The Fish Extender Experience

I promise this will be the last time you have to hear about Fish Extenders (at least until I go on another Disney cruise)! But ever since I've been back, I've had people asking me how it went. And I must say, my experience was WONDERFUL! I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to be associated with for my first time!

 If you have kids and are going on a Disney cruise, then this is a MUST! We don't have kids, but even my husband (who didn't understand what I was doing this when we started) was getting into it. Nearly every time we came back to our cabin we had gifts waiting for us and it was so much fun to see what everyone else did. So much creativity!

Here is a quick glimpse of everything we received. I still can't believe the thought and time that was put in to each and every one of these gifts!

This Minnie Mouse pot holder was hand made! Above it are coffee cup sleeves that resemble Mickey's outfit.

We got a collection of bookmarks and CDs as well as notebooks. Another thoughtful and useful gift was the laminated index card that served as a quick reference guide for main areas of the ship. SUPER helpful for first time cruisers for sure!

Here are some trading pins, flashlights, key chains, tissues, sanitizer and a variety of other useful things that I actually ended up using while on board!

We decorated our door with this awesome dry erase board and magnets. I was bad and forgot to get a picture of our door on the last day of the cruise with everything on it!

We got three awesome pre-made scrapbooks that are only missing our pictures from the week. Talk about making it easy on us to document the trip. I thought this was a GREAT idea!

My only regret would be not having the means to properly thank everyone. Contact information such as an email address would have been nice to be able to send personal notes back. Hopefully some people will read this and see how truly grateful I am for all the goodies we got!

What did I give? In case you missed it from previous posts, here is what made!

Girls - Hair bows

Boys - Styrofoam planes (not pictured but similar here)

Men - Embroidered cozies

Women - Key chains

Happy Monday everyone! I'm linking up with Molly @ still being Molly for YOLO Monday's!

Our Disney Fantasy Cruise

I am finally getting back to reality this week from vacation and a quick work trip to Vegas. I apologize for the lack of posting this week. As promised, I am going to dedicate this post to pictures of our trip! We had such a great time and would recommend a Disney cruise to anyone and everyone, whether you have kids or not.

These first few photos are some HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos that I took while on the trip. What is HDR you ask? The easiest way to explain it is that I take 3 quick pictures of the same object at 3 different exposure settings (my camera allows me to auto set up my exposures. I use -2, 0 and 2). Then you upload them to an editing software (I use Photomatix) and it will layer the 3 photos on top of each other to give it a real nice enhanced effect. I will post a tutorial maybe later, but for now here are some of my favorite HDR photos I did real fast. Please note: I am by no means a professional photographer and do not put these pictures up claiming I am. This is just a fun hobby.

I forgot to take an HDR photo of the Fantasy ship so this is from our last cruise on the Disney Dream.

 

Isn't she adorable?! I LOVED that this was the main lobby statue!

 

The lobby bar was a perfect subject for an HDR photo because of the lighting.

 

Castaway Cay is Disney's private island.

 

We went to see the Mayan ruins in Costa Maya and they were truly amazing. I don't think I've ever seen something that old!

 

 

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Now on to some other photos from our trip. These aren't even close to all of them, but figured it was a good sampling of our trip!

 

 Large portholes big enough to sit in and nap or read a book are everywhere on this ship! Even some rooms have them!

 

 This deck always reminded me of the scene from Titanic where Rose takes a stroll on the deck to ask about the life boats. I love the design of Disney ships because they model them after the Transatlantic ships like Titanic with the large portholes and wooden deck chairs.

 

 In Costa Maya they fly the Mexican flag and then the Disney Cruise Line flag.

 

I couldn't get a good picture with Ariel for the life of me! This blurry one will just have to do. 

Me and the boss.

 

On the Mayan Ruins in Costa Maya! 

 Christopher taking a rest during our tour of the ruins.

 

 The Aqua Duck is the only water roller coaster on a cruise ship. I road it 6 times!

 

 The top deck at night is so pretty all lit up!

 

 At the start of dinner one night we were told to draw little characters. During dessert they animated them to music and made them a cartoon! Mine is the 3rd one from the left!

 I love these giant lizards!

 

 Our cabana while we were at the private beach as part of our excursion.

 

 Disney is the ONLY cruise ship that does fireworks! Of course they do! Pictures don't do it justice.

 

 Found Jack Sparrow on Castaway Cay!

 

 

That's all I have for now, but feel free to leave comments with any questions you may have. I will try to post about the FE gifts we got next week. It was definitely a success and I would recommend it to anyone, but especially if you have kids. It's super exciting to find treats every time you go to your cabin.

High Five for a Fun Week!

This week was both short AND fun with a President's Day on Monday and a company holiday yesterday (Doesn't get much better than that!). Next week will be another short week because I am taking Friday off so we can drive down to FL to get on our cruise!

1. I was definitely a busy little bee finishing up the FE gifts. I can now officially say, they are all made! I'm so excited with how everything turned out! I made bows for the girls, key chains for the women, embroidered coozies for the men and bought little Styrofoam airplanes for the boys.
2. On Wednesday, we had a company dinner at Maggiano's and they gave us a 3 liter bottle of wine at the end! It of course deserved a photo op!
3. This picture of Milo cracks me up. I feel like he is going to yell at me.
4. I went on a coozie making binge and decided to make them for the ladies at work. Here are a few of ours in action!
5. Last Friday I met my mom at the local winery, La Grange and even though it was cold and cloudy, the view doesn't get much better than that. It's so nice to have such beautiful scenery just a few miles away from our house.

Linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for H54F!

Fish Extender Gifts Part II - Bow Making

I'm a bow girl. I always have been and always will. In case you don't know, I have a bow collection that can rival any little girls'. That's normal right?!

When it came time to brainstorm for the Fish Extender gifts, there was no doubt in my mind what I would be giving all the girls on my list: BOWS!

Until now, I have not dabbled in bow making because I could never get them to look like the ones I would buy. However, for this project, I was working on a tight budget and needed to make 13 (ok I made 14 so I could have one, don't judge). Off to Pinterest I went! I was bound to find an easy tutorial right?! Wrong! I wanted easy, no sew, flat but full bows. After hours of scouring Pinterest, I was out of luck. Good news! I finally found a tutorial (unfortunately I can't find that link now because I had dug so deep into the interwebz).

Once I practiced and figured out the most efficient way of making my bow, I decided to share with you my very own bow tutorial!

 

Supplies Needed:

2 9 inch pieces of 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon

2 9 inch pieces of 3/4 inch wide ribbon (optional)

2 inch piece of 7/8 inch wide ribbon

Hot glue gun

Hair clip

1. Take the wide ribbon and fold in half. At the halfway mark, line with glue. Fold the outer edge to the center. Do the same to the other end.

2. Take your thinner (optional) ribbon and lay it under the first piece. You will fold it over and glue the same way you did the black ribbon.

3. Now pinch the bow from center and add a glue dot to help keep it together. You will then fold back the edges and glue them to the back to help clean up the center.

4. Follow steps 1-3 with your other two pieces of ribbon and you will end up with two identical bows.

5. Combine the two bows at the center and wrap the skinny black fabric around to join the two bows and glue.



 And there you have it. A symmetrical bow made with just a little bit of ribbon and glue. Simply add whatever kind of barrette to the back and it's ready to wear!

Linking up with Steph and Katie for Saw it. Pinned it. Did it!

Fish Extender Gifts Part 1

Remember how I showed you how to make a fish extender for your upcoming cruise? Well now that you have a holder for all those cute and thoughtful gifts you'll receive, it's time to make gifts for your fish extender friends!

I started by brainstorming ideas for each person on my list. I decided to split it up by men, women, girls and boys. Simple enough, right?

Today I will show you how I made the womens' gifts. I chose to make cute, fabric key fobs with Disney cruise ribbon I found on Etsy.

Here's what you will need:

8" of ribbon

8" of webbing (you can get it here)

Key ring set

Pliers

Scissors

Sewing machine

1.  Cut your ribbon and webbing to 8", (you can choose any length depending on your preference) then pin the ribbon on top of the webbing.

2.  Simply sew up both sides if the ribbon

3.  Now fold in half and sew the edges together

4.  Place your key fob set over top the sewn edge and press down with your pliers.

5.  Attach the key ring and there you have it! A cute personable, handmade gift in just 5 simple steps!

I can't wait to put these in every one's FE's! Even better, you can make them with any ribbon for a variety of occasions.

Linking up with Steph and Katie for Saw it. Pinned it. Did it!