuff we needed to board the ship, and a pile that could go with the cast member. While I was doing that I was constantly checking my twitter feed reading about all the cool things that were going to be happening at Magic Kingdom today. It was very cool that even though I was not at the park I was still able to feel like I was participating. I finished packing and put the bags by the door. I tested the waters and tried to wake Adam. He wasn't moving! He also was sniffling and coughing... uh oh. I tried not to read too much into it and jumped in the shower to get ready.

When I was all ready I waited around until the cast member came to pick up our luggage. When he left I tried one more time to wake sleeping beauty. That failed so I left him a note telling him I was going for a walk and off I went. I really do love these walks alone that I have when I'm in WDW. This becomes true also on the ship... you'll find out later that since Adam was not up to doing many things on the ship due to being sick, I did a lot solo and I really enjoyed it!... But more on that later.

When I got to the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge Villas I noticed a big group of cast members setting something up. I walked over and asked what they were doing. They told me that since Walt loved trains they were setting up a toy train station in honor of the 40th. HOW COOL!!! They even put up a big banner saying "Happy 40th Birthday!" I looked in my purse to see if I had my camera but I didn't I left it in the room. In hind sight I wished I'd gone back to get it but at the time I didn't want to bother Adam. If anyone knows anything more about this or has a picture of it completed I would love to see it. I had literally gotten there as they were just starting to set up so I didn't see the finished product.

I left the cast members alone to finish their work and went outside. It was a beautiful day! Not too hot and there was a lovely breeze. I went over to the beach area and sat in a lounge chair to watch the boats go by bringing guests to Magic Kingdom. It was so peaceful and relaxing. There is no where I'd rather be than on that beach hearing the boat horns, and in the distance the Magic Kingdom train whistle. There is also no where more relaxing for me! I don't know about you but I always feel like nothing bad can touch me when I'm in disney.. its just too magical! hahaha

After sitting there for a while my phone rang. It was Adam and he sounded TERRIBLE! NOOOO!!!! He said he didn't feel good at all and he wanted to grab some breakfast and orange juice to see it that would help make him feel better. I told him to jump in a nice hot shower to get some steam to help with the congestion and that I'd be back in the room shortly and we'd go get breakfast.

**Before I went back to the room I went to the gift shop and bought an awesome Disney sweatshirt and tank top that matched it. It was on clearance! I knew if I went in the store with Adam he'd talk me out of it... It was my only chance! hahahaha**.......Anyway.....

Adam and I gathered all of our things after he was ready and we left the room to check out. We had to be in the lobby for the cruise at 11:00... by now it was almost 9:30. I called the front desk and told them we would be out of the room. They checked us out automatically and they told us to have a great time on our cruise. We walked over to the roaring fork to grab a quick service breakfast.

While making our way to the Roaring Fork I was tweeting (because I'm always tweeting lol) and I started talking with another awesome twitter friend of mine, Kelly. She told me that she was at the Wilderness Lodge boat launch and she would be heading over to Magic Kingdom for the 40th. I didn't want to slow down her plans knowing that with Adam being sick I didn't want to rush him around. I told her the situation and to have a good time. We got in line at the roaring fork and who comes running in? Kelly! She said the boat was on its way but she wanted to quickly say hello! I gave her a big hug and we chatted quickly. She told me to have an awesome time on the cruise and I told her to enjoy the 40th! I wish I had gotten a picture with her but it happened so fast that I wasn't even thinking! It was so cool that in two days of being at WDW I got to see three Disney friends that I talked to via twitter or Facebook and was actually able to meet them in person!

After we ate we decided to walk through the Lobby and enjoy the scenery. We sat in a couple of rocking chairs and people watched. Adam's eyes were all glossy and he was sneezing and coughing like crazy. I bought him a bottle of water and made him an airborne to drink. I felt so bad that he was so excited for this cruise and now he was miserably sick. I couldn't think of anything worse.

Before too long we saw a women come into the lobby wearing a blue jacket that said Disney Cruise Line on it and carrying a DCL clipboard. WOOHOO! Adam and I grabbed our carry-ons and went right up to her. She checked our passports and information and told us to hang out in the lobby for about 15mins while we waited for other guests and for the bus to arrive.

::FAST FORWARD 15MINS::

It was time to line up single file (I felt like a kid lining up for recess) and make our way to the Magical Express Bus. Leaving WDW was kind of hard. There were attractions I missed and I kind of wanted the opportunity to meet more friends that I knew were in the world. Dare I say that I almost felt like I was cheating on WDW but doing the Disney Cruise. Driving through the WDW main gate and saying goodbye was kind of a bummer but the bus TV's turned on and we watched a movie all about DCL and what we can do on board! This got me so excited! Definitely made the guilt of leaving melt away...

WOW... I didn't realize that I had such a busy morning lol. This post is really long and I have much more to write about. I'm going to stop here. I have pictures galore for the cruise so I promise there won't be too many more posts of all words and no picture fun.

Enjoy your Sunday! :)

December 1st = Warm and fuzzy time!!!

Holy Moly it's December first!!! I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by... It seems like only yesterday the year 2011 got started. But time flies when you're having fun!

With the holidays approaching extremely fast I like to try and do something that gives me the warm and fuzzies as often as I can. The week after Thanksgiving is when I start sending out my Christmas cards. Before we were married I just bought Disney Christmas themed cards in bulk at a drug store, signed them, and sent them out. But the past two years, since we're married, I've been sending out cards with our pictures on them.

This is last years....

It was our first Christmas since the wedding so we thought it was appropriate to use the wedding pictures. I loved our cards that year. They looked very vintage and classy :)

This is this years... (P.s. I'm sorry for spoiling the surprise to anyone who knows they are getting a card from me but it hasn't arrived yet... I promise it's better in person )

I thought doing a fun, informal Christmas card this year would be a good change from last years. I love the font that the "happy Holidays" are written in and we used pictures from our last WDW and DCL trip. 

Sending out Christmas Cards always gives me that warm fuzzies :) I know it is easy to just send a FB or Twitter shout out but something about getting mail is so romantic to me. I know I love giving and getting Christmas cards in the mail. I've already started calling Adam every day after work and asking him if we got any in the mail yet. (He gets home from work before me) 

What do you do to get that warm and fuzzy feeling in the weeks that are leading up to the Holidays??