SteamBath Factory's month of give-aways

SteamBath Factory

We love the jams and jellies to be found on Etsy. One of our very favorites shops for lipbalm, solid perfume, and bath salts is SteamBath Factory. For the month of September, SteamBath Factory is hosting a series of weekly give-aways. The first give-away is from All Things Little & In Between. This shop is full of yummy chocolates, cake pops, and chocolate covered marshmallows. Everything looks fantastic, especially the Cast a Spell Halloween Mixed Cake Lollipops and the Spookalicious Marshmallow Pops. If you like chocolate and Halloween, hop over to SteamBath Factory's blog and enter to win!

Tangled Ever After

Disney

We absolutely love Tangled at out house, so we were excited to find out that Disney will be releasing a new Tangled short on the Disney Channel next spring. Disney announced the new film at the D-23 Expo. They haven't released too many details about the storyline, but Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi will return as the voices of Rapunzel and Flynn.

Halloween Vinylmation

Disney recently released two new Halloween Vinylmation sets, one available at the Disney Store and DisneyStore.com and the other a Park Exclusive. The Limited Release Spooky Series 1 features Mickey and Minnie as Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein. They are so cute! They are currently available at DisneyStore.com, but are expected to sell out quickly. This first set will be $26.95 and more sets may follow in the Spooky Series.

Disney

The second Vinylmation is a 3" Halloween jack-o-lantern bucket full of candy. This is supposed to be the first in a series that will feature Halloween items. It has a clear head and black arms and legs. This special Halloween collectible will be available at any Disney World or Disneyland location selling Halloween merchandise as well as both D-Street locations. This Vinylmation will be available for $14.95 and will arrive in the display stage style box introduced last year.

POP! Vinyl Series 2

All images: Funko

The second series of POP! Vinyl are now available at Disney Stores nationwide. This new series were first released at the D-23 Expo and at Comic Con in San Diego. The Funko booth at Comic Con also featured Limited Edition 9" versions of a metallic Maleficent and Buzz Lightyear ($50) from series 1 as well as four Limited Edition 3" characters: a metallic Mickey, a flocked Sully, a glow-in-the-dark Mike Wazowski, and Mr. Incredible in his retro blue suit ($15). At the D-23 Expo, they offered two Limited Edition characters: a 9" metallic Steamboat Willie ($50) and a 3" flocked Lotso ($15). Only 480 of these Limited Edition characters were created and they sold out fast! Funko recently stated, “We do have 6 series planned out already… so with the vast Disney/Pixar library at our disposal, it was fun trying to decide who would make our initial run.” It will be fun to see which characters made the cut.

Series 2 includes: Steamboat Willie, pink Minnie Mouse, Belle and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, Jack Skellington & Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas, Jessie & Lotso from Toy Story, Boo & George Sanderson from Monsters Inc, and Mr. Incredible & Syndrome from the Incredibles. They will be available exclusively at Disney Stores and DisneyStore.com. They cost $12.50 each, or you can purchase all of Series 2 together for $150.

The next set, Series 3, will include: Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Elastigirl, Edna Mode, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, Toy Story Alien, Zurg, Ursula, Ariel, Donald Duck and Winnie The Pooh.

Muppet Crafts and Recipes

Disney

Do you love the Muppets? I sure do! We love all the Muppet movies, even the less well known ones like Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas, so I was excited to see that Disney's Family Fun has created several crafts and recipes featuring those lovable creatures, the Muppets.  There are several different crafts to choose from: Pook-a-looz printable Pencil Toppers, Animal's Music-Making Bracelet, a printable 3D Kermit the Frog Chef, and more.

My favorite Muppet recipe is the Kermit Green Apples with Peanut Butter Dip. It's just too cute and so Kermit! I think kids would love it. The craziest recipe is for Animal's Punk Pink Pasta, but it's neon pink, made with beets. I don't know if kids would eat it, but it certainly looks wild like Animal.

These crafts and recipes would be fun to make while counting down to the new movies. If your kids haven't seen a Muppet movie before, I would recommend starting with Muppet Treasure Island or even a Muppet Christmas Carol, even though it's not Christmas. The older Muppet movies like the Muppets Take Manhattan are fantastic, but are old enough that some of the references may be a little dated for today's kids.

The Good Witch's Family

All images: Hallmark

I love the Good Witch series of movies with Catherine Bell. They are wonderful, magical, uplifting stories of a good witch and the people that become her family. In the third movie, the Good Witch's Gift, Cassie Nightingale married Police Chief Jake Russell, after many difficulties.

In the fourth movie, they are settling in to life as a family, although things in Middleton are far from settled. The town is divided over the construction of a bridge that would link the town to a larger city. In the midst of this turmoil, Cassie's cousin Abigail has arrived for an extended visit. But Abigail is jealous of Cassie's happiness and decides to cause a little trouble of her own. With Abigail's "double, double, toil and trouble" attitude wreaking havoc on Cassie's family and the fate of the town up in the air, what's a good witch to do?

I can't wait until this premieres on the Hallmark Channel on October 29, 2011. I'm sure it will be just as wonderful as the previous films, but I've heard that this one doesn't have the grandfather in it, which is rather sad. I've also heard that they plan to make a fifth installment to this series, so hopefully he'll be back.

Pirates of the Caribbean Vinylmation

Disney

I've become a real fan of Disney's Vinylmation figures recently. Honestly, unlike my ridiculous pin collection, I only have one vinylmation so far, but I can see where they would be fun to trade and collect. On July 1, 2011, Disney released a Pirates of the Caribbean collection of vinylmation. There are 11 regular vinylmations and one mystery one. Everyone had hoped the the mystery character would be "We wants the Redhead!" from the ride, but apparently it isn't. Well, whoever the mystery character is, I want the Jack Sparrow in a barrel vinylmation. I love Jack and this vinylmation is too funny!