disneyland and all its magic
Disney just.. does everything better. There’s no other way to put it. From the steady stream of music that seems to magically flow from the pristine landscaping, to the parades that steal your heart away, they’ve mastered it all.
Seeing as it’s my last summer before college, a trip to Disneyland was clearly necessary. Family bonding, fun, and a chance for me to figure out what it means exactly to grow up. There’s a difference between growing up (maturity) and growing out of things like Disneyland (and plush whales). Only one of those is necessary.
The lines were short, not necessarily because of a lack of park visitors, but more because the Disney cast members are experts at keeping the lines moving and loading up the trains as quickly and efficiently as possible. This allowed us to go on almost everything, and definitely everything we wanted. The new Nemo ride was a nice nostalgic reminder of the old submarines, and just as terrifying as I found it when I was little; I can’t stand the feeling of submerging into the ocean, no matter how shallow I know the real lake is. Then there was the modified Pirates of the Caribbean: the same classic pirates and Yo-ho-ing, with a few Jack Sparrow audio-animatronics thrown in. Sometimes I worry when they plan to modify the rides, but they did a flawless job and he fits perfectly into the storyline.
Upon arriving home, I found out that they are planning to refresh and reopen one of my very favorite parts of the park: the Sleeping Beauty diorama walk-through within the castle itself. It was an often overlooked attraction with few visitors, but there was something about it that I always loved. Perhaps it was the notion of its secrecy; it was not a true Disney secret (although there are thousands of those) but its small sign and inconspicuous location prevented many tourists from ever noticing it. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, it was deemed a hazardous attraction for Disneyland’s well being because it allowed guests inside the castle, so it was removed. They’re adding it back soon and making it better-than-ever… I just hope they still have a few of the classic Barbie figurines dancing around and don’t make it too high-tech, because it was never meant to be that way.
The Electric Light Parade blew my mind as it always does; the music and the plethora of lights never ceases to amaze me. It’s a classic, and always will be.
The entire park is basically my other home. I always know where I am there, and it really is “the happiest place on earth”. It’s comforting for me right now, with everything familiar to me, including myself, changing faster that I can hold on to it, to know that DIsneyland will always be there. It will change too, I know that, but Disneyland always changes for the better, and there are never any unpleasant surprises.
As for me, I’ve got less than a month until I head off to college, and I’m still figuring it all out. I feel like I’m stuck in Limbo; I’m here, home, with nothing left to do until I get there, but I want to make this last month worth as much as possible. I’m scared, excited, and almost, almost ready. But there’s still so much to figure out.
More than a year ago, I started work on this quilt, with hopes of finishing in time to take it to college. I figure having a nice handmade quilt in college will be great: cute, fun, and a daily reminder of my creativity. A few weeks ago, I remembered my goal, and now, less than two months before college (scary!) I’m attempting to finish an enormous quilt.
I dug out the box full of patches, and counted up in accordance with my self-made chart. I then cut out as many additional patches as I could from my fabric scraps… then I ran out of half of the fabrics. According to my calculations, I need at least half a yard more of each of the lacking fabrics. And, as this was a stashbusting quilt, most of the fabrics were purchased from Jo-Ann’s clearance section well over a year ago, so I have no idea how to track them down. Oh no!
This should bring some interesting google searches my way. But really, I’m not allowed to buy fabric. And really, I’m having problems with my self-made rule. So every time I buy fabric, I have to smuggle it past the roadblock in my brain, and let myself bring even more future projects into the house.
I realized that the two major goals of a teenager’s summer are to a) relax and be lazy and b) make lots of money. These are probably the two most conflicting goals a person can have. So I’ve been switching off days… sleeping in and sitting at the computer, or (still sleeping in) sewing, working, going for bike rides, and hanging out with friends.
And I finally did manage to clean the sewing room, if only a bit. I’ve been steadily shipping off a stream of Ebay-ed patterns.. granted, I’m making about 10 cents on each one after the Ebay fees and Paypal fees, which doesn’t even cover my time taking pictures and typing listings.. but at least it’s freeing up some space. And I’ve realized that I am not a skilled cleaner. I get halfway through cleaning, until I can see the surface of the desk or the carpet of the floor, then I get distracted and start a brand new project, leaving all the things that need to be put back in even more of a mess than they started. But yesterday, I cracked down on myself. I actually managed to optimize the clutter on my bookcase, so I have even more room for the unfinished projects that will take longer to fix than they’re worth (like the hoodie that came out 3 sizes too big). And, at the moment, I can see most of the white surface of my sewing table.
Yesterday, my mom and I went on a college shopping spree. We headed to Target to peek at the minifridge of my dreams (it has a separate freezer - for ice cream emergencies!) although we didn’t actually buy it yet. Then we stopped by the outlet mall and looked through the Pottery Barn outlet. I was hoping for some awesome sheets, but they didn’t have any in the Twin XL dorm size. However, I did find my ultra-perfect dorm-ready rug. It’s huge, 7′ x 9′, but oval, and it’s blue, pink, green, and white. The braids are made of soft, fuzzy chenille, so it couldn’t be comfier. I also scored some clearance electric blue Pumas at the Puma outlet, and that made me very excited because my other cute & comfy shoes are just about dead. So that was definitely a successful shopping trip.
After all that running around, it was nice to have a calm, relaxed day today… not much that needed to be done, but still not so little that it became boring. I took pictures of the two latest totes, and put a bunch of Butterick patterns up on Ebay. There are a few for purses/totes, one for historical blouses and costumes, and lots and lots of patterns for outfits for young girls. If you’re interested, you can 
With summer in full swing, I love the luxury of taking as long as I like to eat breakfast. Breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day. It’s important, good for you, and a special breakfast can make the whole day better. So I consider it completely worthwhile to spend an extra 20 minutes or so making something that I will thoroughly enjoy. This week, it’s been crêpes.
The hardest part about making crêpes is mastering the cooking process. The batter is thin, and once the pan is hot (medium-high heat) one hand needs to hold the pan while the other pours in about a half cup of batter. Then you quickly swirl the batter around in the pan until you have a nice, round, flat crêpe. After some bubbles have formed on the surface, flip it over! The back side is harder to judge, since you can’t judge its cooking time by looking at the top. But after a few, I got the timing down, and it was so worth it.
Of course, being the goober that I am, I got bored with simply swirling the batter into a circle after the first few. So I decided to try something a bit more creative and daring and came up with what you see on the right. If you guessed “whale”, you were right; it was an attempt. If you had no idea what it was or what it was supposed to be, that is entirely acceptable because it didn’t turn out like it was supposed to. And that was even my second try! But it still tasted great, and provided me with a bit of bonus amusement.