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It’s cold and snowy in much of the country and when kids can’t go outside they are easily bored. Combat that boredom with an afternoon spent making ornaments. These 10 Disney ornaments from spoonful.com are for all ages and experience levels and perfect for a group of kids. I really like the snow globe ornaments. You can put any scene in them that you want. I have some miniature princess figurines that would be fun to include.

These ornaments are more than just decorations for your tree. You can embellish a package with them or hang them from the banister. They could also decorate a small tree in a child’s room. The Mickey String Ornament would even make a nice gift for someone who loves Disney as much as you do. The ideas are boundless so start printing and get creating. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: If you are looking for a gift anyone would love, one that doesn’t have to be dusted and goes with every tree, consider getting them a Disney ornament. There are so many to choose from and you can make it special by giving them their favorite character. I would be excited to get a Sleeping Beauty or Winnie the Pooh ornament. Which character would your family like to receive?

Image from www.spoonful.com

I love advent calendars. I love the idea of counting down each day until Christmas, and if there is a treat along with it than that is even better. I also love to do crafty things so when I found these advent calendar ideas on spoonful.com I was excited.

My advent calendar is a wooden tree that I made in high school. I found it again in college and turned it into an advent calendar by screwing twenty-three hooks into it and making a miniature ornament for each day. Day 24 is for the angel on top. It is fun to decorate the tree each day and a tradition that I enjoy. The paper tree advent calendar reminds me of my own tree.

My favorite one of these advent calendars is the forest of trees. It would be really fun to make the trees with the whole family. I would put a Hershey kiss under each tree and then everyone in the family could take turns removing a tree. When I was a kid we had a simple advent calendar with doors. My brother and I took turns opening the doors, but we both wanted to do the even days so we could open door number 24. I smile when I think of that.

Do you have an advent calendar tradition? If you don’t perhaps you could start your tradition by getting together with your family and making an advent calendar. Then you’ll have great memories every December as you count down the days, and something more to smile about. Happiness squared.

Goofy Craft: Need some Disney in your decorating? This advent calendar is full of your favorite Disney characters. I know I would have a blast opening these doors every day until Christmas.

Image from www.spoonful.com

Christmas cards are fraught with problems. If you don’t send any then you feel guilty when you receive some from friends and family. If you type up a nice family letter you hear that it is considered bragging. The photo cards are nice, but they take planning and it is already after Thanksgiving. You could just send an email card, but they are hard for people to enjoy the whole season. What is the answer?

My answer is to do whatever you want. It is the thought that counts. But if you want to send cards that everyone is sure to love consider having your kids make cards. This is easier than it sounds. While the kids are home for Thanksgiving break pull out the paper, the crayons, the scissors, and the glue. And if you need some ideas check out these cards from spoonful.com.

Any card made by a child is special and they cannot do it wrong. If you want to make lots of cards that are the same, like the gingerbread man card, you can set it up assembly-line style. I really like these cards because they are made with sandpaper and I think that is so inventive. They also have cinnamon and nutmeg rubbed on the sandpaper so they smell good and the card becomes an ornament. If you didn’t want to add the scroll you could just write on the back of the gingerbread man. Any of these cards can be adapted to your needs. That is part of the fun of making handmade cards. They are perfect in every way.

In one afternoon you can have all your cards ready to go. As a reward for being so organized you can make a fun card holder for your own house. I like the one made with an upside down tomato stake. Talk about creative! You’ll need it because when everyone receives your awesome card they will feel guilty and send a card back to you. Happiness squared.

Goofy Craft: If you are super organized get the perfect Christmas card photo while you are visiting the Disney parks during the year. Pack Santa hats in your backpack and find the perfect backdrop. Everyone dons a hat and you have your picture. With a little planning you can end your Christmas card stress!

Okay, so my Mickey sketch looks a lot like this.

Can you draw? Whenever anyone ever asked me that I always said, no. I told them I couldn’t even draw good stick figures. I wasn’t being modest. I thought it was true. I was terrible at drawing. So imagine my surprise when I learned to sketch at The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While it was true that my Mickey Mouse wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t horrible either. I learned that I may not be able to draw, but I could sketch something that made me happy.

In honor of Mickey Mouse’s birthday, he is 85 years old today, I encourage everyone to try sketching Mickey Mouse. To help you do this well click on this video from spoonful.com and get a lesson from the experts. The nice part about learning from a video instead of being there in person is you can watch the animator over and over until you understand what he is doing. The goal here is not to draw the best looking Mickey Mouse ever. It is to sketch a Mickey Mouse face that makes you happy. I think if you are being creative but you are not happy then you are doing it wrong. And Mickey’s birthday is definitely a day to be happy. Happiness squared.

Goofy Craft: Once you have sketched Mickey Mouse don’t put your creation in a drawer. Turn it into a birthday card, or a place mat, or put it in your Disney scrapbook. If you see it a lot you’ll be encouraged to do more, and the more you sketch the better you’ll get. Remember this, if I, a non-drawer, can sketch, than you can do it, too.

Image from www.spoonful.com

Daylight savings time has come to an end for most of us. What I notice most is how it is dark before six o’clock. And the evenings are getting longer every day. It is time to find fun indoor activities that allow you to stay warm and keep the boredom at bay.

Since Thanksgiving is only two weeks away I thought this would be a good time to make some decorations for the season. Christmas may be in all the stores but wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate your house. Instead make some fun fall decorations featuring your favorite Disney characters.

These printables by spoonful.com have a great variety of ideas. One night you could make a fun Mickey scarecrow and the next you could color a Winnie-the-Pooh picture. By Thanksgiving you will have the best decorated house in town. My favorite idea is the silhouette lanterns. You can choose between Bambi, Winnie the Pooh, and Lady and the Tramp (guess which one I am picking). Place a battery-operated tea light inside it and you’ll have a lovely decoration to keep the darkness away. Happiness squared.

Goofy Food: When you are not making fun crafts why not head to the kitchen and make something with the perfect autumn ingredient…pumpkin! Spoonful.com has over forty pumpkin recipes for you to try. I can’t decide which one to make first.

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Halloween is tomorrow and nothing says Happy Halloween more than a jack ‘o-lantern glowing on your porch. I always carve my pumpkins as close to Halloween as I can because they get moldy really quickly. If you have not carved a pumpkin yet, or if you want to add more to your collection (you can’t have too many jack ‘o-lanterns) check out these great pumpkin carving templates from spoonful.com. They are easy enough for novices to do and everyone will be really impressed with your carving ability. Happiness Squared.

Goofy Quote: (One of my favorite Halloween movies is the Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. This animated movie does a fantastic job of telling the tale of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Bing Crosby sings and narrates the story and it is suitably spooky. This is the last line of the film. Imagine it in a Bing Crosby’s voice. I get chills just reading it.)

Next morning, Ichabod’s hat was found, and close beside it, a shattered pumpkin, but there was no trace of the schoolmaster. It was shortly thereafter that Brom Bones led the fair Katrina to the altar. Now, rumors persisted that Ichabod was still alive, married to a wealthy widow in a distant county. But of course, the settlers refused to believe such nonsense, for they knew the schoolmaster had been spirited away by the Headless Horseman.

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I love podcasts. I listen to dozens of them every week. I like podcasts about Disney, science, running, history, food, medicine, and any other topic that catches my interest. Usually though, the only podcasts that talk about Disney topics are Disney podcasts. So imagine my surprise when Stuff you Missed in History Class did not one, but two shows about the history of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Cool.

This is one of my favorite podcasts and they talk about such a diverse amount of stuff (history tends to be pretty diverse) I shouldn’t be surprised that they did a Disney topic. I had no idea that the building of the Haunted Mansion had such an interesting story. I learned a ton about the history of Disneyland and the Haunted Mansion. Did you know that the idea for the Haunted Mansion first came up in 1951 but the attraction was not completed until 1969? Amazing!

If you would like to listen to these shows (and I hope you do because they are really fun) click here to find the podcast in iTunes, or you can search for it on Stitcher. These shows are perfect to listen to right now because Halloween is coming and few things are as spooky and fun as the Haunted Mansion. Happiness squared.

Goofy Crafts: If you would like to turn your house into the Haunted Mansion spoonful.com has a lot of great craft ideas.  With most of them you just have to print, cut, glue, and use. Perfect for last minute Halloween decorations. Click here to see the entire spooky list.

So, grab some crayons, colored pencils, markers, or highlighters, anything that puts color on a piece of paper. You may be tempted to use your computer but I don’t recommend it. I want you to color like when you were a child and that means by hand. If you want to you can print out a picture to color from your computer, but then step away from the keyboard.

Now that you have paper and crayons start coloring. I like to color pictures from coloring books because I am not very good at drawing, however, if all you have is a blank piece of paper, don’t stress. Remember, this is supposed to be fun. Draw a pumpkin. Anyone can do that. There is no such thing as a wrong-looking pumpkin. Then draw a jack-’o-lantern face on it. Once that is done color in your pumpkin. You’ll notice that as you color your mood will change. It’s tough to be unhappy and color.

Once you are done display your art where you can see it. Now when you are stressed you can look at your pumpkin and relax. It may be Wednesday, but the weekend will be here soon enough. Then you’ll have lots of time to color. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: If you happen to be at Disneyland and you want to color something, head over to the Halloween Carnival at the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree. They have tables set up so Guests of all ages can color a Halloween mask. I colored a bat and Mickey Mouse himself told me I was doing a great job.

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Halloween is the one time of the year when we can celebrate evil Disney villains. Why would we do this? Aren’t we supposed to hate the villians? Aren’t they the bad guys? Don’t they mess up the lives of our lovely princesses and brave princes? Sure, but if there were no villains there would be no story. Who wants to read a story that goes like this:

Snow White had a happy life and when she was a teenager she wished for a prince. One showed up and they got married and lived happily ever after.

Boring!!!

In fact, there is probably no happily ever after if there are no villains, because without the villain the prince and princess would think life is always cheerful and they would become as bored with it as the reader does. So we should thank a villain for strengthening our favorite stories and not boring us to tears.

How can we celebrate villains? It’s easy with the help of spoonful.com. My favorite idea is to make villain cupcakes with paper toppers. They would be great for a class Halloween party or a Halloween party at your house. If you are going to have a party at your house you’ll need invitations and spoonful.com has some awesome ones you can print out. Why not have everyone get dressed up as their favorite Disney villain? There are a variety of masks and hats that can be made as party favors.

If you celebrated Disney villains in April it might seem weird, but October is the perfect time to show of your (slightly) evil side. Just avoid anyone who offers you an apple. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: Even though you don’t want to accept poisoned apples I would have lots of apples at my Disney villain party. Bob for apples. Serve baked apples, sliced apples with caramel dip, and apple juice. Play pin the apple on Snow White and give apples as party favors.

Image from www.spoonful.com

Goofy. Pluto. Zero. Lady and the Tramp. Walt Disney obviously loved dogs since he created so many memorable canine characters. Why not celebrate Disney dogs during the dog days of summer? Spoonful.com has cool crafts and recipes that will have you howling with delight.

Cupcakes are all the rage and spoonful.com has two different types with dog themes. If you are looking for some fun try the dalmation cupcakes. If you want something a little sweeter serve the spaghetti and meatball cupcakes inspired by Lady and the Tramp.  Either will be drool worthy.

Crafts are always a fun thing to do at a party and everyone will have something neat to bring home. These items are much more appealing than a cheap plastic party favor. I like doorknob signs and kids can choose between Goofy and the dogs from Up. With these craft ideas there is something for everyone.

So why not have a party to celebrate the end of summer or the start of a new school year. Dogs makes a fun theme and everyone has a favorite Disney dog. Surprise! Mine is Goofy. I bet you’d never guess. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: It is not hard to make spaghetti and meatball cupcakes but it does take time. If you want to enjoy the cupcake without doing any of the work then have a meal at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The spaghetti and meatball cupcake is one of the dessert items available. These cupcakes are big so you might want to share.