Doll Collecting, I know it’s a bit weird.

If you’ve been following this blog you’ll probably have seen that I like to collect dolls. I’ve mentioned it in three of my haul posts, I wrote a blog post about unboxing toys and I shared how I made one of my dollcraft projects. 

Well, today it is one year since I bought my first doll, Tiana from Princess and the Frog and funnily enough I also bought Jasmine from Aladdin this afternoon.When I bought Tiana I was adamant that I wasn’t going to start collecting dolls. It's not really a surprise that Tiana was the one responsible for it all, she is the best Disney Princess. 

That resolution not to collect dolls only lasted a couple of months until I was buying a Merida off eBay. I still tried to convince myself that I wasn’t actually going to collect dolls, I was just buying my favourite Disney Princesses. At first it was just my favourite Disney Princesses that I wanted to collect (Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Merida and Rapunzel plus Elsa and Anna). 

I think it was by the time I’d started to hunt down a Megara doll on eBay that I finally accepted that I’m a doll collector. By far my best doll find so far is my Hercules doll. He’s a 1997 original doll who I found in a charity shop for just £1! And best of all is that he was in near perfect condition when I spotted him.

When the DC Superhero Girls launched in this country I had a new line of dolls that I wanted to collect. DC Superhero Girls is such a cool toy line for a feminist geek, there was no way I would have been able to resist buying them!

Doll collecting has become a hobby for me but it’s also a hobby that has reignited some of my other hobbies. I make outfits for my dolls, sometimes inspired by their signature looks and other times just whatever I feel like making. This has really restarted my love of sewing and textiles – something that I had sadly let slide. I also make rooms, furniture and props to display my dolls with, most of these are inspired by tutorials from MyFroggyStuff on YouTube (seriously that woman is amazing she made a Christmas doll room out of a gift bag!) I used to love crafting when I was younger but much like my love of sewing it was something that I just sort of let slide.

There is a somewhat surprising number of male doll collectors out there who are proudly sharing pictures of their collections on social media. I find it interesting to see just how many #DudesWithDolls there are on Instagram and I do share pictures of my collection in that hashtag.  I’ve also noticed that quite a few of these men are gay. Side note, I have a theory that gay men are more willing to try stereotypically feminine hobbies (like doll collecting) because after coming out of the closet we no longer care if people judge us for what we like. We just want to enjoy whatever makes us happy.

Basically I know it’s a bit weird and unusual for a guy my age to be collecting dolls but I don’t really mind. It makes me happy and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Why would I? There’s at least three more dolls I need to get!

Single Awareness Day? Seriously!

It’s February 14^th today, it’s Valentine’s Day.

In recent years I’ve noticed that there’s been a trend amongst single people to call today Single Awareness Day. Seriously? That name is strange because are you not aware that you’re single the other 364 days of the year? I understand the sentiment to an extent but to me it just seems mean spirited to be so begrudging of couples wanting to be affectionate with each other.

On the other end of the spectrum however you have couples who see Valentine’s Day as an obligation. Surely if you love your partner you should tell them that throughout the rest of the year? And if you don’t realise that Valentine’s Day is coming up and only do something last minute because you feel obliged to then surely that also defeats the point of it.

At the end of the day we shouldn’t feel like we have to celebrate a relationship and we shouldn’t feel like we’re being judged if we’re not in one. I’m someone who’s never had a relationship (there’s a long story in that, maybe it’ll be another blog post) and I’m alright with that because I know that I don’t want to rush into something. As The Supremes’ sang back in 1966 ‘You can't hurry love, No, you just have to wait, You gotta trust, give it time, No matter how long it takes.’

So regardless of if you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with your loved one today or if you’ll be playing (and singing along to) Beyoncé’s Single Ladies I hope you have a great day.

My Haul – It’s All About The Little Things

With this week’s Haul it’s all about the little things.

My last haul post was a couple of weeks back but I thought this one was worth sharing. I bought an eclectic selection of stuff (as you've probably learnt by now I have an eclectic variety of interests) but they're all on the smaller side this week. 

In Wilko’s I got this pack of Polaroid style photo frames. I love the aesthetic of the Polaroid, I even did an art project based on them for my A-Level Art. I thought these would be a fun way to display some of my photos. I’ve already used them on a couple of pictures and I’m happy with the results.

You’ve probably heard about The Lego Batman Movie. As you might imagine there are lots of products being released for it. I’m not too keen on the majority of the individual mini-figures but there’s a place near me that sells them so that you can get specific characters instead of getting random ones. I couldn’t resist getting Barbara Gordon/Batgirl as a cop.

Poundworld have started stocking a Finding Dory collection of mystery min-figures. They’re good quality for only a pound. I bought another one this week and got Marlin this time.

Also in Poundworld are new Barbie fashion packs. I collect dolls and one of the hardest things to find are doll shoes, this is especially irritating as a doll bought second hand inevitably will be missing their shoes. I bought all the items pictured on the left for just 4 pounds. Mulan and Pocahontas are on the right modelling their new garments and accessories.

So between small photo frames, mini-figures and doll accessories this week’s haul has been all about the little things.

Dot and Atta are not Disney Princesses?

A Bugs Life is the Disney Movie of the Month, I’m following up that initial post by considering why are Dot and Atta not Disney Princesses.

To be clear by Disney Princesses I mean characters in the marketing Disney Princess franchise (there’s currently 11 official Disney Princesses) and not just characters who happen to be princesses in movies released by Disney. Dot and Atta are essential to the plot of A Bugs Life and both of them are princesses of the ant colony, with Atta becoming a queen at the end of the movie. Like most of the other Disney Princesses they both have to overcome obstacles - both internal and external - in order to save their realm.

Perhaps the first reason that they’re Disney Princesses is that A Bugs Life is a Pixar movie. Except Merida from Pixar’s Brave is one of the 11 Princesses. Another reason could be that A Bugs Life is more about Flik than Dot and Atta. But Aladdin is obviously mainly about Aladdin and yet Jasmine is in the Disney Princess franchise. An obvious reason would be that they’re ants not humans. This one is harder to argue against, but Ariel from The Little Mermaid isn’t a human, she’s a mermaid and is often depicted as being a mermaid in products. (And funnily enough Jodi Benson – the voice of Ariel – also voiced Atta for a video game)

As far as I’ve been able to tell in the early days of the franchise there wasn’t even an official set line-up of characters. Depending on the product line was Disney would add or take away characters somewhat randomly. It was only with the release of Enchanted that it seems like an official line-up was settled on. As far as I’ve been able to find out Giselle from Enchanted was intended to be marketed as a Disney Princess but (probably due to the royalties involved in using Amy Adams’ likeness) Disney decided against long term marketing and merchandising for Enchanted. In response to this Disney seemed to have decided on a fixed line-up for the Disney Princess franchise.

I personally would like to see other characters like Dot and Atta added to the line-up. It’s about time that characters like Snow White and Cinderella started to take a back seat and characters like Dot and Atta could be good candidates to take over their spaces. If Disney did have more variety in the Princess franchise it could make merchandise collections more interesting. For example they could use Mulan and Merida for an action adventure themed collection but then maybe have Dot and Atta joining someone like Rapunzel in a garden themed collection.

Sure Dot and Atta are perhaps not the most obvious characters to add to the Disney Princess franchise but it would be good to see more of a variety in the franchise and I’d just to see A Bugs Life getting more representation from Disney.

Student Food – Stop being so cliché!

It really feels like it is long overdue for people to stop being so cliché about student food.

I came to uni with a basic knowledge of cooking, nothing too elaborate but I knew enough to get by on. First week of first semester I really wasn’t eating too well and it was genuinely having an effect on my mentality and feeling of wellness. I just decided there and then that I should start trying to cook and making sure I was eating better. Since then I’ve never looked back.

I’ve done my own spin on family recipes. I’ve come up with my own dishes (three ingredient Spag Bol). I do Mary Berry and Nigella recipes. I just like cooking for myself.

Eating well definitely helps me to feel healthier and happier. I tend to get ill less often than most and I think part of that if down to me having a good diet. It also works out slightly cheaper for me on average if I’m making food instead of eating out, getting take aways or having ready meals.

To be clear I’m not condemning anyone who has just ready meals or take aways. I do eat out or have a ready meal or take away occasionally but it’s usually more of a treat. I do ‘cheat’ whilst cooking – for example I never bother making rice, I prefer to use microwave rice. I’ve just found cooking proper meals to be something that’s surprisingly easy, something that has made a positive impact on my health, something that’s enjoyable and most importantly it’s something that tastes good.

A Bug’s Life – Disney Movie of the Month

A childhood favourite of mine, but does it still stand up?

It’s February! And a new month means that it’s time for a new Disney Movie of the Month. This time I’ve chosen to look at A Bug’s Life. Probably not one of the most obvious movies to choose for this monthly series but it’s one of my favourites from when I was growing up.  It was a couple of years since I last watched A Bug’s Life and recently I’ve felt like it’s probably time for me to revisit it.

In many ways A Bug’s Life is quite a typical Disney movie. There’s the quirky outsider who people underestimated - Flik. There’s a princess who needs to learn something - Atta. There’s an arch villain for the audience to root against - Hooper. And there’s a cast of colourful side characters - like Heimlich, Slim and Francis. If you’re not the type of person who enjoys movies with any of those elements then A Bug’s Life is an earth-shatteringly different movie. However it has the charm and humour that we have come to expect from Pixar movies. A Bug’s Life is a thoroughly entertaining adventure with lots of very enjoyable moments.

A Bug’s Life was Pixar’s second ever feature length animation and one of the first few fully computer animated movies, considering that it’s 18 years old the animation still looks good. I suspect that the more stylised instead of realistic character designs were intentionally done so that the computers of the time could render them successfully. There’s a few wide shots that look primitive by today’s standards but they don’t detract from the overall look of the film. It really has aged well in that regard.

As with all of Pixar’s releases this is a movie that presents a rich and varied world on screen. Pixar really did a great job in showing on screen what the world looks like from an ant’s perspective and creating a whole insect culture. For example, the scene’s in the bug city all work to indicate that the movie exists in a larger world of bugs which expands beyond the main narrative. As a creative writer this is something that I always like when movies can allude to.

Overall A Bugs Life still stands up as a very enjoyable film, not just something I liked when I was younger. If it’s been a while since you lasted watched it I would say it’s worth watching again. If you’ve never seen it then it’s one I would recommend.