Aurora: The Princess Who Personifies Grace & Beauty

Country of Origin: France as told in "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault in 1697.

Movie Debuted: 1959

What Aurora brings to the table: Unerring trust

Age at time of story (in the movie): 16

Major Differences Between original story (OS) and movie (M): The Disney version of "Sleeping Beauty" varies slightly from Perrault's tale, but they are nearly identical. Again we're going for a three way comparison (BG=Brothers Grimm)

1) In all three versions, one fairy is not invited to the christening. The scorned fairy curses the baby, leaving the last fairy to use her gift to counteract the evil. In M there are 4 fairies total, BG has 13 and P has 9.
2) BG & P have Aurora pricking her finger 15 yrs old. Her parents go on a trip, leaving her alone. M has Aurora succumbing to the curse at 16 yrs old.
3) BG & P has the entire castle falling asleep when the princess does. The three good fairies put the castle to sleep in M.

4) The curse lifts after 100 yrs in BG & P. In M, the prince breaks the spell with love's first kiss. Anyone remember that from Snow White?

Moral of the Story/Social Implications:

Bubble Child:

My major issue with this movie is when Aurora goes off into the woods, she meets her first stranger. And a young man at that. He feeds her a line and they spend the afternoon together. What happened to "Stanger Danger?" I understand the importance of protecting your children, but to do so in the extreme invites as much danger as if you didn't protect them at all. We know Prince Phillip is a good person, but Aurora doesn't and your kids won't either when they come across strangers. Arm your children with enough smarts to recognize a potential threat in people they don’t know.

Begging for Mercy

In Perrault’s tale, the curse breaks after 100 yrs. A headstrong prince then makes his way through the thorn barricade, kiss the sleeping princess awake (but not by the power of love), and they marry. Poor Aurora never had a chance. What if the prince had not been a prince at all, but a thief, or a peasant, or worse? In some of the early tellings of this story, the prince who finds Aurora, actually rapes her. Thank you Disney for sparing the rest of us. Did she really have a choice in who she married? Was it love at first sight or did the prince use his powers of persuasion to gain her hand?

Reclaiming What was Stolen

When the evil fairy curses the princes, it is the last fairy who also suffers. Her gift is essentially stolen and now she must use her turn to counteract the harm brought upon the child. While it seems like the raw end of the deal, the situation sets up the last fairy, Merryweather in case of the movie, to be the true hero. Grace, beauty, and musical ability are all fine traits we wish upon our daughters, but the gift of life is invaluable. Merryweather saves the baby and gives her another chance to live the life her parents dream for her. You can’t put a price on that.

No Wrath Like a Fairy Scorned

Something has to be said for the villainess, Maleficient. According to my dad, she is “one bad mama-jamma.” When she is not invited to the christening, she hits the king and queen hard by cursing the baby it took them years and years to conceive. Ouch! That’s a heavy price for excluding someone. So, make a note to yourself, 1) don’t tick off evil fairies, 2) rethink the guest list for your next party/gathering/christening/wedding. The one person you decide not to invite may get offended and send you a nasty gram.

Did you know?

1) Aurora is known by three different names: Aurora, Briar Rose, & Sleeping Beauty

2) Disney wanted the movie of SB to be illustrated as a moving tapestry. Compare to the "Unicorn Tapestries" and see the similarities in color, angular structure, and sophisticated decoration.
3) SB was the second most successful film at the box office after Ben Hur.
4) The music from Peter Tchaikovsky's ballet of the same name was a major source of inspiration for the film.

Poll Results: After counting all the votes, you all think that Aurora's dress should have been a purple compromise. I personally think she would have looked stunning in violet.
Final Note:

This is one of my favorite movies and it truly is a piece of art.

Found a Good Seamstress

So the the snag in my princess dress has been repaired. On to discovering more about Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty.

La-la-lala, la-la-lala, Birthday Time!

Guess what Elmo is thinking about today? Ya-ta-da-day!

Ariel's 2nd birthday.

We had a small family party simply for the fact that I didn't want to mess with the hassle of a big ordeal. Still put in a lot of work, but everything was perfect.

Obviously we had an Elmo themed birthday party, as per the princess's request. We also had a BBQ meal that her daddy cooked so deliciously.

My parents were able to make the trip for her party and Ariel enjoyed having her family around her. We presented her with the celebratory cupcake and, after all the singing, Ariel attempted to blow out the candles. I don't remember telling her to do this, but she apparently knew what to do. That's my smart girl.

Gifts varied from Little People playsets, to puzzles and a stuffed Cookie Monster, to a bubble machine.
But the big highlight was a bubble lawnmower and a Radio Flyer tricycle. That girl is doggedly determined to learn how to ride that trike down the street. Right now, we are taking baby steps going down hill in the drive way. Ariel doesn't quite have the strength to peddle, so gravity is her BFF at the moment. I'm so glad she has a helmet because she's nearly crashed several times. I realized a tumble off the bike is an inevitable reality, but if we could delay it, all the better.

Vicki took her official birthday pictures and I hope to share a few shots from the session next week (or when we get them). It's so hard to believe that our little baby is 2! Hardly seems possible.
Here are some pictures of the day. Enjoy.

cupcake

presents

grandparents

riding pretty

park

hot wheels

A Snag in My Pretty Princess Dress

As I've been going through my princess posts, I'm finding that for the older stories like Snow White and Cinderella, I'm having a hard time finding the videos from the library. Obviously, this is slowing me down as far as getting the breakdowns posted.
Sleeping Beauty has been the most difficult to get my hands on, so we'll have to skip her until a video becomes available. I'm quite peeved about this as I would have liked to stay in order of appearance, but for the sake of satisfying curiosity, I'll have to move on.

Next discovery: Little Mermaid, Ariel.

Follow the Adventures of Nicki Delone

Hey friends and family!
I just wanted to let you know that I now have a blog devoted solely to writing.
For a myriad of reasons, I have decided to go with a pen name, which is Nicki Delone. I believe that it will be more marketable and I don't have to worry about people misspelling or mispronouncing my name.
I'm not sure how I'm going to juggle yet another thing in my crazy day, but for the sake of promoting myself as a writer, it must be done.
This new blog comes as a recommendation from a local literary agent, who said you start promoting yourself WAY before your book ever comes out. Essentially, WAY before you're ever published to build up your fan base.
I'm excited and nervous. I don't want to have a blog that is poorly written or is just lame. I think that my writing is witty enough hold readers' attention. The biggest trick now is deciding what to write about.
Wish me luck. Please stop by for a visit. I'll make lemonade.
http://nickidelone1.blogspot.com/

Cinderella: The Princess Who Rose From the Ashes

Country of Origin: France as told in Cendrillion by Charles Perrault (1697).

Movie Debuted: 1950

What princess brings to the table: Optimism and undying hope

Age at time of Story (in the movie): 17-19

Major Differences Between original story (OS) and movie (M):
The Disney film is almost a direct adaptation from Perrault's story (P). Since I've been reading a lot of the Bros. Grimm (BG), I thought I'd do a three way comparison.

1) M- Cinderella's parents die, leaving her an orphan, in BG and P the father is a widow who remarries

2) Godmother - both M and P show the appearance and helpfulness of the godmother. In BG, Cinderella goes to her mother's grave and cries, then birds tending the grave shower her with gifts of gown and shoes.

3) The slipper - in M and P the slipper is glass. In BG, the slipper is silk. In the brother's version, when the stepsisters try on the shoe is doesn't fit. In order to make it fit so they can marry the prince, the first cut off part of her toe while the second cuts off part of her heel. When the prince sees the blood, he knows they have deceived him.

4) At the end of P's tale, Cinderella has mercy on her stepsisters and sets them up with noblemen at her wedding. Too generous if you ask me. The BG ending is a bit more traumatic. The birds who gave Cinderella her finery, find the stepsisters wicked and peck out their eyes for their dishonesty. I say they missed a great opportunity to get dear old mom.

Moral of the Story/Social Implications:

Cheaters never prosper

Despite the initial pay off, those who cheat and lie eventually get what is coming to them. And paybacks are everything they should be. I'm sure the stepsister in the Grimm tale didn't see those birds coming to peck out their eyes. Let this be a lesson, stay away from Hitchcock's birds and do your best to be honest.

Stepmothers get a bad rap

Disney had a great way of make an evil villain. Unfortunately for all the stepmothers out there, they now have to deal with the fall out. Snow White's evil queen and Lady Tremaine, Cinderella's stepmother are about as wicked as you can get. Its no wonder that children fear their fathers (divorced or widowed) remarrying. I think the stereotype of the wicked stepmother has changed a bit, but the stigma is still firmly attached.
If you are a stepmother, God bless you. Making a blended family work is hard enough with having an unfavorable, albeit stereotypical, reputation trailing in your wake.

Dad has to step up

In the Grimm and Perrault version of the tale, Cinderella's dad is alive. It really makes you wonder what kind of man would marry a woman who abuses his child? I think Disney did us all a favor by take her dad out of the picture. There would have been problems finding anything to like about a man who would sit around and let his daughter suffer. And in the two stories, he does just that. Pitiful.

Kill them with kindness

Cinderella embraced this with everything she had. Not once did she say an unkind word to her family, which in my opinion, they deserved (and much more). She accepted her role without much complaint and was even cheerful about most of it. What we can learn from Cinderella is that kindness will open so many more doors than filling your heart with hatred and ugly thoughts. The girl was a saint. Putting this philosophy into practice is very hard to do and many of us struggle with it. But can you imagine what this world would look like if we all were able to do this?

Hope is hard to kill

I think this is one of the best messages that came from the movie. Despite the horrible turn Cinderella's life veered into, she never gave up on her dreams. I think for Christians, the underlying message is having faith in God. In the case of faith, there is no darkness deep enough that God's light can't reach, though there are times in our lives when we feel the opposite. Keeping faith during those dark times is what allows God's love to come through. I'm a firm believer in the power of prayer. Armed with a strong faith, there can be nothing in world that God will deny us. While your prayers are answered on God's time and fulfilled in His way, he has our best interest in his hands. Blessings in abundance will be poured over us.

Back to the dreams. Children can reap the most benefit from this. A dream of becoming a world renowned painter may be dashed as people criticize and tell the child that he'll never make it, he isn't good enough. Folks, that's life. And it sucks. But if that child continues to dream and perfect his craft and push the naysayers away, then he might indeed achieve his goal. Just because someone says negative things to you, doesn't mean you need to relinquish your dreams. Stay steadfast, learn from constructive criticism and become better for it. Ugly criticism definitely toss in the trash. When the road is littered with obstacles push through, because there is something wonderful waiting for you just down the road.
Here are the lyrics to "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes." It's a beautiful message I keep posted next to the computer I write my novels on. It helps keep me focused.

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep
Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

Poll Results: Lady Tremaine was voted as having the most wicked heart. Anyone who would lock a girl in a room to keep her from competiting with her daughters, is someone with quite an ugly soul.

Did you know?
There are over 90,000 versions of the Cinderella story around the world.

Final Note: Despite what Cinderella endured at the hands of her stepmother and sisters, she got exactly what she deserved. Her dream of a better life came true and how can you not love a happy ending? Maybe this is why she is a much loved heroine. She rose from the ashes and into a new beginning.

Why?: A Rant

So we went out to celebrate Eric's birthday at a restaurant we rave about. But this time around, there wasn't much nice to say.
The biggest problem was finding food on the menu that Ariel would have eaten. I'll be talking about this restaurant in particular, but it applies to all sit down restaurants in general.
Why, oh why don't these places have options available for little ones (2-5 age range)? It might be a tactic to prevent families with young children from dining or it could be that no one cares. But I'm a mom. I care.
As I perused the menu searching for something to order for Ariel, I was outraged at the lack of anything on the menu. Even a child who was in the target range of the kids' menu (6-12) wouldn't have eaten what they offered. There was no macaroni and cheese for crying out loud!
I quickly searched the side dishes and found nothing that my picky child would eat. Nothing edible in the appetizers either. When the waitress arrived, I asked if there were other options other than what was on the menu (truly, I was looking for a fruit cup/bowl). She proceeded to tell me that I could order a kids' meal and take home what Ariel didn't eat (which would have been everything). Then she pointed out the all-veg side dishes, going on and on about the broccoli casserole they had. Seriously? What child in their right mind is going to eat broccoli, not matter how much cheese is drenched over it?
Albeit to say, until Ariel is like 3, we'll have to bring food from home for her to eat. She did have some fluffy, delicious, honey-butter croissants. So at least someone was happy.