Home is Where You Hang Your Ear Hat

Disney friends, you will totally get this post.  The pull of Disney is strong!  While we’re pining for our next vacation, we often find the need to surround ourselves with a bit of Disney happiness.  These touches of Disney soothe us while we’re saving, planning, and waiting (oh, the waiting!) for that return to our favorite Disney destination.  There’s nothing to be ashamed of!  We all know that…

Home is Where You Hang Your Ear Hat

Some of us go full-on Disney décor.  Personally, I find a well placed Disney souvenir or collectible to be enough to bring back a happy memory and remind me that we’ll be back to making more memories in the Disney Bubble in the future.  When that post-Disney depression comes on strong, I take a minute to look around my house and that’s all I need to cheer me up. (Henry Jones, Jr. is always available to chase those blues away!)

Marry Poppins is in the foyer.

The poster from 2014’s Food & Wine Festival (in the living room) reminds us of our 25th anniversary trip.

Some of our favorite characters hang out in the kitchen.

Mickey keeps an eye on who’s coming and going from the top of the stairs.

Planning materials are always handy in the library (and Bay Lake Tower is there too).  Along with our overstuffed curio of Disney treasures.

Recently I changed up the contents of the built-in shelves in our living room.  They’d been full of family pictures forever.  Missing Joseph, I decided to turn those shelves into a collection of things we love and I’m super happy with the results.  More than just Disney, each shelf tells a little story.  Cardinal baseball and chicken love are also on display. (Pigasus is my spirit animal.)  It’s mostly Disney though for all the usual reasons I’ve detailed here over the years and now because Walt Disney World is where Joseph is…for another three weeks, anyway.  (I sure do miss that kid!)

I’ve got an idea.  Why don’t you snap a picture or two of your favorite Disney-at-home decorations and share them over on the Facebook page.  I’d love to see them!

 

My New Winnie the Pooh Cookie Jar

Saturday morning, Raymond and I struck out to cover a long list of errands.  First we cast our ballots in this year’s election before we headed to the pharmacy for flu shots.  (One of these activities was much less painful than the other.)  With the serious and grown-up portion of the days’ plans behind us, we celebrated with lunch at one of our favorite local eateries and toasted our morning with glasses of beer appropriately named “Reasonably Corrupt”.election-2016-voters

After lunch, we decided to do some early Christmas shopping and browse the shops in our local antique district.  As we were strolling in and out of our favorite places, I spied Winnie the Pooh.  All by himself, surrounded by unrelated items, Pooh sat calmly contemplating a jar of hunny with a big sticker across his nose.  The sticker provided quite of bit of info:  Pooh is a cookie jar with a small, repaired chip on the back of the lid, and is available for the reasonable price of $17.50.  Of course I stepped closer for a better look and to inspect aforementioned damage – which was barely detectable.  Raymond paused in his explorations long enough to take in the situation and declare, “I don’t think we can go home without him.”  Unexpected discoveries are the BEST, no?winnie-the-pooh-cookie-jar-profile winnie-the-pooh-cookie-jar-back

Winnie the Pooh in tow, Raymond settled up with Susie, the proprietor, and we made our way back down the street to our car and headed home.  Now this precious new addition to our Disney collection is brightening up our kitchen, just in time for Christmas cookie baking!

A little online research shows this cookie jar as having been manufactured by Treasure Craft in the mid-1990’s.  The bottom of our jar clearly shows Treasure Craft, Disney, and Mexico which leads me to believe our Winnie the Pooh is indeed an authentic Disney licensed version.  winnie-the-pooh-cookie-jar-bottomFurther digging revealed a suggested current value of $25-$40.  I also found Pooh for sale online in several places, going for anywhere from $49.99-$89.99.  As I have no intention of keeping him solely for his future earnings potential, I’m finding him a place of honor where he can be adored for years to come (and consider our new friend to have been excellent bargain!).winnie-the-pooh-cookie-jar-front

Have you come across an unexpected, irresistible Disney treasure? What was it?

 

The Perfect Birthday Gift – Disney Flea Market Treasures

Yay for the weekend!  This week’s Saturdays With Nick is more Saturdays About Nick because it’s written by Barbie – Nick’s oh, so amazing better half.  Enjoy!

The Perfect Birthday Gift – Disney Flea Market Treasures

By: Barbie

Today, I am writing about a flea market find that I needed to do a lot of work on to get it in present-worthy condition. Let me just say that I nearly jumped for joy when I saw this on the vendor’s table.  Finally, I found a gift for Nick that I knew he didn’t have! My knees were shaking and I immediately got a stomach ache. I figured there was no way I would be able to afford this little bit of Disney awesomeness! Or keep the secret if I was able to get it!

I got up the nerve to ask the vendor what he wanted for this and he said $60.00, which I said was absolutely fair. I told him all I had was $40.00 and maybe I would be back. That usually never works. If I wait, I loose out, every time I hesitate! I had a terrible time going through the rest of the flea market! On our way back, I told everyone that I had to go back and see whether my item was gone, and lo, it was still on the table. I asked Nick for a tenner and offered the guy $50.00, which he took, graciously.

I took this beauty home and carefully started cleaning off of my present to Nick. (ps: He already knows what it is, you can’t hide any present from him, he has a 6th sense about presents!)

That’s right! It’s an original 1977 R2D2 cookie jar with the original liner intact, in perfect condition, except for a ton of tape, tape goo and some small paint splatters that needed to be removed with as much care as possible.

 

 So when you find yours, here is a helpful hint for you, be very careful around R2D2’s red eye, as that has been hand painted on, and could scratch off, or worse, wipe off. If you use Goof Off, as I did to get rid of the stickiness (I had tried alcohol wipes), it will take any hand painted, unglazed details right off!

And in conclusion, Astromechs are awesome! Mech mech!

You can follow Barbie AND Nick on all their Disney adventures:  Disney Musings Blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, On Instagram, On Pinterest.  You can listen to Nick, our friend Dave and me on The Disney Exchange Podcast where we talk about all things Disney.

Headed to Walt Disney World in October (2016)?  Don’t miss our official Disney Exchange Podcast meet-up on October 7th at 3:00pm in Epcot’s Germany Pavilion – We hope to see you there!

 

Happy Meal Toys – Disneyland’s 40th Anniversary

Happy Saturday, Y’all!  I’m so glad it’s September!!! While it’s still in the 90’s during the day here in Louisiana, there’s a very tiny, but definite, hint of fall in the air early in the morning and after the sun goes down.  Time for another installment of Saturdays with Nick and  I cannot stay out of Nick’s Disney collectibles!  Once again, I’ve found some unique and funky little treasures – How I wish I had paid much, MUCH more attention to McDonald’s Happy Meal toys through the years!  Have you got any of these?

Happy Meal Toys – Disneyland’s 40th Anniversary

By: Nick

As Disneyland celebrates it’s 60th Anniversary today, I thought we’d look back at a truly excellent set of Happy Meals Toys released by Disney and McDonald’s back in 1995, celebrating Disneyland’s 40th.

This set is a viewer set, like a mono viewmaster, featuring Disneyland park attractions.


These first two were for totally different attractions than what I’d assumed they were. Here we have Peter Pan. This must represent Peter Pan’s flight, right? Nope

It is actually for Fantasmic.

The next one, I thought must have been from a parade, but it is actually from a dinner show called Aladdin’s Oasis, that ran during two summers and on selected weekend days during other seasons.


.

This last one is pretty easy to guess. Mickey is riding Space Mountain.

Happy Anniversary Disneyland!

Happy Meal Toys – Disneyland’s 40th Anniversary

You can follow Nick, his wife Barbie, and friends on all their Disney adventures:  Disney Musings Blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, On Instagram, On Pinterest.  You can listen to Nick, our friend Dave and me on The Disney Exchange Podcast where we talk about all things Disney.

Headed to Walt Disney World in October (2016)?  Don’t miss our official Disney Exchange Podcast meet-up on October 7th at 3:00pm in Epcot’s Germany Pavilion – We hope to see you there!