Clearance Rack Wedding

I am a clearance rack shopper. It is rare for me to purchase things not on a clearance rack; I have to absolutely love it for it come home for less than 40% off.  I come by it naturally--my Grandma Karen is a professional clearance rack shopper, and she's taught everyone in the family well.

With our tiny budget wedding, we cut corners and costs everywhere we can.  We are doing most things ourselves (including recruiting family members to collect months worth of recyclables and growing all of the plants from seed), and we have been taking advantage of every sale and coupon we can get our hands on.  It's even better when I can get it from a clearance rack.

We have opted to use paper flowers for our wedding. One because it's cheaper, two because we get to DIY them, and three because we will be ultimately be creating less waste by reusing the paper flowers as decorations later. I've been experimenting and creating various prototypes, but the idea of making enough for bouquets, boutonnieres, and table garlands was overwhelming. They are incredibly tedious to create.

Then I found the perfect solution! A Cricut cartridge that cuts all the pieces for you and also creates easy assembly. Unfortunately Cricut cartridges are not cheap and you can't use coupons on them. Joann Fabrics was running an online sale, and while less than normal, only 15% off was painful to accept.

Emily thought that we should go the store and check it out before making a purchase. On our wandering to the scrap-booking section, we found a clearance rack tucked in the back corner; in all its glory, it was a disorganized mess of irrelevant craft odds and ends. It was a bust except for one thing: on the top shelf was a random assortment of old Cricut cartridges.

Emily started to browse through them when she pulled one out and handed it to me.  Lo and behold, there it was: the cartridge I had my eye on, covered in dust. The little red clearance sticker was a message of fate. We even found an additional one with different types of flowers on it.  For $40 I walked away with TWO cartridges designed for creating 3D flowers PERFECT for our needs.  I can't wait to start putting them together.

Now we just need some cheap card stock!

Lavender modeling a practice flower made from one of the new cartridges!

Walt Disney World Staycation

Hello World!

I realize it's been quite some time since I last updated--life has been so busy, I haven't had the time.  I've had several posts lined up but they never seemed to make it to the computer.  Stay with me as we do a little back tracking...

In March, Emily and I decided we needed a vacation. Coupled with our anniversary falling on a break for her, we wanted go back to our favorite place in the world, but it didn't look like it would be feasible.  We've been so accustomed to 2 Disney trips a year, it was hard to not be able to go this Spring.  With grad school and operating single-income, we wouldn't be able to swing it.  However, life is too short to not take a vacation, so we decided to go with a Plan B: we would go to the beach and bring Disney to us.

Disney has a lot of meaning for our relationship. Not only is it where got engaged, but also where we fell in love, where we have shared endless memories, and something we both really enjoy.  We knew it would be tough to pull off, but even a little taste of magic would be better than nothing.  Plus, we could save all of our anticipation for our next trip, which will likely be our honeymoon, and make it even better.

We booked decided to take a long weekend to Norfolk, which is right on the coast of Virginia, around 3 hours from Charlottesville.  We found this super cute Air BnB for a STEAL. Right on the beach, steps from the water...it was looking like this trip would be almost as magical as the real thing.

For weeks, I researched different ways we could make Disney World at home.  I looked up copy cat recipes, downloaded music, saved youtube videos of our favorite shows and rides...it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  We settled on some of our favorite park treats: jalapeno cream cheese pretzels, fish and chips, tipsy ducks in love, and tonga toast. I burned new copies of my WDW Millennium Celebration soundtrack as well as the Wishes soundtrack.  We packed up and headed for Norfolk.

Unfortunately, the warm sunny weather that was forecasted ended up being cold rainy weather.  The beach was beautiful, but we couldn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped.  Still, the house we rented out was really nice. It had a full kitchen, a HUGE bedroom, and lots of bonus space. Lavender loved it.

 While the trip certainly wasn't anywhere close to the real thing, and we had several set backs, we still had fun. It was nice to get away and to just think about us instead of everything else happening in our lives.  We spent some time working on our marriage books and just being together. It was a good reminder of where the magic actually comes from, and that made it all worth it in the end.

Here are some pictures for a photographic journey of our trip:

On the bridge heading into Norfolk.

Enjoying a Tipsy Ducks in Love and a little sunshine. 

One of the best meals you can get at Disney is the Fish and Chips from the UK in EPCOT! We got some great sustainable fish from Whole Foods before heading out, and it was so delicious.  The only downside was I forgot the beer that was designated for the batter, and all we had was the strawberry beer designated for drinking.  While tasty, the fish had a strange strawberry flavor to it.  The recipe was a keeper, though!  We paired it with some frozen salt and pepper waffle fries.
http://www.thedisneydiner.com/2011/08/rose-crown-pub-dining-room-batter.html

Sunrise on the water.

Special Order Kona Blend coffee to go with our breakfast.  This is our favorite coffee on site, and we love to get the French Press for 2 at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort.  In case you want to know, Disney has several different blends that you can order directly from Joffreys. How cool is that?!
https://www.joffreys.com/disneyparksandresorts

One of the best breakfasts at Disney is the Tonga Toast at Kona. It's stuffed with Bananas and rolled in Cinnamon Sugar and is to die for!  This recipe was very involved (it took a lot of steps and made a lot of mess). But it was SO worth it.
http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2012/08/08/disney-recipe-tonga-toast-from-kona-cafe-in-disney-world/

An Emily and Lexie WDW Tradition: The Tipsy Ducks in Love. This is a drink found at the Joy of Tea stand in China at EPCOT. Worth every penny of the $9 price tag.  It's a mix of coffee, tea, and alcohol. A lot of alcohol. It's so good. And surprisingly easy to recreate!  We forgot our chocolate syrup and had to run to the sketchy 7/11 up the street to get some, but it was so worth it.
http://www.magicalrecipes.net/joy-of-tea-tipsy-ducks-in-love-recipe/

Lavender LOVES to sunbathe. She was in her element!

To make our Disney trip even better, there were dozens of these little guys running around the beach. It was right out of a short!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VS7wR7gjJE

The beach. 

Footprints in the sand. 

The biggest FAIL of the trip. These were supposed to be jalapeno cream cheese pretzels. One of the most delicious snacks that you could get at WDW. Unfortunately, we learned the last time we were there that they discontinued them. So of course we had to try and make them ourselves. Clearly it didn't work...we ended up ordering a pizza.  The Disney pretzels are stuffed with cream cheese and ever-so-slightly spicy jalapenos, topped with crispy cheese and deliciousness. These were blobs of nasty. I'm not even going to give you the recipe they were that bad. 

Celebrating our anniversary with some champagne and cuddles.