Day 702: 101 Smiles

Here we have another post that definitely involves Jennifer Morrison. December 3rd marked the end of something JMo started in an attempt to bring more positivty to Twitter, called #101Smiles. The concept was simple, is simple, you post a picture a day, for 100 days, of something that made you smile. It can be anything, and some pages, such as The Ugly Ducklings page, gave daily challenges of something that made you smile within a certain category.

It just so happens that #101Smiles started on the very first day of classes here at SNC, meaning that the challenge took place over the majority of the fall semester of my sophomore year of college, and it's taught me a lot of lessons. As I said on Twitter, #101Smiles is something I didn't even know I needed. It's one of the main reasons I came out of the last two years with an extremely positive attitude, and it's certainly brought me a lot of smiles over the past 100 days. So let's take a look back. Here's the collage I put on Day 101, made up of most of the pictures I shared over the 101 days:

There were a lot of great moments stuck in there, such as the time that I made Jennifer Morrison crave churros (see THIS POST for more on that story), or that time she liked our dorm room (HERE!). There's the CaptainSwan tea, and Baby Sven (Also liked by JMo!), Halloween with my darling roommates, movie times, cupcakes, Starbucks, weird adventures, tweets, Disneybounds, Fastpass reservations and plenty, and I mean plenty, of smiles. 

I did this challenge on a whim. After all, why wouldn't I? Jennifer Morrison is one of my role models and certainly is my favorite actress, so when I saw the opportunity to join in, I jumped on the band wagon faster than you can type a tweet. What I didn't expect was for it to lift my mood so much. Just sitting down at the end of the night and thinking "What made me smile today?" lifted my mood and definitely made me a happier person. 

So here's a HUGE thank you to Jennifer Morrison for starting this, and a special shoutout to the #UglyDucklings that made me and so many others feel loved. I'm definitely sad to the see the end of #101Smiles, but I can't wait for the next one, #101Smiles2015. 

If you didn't participate in the challenge, that's alright! It's never too late to start, and just because I'm finished and so is Jen, it doesn't mean that you can't join in on the fun. There's still tons of people facing the challenge of a picture a day of a smile, and I highly recommend that you do the challenge, no matter where you are. Just because it's past Day 101 doesn't mean we have to stop smiling! 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 19 due to finals). 

Day 535: $10000

Generic Blog Post Topic Ideas are easy to come by. The hard part is still associating them to Disney in a way that both makes sense and is something I haven't yet really talked about. Some of these topics lend themselves rather well, while others simply just don't even make it onto the list of possible ideas. This, however, is one of the ideas that made it straight onto the list of blog post topics: What would you do with $10,000.

Actually, the original prompt had $1000, but considering the fact that I just calculated how much money it would take to eat everything in Epcot and that adds up to over $8,000, I upped it a little bit, making for a longer stay and a more realistic vacation.

Base Rules: Let's say I already have an annual pass, just to get that out of the way. Let's also say I'm paying for my hotel room, not using DVC points. I can use any of the money, but cannot go over $10,000. I'm also not including airline fees since that just takes time to figure out and calculate.

Let's start from the basics: Hotel.

As much as I'd love to stay at the Grand Floridian, I picked the Contemporary Resort instead, with a Theme Park View. I figured why not, if I had $10,000 to spend of course I'd go for that option. I also picked some random dates: November 9 - November 17, 2015, for 4 adults. For the hotel room it was $5,604.78, meaning I have $4,395.22 left.

Why not take out $500 for shopping right away, huh? $3,895.22.

Let's add in some prospective meals. I have approximately 8 meals that I would have to plan in for reservations, or at least that I'd want to plan in for reservations. After much deliberation I chose the following 8 restaurants:

1. Brown Derby (Hollywood Studios)
2. Chefs de France (Epcot)
3. Be Our Guest (Magic Kingdom)
4. California Grill (Contemporary)
5. Yak & Yeti (Animal Kingdom)
6. Paradiso 37 (Downtown Disney)
7. Todd English's bluezoo (Dolphin)
8. Liberty Tree Tavern (Magic Kingdom)

I went through and picked out dishes from each restaurant for myself. I figure that those traveling with me can pay for their own food, right? With those emails I estimated about $300 for everything I would eat. Of course, this is probably a low-ball number, so let's up it to $350, just to be safe. Then let's add in approximately $15 for the other 9-10 meals I would eat without reservations: $150, with snacks, let's say $200. Total for food? $550 for the trip. Remaining cash: $3,345.22.

Other than that, I'm not really sure what I'd need to buy. Even if you did add on food for other people, totaling it at the same as me, it brings it down to $1,695.22. Plenty leftover.

Now, we're still not including anything like airfare, and if we flew down there's a significant possibility that we'd have a rental car. Unless we drove, then some of that money would go towards gas and the possible night in Nashville on the way down.

But could I do it? Yes. Yes I could. Anyone have $10,000?

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on October 30).

Day 480: The Disney Photo Challenge

Updating Everyday Disney takes an eternity, especially when there's an entire summer and then some to make up. I swear to God I'm never going to get this far behind again because this is just obnoxious. I'm going to be writing all day long! Things are actually going well though. I have topics for about half of the posts I still need to make up (as of August 19), and then as I sat awake last night because of a thunderstorm, a thought occurred to me.

Like many of you, I'm sure, I have the TimeHop app on my phone. I love going back to see what I was doing two or three years ago, because on one hand it makes everything seem so long ago, and yet like it was just yesterday. Over the past few days especially though, there's been a lot on my TimeHop feed, and there's a very good reason for that.

Two years ago, exactly, I was in the middle of the Disney Photo Challenge on Facebook. You know, kind of like the 100 Day Photo Challenge that none of us ever finished that asked us really specific questions and stuff? Yeah, that one. Well I did that Photo Challenge, and I did a Star Wars one too, but that's something for a different day. Maybe once we get a bit closer to the new movie.

So while looking at the blog posts I still needed topics for, I realized that I have a perfect way to come up with a bunch of them and still have it perfectly themed to Disney! The Photo Challenge!

I went through my original challenge this morning to set this idea in stone, and it ended up as hard as concrete. A lot can change in only two years, and nothing says that more than the different answers I would give to those same questions now than what I did then. So I'm going to do the Disney Photo Challenge, again...only instead of on Facebook, this time I'm going to do it right here on my blog.

The Questions/Days are as follow:

Day 1: A picture of you at Disney with 10 reasons you're a Disney lover.
Day 2: A picture of the character you're most like.
Day 3: A picture of your favorite Disney memory.
Day 4: A picture of the way you know you're at a Disney Park.
Day 5: A picture of your least favorite ride or attraction.
Day 6: A picture of something you've never ridden/seen in the parks.
Day 7: A picture of your favorite in-park character.
Day 8: A picture of the ride you miss the most.
Day 9: A picture of your favorite restaurant.
Day 10: A picture of your favorite ride/attraction.
Day 11: A picture of the thing you wish you could change about the parks.
Day 12: A picture of your favorite Disney food item.
Day 13: A picture of your favorite "home" resort.
Day 14: A picture of your favorite night time activity (Existing or past) on Disney property.
Day 15: A picture of what you do when it rains in the park.
Day 16: A picture of your favorite place to shop.
Day 17: A picture of your favorite Disney character.
Day 18: A picture of your favorite guilty Disney pleasure.
Day 19: A picture of something in the park that deserves more attention.
Day 20: A picture of the best way to beat the heat at Disney.
Day 21: The best place to take a picture at Disney.
Day 22: A picture from your favorite Disney movie.
Day 23: A picture of the character you dislike the most.
Day 24: A picture of your favorite Disney-related possession or souvenir.
Day 25: A picture of your favorite childhood Disney memory.
Day 26: A picture of the way you keep Disney alive when you're not at the parks.
Day 27: A picture of the person you most love sharing Disney with.
Day 28: A picture of your favorite place to hide from the crowds.
Day 29: A picture of something you dream about happening to you at a Disney park.
Day 30: A picture that always makes you think of Disney.

Because there are a few posts that ARE written in the next month of blog posts, the entire challenge won't be one after the other, although I'll be sure to make which posts are specifically posts that go along with this challenge, so don't worry! And when they're all up and finished, I'll come back here and link the days to this blog post so there's an easy way to find them all! In addition, I'll share what I said two years ago, and then my current answer, just to see how much things have changed in the last couple of years, both with me and with Disney!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on August 19).

Day 244: Frumpstagram

Hey, it's the start of yet another month here on Everyday Disney, and that means that it's a great time to start a new tradition, or at least start something new for this month!

I'm no stranger to social networking. I mean, have you seen all those things listed to the left? But by far my favorite is Instagram (ok...Pinterest really too. They're kinda tied). I spend a lot of time on Instagram and always love finding new pictures to take. I used it for my July '13 Disney Photo Challenge, and got plenty of great shots that I now adore to death! I use Instagram to promote my blog sometimes, and other times I just use it for my personal use. As I said over a month ago, I am debating starting just a Disney Instagram account as well for Everyday Disney, but for the moment let's just do this.

I normally don't do monthly photo challenges. In fact, the only ones I've done officially have been on Facebook, and the way I do those is I sit down and in one sitting, find all my pictures and type up responses for each of them in a Word Document. Then all I have to do is go through, upload, copy and paste and finish them on the day they need to be up. No extreme thinking involved. I've done two full photo challenges that way (My Disney Photo Challenge and the Star Wars Photo Challenge). It's a fun thing to do, but only if you remember to do it.

On Instagram, there's obviously always all kinds of monthly challenges, and I too have tried for the past two months to complete them. Sadly I only get a couple of days into them. But I found one today that sounds like it's right up my alley. It's from Instagram user Disney_Frump, and sounded like something I could implement right here on Everyday Disney! So I just want to give a quick thank you to her for this awesome challenge!

As you can see, it's an Instagram daily photo challenge based on Disney prompts such as "Welcome Home," "Ears," and "Adventure." Fun, huh? I think it shall be quite the adventure to do it each and everyday both on my Instagram and here on Everyday Disney. Of course, I had to think a little bit about how I'm going to do this because I already have the daily history, and that will continue too. So this is just going to be a one month thing as to not take up a ton of space at the end of every single blog post. I'm pretty sure these things are long enough as it is. Still, I encourage you to do this with me, even if you're starting a couple days late! 

So here's today's #Frumpstagram picture from my Instagram, based on the prompt "Welcome Home."

And here's today's Disney History: 1993: Disney announces that AT&T has renewed its sponsorship of Spaceship Earth at EPCOT Center in the Walt Disney World Resort. Spaceship Earth was originally sponsored by the Bell System from 1982 to 1984. When Bell was broken up into smaller companies in 1984, its parent company, AT&T became its own independent company and began sponsoring Spaceship Earth. It will continue to do so until 2004, when Siemens picks up sponsorship. 

Have a magical day!