I’m in California for the Craft & Hobby Association Trade Show and since it’s right across the street from Disneyland… guess who I brought with me? The whole family!! We’re so excited to be here.

Instead of having a party for my son’s 9th birthday, I surprised him with Disneyland tickets. We’ll be celebrating his big day in style. It’s my kid’s first trip to a Disney park! FUN!

Birthday Surprise

I found some cool vintage Disney tickets online and edited them to say “We’re taking you to Disneyland!” I then wrapped them inside one of my very own lunch boxes from when I was a kid.

I told my son it was a VERY SPECIAL gift. His face was hilarious when he opened it to see an old rusty lunch box and said “What’s so special about this??” LOL!

After reading the ticket, he jumped for joy and so did his little sister. It was awesome!!

I have this old lunch box displayed on my office shelves, but forgot about the funny stickers!

Oh yes, I LOVED Charlie’s Angels! Mork & Mindy was the BEST too! I even had rainbow suspenders with a big plastic pointy hand attached… and wore them!

Okay, so if you don’t know WHY I would wear rainbow suspenders, then I’m probably old enough to be your mother. So don’t ask why. ha!

So no big party this year for my son! Maybe I’ll do something fun for him this summer if he’s good.

I’ll make these Disney Tickets available as a free printable when I get back home. For now, I’m going to enjoy some family time and lunch with Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White and Arora!!

Have a great weekend. -Amy

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The Help movie just opened in theaters. I told you earlier this week about how my friend and I got to visit the movie set last October (and also included a review with a great giveaway). Here are more fun behind the scenes photos of the movie set!!

Long story short, my suitcase never came, so I was without clothes. (You can read more about what happens when you loose your bags in Mississippi here. ha!) A nice young man from the hotel in Greenwood dropped me off at the local JCPenney to pick up some undies and a few shirts. After my shopping spree, he was proud to show us around the town.

I snapped a photo of this house because of the old cars outside. Little did we know until watching the movie that it was Elizabeth’s house! Kind of cool when we saw my photo on film.

The next day, we headed to the set to watch the filming of the movie. Ever wonder what the inside of those trailer’s look like? Me too! Most were the movie star’s trailers, so we couldn’t barge in on them. But we did get to visit one!

This is the make-up trailer! I wasn’t supposed to take photos, but I did anyway. Really, there’s not much to see here, so I think I’m okay:-) Although I’m guessing that’s Celia’s wig.

We got to see a lot of photos from the movie here and talk to the head make-up artist. It sounded like they were so busy and had a huge job with those costumes. I think she said it took about 3 hours to do one person’s hair and make-up. But what a fun job!

Lunch on Set

I have NEVER been to lunch on a movie set. So I was fascinated with the huge tent full of food. Movie stars were walking around in character and I’m taking photos of the food. Ha! Yeah, something is wrong with me. I’ve never seen so many bottles of salad dressings and hot sauce in my life! I had to take photos.

Really? How many different condiments do you need? You should have seen all the food. Southern heaven. If I ate that for 6 months, I would have gained 30 lbs at least! I’m guessing those actresses don’t eat much.

I was also fascinated by the HUGE amount of pork skins at the local gas stations too. What’s with me and food? ha!

After lunch, we went back into the warehouse for more filming and shopping for props, then we were off to the Viking Cooking School with the rest of the winners. No pork skins there.

What a wonderful trip! It was fun to see actors we recognized (Ted Danson & Kieran Culkin) walking around the town and hotel. I’m sure the people of Greenwood had a ball with the movie being filmed in their town!

Go see the movie and don’t miss my giveaway of an autographed copy of The Help book.

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The Help opens this week in movie theaters.  Last year, I won an amazing trip to visit the movie set in Mississippi. I took my friend Naomi who told me about the book. We had a blast! Not only did we get a chance to talk with several of the main actresses and director, Tate Taylor, we even got to share a slice of Minny’s famous chocolate pie!

A few nights ago, I saw the movie and wanted to let you know my thoughts and how it compares to the book along with some fun stories from my trip and a giveaway!

When you love a book, you know the movie is not going to the same. There is no way to fit every scene from a book into less than two hours. As a fan of the book, I have to say… this movie was well done! It’s hard to imagine, not too long ago, this was reality for black women in the south. I think Tate Taylor did a great job of telling the women’s stories while also keeping true to the book. From the costumes and set designs, to the wonderful acting and doses of hilarious humor thrown in, you can’t help but be moved.

While on the movie set, we were lucky enough to watch this scene with Skeeter (Emma Stone), Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer). It’s the scene where Minny reveals the “terrible awful” about what she did to the mean-spirited, social-climbing Hilly Holbrook.

We weren’t actually on the set with this view, we were sitting with the directors watching it on a monitor and listening to the sound through head phones. For such a dramatic scene, we were amazed by the actress’s talents. They would be cracking up about something silly in between scenes and then as soon as they called ACTION, it was serious business.

Let me just say… this scene is one of the BEST parts of the movie. Sissy Spacek who plays Missus Walters is a scene stealer. There was so much laughter in the theater that I need to see the movie again just to know what was actually said!

What’s amazing, is most of the movie was shot in a giant warehouse. We weren’t allowed to take photos of the set, but if you can imagine walking into a huge building and going back to the 1960′s, that’s what it was like. They had the interiors of everyone’s homes built here, along with a giant backdrop of the New York City skyline for the outside of Mrs. Stine’s office.

When you’re on a movie set like this, time stops. There are no windows and you’re back in time. It was the oddest feeling. I couldn’t imagine working there for 6 months to a year! I talked with Viola Davis, who plays Aibileen, at lunch and she said yes, it’s really hard to be gone from home for so long. She will go home and forget how to work her TV remote control. Viola was so nice and down to earth. It was a pleasure talking to her, but so crazy because she was dressed as Aibileen! She was perfect for the role, she made Aibileen even better. It was like I was in the book having lunch with Aibileen. So strange!

They were close to wrapping up the movie, so all of the props were in another warehouse for sale! I walked into this room and about had a heart attack when someone told me I could shop! Look at all of the amazing furniture… and this was just a portion of the props. A vintage junk shopper’s heaven!

Unfortunately, everything good that I wanted to buy already had the director’s name on it. Tate Taylor had just bought a plantation while he was in Mississippi and needed to furnish it. Too bad for me, he has great taste:-)

Besides the hilarious Minny, Celia Foote was my favorite character of the book. Each rack in the warehouse was sorted by rooms and characters. I was excited to find this old jewelry box on Celia’s rack. So that was what I went home with. I looked for it in the movie, but didn’t see it. If you do, let me know!

When I read about the actress playing Celia (Jessica Chastain), I couldn’t picture her in this role. Well, she was absolutely amazing. Besides such a wonderful story, the actors are truly incredible.

One actress that I think you’ll see a lot of in the future is Octavia Spencer (Minny). We met her at dinner one evening with producer, Brunson Green. She just plopped down beside us and had a conversation. Absolutely the sweetest woman. She is hilarious too and who writer Kathryn Stockett based the character of Minny on in the first place.

We had such a fun time in Greenwood, Mississippi. I’ve shared more behind the scenes of the movie here as well. Go see it and tell me what you think!

Giveaway

We of course came prepared with books for the actresses to sign. Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were kind enough to talk with us and sign our books. I brought an extra one, just to give away to a special reader!! I’ve been saving this for nearly a year and excited to give it away!!!

(This giveaway is in no way affiliated with the movie.)

To enter to win, just do these 2 things: (This giveaway is now closed)

• Leave a comment here letting me know what you loved about the book. If you haven’t read the book, but saw the movie tell me what you thought.

• Visit my Facebook Page and like my page if you don’t already. (Leave a comment here telling me you did this- not on Facebook.) Bonus: When you like my page, you get a free gift too!

**For an extra entry, follow me on Twitter and tweet this: Tweet

Only three entries per person. You must let me know you did each item in the comments below. This giveaway will end on Wed. the 17th. Winner will be emailed and announced on this post.

Winner Update

Congratulations to Michele!!

I loved reading the comments and learning how much this book touched so many of you! Michele and her sister loved it so much, they did “The Help Road Trip “to Mississippi.

I’m so excited Michele won the autographed book. You’ll see why when you read the comment she left here:

Oh my goodness – what a movie!  I’m sitting in our hotel in Jackson, and my sister and I are so glad we did this trip!  Ironically, we played Johnny Cash’s “Going to Jackson” in the car to start a trip, having no idea that this was the song that would open the movie!
Once in Jackson, we started with Brent’s Drugs for dinner, and took tons of pictures everywhere we went.  It was so much fun to see the diner we had eaten in yesterday afternoon on the screen last night!

Next we did the Help Driving tour – again, pictures of everything. It was cool to be familiar with the street names and places like the Jitney Jungle (now called McDade’s) when we were watching the movie. Our final destination was Medgar Evers’ house, which ended our tour on a somber note.  While the house is maintained by organizations, it sits in a horribly run down area of Jackson and has very little fanfare.  No signs on the roads that I could see announcing Medgar Evers’ home, merely a large bronze plaque on the house and a historical sign at the curbside.  Sobering to look around and realize that his neighborhood was so run down and didn’t look like a place that anyone would choose to move into.  Economic disparities were so obvious in Jackson, and it made me wonder just how far we have really come.

On to the movie- ours was sold out, so every seat was taken.  I LOVED the movie!  When I saw the cast months ago, I couldn’t envision any of them as the characters I had construed in my head. Now I can’t remember the characters I had imagined because the actors so embodied the personalities in the book. We laughed and cried, and we must see this one again!
On to Ole Miss today, then our Help vacation is done.  My sister returns to Maryland in a few days, and my 3 month stay at St Jude ends in 2 weeks.  I will remember this little 2 day adventure as one of the most awesome vacations ever. Amazing how 1 book could inspire so many of us.  Hopefully, it will actually bring some much needed change in the way we all see each other.

Thanks for sharing your trip pictures and for the chance to win this book.  Also, thanks for the opportunity to chronicle my little adventure in my 3 entries – I don’t have a blog/website, but now I have a mini journal of my escapade!

Michele

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Our photo challenge this week at I Heart Faces is “Friendship”. It’s National Friendship Week.  We love that… especially since I Heart Faces was started because of my friendship with Angie. What many people don’t know is she lives in Ohio and I’m in Dallas and we met through blogging. I had the pleasure of attending the BlogHer Conference this weekend in San Diego. It was wonderful seeing so many of my friends, especially these two lovely ladies.

Laurie (Tip Junkie), Angie (I Heart Faces) and I skipped out of the conference one afternoon and spent time at the Hotel Del in Coronado! We couldn’t pass up time on the beach while being in such a gorgeous place. I love this photo of my two special friends! I think I was probably saying something goofy and caught their reaction. This photo will always remind me of that awesome day!

Join the fun and enter a friendship photo on Monday & Tuesday.

P.S. They are carrying the beautiful Epiphanie Camera bags (these particular bags have room for a laptop too!). Laurie has a pretty custom made SewTamz camera strap.

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Happy Independence Day! I’m in Boston enjoying time with my husband’s side of the family. I thought you might enjoy some photos of my girl day with my sister-in-law. We enjoyed a great day in Rockport, MA. A quaint historic little fishing village with beautiful scenery and wonderful shops.

If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend walking around this beautiful town. You can park and walk around the entire town in just a few hours. But be sure to make time to shop!

I loved the huge lobster buoys everywhere.

You’ll also find fantastic seafood and shopping.

Oh, and also yummy strudel.

One of my favorite shops was James Russell. They hand make the most wonderful jewelry. I enjoyed talking with the family and learning more about how they make their jewelry. You can find gorgeous earrings and bracelets from $19 on up. A great place to call if you need gifts. Hopefully they will get online soon! I might have talked them into it:-)

Everything was picture perfect. A super day with family!

What are you doing this weekend? I hope you’re enjoying your holiday!

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Also, be sure to check out Printables by Amy! Find easy and affordable digital files to download and print at home or at your local quick print shop. Each product is custom designed by Amy, a professional graphic designer. Amy makes do-it-yourself projects a breeze!