Day 1300: Just You Wait

With every passing hundred blog posts, I tend to pause and reflect a bit about how I got here. After all, it feels like just yesterday that I was celebrating the first hundred, and now they fly by with barely a second thought. I've done a lot of changing and growing up in the past year, and it sort of scares me. I'm embarking on adventures that terrify and excite me all at the same time. Not long ago, I was given the advice that whenever I feel like taking a step backwards, I should step forward instead, and it's by that motto that I've been trying to live my life lately. 

Upon returning from Colorado, my car was packed full of stuff. Some of it we brought with us: our suitcases, a cooler, some snacks, and so on and so forth. But then there was an entire laundry basket filled with purchases from the whole family, sent back with us because we had a car and they'd be flying from Denver. I had a few mugs thrown in, along with some sand and a small bust of Abe Lincoln, but for the most part, my memorabilia consisted of postcards, gathered from as many of the locations we visited as possible. They're easy to transport, and I loved the vintage poster styles available at the National Parks. Figuring I had an entire blank wall back in my apartment, I picked up a variety of cards and finally finished hanging the rest of the decor on the wall above my bed. 

The wall, as you can see above, is a mix of various objects, from arrows to postcards to that giant Hamilcanvas in the middle. I didn't intend it, but I realized after hanging the postcards that this wall is a symbol of something, and it's a lesson that Hamilton and Disney both sort of teach us. Despite the fact that we've been so many places and done so many things - I just trekked across the United States for goodness sake - there's still a million things we haven't done. There's always going to be new places to explore and new experiences to be had, and that's pretty awesome. Walt Disney himself sort of reminded us of that, gone too soon, and yet his dream of Walt Disney World was realized. It continues to change far beyond anything he could have ever imagined, and while we mourn the loss of some of the attractions we still love and adore, we must keep moving forward. 

Essentially, we live on a planet that is impossible to see in one lifetime. We could travel everyday of our lives and still not make it to every city or community, and even if we did manage to see every single one, we'd never truly experience any of them. We can never relive history, but we can change it in our day to day lives. We can control our own fates, and unless we take that step forward, we're never going to see anything beyond the blank wall in our bedroom. 

Have a magical day! 

Day 1248: The Fifth Room

Since we finally moved into our fifth and final housing assignment on campus, and because I just happened to have the good camera here with me, I figured it was time to take some detail shots of the Disney in our new apartment. It took over three days before everything was in place and finally set up, but we're really happy with how it's all turned out, and with all the natural light we get thanks to living on the third floor, pictures are a lot easier than they were in the last place.

Starting in our living room, the most obvious Disney can be found in our attraction posters, which have traveled with us from our last two homes before ending up on the wall above our couch.

Of course, one of the oldest pieces of artwork in our apartment is our Once Upon a Time quote canvas, which I created a year and a half ago for our wall that we intended for Christmas lights. The lights burned out a while ago, but I managed to find some new ones, so in reality, this wall hasn't changed much...or at least, the setup hasn't. The wall has definitely changed. I mean...it's a different wall. 

There are several smaller Hidden Mickeys around the apartment, but the newest is the pressed penny Mickey my best friends recently gave me. It currently sits on top of our fireplace, which holds an ever growing collection of odds and ends. 

My desk, unlike previous years, sits on the side of our living room. Because our bedroom is rather small and cramped, I decided to move my desk to give us more space, and really I love the amount of light it brings in. If you look closely, many of the little elements have remained the same since my Freshman year, although the picture frames now feature significantly more Colin O'Donoghue. Either way, I took a few extra detail shots of some of the newer elements of the desk. You can click on them to see larger versions of each photo too!

Heading right next door into our open floor plan kitchen, I realized that I hadn't really shared some of the details there. I'm sure I've mentioned the "Kitchen Kabaret Gang" before, but we also have quite the collection of Disney magnets on our fridge, because apparently the attraction posters on the wall weren't enough for us.

In the bedroom, our bookshelf stands pretty much the same way it has in the last two apartments we've lived in. My set of Haunted Mansion Marble Busts keep my fairy tale collection in order. 

 

On the shelf down below that there's a few other random books that I keep on hand, but for the most part it's filled with more Disney merch, from a limited edition Killian Jones Funko Pop Megan got for me, to my CarsLand Oil Can, to my Disneyland Starbucks Mugs. Really, this is the most Disneyland area in my entire apartment...weird. 

And then, back in our entryway, we have the largest canvas in our apartment, which made an appearance late last year...meaning it's also the newest as of right now. That'll change soon, but all in all, the "Let's Go Fly a Kite" canvas is made up of 10 individual canvases and honestly is sort of a pain to hang, so I'm glad it's up and that we won't have to take it down for a year. We also have a mirror right by our door, so I suppose you get a picture of the photographer. 

And that's about it. There's definitely more Disney in our apartment than this, but really you've already seen most of it in past posts, and I really wanted to highlight some of the newer things or smaller details that you normally wouldn't see. After all, when decorating with Disney it's all about being subtle while also letting your inner Disnerd come out. That's sometimes difficult, but once it's done right, an empty apartment really starts to feel like a home...or at least a satisfying place to live while waiting to go back to Disney World. 

Have a magical day!