Disney World: Animal Kingdom

 Outfit:

Me-Made Colette Pattern's Macaron

 

 Animal Kingdom is so fun! It's very spread out and pretty for just walking around. Plus loads of animals!

 I made this bird dress especially to wear at Animal Kingdom! This pattern fit me quite well but it was rather short! I cut out the skirt as long as the largest size was and it's still on the shorter side. Also, the neck hole is a bit small so I think I'd do a center back zip instead of the side zip. I'm not much of a fan of side zips anyways.

 The safari is always fun. The expertly designed enclosures make you feel like you're on a safari though it's much safer. No need to worry about a rino attacking the jeep!

 We also saw a really neat bird show (which may have contributed to the post-vacation impulse bird buy)

 I think the skirt part of the dress still needs a bit of work in the fit area. I do fit into it but I think the shape was designed to have a bit more ease.

 Oh, but the back fits fabulously! Guess I'll just have to walk backwards everywhere!

Expedition Everest is the thrill ride of the park. You get to ride a coaster up this hill and perhaps encounter the Yeti!

By the end of the day I was quite tired. This park does not quite have as much to do in it as the other parks but it's very spread out. It's the newest park and a lot of thought was put into the layout. The atmosphere is amazing but it does sure require a lot of walking.

MMM'12 Days 14-16 (but mostly birdies!)

So I did slack on the photos for days 14 and 15 but I did wear me made things both days.

MMM'12 Day 16

Today is an old favorite outfit from last summer. Me-made Wearing History sailor playsuit shorts with an rtw orange top and bolero. Perfect for settling in the newest members of the family.

A couple months ago, the husband and I learned that we could have fish, a hamster, or small birds in our apartments so we decided to look into getting a pet after vacation. On Monday, we decided to pop by a pet store and get an idea of how much birds cost and what kinds were available and we walked out with these two budgies (parakeets).

This one is Rachel and she's the more adventurous of the two.

And here's Leah. She's much more shy but I have a feeling she'll be a real sweetheart once she warms up to us. We named these lovely birds after the two sisters in the Bible. They both are still pretty shy as of right now but they were hand tamed in pet store before we got them so they are at least a bit used to people. I've been watching loads of budgie youtube videos and doing loads of research and it looks like they will be worth the effort to tame!

Disney Day 4: Park Hoppers

The lines were crazy short during our first two days in the parks and we got crazy ahead of schedule and decided to take a day to bounce around the parks and take some pictures. We started out in Hollywood Studios, knocked out a couple of rides and got snapping.

Of course, Mickey was there to greet everyone!

This is one ride my husband rode alone! Last trip, he convinced me to try it but I chickened out at the end and had to look silly in front of all of the little kids in line. Dropping rides are just not my thing.

 

This 60s playsuit is Simplicity 5424. The pattern was a gift from Brittany of Va-Voom Vintage and I just had to make it up before vacation! 

Isn't it just darling! The fabric I used was an Asian print knit I thrifted so I did have to make some changes-namely adding a band underneath the bust (to keep the girls from escaping!) and making both pieces without closures (yay for streatchy knits!) Then I added some decorative frogs to keep with the Asian theme.

At Hollywood Studios, there are two movie sets-San Francisco and New York. I just adored this dress shop on the San Francisco street. There were some super cute 40s/50s illustrations in the window.

San Francisco!

The use of backdrops and perspective is straight out of the movies.

New York! New York! What a wonderful town!

They even had a pretend subway entrance that was really just stairs to nowhere.

Now this is my kind of hotel!

There's also a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids! playground. I'm a bit big for the playground now but I could still pose on the ant.

This is my husband's favorite park so he had a blast!

The great movie ride is housed in a replica of Grauman's Chinese Theater. It's pretty awesome and a must for any movie lover!

I feel like a star!

Then we popped back over to Epcot for some lunch (of course!) and more country exploring!

They have some pretty awesome fountains.

In the evening, it was back to the Magic Kingdom for some of our favorite rides one last time.

And we stayed up for the Wishes show! It was pretty amazing!

Disney Day 3: Epcot

My favorite park at Disney World is Epcot! The countries are so much fun plus there's food, shopping and more food. Over the week, we ate in Mexico, Norway, China, France, and Italy and drank in Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, and the UK. It's so worth it to go back to Epcot for dinner as often as you can! My favorite ride, Soarin', is also in Epcot.

The World Showcase hosts eleven countries, Mexico, Norway, China, Morocco, Japan, Italy, US, Germany, France, UK, and Canada. It did rain while we were in a couple of countries, so no pictures, but this was way better than last trip when it got dark after just one country!

Blouse: Mexico bought on day 2
Skirt: me-made pirate beignet
Purse and Necklace- Charming Charlie

Each country had performers to give it that extra local flavor.

China is beautiful.

The gardens are absolutely beautiful!

Norway saw my husband posing with this viking!

Japan also had fabulous gardens!

Oh, I wish I could take care of plants!

Morocco was gorgeous! My husband said the bazaar felt just like the ones in Iraq and Qatar. Disney really does an excellent job of making you feel like you are in another country. Most of the people who work at the World Showcase are actually young people from that country who stay and work at Disney for a year.

This tiled fountain was just so gorgeous!

I meet a very nice Floridian Megan who was doing henna.

Pretty henna!

And she even posed in a picture for me. I found that I didn't get a lot of reaction from the other guests but I did have a lot of the staff members stop and compliment me on my outfits.

We were quite silly sometimes. But hey, it's Disney!

France! My favorite country! We had dinner there on Day 2 and it was fabulous! We also did a wine flight which included tastings in Germany, Italy and France. Oh, yummy!

The UK! It felt just like being there! And there was a darling garden here too!

We also road gobs of rides-Soarin', Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, and many, many more! Epcot also had a lot of character meet and greets, but I'm going to put all of the characters in a post by themselves.

Disney Days 1 & 2

Phew! It's been a crazy, exciting week and I'm still not all settled in from vacation but it was a blast! First off, I want to say a huge thank you to my guest bloggers: Angie, Liz, Brittany and Sarah! I'm sure you'll all agree with me when I say that their posts were fabulous!

So far, the plan is to get all of the Disney posts done within a week and then back to normal blogging. My husband and I are huge Disney fans so expect loads of pictures!

Day 1: Travel and Downtown Disney (MMM'12 Day 7)

Happy Birthday to me! I turned 23. You're never too old to enjoy a birthday at Disney World.

Outfit:
Bolero: me-made Wearing History Chic Ahoy
Romper (top): Forever 21
Skirt: me-made Wearing History Sailor Playsuit

We arrived early in Orlando and stopped by Downtown Disney. It's a lovely outdoor mall with loads of Disney shopping. It's also home to fabulous dining possibilities, a Cirque du Soleil show and Disney Quest, a huge arcade full of Disney magic. We didn't make it to Disney Quest this year but we went last time.

Day 2: Magic Kingdom (MMM'12 Day 8)

Top and shorts: me-made Wearing History sailor playsuit
Purse: Charming Charlie

I set my hair and it was cute....for about an hour and it looked like this the rest of the day:

Needless to say,  I didn't bother to set my hair the rest of the week!

Oh, I love the Magic Kingdom! It's so magical! It was pretty empty in the park and we hardly had to wait in line for anything.

We didn't take many pictures today. We were having too much fun! Never fear! The other parks had much more photo opportunities!