Minnie Mouse Club

Posted on November 27, 2016 by Amelia M.

Enter the skeptic. A woman eroded by time, the woes of modern life, and the 10 o’ clock news. Yet, somehow this girl found herself sitting on a plane to the “happiest” place on earth. Yes, me, on my way to Disneyland after 28 years of ignorance, indifference, and suspicion toward the big castle, Don Mickey and his loyal consiglieres [read here for more details]. Sure, I’d been told of the delight and the dole whips, but I also couldn’t turn a blind eye to the the crowds and the costs. Maybe Disney is a game best left to children and nostalgia riddled adults. Maybe it was too late.

But there was one brave soul who made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

A Disney veteran so invested she’s practically a mouseketeer. But she couldn’t do it alone. I was extremely fortunate to be surrounded by people who knew what to do, where to eat, and how to guide me through said crowds. They took this little skeptic and showed her the time of her life. We dubbed it Ghouls Weekend 2016 and had 72 hours of greatness.

Why Ghouls Weekend? Well our trip happened to fall on Halloween weekend. We didn’t go to Mickey’s special Halloween party, but even so Disneyland was no slouch when it came to Halloween.

Even the cups were Halloween themed. Seriously, aren’t they adorable?

Some of the rides also got in the Halloween spirit. The Haunted Mansion was taken over by Nightmare Before Christmas and Space Mountain was Ghost Galaxy.

Every ride I went on seemed better than the last. In the end my top rides were the ones that combined an immersive experience with a little bit of thrill. Indiana Jones stole the top slot, but Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars were also great contenders.

Living our best lives on the Cars ride.

Tomorrowland

Sam and Taylor on Peter Pan. This was a ride that really surprised me. It’s not very fast, so I didn’t expect it to live up to the hype. But there is just something magical about flying over starlight London.

Jungle Cruise Crew. At first thought our driver was kind of quiet, but she turned out to be hilarious. She had a very dry sense of humor.

This wasn’t a ride, but I couldn’t pass up a picture of a tribute to my favorite Disney Princess, Ariel. I did go on her actual ride later and witnessed some weird animatronic hairstyles.

I also learned that Disney has no end of Mickey shaped treats and food to try. And can I just say, THE CHURROS GUYS, THE CHURROS.

Of course, one of these treats included the infamous Dole Whip.

Heidi, Ben, and I had to EARN these pretzels. There was quite a long line since the both that sold them was also the place you could buy beer.

We also ate at a restaurant in the New Orleans part of the park, where I had a delicious Monte Cristo sandwich.

Emily with the infamous Monte Cristo.

It was fun checking off all the classic Disney things I’ve heard of and so many things that I hadn’t ever heard of. While I will probably never match the level of enthusiasm of my die hard Disney friends, I can honestly say I had an amazing time and would recommend it to others, even the skeptics.

Thanks for the good times Disney.

Currently: Enjoying the Gilmore Girls Revival. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Just a bunch of Hocus Pocus

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Amelia M.

This morning as I went about my day it seemed strange that it was already November, but in case I forgot there was plenty of evidence lingering on the streets. Smashed pumpkins, hyperactive kids running off sugar highs at the park, an abandoned bowler hat, and torn skittles wrappers woven into the bush. Halloween was definitely over. But I had some fun with it before it all ended. Some of my Halloween shenanigans included:

Baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies while watching one of my favorites: Hocus Pocus

These are actually some that Gabby and I whipped up during General Conference. But Tyler and I made some amazing ones as well during our viewing of Hocus Pocus.

Making Halloween spell books

I made these to help my friend Emily with a haunted house she put on [More on that later]. I painted some and we created book covers for others. We also found a great tutorial on Pinterest for making spell books. Basically we took a book and hot glued some objects on [bats, skeleton hands, spiders, keys, etc.]. After that we mod podge-ed one ply of paper towel on top for texture. Then we painted the books black and added highlights with gold foil paint.

I was working on these books at Emily’s house and her cat, Merriweather, decided to step in and model next to the spell books.

Wandering through a Haunted Village

We went to the haunted village at This Is the Place and they led you through a bunch of different sites throughout the park. The soundtrack from The Village played the whole time. Some of the highlights were: the cemetery with the ghost bride, the headless horseman, some very athletic and mean little bears from goldilocks house, and all of the camouflaged scare-ers who jumped out us from the tall grass.

All of my pictures of the actual haunted village turned out too dark and so so, but I think Courtney’s pictures here in photo op after the village embody the spirit of the night.

Carving a pumpkin of the emoji I relate to the most

Courtney and I created a lil emoji pumpkin together. It stayed on our porch till Halloween despite it’s unusually fast decaying rate. In fact, by the time we took it off the porch it was a very sad pile of mush.

Our crying emoji pumpkin!

Getting hooked on iZombie

It’s not what you typically think of for a Zombie show [definitely not of the Walking Dead variety], but it’s really fun. It’s by the people who did Veronica Mars. It reminds me of Angel and Pushing Daisies. Essentially this zombie-girl is just trying to make it in the world and solve some crimes all while dealing with the consequences of an all brain and hot sauce diet [Although that last part is a little first season Roswell don’t ya think?].

The first season is on Netflix, check it out.

Playing a not-so-wicked witch for a haunted house

My friend Emily and her friend Benji put on a haunted house together. They went all out. Every room was decorated with amazing detail.

It was an attraction for kids and families so they made it all an elaborate setup to get candy. First the kids had to cross the haunted cemetery out front and then when they came inside Dracula woke up out of his coffin to greet them. After talking with Dracula for a bit he tries to offer them candy, but finds it’s been stolen by the witches.

I was one of the witches. The kids had to “earn” their candy by helping us make a potion. I also told some fortunes with my oh so mystical crystal ball. Then if the kids were really brave they could go down to the creepy cellar for more candy. Afterwards they could roast marshmallows with Igor around the campfire outside. It was a lot of fun and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.

Striking our best witchy poses.

Normally the “potion” was bubbling and foaming due to dry ice.

I also read The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon for book club this month a very spooky and appropriate choice for October. However, I spent the final hours of Halloween using my extra hour from Daylight Savings to fall asleep to an encore viewing of Hocus Pocus. Although sadly I fell asleep way too quickly thanks to the aid of some Nyquil [Can’t seem to beat back the colds lately].

Currently: watching the Hallmark movie gem, Magic of Ordinary Days

Halloween

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Amelia M.

Lessons I learned from Halloween this year:

Emily as Red Riding Hood and Me as Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy

Emily as Red Riding Hood and Me as Lucy (Lucille Ball) My hair looks a little tousled here, but it was actually in a cute retro pin up roll. Woohoo Youtube hair tutorials!

My friend Jenni also celebrated Halloween with me. I just loved her Day of the Dead makeup! So fun.

Beware Super-Bright Hair Spray Dye:

For the first part of Halloween I was Lucy (of I Love Lucy). This was a fun, fairly simple costume. I had the dress, I did my hair in a little retro style, and sprayed it red.The only thing is once it was sprayed red it wanted to stay red. I did this costume on Saturday night and their is still dye I’m trying to get off my scalp! Not only that it got on towels, clothes, bathtub, my hands… everywhere really. Thankfully it’s mostly gone, but I’ll be ready for it be completely out of my life, haha. It was worst after the first wash (despite vigorous scrubbing); thankfully I have a lot of hair so I could style around the red parts for work and church.

Zombies are Waaaay Too Friendly:

Ben was the least scared of all of us. He led the way through the whole thing and nothing caught him by surprise. I was a little more… scare-able… haha.

I went to my first haunted house and visited Nightmare on 13th. It was a lot of fun. The zombies liked to breathe right down your neck. Yikes! The haunted house had three themes: haunted circus, zombie apocalypse, and something about beasts. I think the zombie apocalypse decoration were my favorite/most creepy. Although the circus part did have this rotating tunnel that was pretty fun.

Hitchcock is Boss for a Reason:

I filled my quota of scary movies this Halloween season, but the Hitchcock ones were my favorite. I watched The Birds, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and Psycho. All great, but my favorite was probably Rear Window.

The Bigger the Hair the Better the Reaction:

Jenni, me, and Courtney. We want to a party at the U, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The DJ played thriller remixes every hours; plus massive costume parties are just great people watching.

For one of my costumes I did a posh 60s socialite look. I got a pink dress (at Decades, one of my fav Salt Lake places), long white gloves, and did my hair in a beehive updo. The hair was half the fun (I’d wish I’d taken a close up! The back has a little twist and a roll at the base) . I’d never done this style so I just looked up a YouTube tutorial and went at it. If you’re interested in trying it yourself I suggest this video.

For my work costume I took the beehive to a higher level and added a tiny tiara for emphasis.That day I was a tacky beauty queen with a bunch of other girls at the office. This was a lot of fun! I did it with all the girls at work. We all wore sashes that played on words starting with Miss. Miss Educated, Miss Behaves, Miss Ing, Miss Spelled, etc. I was Miss Taken.

Beauty queens gone wrong! haha You can’t see it here but I also had some black platform heels (courtesy of Natalie’s closet), a candy necklace on my wrist, and long white gloves, and tons of plastic rings.

I even kept the beehive after I ditched the costume Halloween night and even wore it to dinner at the Lamb’s Grill (Utah’s oldest continually operating restaurant).

The only disappointment of Halloween was the lack of trick or treaters at my door. Not a single one! Granted I wasn’t home all night, but I even left a bowl out for awhile and nobody really touched that. I think the front of our apartment is uninviting or something, haha. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Currently: Enjoying hanging around the apartment and eating Mac n’ Cheese.

Bedelia

The less literal and fictional Amelia

Tag Archives: Halloween

Minnie Mouse Club

Just a bunch of Hocus Pocus

Halloween