Taking Stitch to Hawaii and NOT Leaving Him There

[dgbg100106]

Corrina,

Thanks so much for the beautiful review and story telling, I enjoyed it a great deal. The pictures were beautiful. I had no idea that Jurassic Park was filmed there but the pictures showed it clearly.

Thanks again for all the information.

 

[Pinkocto]

Another wonderful update, thank you so much! I continue to be surprised at all the different landscapes. The canyon was just magnificent. I didn't know Jurassic Park was filmed there either, very neat. Thank you for all the history and trivia you share, it's all very fascinating. Glad you were finally able to get the plumeria lotion you wanted.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Corrina

I've loved reading your trip report....you guys packed so much into your trip...we found that the days just flew by and before we knew it the cruise was almost over....

I'm sorry you weren't able to do your tubing excursion in Kauai but the excursion you did take is the one I wanted but unfortunately I got the Wailua River and the Waimea Canyon mixed up and I ended up booking the (very disappointing) Wailua River/Kilohana Plantation excursion. I hope you don't mind if I "borrow" some of your amazing pictures from the Canyon...it looked absolutely breathtaking....I'm still kicking myself for messing up these excursions...

I'm sorry we never really got to meet...I did see you at your group Palo lunch (didn't know at the time it was you) . We were there with Linda's group and found out that the private room was double booked...so we were all kinda standing around....hopefully we will cruise together someday soon....and you will have another jewellry making class because they were beautiful.

Feel free to borrow any photos you want. I am sorry that your excursion was less than magical.

This was actually the second cruise that we both did. Our very first cruise was the five nighter on the Magic in 2008. It is a shame that we never got to meet properly. I am sure there will be future cruises were we will have that opportunity and if it is a longer cruise, the jewellery making kits will come.

I am still not over the mess up with the Palo Private Dining Room. Stephanie even had this printed.in her cruise documents and still Palo had no record of this. This is unforgivable.

Loved reliving Kauai through your eyes. We went the same route as you in a rental car but in the opposite direction.

Did you still get to Waimea Canyon in the morning? I have heard that in the afternoon visibility is often badly affected by clouds.

Corinna

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Feel free to borrow any photos you want. I am sorry that your excursion was less than magical.

This was actually the second cruise that we both did. Our very first cruise was the five nighter on the Magic in 2008. It is a shame that we never got to meet properly. I am sure there will be future cruises were we will have that opportunity and if it is a longer cruise, the jewellery making kits will come.

I am still not over the mess up with the Palo Private Dining Room. Stephanie even had this printed.in her cruise documents and still Palo had no record of this. This is unforgivable.

Corinna

My goodness cruising together twice and we haven't formally met...that's terrible...yes, the mess up with Palo's was so not like Disney. It all worked out in the end...our group had fun in the main dining room...

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 14

This was the first of 5 sea days and it was tempting to just stay in bed when Mickey called. Graham headed to his exercise class and I decided that I would get our laundry done. I figured that I would have the best chance to get a machine without a major wait that early in the morning. I thought I was in luck. I got to the laundry room on deck 2 and there were two empty washing machines, which is just what I needed. I swiped my Key To The World card at the machine that dispenses small boxes of detergent, but nothing came out. So I had to go up to Guest Services to sort this out. They checked that the card had been debited, which it had, and then got me a packet of detergent from the back. By the time I got back to the laundry room, the machines had been used by somebody else. Fortunately I had put all my laundry in my suitcase so it was easy to take it up to deck 7, where the biggest laundry room is. There were two washing machines waiting for me. I needed another packet of detergent for the second load and fortunately the detergent machine in this laundry room worked.

Once the machines had been switched on, I had about 30 minutes to kill. There is not a great deal of space in the laundry room and there were plenty of people around. I decided to put the time to good use and do a Fish Extender run for those doing all groups. I had made cuff links with red and black Mickey heads for the men and hair pins with Plumeria flowers for the women and girls. This was actually kind of a lucky accident. I had ordered Fimo Plumeria flowers for bag charms that I made for all the women participating in the Fish Extender exchange. Some of them did not have a hole in them. I was close to throw them out, but I really liked the colours of them. When I bought the supplies for the glass tile pendants, I spotted some hair pin blanks and the idea was born. I had to get a few more flowers to have enough for everybody, but I was really pleased with the result. For the boys I had run out of ideas for homemade gifts. As I had only two of them, I got them a Union Jack Vinylmation each.

When I had finished my Fish Extender run, my washing machines were nearly finished. So I waited until the machines were done. I was quite surprised that there were two dryers were available. I put my clothes in the dryers and then headed up to deck 9. By then I was ready for something to eat and drink. I got myself a Mocha and some of the Chocolate Brioche at the Cove Cafe. When I had finished my food, I took the rest of the coffee out. Graham was in the pool. So I say down on the wooden surround of the pool and dangled my feet in the water. It was a beautiful morning and this was a nice way of spending half an hour or so. Once I had finished my coffee, I decided I had better check on my laundry. The dryers still had about 10 minutes to run. I stayed put. I learned at that point that laundry room conversations can be highly educational. There was one woman there that was very vocal about what a terrible time she was having and how she hated everything about this cruise. Already at that stage I kind of wondered if she was doing the same cruise that I was doing. Still, I can appreciate that cruising is not for everybody and considering that we had a couple of rougher days getting to Hawaii, I can understand that some people may have struggled and that this may have impacted their enjoyment of the cruise. I was actually surprised that there were quite a few first time cruisers on board. I thought that was very brave considering the length of the cruise and the itinerary. However, she then proceeded to tell everybody how awful the ports had been. At that stage my mind was made up. We were definitely in a parallel universe. Some of the other people who were around, tried to engage with her. I decided that sometimes it is better not to say anything. I was glad when my dryers were finished. I know that they replaced all the machines during the last dry dock and they seem to have done a great job with this. I had assumed that I would need a second dryer cycle, but everything but two heavier things were completely dry and those two were not far off. I put all the dry things in the suitcase and put the damp things over my arm and headed back to the cabin. I hung up the damp things in the bathroom, sorted the dry stuff and put most of it away. I left a laundry bag with my second evening gown that needed cleaning and then I headed up to the atrium.

This day turned out to be a bit of a character fest. I suppose I had withdrawal symptoms as there was not a great deal by way of character interaction during the port days. The first event was the Princess Gathering. This normally pulls serious crowds so I kept an open mind. If the line had been too long, I would have passed on this. I am not overly keen on the princesses at the best of times and actually feel a little uncomfortable around some of them. However, the line was actually quite short and I had a photo CD to fill, so I jumped in. It was a lot of fun watching the kids, some of which had never met the princesses before. Some of those interactions just made my heart melt. Very soon it was my turn. The princesses that were out that morning were Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella, Belle and Tiana. You only got in line once and then you just were passed from princess to princess. Tiana was my favourite princess of the lot. Normally I like Ariel, too, but she was a little intimidating this cruise. I had a nice interaction with Belle, too.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After I finished with the princesses, I headed up to the shops. I had found out before the cruise that there would be a new Dooney and Bourke bag released for the Hawaiian cruises. I got this mixed up with some different bags that were released for the Maiden Voyage of the Disney Fantasy and thought that the bags would come in various sizes, but there was only a relatively big bag, which was more than I was willing to pay. I was kind of on the fence about the design anyway as it was white with blue stripes and an embroidered DCL logo. This is a little plain for my taste. However, if they had this in the wristlet style, I would probably have bought it. While I was browsing in the shop, I met another family I knew. They were headed for the Ducky Williams presentation that I was planning to attend as well. We decided that we would head for the theater to make sure that we got good seats. The theater was not open yet at that point so we killed some more time in the shops. As soon as we saw the doors to the theater were open, we headed in that direction and we got great seats near the front. We spent an happy half an hour chatting.

The Ducky Williams presentation was one of the highlights of the cruise. I have attended his talk before on a different cruise, but I can never get enough of listening to him. He had offered an adult presentation on the way to Hawaii and I would have attended this as well if I had been available at the time. This presentation was the family presentation. The stage had been decorated with various examples of his work. Everybody had been given a raffle ticket when entering the theater and he had prepared a few drawings already, but he also continued drawing throughout the presentation. Most of the things he told us, I had heard before, but his story is truly inspirational. I also learned a few new things. For instance the walls in Animator’s Palate are based on the character sheet that every Disney character artist has to work from so that the characters always come out identical. The character sheets show every character in different poses and with different amounts of detail. For instance some of them just show the outline of the character. Others show the facial expressions in great detail for different emotions. I have often looked at the walls of Animator’s Palate, but I had never made this connection. He also made a comment that he does all the character work for DVC advertisements. This made me smile. Earlier in the cruise, we had received a poster advertising one of the DVC group presentations during the cruise. It had a great picture of Pirate Mickey steering a ship. I really liked this and decided to keep it and frame it. Little did I know that this was a Ducky Williams print as well. Otherwise I would have asked him to sign it, too. The hour just flew and soon it was time for the raffle to be drawn. True to form, I did not win anything. Of course, it would have been nice to win one of the drawings, but there were no hard feelings that I did not. A number of drawings went to people I knew and I was genuinely happy for them. Unfortunately not everybody felt that way. Two drawings went to the same family. They have two girls and each of them won one drawing. This was complete coincidence. One grown woman, who obviously had not won anything, reacted to this by saying that she wanted to punch them in the face. I was absolutely floored by this. I don’t know what gives anybody the right to talk like this about anybody and much less when children are involved.

I had arranged to meet Graham outside Beach Blanket Buffet after the talk. That day, they had an international Buffet. Graham had Salad; Peel and Eat Shrimp; Chicken Breast on Goat Cheese Mash; Salmon and Bread and Butter Pudding for dessert. He was in heaven as the Peel and Eat Shrimp is usually only available on the first day and this is one of his favourite things to eat on the ship. I had Potato Soup with Knock Wurst; Beef Provençal; Macaroni Cheese; Potato Cake; Chicken Breast on Goat Cheese Mash and Sherry Trifle and Baklava for dessert. The soup and the main course were gorgeous. The Baklava was quite nice as a dessert in its own right, but nothing like Baklava. Their track record for Middle Eastern food is not wonderful. The so called Sherry Trifle was horrible. It was tinned fruit cocktail set in jelly with some kind of white artificial topping. I had two spoonfuls of this and the rest stayed on the tray.

When I came back down to the atrium, I noticed that Elvis Stitch was still out for photos. I was pretty sure that I had missed him. When I went up to deck 4, his line was still open. So I got in line. This time the stardom had not gone to his head and we had a bit of fun. Once I was finished with him, I stayed around and in relatively short succession I managed to meet and got photos with Daisy and Chip and Dale in their nautical costumes and Snow White and Dopey. I had to temporarily depose of a princess. I really wanted a photo with just Dopey and I have to say Snow White was very gracious about this. There were quite a few people doing the same as I did and went from character to character. It was nice taking with some of the other people in line. I was just finished with Snow White and Dopey when I looked up to deck 4 and realized that not only Elvis Stitch was out again, but he was also all alone. I could not resist paying him another visit. We messed around for a bit until somebody else came along at which stage I had some more photos taken and then went on my way.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I quickly went to our cabin to get my swimsuit and my book and headed upstairs to the Rainforest Room. Initially all the heated tile loungers were taken so I sat down on the heated bench at the back of the room and read my book. As soon as a heated tile lounger became available, I moved across. I read for a while longer, but then fell asleep. The combination of the warmth and a gentle rocking ship just sends me to sleep. Fortunately I woke up in time for the next set of characters. I quickly got shower and changed and then headed downstairs. Ariel was out again and they also had Pinocchio and Peter Pan out. I have had a chance to get a photo with Pinocchio on our Transatlantic cruise, but Peter Pan was a first for me. A lot of people were complaining about Peter Pan as he was too lively, but I thoroughly enjoyed my interaction with him. He actually struck a real chord with me when he told me at the end to never grow up.

I had left my stuff in a locker in the spa as I knew I would be back. So I headed straight back to the Rainforest Room, where I spent some more time reading on a heated tile lounger. This time I did not fall asleep, but after a while I decided that I had enough heat for the day and did a round of the showers in this area instead. They have a Tropical Rain Shower, a Fog Shower and a shower that has jets at the side. The Tropical Rain Shower and the Fog Shower were pretty cold. The Fog Shower had a lovely scent and I just stayed far enough back that I was not right underneath where the fog came out, but still got the effect of the mist and the scent. The temperature of the jets in the third shower could be adjusted and this was really lovely.

When I had enough of the Rainforest Room, I headed back to the cabin to drop off my stuff and then headed back to the atrium for more photos. At some point Graham joined me. Tiana was out again and we had another lovely interaction. Donald was out in his nautical outfit. Once I had my photo taken with Donald, I headed back up to deck 4, where Belle was supposed to be shortly. I really loved the backdrop that they were using for the princesses that night and asked the photographer if she could take a photo of me in front of this backdrop. I really love the resulting photos. Shortly afterwards, Belle came out and I had some more photos taken with her. Last up was Captain Mickey in his new uniform. By the time I had finished with him, it was time for dinner.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Dinner that night was the Aloha menu, which was the last of the Hawaiian themed menus. This was actually the most Hawaiian of the menus that I had experienced. We were back at Parrot Cay. Graham had Grilled Pineapple with Orange Segments and Orange Zest followed by Ginger Teriyaki Glazed Salmon on Bamboo Shoots, Leeks, wilted Bok Choi with a Citrus Soy Glaze. I had Grilled Pineapple with Orange Segments and Orange Zest; Molaki Corn and Taro Chowder with Yellow Corn and Chives followed by Grilled Angus Beef Tenderloin with Oxtail Rillette Dumpling, sautéed Carrots and Snow Peas and an essence of Pinot Noir Reduction. We had another bottle of the Moscato Allegro with Dinner. Graham had the Tropical Mango Soufflé with Guava Sauce for dessert. I really fancied the Green Tea Creme Brûlée with Seasonal Fruits ,but was advised by our server that this would not be safe for me. So I went with the Maui Sunday instead, which was fresh Mango and Pineapple with Macadamia Ice Cream topped with Passion Fruit Sauce and Coconut Cluster.

After dinner, it was time for photos again. They had the black backdrop out again and this time the flash worked. Initially the photographer took a range of photos with both of us and then asked if she could take some photos just with me. Again, they came out great.

Once we had our photos taken, we headed back to the cabin. I took some photos of our towel animal and then we got ready for bed.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Lovely update! Some people aren't happy with anything... but glad that you enjoy life so much and are willing to share with us!

 

[dgbg100106]

Love the update, the jewelery is beautiful and the pictures are so much fun!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Lovely update! Some people aren't happy with anything... but glad that you enjoy life so much and are willing to share with us!

You are right. I still think there are more appropriate and especially cheaper places to be miserable. Even though the price was not totally over the top, it was not a cheap cruise. We had an amazing time. I am not saying that there was nothing that could not have been improved upon, but they were just little niggles that did not affect our enjoyment of the cruise.

Love the update, the jewelery is beautiful and the pictures are so much fun!

Thanks. I had so much fun putting everything together. I am seriously considering reviving my Etsy store.

Corinna

 

[LindaBabe]

Lovely Update! You have a great capacity for having fun, Corinna!

 

[Pinkocto]

What a lovely day!

Love the hair clips, so pretty and your dress is just beautiful.

I can't believe anyone would say something so nasty regarding the raffle. And I hope the other one didn't drag down the other people in her party. How truly bizarre.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 15

This day was a completely new experience for me on so many levels. Mickey called at the normal time and Graham headed off to his exercise classes. I had nothing planned this morning and therefore no reason to get up quite so early so I asked Graham to put the “Privacy” sign outside the door, turned over and went back to sleep. I woke up at about 9:00 feeling much more refreshed and headed out to find Graham. He was in the pool all by himself. I stuck my toe in the water and that felt pleasant enough. I decided to join him. I went back to the cabin to get changed into my swimsuit. I swam for a while and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was quite windy and whenever I was swimming towards Signals, it was blowing water droplets into my eyes. After a while, my eyes had all the chlorinated water in them that they were going to take so I retired to the hot tub, which is a lot more sheltered. Graham joined me a little later and once we had enough, we drip dried for a bit and then headed to the spa to have a shower and get changed. While I was in the spa, I thought that I really fancied having an updo for formal night. As I know that they are busy on formal and semi-formal nights and the formal night was this evening, I was not optimistic. However, I figured I was never going to know unless I asked. So I checked and they had an 18:15 appointment, which was perfect. I jumped on this.

They were offering Brunch at Triton’s that day and we had planned to go for this as we really enjoyed the Brunch there during our Panama Canal cruise. Access to Triton’s was by the back entrance as they had the Princess Gathering in the atrium again. When we headed towards this, there was a huge line. I thought that this was the line for the Princess Gathering doubling back on itself, but one of the servers who was giving out the disinfectant wipes confirmed that this was indeed the line for Triton’s. Neither of us fancied getting into this particular line. We headed for the Promenade Lounge. Lunch would be served in Parrot Cay about half an hour later. We were happy to just sit by one of the big portholes and watch the world go by. Shortly after we sat down, one of the bartenders approached us to check if we wanted something to drink. We figured it would be rude not to. I really love the Virgin Peach Daiquiri that they do in the Promenade Lounge. Graham has never had this one before and decided to try it, too. We both enjoyed our drink, but Graham still prefers the Virgin Pina Colada. By the time we had finished our drinks, Parrot Cay was open and there was no queue for this. They had an Asian buffet. I had Pot Stickers, which for some reason were cold, but still very tasty, Spring Rolls, Crispy Fried Noodles and various Stir Fries. Graham went with Salad, some Asian inspired Fish dish and some Beef Stir Fry. He had some Fruit Cobbler for dessert. I was not inspired by the dessert choices and figured I would just have some ice cream. I thought that one of the options was Vanilla ice cream, but this actually turned out to be Macadamia Nut ice cream. I was in heaven and had a double helping.

After lunch, we headed up to Shutters. I had been checking my photos on the kiosks on a daily basis, but it had been a little while since I had looked at the physical photos. So there were quite a few. It always makes me sad to throw them out. This time it was even worse as we heard from a number of people who also did the Fantasy Maiden Voyage that they had a deal that if you bought the photo CD, you got all the prints, too, for an extra $50. Graham had asked the photo manager on the Wonder about this, but he had never heard about this. I have heard that they have since then introduced this to the Wonder as well. Once we had sorted out the photos, I quickly headed up to deck 9. We were planning to watch a film in the Buena Vista Theater that afternoon and Graham had warned me that this often a bit chilly. So I decided to borrow one of the blankets that they kept in some of the towel cabinets by the pools. We met back in the cabin. We still had some time until the film started. Up to this point, I had only done the Fish Extender gifts for those doing all groups. I still had to give out the gifts that everybody was getting. I roped in Graham and we did deck 6 together, which was the biggest job. I had done bag charms for the women with Fimo Plumeria flowers, key rings for the men in the colours of the ship with ship wheels and or the boys and girls I had made Stitch key rings or bag charms. Once we had finished, we headed down to deck 5. There was still a bit of time until the film was due to start, but the doors to the Buena Vista Theater was open and we decided to go and find a seat.

This was our 8th Disney cruise, but it was the first time I have got around to watching a film. Graham has watched a few films on the ship and had mentioned in the morning that he was planning to watch Warhorse in the afternoon. We had missed this when it was in the cinema. I had not even been aware that there was any Disney involvement in this film, but it was distributed by Touchstone. As I had no other plans, I decided to go along. I snuggled up in my blanket and thoroughly enjoyed the film. It follows the lives of boy and his horse that get separated during the war. It was a very moving story and at times very sad. If you have not seen the film, I would recommend it.

 

[dolphingirl47]

When the film was finished, I quickly did the Fish Extender gifts for decks 7 and 8 as I had not that many to do on those decks. Once this was done, I headed up to the Rainforest Room to relax until it was time for my hair appointment. Graham was already there when I got there. Eventually it was nearly time for my hair appointment. I got changed and headed to reception. The hair stylist was still finishing up with somebody else. When it was my turn, another round of 20 questions commenced. I must have passed muster as she got to work. She had asked if I had any preferences as to style, which I did not. We agreed on something soft and feminine and I actually ended up with a pretty accurate copy of the hair style that I had for our vow renewal. I was very happy with this as I had loved it.

I paid my bill and quickly showed Graham my new hair do and then headed to the cabin to get changed and put my make up on. Once this was done, I headed up to deck 4 to get photos with Mickey and Minnie in their golden outfits. The cast member in charge of crowd control commented on my golden evening gown. I mentioned that I had it custom made for this particular theme night. Well, I started something there. This bit of news went round the cast members in attendance like a wild fire. At one point the character manager came over and said that he heard that I had this dress specially made for The Golden Mickeys and if this was really the case. I told him that it was and he thanked me for getting in the spirit of things. Soon it was my turn to have my photo taken with Mickey. He was very excited about my evening gown as it matched his golden Tuxedo. Once I was finished with Mickey, I got back in line for Minnie. Mickey's line was still open, but the cast member told me to stand in a certain spot and he would tell me when to join the line again. While I was in line for Minnie, I unfortunately missed Belle. I would have loved to have a photo with her as the style of our dresses was pretty similar that night. Still, I had a great interaction with Minnie, who also was quite excited about my dress and get pointing to my dress and her dress.

Once I had my photo taken with Minnie, I headed down to the atrium, where I caught up with Graham. Dinner that night was at Triton's and it was the Golden Mickeys menu. Graham had Crispy Cheese Ravioli with Tomato Concasse and Lemon Zest; Caramelized Scallops on Tomato Risotto; Grilled Ginger-Lime Swordfish Steak with Jasmine Rice, Braised Swiss Chard and Red Pepper Coulis andTahitan Vanilla Crème Brulee with Honeyed Raspberries for dessert. I had Crispy Cheese Ravioli with Tomato Concasse and Lemon Zest, Sangria Bisque; Yachtsman Steakhouse Grilled New York Strip with marinated Green Asparagus and Garlic Herb Butter. This was supposed to come with baked potato. I am not a big fan of potatoes at he best of times and I had my fill of them this cruise. I have had Macaroni Cheese with steak at a couple of the signature restaurants at Walt Disney World and Disneyland before now and therefore decided to ask if they had Macaroni Cheese on the children's menu that night and if they had, could I please have some with my steak instead of the potato. Our server was happy to oblige and I loved my dinner. For dessert, I had the Golden Chocolate Award (Milk Chocolate Mousse, Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Ganache). We also had some more of the Moscato Allegro. At some point during dinner, the photographers came around. Our photographer took a couple of photos of Graham and me, an individual photo of me and a group photo with our table mates. I particularly like the group photo.

After dinner, we made the rounds of the photo opportunities. They had the backdrop with the moon out, the ship with the Mickey head sunset and were also taking photos on the staircase. When we got to the staircase, there was nobody in line behind us. I grabbed that opportunity with both hands. We have countless formal and semi-formal night photos from the Magic with the Helmsman Mickey statue, but we never managed to get a proper photo with the Ariel statue. I mentioned this to the photographer and asked if she could help us with this. She was happy to do this and once we had done the staircase photos, we moved across for some Ariel photos.

When we finished with the photos, we headed back to the cabin, where I took a quick photo of our towel animal and then got ready for bed.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Aw, more cute couple photos! Your dress indeed makes you look like a princess!

 

[Pinkocto]

Beautiful dress! Dinner sounded delicious. Glad you finally made it to the cinema. I thoroughly enjoyed doing that on my cruise.

 

[dgbg100106]

I love the golden dress and the fact that you had it made for this occasion. So much fun!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Aw, more cute couple photos! Your dress indeed makes you look like a princess!

Beautiful dress! Dinner sounded delicious. Glad you finally made it to the cinema. I thoroughly enjoyed doing that on my cruise.

I love the golden dress and the fact that you had it made for this occasion. So much fun!

Thanks. I am plotting the next dress at the moment. We have two big black tie events at work in the not too distant future. We will have have a Christmas party for management in early December and then we will have a New Year's Ball for everybody on January 5th. The New Year's Ball is in the swankiest hotel in Manchester. So this warrants a new dress. I am going for this style, but in lilac:

I am currently plotting with my favourite jewellery artist regarding some matching jewellery. The idea is that it is loosely based on my favourite Dooney and Bourke bag with lilac Swarovski crystals, lilac pearls, dark pink Swarovski hearts and a pewter Tinkerbell charm.

Corinna

 

[tiggrbaby]

Thanks. I am plotting the next dress at the moment. We have two big black tie events at work in the not too distant future. We will have have a Christmas party for management in early December and then we will have a New Year's Ball for everybody on January 5th. The New Year's Ball is in the swankiest hotel in Manchester. So this warrants a new dress. I am going for this style, but in lilac:

I am currently plotting with my favourite jewellery artist regarding some matching jewellery. The idea is that it is loosely based on my favourite Dooney and Bourke bag with lilac Swarovski crystals, lilac pearls, dark pink Swarovski hearts and a pewter Tinkerbell charm.

Corinna

Ooooh, so beautiful!