New Stuff, Awesome Stuff, & Rain at Disneyland!

Last weekend, I went to Disneyland, which is not terribly unusual except this time, I went with my mom and my aunt, which made this trip particularly special. Plus, my mom had not been to Disneyland in many years. We went for 3 days straight, which is a feat I haven't even attempted in quite some time! 

I've written about Disneyland several times before, so here are just a few things I took note of this time:

*In the queue for Star Tours, the baggage handler droid makes a lot of references to Disney movies! You even seen some things, like Genie's lamp from Aladdin and a Goofy hat, in the x-ray machine.

*Speaking of Star Tours! They've added more new elements than just the new The Force Awakens scene. There are now different versions of each scenario! I rode twice in a row, and got the Naboo sequence each time. However, the end was slightly different. {SPOILER ALERT} When Star Tours crashes into the yellow ship, the tip of it either smashes through the window, or breaks and falls off. I can't wait to see what other differences there are!!

*You can find random live music or skits happening almost anywhere at any time. I love it because it adds even more magic to your day.

*There's a tiny mountain range in the Storybook Land ride, I believe around the Pinnochio area, above which you can see the Matterhorn, and it looks like it's actually part of it. Geez, those Imagineers think of everything!!!

* Also on the Storybook Land ride, we got stuck for a few minutes right outside the Frozen/Arendelle area. Well, a little way past it, outside Wandering Oaken's Trading Post. Once every 30 seconds or so, you could hear, 'Yoo hoo!' coming from it. It made us crack up!

*There are so many amazing ear hats these days. I remember when it was just the very basic black ones. Maybe a sorcerer hat or some Tigger ears. Now, there's ears for every movie, character, and occasion. Check out these Little Mermaid beauties:

*Another thing I noticed? This train going around one of the areas in the Disney Emporium store on Main Street. Has this always been here?! It reminded me of a certain room in the Disney Dream Suite...

*On to California Adventure! We saw this super cool duck just chilling in the cone fountain in Cars Land, taking a shower and living his best life. I took more pictures of this duck than of anything else ever.

*Who knew that there was an area of anything Disney-related that I hadn't experienced yet?! But apparently there's an area in the Animation Academy called Beast's Library that I somehow managed to never hear of until recently. Seems not many other people know about it either, because it wasn't very crowded when we checked it out. It looks like a gigantic library, with the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast above a fireplace. Also, there are magical books that will show you what Disney character you're most like.

*We also spent some time in Downtown Disney. I haven't been to the Lego Store there in quite some time, and it's really changed! I loved this display of a Lego guy made up of Lego figures!

*We took the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour, which of course I've already done, so I knew my mom and my aunt would love it. Most of it was pretty similar to the first time I took the tour, but it was cool to go on it again. Some of it was rerouted somewhat due to parts of Frontierland being closer, as well as it being a very crowded day that day.

*Our last day there, it rained! Disneyland in the rain is definitely something to experience. The rain came down pretty hard at times, and it was pretty windy. It was much less crowded than the previous day, which was nice, but my feet ended up being completely soaked through, and it's not like I had an umbrella on me or anything! It was cold and wet, but it was a new experience at least, so there's that.

*We didn't end up staying the whole day, because, hello, rain. On the way out, I saw Chip and Dale being adorable with a little kid. They even splashed around in some puddles! Adorable.

January Book Report!

I only managed to finish 2 books in January, kind of a low number for me! 

The first book I finished reading in January was The Creation of Anne Boleyn, by Susan Bordo. I've read quite a few books on the Tudors, but this was the first that focused only on Anne Boleyn. It was divided into three sections. The first section focused on the usual biographical information about Anne Boleyn's rise and fall, and details how Henry VIII courted her, made her queen, and then had her beheaded. The next section was more of a cultural history, and talked about how and why is she depicted the way she is (typically as a slutty homewrecker), and the cultural context for why that is. The third part is about how Anne Boleyn is depicted in pop culture, for example, in Anne of the Thousand Days, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Tudors. It was a really interesting look that I haven't seen in any of the books I've read, so I found it really fascinating!

The next book I finished in January (even though I bought it when it was first released several months ago) was Life & Death: Twilight Reimagined. It was part of a special re-release of Twilight for its 10th anniversary (god, has it been that long?!). Essentially, most of the characters in the book switch genders. So Bella is now Beau, Edward is now Edythe, etc. Pretty much everyone but Bella's parents switch gender. Much of it is the same story, just with the names and pronouns switched out, but it definitely does change the characters' personalities, so the story is rewritten somewhat. The end, in particular, is completely different from the original Twilight ending. It's a pretty interesting concept, and one that was completely out of the blue. No one knew this was happening; if anything, people anticipated that perhaps Midnight Sun, the version of Twilight from Edward's point of view, would finally be released. Anyway, it was a pretty good read, and I really enjoyed it! I think another fun re-imaging of the story would be to switch Bella and Edward, so that Bella is the vampire and Edward is the human. Maybe for the 20th anniversary!

I'm in the middle of 3 more books, so I'll probably have more to report on next month!

January Accomplishments, February Goals!

Okay, wow, I can't believe it's February already!! I had so many plans for January, but ended up accomplishing... not as much as I had hoped.

Here's what I did manage to do:
**Worked out about 13 times. I was hoping for 20.
**I had a bit of a blogging slump and only blogged 4 times! Yikes!! 
**Unsubscribed from a bunch of Twitters, Facebook pages, Instagrams, blogs, email newsletters, etc.
**I did get a lot of stuff listed and ready to be listed on eBay. I even made a promotional sale for about 30 of my items for the first time.
**Konmari-ed my bathroom, and about half of my closet. I wanted to get through my closet entirely, but that just didn't happen.
**Read 2 books.

Here's what I'm going to do this month! 
**Hit that 20 workouts goal this month. I'm mostly sort of back into the habit of working out, just need to make sure to do it regularly.
**Blog 14 times. I've got some ideas for some posts, so I just need to get my momentum back. 
**Read before bed. I used to do this, and it felt so relaxing to read a real book for 30 minutes before sleeping. 
**Give a speech at Toastmasters this month. I've got a couple ideas, I just need to flesh them out and see which one I will go with first.
**Finish Konmari-ing my closet, and get to work on my dressers, and then rest of my bedroom.
**Continue to list, list, list eBay stuff. Get through my backlog of stuff that keeps growing the more I Konmari the apartment!
**Volunteer at a local animal shelter. 
**See all/most of the Oscar-nommed movies.

Friday Faves - Dog Ratings, Chomps Snack Sticks, Miniature Spaces!

Here are some cool things that I've been into recently!!


Dog Ratings

Dog Ratings is an amazing novelty Twitter account. They tweet pictures of dogs, say what kind of dog it is, and assign them ratings. Okay, that makes it sound really boring. Dog Ratings is so much more than that! Here's a couple examples:

(Sometimes they're weird looking dogs.)

Perfect. Now I just want to call all dog puppers and give them ratings. 



Chomp Snack Sticks!

I'm not a huge fan of meat sticks; I think they often taste weird and not meat-like enough. It's like, what it's even in this thing I'm putting in my mouth? Chomps Snack Sticks sent me several of their meat sticks to try, and these ones are really quite good! There are 3 different flavors - Crankin Cran, Hopping Jalapeno, and Original. I liked the spicy one a lot since I like spicy stuff. They're individually wrapped so they're great to just throw in your purse for a delicious and filling snack during the day. Plus they're made of 100% grass-fed angus beef, and they're low carb and high protein, so you don't have to feel guilty about snacking!

DIsclaimer: I received free products from Chomp Snack Sticks in exchange for my unbiased review.

Miniature Space

Miniature Space is this great YouTube channel where they post videos of them making miniature foods using miniature ingredients and miniature utensils in a miniature kitchen. It's so freaking adorable! There's something oddly calming and soothing about the videos. And the creator is really incredibly skillful to make all this stuff in tiny form!

Stitch Fix: The Next Box!

It's time for another installment of What's In My Stitch Fix Box?! Lots of good stuff this time around! Here's what I found in mine this month! 

Laila Jayde Daney V-Neck Split Back Knit Top

This one was difficult to photograph due to the way it... is. I knew I'd need to actually wear this top in order to properly show how it actually looks, as opposed to laying it on the floor and taking a picture of it. Thus, my foray into a bout of low self-esteem began. I needed to photograph them asap because my return date was the next day, but it was after work and I was too tired to fix my hair and makeup, and it was too dark to take pictures outside. So my compromise was pictures without my head in them. Also I'm wearing pink sweatpants which I thought I could crop out, but they're still pretty visible in most of these pictures. I'm not a fashion blogger, okay?! This is hard for me.

Anyway, the top is really cute, and I love the v-shaped opening in the back. I'd wear a shirt under it (which I am not in these pictures because eff the rules) as the opening goes to the top of the upper back, so your bra strap will show, if you so choose to wear such a contraption. It's very soft and would be perfect for when you want to lounge around but don't want to look like a total slob. It's shorter in the front and long in the back, like a comfy t-shirt mullet. 7/10, would consider another redneck shirt in the future.


Loveappella Oliver Faux Leather Trim Striped Top

The lightning in my apartment is not great, and I need all the help I can get with my face, because the camera is not my friend. But I feel like I look thin in this picture, so that's nice. I really love this top because I like black and gray and stripes, so keeping this one was pretty much a no-brainer. It's kind of long too, which I like because it camouflages my butt which is too big for the rest of my body (but not in like a good way?) Also this means I can maybe get away with wearing leggings under them and it won't look as much like I'm doing the leggings-as-pants faux pas.

9/10, long stripy shirts are cool.

RD Style Ridge Zipper Detail Cowl Neck Sweater

This shirt is cool, but I don't really like turtle necks, even when they're masquerading as cowl necks (I see you, cowl neck, acting like a relaxed turtleneck. You don't fool me.) It was nice and cozy though. This was a very winter-y box this month which I did appreciate, since I like covering my body as much as possible because of the aforementioned low self-esteem, so winter-time is great for me. This shirt was hard to photograph because, like the first shirt, of the way it is. You know what I mean. Also using a flash somehow caused my bra to show through the top like a starlet that didn't mean to wear a completely sheer dress to a movie premiere but the flashes made it completely see-through and now she's on the cover of Us Weekly nearly naked. So I didn't use the flash on this one. Anyway, I didn't particularly love this top, but it was nice. Not for me, though. 6/10 lazy turtlenecks are still turtlenecks. Save the turtles. And their necks.


41Hawthorn Jordanne A-line Plaid Skirt

Okay, I wasn't even going to try to take a picture of myself in this skirt. The holiday season has not been kind to me, and I'm so lumpy right now, and this skirt pretty much just highlighted that. It's cute, and I can see making it work, but it reminds me of the plaid skirt I had to wear on dress uniform day when I was in Catholic school. I experienced a lot of uncomfortable flashbacks in this skirt. 2/10, would not Catholic-school again.

Street Level Addison Studded Reversible Tote

Okay, I may or may not have squealed when I saw this bag! How in the world did my stylist, Christa, know that I was literally just scouring the internet for a new big tote! BTW shout-out to my stylist Christa! She said she read my blog in her little note that's included in my box! You're awesome, Christa! You get me!

It's a super cute bag, soft and buttery, with little studs all along the edges. It's going to be perfect to carry my laptop to work, and then after work I can toss the laptop out and be on my way. OMG and it's reversible?! It's like having two bags in one!! Oh also, not to mention it was less expensive than most of the bags I'd had my eye on anyway!

10/10 big black totes are best totes.


Something I've realized with StitchFix is how important your stylist is. I didn't really like several of my first boxes, until I got Christa, and now my boxes have been pretty great. I do admit that may have been more than partly my fault, however, as I said initially that I was looking for clothing that I could wear to my new job, which is business formal. So of course I didn't really like most of the pieces they sent to me, because I hate wearing office clothes. If I could just wear pajamas everywhere, that would be ideal. Christa saw through my nonsense, and understood that what I needed was comfy clothes that I could just as easily wear out in public as at home. And every box since then has been amazing.

Things I Love Thursday - El Nino Edition

*Rainstorms! You may have heard El Nino is hitting Los Angeles right now. I'm totally fine with this, because I love the rain! Not just the light, mist of rain we normally get every several months, but huge downpours, the kind you can hear indoors and against your window. I want thunderstorms with flashes of lightning after rolling roars of thunder. So that's one thing I'm enjoying this fine Thursday.

*And on that note, rainbows! I saw the rainbow in the picture above, and then the very next day, saw yet another rainbow! It's a different kind of double rainbow!

This is not my bed.

*Comfy cozy beds, fluffy pillows, and soft blankets. Sooo cozy.

*Eyeshadow palletes! No brand in particular, just a lovely pallette with rows and rows of pretty colors. I've had a different color eyeshadow on every day this week. Plus, with all those colors, it's easier to look all fancy with your dark color on the outside, light color on the inside eyelids.

2015 Look Back, 2016 Goals!

I've always said I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions. That being said, I think that a year is a great span of time by which to measure your accomplishments, and I also really like the idea of setting an intention to keep with you the whole year.

2015 was a pretty good year for me. My main goal was to get outside my comfort zone, and I did just that, by joining Toastmasters, Geek Girl Brunch, and just generally trying to make more friends at work. (Getting a new job was also one of my goals, and I ended up accomplishing that right before 2015 even started!)  I'm also really proud of the work I did on my blog and with my eBay business.

For 2016, I'd like to pretty much continue trying to be a better me, etc.

eBay: I want to continue to expand my eBay business, and get more into the flipping side of it. I have a ton of inventory still to list, though, which is great, but I definitely want to branch out further.

Blog: I'd like to make sure to post regularly, expand my readership, and maybe get my own domain.

Working out: Pretty much a stereotype at this point, but of course, as usual, I'd like to get into the habit (and STAY in the habit) of working out regularly. 

Volunteering: I'm going to start volunteering at a local animal shelter. They need help with their weekend adoptions, and with socializing their animals. It's really more like this for me, though:

Cleaning: I'd like to really sort through all my stuff, and downsize as much as possible. I recently read about this book called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and it really sparked something in me. Minimalism isn't really a thing I can do, but I want to get rid of things that I'm hanging onto 'just in case' so I can have room for the things I actually need and want.

I'm keeping track of these goals by using a Trello board. I have a card for each of these goals, and under each card, I have actions to do towards achieving those goals. And then I further list them out to what I want to get accomplished each month, so I also give myself a timetable for getting these things done.

So those are my goals for the next calendar year! What are some of your goals for 2016?

Season of the Force - Star Wars Gets Disneyfied!

To continue with the Disneyland theme this week, and also in honor of Star Wars: The Force Awakens opening today, this post is about Season of the Force. Starting about a month ago, Disneyland transformed Tomorrowland into sort of a makeshift Star Wars Land. They've rethemed a lot of attractions throughout the land, and it's pretty awesome.

There's a lot of subtle but great touches throughout, like this Rebel Alliance symbol light projected onto the wall around Star Tours. I think I saw the Imperial Army symbol being projected as well.

Space Mountain has been rethemed to Hyperspace Mountain, and they've added projections throughout the ride (similar to the Ghost Galaxy retheming they have at Halloween) so that it seems like you're flying through space on the Millennium Falcon, being shot at by TIE fighters and so forth.

Star Tours has an additional scene added to it involving some new things from the new movie! It's nice that they put the scene onto all rides, rather than just randomly, like the rest of the ride, so you don't have to ride it a million times in hopes of seeing it!

They even have Stormtroopers just walking around! We ran into these guys while waiting to get into Innoventions!

Speaking of Innoventions, they've added a new area called Star Wars Launch Bay, which features tons of props and costumes from all the films, as well as statues and stuff for sale.

There's even mock cantina set!

Look at this level of detail!! This light is the head of one of the driods from Episodes 1-3!

The Magic Eye Theater is playing Path of the Jedi, which is basically a summary of all 6 movies. It's a great way to catch up on all the films if it's been a while since you've seen them. I mean, we watched all 6 movies in the last couple weeks, but whatever...

Various restaurants and kiosks are selling these awesome BB8 sippers and Chewbacca steins! Obviously I could not resist buying both of these. They also have TIE fighter popcorn buckets, but I never saw those for sale.

Season of the Force is a great idea to get people into the Star Wars mood before the new movie comes out, as well as tide everyone over until the actual Star Wars Land opens! I know I can't wait, for the movie AND for the new land!!

Holiday Time at Disneyland Tour

To continue from yesterday's post about Disneyland, this post is about the holiday tour we went on! This tour, called Holiday Time at Disneyland, is only offered for about 6 weeks between November and the end of December. Much like the Halloween tour, tickets sell out quickly, so you really have to be on the ball and make sure to purchase tickets for the day you want as soon as they go on sale.

The tour took us down Main Street to begin with, and pointed out various tidbits like the enormous Christmas tree, which is artificial, but used to be a real tree until one year, it caught on fire! We stopped at Candy Palace, where our guide told us about the delicious goodies they make for each holiday season, and then handed out chocolate covered marshmallows dipped in peppermint!! Yummm!

As is typical for every Disneyland tour, we got to go on several rides, straight to the front of the line! The first one we went on was Jingle Cruise, the holiday themed version of Jungle Cruise. I feel like it's much better than last year's version, and has lots of holiday ornaments scattered throughout the jungle, like on these elephants!

And decorating these rhinos!

Not to mention, Trader Sam, selling his wares!

I sat right up front next to the skipper, and took a picture of this etching at the front of the boat, a detail I'd never noticed before!

We also got to go on Haunted Mansion Holiday, which is a must-do for both Halloween and Christmas times!

The final ride was It's A Small World Holiday, which I absolutely love at Christmastime. 

Look at these decorations!!! Look at them!

I don't remember this before, but in the area with Ariel, the song switches to Jingle "Shells"! (Get it!!!)

The culmination of the tour is seeing the Christmas Fantasy parade! They set out chairs right in front!! It's pretty amazing. As if that weren't cool enough, we also got big gingerbread man cookies, and a collectible mug of hot cocoa!! And of course, the usual special tour pin!

Sunday also happened to be Dick Van Dyke's 90th birthday! In celebration, they had a special pre-parade cavalcade with Mary Poppins and Bert riding carousel ponies, dancing penguins, and Dick Van Dyke himself riding in the back of a car, waving to the crowds!

It was a pretty special event that we didn't anticipate at all, so that was a cool surprise!

The Christmas Fantasy parade is pretty great, and features pretty much all the big Disney characters. 

 Got a perfect shot of Mickey and Minnie kissing!

Aww, poor Eeyore has to tow his broken sled behind him while Pooh and Tigger ride theirs!

The rolling Christmas trees are my favorite. Just enormous trees, wheeling down the street by magic.

Gotta have Anna and Elsa, of course, plus a spinning Olaf.

Dancing gingerbread men!

Goofy and Pluto ride a gingerbread doghouse!

All the princesses and princes!

Is this a perfect shot or what?

Woody, followed by Buzz! I think Jessie was walking around too.

Another Christmas tree! And who's that in the background?

It's Santa, following some synchronized reindeer!

Overall, definitely a great tour and good value for the money. I learned a bit more about Christmas and Disneyland, and got to go on 3 rides, and get front row seats at a parade! 

Tune in tomorrow to hear more about Season of the Force at Disneyland!