Category: Blogs
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The First Attempt at a Garden Railway – Part 3
My garden railway was starting to actually look like a railroad. It had a layout that was now embedded in lovely gravel and wound its way through my backyard. However, it was a little plain. I was given a book for my birthday that went into many different ideas for backyard trains. As I looked…
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Like a Grand and Miraculous Spaceship
Today I woke up thinking about what a new year is. It’s a new start. It’s a chance to hit the reset button in life and choose where to go from a new starting point. It’s a chance to decide and embark on a new adventure! Of course then my mind started wandering to things…
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The First Attempt at a Garden Railway – Part 2
The time had come to actually start building a train in my garden. I had the train. I had the track. I had the power-pack. I had a general vision or plan mapped out on my iPad. I also had figured out where everything would be going into the backyard. Now it was time to…
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The First Attempt at a Garden Railway – Part 1
A year or so ago I visited a friend’s house. It had been a few months between visits and imagine my amazement and wonder when I discovered that he had installed a train in his backyard. It was gorgeous. It wound its way around the entire yard, was embedded into the patio, and had a wireless…
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A Beautiful Night
During Disneyland’s Holiday Time I just can’t get enough of Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle at night. It is obviously pretty year round but… add the snow and those magical lights and it goes to the next level. The other night I wandered through the park with my camera and tripod in hand and stopped to…
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It's a Beautiful Small World
Christmas time at the Disneyland Resort really is all about the magic of Christmas lights. Thousands upon thousands of lights are strung throughout the Resort turning an already magical place into something even more incredible. One of the places where a lot of these lights end up is It’s a Small World Holiday. Both inside and…
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It All Started with a Train
As a kid, we moved around a lot. This led to some really interesting experiences for a growing boy but I’m going to narrow all of these down into just one story today. This is the story of where my love of trains originated (at least in my memory). Shortly after my sixth birthday, we…
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Beautiful Night, Beautiful Castle
Sleeping Beauty Castle is always a beautiful focal point of the Disneyland Resort. During the Christmas season though, it becomes even more dazzling. Every night the “snow falls” and it lights up with the beauty of a wintery and snowy Disney magic to become Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle. While it looks pretty cool during the…
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It's a Good Time to be a Star Wars Fan
Now is a good time to be a Star Wars fan. With all the excitement going on with the upcoming Star Wars movies, particularly Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, this is the most exciting time to be a Star Wars fan since the mid nineties when there were rumors surfacing about new movies…
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Pluto in the Rain on Main Street
This morning started off with rain coming down. It was absolutely beautiful. So after a quick jaunt to Starbucks, I ran to Disneyland. I arrived just in time to catch the end of the “storm” with just a few scattered sprinkles still coming down. I made my way to the Hub where I found that…
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Queen Elsa, Bring on the Cold!
Frozen is all over the place these days, and it isn’t just Disneyland I’m talking about. While Christmas shopping last night, I saw Frozen merchandise EVERYWHERE. There were dolls, toys, games, clothes, blankets, wrapping paper, bags, cards, Christmas stockings, and decorations… just to name a few things I happened to notice last night. The other…
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A Rainy Day with Tinker Bell and Fawn
Rainy days at Disneyland are always a favorite of mine. A week or two ago we were blessed with a few rainy days so I grabbed my camera and made my way to the park. During one of these visits I saw there was pretty much no line to visit Tinker Bell so I stopped…
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Amanda Jane Designs: The Magic of Friendship
If you have been tuning in to Dapsmagic over the last few weeks, we have been raving about the magical designs of Amanda Jane! She is so talented and such a sweet person too! In case you missed her, I interviewed her a few weeks ago about her process and popular designs, you can check…
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All in a Moment – the End of Mad T Party
One of the things I love so much about photography is the capturing of moments. I could write on and on and on about something and still not capture the emotion of an event. However, I could attend the same event and capture a quick photo (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not) that captures and conveys the…
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Idina Menzel: "Holiday Wishes" Review
It’s finally here! To all those hold outs who resisted until after the turkey had been consumed… you have no excuse now.. its officially CHRISTMAS season! With it, comes all the wonderful decorations, food, holiday smells, shopping, and of course, the part most of you hold out on until after Thanksgiving… the MUSIC! I have to confess,…
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Amanda Jane Designs: Jewelry for the Disney Fan!
We all love to show our #DisneySide, be it with character clothing, pins, bags, ears, or even combining them all into a sweet Disneybound outfit! Sometimes the perfect thing to add to our Disney ensemble is a little sparkle! I was recently given the opportunity to get to know an awesome Jewelry Designer, Amanda, who specializes…
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2014 Disneyland Resort Candy Canes Schedule
Happy November! The Holidays are in full swing as the parks transition into Winter mode and with it comes all sorts of Holiday goodies and treats. Out of all of the new items debuting on menus across the Disneyland Resort, there is one treat to rule them all! The traditional Candy Canes! Each are hand made in…
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Bridget McCarty: Disneyland Resort Pumpkin Carver Extraordinaire!
If you’ve been able to visit the Disneyland Resort during the Halloweentime festivities, you may have caught a very unique experience taking place inside Big Thunder Ranch! Disney artists have spent the last two months creating incredible pieces of art by scultping characters and themes into real pumpkins! I was lucky enough to interview artist,…
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Marvel's Agents of SHIELD – A Fractured House (S2E6): Review
First of all, a big thank you to Danie for taking over last week, as I was unable to watch that episode until Saturday. Luckily, that just meant I didn’t have to wait quite as long for this one. A lot is going down in the world o’ SHIELD, and it looks like we have…
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The Standard Sets the Standard for Arizona Restaurant Week Dining
Greetings Foodies! As Arizona Restaurant Week heats up I’m back with another review. This time we ended up at The Standard in Scottsdale. Tucked in the back of a small strip mall, diners driving by might miss it, but they are definitely missing out. While the outside of the restaurant might be understated the food…
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Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: Shadows (S2E1) – Review
Oh, man. Oh man oh man oh man. I have been waiting for this blog entry since…well, since Season One ended. AGENTS OF SHIELD IS BACK! Now, if you haven’t seen this episode yet, or if for some unimaginable reason you aren’t caught up on last season or the movies, you have to stop reading…
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Welcome Home, Oswald!
In 1928 Walt Disney lost his little not-so-lucky rabbit: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt Disney went on to create Mickey Mouse and Oswald went on to appear in several shorts with Universal. His last appearance would be as a cameo in a Woody the Woodpecker short in 1951. He also appeared in several comics through…
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Geek Eats- Taco Tuesday!
Greetings Foodies! Welcome to this edition of Geek Eats! This week’s topic is very near and dear to my heart. I’m going to talk about my favorite day of the week, no not Friday, Taco Tuesday! Taco Tuesday is a popular cultural phenomenon in which, like it describes, people eat tacos on Tuesday. This was…