7 Father's Day Gifts Designed in Orlando

So yes, I've been having a bit of a hard time catching up after our little cruise vacation. But I have lots to share. I'm starting with this Father's Day gift guide since Father's Day is in less than two weeks – June 17th. There's lots of good talent in Orlando, so why not give dad a gift that's not only awesome, but also supports local artists.

1. 'Get It Done' Notepad - I don't enjoy telling my husband of 'to dos' any more than he enjoys hearing them from me. I'm thinking him and this notepad could be good friends, you know, since it has a cute talking zebra on it... also check out the Father's Day cards and other stationary at Rifle Paper Company. Super talented Anna Bond is the artist behind this beautiful brand and works out of her studio in Winter Park. You can visit the very cool shop and see the rest of the line in person.

2. Self-made Tee - You can take something your little artist has drawn that daddy really likes (in this case, the AT-AT with Luke hanging from it with his lightsaber and rebel alliance base on the side) and follow this instructions to transfer it onto a blank T-shirt. I can already see the proud father and son faces! (I found some good Mossimo blank tees in different colors at Target).

3 & 4. Pocket Card Holder and Belt - In my opinion the leather goods at MARK are... what's the word? ...perfect. And, I think any dad would love these. MAKR's Founder and Design Director is Jason Gregory and the studio is located in Winter Park.

5. My Dad, My Hero - I spotted this book last year at the local Barnes & Noble. The cover really got my attention and then I noticed the author's name. Ethan Long is a local Illustrator and friend. This book was a perfect father's day gift. Owen loves reading it with dad. (Ethan also created Disney Junior short series Tasty Time With ZeFronk - pretty cool!)

6. Father's Day Card - lots of cool card options available at the L2 store. Cards are designed and hand screen printed by my friends at Lure Design, here in Orlando.

7. The Nakashuma Mark iPhone Case - Every cool dad should have a cool case to protect his iPhone from the uncool falls that may or may not be caused by his children. This one is designed by Orlando local, Billy Davis - one swell illustrator. There's also other cool designs available in the shop.

Weekend Happenings

1. Star Wars Weekends May 18th through June 10th — on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of each weekend at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Owen has been a Star Wars fan since before he turned three, so we don't really need much more this weekend. I'll just have to mentally prepare myself for the crowds. I know I'll be riding Star Tours with him (I was pregnant and couldn't before) If you want to this, keep in mind the height requirement is 40 inches for this ride and they're pretty strict with that. Tall shoes might help, hats won't (not that we tried to sneak in our kid before... ;) The lines can get long for pictures with characters, having water helps. Having a lightsaber helps even more. Kids can bring in a lightsaber and train in the Jedi Academy, then use it to defeat whatever gets in your way.

Oh, and here's a little behind the scenes video showing Darth Vader hard at work. It seems he had a lot to do with this event. 

Aboard the Disney Magic

So, here are a few pics of the little vacation we took a couple of weeks ago. This was not our first Disney Cruise, but it was our first time aboard the Magic. I really do love Disney Cruises. They allow for a relaxing vacation with little ones. How much do I love them? Let's see — this was my seventh time aboard a Disney ship, and, I consider myself very lucky.

As I was going through the pictures for this post I was thinking about all the other photos we have of past cruises. Some before kids, some with one, and this one — with a 4 year old and a 4 month old. I would say I have enough information to put together a good post about the Disney Cruise Line. I'll do that soon!

A little break... kind of

I've spent pretty much this whole week in bed. I used to be one of those people that didn't get sick. I was always at work. Then, my baby started pre-school.

I'm writng this post and then I'm off to catch up with this house. Walking around here keeps reminding me of this great story my friend Janet shared on facebook once. Enjoy. I'll be back next week!

A man came home from work and found his 3 children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn around garden, The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and no sign of the dog, walking in the door, he found ...an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, the throw rug was against one wall, In the front room the TV was on loudly with the cartoon channel, the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel... She looked up at him, smiled and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?' She again smiled and answered, 'You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world do I do all day?...
''Yes," was his incredulous reply..
She answered, 'Well, today I didn't do it.'

Story and photo via here

Week Two Photo Class

So that's it! I'm all done with my Babies, Toddlers, and Kids Online Mini Course from Nicole's Classes. Here are the pictures I took last weekend while we were in Celebration. By the way, I should mention, non of the pictures I've posted for this class have been edited at all. Mainly because I don't know how to do that. My settings are all manual, but I don't know what I'm doing there either, so I just guess. In spite of all that, I had a lot of fun taking these. I feel like I learned something and was able to get a few nice pictures of my boys — my ultimate goal. 

Weekend Happenings

1. ROLL IT! Community Printmaking Festival Saturday 10AM - 3PM at the Mannello Museum of American Art, Loch Haven Park. Free admission. I'm so exited about this event. I can't wait to see Owen print with LEGOS. And, I really want to see that Steamroller press a huge print.

2. Great American Pie Fest Saturday 11AM - 7PM and Sunday 12 - 5PM at Lakeside Park in Celebration. Besides your appetite some basic picnic gear will come in handy at this event.

3. Winter Park Paint Out Saturday at the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens. Artists will be cap­tur­ing local land­scapes and land­marks with oils, water­col­ors and pastels.

4. Bob the Builder exhibit  is still up at the Orlando Science Center.

5. Very Fairy Princess Party Saturday at 11AM at the Winter Garden Village Barnes & Noble. Storytime and princess party.

6. 6th Annual Run in the Garden 5k Run/Walk Saturday at 7:30AM. $25 to sign up now, or $30 the day of the race. Kid's Run is free. Sign up day of race at 8:45AM

Magic Wand Image for #5 via here. Image for #3 via here.

From our Shelf: This is the Way to the Moon

I actually wanted to post this last week, when our shuttle moved to Washington D.C. I love all of Miroslav Sasek's books. The stories sometimes have more detail about each place than Owen can handle at this age, but the illustrations are so beautiful that they're completely worth having. I love typography, so I really enjoy that he includes signage in his illustrations. If you like Sasek's books and live in Florida you should own This is the Way to the Moon. After all, it doesn't only talk about cool shuttles and the moon, but also mentions Cocoa Beach!

Week One Photo Class

I've been having so much fun with my "homework" photoshoots that I thought I'd share. I found these photography classes and signed up for the Babies, Toddlers, and Kids online mini course. I really should have taken Photo 101 and Photo Workflow first, but I'll just have to do those next. 

I initially had looked for some photo classes locally, but, if you have little kids like I do, you might know that going out on your own is not necessarily easy. If you want to improve your photo skills and are in a similar situation check out Nicole's Classes. It's all online, so you don't have to leave the house. You'll have homework and get some really good feedback. 

We went to Celebration this past weekend and I did my second week homework photoshoot. It was Owen this time. I'll share those soon! I hope everyone had a good weekend! BTW, did anyone get to go paint at Anthropologie on Sunday? (I didn't find out about it until Saturday night, so I just put it on the Facebook page)

Weekend Happenings

I can't believe it's the end of the week already. Here are some of the things going around Orlando this weekend. Click on the titles to find out specific information on each event:

1. Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival Through May 20th. Make sure to check out the pop-up playgrounds around the park.

2. Celebration Spring Art Fest Saturday and Sunday 10AM - 5PM. Paintings, sculptures, photography and jewelry featured along the streets of downtown Celebration. 

3. 3rd Annual Hannibal Square Folk Art and Craft Festival Saturday 10AM - 4PM, at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center in Winter Park. There will be a free children’s folk art painting workshop. Music by The Porch Dogs, and Orisirisi African Folklore (drumming and storytelling.)

4. Bob the Builder exhibit  is still up at the Orlando Science Center.

5. Storytime Adventures with Frances Keiser and Jane R. Wood Sunday 12:30PM - 2PM, at the Orange County Regional History Center.

6. Currents in Contemporary Art Through June 30th, at the Orlando Museum of Art. Owen says he wants to be an artist, so I think a trip to the museum from time to time would be in order. The main thing attracting me to this exhibit is the image of Robert Rauschenberg's piece shown on the museum's website. I love his artwork, and I'm assuming them showing it as the main piece on the page promoting this exhibit means it's there. (Even though his name is not mentioned among the artist represented) We will see.

Images for #2 via here and #3 via here

Model Railroad

So this past weekend we followed our own advice and checked out a couple of the events going on in the Orlando area. We did the Car Festival in Celebration on Saturday, which was great. And on Sunday we went to check out the open house at the Orlando Society of Model Railroads. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I have to say I was impressed. I had fun taking pictures of everything while my little boy watched the whole thing in awe; and asked all the "how" questions he could think of. I found out they do four open houses a year, but couldn't get the upcoming dates. I'll keep an eye out and let you know though. In the meantime, if you have a little boy, or girl, that's into trains, they told me they were there every Saturday between 10 - 3, and that everyone is welcome. This is fun, and it's free. (If you do bring in some cash there is a bucket for donations)

7208 Aloma Ave. 
Winter Park

Weekend Happenings

Some fun things going on in the Orlando area this weekend. Click on the titles to find out specific information on each event:

1. Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. Through May 20th. Make sure to check out the pop-up playgrounds around the park.

2. Celebration Exotic Car Festival. Saturday 10AM - 4PM, and, on Sunday you can see the cars before the 10AM rally. We went to this festival last year and Owen fell in love with Ferraris. He's actually saving for one, one quarter at a time. The Star Wars Landspeeder and some other Hollywood movie cars will be there also.

3. Family Clay Day Workshop. Saturday at 1:30PM, at the Orlando Museum of Art. Advance registration required.

4. Orlando Science Center. The Bob the Builder exhibit is still up.

5. Orlando Society of Model Railroaders Open House. Sunday 10AM - 3PM, at 7208 Aloma Ave. Winter Park. See model trains run on a permanent layout in various stages of completion.  

6. Kidfest 2012. Saturday 11AM - 5PM, Audubon Park. Lots of fun activities provided by local vendors.

Baby Gear we Love

1. Stokke Tripp Trapp - We've had this high chair for 4 years now and I couldn't be happier with it. It's beautifully designed, doesn't take up space, it's easy to clean, allows us to all eat at the table together, and you can continue to use it for years.

2. Bumbo Seat - Owen loved this seat as a baby, and Kellan loves it now. I think he feels like someone is holding him. I place it in front of his big brother while he's playing, and he gets distracted enough to let me cut his nails.

3. Baby Jogger City Select - I don't own this stroller, but I do want it. A lot of us don't want to think about a stroller for 2 while we're expecting our first child. However, a lot of us do end up having another child and facing the need to purchase the dreaded double stroller. I keep seeing the Baby Jogger City Select on the street.  It's a great invention that seems to be an all around solution. It is, of course, pricey, but had we chosen something like this when we had our first boy we wouldn't be having to buy a whole new stroller now.