My week long break from work came to an end today. BLURGH. Spring Break, why did you have to go by so fast? Anywho, I hope you all had a happy Easter Sunday yesterday! And if you didn’t celebrate, I hope your Sunday was awesome anyway. 🙂
A couple weeks ago when I was in SoCal, I got to go to Disneyland to celebrate my sister’s birthday before heading to the Geek Week Fashion show. It was a pretty relaxing visit as we just went around the park doing the Disney Egg-Stravaganza Easter egg hunt, and we also took some pictures with popular Disney bunnies at the Spring Time Round-Up that was set up in Frontierland. I’m still bummed that I didn’t get to meet the White Rabbit and Thumper, because deep down I’m still 5, y’know. I think we managed to complete the egg hunt within 2 or 3 hours (we stopped for lunch, so probably 2 hours), and decided to head to California Adventure and do the egg hunt there! We probably could’ve gotten it done a lot faster if we didn’t spend 10 minutes looking for the Goofy egg that was hidden at the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland. For the record, he wasn’t hidden anywhere near the actual ride! What sneaks.
It was fun, and we got a couple of cute Disney eggs in the end — I got the White Rabbit and Thumper which were the ones I really wanted! — but if I didn’t have an Annual Pass, I don’t think I’d partake in it again just because it takes up a good chunk of time.
Oh, can I talk about my dress for a minute because LOOK AT HOW EPIC IT IS! It has Sleeping Beauty castle all over it and was designed by Save the Panduhs. I had been lusting after it like something fierce for a long time, but it wasn’t available anymore. But in February I saw that they were ordering a few more for one last go, and I ordered one on my phone in the middle of dinner during Galentine’s Day (I do not mess). Luckily it arrived a few days before I left for LA!
The dress is a compliment factory too. I don’t think I’ve ever been stopped so many times by people to let me know they really dug my outfit! 😀
While taking pictures by the castle the Evil Queen walked by and said, “How about you take a picture of some real beauty?” and then she stood so my “good side” wasn’t facing the camera. It’s like she knew I’m not photogenic on my right side. What a wicked jerk! But I can’t wait to go back to Disneyland for their 24 hour event next month with my sister and her boyfriend!
dress: Save the Panduhs (no longer available) shoes: Blowfish Shoes (no longer available) // cardigan: Gold Drama necklace: Le Fancy Geek Boutique (buy here) crinoline: Tatyana Boutique (buy here) glasses: Derek Cardigan (buy similar here)
With my annual pass expiring very soon (*cries infinite tears of sadness*), Tim and I decided to go to Disneyland for one last hurrah over the weekend and Dapper Day just so happened to be on Sunday!
Dapper Day isn’t an official Disney thing, but twice a year fancy ladies and gentlemen dress to the nines in their finest threads and head to both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort in style. This event was inspired by Disneyland’s concept art from the 1960s where visitors were depicted in dapper attire — think Mad Men.
photo courtesy of vintagedisneyparks.tumblr.comphoto courtesy of dapperday.com
Many folks were dressed in retro fashion, but I wanted to focus on snapping pictures of the fancy people that let Disney characters inspire their ensembles — this to many on the interwebz is known as “Disneybounding.” The term Disneybounding comes from the DisneyBound site in which its webmaster, Leslie Kay, uses Polyvore to create outfits inspired by Disney characters whether it be for casual or formal occasions. I’ve always let all things I nerd out about influence my outfits, so knowing that there’s this whole movement with devout followers about Disney inspired fashion is just spectacular!
I didn’t get to take as many photos as I would’ve liked to since I didn’t have my business cards handy during the first half of my day. It’d be super awkward if someone came up to you and asked to take your picture for a blog without some physical form of credibility, right? I thought so! But my first fabulous find of the day was this woman named Cindy who had a crazy awesome Mary Poppins outfit. Her hat, red coat, and parrot umbrella were spot on! And I wasn’t the only one enamored by her practically perfect ensemble (haa… see what I did there?) — a little boy was super stoked to see her and asked to have his picture taken with her. 🙂
There was a DisneyBound meet-up and I read that it was at 3:30, but by the time I got there they were taking the huge group photo and I totally missed the part where people were mingling and whatnot. But after they dispersed I walked into the crowd and approached as many people as I could until it got too overwhelming. SO. MANY. PEOPLE. D:
These two ladies were dressed as Belle and the Queen of Hearts. I’m dumb and automatically assumed they were both Snow White (like me!) with the reds and yellows, but once they told me who they were I was like “Oh! Duh.” Mah bad.
This lovely couple are dressed as Prince Naveen and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. I saw a picture of them on the Dapper Day Facebook page beforehand, so I was pretty stoked to see them in person! 🙂
I found myself rather envious of the card suite cardigan the girl in the middle was rockin’. Need I even say what characters inspired this trio’s spiffy outfits? I don’t think I need to.
I totally flipped out when I saw this woman’s Tiki Room inspired outfit, and then she went and busted out her parasol when I asked if I could take her picture (it’s just like the ones they put on the Dole Whip floats!)! And you can’t really see it, but she has a tiki god pendent on her necklace.
I’m not sure if this lady was Disneybounding per say, but I thought she looked quite stunning in her retro glam dress and hairstyle so I asked if I could take her picture 🙂
I spotted a dapper Peter Pan in a Newsie-esque outfit and Princess Tigerlily. They were too friggin’ adorable.
Lastly, I found these posh ladies in front of City Hall. I know for sure the girl in the lavender is wearing a Rapunzel inspired ensemble (loved the fact that she had Pascal attached to her shoulder!).
Cheers,
Nina
PS: Here’s a peek of my Snow White inspired outfit. I’ll be doing a separate post of my ensemble, you can expect to see that sometime tomorrow!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend that was filled with delicious mounds of food, great company, and sweet deals! And if you didn’t celebrate it, I hope your weekend was full of delicious mounds of food, great company, and sweet deals anyway, because food is awesome and so are cool people, and everyone did some sort of shopping this weekend, riiight? Plus Cyber Monday is tomorrow. AH!
Like I mentioned in my last couple of posts, my boyfriend and I went to Disneyland for a few days to celebrate our one year anniversary!!! We even got some “Happy Anniversary” buttons and wore them the whole time we were there, and so many people wished us a happy anniversary, or congratulated us — the latter we were kind of thrown off by. I mean, you congratulate a couple when they get engaged or married, right? But surviving a whole year is an accomplishment in and of itself because relationships are HARD WORK — and, not to get too into my relationship, but Tim and I pretty much only get to see each other during the weekend, or every other weekend, so to be able to stick together through long distance and other obstacles is pretty amazing. Therefore, congratulations were well deserved!
Disneyland during the holiday season is quite a spectacular site — everything is way more shinier and sparklier and the whole place is much more magical than usual. What do I mean by “much more magical than usual,” you ask? Isn’t Disneyland ALWAYS magical? Well, yes. Of course it is! But with all the holiday decorations and trees that have ornaments bigger than my head and Sleeping Beauty Castle all decked out in pretty lights and faux snow… all those details make it possible for Disneyland to be WAY MORE MAGICAL than usual. And the Haunted Mansion gets a The Nightmare Before Christmas makeover which is one of the top reasons why I think Disneyland is at its best during this time of year. 🙂
So, the rest of this post shall be a photo spam! I’ll sprinkle in some wordy bits throughout, but I hope you enjoy these photos as much I enjoyed my time spent at the Happiest Merriest Place on Earth!
I took so many pictures of this dude. I think this is probably the best shot of the bunch.
I spy Sparky from Frankenweenie. Do you?
Jukebox made out of old car parts. If you look closely, there are car radios inside!
Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree is the only ride in Cars Land that we got to go on, and despite the annoying soundtrack (I feel so bad for the folks who operate that ride), it was really fun! The line to get fast passes for Radiator Springs was just as long as the line for the actual ride itself. Ridonkulous, right?! I didn’t want to wait 3 hours to get a ticket to go on a ride at a later time and then go back and wait an extra 30-45 minutes to go on the ride. Y’know what I’m sayin’?
I’m not a huge Cars fan, but Cars Land was beautifully executed! We had lunch at Flo’s V8 Cafe and I had an Apple Cheddar Pie that was pretty damn tasty. Next time I go in January I’ll be sure to take more pictures of Cars Land. I was too caught up in the atmosphere to snap some photos.
I wanted to be a Can-Can dancer when I was little because of the ones on It’s a Small World. They’ve always been my favorite.
My sister has been raving about the deep fried pickles at the Carnation Cafe on Main Street. I HATE pickles. However, I discovered that when they’re deep fried they are delicious. So weird. Tim ordered them because he figured I’d never have tried them if he didn’t. And I swear if I lived closer to Disneyland I would go there all the time and have a blog dedicated to their food!
I felt that my blue and green tartan blazer matched well with the decor inside Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. I’d also like to note that this ride is extremely effed up — you end up dying of drunk driving and the ride ends with you going to hell! Seriously. I still enjoy it though.
It literally hurt to take this picture. The sun in our eyes was no bueno.
Tim kicked my ass on the Toy Story Mania ride. 😦 It’s okay though, I always kick his on the Buzzlight Year ride — it evens out.
There were a few costumes from Once Upon a Time displayed in the Hollywood Backlot (California Adventure), but the glare on the window made it impossible to take pictures. I’m kind of questioning if they were the ones actually used on the show anyway because Charming’s costume looked horrifically dinky when Josh Dallas looks all kinds burly. So here’s a picture of the book! Or maybe it’s a replica. I don’t know. o,0
F*ck yes, Lego Prince Phillip!
Tim and I decided to do a special World of Color dining thingy at Wine Country Trattoria — you get to eat a fancy dinner that includes an appetizer, entree, dessert, a complimentary drink, and tickets for the reserved section of World of Color. While making reservations the woman was telling us that adults could get a special alcoholic beverage that has a glowing cube, and since kids like the glowing cube, they have special cups for kids and glowy things — The Little Mermaid for girls and Lightning McQueen for boys. I totally ordered the kid’s drink because I wanted the cup. Our waitress was really thrown off by my ordering it. Haha! Glowy Ariel is kind of creepy though. And I think I left her at the hotel. 😦
The reserved area we were assigned was smack dab in the middle! But then a nice Cast Member (in case you don’t know, that’s what Disneyland employees are called) on the lower deck told Tim and I that he could let us go to the front row for an even better view. He felt that we had an unfair advantage since folks would be coming in and we’d have to look over their heads. And he also noticed our “Happy Anniversary” buttons and said he wanted our anniversary to be special. 😀
I was also freeeeezing because my dumb ass wore a skirt in the evening, so I was really excited about the part of the show with the pyrotechnics. Insta-warmth! Except when all the pyrotechnics went off, there were also tons of misty bits. So… yeah.
I’ve been wanting to take a picture with Winnie the Pooh while wearing my Doctor Pooh shirt for nearly a year, and I FINALLY did it on our last day there! I thought Pooh Bear was coming in for a hug because he had his arms spread out, but then he stopped and pointed at my shirt and started clapping. And then he blew me kisses as I was leaving. I love Winnie the Pooh ❤
Eeyore poked our buttons as a means to say “Happy Anniversary!” to us. At least I think that’s what he was doing. You can never tell with that guy on account of him being perpetually gloomy and all.
And that concludes my photo spam! Hope you all enjoyed. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving (to all of you who celebrate it)!!! If not, Happy Thursday!!!
Tim and I managed to get through the terrible holiday traffic in LA on our way back home from Disneyland yesterday (we were stuck in LA for 3 hours!). So we spent most of our actual one year anniversary in a car. Super romantic, right? Tim was a trooper and drove the whole way while I kept bobbing in and out of sleep. 😦
I’ll post some pictures from our trip in a future blog post. For now, here are a couple of outfit shots from the day we decided to dress up fancy! The pictures were taken somewhere in the Hollywood Backlot area of California Adventure. I didn’t even have to put an outfit together for Tim — he’s just naturally dapper like that. I’m so proud! 🙂
Anyhow, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and I just want to say I’m super thankful for my family for being awesome and very supportive, to my friends for being great confidants and fun people to be around and have great adventures with, my baby Rory for being the bestest dog EVER, and to my boyfriend Tim — thank you for encouraging me in all my artistic endeavors, for supporting me in all ways possible, and for walking downstairs with me to the vending machines at the Days Inn at 4 in the morning so I could get water for my heartburn/stomachache and for offering to drive around the corner to buy me some Peptobismol despite the fact that you’d have to drive 10 hours back home from Disneyland the following afternoon. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! And Happy One Year Anniversary!
I hope you all get to spend Thanksgiving with amazing people and eat delicious om noms!!!
Cheers,
Nina
—
outfit details
me:
cardigan: Kersh (got it at Costco!) // shirt: Xhileration (from Target, super old) // necklace: Disney Couture (buy it here) // belt: Xhileration // skirt: ‘Princess’ Vera Wang (buy it here) // boots: Steve Madden // purse: M. Rossetti // glasses: Derek Cargidan (buy it here or get it for free w/code FIRSTPAIRFREE) // button: Disneyland!
Tim:
hat: Banana Republic (buy it here) // shirt: Banana Republic (buy it here) // sweater: Banana Republic (buy it here — I think that’s his sweater anyway…) // blazer: Banana Republic (buy it here) // jeans: Levis // shoes: Aldo (buy it here)
I was supposed to post this yesterday, but I was out and about and didn’t have a computer handy. Sooo, here it is, part 2!
For our second full day at Disneyland, we headed to Tomorrowland to watch the Jedi Training Academy show. I’ve seen it in bits and pieces from previous visits as I passed by, but it’s actually a lot of fun to watch. Jedi masters pick kids out from the crowd and teach them how to battle with lightsabers. They call the kids up by what they’re wearing — some kid had R2-D2 Mickey ears on and the Jedi said, “You, with the r2 unit on his head.” 🙂
The way he talked reminded me of the Old Spice guy — very charismatic with tons of machismo. I think this is probably the raddest job a person can have at Disneyland — you get paid to be a Jedi and play with lightsabers!
Darth Vader, a couple of Stormtroopers, and Darth Maul (not pictured because I couldn’t get a decent shot of him) came out, and the little padawans got to duke it out with them. My nephew Jacob NEEDS to do this the next time he goes to Disneyland. He would go to town with a lightsaber and kick Darth Vader’s ass. I’m sure of it.
Force push!Darth Vader!Even if you don’t have kids, any Star Wars fan should watch this.
After the Jedi Training Academy, Tim and I picked up Fast Passes for Space Mountain, and then the four of us watched Captain EO. What’s a trip to Disneyland without some Michael Jackson in space?
“Oh boy, my first 3D movie!”
Since my sister had to go back to work the next day (booo), her and Ryan left after we took pictures with Eeyore, Tigger, and Pooh.
Tim’s favorite!The one and only T-I-DOUBLE-GA-ER!
It didn’t occur to us until afterwards that we could’ve taken a group picture with one of the characters. So here we are by Splash Mountain:
Basically the one and only decent group shot of us.
After they left, Tim and I headed back to Space Mountain and looked around the gift store near the exit with all the arcade games. In there, I saw a claw machine full of Beanie Babies! Tim was determined to get one, so he got enough tokens for each of us to have a go at it. He went for a little non-Beanie Baby black bear, but missed. For my turn I decided to go for the little black bear as well, since he seemed attainable and was really the only cute thing in there. And I GOT IT! I’ve won a toy from a claw machine once, I was probably 6 when it happened. As I saw the claw scoop it up (this claw machine had a nice scoopy-thing going on, which is way better than the traditional claw because it makes it feel like you have a chance), I tried really hard not to jump up and down out of excitement for fear of possibly shaking the bear out of the claw’s grasp. And when it landed in the slot, I did my little happy dance. “I got it! I got it!” I think I was more excited about this win than the first time I actually won one when I was 6. Tim said there was some girl behind us that said in a somber voice, “She got the one that I wanted.” Is it bad that that made me even more excited? o,0
So where’s the bear? You’ll see him in a bit.
We watched The Muppets 3D show. It’s nice way to escape the SoCal heat.GONZO!
Decorations for the Mad T Party are already in place near the Monsters Inc. ride. Unlike elecTRONica, the Mad T Party doesn’t take up most of the Hollywood Backlot, which is nice because I hated how it overpowered the area… not that I don’t like TRON or anything. It just took away from the rest of the place!
Don’t worry, White Rabbit. You’re too early.House of Cards.Mickey Mouse pretzel!!!Tim’s Mickey ears.
I didn’t know that some changes were made to The Little Mermaid ride recently, but it was a pleasant surprise to spot them. There are two bits of an animated Ariel that were originally CGI, so they looked nothing like the Ariel that we know and love from the movie. Those were changed to look more like the hand drawn animated version of her, so she looks more familiar to riders. And more bubbles were added to the part of the ride that stimulates a decent under water.
The biggest change I noticed was Ariel’s hair during the “Under the Sea” part. Before, her hair looked like a big giant red tornado, or a Treasure Troll. Take a look here. It was just all kinds of awkward. And apparently John Lasseter thought so too, hence why all the changes were made to the ride.
Ariel’s new ‘do. Less Treasure Troll, more mermaid-y.Kissy kissy.
After visting Ariel and co. we went to the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail so I could find out what my spirit animal is! I’m kind of obsessed with spirit animals. I keep trying to find places that will tell me what my legit spirit animal is, but I always wind up with funky online quizzes.
Redwood Creek Challenge used to be themed around ‘Brother Bear’
Tim and I didn’t see Kenai’s Spirit Cave the last time we went, so we went exploring and eventually found it. Yeah, we could’ve used the map, but what’s the fun in that?
Tim’s spirit animal is a wolf.
I got confuzzled when I went to go see what my spirit animal was. At first a skunk appeared, but then a moose quickly showed up after. Thus, I have decided my spirit animal is both a skunk and a moose. 😛
What, no deer?Remember that bear I won in the claw machine? Well, here he is! Griswald Spaceman (spa-che-men, like Dr. Spaceman on 30 Rock).
Peter Pan’s Flight was our last ride of the night, but they had some crazy technical difficulties going on about a half hour into our wait period. But we stayed anyway!
Best ride in Fantasyland, hands down.I love carousel horses! They are pretty much one of my favorite things.Jingles, the lead horse, was dedicated to Julie Andrews in 2005. I love her. I wish she were my grandmother.
The next day we checked out of our hotel and before heading back up north, we decided to go to the park for a bit. On our way to Toy Story Midway Mania, we saw this Doctor Who and Mad Men art! Crystal Webb, the artist of the DW stuff, talked to us for a bit and we basically nerded out about the Doctor and what companions we liked, and some other random stuff. I think we talked to her for a good 15 minutes. Maybe even 30. I don’t know. Always nice to chat with a fellow Whovian though. You can check her out her art here.
Doctor Who art by Crystal Webb, Don Draper by Orlando de la Paz
As usual, the line for the Toy Story ride was a 45 minute wait, but it’s pretty much the best ride at California Adventure. I’m usually really good at kicking Tim’s bum on this ride, (and Astroblasters, Wii bowling, and Wii tennis too), but when we went in March, HE TOTALLY SCHOOLED ME. I had to redeem myself. We made a bet that the loser has to buy lunch.
Rex & Potato HeadRex fits right in!
There came a point where we were neck and neck, but Tim won in the end. Hot dogs were on me.
DAMMIT.
After lunch we learned how to draw Phineas and Ferb. I don’t have our doodles, so I couldn’t take pictures of them to share with you all. Sorry! They didn’t turn out too shabby though. And since you can’t see them, you’ll just have to take my word for it. Or don’t. Whichever. I don’t care.
Concept art from Pocahontas, Mulan, and Tarzan
Before we embarked on our 7 hour drive back home, we hit Disneyland one last time to grab snacks at the Jolly Holiday Cafe. I think that’s my new favorite eating spot at the park. They have soooo many tasty pastries and soup and sammiches. And the decor!
Stained glass penguin.
And that was my trip! Hope you guys enjoyed the pictures. 😀
In late April my sister randomly texted me asking if Tim and I would be able to make a last-minute trip to Disneyland on May 15, 16, 21, or 22. We were good to go on the 21st, but why those particular dates? In honor of Fantasmic!‘s 20th anniversary (I was 6 when it premiered… o,0), Disneyland held four special performances for Annual Passholders. AND I HAVE ONE, SO I COULD GO! <– it’s my first one, it’s rather exciting. Plus the 21st was mine and Tim’s 6-month anniversary, so I was all excited about that and the fact that we could get buttons. Except for some reason I was under the impression that it was 7 months, so that’s what we wrote on our buttons. My bad.
We left on Sunday afternoon and arrived at the park a little after 6 and met up with my sister, her boyfriend Ryan, my cousin Brian, and his girlfriend Jolene at Small World. What I forgot to take pictures of were all the goths roaming around the park (it was goth day!). It was kind of weird. Anyway, after Small World we headed to California Adventure since they have booze and pretzels filled with cream cheese! No wonder why the Karl Strauss beer station is Ryan’s favorite attraction at California Adventure. 🙂
Karl Strauss is one of San Diego’s local brewing companies.Those should say 6 months… oops.
For breakfast, we ate at Tangaroa Terrace at the Disneyland Hotel. The prices weren’t too shabby and we got to order our food on touchscreen menus — so Jetsons!
It’s Rex!!!Tim’s french toast was really tasty. I got some sort of breakfast wrap that was loaded with eggs.Rex explores the artifacts sitting outside of Indiana Jones.
Cars Land has yet to open, but when you stand up by the benches at the Blue Sky Cellar you can get a really good view of it. Like most, I’m not the biggest Cars fan, but I’m really excited to explore this new area when it finally opens. It looks sick. And all the concept art and scale models of Radiator Springs looks SO AMAZING.
My sister discovered the “miniature” effect on our camera. Pretty neat.Cars Land concept art from the Blue Sky Cellar.Model for Luigi’s Flying Tires.Imagineer’s desk I would assume.It’s a Small World via miniature effect.
My sister and I waited in line to take a picture with Merida from Brave. We were the only adults there that weren’t accompanied by a child. Haha! The picture didn’t turn out well though, sooo I shall not be posting it here. At the end of the meet & greet you get to shoot a bow and arrow! I think I drew back to far, because the arrow bounced on the side and came back. The cast member said, “You’re trying to kill us all!” o,0
The bears from Brave!I found Natalie Portman!
Tim and I took a long break before we headed back to the park. Since the Fantasmic! performance was a special event, the park closed at 1 am and New Orleans Square, Adventureland, and Frontierland were all open. There were also special food items on the menu at different restaurants, including a bacon/macaroni & cheese hot dog. Who comes up with this stuff? I was feeling a bit too sickly to eat the special foods, but I was able to enjoy popcorn shrimp and a dessert skewer the next day (though the food is special towards the performance, they start serving them at 4, so those who can’t go can still get a taste).
These fancy lanterns were scattered around the Rivers of America.Berry Brownie Skewer! OMG, I wish I had milk to help me tame this beast.I didn’t get to try this, but according to my sister it wasn’t that tasty. Too bad. It’s the most epic cupcake I’ve ever seen!Maleficent is without a doubt the best Disney villain. She’s a fairy that turns into a dragon. ‘Nuff said.The grand finale!
At the end of the night, some Disney characters lined up by the train station to say hello to guests. As Tim and I walked hung out around the hub in front of the castle and Main Street, the speakers boomed the Fantasmic! theme over and over and over. It was fun the first three times, but then I thought, “They must be doing this to drive us crazy and get us out of the park.”
I have soooo many more pictures to share! So keep a look out tomorrow for Darth Vader, little padawans, a techno looking rabbit hole, and much more. 🙂
dress: Save the Panduhs (no longer available)
lefancygeek.com 
