Jen Bowles Design

Disney World: Trees, Swags, Wreaths & Gingerbread

One of the reasons we wanted to visit Disney World during the holidays was to see the decorations.  I think it was 2009 that we saw a special on HGTV about how they start putting up the decorations in October, working around the clock.  Once you're there, you can see why it takes so long!

We visited several Disney resorts during our stay, usually (ok, always) coinciding with a restaurant visit.  Every resort has its' own theme for holiday decorating. Along with smaller decorative touches sprinkled throughout the public areas, each resort had a large themed tree in the lobby.

Grand Floridian (Victorian, silk flowers, ornate)

Polynesian (tropical, fresh flowers)

Yacht Club (nautical, sailboats)

Wilderness Lodge (this is one of the smaller lobby trees, rustic)

Wilderness Lodge, lobby tree--compared to the people, you can see how huge it is

Of course all the theme parks were decorated as well.  Each park, with the exception of Epcot,  had a giant, themed tree near their respective main entrances.

Magic Kingdom (Main Street, traditional)    

Animal Kingdom (wooden stars, metal animal masks)   

Hollywood Studios (film reels, glamour)   

Downtown Disney (this one was right next to the toy store, Toy Story/Hasbro themed)  

One of my favorite decorations were all of the swags and themed wreaths throughout the resort.

Magic Kingdom entry booths

Animal Kingdom:  Africa

World Showcase: Italy

World Showcase: France

Magic Kingdom:  Candy cane swag

Epcot-Future World:  Earth swag

Wilderness Lodge wreath

World Showcase: Canada

Magic Kingdom, Main Street

Grand Floridian main entrance

I especially love this ornament swag in the BoardWalk Inn lobby

One of the more incredible things Disney does for the holidays is to create several large scale gingerbread displays.  Several of these gingerbread structures even double as seasonal bake shops☺.

Grand Floridian gingerbread house           

World Showcase: USA gingerbread chalet

My least favorite was the gingerbread tree in the lobby of the Contemporary--I love the wall behind it though. 

It looked rather sloppy and was even missing a few gingerbread tiles (gasp!)

At the BoardWalk Inn, Donald, Daisy and  {naughty ;-) }Stitch were all together in a gingerbread gazebo.    

That's a lot of gingerbread!

Overall the decorations were fabulous and festive.  I loved how each area (park, country, hotel) has its own theme interpreted in different ways for the holidays.  Very inspiring!

Of course if I want my house to look anything like some of my favorite Walt Disney World decorations this Christmas, I'd better get to work...now!

 

Disney World: Flowers

Here at home we haven't seen the ground for weeks.  There is a persistent snow pack that has me wondering if we actually have a driveway anymore--or just a sledding run.  My morning glory entwined lamppost and clematis enveloped garden arbor of last summer are now just fond memories.  White is the new green during this New England winter.

Fortunately, flowers and greenery still flourish in Florida this time of year.  Well, as long as it doesn't get too cold...

Our grounds at our hotel, the Grand Floridian, were full of beautiful seasonal flowers.  We saw lots of red poinsettias.     I was delighted to see the pink knock-out roses still in bloom.  Pink geraniums and white twig reindeer?  Why not!

Other resorts had their share of flowers as well.

Seasonal planter at the Polynesian

Lush lobby at the Polynesian.  I almost feeling warmer just looking at it.  Almost.

At the Wilderness Lodge we planned to explore much more of the grounds but are plans were changed thanks to a sudden onset cold rain deluge.

These flowers are from the fabulous wall mural in the lobby of the Contemporary.

This flower is from an adorable tutu/skirt in the gift shop at the Boardwalk Inn. 

The theme parks had plenty of floral displays as well, especially Epcot.

My favorites were Victoria Gardens in Canada (I'd love to go to the real Victoria Garden in British Columbia someday--of course that would require renewing my passport...)   

And the cottage garden area in England.  So, so lovely and colorful.

Pretty planter in Italy

White & red: birds and flowers in the USA.

I'm sure there must be some water lilies in the koi pond in Japan.  Ah, peace & serentiy.

Most of our visit to Hollywood Studios was in the evening, after dark.  I did manage to snap a photo of these Oz-tastic flowers inside the Great Movie Ride.

At the Magic Kingdom, poinsettias proliferated.

There were plenty at the  main entrance.

I noticed some unique flowers during the Main Street Electrical Parade.

Unfortunately, during our stay it got coooold and the landscaping crews had to break out the white tarps and cover all of the tender flowers.

A few brave souls didn't make it through the frost ☹.

But I'm sure Mickey was able to conjure up some replacements☺.

P.S. If you love flowers and you love Walt Disney World, the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival in the spring is beautiful!

Disney World: Minnie & Mickey's Country Houses

As I mentioned in my post about meeting Erin McKenna of BabyCakes bakery last week, my family took a pre-Christmas trip to Disney World in Florida last month.  During our 5 day trip I was literally overloaded with inspiration and eye candy (hello, over 1700 photos...) from every corner of the resort.  Even though this was my 10th trip to Disney, I never fail to be awed by the attention to detail and spirit of whimsy that permeates Walt Disney World.  This week I'd like to share some of my favorite images, and hopefully inspiraton, with you.

And don't worry, this won't be a play-by-play of every day of our trip in excruciating detail with hundreds of pictures of my kids.  That's over on my family blog ☺.

Today let's take a peek inside Minnie & Mickey's Country Houses in Mickey's Toontown Fair at the Magic Kingdom. 

{Interesting to note:  shortly after we got back we read about Disney's planned expansion for Fantasyland and subsequent closing of Toontown, as of February 12, 2011}

Minnie, it turns out, is a lot like me.

Minnie decorates for Christmas.  I decorate for Christmas.

She has fancy scrollwork on her porch, I'd love to fancy scrollwork on my porch.

Minnie has a craft room! 

She sews.

Apparently she sews well because she's a prize winning quilter.  Great ribbon.

She also paints.

Looks like she fancies herself to be "Minnie Rockwell".  Not my style, but talented nonetheless.

In her kitchen, she has a cookie recipe posted on her fridge.  I love to bake too!

I really liked her sunroom.  In fact, I think I was a bit jealous. Especially of her potting sink.

She must have a green thumb, look how well her Buttercups are growing ;-).  I have a green thumb too, usually after pulling up massive amounts of weeds in my garden.

Finally, Minnie's gazebo & roses.  I may not have a gazebo, but I do have roses and a broken down chicken coop that's begging to be transformed into a garden house.

Yep, me & Minnie, so much in common.

Our next stop:  Mickey's house.

Mickey has a lot of holiday spirit, what with the giant tree in his front yard and those retro large bulb lights.

Mickey was ready for Santa's arrival inside the house too.  Stockings hung by the chimney with care:

Mickey's kitchen reminded me of my dad's kitchen...

Plenty of fun & games going on at this house.     

Mickey's house is full of amusing & clever details, inside and out.

I want these fence post caps!

Even more, I want this dog bone wind chime.  Seriously, this thing is awesome.

Mickey is obviously a branding powerhouse.  He's got his own line of demin.  And tools.

Nice.

Also out in the garage, this sweet license plate. 

Awww.

And finally, my favorite decoration: a shout out to my home state.

Maybe they'll auction that off when they close down Toontown...

Hope you enjoyed the tour of Mickey & Minnie's Country Houses.  Check back this week for more Walt Disney World inspiration!

BabyCakes Bakery at Downtown Disney

A couple of weeks before Christmas we were fortunate enough to take a family vacation to Walt Disney World.  Joined by both Bubbe (my mom) and Nana (my mother-in-law) we spend 5 fun-filled days at the 'happiest place on earth'.  While there we saw lots of Disney characters:  Mickey Mouse, Chip and Dale, Mary Poppins, Erin McKenna...

What's that?  Erin McKenna isn't a Disney character??

You're right, she's not but she is a cookbook author and the proprietress of BabyCakes, New York's premier vegan, gluten-free bakery.  In the past year  BabyCakes has expanded beyond the Big Apple, opening a bakery in Los Angeles last January and more recently, at Downtown Disney in Florida.

It just so happened that our first day at Disney coincided with the grand opening celebration at BabyCakes Downtown Disney.  Hello free brownie bites and Erin McKenna book signing.

Just to be clear, no one in my family has any issues with gluten, dairy or sugar.  We (I) just love yummy baked goods and after baking up a few treats from Erin's first cookbook last year when I checked it out of the library, I was hooked. 

{psst...Erin has another cookbook coming out in a few months}

In fact, Bubbe declared her BabyCakes vanilla cupcake one of the best she's ever had.

Serendipitously,  it was my birthday.  Thus my family (i.e. the boys) had no choice but to bow to my wishes.  And my wish was to trek to BabyCakes between 1-2pm, buy a cookbook and some cupcakes and meet Erin☺.

Mission {deliciously} accomplished.

And now thanks to Erin's helpful message inside my cookbook, baking Babycakes treats at home will be smoother than ever ;-).

 

Photo a day, 2011

Hello there!

I'm not sure why I haven't been blogging here.  I guess I'm a bit bogged down in getting back to normal after the holidays.  One thing I have been doing faithfully is posting a picture a day on my new tumblog. 

Come check it out:  iPhone photo a day 2011

{there's also a link in the sidebar}

My challenge, that I posed to myself, is to post a photo a day from my iPhone: taken on my iPhone and edited on my iPhone.  Oh, and each photo's title must only have two words.  I was also going to require alliteration but decided that might be a bit much to maintain over 365 days ;-).

I'm sure I'll be back to blogging and creating soon, thanks for stopping by in the meantime!

{a few library books I'm studying}

 

Holiday Leftovers: Gift Wrapped

Every year I tell myself I'm going to start wrapping Christmas gifts early and that I'm going to make them all lovely.

Yeeeeahhhh....

Actually, I didn't do too badly this Christmas.  I got most everything wrapped 3-4 days before Christmas Eve.  But then I had a long list of holiday baking to do so by the time I got back down to Wrapping Central, time was running short.

So I prioritized.

Lovely tag and stick-on bow for most, package decorations for my Mom☺.  One must put their efforts where they'll be most appreciated.

My mom is an excellent wrapper. 

And an excellent bow maker.

I love all the colored jingle bells she used.  Naturally I saved all the ones that came on my gifts and popped them right into my gift wrapping embellishment stash.

Yes, I have one of those.

For my mom's gifts, I had the help of two of my best friends:  my glue gun and a stack of doilies. 

I need to get out more...

Add in a few other touches from my stash (I got the snowflake and the Joy embellishment on super clearance after Christmas last year) and voila, pretty packages.

And an appreciative recipient.

I'm already getting prepared for Christmas 2011.  I hit both WalMart & Target and scooped up a bunch of holiday gift wrapping supplies for 75% off. 

Now, if I can just be organized enough to start wrapping in November...

Happy Weekend!

An elephant, a ballerina and a word: Happy 2011

Like many out there in BlogLandia, I've been thinking about a word  for 2011 (thank you Ali Edwards).

Now, if I'd chosen the word balance, this picture would be perfect.

My word isn't balance.

My friend Lori of Whimsy Studios posted today that her word is focus.

That's an excellent word and something I really need to do.

My word isn't focus.

With my history of coming up with ideas but dropping the ball when it comes to execution, my word could be action. Or motivate or even justdosomethingalready.

But I didn't choose any of those words.

My word is intent.

As a noun: intention or purpose

As an adjective: resolved or determined to do (something)

Here's to 2011 and living with intention!

 

P.S. One of my intentions is to take and post a picture a day with my iPhone.  Check out my new tumblog here: iphone 2011

P.S.S.  Paperclay elephant sculpture made by me, inspired by Julie Haymaker Thompson