Truth AND Fiction: you can’t make me choose

  I LOVE fairytales. I mean LOVE them. Ever since I could read they have been my favorite stories; I had books of Hans Christian Anderson, Aesop’s Fables, Grimm, a collection of tales from around the world, and from my Grandma, every cartoon movie Disney made unless my parents told her not send it. Beauty and the Beast, Thumbelina, Ever After - I could watch those movies over and over and over again. Some of my favorite books now as an adult are fairytale retellings. I just can’t get enough.

  My other great reading obsession love is history. Historical fiction, classic novels, non-fiction, I love it all, but especially the period from about 1790-1830, known as part of the Federal Era in the United States, the Napoleonic Era in Europe, the extended Regency period in Britain, the beginning of the Romantic movement in art and literature...there’s just so much change and incredible art and fashion and social upheaval that occurred during this time! The time of Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Vigee Le Brun, Dolley Madison, the Lewis and Clark expedition and the incredible Sacajawea...it fascinates me endlessly. I have an entire shelf on my library wall dedicated to these few decades.
  (One of those Disney movies we didn’t get as kids? Pocahontas. My mom was horrified that they took an actual historic figure and told her story wrong. I now share this horror and have been informed by fellow Disney nerds that I’m not really missing out.)

  SO. All this to say, that when I saw this adorable fan art of Cinderella pop up on my Pinterest feed, I completely lost my mind. Gorgeous drawing of Disney princess, PLUS she’s wearing turn of the nineteenth century clothing? Love it! I instantly knew I wanted to cosplay this drawing, but I was struggling with how to represent the color scheme in at least a vaguely historically accurate manner - then, lo and behold, Katherine (koshka-the-cat) posted this blog entry about short gowns, and I was inspired. (See also this article, and this extant shortgown that I used for the justification of my front drawstring closure.)
  And while this post is about Cinderella, I decided why stop there? DO ALL THE THINGS (princesses)!! So this is the first of hopefully many historically inspired Disney princess cosplays. Thanks a million to my incredible talented baby sister for being willing to come over and take photos of me modeling my outfit! She wasn’t happy with the lighting so these are just teaser photos until we can try again, earlier in the day. Also, my respect for cosplayers has increased tenfold because wow, I felt ridiculous. Also also I now doubly understand why most of them use wigs; does anyone ever have a good hair day when they are supposed to have photos taken? Because I want some of that juju.

  So here a few photos of me feeling silly and looking like a ridiculous nerd, with hopefully more to come 🤓

Scrubbing the floor...

Taking a wee little breather...

Someone at the door?

Wondering if I should interrupt the “music lesson” to give Stepmother the invite

Dreaming about dancing the night away at the palace

So that’s that! More photos to follow, with hopefully better lighting (and hair, though I’m not quite ready for a wig yet - I hate wearing them!) plus look forward to WAY too much exposition on my outfits design and head canon about this character with some detail shots of hems and seams! 

  This Everyday Fairytale...

  I love the concept of the simple life. The idea that life doesn’t have to be lived on a grand, impressive scale to be meaningful and fulfilling is very freeing, yet sometimes it feels like an excuse. Am I just being cowardly and poor-spirited to find a small life loving my family and doing my best day by day enough? Should I be striving for more? Even Mother Teresa, who famously said 'Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love,’ did great things.
  I know that I’m not the only person who feels this way; there are plenty of other blog posts far more eloquent than this expounding on the same theme. We want to experience everything life has to offer during our short decades on this globe, yet we don’t want to miss the little things that ultimately give life meaning. We want to do great things, but more often find ourselves doing small things, and so seek to do them with great love. Ultimately my favorite quote on the subject comes from 1 Thessalonians, wherein Paul is exhorting the church members there to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands,” so that they will be self-sufficient and respected members of their community. These are good goals.
 And yet...don’t we all crave adventure on some level? A little magic? A life that feels big and well-lived? There’s a reason travel blogs and adventure novels are so popular, not to mention the enduring love for, yes, fairytales. Magic? Check. Adventure? Always. Exciting places? Far far away! Ordinary people doing extraordinary things? Every time! And let’s not forget the happy endings...usually. (I prefer the happy endings!) Little ones and grown-ups alike love to read and watch these stories, and imagine ourselves a part of them. As a child, this is often encouraged and accompanied by elaborate games of make-believe and dress-up...games that I never truly grew out of.
 So this blog is about continuing to find the magical in the everyday, the fairytale in the ordinary, about choosing joy and seeing wonder and beauty in the mundane. This is my simple, small, wonderful, fulfilling happily ever after.