Princess Half Marathon 2015 recap

 

On the morning of February 22nd, I woke up bright and early at 2:45 am.  I thought about texting my brother Happy Birthday, but I suspected he wouldn’t appreciate the super early morning wishes!  So instead I got into my costume for the Princess Half Marathon.  I had done Princess Anna and will soon be featuring a post about how I put my costume together.  I was down to wait for the bus by 3:15. It was almost time for my very first half marathon!

Luckily, it was warmer than it had been for the Enchanted 10k the previous morning.  I still had my throwaway jacket, but I felt good with that and didn’t need anything else.  I hung out with my friends for a little bit before we headed toward the corrals.  I started in I, along with the lovely Brittany – who you might recognize if you’re a fan of fitness pages, as she is the Brittany behind the popular Brittany Eats Clean page!  I hadn’t really gotten to know her too much until this moment, but she was super sweet and I was so thankful to have someone to talk to and pass the time with before we started.

And then we started somewhere right before 6am I believe.  We ran out away from Epcot and toward the Magic Kingdom and the ticket and transportation center.  The half marathon had way more entertainment than the 10k – even where there weren’t characters there was something going on, like a band, cheerleaders, or a DJ!  And there were tons of characters.  The lines in the first half were pretty long so I didn’t stop, and in the second half I just wanted to finish so I didn’t really stop then either.  I did try to keep track of who all was out there though (list at the end of this post!)

My husband was going to be at the ticket and transportation center to spectate, but it seems he and the other husbands got a little behind schedule and I was texting him, worried that I might beat him there.  So I stopped for a couple of photos – one with the Richard Petty race car, and one in a throne they had set up near where the villains were doing their meet and greets.  And it worked out because I did manage to make it to the meeting area right around the same time as my husband!  I ran on, and he jumped on the monorail to get a spot in Magic Kingdom to see me again.

Cinderella movie review

Let me start out by saying this movie was much better than I expected it to be.  If I’m being totally honest, I went into it not 100% thrilled that Disney was just doing another live action re-make – especially after my disappointment with Maleficent.  Then we saw a “sneak preview” of the movie at Hollywood Studios, where they showed the complete fairy godmother scene, and I’ll be honest: I didn’t think it was very good.  Luckily, that scene was the lowest part of the movie for me, and the rest turned out quite well.

The animated movie spends a lot of time on the antics of the mice, and luckily they play a much smaller role here.  In order to make this a full length movie, we delve more into Cinderella’s back story, which pays off.  We meet her mother and father and see her life as a child, when things were happy.  It develops more of a connection with her, and also shows us more of the reasons why she fell into the position that she did in the household.  We also have Cinderella and the Prince meet initially before the ball, in a very sweet and captivating scene.  It’s the basic story of Cinderella with some extra stuff thrown in, with a nice pace and without adding too much unnecessary extras.

Stitch Fix Review – March 2015

It’s my favorite mail day – Stitch Fix!  Stitch Fix is a subscription box service that has you fill out a style profile survey, and then they send you 5 clothing items to try on – you decide what to keep and what to send back!  I had Julie as my stylist again, and this time around I requested shirts and cardigans for work.  Here’s what I got:

Pixley Abrianna waffle knit cardigan – $48.00

Out of the box I really loved this – mostly for the color.  It’s a great color and different than anything else that I have.  When I tried it on I really liked the style too – it has these “sort of” pockets that are created by the way the sweater drapes.  The only drawback was the fact that the sleeves were just a little tight.  Ultimately though I loved it and decided I would put up with the tight sleeves!  Verdict:  Kept.

Bucket List: Be an annual passholder

One of my big goals as a Disney fan was to become an annual passholder – not only do you get certain perks and privileges, it also means that you’ll be visiting often enough to warrant getting a pass, which is always a good thing!  Coming from Pennsylvania I never really thought I would do it, but I’ve been able to work out enough trips that I’ve taken with points, shared rooms, etc. to make it financially feasible.  My first time as an AP holder was from February 2013-February 2014.  My second time I’m in the middle of right now, from October 2014-October 2015.

I really used my AP to the fullest in 2013, with five Disney trips.  I got to attend two Disney weddings that year, a DisBrides meet up with some of my best friends, a trip with my parents who hadn’t been to the World in almost 20 years, and a trip with my friend from Norway who was visiting Disney for the first time.  This time around I’ve used my AP for two trips so far – the Tower of Terror 10 miler and the Princess Half Marathon, and I’ll be back again at the end of April for a trip with friends.

Thoughts on Peter Pan

Highlights:  Overall it is a really excellent movie.  I find it to be quite enjoyable, funny, and emotionally touching.  One of the nice things about this movie is that it keeps a good pace.  They go on lots of adventures but it doesn’t feel too rushed, and it never really drags at all.

Low points: The only slight downfall to the movie is Peter himself, because it can be hard to like a character that is so selfish and immature.  However, if we can accept the fact that we aren’t necessarily supposed to like the main character, even though the kids in the movie adore him, it adds a really interesting dynamic and brings out an important message that Barrie wanted to convey in his original book/play.  Plus, Tink is just a… “witch.”

Music:  I think Peter Pan‘s got a lot of great songs – with the exception of Fantasia, which was focused on music, I might even say that Peter Pan is one of the few “early” Disney films to have a really memorable and overall good soundtrack.  “The Second Star to the Right” and “You Can Fly!” are both really good numbers.  There are also some good character songs, with “A Pirate’s Life” for the pirates and “What Makes the Red Man Red?” for the Indians.  “Your Mother and Mine” is a beautiful lullaby, if not a little boring.  And the crocodile’s tune is both fun and catchy.

Stridebox Review – February 2015

I got my first Stridebox in February, which is a subscription box designed especially for runners.  It can include all sorts of goodies and equipment, and I was looking forward to seeing what was inside!  The cost is $15 a month.

I think the “biggest” item in this box was a pair of touchscreen gloves.  I will say that these weren’t super useful to me.  My husband had just gotten me really nice touchscreen gloves for Christmas that are wonderful.  I wore these a couple of times, including for a 10k race.  They are fine, your typical cheap glove material, but the touchscreen aspect didn’t work that well.  Kind of a dud for me.

Also included was a Picky Bar, which is an energy bar.  I got the flavor Cookie Doughphness.  I was a bit surprised at the texture – I expected it to be like a clif bar but it was way more chewy.  However, it tasted really good!  And I can be very picky (no pun intended!) with this sort of thing.

Making a Snow White running costume

I use the term “making” here a little liberally as I only actually made from scratch one part of my costume for the Enchanted 10k – the rest of more of how I put the costume together from various pieces I had or bought.  But I was really happy with how it turned out, so I wanted to share what I did to make my Snow White running costume!

The shirt I used is from one of my favorite running shirt companies, Raw Threads.  They make shirts inspired by tons of Disney characters.  I actually got this one as part of a mystery pack that I had ordered, which is when you can get three shirts at a discounted bundle price, but you don’t know which ones you’ll get.  Receiving this one is actually what inspired me to do a Snow White costume!  Even if you don’t want to do something like this, any blue running shirt will work for the costume.  I just like the bow with the apple because it adds a bit extra “Snow White” to it.

Subscription Boxes – February 2015

Ipsy

Ipsy is a make-up bag subscription with 5 items per month for $10.  You also get a bag every month.

Cargo Cosmetics mini lip gloss (~$8.00)- Lip gloss is probably the #1 thing I like to get, and while this one was fine consistency-wise, I didn’t love the color.  It was way too pale a pink and just looked bad with my pale skin.
Composition No. 1 Parfum Oil ($15.00)- this is the teeniest tiniest sample because this stuff is expensive, but I thought it smelled really nice – kind of sweet and strong.
Luxie Beauty Large Angled Face Brush ($8.00) – this is great for putting on blush.  It’s amazing what a difference a good brush can make, and I’m happy to add this to my collection!
ModelCo Blush ($18) – This is my first blush from Ipsy, so that was nice . It’s a good shade and I’m pleased! I got the peach bellini shade. It will work well for my theater shows.
Tini Beauty Eye Shadow ($5.00) – This is nice, but the only issue is I’ve gotten something pretty much the same (neutral colored eye shadow) in every Ipsy bag.  So I didn’t really need this, though it’s something I’ll use eventually.

All in all I came up with a value of $54, which is by far the best for any Ipsy bag I’ve gotten.  The bag itself is cute, and every item in it is something that I would like and use (if only the lip gloss was a better shade!).  This month was a win for sure!