GUEST POST: Unrealistic Disney Expectations

Hi I’m Leah and I blog over at Peaches andSmoke.

As with pretty much every girl who grew up in the 90’s she grew up with Disney, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Cinderella, the Little Mermaid. In fact the Little Mermaid made me realise my ambition in life that when I grew up I wanted to be a mermaid… Hasn’t worked out yet but there’s always hope that my fairy godmother will come and make all my dreams come true. 

Over the years watching Disney has given me a lot of false hope just like the mermaid incident not one of them have yet to come true. Which got me thinking of all the unrealistic expectations that Disney sets upon us naive young girls.

1. That love at first sight exists, I remember meeting my first love yea sure I thought it was love at first sight and that he would ask me to marry him and we’d skip away together into the sunset. Did that happen no? Pretty much he was rude and not a very nice person. You know what it’s like, you remember being 14 and meeting the first love and thinking that’s it I’m going to marry this one and be with him forever. That is Disney’s fault.

2. About hair, this one is a big one for me. I see all the beautiful hair and generally girls being beautiful and I remember thinking I want to look like them. I want hair like them and I still do. I still dream of having those long voluminous locks that just blow in the wind every time I break out into a melody.

3. That every girl can be a princess. The sad situations that some of the Disney princesses found themselves in. Cinderella under the wrath of her evil stepmother was lucky enough to find her fairy godmother and turned into a princess so she could meet her prince at the ball. If only that could happen to every girl but alas it doesn’t and if I’m honest some girls do really need to find their fairy godmother and be a princess.

4. About Men. We all want that Prince Charming to come riding over the hills and valley on the back of a white horse and Wisk you away to happiness. Well we can all dream can’t we?

5. What it actually means to be a women. I think this says it all.

- Leah x

Ratatouille: A Disney Inspired Recipe

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If you know how much I love food then you can probably guess that Ratatouille is one of my favourite Disney films. I actually didn't watch it up until last year I believe, I don't know why, how did that happen? Well I loved it when I did watch it and Remy the rat kind of inspired me and really made me crave Ratatouille (and cheese, loads of cheese and grapes). So since this is Disney Month and I am a food blogger at heart I thought this would be perfect. I tried to reproduce this simple yet delicious dish to bring you this little recipe:

GUEST POST: Disney Cosplay by Cocktails in Teacups

When I found out that Fellowship of the Bloggers were doing a Disney themed month in March (which is also my birthday month, coincidence? I think not!) I knew I had to get involved. My name is Amy Marie and I'm a Disney-Holic. You can usually find me over at Cocktails in Teacups but for today, I thought i'd share a post about one of my life time wishes, to take part in Disney Cosplay.. and the best part? It might be happening this year!

Ever since I was a very small child, I have enjoyed dressing up as my favourite Disney characters. While my mother was a stay at home mum we didn't have much money so most of my costumes were homemade with what she had lying around. When she was back at work, we started to take holidays to the holy land, for me this Disney World in Florida, no lie.. Magic Kingdom is my favourite place in the whole world. Still is. Anyway, once she was earning more money and my dad had a better job we were able to have REAL outfits from the Disney Store. I think we maybe had three each over the course of time until we no longer fitted them. We spent a lot of time wearing them, to the point once they no longer fitted they weren't good to anyone else! But what upset me most, not the part that they became damaged over time, no the fact that after about the age of 14/15 I could no longer get one to fit! I would of continued to ask for one at Christmas even to this day.. alas, if I want to dress as a Disney character these days, I have to turn my attention to etsy or ebay. Which is what I'm planning on doing. 

But first, who would I be? 

As a child, Alice was always my first choice, hands down. Either that, or Tinkerbell. And for some reason I also had a Jasmine costume.. Anyway. As much as I still love Alice, I'm not sure she would be my first choice these days. Maybe it's because I filled my dream by dressing as her for a Murder Mystery last year? But now, I have a new list, and today topping it, is Ariel. In particular, Ariel in the blue dress.

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Behind the Magic

Have you ever been to Disney World, Florida?
I have. Twice.
It was fantastic in every way possible. You feel like a child no matter your age, mostly thanks to the amazing Disney cast members and the perfect working order of the parks. But a lot of effort goes into creating that magic and in a new Daily Mail article, we're introduced to the magic behind Disney World, Florida.

During our family trip, we were always amazed by how characters would appear as if by magic by your side. Pooh would be whisked off for a "honey" break and Peter Pan runs off enthusiastically to disappear before your very eyes.
But really, there's a secret network of tunnels underneath the whole park! How genius is that? Basically, Walt Disney was a pretty amazing guy and super forward thinking, painstakingly planning out his Disney World, Florida compound to bring sheer joy to all those that visited.
He started building Disney World, Florida underground and then built on top of that, creating a fantastic theme park where the engine room has been hidden below your very feet.

Now, I don't know about you but I think that's pretty magical.
You can read the full article here and find out how you can go on a magical tour of the workings below the ground as well.

International Women's Day

Where you're for or against the need for a stand alone day celebrating women, it's here, and it's today (there are many arguments online to cover both sides).  The United Nations theme for Internaitonal Women's Day this year is "Equality for Women Is Progress for All", but its well known that Disney has not always shown women in the best light within its films.

I'm not a writer, I'll not pretend to be, but I do enjoy reading other people views on the matter, and I've highlighted a couple of them here.  There are so many negative views regarding the female characters within Disney films, I've tried to focus on some of the more positive.
I've attached links to blogs for all quotes, so please check these out - there are some great writers out there.

Jasmine

Jasmine is clearly a trophy, in most parts merely a love desire for Aladdin and the first Disney princess to not be the centre star of her own film.  On the plus side, she's the first to not be of white European origin.  The arguments against her stack up in their plenty, and usually follow along the lines of 

She was naive before Aladdin shows her a "whole new world" - she is the passive learner while he is the active teacher. (Not Another Wave)

But on further reading, she may not be as anti-feminist as we might first have thought:

Jasmine, from the very beginning, has a mind of her own. She may have some fantastic romantic notions that seem a little unrealistic, but she also refuses to be forced into marrying someone just because of the law. Then she, a princess who has never been outside the palace walls in her life, decides to run away to make her own life on her terms...She saves Aladdin’s life from the guards, giving up her own attempt to get freedom, proving that her romantic notions aren’t just born from selfishness on her part...Last, but certainly not least, Jasmine shows extreme bravery in the face of Jafar even while he has her enslaved. She refused to marry him, throws a glass of wine in his face, repeatedly defies him, and ends up being instrumental in distracting Jafar while Aladdin is attempting a rescue.  (The Snark Who Hunts Back)

GUEST POST: Disney World Florida by Kerry

Disney has taught us so many things from not taking red apples from strangers, to making friends with all animals no matter how big or small and to be very careful when putting your finger near a spindle in a castle, but most of all he taught us to remember that “Laughter is timeless, Imagination has no age and dreams are forever”

Most of us of course associate Disney with many films that have fun loving characters, bright beautiful scenery as well as happy go lucky songs, but for me it was all about the magic.

Welcome To March - Disney Month

February has been filled with a lot of love and laughter and numerous behind the scences FOTB WhatsApp conversations at any part of almost every day. Now we say goodbye to February which has been our first full month of blogging. It brought us several guest posts and the release of our very own magazine Fellowship Magazine which has made us all really proud.

We now say hello to March and welcome to Disney Month! We've already had a great response and received many guest posts and we can't wait for you all to read them. It will be a colourful and pretty month that's for sure.
Of course you're still welcome to submit new guest blogs for us or if you want to contribute to the Fellowship Magazine then we'll welcome you with open arms.

We have so many new ideas floating around for FOTB and we hope that you'll stick with us through it all! If you don't already, you can follow us on Bloglovin' and Twitter and even Facebook! That way you'll never miss out on anything. And if you want to share us with your friends then please feel free! We're pretty approachable and we love to hear from you so leave us comments, send us tweets or even an email. We'll try to get back to you asap and of course, it's nice to get to know who reads our little blog.

So here it is:

Disney Month