That time it was all about me....

And here lies my completely shallow & selfish post, because when it's your birthday, you're completely allowed to do that, right???


It's finally September which means….my birthday month is over! And a great birthday month it was. Do my friends/family know me or what?! Throughout the month I kept receiving box after box. Eventually I opened up all these gems.

What kind of treasure trove is this? A mix of Disney, Once Upon  a Time & The Walking Dead? It’s hard to get better than this.

And not only did I get a mix of all my shows and Disney, I got my coffee mugs! While I don’t drink coffee at home, most of you know I AM obsessed with tea. (And yes, I drink wine out of them too!) So my twin cousin sent me these gems for the new Inside Out movie! (If you haven’t seen it, you HAVE to,  it’s not only a great Disney movie, it’s an AMAZING message about emotions - and probably something kids really need to learn.)

(They are adorable, and yes, they are all my faves but we pretty much determined after the movie I’m a mix of Joy & Disgust ;) 

After all this,  I rearranged my cabinets, and….I’m pretty sure I’ve got my tv show, and Disney covered with my coffee mug collection?

I spent my actual birthday having lunch with my mom and niece, and hitting Jurassic World in theaters again. Yes, it was the third time, but...it was in the IMAX? Who would skip that chance??

Saturday I went to celebrate at Dolphie’s with the sis, our friend Kim & my best friend.  The Denny’s next to the bar is long gone, but this was the first time we’d gone in a few months….so sadly the Denny’s before and after our night tradition has ended. We grabbed dinner at O’Charley’s beforehand, and ended up going to bed after karaoke was over. Bummer. But still a great, great night.

My sister totally wins on the cake front. HOW ADORABLE is my Snow White dress cupcake cake? Seriously? This is adorable. Because yes, I'm the 32 year old with a 12 year old heart. This is what happens when you're an artist that loves the creative stuff.

 

My sister found it online, so she was so proud she got the bakery to do it exactly like she saw it!

Slight picspam, because there really aren’t a ton of pics to post for once:

And with that....it's off to get my nerdy brain back in photoshop!

Disney Adventures...

(Yes I know what a bad blogger I’ve been. I’m fixing that, I promise. I have so much on the horizon to blog about!)

Two weeks ago, girl & I took over Disney World! It was partially just a fun trip for us, partially a Graduation present for her – because I’m a good aunt-, and partially for me to get my A) Disney fix & B) take a trip because y’all know I cannot sit still for very long at home.

We had the best time – honestly, I get a LOT of time with the girl because she comes over a lot of weekends to spend the night or we’re out shopping, etc – but it was a blast for us to actually get away for a week! Also, she’d never flown before so it was pretty much the cutest to watch her staring out at the window.

So I’m not a Disney World newbie, but I haven’t gone to Disney in a few years, so there was a lot of new great stuff, including the Seven Dwarf Mine Train Coaster. Seriously, this is the best. We road it so many times, and on our last night there, we timed it just perfect to ride it as the fireworks set off – it’s breathtaking to be riding the roller coaster and having the sky light up around you! (And we were able to haul it off the ride and go watch the rest of the fireworks show sitting still!) We scheduled all our fast passes in advance, and I cannot recommend it enough – especially if you want to get on the Dwarf Mine Train without the 2 hour or so wait. (Although the last time we rode it, we DID wait in line & timed it nicely enough to only have to wait an hour!) There isn't too much at Disney I won't ride -- but there's certainly a few things. But because I love her, I wanted her to experience every ride I knew she’d love (okay, minus Space Mountain, because…I’m not into Space Mountain. At all.), so I sucked it up and even did Tower of Terror with her. (I survived. I still don’t like it.)

We did park hopper, but we only hit Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios. Epcot was great when I was a kid going on a field trip – but it’s kinda boring when I’m on vacation with the kid. We hit Magic Kingdom multiple days & spent Wednesday at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. We also squeezed in Downtown Disney for some shopping & to hit the Art Gallery!

I know the “happiest place on earth” is so cliché, but man it really…IS. It’s the best vacation. I head back the weekend of the niece’s graduation – literally the morning after her graduation, my group & I shove out to Orlando for another con & we’ve extended our trip a few extra days to give us Disney time. I’m not sure there’s anything better than hitting Disney twice in a year. (Family vaca is in July, and we’re skipping Disney so the boy can see Lego Land. What a sacrifice to go to Orlando and skip Disney World!)

Some picspam & commentary. And by some I mean a “lot” - not even kidding, you've been warned :) Seriously. I haven’t even gone through pics on my camera, so this is phone run down & a few shots from Disney's photographer.

Off we go! Paige’s first flight. It only took us 17 years to put her on a plane, hahaha.

At the hotel! It’s like “you know you’re at DISNEY when…..”

 

 Downtown Disney’s Art Gallery is my life. I could live here.  When you’re an art nerd, stuff like this just…absolutely blows your mind. Paige & I wandered the place for at least an hour analyzing all the gorgeous pieces, I don’t think we ever wanted to leave.  These pieces were just incredible.

How did you know which room was ours? By our window of course, we were NATURALLY the Little Mermaid & Snow White room.

Hellooooo Magic Kingdom! With our adorable Evil Queen and Ariel ears. We went big or went home – and had ears of our favorite characters made before we left, so Paige was Little Mermaid/Ursula themed for the week (with a touch of Maleficent!) and I was the Evil Queen/Snow White themed all week! This was Paige’s first time seeing the Castle!

 We got there so early the first day, we rode so much stuff so quickly. Here we are on Dumbo!

And the Tea Cups – the kid hasn’t laughed this hard in a long time!

Since Ariel is her thing, I did a fast pass for the photo ops with Ariel. Paige was pretty adorable in her little Ariel ears and her shirt – and it was a huge hit all around. Everyone and their brother stopped us all week to ask where I got all our different ears!

With the girl. Duck face is a requirement at least once when you’re with a teenager.

One of the days, we hit Hollywood Studios first --- and we hit so many characters in a quick time span, which wasn’t even our initial goal! We went with a super early fast pass to Toy Story Mania. Pixar was one of our biggest excitements for Hollywood Studios, and it didn’t let us down – we got our pics with Buzz & Woody before we had even been there an hour!

And then we just kept running into characters…

 Chip & Dale. How adorable is this?

  Donald Duck – we actually had been in line for another character & they swapped out for Donald right before we got up there. But we weren’t complaining.

  My girl at Hollywood Studios…..we had priorities – as soon as we got off Toy Story Mania, we hunted down the Starbucks before looking for more characters

 So I totally don’t remember this from my last Disney trip…they have a VILLAINS shop? I’m pretty sure both our jaws dropped and we rushed over there. This place was badass & we both LOVED it.

 This was actually kind of hilarious – we went online weeks leading up to plan our fast passes and our game plan, and when we saw there was a tribute to some actors at Hollywood Studios, I joked “wonder if they’ll have any of the Golden Girls!”. Once we started to walk past it, Paige and I at the same time said “OMG IT’S BETTY AND BEA!” and made a beeline. (And pretty sure Paige was the youngest person to be OMG BEA ARTHUR! At Disney World. That’s my girl!)  

Every Toy Story nerd knows….Pizza Planet is the place to be! Paige talked about this for WEEKS leading up, she was DYING to check it out. So, obviously, we went the day we saw Buzz & Woody. My only disappointment was there was seriously no Claw Machine in the arcade part? Is it like gone? Because shouldn’t Pizza Planet of all places have the Claw?? We used Pizza Planet time to chill and charge phones, and I’d like to think we weren’t the only ones scouring the place looking for the Claw Machine while reciting “YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!” (Isn’t the best part about Disney that you can quote every Disney movie and everyone else totally gets it!?)

 We also found Mikey and Sulley! Or, as Paige used to refer to him when she was little: Silly. 

 And then we found Mater & Lightning McQueen!

In what was probably our most exciting moment of the trip, we noticed on a sheet that the Incredibles were going to be at one part of the park, so we wandered back. It turned out to be this building with tons of characters and games for kids to play. And as we walked in, we saw Baymax! We didn’t think they had Baymax out, so we went over & they told us he was leaving and to come back for the next round --- and be there an hour early, because since Big Hero 6 was new and so popular, his line was pretty crazy.

That gave us a little time to kill, so we did go and find the Incredibles! And Frozone was obsessed with Paige & after we got our duo op with them both – he insisted on getting another pic with just Paige.

 And then we randomly found a small line that went to a room in the back. Paige curiously asked whose line it was, and was told “Minnie Mouse” in reply, and I cannot even tell you how big her eyes got. Seriously people – Disney’s not for just the little kids. “OMG Aunt Nicole we have to meet Minnie! I want a pic with Minnie!!” I think this is one of my fave pics of the entire trip – and now I can frame this pic with me & the twin cousin with Minnie from Disneyland in ’11. 

We got Baymax afterwards! Seriously, how adorable is he!? And, because the kid is awesome, she fist bumped him so she could do the “bata-lata-lata-la!” with him. (Which we saw tons of people doing throughout the day!)

 

 

 Some of the scenery at Hollywood Studios is amazing & I absolutely love some of the vintage feel to the entire park!

 

snapped this one for pretty obvious reasons :) 

Animal Kingdom was next on the agenda, where we were trying to hunt down Rafiki and Baloo. Rafiki was doing a parade when we went so we didn’t get  a pic BUT we did find Baloo & King Louie. We hit a few rides at Animal Kingdom – and the Primeval Whirl has to be the worst ride I’ve ever ridden. Seriously, whose idea was that?! It was physically PAINFUL when you go around the corners. 

 

Baloo & King Louie

 Another day at Magic Kindgom, another ride on the Tea Cups!

 My Snow & Evil Queen ears enjoyed the Castle.

Thursday while we were there marked the anniversary of Granny’s death. We always do something for her on this day, and we’re always together, but….it just happened to fall on Paige’s spring break this year which was the best time for our Disney trip. Because of this, it was our goal to find Goofy – her favorite – to get our picture with him. We successfully found him after another ride on Dumbo!

 And he couldn’t have been cuter. And my mom couldn’t have cried harder when we sent her the pic and told her what we did to celebrate Granny.

We totally wanted to be by the castle for fireworks, but we also wanted to ride the Mine Train Coaster again, so like I said; we hit the coaster at the most PERFECT time. 

And obviously because we were going so fast, I couldn’t take any pics. Once we got off, we immediately rushed to the castle to watch the rest of the fireworks show.

Overall…..an amazing vacation & an incredible week with my girl.  I’m so glad we went – and I’m so glad I’m this close to her and do these sorts of things with her. She’s already ready for our next trip – which I think Mom wants in on – so I think it’s pretty safe to say she had a good time!

Weekend Ramblings...

The weekend is here! The sis is out of town - for once getting to go on a vacation on her own to Florida! So, in an effort to A) make sure my nephew is properly taken care of in his fathers care, hahah and B) give the nephew and BIL a break from each other, tomorrow I'm picking up Short Stuff to go do some stuff. Not surprisingly, he picked a movie to go see. Surprisingly, he picked a movie from the $2.00 theater and lunch beforehand. What's that, a trip to the movies where Aunt Nicole isn't paying $70+ for everything he wants? Score!

The rest of my weekend will be spent editing, making a few things for myself, and.....planning some trips. Because lets face it, traveling is my life.

So this is what I'm considering now. There's this AMAZING new Con in April in Paris. (And sweet Jesus, it's at a Disneyland Hotel. Is there EVER a con that's screamed my name more??!) And I saw it and toyed with the idea, thinking "Let me see what cast members they get first". But then some of my friends decided they are going, and I should go and we can all have a blast in Paris together.

And what can I say, I'm slowly giving into peer pressure ;-) This week I started looking into it more...and then the official "Paris" pinterest board was created. I guess I'm considering this more seriously than I thought! 

But for now, Paris planning has to wait, because a 12 year old boy is waiting on me to take him to see the Muppets! 

Happy weekend!

Once Upon a Time....

I know I love to throw out “Best weekend ever!” quite often, but I soooo whole heartedly mean it for this past weekend.  Here I go, entering total fangirl mode:

Somehow, in my years of being a total TV nerd, I’d never hit a con before. While I loved the idea of doing something like Comic Con since most of the time my “Once Upon a Time” peeps are there – it’s so incredibly large and intense! So when OUAT peeps got added to Spooky Empire, it seemed like a great opportunity. And when Lana Parrilla got added – there was no way around skipping this con. This con is typically a Horror convention (Robert Englund typically appears to be the most popular there each year), and this was their first year branching out a little bit. It was a massive success, as the crowd Lana attracted was INSANE. Even after years of fan fair, I’ve never seen anything like her lines.  Clearly, the Evil Queen is QUITE loved.

Fortunately, we were VIP Pass holders. VIP passes got to get in the doors an hour earlier, and then we also got to jump the auto and photo lines.

I flew out of Nashville Friday  to Orlando with an old friend Robin. Immediately we got off the plane and saw this Snow White figure sitting outside the Disney World shop. So obviously I did what any Evil Queen fan would do—I choked Snow White so I could tweet it to Lana. Starting the trip off right.

Spooky is a GREAT con, although slightly unorganized in some aspects. We picked up our VIP passes and immediately rushed to the photo op table so we could purchase a photo op with Lana for the weekend. Instead of letting us buy an op for a specific day (she had a scheduled photo op for Saturday and then for Sunday) – the photographer gave us our passes and said to use it either day. Yikes! That meant they had NO IDEA how many people would be at the Saturday op and Sunday op. We had planned on Saturday, but it seemed like a horrible idea to tell people they could use it whenever when Lana attracts such a crazy, intense crowd & was on a tight schedule. But we breathed a huge sigh of relief when we had our passes in hand.

We spent our Friday after that in the rest of the Once Cast room - getting our favorite guy – Sean Maguire. Swoon, Swoon, Swoon. Love this guy, and aside from being ridiculously hot,  he’s one of the sweetest ever and crazy talented. No really, I love this guy. Once is my jam, and I’ve been in love with Josh Dallas since I started watching it, but….Sean took his place super quick.

I was so "I need to look nice for Sean, I will meet him when I look nice!" and then we walked in and I was like oh sweet Jesus. But oh well - I was at least wearing my Evil Queen tee. 

We had our “hooray, we survived getting Lana Parrilla photo passes!” celebration at this awesome place at Universal Citywalk. Seriously, our hotel could not have been in a more awesome location – directly across the street was Universal Studios, so it took us about 6 minutes to get back in the actual park area of Universal and boom, we’re overwhelmed with places to eat.

Saturday marked the arrival of the Queen, and when I say it was crazy, I mean IT WAS CRAZY. Even the staff said “I’ve never seen anything like this!”  They weren’t really prepared for her crowd, as evidenced by a bit of a mess the lines for her were. There are only 200 VIP passes, but I swear 90% of those people got in Lana’s line. We were in the first few folks in Lana’s line,  surrounded by so many great folks. The most awesome part about Once’s fan base is there was SUCH a variety of people there. Everyone aging from 2 years to 15 to 20 to 40 to 80, women with friends, husbands tagging along with some – it was just such a great variety of people. And when she walked in the room, people went crazy. There was something heartwarming about seeing the 65 year old woman in line with us screaming for the Evil Queen.

I’ve met so many celebrities in my time, and I make no exaggerations when I say that Lana Parrilla is hands down THE absolute nicest one I’ve ever met in my life. This is zero exaggeration. It’s quite rare – especially when it’s someone THIS popular that had lines snaking all the way down the hotel outside – for someone to want to know your name, hold fans hands as they talk to her, intently listening, commenting on their stories – and flat out CRYING with some fans.  No one was rushed through – while it looked like you might be, she wasn’t having any of that. Some of us spent 5 minutes asking questions, telling her what we thought about the show, current storyline – or in my case, asking a specific question about an episode. And that split second I said I wanted to ask about this episode, she stopped what she was doing to intently listen. I was so so impressed. Impressed enough that we went through Lana’s lines multiple times, giving us a total of 5 meetings with her. Cons are quite expensive, especially when you start adding up the cost of meeting some of the higher priced ones like her (especially since we had to pay for our photo op separately…you don’t even want to know what we spent on autographs and photos on top of everything else this trip!), but man it’s worth every penny. Everything I got signed I got exactly what I wanted – down to my favorite line of hers on the show. This people, is how you treat your fans. Pure class.

It’s hard to believe it got even better Saturday night with the VIP party, but it did. More time with the swoon worthy Sean, and grabbing some time with a few of the other cast members. (Who knew we’d love Rebecca Mader as much as we did when we hated her character all season!? And Lee Arenburg is a total sweetheart!)  It was a “is this real life?” moment.  And bless Sean’s heart for trying to get us an Outlaw Queen pic we wanted so desperately. It didn’t work with the mob, but man I love this guy.

Have I mentioned how much I love this man!?

The Wicked Witch is actually a MASSIVE sweetheart! 

And Lee Arenburg is far from Grumpy!

The cast panel was Sunday morning, and not only was it a FABULOUS panel (probably one of my favorites, but I’m an Outlaw Queen nerd, so having the two of them together on the panel for the first time probably has something to do with that), Sean made sure we got the gold we’d been wanting all weekend!

Part of the cast panel.

and our beloved Outlaw Queen!

and then the gold! Sean and Lana totally played everything up and we got exactly what we wanted.

We loved the last one so much we had to have it printed & make Lana sign it before we left – which almost made us late catching our flight home! (No seriously, we were massive panicking in Lana’s line Sunday, but we refused to leave. Once they said she was running late, we played the “Okay, she gets 30 more minutes. Okay, we can give her 30 MORE minutes if we have to. Okay….maybe we’re getting a little panicked.”) But alas, something in the Universe wanted us to get it signed, and we not only made it to the airport in time, MCO put us in the expedited security line so we’d get to our gate even quicker.

Seriously, best weekend ever. I’m such a tv junkie.  I’m so sad it’s over. We’ll be heading to Vancouver soon to visit the set and that can’t get here quick enough. But first…..we’ll hit Dragon Con so we can see our Sean again!