My Pumpkin! Click the Link to see it larger!

Pumpkin Carving with a Disney Flair

Today, my family and I are going to carve a couple pumpkins! I love doing this, it is so much fun! Yes, part of it may be I love eating pumpkin seeds, but that's another story.  Being the Disney girl that I am, I naturally would love to carve something Disney into my pumpkin and being the complete non-artist that I am, there is no way I could freehand anything! So, like many people do, I turned to the internet for some help.

I was searching for Disney pumpkin carving stencils and came across quite a lot actually.  To be honest, almost anything could be carved into a pumpkin, any picture you find on the internet could be adapted, it is just knowing how.  Here is a big tip: when deciding to carve something, make sure there are places to connect the pieces together; meaning if you are going to carve out Jack Skellington's Face, do not start by carving a circle because then you have a "Holey Pumpkin". Yay for puns! Anyway, if you wanted to do Jack, you could use a pattern like this:

See how the pumpkin was used as the head and they carved in the features of his face? Gives the same effect.

I found lots of different Disney stencils for carving and I thought I would share some with you here, maybe it will give you an idea on what to carve! And if you have any ideas, please share them, I would love to hear more!!

Princess Pumpkins:

Villain Pumpkins:

The Fab 5 and Other Great Ideas!:

 

 

Hope these were helpful with  your Pumpkin Carving Ideas! As far as what I am going to carve??....I am not sure yet! I will make sure to post a picture of my pumpkin on here for all to see though!

Happy Carving!!!

Formspring Question: How did you and Chris meet?

We met on Twitter actually. He was the host of a Disney radio show that I found out about on twitter and I started listening to it. We began chatting in the show chatroom and on twitter and that is how we started to get to know each other and how we began planning is first visit to the Philadelphia area to visit me.

Ask me anything

Weekly DDL Post

This week on The Disney Driven Life, I look at the new interactive gaming area that has opened up in Downtown Disney's Once Upon a Toy! Looks like a really cool area, can't wait to check it out myself! Click Here to read the article.

Celebrate Halloween in Disney Style!

We are only a week away from Halloween and us Disney fans always have to find some way to incorporate our Disney touches into our celebrations.  The parks do it well with the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, but there are a lot of us (including myself) who are not able to celebrate the season with Mickey.  So, if we cannot visit Mickey in his home, we just have to bring him to ours!

When I think of scary and Disney, there are two attractions that I think of right away; Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion.  There are several ways to incorporate these attractions into your Halloween.  My first and one I find very fun and interesting is http://www.themagical.nl/. I did blog post quite a while ago about this website, but for Halloween, I just had to bring it out again.  This site has ride simulators on them, allowing you to be in charge of and run some of the hit attractions on Disney properties around the world.  For Halloween, there are two simulators that I wanted to highlight, though all of them are good.  There are simulators for Tower of Terror and Disneyland Paris' Phantom Manor (aka Haunted Mansion) and not only are they fun to play around with because you can find out how some of your favorite attractions work, but they have the spooky atmosphere perfect with Halloween.  Play these simulators by yourself or with your children and feel like you are in the parks!

Want to learn everything there is to know about The Haunted Mansion? Check out http://doombuggies.com/ and get everything from pictures and audio clips to personal interviews with Imagineers and where to buy great HM Merchandise! A spooky and fun website for any time of the year!

Another way you cannot go wrong when it comes to Disney and Halloween is with music.  Going back to Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror, these soundtracks make great background music for a Halloween party. If you want to feel like you are in the park celebrating, you could get the Magic Kingdom Event Party Music CD, which has the full soundtracks from the Boo to You Parade, Hallowishes and Halloween Villains Mix and Mingle, among other fun soundtracks including music from the Pirates and Princess Party.  Other music you may not have immediately thought of could be some of your favorite villains "theme songs" per se.  Some of these tracks include "Poor Unfortunate Souls" (Ursula), "Gaston" and "The Mob Song" (Gaston), "Prince Ali (Reprise)" (Jafar), "Be Prepared" (Scar) and so many more! Oh, and don't forget to check the music from Fantasmic, there are lots of villainesque music from that soundtrack as well!

Movies are a great way to get in the Halloween Spirit! Every movie has a villain, which is scary for Halloween, but there are some movies out there that specifically for this time of year.  One scary movie would the The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, as featured on the October 25 Tweetwatch, sponsored by http://www.disneyfilmproject.blogspot.com/ (look for a post about Ryan's project coming soon). The "Halloweentown" series are very cute and fun movies to watch this time of year, my little sister and I love to watch those!  Some others include Black Cauldron, Nightmare Before Christmas (also could be used for Christmas), Haunted Mansion and, from television show "House of Mouse"- "House of Villains".

Those are just some ideas that I have on how to incorporate Disney into your Halloween.  There are tons more ideas of course, I would love to hear how you incorporate Disney into your Halloween! Leave a comment here or send me an email with your ideas!

I will leave you now with just one more idea, a picture that I took at Linvilla Orchards. What would you carve into a Disney pumpkin??

Tron Tuesdays: 9 Weeks

That's right! There are only 9 weeks until Tron: Legacy comes into theaters!

To celebrate this, Walt Disney Pictures has given a few links to share with you, besides all of the awesome concept art I have been able to share.

This Week: Yahoo! Movies has some great "Tron: Legacy" Still shots and posters that are fun to look at.

Make sure to check out those pictures and their other links, including Tron's Official Page and Like Tron on Facebook.

G4tv's Walk Through Disney Video Game History

I received a link from G4tv.com and I just had to share it with you guys! This article is all about walking through Disney history in video games.  In this article, there is an awesome video with footage from the Aladdin game that came out for Gameboy, Genesis and other systems in 1993! That's as old as my little sister! They talk about the history of lots of other games and the platforms; talk about how Disney has changed the platforms over the years! It is not just movie games that are talked about either, they talk about some games that have been made based off the parks as well! There are some screen shots from other games throughout Disney gaming history and a very cool image from Epic Mickey! Check out A Brief History of Disney Video Games - From Aladdin to Kingdom Hearts and more great gaming info on G4tv.com.

Weekly DDL Post

This week on The Disney Driven Life, I talk about a new cuddly friend that arrived in Epcot this past week and some interesting construction walls in the Magic Kingdom.  To read this article, just Click Here and visit www.TheDisneyDrivenLife.com to read all of the other great articles on the site!

Tron: Legacy- The Wardrobe

Before, I posted about the vehicle designs and concept art from Tron: Legacy, so today, I thought I would post some concept art for the costumes used in the movie.

Epic Mickey Exclusive

Courtesy of friends over at G4tv.com, here is a look at some exclusive game footage from Epic Mickey, along with an interview with Warren Spector, Creative Director from Disney Interactive Studios.  There are some AMAZING images from the game, including some scenes that show you that the parks, not just the movies were used in this game and, being a big park fan myself, that really appeals to me with this game.

Click Here to see the Video

What do you think about Epic Mickey?? Are you excited for it's release on November 30th? I know I am! Let me know what your thoughts are. If you would like more information on Epic Mickey, stay tuned here to The True Disney Fan for more news as it is released.

Disneyland's Haunted Mansion: Confused?

I know that in Disneyland, they have layovers for some of their attractions, including Haunted Mansion, which is a pretty cool concept.  I did not know that the Haunted Mansion layover, themed to The Nightmare Before Christmas, happened during Halloween. 

I heard a lot of people complain about this layover and I didn't see what the problem was with it, it was holiday themed and was only for a short time, seemed kind of neat to me.  I didn't have a problem with it because I thought it happened in December. But a Christmas layover during Halloween?? Am I the only one who is confused about this? I do not understand at all why they would put this layover now, it would fit with the Christmas theme much better. Halloween is the Haunted Mansion time, thats when it should be in it's natural form for all to enjoy.  It goes with the season, it makes sense just as it is, why would you change it with a theme for a completely different holiday?

If anyone has information about this that can clear this up, I would be most appreciative, I just do not understand it at all! What do you think?? Leave your comments below or send me an email at lady_aurora_yensid@hotmail.com and let me know.

unKNOWN Actors: Candy Candido

This time on unKNOWN Actors, we are looking at an actor with a very unique voice who played many unique characters.  Johnny Candido, known throughout his work as Candy Candido, was born on December 25, 1913 in New Orleans and died in Los Angeles on May 19, 1999.  Why was Candy so unique you may ask, besides his unique name? Candy’s voice was exceptional, he had a huge range, going from a soprano all the way to a low scratchy baritone.  You hear very few voice actors and singers who are able to do this.  You will recognize Candy’s low gruff voice from many Disney films.

The first Disney film that Candy was in was Peter Pan in 1953. He provided the voice for the Indian Chief who played with the lost boys and Peter Pan.

Sleeping Beauty (1959) was the movie that I recognized his voice from, as it is one of my favorites.  He give a voice to Maleficent’s main goon or henchmen.  He tells Maleficent that they have been searching in all of the cradles looking for Princess Aurora.

Candy was next heard in Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color 10 years later as just an extra voice in the series.  A few years later, in 1973, he leant his voice to the Captain of the Guards in Robin Hood, which happened to be a crocodile.  Most of his lines are during the archery competition scene.

He kept with the animal theme for his next movie, doing the voices of Brutus and Nero, the evil Medusa’s alligators in The Rescuers (1977).

The last movie voice that Candy provided for Disney was in 1986, bringing Fidget, the bat assistant of Ratigan to life in The Great Mouse Detective.

There is one voice that Candy did for Disney theme parks; in the Haunted Mansion attraction, he does the voice of the Graveyard Executioner.

There is a controversy that is found on the internet about whether or not Candy did the noises made by the Raven in both Sleeping Beauty and the Haunted Mansion attraction.  Because of his incredible voice range and the fact that both ravens never had a voice actor listed, it is quite possible that he did do the sound effects for them, we cannot be entirely sure though. What we do know is that Candy’s unique voice can be heard in several Disney films and now you can pick out his distinctive gruffness when you next watch the films!

Is there an actor you would like me to investigate? Leave me a comment or send me an email at lady_aurora_yensid@hotmail.com.

Mom's Panel Quest 2011: The End is the Beginning

Tuesday Evening into Wednesday Morning, many people received emails, two different kinds.  The first one was an email stating that Disney was appreciative of your interest and taking the time to fill out the application for the Mom's Panel 2011 search, but you have not been selected to move onto round 2.  The second email had the wonderful words stating that the reader was to be congratulated because they have moved onto round 2 of the Mom's Panel 2011 search! 

The select few that have received this second email are currently filled with a combination of joy, excitement, anxiousness and total fear! They have moved on, but now have to continue on the roller coaster of emotions and rounds to get to the final goal, Official Mom's Panel Member! I would like to give my most warm congrats to all who got this email, you completely deserve it and I will be pulling for all of you to make it to the panel because you are all wonderful people and deserve it!

For those of us (yes, I mean us) who received that first, less happy email, do not be discouraged by it.  Consider it a beginning.  We get to learn from this year's trials and prepare ourselves to enter the journey again next year! Remember that just because this year was not your year does not mean that you are unfit to be on the panel. Quite the contrary; there are so many of you who are more than qualified to be on the panel that if Disney wants to keep this contest going for many more years, they need deny some of you now so they can accept you later! Just continue learning and enhancing your love of Disney to prepare yourself for that inevitable day when you will be accepted to the panel!


Oh, and a little side note from me: If anyone knows what this "Mickey Mom's Club" is all about, please let me know, I had tried to log in, but it keeps saying they are not taking any members right now.

Get Tangled up in the Tangled Trailer!

Weekly DDL Post

This week on The Disney Driven Life, I look at the food and countries featured in this year's Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. Check out the bounty of food offered by clicking here. CAUTION: If hungry, do NOT read until you have eaten!!

Weekly DDL Post

This week on the Disney Driven Life, I talk about my take on the new celebration "Let The Memories Begin".  I would love to hear your opinion on it as well, so feel free to email me or leave me comments! Check out the article here!

The Resort Romp: All Star Sports Resort

Ok, so starting a new series here. Was given the idea for this series in August on my last trip to WDW. My family walked around several different Resorts because my little sister was trying to decide where she wanted to stay for her graduation present trip in June or July of 2011.  We visited several resorts and when I went back and looked at my pictures from all of them, I thought that I would share the pictures with all of you!

The first resort we will be hopping to is the resort my family and I stayed at in August of this past year: All Star Sports! It is one of the three All Star Resorts, first on the bus stop route for all parks and themed to, you guessed it, sports! Join me through a picture walk-through of the resort:

The Guard Gate

What you see as you drive up

The Lobby

Lobby

A Stairwell on the Baseball part of the resort

Towel Rack and Baseball Wallpaper

Bathroom

Sink Area

Entertainment Center

Curtains and Window

Table and Mirror

Beds

Hallway on the Baseball Side

Hallway and more wings

Closeup on the other wing

View from the second floor out to the Quad area

Baseball Pool

Baseball Pool Area

Leads to the Stairs and elevator

Pool Area

Center of the Football Area, you walk here from the  Baseball area to get to the lobby, buses, store and food court

Giant Football Helmet

X's and O's on the Football Field...fun to climb and take pictures with

End of one of the Surfing wings

Football area

The Mickey in the center is really awesome!

Bus Stop

Stairwell in the Tennis Wing

Tennis Area Hallways

The center of the Tennis Area

Donald looks a bit mad on the Tennis court

Yep, I would say he's mad....I wonder why?

Yea, I would say this is probably why

Part of the Surfing Wing

Surfing Area

Mickey Statue in the center of the resort

Close up on the Mickey, statue is handicap accessible and good for photos

Surfing Wing

Surfing Wing

Cool Shark Fin in the Surfing Wing Area

This is our little walk-through of All Star Sports.  The only area that I did not get any pictures of is the Basketball area.  For More Pictures, I would suggest checking out Allears.net, Deb has tons of pictures on her site of all of the resorts.