Day 1070: Killian, Killian Jones

I take some comfort in the fact that I'm writing this so long after the initial mid-season finale of Once Upon A Time that I no longer have to worry about spoilers getting out. I mean, after all, I'm pretty sure we all know by now who dies. 

But just in case you don't, you probably shouldn't read any more. 

Regardless, the end of another half season of my favorite show calls for a roundup of the DisneyBounds that helped make Season 5 so interesting! I went back to a few old favorite characters here, but for the most part it was all about the new and original characters that were brought into the storyline this season! 

Since #DarkSwan seemed to be the theme this season, we had to begin with a DisneyBound inspired by our favorite hero turned dark! I actually LOVED putting this one together, and the shoes are to die for. I still call them my "Dark Swan Heels," and ironically enough, that's just about all I bought to put this outfit together! Everything else was already in my closet! 

King Arthur, oh King Arthur. To be honest, I love Liam, but I could do without this supposedly "noble" king. Either way, this DisneyBound brought some interesting additions into my closet, like the cardigan that I now wear all the time or a pair of bright silver shoes!

Lancelot has been one of my favorite characters since we saw him in Season Two, and I was thrilled to see him back on the screen again (and not dead)! For this one I reused those shoes I found for Arthur and added a bright blue shirt and red belt to go along with his crest and colors, as well as my grey leather jacket to symbolize his armor!

I've only ever done a Rumpelstiltskin bound one other time, and this time I had the perfect pants to go along with it! Reusing the Dark Swan Heels and pairing it with a black vest and golden shirt really made this one work out pretty well!

When I saw Emma in her dress in Camelot I knew immediately that a DisneyBound had to be in the works. All it took was locating a flower crown to make this one work, and it offered the perfect contrast between Light and Dark Swan for this season!

Merida was actually my first ever DisneyBound way back in the day, so to be able to revisit her character for a DisneyBound for the show was an opportunity I was certainly excited about! The only problem is her color scheme is pretty hard to be creative with, but at the same time, I love her hair, and I already had the accessories pulled together to make this one work!

Merlin quickly became a favorite character, and ironically enough, I bought the perfect shirt for his DisneyBound years ago. It's been in my closet ever since, and I actually almost got rid of it once. Still, something told me to keep it, and now I'm really glad I did!

An entire episode dedicated to Brave definitely called for another DisneyBound from the characters! After a bit of debating, I just knew it had to be her mother, especially since I already had the perfect green dress to make it work!

It's kind of hard to pick favorites when you love DisneyBounding OUAT so much, but this one may just be my favorite of all time. I may or may not have picked my glasses a few months ago so they'd match Emma's from the show, and when I came across the plaid dress at the store a few months ago, I knew it had to come home. Pretty sure I'll be wearing this one again, preferably to a fan event of some sort! 

And to round out this half of the season, it just had to be Papa Hook! We've been waiting for so long to meet Killian's father, and when we found out we'd be meeting him in the midseason finale I had to make the decision between a Dark Hook DisneyBound and Papa Hook. As you can see, the later won, allowing for me to reuse the shirt from Rumple as well as an old pair of pants I also got for OUAT DisneyBounds! 

But honestly, DisneyBounds aside, I cried a lot, and I'm definitely ready to head to the underworld so we can get Killian back. In the meantime, I'll just be over here eagerly awaiting his return, because really, how long can any of us live without a bit of Hook in our lives? 

Have a magical day! 

(Note: This blog post was written on December 23).

Day 137: Ranting

You know, I've written this blog post about three or four times now...and each one was totally different.

There are just sometimes those nights when you need to rant, and for me, writing has always been a great way to get my frustrations out. I tend to get caught up in the moment and write a bunch of nonsense anyway, so I might as well write something that no one's going to see anyway, right? 

Well, tonight's rants consisted of a variety of things, but one of the main themes I in both was learning from experience. There's recently been a lot of backlash over the redesigned Princesses, especially Merida, and I honestly think a lot of it is just outrageous people being completely rude, but one of the things I mentioned is that the person who created these designs must be feeling terrible right now (or if they're awesome, they're embracing and learning from it). People are saying they should be fired and that they don't know what they're doing and that their sexist. How is that even fair to them? It's not! So the population didn't like the redesigns, say your piece politely and move on, they'll fix it if there's really that much upset. They don't need to fire anyone, because everyone is going to learn from the experience anyway!

The same thing then applied to learning by yourself, as one of my friends had a really bad day in our creative writing class (We're in separate hours, but it's the same basic class and group of people). There are just a lot of people who don't care and don't do their work in the class, and she was frustrated because they were distracting her. I feel awful that she had to go through that, and she was most upset over the fact that the teacher did nothing, but at the same time, I feel like she overreacted. I know how hard it is to be in a class like that, since I'm in the same position the following hour, but the teacher didn't say anything because in a few weeks, we'll be out on our own, having graduated, and there won't be a teacher there to save us from an annoying person sitting next to us any longer. We have to learn to fend for ourselves, and that's what he's really teaching us. I initially was going to drop out of my class period and switch to a different hour, but I didn't, and now I'm glad that I made that decision. I have learned so much, both about my writing and about how to deal with people, and I feel like she just overlooked that lesson a bit. But like I said, she'll learn through experience, and eventually everything will work out.

Disney has taught me to learn from experience, and that it's ok to make mistakes, because it's only going to make me stronger (Now I have the song Stronger in my head...). I am defined by the experiences I have in life, and I wouldn't change them for anything in the world. But at the same time, people need to understand that others do make mistakes, and that they can't just give them a hard time because of it. Friendly suggestions and advice is ok, but saying that you should be fired or something of the same matter is never ok, and I think that's a lesson that everyone needs to learn. 

Here's today's Disney History: 1921: Disney legend Harrison "Buzz" Price is born in Oregon City, Oregon (through he grew up in Southern California). A research economist who recommended Anaheim to Walt Disney as the location for Disneyland, Price later formed Economics Research Associates and conducted studies for theme park clients. He also had a helping hand in the finding the location for Walt Disney World. 

Have a magical day!

Day 131: Merida!

It's not exactly a secret, but I'd like to welcome Merida to the official Disney Princess Court!

Now, this may not seem special...but Disney doesn't have a ton of new Princesses all the time. Yes, I can name them in order...Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel and now Merida! Either way, it's not an everyday thing (well kind of it is if you work at Disney. Every little girl is a Princess there), for a Disney character to become one of the court.

Plus, I had the great opportunity to watch the ceremony live this morning through the magic of the internet. Even though I still have 58 days until my next trip, it was amazing because it was actually happened right as I watched. I love the internet.

And yesterday I had a thought about this whole thing...and decided to wait until today to do the post on it, but I honestly can't remember what it was. On the other hand...I totally see what Disney did with the date. Today is May 11...she's the 11th Disney princess. That's brilliant if you ask me!

I remember...possibly. Either way, I think the timing of this is great for me as well. On Monday I have my final High School Band concert...of all time. And that's so scary! I mean, it's not my last concert of all time because I have college, but this is the last time I'll play a concert with this group other than at Graduation. Each year the seniors in the group select a "Senior Song" which we play at this last concert and at Graduation...and it just so happens that my senior class (all 5 of us in Band) decided on Brave. That's right...music from Brave. How cool is it that we have our Concert on Monday and Merida became an official Disney Princess TODAY? It's like the world wanted us to play it!

I'll tell more about the Concert early next week, but for now, let's all just celebrate (preferably without turning into bears) as Merida joins the ranks!

Here's today's Disney History: 1912: Animator Don Towsley is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His Disney credits include such features as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi and the shorts Donald's Golf Game, Sky Trooper and Mickey Mouse Disco.

Have a magical day!