Young Ellie and Carl Cosplay

So as you saw yesterday we always have themed "costume" type outfits for our days in Disneyland.

Day 2's outfit came about in a different way than normal.  The Boy and I always start brainstorming a bunch of cosplay ideas for our Disney trips months and months in advance.  We normally have the 2 we really want and start hunting for clothes just based on those.....with maybe a back up idea if we end up not being able to find our first choices.

This trip was a little different for us because it was the first time ever that we went for 3 days.  We have always only gone for 2 before.  We instantly agreed on 2 costumes, but the third one was kind of up in the air....but I started the hunt anyway

I was at Ross looking for one of the particular outfits when I walked past a shirt on a rack.  I kept on walking at first but then was instantly drawn backward.  I swear if somebody had the footage it would have looked like I was being rewound on an old VHS. The shirt was perfect and I NEEDED it npw....and before that very moment I didn't even know I wanted it.

That one single shirt sparked an entire days outfit.....one that we had never even thought of as an option.

I was so pumped up about this damn shirt I ended up sending this text out to 2 of my sisters and niece

When they couldn't get it I kept adding hints

But I finally just ended up having to tell them it was Young Ellie from Up

Isn't the shirt perfect??  Yea it's not spot on....but it's pretty damn close! That same night at Ross I scored a pair of shortalls for the outfit too. Probably the only good reason for the 90s being back in right now (not a big fan of most 90s styles....it's a rough clothing time period in my opinion lol)  I know she wears regular overalls, but we were going in June so I welcomed the shorts version to keep a little cooler

With most of my outfit out of the way....it was time to focus on the Young Carl version for The Boy. 

 He already had khaki shorts and similar glasses. I bought him a cheap yellow Polo from Walmart and scored a brand new, tags on, Banana Republic brown sweater vest for 99c on ebay.  Not only was it a sweet deal, it was also my very first time to win an auction.  I always lose them or have to select the "Buy it now" option....so this was a huge excitement in my life for like over a week.  It's all about the little victories in life right?

That left the aviator hat....which I just couldn't find.  Bummer right? Oh well....maybe next time.  I still think the costume was really good....that would have just pushed it over the edge into full fledged awesome though.

That just left the small details ...like the bottle cap pins and bow for my hair.  I had originally planned to make both myself....but as it got down to the wire I ended up buying them to save time and some of my sanity.  Not only was this our vacation, but my sisters destination wedding....so you can imagine the sort of planning and chaos leading up to our departure...so yea.....I sucked it up and bought some stuff.  

I bought the pins off Etsy and the last minute and got them in the mail a mere 2 days before we left....but they were perfect!  Better and cheaper than I could have done myself so it was a better decision all around

 

And for my bow I just bought an already made one at Michael's and hot glued it to a headband.  Quick and easy

Ready to see the finished looks??

Don't you just love how overalls give you that awkward stomach pooch?  I've got enough of my own....I don't need any added help thank you!

And together.....

It was a fun one to do because it is a lot more obscure than any other outfits we've put together.  It's not quite as obvious and I'm sure plenty of people just thought I was some crazy broad with a babies bow in my hair.  Ya know....those babies that always have bows bigger than their whole damn head on everywhere they go. Haha!

We had a few people that would stare at us as we walked by.  Then maybe 20 seconds later after we kept walking we would here "Hey Ellie and Carl!!"  as they had finally put it all together and figured it out.  I loved it!  

While we were standing in line for Radiator Springs Racers, we had a couple tell us how much they loved our outfits and asked to take our picture.  Turns out they were on their honeymoon and had just had an Up themed wedding.....how cool is that?!?

Minus the bummer of not having the aviator hat I was really  happy with how it all turned out.  It was probably...scratch that....definitely....my favorite outfit from our trip.

That's it for this outfit.  See ya back here tomorrow for more Disney deets!

DIY Mickey and Minnie Cosplay

Welcome to Disney Week Volume 2! 

 A whole week of goodies for all my Disney peeps and freaks.  All from our trip to the House of Mouse back in June.  

Let's break it all in with the outfits we wore the first day...Mickey and Minnie of course! The greatest couple of all time

Last trip we also went as Mickey and Minnie the first day

 

And we wanted to do it again....just tweaked a tiny bit.  And by a tiny bit I mean I kept The Boy's outfit entirely the same and only redid mine

Does that make me a bad wife? Hopefully not......

I actually had a completely different Minnie Mouse outfit in mind. Next trip it'll happen so I'm gonna keep it under wraps until then.  But anyway.....point is I was on the  hunt for an entirely different outfit idea when I happened to come across this skirt

I was with my sisters scouring the earth for wedding shoes (seriously.....it was ridiculously hard to find appropriate wedges to wear for a beach wedding) when we made our way through Forever 21 

There it was....just hanging there in all it's Minnie Mouse perfection.  We oohed and awwed over it....but I was ready to keep walking because it wasn't what was in my head for this trips outfit.  See....once I get something in my head it can be next to impossible for me to shake it.

My sisters gave the "are you freakin kidding me???" speech along with the "I'm not letting you leave this store without this skirt" talk.

AND...it was super cheap. Like $8 or something crazy like that.  So I took their older sister wisdom and bought the skirt and began to wrap my head around tweaking my outfit again.

The top would be simple....I would just wear a black shirt.  For shoes I would need them to be yellow.

In the previous Minnie outfit I wore an old pair of painted Converse, but those were high tops and I wanted something low top to go with the skirt

So I dyed my own!  I have a full tutorial HERE . So I wore my new dyed shoes, and The Boy wore the ones I painted him last year. (the red shoes are my niece)

 

And just like that our outfits were complete.

The resemblance is simply uncanny right??

Stick around for more Disney posts all week!

Showerette

So what if I this party was back in May....and now I'm posting it in September.  It's whatevs.....

So here's the thing with my sisters wedding.  It was destination (San Diego) and the guest list was relatively small....about 60 people or so. I was talking with my sister Bree as we were beginning the planning process for her bridal shower.  In that conversation we realized that maybe having two parties wasn't necessary with such a small group....especially considering how many people were coming from out of town.

It was quite a bit of a different situation from my own wedding where we invited 200 and 150 showed.  In that case I had a ton of people who were invited to my bridal shower that weren't people I would necessarily invite to my bachelorette party....aunts, cousins grandmas etc.  I think I had 30ish people invited to my shower and 8 girls at my bachelorette. 

In the case of this smaller wedding we came to the realization that the two parties would include the exact same group of people.  She didn't have mass amounts of family members and people in town to invite besides her core group of friends and the two moms.  So we pitched the idea to her of combining the two parties together and calling it a "Showerette"  I was totally pinching my ass in the seconds waiting for her reaction because I was afraid she would hate it.  I didn't want her to feel cheated out of the whole bridal experience.....but luckily she loved it!  She liked the idea of  having one laid back sort of "hang out" party and calling it a day.  Plus she isn't a "Penis straw, penis necklace, penis tiara, go out to the club in a mini skirt" kinda gal anyway so she was good with not having a traditional bachelorette party.

So we moved forward with the plan of a poolside Showerette.  The only real theme we had was bright colors

Guests were greeted at the door by an "I Do" wreath

And given a choice of floppy hat to wear for the party (the favor)  You'll see pictures of them wearing them later.  I just really wanted a functional favor that went with the theme and a sunhat just seemed perfect

For food we had my sisters favorite....an assortment of "Pickies" as we call them.  Or appetizers in other peoples world

 

Sign made by the bride.  Yes...I totally had the bride making signs for her own party the weekend before.  Not my fault she has mad drawing and writing skills ;)

 

On the menu: Fruit,veggies, chips and guacamole, salsa,  and 7 layer dip. Shrimp cocktail, chicken tenders and dip, veggie pasta salad, 2 kinds of empanadas (potato chorizo and corn black bean) and aioli for dipping

The other bridesmaids (besides the 3 sisters) pitched in and brought some awesome desserts

And don't forget the booze station.  Complete with a jug o' sangria

As people mingled and ate I let them know that we were having a "tidy whities" decorating contest.  I had a station all set up for them complete with fabric markers and iron letters to make a sexy (or not) pair of undies for Brian to wear for Kinsey.

I had my niece make this sign and she was pretty mortified about the entire thing.  You want me to do WHAT???  "Draw a picture of your uncle in underwear...no biggie!!" (scoffs at the child)

My first idea for the comment bubble was for him to say "Make something hunky to hold my junky"  My sister Bree said..."Dear god somebody PLEASE think of something else!!"  I was all...whyy?  Too much??  So I came up with the "Make me a pair that will make her stare"  I'm still partial to the first one though.....

 

When they were done they hung them up and at the end of the party she chose a winner.  Can you guess which one she picked?

After that we played the name game.  I gave them all a sheet of paper (face down so they didn't know what it was until I explained....kinda like timed tests in elementary school)

I wrote her full name to be and gave them 6  minutes ( I chose 6 because she was getting married the 6th...5 minutes would do) to make as many words as they could out of her name.

Every word was worth 1 point except for one 10 point word because it was pretty uncommon.  I was really happy I decided to do that 10 pointer because two girls tied with 58 words but one had the 10 so she won with a score of 68.  Worked out nicely

Because we all know there is NOTHING more thrilling in this world then watching other people open gifts (are you sensing me sarcastic eyes?) ...I took the challenge and kicked it up a notch

That's right ladies.....Bridal Bingo!
(waits for screams and applause to subside before moving on)

You filled up your card with gifts you thought she might get.  Lingerie, a toaster....whatever.  

As she opened gifts you marked them off and the first to Bingo wins. 

 Depending on how many gifts you have to give away you can do more people....I know I did at least two...maybe 3? I can't remember. It was just a way to give people something else to do while she opened gifts

Oh and while we're at it....here's the outfit I gave her as a gift prior to the party

Since I was giving away bright colored sun hats as the favor I wanted hers to be white.  I also got her a white bikini and swimsuit cover up.  There's also a white garter with a pink bow under there

I bought the same cover up in yellow for fun

After the gifts I geared up for Bra Pong!  My sisters one request for the entire party.  

I wrote a whole separate post about it HERE with all the details.  Making the board, rules, playing....everything!

After the Bra Pong tournament we lounged by the pool.  It was the perfect time where all the "events" were done and people that needed to take off could but then a good amount of girls hung out by the pool with us for a while.  It was nice to just chat and relax and tell our bridesmaid dress drama to anyone who would listen lol

 And just to close this post out I just wanted to show some of the general decor

I made about a zillion tissue poms and hung them in the tent along with lanterns

And in the pool I had a ton of beach balls and floaties in all different colors since my only real theme to the whole party was the colors  It's too bad it was windy and I couldn't get a picture  of them scattered all over the pool....instead they're all pushed to one side.  Oh well....can't win em all

I was alllllll about these flamingos and put them everywhere.  I even gave one away as a prize

 Well I think that about covers it all. I highly recommend the "Showerette" if it fits in with your group.  Saves time, money, and quite a bit of sanity. Sanity is important