Disney Dreams

This is going to be pretty picture heavy, just a fair warning!
     It's been over a month now since I went to Disney for Spring Break, and I'm dreaming about it more and more. Taylor and I bought Seasonal passes, so we're getting to go at least a couple times next month before our Blackout dates start in June. First with our good friends, and then with my Aunt and Uncle at the end of the month for Star Wars Weekends! We're super excited, but I figured I should probably give you all a better peek at the last trip before I go on the next trip!
     My Aunt Mer and Uncle Dan and I arrived on Sunday and checked into the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which if you've never been is absolutely wonderful -the animals are so cute! Taylor was going to drive down that night after his rugby game in Alabama and my brother was supposed to head over that afternoon. Or so I had been told.

Birthday pin! Celebrating 21.

     I was taken to the bar to get an Ecotini (best drink ever, btw) by my Uncle, which I found out later was just a ploy to keep me away from the front desk where my Aunt was getting our room keys. We got to the room, I unpacked and my brother, Cory, showed up. Him and Dan went back down to the lobby, or so I thought once again, and I started blabbing away to Mer about what outfits I was going to wear on what park days. And then, to my utter and complete shock and surprise:

My Mamma showed up!! I was seriously in shock, my family is a group of pretty terrible secret keepers, and somehow all of them kept from me that my mom had flown down from New York three days earlier and was surprising me for my birthday. It was absolutely perfect. Taylor arrived in late that night, and we had SO much fun all week. Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom were on our agenda. I'll stop gabbing away here and just show you pictures now...

I love this moment that Mer caught. He was in the middle of telling me how tired he was.

Wearing red, white, and blue for our Epcot day.

Taylor's favorite part of Disney- the Norway Pavilion.

A Skye-sized rugby ball!

I LOVE this picture, haha!

With our Seasonal passes! Too excited.

     I have tons more pictures, but they're mostly of shows and random street signs/buildings and food. Yeah, a lot of food, the food is probably one of my favorite parts. Hopefully you enjoyed these, because I definitely enjoyed being present in them and I'm extremely excited to be back. Disney is just such a magical place, don't you think? XO.

The Ten Acre Woods

     A few weeks ago I had a super wonderful, dreamlike week, full of Spring Break adventures, Disney surprises, and some quaint celebrations with family. It was just what I needed and I'm finally able to share some of the outfit pictures Taylor took for me! My cord conundrum is fixed and the pictures are here, so look forward to more memories soon.
     These are all from the last day of our break, after my Uncle's birthday party as the sun was setting. My grandmother's Ten-Acre Woods are full of picture opportunities, so I made Taylor follow me with my phone camera and snap a few a million pictures. These are some of my favorites -that top one with Pip's little face peeking back? I swoon!

I love the look of complete joy on my face in this one. I love throwing leaves.

Hat, Dress- F21; Shoes- Ross; Key bracelet- Lucky Brand, old; Acai nut bracelet- came with my Eco-tini at Disney.

Barefoot is the best way to go. I lived most of my childhood like this.

     Taylor and I are taking it easy and not doing much, as these next couple weekends will be pretty busy. We're making lots of changes and getting prepared to move in a couple months, find jobs, and, for me at least, take summer classes. So this weekend, we're keeping calm. Friday the 13th was a truly great day, which is weird because most people are frightened by it. I, however, seem to always have good days on Friday the 13th, and yesterday was no exception. My military ID picture came out perfect, we bought hot dogs from the nicest gentleman, had lunch with friends, looked at houses for rent, and then ate Thai food for dinner. Today I'm catching up on TV shows I missed and running a couple errands once Taylor wakes up from his after-practice nap. Hope you have a dazzling (and stress-free, if you need it) weekend! XO.

Going Medieval...

... in the best way ever. Last Saturday, my Aunt and Uncle and cousins and I piled into a minivan and drove down from their home in the 10-Acre Woods to Gainseville and the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. If you've never been to a Faire, well... I suggest you go immediately. It truly is wonderful, so many great crafts, so much superb people watching, so very much good fair food. Deep fried twinkies and creative types? Count me in.

Riding in the car. Clockwise from top left- Me, Auntie Mer, Uncle Dan, Bella, Sam's friend Alora and Sam.

     This was moments before we saw the line for parking. Yes. There was a line. For parking. And then once you parked? There was another line to get on a bus to drive to the fair grounds to get into a line to buy your tickets to wait in a line to... yeah, you get the idea. It was worth it to see the little one's face when she saw the elephant though -so precious.

      Go right now and look at the Faire website, it really is amazing how many talented people join in on the festivities. There are booths for homemade sodas, booths for crowns woven from copper, booths for every type of leather work you could imagine. Musical instruments, clothiers, weapons and places to test them out. There are musicians who dance, fire breathers, acrobats, and people who are just there to make your experience better, like the King and Queen. My mom and I have this elaborate plan where we're going to set up a booth at one of these one day and travel the country. How delightful would that be? Fair warning to history buffs- ignore all of the period dressing that is from the wrong period. Some people just like to dress up. This is a place where they can do that, whether historically accurate or not. (Never mind that I definitely shook my own head at the people in Steampunk. Really guys? That's a little too inaccurate, even for me, ha!)

King, Me with Bella on my lap, Samantha, and the Queen. I'd like that throne in my future home, please and thank you. Also, don't I have the cutest cousins? Then again, I could be just slightly biased...

Getting knighted/crowned. Princess Skye of the Scottish Isles. The name suits me, no?

Why yes, I am a Star Throwing Champion -if you count throwing five stars and having only one stick into the wall. Ah well, it's the effort behind it I suppose.

The girl elephant we rode. I love her freckles.

     A little more on that crown you can see in the pictures. I made it myself Thursday night. All by myself. For less than 20 dollars. One day I suppose I'll do a tutorial for making them, but unfortunately I only took a few pictures that night and the lighting wasn't the best, so it will have to come another time.
     I started out heading to Michael's and buying on-sale flowers and four or five different types of ribbon. The lacy one was the most expensive item at 5.99$ but I had a coupon and saved a few dollars, keeping me under my 20$ budget. I won't go into specifics, but I basically deconstructed the flowers and reconstructed them as a wreath and then added more ribbon than necessary. Pippa slept by my side the entire time, and the process only took me a couple hours. I also had enough leftovers to make a second, smaller wreath. Hooray!

All of my pieces. The sequins are being saved for another project, they were just too much. On an unrelated-ish note, I do everything on my bed. I write, I craft, I read, I eat snacks, I play my ukulele. I've always loved desks but never use them, my bed is way more comfortable. Maybe it's just another one of my many quirks.

Finally, the finished product! Those super adorable doilies you see there? One. Dollar. Yes sirry, in the dollar section of Michael's, oh how I love that place.

     That is all of my medieval travels, for now at least. I was sad that Taylor didn't get to tag along this year, so we'll definitely be returning again next Winter. Speaking of him, we're supposed to go to the zoo for our date this week, so keep a look out for that. Also, if you're reading I would love for you to comment! I can see how many people view each page, but I'm not psychic and don't know what all of you lovely people think about it. So ask me questions, tell me heartfelt anecdotes, leave funny comments about how silly the King looks, whatever! XO.

Weekend Recap Wednesday

     Once again I went on a blogging binge and then got busy. Go figure. The reason for this busyness was well warranted- a weekend away with Miss Pippa and then playing catch-up once I got home. So here I am, playing catch-up on this little blog as well, my dears. This past weekend, Taylor headed out of town for a rugby game and I headed to my relative's for a mini-vacation. I drove over Friday, we trekked to the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire on Saturday and spent Sunday together on the 10-Acre Woods (what I like to call their property). Another post should be flying in shortly about just the Faire, so stay tuned!

Giving kisses before we get on the road! She had a Vet appointment before we could take off, so Taylor was kind and took these pictures for me.

Wearing Leopard in honor of my great-grandmother, Memire's birthday.

Pssst! Pippa is driving! Don't tell the puppy police that she hasn't gotten her license, though.

Playing with her second-cousin and her brother, Bandit. Yes, Bella was pushing her in the stroller.

Good morning! Trying to drink her mommy's coffee on Sunday.

Learning to slide. Wheeeee!

Learning to swing. Not very enthused about this one...

Princess riding her trike around. Pip was kind of scared of this.

Bella decided it was a much better idea to push Pippa in the wagon. Also, as I was taking this picture I forgot the word for that red thing with wheels that you pull. Leave it to the three year old to remind me of "wagon".

Making Valentine's with my Grandma KDK and the kiddos to send to the soldiers in my step-dad's office. All of the cards say "To: Our Heroes".

     More to come as soon as I can re-save all of the Faire pictures to their correct locations. XO.