Floppy Hats & Family Time

Dear Disney Darlings,
I must rave about my newest Disney find! A Minnie Mouse floppy hat! Yes, you did read that correctly. I have been looking for a cute floppy hat for a while, because let's face it, with short hair hats can make me look like a little boy. This one is girly enough to avoid the dreaded little boy hat/hair scenario.

I, of course, found this hat at Target. I am perfectly fine saying that I have a slight Target addiction and naturally I went in looking for toothpaste and came out with a hat. Makes sense right? Honestly how could I pass this up? Naturally I celebrated my new floppy hat purchase with some Starbucks and my little family (yes, Penny comes with us pretty much everywhere we go). Which reminds me, I tried their new coconut milk mocha macchiato. My official verdict was that it was pretty good but a little too sugary for me, I like a little more coffee in my coffee. Anywho I digress, in case you did not notice I am in overalls again. Let's have a little honest moment, I spend at least two days a week in overalls. I have worn overalls steadily pretty much my whole life, as you can tell I am not so concerned with fashion as I am with wearing what you like and being yourself. Who wants to spend an entire day in clothes that make them feel uncomfortable? Not me! The overalls I am currently wearing are my all time favorites! They are from Free People and are pretty much the softest most comfortable article of clothing I have ever worn. Of course I had to get them in black, for some reason 90 percent of my clothes are in black. I have a bad habit of picking up a darling article of clothing and putting it back while saying "dang, I would buy it if it were black".

Naturally we followed up our day with the new Ghostbusters movie with friends. I will not lie to you my Disney Darlings, I am fan-girling hard over that movie. I have decided that the character Holtzmann is my spirit animal! I seriously might go see it again I like it so much. Whelp that sums up my weekend! Until next time my Disney Darlings!

Sincerely,
The Disney Dame

Hello Disney Darlings

Heading to Disneyland Paris

Dear Disney Darlings,
I feel it is about time I introduce myself! Hello there, I'm Kari. I currently reside in Idaho (yes home of the potato) and I love it. As you may have noticed I am completely obsessed with all things Disney, however I can typically be found listening to classic rock (Aerosmith is my jam) and sucking down a Starbucks coffee. Balloons and bubbles make me happy so you will probably see a lot of them in my pictures!

I live with my darling husband, Mitch, and my fur baby, Penny. Eight years ago I was fortunate enough to meet Mitch. I have never had so much fun with anyone in my whole life. He is the type of person to always make me laugh and lets me be completely weird and unashamed. For example we both recently caved and started playing Pokemon Go (I know, I know), that lead to us running around town catching various little critters while stopping for intermittent ice cream breaks. He has always been so terrific with putting up with my Disney obsession. While he enjoys Disney he is not quite as crazy as I am (a character flaw I am willing to overlook haha). One of my favorite things about Mitch is that he is always up for an adventure. I am so lucky to be able to have a partner in crime to plan all of our adventures together (Stay tuned for our next Disneyland adventure coming up this September)!

When I am not with my husband I am working, and let's be honest, I work A LOT. I am a Developmental Specialist for infants and toddlers with delays and disabilities. I absolutely love my job. I get to spend my days with the sweetest little babes and their Mamas helping them to meet their milestones. I am not going to lie to you, it can be extremely challenging and the amount of research that goes into my job is crazy. That being said my job has allowed me to meet some of the most beautiful little souls in the whole wide world. I honestly love every one of my little babes and I enjoy meeting the challenges they present head on. 

Sincerely,
The Disney Dame

At the Eiffel Tower

Disney Dame Art

Dear Disney Darlings,
I have decided to share my Disney art collection with you. Every time Mitch and I go to Disneyland we buy a piece of art for our house. I like to find pieces that are limited edition and numbered. We have started quite the collection. The pieces I am going to share here are some of my favorites, however we have many more adorning our walls.

This first pictures is one of my favorites because it was purchased after Mitch and I got engaged. If you look really closely you can see the castle reflected in Mickey's eye.

This second piece I'm featuring currently hangs above our bed. I love this pastel picture because we bought it in Disneyland Paris while we were on our honeymoon!

And last but certainly not least, my very favorite picture to date. When I was born my parents bought this Cinderella picture for me. They kept it safe for 24 years and when I graduated with my Masters degree my Mom had it framed for me. It now hangs in my living room and reminds me of my parents every time I see it.

Sincerely,
The Disney Dame

My Litte Love

Dear Disney Darlings,
I feel it is time that I introduce you to the furry little love of my life. My sweet little pup, Penny. Being the Disney fans we are Mitch and I had to name her after a Disney character. When I was growing up I was slightly obsessed with the Disney movie "The Rescuers" so Penny seemed like a fitting name for my sweet little pup.

I am sure many of you have already figured out that I am a Disney nerd at heart. Well my other passion in life is animals. I am pretty much obsessed with my little Penny pup. Penny is a 4 year old yorkie mix. We rescued her two years ago from a foster system that takes kennel stressed and high risk animals out of the shelter. Since my furry little love has come into my life I have done my best to advocate for rescue pets and try to raise awareness to help people understand that shelter pets are not "broken" or "unadoptable", that being said I do understand that some animals need a lot of work and effort to be good family pets. Mitch and I are incredibly lucky to end up with little miss Penny. She came to us already housebroken, kennel trained, leash trained and she knows her basic commands. She ended up in the shelter because her previous human passed away. Once she was there she was not gaining attention from adopters because she had a past history of UTI's. Since placing her on the correct diet and making sure she gets enough water she has been a breeze! As you can tell I cannot say enough good things about my little pup and I hate to think of other sweet little babes waiting in the shelter for families of their own which is why when I am not obsessing over the joys of Disney I am advocating for rescue pets. Naturally being the obsessive pup parent that I am I started an instagram for Penny called pawsitive_penny! I came by her instagram name because first of all it is punny, secondly I cannot resist a good alliteration, and lastly because I have never met a happier little creature in my entire life! So if you are following along on this little blog journey of mine be prepared for Penny to make regular appearances!

Now since I know you want to see pictures of my darling little dog, I will stop gushing and let you experience the cuteness for yourself!

Sincerely,
The Disney Dame

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day my Disney Darlings!
My family and I started our Independence day festivities last night with our annual BBQ and baseball game! We had such a blast hanging out together. Even some of my in-laws were able to join us! Today however, Mitch and I celebrated with a little date night, which of course consisted of Disney attire! I wore my festive Minnie bow shirt, complete with polka dot converse of course, and Mitch was decked out in his Star Wars shirt, complete with blue converse naturally! Being the punny couple that we are we went to the new "Independence Day" movie. I will admit since I am used to happy go lucky cartoons it was a little bit scary for me, but all in all we had a fantastic time and followed it up with a laughter filled dinner! Naturally we had to document our adventures in pictures!

"I get red, white, and blue at times"
-Walt Disney-

Sincerely,
The Disney Dame

 The little furry love of my life, Penny, had to jump into some of our pictures of course! A friendly reminder to all pet parents to keep your little loves safe this 4th!!

Disneyland Here We Come!

Dear Disney Darlings,

We have some exciting news! That's right! Mitch and I are headed for Disneyland in September! In case you had not noticed I am slightly obsessed with balloons. I mean come on, how can anyone be unhappy with a balloon? Therefore we had to celebrate the announcement of our trip with balloons. We are going to be spending an entire week in the happiest place on Earth! Now keep in mind when my family goes to Disneyland it is not a relaxing trip. We take our Disney adventures very seriously! We arrive before the gates open at the beginning of the day and we leave as they close for the evening (occasionally we will go back to our hotel to take a quick cat nap in between). This will not be an ordinary Disney trip, however. My parents recently retired and we are taking this trip to kick off their retirement adventures. Mitch and I could not be more excited to help them celebrate!

Prepare yourselves my friends as will will be talking about planning our trip and documenting everything in pictures of course!

"Adventure is out there!"
-UP
The Disney Dame

By the way how cute are these #snackgoals shirts from Oh Yeah Apparel?! They are honestly my new favorite thing!

Hello my Disney Darlings!
I would like to start out by saying I am in no means a blogger. I am just an Idaho girl with a love of Disney. That being said bare with me as a stumble my way through my first post!

I would like to dedicate this post to my fantastic husband, Mitch Dame. He never ceases to amaze me. He has always endured my Disney obsession, and lets face it, he even partakes in the Disney magic every now and then. Mitch has always had this uncanny ability to know how to make me happy. Whether it is making funny faces, spontaneous date nights, or simply surprising me with a Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic he always brightens my day.

The photo above depicts one of the ways he brings a smile to my face. I am currently wearing all my favorite pieces of jewelry from Mitch. Naturally they all have some kind of Disney affiliation. The Mickey ears necklace (found on the disneystore.com website) was a Christmas present from him. My engagement ring was designed by him and given to me at... you guessed it... Disneyland! That brings us to the black diamond ring on my right hand. He gave me this gorgeous surprise today, on my birthday! It is the Malificent ring (found on catbirdnyc.com).

While sparkly surprises are always welcome it is the things that Mitch does for me on a daily basis that make him incredible. I could not have asked for a more caring and spectacular human being to spend the past 9 birthdays and all of my remaining birthdays with.

"Real rewards await those who choose wisely"
The Disney Dame