Jim Shore Disney Tradition's (Collection update)

Its that time again! One of the main parts of my Disney Collection is my Disney Traditions collection. If you don't know what Disney Traditions are they're a collection of ornaments designed and made by Jim Shore, a famous American sculptor. What makes these pieces unique is the look of them as well as the patterns used on the pieces, they look as if they've been chiselled from wood and have bright vivid colours. I believe this is what makes them so beautiful and it is what I really love about them, I've now been collecting these pieces for 2 and a half years and my collection now stands at 51 pieces with one of my mums pieces on display within my collection. So this is going to be a long post, prepare yourself! This post was written in November 2016 so the reference to prices and where to find certain pieces will be in the context of that time and also within the UK.

First off, I'll start off with the One that Started it all, Snow White! I have various pieces that are Disney Traditions that are Snow White themed mainly because I love how they look in Jim Shore's style. 

I'll start with this beautiful piece called 'Dancing Partners' this is an iconic scene from the 1937 animated classic and I love how this piece from the film has been captured. This piece is quite an old one now so isn't readily available however I have found a few for sale on amazon at the price of £49.95

Next up is this piece, The Evil Queen as the Hag. I think this is a great piece, personally I love Disney Villains and think there should be more pieces available (which there will be soon but that's for another post) this is a very unique piece too as you don't see Hag pieces too often. This piece is called 'Just one bite' and I managed to get it for £10 in H Samuel a while back, however again its now not as readily available, its always worth checking eBay for any older pieces as most of the time its the best place to find them. 

This next piece is called 'Happily Ever After' and is one of the newer pieces released. It is a lovely piece and is rather large, which is why it's a more expensive piece. It's actually one of the largest Jim Shore pieces I own and is around 9 inches tall. As its one of the newer pieces it's much more readily available and can be found on various websites including justfabgifts.co.uk, Amazon and H Samuel. The cheapest price I've found it for sale at is on Amazon for £46.45.

Next up is this Snow White piece callled 'Gentleness and Harmony' she looks so beautiful in this piece and I think it really captures her as she is in the film! This is actually from a collection of princess ornaments and their companions which is one of my favourite collections actually. One of the only places I've found this still for sale is, again, Amazon. Shes available for a great price of £24.99 at the moment.

This is definitely one of my favourite pieces in the whole of my collection, its called 'Homeward Bound' and is in fact the first Disney Tradition piece that Jim Shore released. For me, its perfect, it captures each of the dwarves personality perfectly and is so detailed and lovely. Its quite a large piece and is definitely the most expensive piece I own (in terms of its retail price) If you were to buy it now it would cost you near or over £105 which is in fact it's retail. Its still quite readily available online and it can be bought on justfabgifts.co.uk and on Amazon where, again, is the cheapest I can find for £83 or at retail price.

Now I'll share my Cinderella Disney Traditions, she's one of my favourite princess' and I love the majority of Cinderella ornaments but funds and space is the reason I don't have more!

This piece is a newer piece also and is one of the cheaper pieces available, it's from a collection of princess' with their castles printed on their dresses although I only have Cinderella from that collection. This piece is called 'Midnight at the Ball' and is available from justfabgifts.co.uk and Amazon. Although it is available for the cheapest on Amazon for just over £25.

This is a beautiful piece and I love the fact its got Jaq and Gus Gus in tiny miniature carvings, its so detailed and that's the main thing I love about it. This piece is called 'Caring and Coruageous' and is available from, you geussed it! Justfabgifts.co.uk and Amazon. On Amazon its priced at the moment at just under under £25.

This is one of the rarer pieces I own as it is from a discontinued line of ornaments that show the princess' riding carousel horses. There are five pieces to this collection and I currently own two of them, however it's my ambition to collect the whole set. This piece is only now available on eBay from sellers who have owned this before or if you're lucky you may find it elsewhere but I am yet to. As this piece is quite rare it tends to go for larger amounts ranging from £60-£100 although I paid around £50 myself. The name of this piece is 'Princess of Dreams'

These next pieces will all go in various, smaller collections together and first up we've got some Robin Hood pieces!

I love Robin Hood and have done from a young age, so I was thrilled when I knew these were going to be released and I still want to get my hands on the Maid Marion piece. The piece of Robin Hood on his own is called 'Roguish Hero' and the piece of Prince John and Sir Hiss is called 'Royal Pains' and I love each of them. They're both very detailed down to Robin Hood's bow string which is actually made from string. These piece are both still readily available as they're quite new releases. You can buy them from the Disney Store, Amazon and justfabgifts. They're also available a lot cheaper on Amazon, Robin Hood for £21 and the 'Royal Pains' for £27.

I love the Muppets and so does my family and this piece often goes for large amounts on eBay as its now less readily available and rather rare. This piece is called 'Critical Curmudgeons' and depicts Waldorf and Statler in their balcony as we have seen them so often! This piece is actually my mum's piece as my nan loved this pair! These are now only available from eBay and range from £60-£120 ish pounds but sometimes can be found for less if sold without a box!

Kermit the Frog has been a constant character in my life and I've always loved him so I had to get this piece of him strumming his famous banjo, this piece is called 'Rainbow Connection' which is a song i love too! This piece is an older piece but can be found for rather cheap amounts on eBay, i myself only paid around £20 for him which I thought was a great price.

Now, I know Frozen, for some reason divided opinion around people because it became VERY popular and is still quite popular now. However myself I still love the film and enjoy collecting pieces from the film. This is one of the storybook pieces which have been made for various films, this Frozen piece named 'Act of Love'. In my opinion its a beautiful piece and I love the detail on it, this is rather new piece so is still readily available on various websites. 

These three pieces are just adorable! They're very small pieces and each of them were around £12 each when I bought them. They haven't got official names apart from 'Elsa', 'Anna' and 'Olaf' and can also be bought as Christmas decorations with string attached at the top of their heads. I can't seem to find these one's online anymore but the hanging versions can still be found and are cheapest on amazon for around the £7 mark. 

I love Peter Pan and I think some of the older Disney Traditions that are Peter Pan themed are some of the best, however they're quite hard to come by now. So, when this newer piece came out, I had to get it. The scene of the Darling children and Peter flying over London is one of my favourite scenes from any Disney scene and I adore the song 'You Can Fly' This piece is incredibly detailed and is a part of a large collection of Story Book pieces. Again, this is a newer piece so is still readily available. The name of this piece is 'Off to Neverland' and the cheapest price I can find it is just over £30 on Amazon which is a good price as the retail is about £40.

Another storybook piece here! Can you tell I like these? This Alice in Wonderland piece is just beautiful, I love the colours and the detail within the piece, the Mad Hatters Tea party has always fascinated me so as soon as I saw this piece was being released I knew i had to add it to my collection. This piece is called 'Merry Unbirthday' and again, as a newer piece it is still readily available at various websites I've referenced in previous paragraphs although it's more available at its retail rather than a discounted price. 

Storybooks are just so beautiful and amazing, I think they're just so cute and I love the idea that you're opening up a book and the story is jumping off of the page at you. Winnie the Pooh is definitely one of my favourite characters and stories so this piece is one of my favourites! This is a newer piece, so similar to the other storybook pieces its available at a variety of places. It is available for about £35 on amazon currently. This piece is called 'Hip, Hip Pooh-ray'

Contrary to what my collection may say, I've actually always loved the more 'animal' themed films in comparison to the princess' which I've only really gotten into more as I've gotten older. Films such as Lady and the Tramp are the ones I've watched over and over since I was little (Although Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast were the exception to the rule) and similarly to Peter Pan I absolutely love the older Disney Traditions of Lady and Tramp which are all really expensive now so I knew as a new one had been released, I wanted to add it to my collection. The name of this piece is 'Opposites attract' and I think it's just gorgeous. It was made as an anniversary piece for the 60th anniversary of the film. Again, as a newer piece, its still available from various websites and is available from Amazon for £30.

As I mentioned in reference to Lady and the Tramp, I've always loved Disney's animal films and my favourite Disney film is actually the Lion King. I have watched it countless times, know the script basically by heart and constantly sing the songs. So any of these pieces released are a certain for my collection. This piece is called 'Love on Price Rock' and although its a little older than some of my collection its still available on Amazon for around £30.

Now, this is a rather old piece and as you can tell from the pictures, shes broken. She's actually my most recent purchase after I saw her in a shop for only £15, I knew that it was broken but for that price I couldn't say no. This piece is called 'Part of your World' and its just stunning, even when broken. It is also a musical piece and plays the song it's named after. Its not available from anywhere apart from second hand sellers so I'd got for eBay is you're looking to get this piece (and maybe not broken!) but I'm afraid she usually goes for well over £100 sometimes reaching £200. 

My largest collection by far is my Beauty and the Beast collection and these are the last pieces I'll show! (If you've gotten this far, thank you!)

This is one my largest piece's in my whole collection, in total and not just Disney Traditions, which is reflected in it's price as it's £85 at retail, although now it's quite a bit cheaper. It is a piece to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Beauty and the Beast. I am so in love with this piece, one of the best animated scenes ever in my opinion, is bought to life and its just beautiful and so detailed. This piece is called 'Moonlight Watlz' and is still quite readily available in various shops. Its cheapest though on Amazon at £50! Which is a £35 saving.

             

These are the rest of the piece that were released to celebrate Beauty and the Beast's 25th anniversary and I'm so glad that they were made! I have always loved Cogsworth, Lumiere as well as Mrs Potts and Chip so I was so happy when they were announced. The Cogsworth piece is called 'Keeping Time' and retails at £22, Mrs Potts and Chip are called 'Mothers love and retails at £27 with Lumiere being called 'Ooh la la' retailing at £22. All are readily available as they're new, although are being sold cheaper on amazon at a few pounds under their retail price. 

The last piece I'll be showing you (phew) is this beautiful princess and companion piece called 'Curious and Kind' and I think its such a wonderful piece! Obviously, I love Beauty and the Beast, and Belle is one of my favourite princess' so this piece is ideal for me. I love the pose Belle is in is so pretty and she looks lovely. Along with most of the piece's I see this piece is beautifully painted and has a lovely pattern on it. It is an older piece but can still be found on Amazon for around £30. 

YAY! You've come to the end, I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures of my collection and if you managed to read all my rambling then thank you!! I love my collection so much and it means a lot to me so being able to share it with other people makes me so happy. 

If you collect disney traditions, whats your favourite piece? If you don't, what piece have you see that you'd like the most! 

Again, thank you for reading this post, and if you'd like to follow me on instagram you can do so @shereallyisafunnygirl I've also recently started a Disney themed twitter account so if you'd like to follow that you can at @Dreamisawish96

TTFN 

Lauren

Aladdin: The Musical

On Thursday the 15th of September I went with my parents to see Aladdin the musical at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End! I love musical theatre and have done so for a lot of my life, paired with my love for Disney I knew I had to go and see Aladdin once I knew it was coming to the west end. Both my parents told me they'd like to go so we went as a family to see it which was nice On the day we set out on the tube to make the short trip into London and started our day by getting to Hyde Park Corner. Hyde park is the massive park in London and is lovely to sit in or take a stroll in but we were only briefly there before we made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe!  

 

I'd never been to the Hard Rock Cafe before but let me say it was definitely a place that I would go to again now that I have been, it has a lovely atmosphere and the staff were so lovely and accommodating! The cafe has a wide range of things on the menu and I was spoiled for choice but when with a chicken honey mustard sand which which was amazing! We also got onion rings which were crazy good although the portion was massive. I also couldn't resist a cocktail when I saw a few go past our table which you got a souvenir glass with, there were several different cocktails on offer and I can't remember the name of mine but whatever it was called it was lovely! Although I was stuffed I had a pudding aswell which was an ice cream sundae, although I only managed about a quarter of it. If you love music and memorabilia then you'll love the Hard Rock Cafe! When you're eating you're given a ticket to go and have a look at their museum which is across the road underneath the shop, we didn't go but if I go again I'll definitely have a look as it seemed really interesting.

 

 

 

Next up we headed off the prince Edward theatre which was only a few stops on the Piccadilly line, one of the older of all the London Underground lines. We got off a Leicester Square and took the short walk from the station up to the theatre. The theatre itself is beautiful both on the outside and inside, with an Art Deco theming on the inside which coincides with when the theatre was constructed in the 1930's. There was a variey of merchandise available including mugs, t shirts, soft toys, keyrings, tote bags and a few other pieces. I restricted myself to just a few bits. 

Now to the main part of this post, the review! Overall I thought it was a fantastic show, it was a bit more like a pantomime than most of the west end shows that you'll see but I loved that aspect of it! The staging and the costumes were completely amazing, whoever designed the costumes deserves an award and whoever sewed on all those jewels and sequins also needs an award! The cave of wonders scene was completely mesmerising and was one of the best sets I've ever seen. The usual fantastic Alan Menken music was on offer and they managed to weave in the extra songs into the stage show seamlessly, proud of your boy is a beautiful song, it should definitely have been included in the animated movie. The majority of the cast were fantastic, I liked the replacement of Abu with Aladdins friends and feel like it was a good decision for the show, although the standout cast member was 1000% the Genie played by the fantastic Trevor Dion Nicholas. He literally stole the show and every time he came on stage he was loved by the whole audience, I won't spoil it but he makes some amazing Disney references. The 'Friend Like Me' scene was the highlight of the show for me and is definitely one of the best things I've seen on stage. Obviously 'A whole new world' was beautiful however I still have no idea how that magic carpet flew, it was as if it was actually flying and I think I'd rather not know to keep it a secret! Overall it was a great show and is definitely for the whole family! I'd highly suggest it to anyone remotely interested in going to see it!

If you have any questions about the show or travelling don't hesitate to message me either on here or Instagram. My Instagram is @shereallyisafunnugirl and I post there a lot more often than I do here.

TTFN

Lauren 

   

Irregular Choice X Cinderella

The newest collection released by Irregular Choice, a unique and innovative shoe/accessory brand was a Cinderella collection! The collections that Irregular choice have made previously to this one, in collaboration with Disney, are the Alice in Wonderland and the Stsr Wars collections. These are both amazing collections that are completely gorgeous but I decided that the Cinderella collection would contain the first Irregular Choice shoe I would be purchasing. Generally these are quite expensive purchases which is the main reason I've not gotten any pairs before but after seeing this collection being released I decided to save up for a pair. 

On release day I decided that I would go up into London to see if I could get a pair I store rather than online, I have weird feet (tmi) and my shoe size varies from brand to brand so I decided that my best bet at getting a pair of the shoes (that would fit) would be going in store. Originally I was going to go to the actual irregular choice store but intend I decided on going into Schuh once I saw they had the majority of the collection in store on passing, including the pair I wanted in particular. The staff in Schuh were lovely and couldn't do enough for me! I was able to try on a different pair of irregular Choice shoes to find out what my size would be and they even went to find out if they had my size in the new Cinderella collection which was lovely of them! If you're ever in Oxford street I highly recommend the Oxford Circus store. However I wasn't allowed to purchase my pair until 12 midday as it was a new collection.

The display they had in the window at Schuh was a lovely one and it is what initially let me know that they had the shoes in store as we passed by.

The pair I decided on getting was Lucifer & Gus which was actually my favourite pair, as much as I thought the heels were gorgeous too I am not one for walking in heels, or even standing in heels..so I decided a pair of flats was the best option! In my opinion these shoes are absolutely amazing, the detail on them is fantastic and the soles are even a work of art, I've been purchased a set of adhesives from Irregular Choice to stop them scuffing. These shoes were £115 which is a lot of money it they are amazing, I feel like I'm hooked now. I just want to stare at them all day! 

Did you manage to get anything from the collection? If so what did you get? Also if you like Irregular Choice what Disney Themed collection would you want to see next? I'm hoping for an Aristocats collection!

If you'd like to please follow me on Instagram @shereallyisafunnygirl for more frequent Disney themed posts! If you'd like to I also have a Disney themed Twitter @ADreamisawish96 

If you have any ideas or requests for blogposts please comment under this post or let me know on Instagram! 

TTFN 

Lauren 

Blog Relaunch!! - It's been a while...

Sooo...hello!

It has been over a year since I last made a post to my blog, I'm a person who isn't exactly the best at keeping to any sort of schedule and I get distracted easily, I'm a little bit like a magpie. Anything shiny and my attention is caught! When I first started this blog I had every intention of being a good blogger, posting weekly or once a fortnight was my goal but I just didn't have the motivation to do so.  I have made a total of 8 posts, excluding this one which is more of an 'oops' post than anything. They aren't the best although I promise I did try. From now on however I will try to make a proper effort and actually make posts that are somewhat interesting.

Since I last made a post my Instagram page has gained a much larger following than when I intitially made this blog and I have found that people seem to enjoy my Disney posts on there so I thought, 'maybe people will enjoy reading my rambling posts about Disney but just in longer paragraphs' so here we are.

Now I'm not sure if many people will be interested but if someone reads these I'll be happy! Hopefully I will start a proper schedule. I'm aiming for once a week either on a Sunday or a Monday, I'll try to make the content interesting and fun but I'm not sure what people want to read! If you have any suggestions of what you would enjoy reading on this blog then please don't hesitate to drop me a message either here or on Instagram.

If you are not here from my isntagram, Hello! You can follow me @shereallyisafunnygirl and I also have a twitter which is @ADreamisawish96

If you managed to read all of that, thank you and congratulations!

TTFN

Lauren

P.S I'm hoping to do an updated collection post of my Jim Shore pieces. My next post will hopefully be quite an exciting one as this Friday I am going to a rather exciting event!!