Happy Wholidays from Grinchmas

I usually spend my days at Universal Studios, walking around Hogsmeade or sipping butterbeer, sometimes I’ll add a little Jameson if I’m feeling extra. Of course, there is a special time of year that takes me away from my magical Hogwarts and into a whimsical world of Grinchmas.

Grinchmas take place at Universal Studios from December until early January. It transforms into a magical area with photo ops and a giant tree and stage area.

While there you can take photos with Max, the Grinch, and countless other citizens of Whoville.

Grinch trying to steal my ornament bag

Of course the citizens of Whoville are always ready for a selfie too

It was so much fun chatting with the Citizens, but the best part was taking some time to do some good.

Stop by the post office and send a post card. Your post card helps raise money for School on Wheels. Doing good for others is something to make your heart grow three times it’s size. I just love helping a good cause, especially when it’s a cause helping kids get supplies for school.

Now doing good for others makes a person hungry for a treat. Plenty of sweets to be had at Grinchmas, but I opted for a gingerbread hot chocolate. OMG it was like eating a gingerbread cookie. It’s was so good. Sorry Starbucks, but Universal Studios has you beat on this.

Drink your hot chocolate and watch a show on stage. There are performance throughout the day. I caught a performance of Martha May and The Who-Dolls. The performance was delightful, but I especially loved their amazing dress. Ummm can I get one in my size.

Though the ladies actually were more a fan of my ornament bag from Unique Vintage. It was a fun interaction.

I had a great time at Grinchmas and can’t wait till next year. Hope you check it out. I hope you all have very Happy 2019, even you Mr. Grinch.

Disneyland comes to Sherman Oaks with “That’s from Disneyland”

 

 

That’s from Disneyland is an amazing FREE pop exhibit by the Van Eaton Galleries open to the public featuring treasures and artifacts for all around the lands and hotel of Disneyland. The amazing memorabilia collection from Richard Kraft will be up for auction August 25 and 26, 2018. Yes, you can own a piece of Disneyland history for the right price, hope you’ve saved up your Disney Dollars. Of course even if you aren’t planning on purchasing anything you can still check out this amazing exhibit. Disclaimer you will have tons of photo opportunities so be prepared. I Disneybounded as a 50s Wendy Darling with a skirt I made and accessorized with a ballon pop corn bucket for a purse.

The Gallery is divided into lands just like Disneyland. Main Street U.S.A, Frontierland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, New Orleans Square, and Fantasyland.

Mains Street, USA still has small town charm with old maps, window displays, and even a vehicle that once rode down the boulevard of the magic place.

 

Cruise on over to AdventureLands where you will find tropical shirts, Jungle Cruise Posters, and a singing Tiki Bird

 

Tame the west including some critters in Frontierland. canoes, posters, and some signs from Country Bear Playhouse can be seen.

 

 

Glide on over to New Orleans Square for some haunting and pirating. You’ll die over the photo ops there. Take some photos with the stretching portraits in the grave yards.

 

Blast off into Tomorowland with Rockets, People Mover, and fun memorabilia from the world of Tomorrow.

 

And if the future doesn’t look too bright, escape to Fanstasyland where elephants and ships Fly, the children of the world sing one song that means friendship, and everyone lives happily ever after.

 

And last but not least take some silly pictures with a sea creature before you head to check out the gift shop.

 

For more information about the exhibit you can check out thatsfromdisneyland.com or for more information regarding the auction check out vegalleries.com  

Let me know in the comments if you checked it out and your thoughts.

A Bayside Cheerleader hangs at the Max (review of Saved by the Max)

There has been a flourish of pop ups themed museums and restaurants from Ice Cream, Star Wars, to now Saved by the Bell’s famous hang out the Max. 

Saved by the Max is a pop restaurant in Hollywood. You can live your Bayside dream while  eating a cheeseburger (don’t worry there are vegan options too). To attend one has to make reservations ahead of time and pay up front. Tickets are a little over $51 per person and that include an appetizer and an entree, desserts and drinks are extra. 

Making reservations was rather stressful and many spots were taken initially, but more spots have been added so that should help for future reservations. 

I knew I wanted to recreate the original Bayside cheerleader outfit. I found the skirt on Etsy at iTreasureMine, Angie was very responsive to my messages regarding sizing and the delievery was very quick. It was the perfect skirt. I bought a maroon polo shirt on Amazon, and cut out grey and white felt in the shape of the B and sewed it on, and for the added touch added some pom poms. This Bayside Cheerleader was ready for the Max. 

  
When you arrive give your name to the booth outside, once your table is ready your name is called and you are escorted in.  When you walk in you will pass the Bayside Lockers, each locker is filled with momentums of the Saved by the Bell characters crutches for Lisa, pills for Jessie when she was soooo excited, and even Tori had a locker. Why Tori had a locker I don’t know, but I never was a fan of her character, so it beats me. But that is another blog post in itself.  Characters that annoyed you and you wish never existed  

   
              After the little hall way of lockers you are seated at the booth. It really is the best creation of the Max. You are given your menu and told to order first and then you can explore the place. The menu is pretty simple. Appetizers include items such as sliders, salads, Mac and cheese. Entrees consists of burgers, sandwiches, tacos. The chef did attempt to make it all little fancy with interesting sauces. My friend ordered the pancakes and the syrup was a peanut butter maple syrup and my cesar salad consisted of an avocado dressing, a slight twist to a basic item. Besides food Saved by the Max has an extentise cocktail list.   I ordered the Friends Forever an ale and a Jameson mix. Which has now become my new favorite thing to do. 

   
 

  Now time to take a moment to explore. There is the Juke box,  Mr Beldings office, and yes the booth of radio station Kkty 98.6 FM. All make for fun photo ops and highly recommend you take advantage of them. Also there are giant foam heads of the characters which also makes for some silly pictures. Plus there are free arcade games you can play on. 

   
                       

All and all Saved by the Max was fun. The atmosphere is amazing and  the food is ok. Overall it’s a 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

Let me know in the comments how your experience is and if you dressed up. Take care preppies!! 

WonderCon 2018 Cosplay recap.

WonderCon was held March 23-25, 2018 and it was another wonderful con. Thousands of cosplayer could be seen walking the halls and court yard of the Ananheim Convention Center. 

 WonderCon is an anual event usually held in the city of Anaheim. It is run by the same people that run San Diego Comic Con, but unlike San Diego it is far less stressful and one of my favorite cons. Also on the plus side you have Downtown Disney and the Disneyland Resort a short distance away. 

This year was filed with thousands of amazing cosplays. It always amazes me the level of creativity. 

I love cosplaying and I make all my own cosplays. I’ve been sewing for almost three years and I’m completely self taught. 

Day 1-  80s and 90s animated classics. 

For the first day I cosplayed as one of my favorite childhood characters Gadget Hackwrench from Disney’s Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers.  

 
  
I ran into some other critters  during the day. 

Loved Alivin and the Chipettes 

Janet-The blonde Jedi

   
    

Secret of Nimh 

Love how classic 80s and 90s cartoons were being represented. 

   

   
It truly was a classic day that ended with a classic burger.  A mouse gets hungry after a busy day of Conning, so of course I went for an In n Out cheeseburger. 

  

Day 2 – Herioc Adventures. 

For the second day I cosplayed as a USO girl. Honestly it is one of my favorites cosplays cause lets be honest I do love Captain America. He is one of my favorite superheroes 

Bucky –  Steven Van Doom

Captain America – Captain Cosplay

 
Here are a few of my friends before the Con 

Lando-  Atomic Redhead Pinup Wonder Woman, Griffindlr Quiddich players 

Photo by Sunshine lark

 
Took some pictures with some Caps   
        Even joined some fellow USO girls for this group picture. All and all it was a fun day, but very exhausting. 

Day 3 – Regency princesses  

Day 3 my friend Jojoand I decided to do a regency Frozen mashup. Our love of Jane Austen inspired this idea and it was very well received.  

Coronation Elsa and  Anna Austen 

            

Tea Time with Hamilton. When the Colonies meet British Regency. Apparently they aren’t fans of tea 😂  

  

    

Snowflake tea sandwiches  

  
We ran into some other great cosplays during the day. 

My favorite of princess suffragettes 

Anna – Arielle cosplay

Ariel- Lena

Moana – Alia

Sleeping Beauty- Victoria

Loved this Brave family. Complete with peg leg. Such a clever cosplay   

Sailor Moon –   Eri

  

Rita Skeeter Nikki interviews Queenie Jamie

       

We each bought our own charcters.  

  Corgi Link. Love it when dogs cosplay too

  

It was a great WonderCon and we ended it by heading to Disney

Best part of the end, no more wigs!!!

Took a spin on Luigi’s  
   

I stopped to talk to Captain America who was honestly so wonderful. Even asked to see pics of WonderCon. Highly suggest stopping by and talking to him. 

  

 

Finally ended the night with fireworks. It was perfection. 

I highly recommend WonderCon and even more cosplaying. Hope this inspired you to check out a local Con. Have a magical day!! 

The making of Art Nouveau Belle cosplay

I am a huge fan of Hannah Alexander art work, eapecially her art nouveau art work. I’ve always wanted to bring one of her works to life. It’s a big challenge to undertake making a pattern, dying fabric and hand beading ,but I was up to the challenge. 

 I decided on tackling the Art Nouveau Belle! 
I bought 7 yards of poly blend satin and 7 yards of poly blend chiffon. I had two yards of yellow broadcloth already.  

 

Now to figure how to make the dress. I found a pattern that worked well and would just need a little modifying. 

I just had to modify the goudets, the insets between the seams that create a flowey almost mermaid like feel. Making them longer and wider to create a sillouet similar to the drawing.  Also I would need to make sleeves and add ruffles. 

  
I constructed the skirt and cut out the pieces of the top. The top consists  of 5 layers of fabric. Two layers of cotton broad cloth, with interfacing In between,  satin and chiffon. The bodice will be boned. The boning channels will be between the cotton fabrics. I constructed the cotton section fist and left the piece of chiffon and satin as pieces to be dyed. 

To dye the skirt, it is best to have the satin lining constructed and the chiffon top layer constructed. 

Now to dye the fabric. When using poly blend you have to use dye formulated to work for that. Rit dye more  Daffodil yellow  is the dye I used for the project, regular Rit will not work. Also when dying polyester blends you have to use the stove top method. With ombré you have to dye the fabric in section. The fabric you want darkest has to stay in the dye longer. The fabric you want lightest remove from the pot first.  I dumped everything in the pot after 10 minutes I pulled a section out. After another 15 minutes I pulled another chunck of a section. I left the remainder in to soak for another 15 Minutes. Repeat the same process for the chiffon.  Also don’t use the pot for cooking after. This pot should only be used for dying and not for food. 

   
  

 Be sure to follow the bottle instruction. 

Now that everything is dyed it’s time to sew everything together.  

I made the belt pattern that was going to be embellished with embroidered beaded lace. 

   

The sleeves I drafted a pattern myself and drafted the pattern for the ruffles on the bodice and the sleeves.    

    

    

I hand sewed the belt to the dress. Machine sewing it could possibly damage the beading and the chiffon. 

Now to work on the grommets. With cosplays I like to have stuff that laces up. I unfortunately  fluctuate in weight about 5 to 10 lbs so lacing is a must especially with cosplays that take such a long time and effort to create. 
    

It’s a painful process and I have a hand held grommet press so elbow grease is a must. 
Now to finish the beading. I bought these gold beads at Joann’s fabric. You have to hand sew them. Work in tiny sections so they don’t break apart easily. 

    

The jeweled Rose was hand sewn to the center. I was so lucky to have found this piece. 

  

For the top I divided the strands with two white pearl beads it added a nice touch.        

Now to do the beading on the hip. This was the biggest pain and the beads would break. Work in small sections and knot often. My cat was in charge of quality control and inspection lol 

    

The rhinestones on the godets were glued with E6000.       

For the head piece I used fake roses, leaves, a wide head band, and a few fake pearls. I cut the heads, laid the leaves on the head band, glued, and hot glued the Rose heads to the leaves. I added a few pearls to the leaves.   

   
 
Here is the dress completed. You can tell in the video how beautifully the ombre turned out.  

     

  

   

  
I hope this inspires you to create your own Art nouveau princess. Thanks for reading! 

Avengers Half Marathon weekend signup

Mark your calendars everyone. The Avengers Half Marathon sign up is on April 12 9 am pacific standard time. The Avengers half marathon weekend consists of several races during November 11-November 13 2016. There are Kid races, a Captain America 5k, A Doctor Strange 10k, and the Avengers Half. If you sign up for the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge (the 10k and the Half Marathon) you get an extra cool medal for finishing  both races.

I ran the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge last year.I highly recommend it. Plus where else can you run a race and see your favorite super heroes like Captain America, Black Widow, and Thor pose with you along the race course. If you’re a comic book fan and love to run this race is for you.

Thanks for reading and I hope this inspires you to sign up for a race 🙂

Elsa visits the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

On April 7th the Wizard World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Hollywood is set to finally open. I was fortunate enough to have a preview and my friends and I of course dressed up. We all represented each house and one of my friends dressed up as Professor Umbridge. I decided to do a disney mashup doing Elsa/Ravenclaw. I always felt if Elsa was sent to Hogwarts she would have learned to have mastered her powers.

Walking through the gates is a magical experience.

The minute you walk into you see part of the  train station and of course the Hogwarts express. Here is a photo of all of us with the train conductor.

Elsa is ready to do the magic!

Walking through Hogsmead is amazing. It really feels like you’re in the movie. All the shops are perfectly depicted.

 

Of course you can’t forget the butter beer. Don’t worry kids it’s non alcoholic so you can definitely have some and the adults will enjoy it too. As for the adults there is some great beers and cocktails served in the park. Three beers are exclusively sold at the park.

 

One of the cool experiences in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is checking out Ollivander’s  wand shop. If you are lucky a special wand may choose you. My friend Kaitlyn got chosen.

 

It was a cool experience to say the least. With all this exploring of Hogsmeade one does get pretty hungry and we definitely satisfied our hunger at the Three Broom Sticks. The food is very good. So many different options, from fish and chips, bangers and mash, and sunday roast. I went with the Sunday Roast.

sunday roast

cream pots are the yummiest

Hog’s head

Professor Umbridge is annoyed

 

After lunch we checked out the 3D Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride. Walking through the line is like walking through Hogwarts. It’s so cool.

Had to get a picture near Rowena Ravenclaw

the sorting hat

Hogwart

I’m at Hogworts

I loved the ride, it is intense. You fly around with Harry and have to fight off dementors and whomping willows. Some people may feel nauseated after it, just a fair warning. I wasn’t.  I felt fine.

We also went on the flight of the Hippogriff ride. You get to see Hagrid’s cottage as you walk through line. This ride is very short, I almost wish the small roller coaster would go around twice to make it worth while. It’s a small coaster and perfect for little kids.

 

We did more walking, checked out some singing , and did some magic. The cool thing if you buy one of the interactive wands you can do some magic at the different stores.

Everyone was friendly and loved our outfits. The employees were all so helpful and super nice. We spent time talking to them about the parks and our costumes. They loved how we were in character the whole time.

 

Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin

reading of course, such a Ravenclaw

 

At one point in the day we had fun playing students and following Professor Umbridge around like little ducks following their mama. Though mama wasn’t always happy with us. We had fun taking photos where Umbridge was scolding us as only Umbridge could do so well.

 

But then we also had fun making fun of her too.

It really was an awesome time and we had to capture the moment.

 

#selfHogwartsuniverse

 

I can’t wait to go back. It was a wonderful experience and having friends to dress up with was what made the experience even more magical. In truth that’s the real message of Harry Potter, that friendships is what gets you through the darkest times and that’s the real magic after all.

 

 

Thanks for reading. I hope you get to experience this wonderful place at some point or if not, hope  you pick up one of the  books or movies and find some magic in your life. Have a magical day.

Star Wars Half marathon weekend

Another race has come and gone and it was a blast. 

It all started this past Thursday with packet pickup. 

  
The line for the expo merchadise was very long , but thankfully they had Star Wars playing. I saw the end of Empire Strikes back and the beginning of Return of the Jedi.

   

Finally I was in the area for merchadise. Lots of cool things but I just bought a magnet, pin, and wine glass.  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

In the actual expo there were more opportunities to buy more merchadise. I was good and didn’t, just picked up my race shirt. Which I think was awesome.

I did stop by the New Balance shoes and check out the new designs for this year. They are so cute and I might get a pair later this year. 

   

  

  Now to rest, in a few days I would be running in the Star Wars half. 

For the race itself I wanted to do a mashup. I had done Anna for the Princess half but thought I would make a robe and belt and turn it into a Jedi Anna costume. I was sewing the day before the race.  Here’s the finished outfit.  

 

The race started early in the morning it was very cold and I was still not recovered from bronchitis, but I ran to the best of my abilities. 

  

   
   

Waiting in the corral   
It was very foggy and misty during the race and my lungs were in pain so stopping to take pictures and catch my breath was a must. I literally had a coughing fit along the course. Being sick and running a half isn’t easy, but it is possible. There were so many cosplayers out on the streets cheering us on. It was awesome. And I heard so many people shout “go Anna” which gave me strength to continue. Thanks to the highschool bands and cheerleaders and community that come out race after race to support the runners. You guys are amazing. 

 There are Stormtroopers behind me??

  

x wings pilots.

      

crossing the finish line

  

with my medal

  
Here is a closer look at the medal. I’m glad I stuck with it. If you are interested in doing a Disney race check out run disney they have 5k, 10ks, halfs , and even a full in Disney World. Thanks for reading and I hope this inspires you to sign up for a race and maybe even wear a costume. 

Have a magical day! 

Avengers half marathon weekend-packet pickup.

It’s that time again. Another Disney race is happening this weekend.   I went to Disney for Packet pickup and the Health Expo on Thursday. 

They were already setting out the Finish line.  So excited about this weekends race. I’m doing the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge (10k and half)

  
The line wasn’t too bad on Thursday.  Waiting in the official merchandise line. 

  

In the official merchandise section you had so much options from jackets, shirts, caps, sports bras (that was random), glasses, water bottles, and ornaments. I love the RunDisney tennis shoe ornament, picked that one up. Slightly disappointed they had no pins for the Challenge and the 10k. They only had the half marathon pins. 

  
  
And the Dooney and Burke bags had a great design. I didn’t get any, but really  was tempted. The smaller one was $188 while the backback was over $300. 

   
 

After merchadise I picked up my shirts. They have a nice design this year.  I especially love the 10k one with the Captain Anerica Shield. 

    

I wandered through the expo. You’ll find a lot of great stuff from running shirts, to geektastic head phones to medal sport hooks to display your medals and more.  I love SportHooks, I have one of their displays and picked up an extender cause the medals are over flowing now.

   
    
 Along with cool merchadise there were tons of photo opportunities and a cool video shoot of you becoming Ant Man. 

 
I wore my Black Widow jacket from Hot Topic just for this.  Feeling pretty super.
 Who else is doing the race this weekend? Anyone dressing up? I’ll be a USO girl for the 10k, maybe I’ll find Captain along the course and Captain America on Sunday. I was hoping to make a Loki costume, but didn’t have time. If you see me, say hi. Thanks for reading and just keep running. 

Dumbo Double Dare 2015

This past weekend I ran in Disney’s Dumbo Double Dare. The race consists of a 10k on Saturday followed by a half marathon on Sunday. They are intense. For running the two races you receive an extra medal, the Dumbo Double dare medal. 

The 10k 

The 10k started bright and dark. I was in my corral before 5 am. The race starts at 5:30 am. The theme of the race was Villians. Of course Cruel and Maleficent stopped by to kick off the race.  I dressed up as Snow White rather than a Villian. 

in my corral waiting for the race to start

Once the race began you got to run through part of the streets of Anehiem, California Adventure, Disneyland, Downtown Disney, and finishing by Disneyland hotel. 

photo ops during the race

Finishing was the best part and I really liked the medal. It was a replica of the Magic Mirror. 

 

after crossing the finish

    

magic mirror 10k medal

It was a great race, but I had to rest up for the half the next day. 

The half marathon 

Not only was Disneyland celebrating their 60th but the Disneyland half was celebrating their 10th anniversary. 

I was a feeling good after the 10k so I felt confident running the half.  I dressed as Minnie Mouse for the half and taped up my knees. I have previous knee injuries so I find that KT tape helps a girl with two bad knees continue running all these races. 

  

  

Mickey and Minnie kicking off the race

    

I didn’t stop for pictures on the race. I did take this at mile 5. It is wonderful running in Disneyland. The whole city of Anaheim is there to support all the runners. From marching bands, to different culture organizations everyone is cheering you on. It’s amazing. 

 

at the finish

 

all the bling

 

 
The half marathon medal was special this year. It spun around in the center. It was awesome 

Well that’s another race in the books. So happy I had my friends and my mom to cheer me on. Thanks to all the people that volunteered, strangers that passed out wet sponges, all the organizations and classic car owners that were out cheering us on. No race compares to RunDisney. I’ve been running them for several years and I plan on running them for as long as I live. I hope this inspires you to run or volunteer for a race. Thanks for reading. Have a magical day.