Hi guys,

Been excited to share this one with you all, it's a slightly different haul than normal as this month the focus is the purchases I made in Disneyland Paris during my 25th anniversary trip. I will list where I bought each item and the cost before discount, if I can remember them all!

Pins

First of all, what's a Disney trip without some pins to commemorate the occasion, i picked up 3 new pins and a new lanyard on my trip, and was then sent a fourth pin by my good friend Britt as it released just after my visit so I've included that too. All of the pins I got were open editions so should be available in the parks for the next 12 months it also means they should be on sale in most shops.

Out of the 4 pins I picked up two are 25th anniversary pins, the Minnie one was €8.99 and I actually picked it up from the trading post in Frontier Land near cowboy cookout as it was sold out in most other shops, the second with the castle was €6.99 and I got this one in the constellations store in Discovery Land.

I try to pick up a dated year pin each year I visit the parks and I picked up this one for €9.99 it is a spinner design and features they tend to make a new version of this pin most years but I hadn't picked up this design before, I think this one also came from constellations but again should be available in most stores and Disney hotel shops.

The Final pin was this Duffy and Shellie-May pin which released on the last weekend of April, as I was already home my friend Britt picked this one up and sent it over and I couldn't be more grateful, what a lovely way to commemorate my wonderful meet with both of them. I think it was €7.99

The final item from my pin purchases was a new lanyard, I picked up this 25th anniversary lanyard from the trading post and it was €9.99, I really like the colour and design and figured you can never have enough lanyards, plus I'm a huge sucker for the 25th merchandise as I love the steampunk outfits Mickey and Minnie are wearing. Unfortunately when I got home I realised the clip was broken, so I have E-mailed Disney and sent a copy of my receipt and hopefully I will be getting it replaced soon!


Clothing

I picked up a few clothing/accessory items this trip, my favourite though has to be the special 25th top. Now you can still purchase an almost identical top to this in the parks, but what makes mine special is that it has the anniversary date on it and was only sold on the 12th. It was €21.99 from Flora's which I thought was a really good price, and was actually cheaper than the not limited 25th top I had intended to purchase.


I also picked up these adorable Sulley socks for €7.99 from the shop on the left by the gates as you exit the main Disneyland park, they will go perfect with the Sulley back pack I bought on my January trip, and the Sulley hoodie I hope to pick up on my next trip!


And finally if you can take a trip to a Disney park without buying a new pair of Minnie ears, you're obviously a much stronger person than I am. After leaving my sparkly Blue ears in the hotel by accident on the anniversary day (oh come on! of all the days) it seemed like I had no other choice but to grab one of the 25th Minnie ears to wear for the day! I decided to go for the purple pair that match Minnie's parade bow and picked them up from Flora's on Main street for €16.99.


Year of Stars

The year of stars merchandise range is pretty impressive and and has whole bunch of items featuring Mickey and the gang in their new parade outfits, honestly I could have bought so much of it, and I'm sure I'll be buying more when I go back later this year if I need it or not. But for this trip the main items I picked up are the Photo album for €16.99 which I actually picked up in the hotel shop, it holds up to 200 photos and has space next to each one to write any notes you want to help you remember etra details such as dates etc.


I also picked up the Autograph book for €12.99 and the matching pen for €3.99 again I got these from the shop in my hotel, but they should be available in most shops in the park, especially the Emporium on main street which is a great location to pick up your park essentials and possible one of my favourite stores.


Also pictured is the Buzz pen I bought in constellations, again it was €3.99 but they appear to have changed the design from previous years, and for a toy story fan like me that seemed to be enough of a reason for me to part with my cash, whoops!

Confectionary

Now of course, there's plenty more I did buy that would have fitted into this section, but of course it never made it back to the hotel let alone home with me, who can blame me right? But the two items I did manage to bring home were the limited edition DLP25 coke bottle, I believe these are €3.99 and I bought mine from one of the carts on Main street. It is kind of pricey for what it is so I only bought the one, but it was such a wonderful keepsake and an unusual item that I couldn't say no.

I also brought back these awesome Mickey shaped lollies for €4.99, you get 5 flavours Orange, Cherry, Bubblegum, Cotton Candy and Banana. Banana is my favourite out of the 5 but they're all really nice, and it's a great little pick me up when the Disney blues set in at home!


Duffy

Finally it would be silly to think I could come back from a Disney trip without some new Duffy and friends merchandise, and who am I to disappoint you? this trip I picked up the new 25th anniversary Duffy and Shellie-May plushes, they are €29.99 each and can be bought from the Story book store, Floras and the Emporium. I love the varsity style jackets, and they're a really cute size though a fair bit smaller than the 20th anniversary Duffy.


I also bought a copy of my photo pass picture from the Duffy and Shellie meet, with this 25th anniversary frame which I picked up from Flora's I think this is about €12.99 usually. I love that its such a great way for me to remember the 12th and it looks great to have it displayed with my 25th plushes too.

I picked up 2 new Duffy outfits this trip, Duffy's original sailor outfit for €15.99 and a Tramp costume for €22.99, as we already had the Lady costume for Shellie I was super happy to be able to complete the set, I got these in the Storybook store next to city hall, as this is my favourite place to pick up Duffy related items, but you can find them elsewhere in the parks!

Annual Pass

Perhaps the biggest, or at least most expensive purchase of the trip was my annual pass. Disneyland Paris recently changed their annual pass offering and introduced 4 new annual passes, the most expensive is the Infinity pass at €399, it has some features which were not on the old Dream pass, so existing pass holders were given the option to upgrade for €176, after some quick Disney math (the only kind worth doing) I decided the benefits outweighed the additional cost for me, so when I arrived upgrading my annual pass was the first order of business after the parade.

So I think that wraps up my purchases from my April trip, I probably spent way too much money, but it makes me happy and with my annual pass discount it takes off a little chunk which makes it all more affordable.

What did you buy on your last trip? Have I bought anything you're going to look for on your next trip? Drop me a comment!

Hoodsie xx

Hi guys!

Many of you may know that recently Disneyland Paris changed their character breakfast offering from Cafe Mickey to Plaza Gardens, I was lucky enough to be offered a friends spot on their reservation during my recent trip for the 25th so I thought it was a good time to right up my thoughts on the experience.

Please do bear in mind these are only my opinions based on the experience I had on this one visit!

Our booking was for Thursday March 13th and was for the first sitting which starts at 8:15, there is a second sitting at 9:45 and you can book in advance up to 2 days before using the normal reservations line. Or you can pay in full to add it to your booking when you book your trip through Disney or a travel agent. Breakfast was €35 per person and this makes it the cheapest of the character dining experiences on offer at Disneyland Paris.

I made it to the park for just after 8 am on the Thursday and managed to spot Kelly and Clare just outside the entrance so we walked over to Plaza Gardens together, there was already a small queue forming for this mornings breakfast so we decided to get straight in the queue to get the table and our friends could join us as they arrived. With the breakfast you have to pay on entry before you are seated, which isn't so easy when you're in a large group, especially if the majority of the group isn't there yet.

In the end we decided that I would pay for the full table and then we would sort it out between us individually afterwards. Before long we were seated in the conservatory area nearest the Discovery arcade and before long our friends had joined us.

The breakfast is a buffet and has a mix of both hot and cold options, which was a nice change from the continental offering at my hotel. I felt like there was more choice available than the old Cafe Mickey offering and was able to pick up things like Pancakes and crepes as well as the standard Bacon, Sausages, cereals and toast. There was also a selection of Hot drinks and fruit juices available.

For me the only issue with Character meals being a buffet is knowing when to leave your table! Of course this is no different than its predecessor but there definitely is a trick to knowing when to leave and when to stay sat. In an ideal scenario I would recommend aiming to get to fantasia gardens a few mins before 8 so that you're one of the first to enter the parks if you're on the 8:15 sitting, head straight to the restaurant to ensure you are one of the first to be seated and this should give you a good chance to get up to the buffet before the characters have arrived.

Once the characters come in they seem to split into 2 groups of 3 and take half the restaurant each, as we were sat in one of the further corners from the main entrance this did give us a bit of extra time to get over to the buffet and back before the characters began to reach us.

The first set of characters to meet us were Mickey, Uncle Scrooge and Daisy Duck, they were all great and spent a fair amount of time with our group and were happy to do pictures and autographs, in particular Daisy was a stand out meet for me she spent what felt like a lot of time with us and the interaction was really good especially with my Duffy and Shellie.


After the characters have been round the first half of the restaurant they pop out for a quick comfort break and then swap sides to meet the other half of the restaurant, this unfortunately is where things went a bit wrong for us.

The second set of three characters was Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger, I was particularly excited to meet Piglet and for me this was one of the main factors in deciding to try the new breakfast as he was the only Winnie the Pooh character that does meets in DLP I hadn't managed to meet yet.

Eeyore came over first and was brilliant, he took pictures and did autographs, and I was getting really excited for Piglet to reach our table. Tigger was next to visit us, but I can only describe this meet as the most puzzling and uncharacteristic thing I have ever experienced at Disneyland Paris. To me, when I think of Tigger I think of him as being happy, bouncy, full of energy. Unfortunately the Tigger that came to visit us was pretty much the exact opposite, he wasn't bouncy or fun, he wasn't interested in signing autographs or even really posing for photos, we even had to grab him to come back after he tried to leave before meeting half of our table.


This was so disappointing, and really left us feeling quite puzzled, the restaurant was as far as we could tell fully booked, but all the characters up till now had given 100%, we were a big group but we tried to be pretty organised and get up for photos etc quickly, I can appreciate there's a time restraint to get round all the tables, but it really felt like Tigger couldn't be bothered with us.

Of course this just left Piglet to visit us, and although it wasn't quite as bad as the Tigger situation, Piglet was clearly in a rush too, encouraging us to take one group photo rather than individual/smaller group pics, and making watch gestures at us to move a little quicker. This was a bit disappointing overall but didn't entirely ruin getting to meet him, even if it wasn't how i pictured my first meet to be.


I'm since told by cast members and friends of cast members that Piglet isn't supposed to sign at breakfast, and this may explain why he was trying to rush us, however there was nothing to say we shouldn't be asking and he could have refused. As you are seated there is a small card on the table with instructions for character dining, basic things like explaining that the characters come to you etc, I would suggest if characters aren't to sign at breakfast this should be added in as I wouldn't have asked if I'd known he wasn't supposed to sign.

Overall I enjoyed my first experience of Plaza Gardens, the food was nice and there was a good selection, the bigger buffet counters in Plaza gardens made it easier to get up and get food without waiting too long, and the location meant there wasn't a constant stream of people walking past and staring in at you while you were eating, which was definitely a plus over Cafe Mickey.

My only issue would be that either the sittings need to be longer to allow the characters to comfortably get round all the tables, or that they need to not book out the whole of the restaurant as the characters clearly weren't able to get round all of the tables and give a consistent high level of interaction which you would expect for the cost, I'm sure the characters are no happier leaving people disappointed than we are being disappointed. In my opinion a 3rd sitting and not to fill the restaurant for each sitting would be an ideal resolution.


Would I try Plaza Gardens breakfast again? It might surprise you to hear that I do intend to go back and try again, it's still a fairly new offering and hopefully if people continue to provide feedback changes can be made to improve, I do however think that character dining experiences are better for smaller groups so if I booked again I would ask for 2 bookings of 4/5 and ask to be seated near each other.

Have you done breakfast since it moved, what did you think?

Hoodsie xx

Hey again!

Following on from Part One which proved to be pretty popular with you all, it's time to look at the second half of my trip to DLP for the 25th anniversary week and the characters I was lucky enough to meet. Hope you enjoy, please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I'll do my best to get back to you!

Thursday March 13th

After a long day for the grand celebrations on Wednesday I forced myself to get up and out for the 8:15 sitting at Plaza Gardens to try the new character breakfast that is replacing Cafe Mickey (more about that in a later post) this is an easy way to tick some characters off your list and get fueled up for the day ahead. During breakfast we met Mickey, Daisy, Scrooge McDuck, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet. Out of these Piglet was a new character for me, and truth be told was the majority of the reason for my trip there. I will write up a review of my experience of this breakfast in the next week or two!



Our next meet of the day was Darth Vader at his new permanent location in Discovery land, the queue was fairly short at around 30 mins, and it was a fantastic experience that I would strongly recommend to both Character fans and Star Wars fans alike. The meet and greet is located in the old Star Traders building and i think this is a really good use of this space, the queue is predominantly outside, but due to the design of the building it is also under cover which is nice, once you get inside you are directed into a small holding room while you wait for your turn. Once he's ready to see you, Vader will come and collect you from the holding room, and this is where the magic starts, everyone is 100% in character, Vader talks in either French or English and will do his best to intimidate you, and the CM and photo pass photographer on hand will play along perfectly and do exactly as Vader tells them to like the most loyal minion.


After meeting Vader our walk through Discovery land saw us stumble upon an unscheduled Stitch meet, if you're a big fan of the Blue trouble maker he can often be found around Orbitron and Space Mountain, as always meeting him was a pleasure, even after he picked his nose with my pen and stole Duffy!

The final character we met on Thursday was another unscheduled meet, this time in the front lot of the Walt Disney studios park, another first time meet for the trip was the turn of Mulan, I really enjoyed meeting her and the queue was quite short as the meet wasn't in the program! Typically front lot is a great place to meet characters around lunch time, and the same for the path by Casey Junior in the main park.



Friday March 14th

Friday was my last full day in the park for this trip, so to make the most of it we headed out early to get in for EMH, we weren't quite as early as we had hoped but wanted to meet Minnie so made the most of the time we did have. As it was Good Friday and the anniversary week the parks were quite busy and this did make the EMH queues longer than normal, we ended up queuing about an hour for Minnie, but she was worth it and had a photo pass photographer with her as well which meant I got a lovely high quality photo too!


Our next meet was Aladdin and Jasmine in adventure land outside the enchanted passage, they were so nice and friendly and we were able to get loads of photos even though there was no photo pass for this meet, the only frustration was that I had a print I wanted to get signed but in my star struck state I totally forgot, I guess there's always next time!


After meeting Aladdin and Jasmine we got word that my all time favourite lost boy might be out near his old meet spot opposite skull rock, this was an opportunity I wasn't missing, although Peter is one of my favourite characters this would only be the 2nd time I'd been able to meet him over 10 trips! So after a quick run round to the other side of adventure land, and a short wait in the wrong queue we found our lost boy, and even better, his Wendy bird was with him to, as the only Peter pan character currently meeting in DLP that I hadn't met I was pretty excited. The queue wasn't too long and it was quickly our turn I'd been waiting so long to cuddle Peter again and he didn't disappoint, Wendy was beautiful and every bit as lovely as I had hoped, and I also had a chance to show them photos of Duffy and Shellie dressed as Peter and Tink which they loved!


After such a perfect start to the day we topped up our character count with a late lunch at Auberge De Cendrillon in Fantasy land, we've been a bit unlucky in the past and had the same characters multiple times but I guess someone was looking down on us this time as we got our pretty much perfect line up, as well as Suzy and Perla we were joined by Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora and Rapunzel. The food was great but the interaction was even better and we got some lovely photos and memories to cherish, Rapunzel even remembered Kelly and I from the pavilion on Tuesday which was really lovely.

 

Saturday March 15th

My last morning in the park and time for one last meet and greet so who better than my favourite deputy, my best pal, and the one cowboy I know will always have a special place in my heart. No trip to DLP is truly complete without a visit to see woody, even better as it was a saturday we teamed it with a trip to the trading post to try and grab a 25th pin before they all sold out.

The weather wasn't great but woody wasn't bothered and was warm and friendly as normal, I got lots of hugs and some great photos, and even better, Duffy was wearing his woody outfit, which gave us the cutest photo opportunity. It really was the perfect meet to finish of such a wonderful trip meeting new friends and old.



So that's it for this trip in terms of character meets, hope this has been as enjoyable to follow as it was to experience. Who did you guys meet on your last trip? Did I see any characters you've been looking for? Drop me a comment!

Hoodsie xx

Hi Guys!

Sorry for the longer than planned break! After spending 6 magical days in Disneyland Paris, it's taken a little longer than normal to get back into the swing of things, but I'm back now and I have so much 25th anniversary stuff to share with you all!

The whole six days is a huge blur of magic and happiness so rather than a day by day trip report I'd do things a little differently this time and give you some different trip reports. So this is the first, and it's a run down of the characters I had meets with during my week celebrating DLP25, I hope you enjoy it!



Tuesday March 11th

Although I actually arrived in the parks on the Monday, it was quite late when i got there and the majority of characters had finished for the day, so I settled for parade and then upgraded my annual pass which also allowed me to collect my new photo pass! So Tuesday was my first real opportunity to meet some characters, I got up early, had a quick breakfast then packed as many Duffy costumes into my bag as I could and headed into the parks.

Our first meet of the trip was Belle, in her new home at the Art of Animation in the Studios park. We arrived around 10 am and waited about an hour for our turn, when we had finished the queue looked to be at least 50% longer than it was when we joined, so I would definitely advise getting to this one earlier rather than later. For the occasion Duffy was wearing his Beast costume from build a bear which we featured in our March Haul and the interaction we got from this was amazing and the photos are some of my favourite.


As we were already in the studios, it seemed like a good opportunity to head over to the Spider-man meet, which meant another costume change for Duffy! Due to its location in the park the Spider-man meet is often quite quiet, which is a real shame as his interaction was spot on, he's really in character, and chatty and it's a really fun meet to do, the queue when we got there was only 20 mins, so once Deandre and Sophie joined us we headed in and it was our turn really quickly! Both of these meets had photo pass photographers present, so it was great to be able to use my new photo pass that came with my annual pass straight away, and we got some really lovely pictures.



Our next character meet wasn't until after lunch time when we headed over to Frontier land to see Jessie, which yes you guessed it, meant another costume for Duffy bear, spoilt thing! Jessie tends to take over the afternoon slot at Woody's meet outside cowboy cookout, so after a spot of lunch (which was really good!) we headed over to meet her, being the huge Toy Story fan I am i came prepared with my Jessie Ears, Jessie top, and a woody costume for Duffy. Unfortunately Jessie didn't have a photo pass photographer with her, but with the help of a few friends and some helpful cast members we still got some lovely photos to remember the moment. Jessie was really interactive and loved that I was bounding as her, she loved my custom ears and made such a fuss, and even better when we went for a group photo she spotted my buzz backpack, picked it up and put it on! We had such a lovely time with her and didn't feel rushed at all, I would recommend a visit to her 100%.


Our final meet of Tuesday was in the Princess Pavilion in Fantasyland where Rapunzel had the afternoon slot, as I was with Kelly and the two Sophie's who are all fans, and as she's not normally in the pavilion we knew it was an opportunity we had to take, somehow we persuaded David to join us and off we went, we knew it was going to be a long wait, as we walked in they were changing the wait time from 90 mins to 2 hours! but we knew it would be worth it and we'd all be annoyed if we missed her, so we decided to give it our best shot. What we weren't prepared for however was the photo pass issues which caused a huge delay, if you've never been inside the princess pavilion, i'll warn you the queue really isn't very interesting and gets pretty old pretty quickly, so although unavoidable the delay was very unwelcome at this point! Eventually they got things working and we were able to meet our princess. She was brilliant and I soon forgot about the boredom of waiting so long to meet her. Again we got some lovely photos and I think some of the girls even got theirs printed, she really took so much time with all of us, doing fun poses and being super chatty, a wonderful last meet of a busy day!



Wednesday April 12th 

Grand celebration day and a super early start saw us queuing for security at around 6:30am, the atmosphere was electric and I still don't think anyone knew quite what to expect. I'll probably do some sort of write up on the grand celebration later, but for now lets focus on characters, the line up for the 12th was actually pretty good, though it included a lot of common characters, Donald Daisy Mickey Minnie etc they all had special outfits for the day which made it worth meeting them again. Unfortunately the park was just so busy difficult choices had to be made.

I only actually did one character meet on the 12th, I do regret not getting over to the Max meet and just doing the wait, but I used the time to get a dated 25th T-shirt and some lunch!

The one meet I did manage to do was Duffy and Shellie May in their special outfits, and I'm sure this comes as no surprise to anyone! As soon as I saw them in the program I knew that had to be my priority for the day, I actually missed the first set which ended up being a blessing in disguise as they met separately to begin with. Once the first set had finished I hung around and watched the cavalcade and then go straight in the queue to wait for their second set, and watched Stars on Parade from the queue. I think I waited about 4 hours in total but my patience was rewarded when for the second set both bears were meeting together. This is my dream meet, to have both bears together in special costumes, I had both Duffy and Shellie with me too dressed in their finest, it was the perfect way to remember the day and I loved the photo so much I even paid to have it printed and put in a 25th frame to take home.



So that's the first half of my trip covered, as this was longer than planned I'll follow up with the second half shortly, hope you've enjoyed it so far.

Chat soon,

Hoodsie xx

Hey Guys,

This could really be a make or break post for me I guess, I've seen a few other people post theirs including Sarah at Belle's Moments  and Kez at What would Dory Do, the basic idea is to admit to a few things that maybe you've been keeping secret for a while about your Disney likes and dislikes. Fingers crossed this won't offend anyone too much!

1. The post-renaissance era - I haven't actually seen a whole bunch of the films in this era, I've seen Treasure planet, Lilo and stitch, Chicken little, meet the Robinsons and Bolt, and to be honest, the only ones I revisit are Lilo and Stitch and Bolt. I'm actually still missing a few from the Renaissance era too ... oops ?


2.Pixar over classics - Yep sorry guys, I really do prefer the Pixar films, and also the newer computer animated films over the traditional hand drawn classics. Don't get me wrong, I still love and cherish many of the classic films but Pixar just connects with me so much more.


3.Disneyland vs Walt Disney World - I don't think this is the best kept secret of all time, but my desire to visit Disneyland far outweighs that of Walt Disney world, is it because it's Walt's park? Is it because it's smaller and feels more familiar to DLP? Is it because it has Cars land? Probably yes to all of those, all I know is I want it bad, though I'm fairly certain I'll end up going to WDW first!


4. I don't really watch Disney vlogs - I guess this is as much a general confession as a Disney one, but i find watching Disney vlogs can be really hard going, the longer they are the less chance I'll make it through the whole thing, it's not that I don't appreciate all the work you've put into it, because I know how tough it is, but I've walked round fantasy land and taken in the sights myself, show me something new or exciting! Shorter vlogs with more action and less filler are a winner for me!



5.Forest of Enchantment - I'm afraid it's a no from me. I don't know what it was about this show, but it annoyed me more than it ticked boxes, It's such a shame because individually I like all the films and songs it represents, but something about the way it was put together didn't sit right with me, I know it was hugely popular and I'm sure it will be a full house again when it returns in Summer, maybe I'll give it a second try?


So there's my Disney confessions, hope I don't lose too many friends? What about you guys, confession is open, feel free to share your Disney sins in the comments!

Hoodsie xx

Well guys it's that time again, and this list should hopefully be a little shorter than last months as I've been saving for my DLP trip in just a few weeks time, however this also means there's some great goodies in preparation for my trip! Lets take a look what i shouldn't have spent my money on in march =)

Pins

One of those Disney collections that I can't really explain why I need, but also can't seem to stop buying! There's been a few additions this month, the first is a Lightning McQueen pin, this was actually part of a triple pack from the Disney store to celebrate their 30th anniversary, the 3 pack was £14.99 and luckily my lovely friend Soph picked the set including lightning up but was happy to part with him as she knew I was a cars super fan!


I then picked up these two beautiful London pins from the Disney store on Oxford street, I had never really visited London before becoming part of the Disney community, but it's quickly become a huge part of my life, these pins are a really nice reminder for me of the incredible friends I've made recently and all the London adventures we've been on. The one featuring Big Ben was £9.00 and the postage stamp style on was £9.99 and comes with an adorable matching post card, but let's be honest it's far too lovely to actually post to someone!


Primark

I've also been able to pick up a few Disney goodies from Primark this month, and again this is entirely down to Sophie who has been so generous and helpful given the two stores in my area are relatively small and are always the last to get stock of anything I want!

The first is the much sought after Chip purse, this little guy retails for £4.00 in store but you'll be lucky to get your hands on him as he's literally flying off the shelves as soon as he hits them, looks like you won't be sleeping in the cupboard much longer chip! Following the release of the live action Beauty and the Beast remake, any merchandise related to it has been super popular, and although it's not my favourite Disney film, I couldn't resist how cute this little guy was and as I was able to pick him up for retail price it was a bargain addition to my collection.


The other awesome item Soph was able to grab for me was this awesome jungle book duvet cover set which I had been lusting after. Growing up jungle book was a film I watched over and over again its a classic and the songs are so catchy, I'd seen this duvet cover set on Facebook but had checked both my local Primark stores a few times with no luck! After missing out on the Christmas set I was determined to get hold of this set so when Soph said she was able to grab it for me i was over the moon! Can't wait too get it on my bed and get all snuggled up under it. The double duvet set is £18 in store, and i was able to pick up a similar "jungle green" fitted sheet in Wilkinsons for £8 and pillow cases for £2, bargain!


Movies

Who doesn't like a movie night? March has seen me add 2 new Disney films to my ever growing library, I picked up 2 great live action remakes in Jungle book and Pete's Dragon, they were £9.99 or 2 for £15 in HMV which seems like too good a bargain to pass up. Although I didn't think a huge amount of the Jungle book remake when I saw it in the cinema, I really wanted to give it a second chance, getting it for such a great price on Blu ray seemed like too good an option to miss, hopefully I'll get a few hours spare to settle down and watch it this week and maybe it will change my opinion on things?


Build a Bear

Of course no month is complete without two spoilt bears, and once again Duffy and Shellie-May were exactly that during march. First our lovely new Sophie friend (it's a popular name and it would appear we're collecting Sophies) answered our desperate plea to get help finding the Beast costume, which she refused to take any money for and sent to Duffy with this adorable rose accessory, in store the main costume is £15 and the rose is £3.50, so again Sophie, thank you so so much for the gift!


The other item we picked up was this summer time Olaf shirt and hat set for £10 which I had been looking at for quite some time, I can't get over how cute it is and can't wait to take some summer themed snaps of Duffy in it! Again this is from build a bear workshop.


Shop small business

The final section of this months write up is dedicated to small businesses that I've purchased from this month, and this is something I am so excited to share with you all. Since becoming part of the twitter community, small businesses and sites like Etsy have become a huge part of my shopping habits, not only is it a great way to get cute and unique items, but it's supporting someones dream, and when you think about it, isn't that just the most lovely thing to do?

The first Small business I bought from in March is It's Lizi this etsy store sells some awesome Disney artwork, and her underground prints collection is my favourite, you can buy the prints individually for £1.35 each or you can save some money by picking up a lucky dip multi pack like I did, what's even better is if you've made a past order, Lizi will try to avoid sending you duplicates of prints you've already bought! That's the kind of customer service I'm looking for! A pack of 5 prints is £6.00 or 10 is £10.80, they look amazing the quality is great and its such a fun way to display some of your favourite locations.


The next store i bought from is The Happiest Fitness Co, ran by the lovely Lottie they specialize in gym wear with a Disney twist and recently released this amazing Zootropolis themed tee! I went for a mens small as I prefer mens fit tees and I am super happy with the quality and fit, it's a new gym favourite for sure! this was £12.50 and is still available to order.


The final small business I bought from this month was Ears Ever After I was looking for something cute for my anniversary trip coming up and fancied something with a lot of sparkle! These were just perfect, they're customisable so you can pick your main ear colour separate to the bow colour and there are so many great combinations to pick from, to match the 25th colour scheme I went for blue and silver. They arrived super quick and were exactly what I was looking for and even better they're really comfortable which the official park eats aren't always! Hoping these will help get me some great character interaction and even better photos. These ears were £25 plus postage which is a really good price! Can't wait to get them on in the park!



So I think that covers everything I shouldn't have been spending my money on during march, what did you guys get? Did anyone else manage to get a chip purse or mug? Drop me a comment I'd love to chat!

Hoodsie xx

Hey Guys,

Just like that March is already over, honestly I don't know where the days are going, it really doesn't seem that long ago that I was writing up my February update and now I'm having to remember what I've been doing for the whole of March!

Eat sleep run repeat.

That has pretty much been the mantra for March, and though it hasn't always gone to plan, it's felt good to get out there regularly and feel like i'm making positive progress. I attended 3 Park runs in March, though i was only able to finish 2, sometimes it's important to listen to what your body is telling you and know the difference between something just being difficult, and being in pain because you're about to injure yourself. It took a long time to learn this one, and though I still tend to feel disappointed when i have to pull up in the middle of a run, or leave the gym half way through a session, I'd rather that than the pain of an injury and the lost training time!


So how is park run going? Pretty well actually, the more I stick with it the easier it's getting, and it actually feels really good to know by 10 am on a Saturday, you've already got up and done something good for yourself. Of the two weeks I was able to attend and finish I recorded times of 33:29 (04/03) and 31:23 (25/03) it's still a little distance from my PB and from where I'd like to be, but even in a month you can see the difference training has made! it's really encouraging and keeps me motivated.

Outside of park run I've been running near my house a couple of times a week, it's a shorter run, just under 3km but it's enough to keep me going between park runs and I'm hoping building up the shorter runs will help me increase my fitness levels, and hopefully reduce my 5km times! I tend to run once a week with my friend Jess, and once on my own, and it really helps keep me motivated and also keep a good balance. My 3km time has come down from 19:45 to 18:40, again it's so great to see improvement there too.


Lets get down to business!

Of course, running is only half the battle, as well as pounding the pavement I've been trying to get in the gym more, not only do I need to get my moneys worth from my gym membership, it's important for me to build muscle to help me burn fat faster and also allow my body to become stronger and build my fitness levels.


The gym is going really well currently, and that's down to my lovely personal trainer Claire, she knows how to wind me right up at the best of times, but she's also a huge driving force when I lack confidence and focus.


March saw me push leg days to a whole new level, including 80Kg Calf raises and 100kg leg presses, and boy have I felt the burn! Towards the end of the month I've had a focus on core and upper body strength and I hope to start to see an improvement in these areas during April!

Just keep swimming.

Moving into April more than anything I'm hoping just to stay on top of things and keep moving in the right direction, as I have a 6 day trip to DLP this month for the 25th celebrations I'm losing a bit of training time, and probably not eating so well while im there! So staying on track seems like the best plan, hopefully we'll get news of Run DLP bibs and I'll have something exciting to share.

Hoodsie xx