A Disnerd Birthday Adventure, part 3: Fashion & Fun

Fashion
I was absolutely GIDDY that the vast majority of my party guests showed up in Disney-inspired outfits as requested. Yes, I indicated that it was not optional, but I kind of expected that some people wouldn't take me seriously. But to my delight, most of my friends participated... or maybe I should say...humored me.

First, my fabulous outfit. :) As you might have guessed, I was Flynn Rider! It's not so much Flynn as it is the actor Zachary Levi that I love. But it seemed appropriate to wear this for my birthday! The teal blouse (Old Navy) and skinny jeans (ModCloth) are both new. So, not quite an outfit on a budget, but I decided they were my birthday gift to myself. Everyone's allowed an exception when they're having an epic birthday.

And here are some of the other fabulous outfits! Click on the pictures to view bigger and read captions.

Thanks to Abi for these photos!

Thanks to Allison for these photos!

Not pictured: Carolyn as Cruella deVil & Amy as Goofy.

After the votes came in, Tiana (Rapunzel), Stephanie (Snow White), Elizabeth (Eeyore) and Kylene (Maleficent) went home as reigning Disnerd Fashionistas! Seriously though, I was super impressed by everyone's outfits. From Cassie's snake skin shoes (Jafar) to Laura's fishscale nails (Ariel), everyone did a great job! I hope you had fun because I sure did!

We also had other fun Disney-themed activities to complete the epic awesomeness. A huge shout-out to Kylene and Mimi for organizing!

Matching Game
Mimi led an icebreaker type game where each of us had a sticker on our back, with either a Disney hero/heroine, villain or a sidekick on it. We had to figure out who we were and then find our partner by asking each other yes or no questions. This was a great way for all my guests to meet each other, since I had friends from different areas of my life. Let it be noted that I was the first person to figure out my sticker (Pinocchio) and my partner (Abi - Jiminy Cricket)! I knew exactly who I was when I asked, "Am I human?" and someone answered, "Um...well it depends." :)

I have no idea what face I am making in the picture on the right.

Karaoke!
Later on in the evening I broke out the Disney karaoke. This may have been my favorite part of the night. I found a whole bunch of karaoke videos on YouTube that I compiled into a playlist. I hooked up my laptop to my TV and we had a whole hour of Disney karaoke songs! It was both heartwarming and slightly disturbing that everyone knew all the words to every song. (I knew I wasn't the only one!) Disney songs work well for karaoke because you are allowed to be both dramatic and silly. Plus, most of the songs are within my vocal range.

why do i look so earnest? and yes, that is a Disney Princess microphone (that someone gave me a while back)

I took a couple videos but this is by far my favorite. Drew totally embraced his Gaston-ness in this clip:

Who What Where
Kylene organized our last game, and by then we were down to about a dozen people. This is when things really got crazy (aren't you all wishing you had stayed longer? haha). We played a Disney version of "Who What Where". It's sort of like Pictionary but a little more involved. In each round we had to pick out pieces of paper with a "Who" - all Disney characters, a "What" and a "Where." Then we had to draw that scene. As you might imagine, hilarity ensued. See if you can guess some of these masterpieces (answers at the end of this post):

my drawing

Laura S's drawing

Amy's drawing

Christopher's drawing

All in all, this was probably the best birthday party I have ever had. I throw a good party, if I say so myself. ;) But it wouldn't have been possible without the help of so many friends, and for everyone who came to celebrate with me. I felt incredibly blessed and cared for that night. It was the perfect way to ring in my 30th year and cap off this crazy Disnerd Adventure! Thanks for being a party of my epic day!

I've got at least 2 more posts coming before I say goodbye, so stay tuned!


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Who What Where answers: (1) Aladdin break dancing in a tent (2) Cheshire Cat bowling in Madison (3) Ursula segue-ing on a mountain (4) Cogsworth pole vaulting in a cave

A Disnerd Birthday Adventure, part 1: Decorations

My birthday party was AWESOME! I'm still kind of on a high from all the fun I had that night. Actually, I can't really think of anything that would have made the party better, other than having my family and other close friends there. In fact there is so much epic-ness to cover that I need to break this up into a few posts.

First we will begin with my favorite element of the party: decorations! (This is a long post but it's mostly pictures.)

Those of you who know me or who have been following my blog have probably figured out that I'm a bit of a craft nerd. So I held nothing back at the challenge of creating a Disnerd-ified space on a budget.

Here's what I came up with!

Everyone at the party kept asking me, "How did you come up with all of this?" Well, part of it was my own creative genius, obviously. But the other part was lots of time on Google. The Internet is pretty handy, I must say. ;)

I started with the idea that I was going to use Disney children's books purchased at Goodwill as my materials. I bought these 14 books for a steal, $25! (Sorry to Goodwill shoppers, there are no longer any Disney books in stock.) From these books I made garland, ornaments and coasters.

Garland
Materials needed: 2-inch hole punch, string, scotch tape

Basically I punched holes out of the paper and taped them along the string. It was pretty simple though admittedly took a very long time. In the end I think I must have made, oh I dunno, maybe 250 feet of garland? That's a rough guess. Before I put them up I laid it all out across my living room. But this is actually only a portion of it here.

I had planned on just making garland when I bought the books, but I realized I had so much paper than I should probably do some other stuff with it as well. After some Googling and browsing on Etsy, I found these two ornaments that were pretty easy to make.

Pinwheels (from here) 
Materials needed: paper trimmer, stapler, hole punch, string

I used two pages each cut in half lengthwise after trimming the ripped edges. I folded each of the 4 halves into twelfths, accordion style. This was the most time consuming, but I fell into a rhythm by first folding in half, then fourths, to make my folds even. Then I stapled one end together to make a fan.

After all four halves were folded, I stapled the non-stapled ends together to form a circle.

Then I punched a hole through it, tied a piece of string on, and voila!

Lantern balls (from here)
Materials needed: paper trimmer, hole-poker & self healing mat, brads, string

These were a little easier, though it took me a while to figure out that I needed to start with a square shaped piece of paper instead of a rectangle.

I sliced the square into 8 even strips.

Then I pierced two holes through all strips lined up together, about an inch or so away from each end. I fastened the strips together by putting a brad through each hole.

Then I spread out the strips and formed them evenly into a ball shape.

Then I tied string around the top brad, and voila!

Coasters
I had a few board books (for babies) as well as all the hard book covers leftover. So I cut them into 3.5-inch squares and made coasters out of them! Since they have glossy surfaces I didn't need to laminate them. I did add cork board ($3 for a sheet) to the bottom of a few thinner pieces. These coasters were used at the party but I also gave them away as favors for guests. I still have a bunch left if anyone wants some!

 

A few extra things
I also printed out a small poster of my logo and made people sign it at the party, so I could record who came. And I put up the Tangled birthday banner that I got last year at my work birthday celebration.

The bottom line
Total cost for decorations: approximately $36. Not bad, I say! 

Total hours spent: unknown. :) I did this over the course of about 2 weeks. So yes, it took a long time. But seeing the impressed reaction of all my friends made it totally worth it!

Next up: food!

An Artful Accident: Milwaukee Art Museum

Last weekend I spent the day at the Milwaukee Art Museum with my artsy designer friends, Courtney and Grete. We were there especially to check out a special exhibit on Posters in Paris from the late 19th/early 20th century. I felt very sophisticated and smart talking about design with them all afternoon. (No pictures were allowed in that exhibit, unfortunately.)

Milwaukee Art Museum from the outside - it's a beautiful building!

the main entrance has a really amazing ceiling

After that exhibit we wandered upstairs to check out other things in the museum, and what did we come across?

An exhibit about Disney animation!!! 

Needless to say, I was really excited. Even though the exhibit was clearly designed for people who are three feet tall.

The entrance to the exhibit featured my favorite character from The Incredibles: Dash!

The exhibit displayed how Disney artists were influenced by classical art to create not only beautiful but authentic designs. Art from throughout history have served as inspiration for the animated worlds created in Disney films. I was impressed by the wide variety of work that lent ideas towards a single film's overall look. As a designer myself, it was cool to get a glimpse inside Disney artists' "creative process."

The Beast transformation scene inspired by a Michelangelo sculpture

An antique candelabra and teapot as models for Lumiere and Mrs. Potts

Some of concept artist Mary Blair's inspiration for Cinderella - Picasso, Matisse and Braque

On one wall there was a matching game where you had to match up scenes from Disney or Pixar films with the art piece that inspired them. Grete and Courtney made me play the game to see if I was both a credible Disney and art fan. Since this game was clearly geared towards kids, I was relieved when I got every one correct!

Matching Disney scenes with classic art that inspired them: success!

In addition to the side by side comparisons, the exhibit also featured some original character sketches and scuptures, as well as storyboard excerpts. The Disnerd and art nerd in me were kind of going a little nuts at the chance to see those up close and in person.

An original sketch of Maleficent, from Sleeping Beauty

character scuptures from Finding Nemo

Storyboard pictures from various Pixar films

So, it was a wonderful day of nerding out about art. I'm really glad we decided to explore the rest of the museum. What a happy accident!

Disney Princess Week

I'm a little disappointed I missed the opportunity to blog during most of Disney Princess Week. But there are still two days left, so I thought I'd share some of the more interesting or funny princess-related things I've found or that I've been sent since this whole Disnerd project began.

Princesses as Sailor Scouts

photo credit: findlaydonnan.wordpress.com

If you aren't familiar with Sailor Moon and pals, then you may not get why this is pretty much the coolest thing ever. Especially because I was a huge Sailor Moon fan in 8th grade, and because my favorite scout, Sailor Mercury, is depicted as Mulan!

"Real" Disney Princesses (& other female characters)

photo credit: jirkavinse.wordpress.com

I find these illustrations very intriguing because they make you realize how caricatured these female characters are. Which, to be fair, makes sense, considering they are drawings. Still though, just because the original characters are drawn doesn't mean they have nothing to say about body image. I find it particularly interesting that the faces which look most different from the cartoon versions are Mulan, the only Asian/Chinese girl, and Tiana, the only Black girl.

Princesses in period garb

photo credit: Claire Hummel at shoomlah.com

Thank you to Veronica for sending me this! These really cool illustrations depicting the princesses in more intricately styled clothing (and more cleavage, in some cases) make me a little jealous. Not because of the cleavage, but because I lack illustration skills!

Princesses as villains

I apologize to whoever created this; I cannot remember where I found it.

This was a great idea. I think Pocahontas as Governor Ratcliffe looks the most ridiculous. And Aurora as Malificent looks rather fabulous, actually. We're just missing Tiana as Dr. Facilier and Rapunzel as Mother Gothel. I'll bet that means this is a few years old.

Hipster princesses

thanks to Liz, Stacey and a few others I can't remember who sent me this. I don't know its origin.

Apparently there's this whole hipster princesses movement that I was unaware of! I guess I could say I was a Disnerd, before it was even a term. So does that make me a Disney hipster?  For more Disney princess hipster memes, check out the original Little Mermaid ones, and another collection of even more.

photo credit: viria13.deviantart.com

Here's one more hipster princess illustration. I'm kind of loving Snow White and Tiana's outfits. Also, did you spot the one non-Disney princess? Thanks to the friends (sorry I can't remember who) who sent me this.

Disney Housewives


Lastly, a Saturday Night Live video sketch. It's hilarious. Enough said. Thanks to Pete for sending it!