SLEEPING BEAUTY PAPER DOLL SET FINAL PAGES

Posting the final three pages of the 1959 Sleeping Beauty paper doll set. 

Prince Phillips tunic seems more greek or roman than medieval.

My favorite scene while Aurora is singing Once Upon a Dream

In The Hunter our heros are almost home. Ewen and Janet have arrived in Sundrum (yes it is a real place) almost

http://www.flickriver.com/places/United+Kingdom/Scotland/Sundrum/

to Ayr. She has shown Ewen that she is very good at what she does, mainly a courier for the King.  I was trying to find out more about the early history of Sundrum but most of what I found is about the castle. I'm sure information is out there (goodness knows you can find pretty much anything on the web) I just don't know where to look for it or how to ask the question. There is a holiday park there (mobile home park) which appears to me like a very nice place to vacation judging by the photos on the net. In order to get to Sundrum they traveled through Airds Moss. Very desolate area that I wouldn't think has changed much since the 13th century. 

Airds Moss  Source: Wikipedia

The one thing I've always loved about books, historical or otherwise is how the author can transport a person to, not only a different century or planet, but a different part of the world. 

For me, the BEST part about modern technology and the computer age, is how you can actually see some of the places that are mentioned in books. I can't tell you how often I've traced a journey in one of the novels I've read. Although with Google Maps they have the routes marked out by modern vehicle, I try to take the route the characters in the books would take, often they didn't go by conventional road but across country, such as the journey of Ewen and Janet. I get to see things, thanks in a great part to the world wide web and to those who have actually been to the places in the books and have posted them on line, that I'd otherwise not be able to see. The only thing missing really is the sense of smell and touch. I would LOVE to travel to Great Britain, but if I EVER will see the home of my ancestors in my life time remains to be seen. I envy those who came before me, who could just decide to leave where they are living, hitch up a horse to a wagon and pull up roots only to establish themselves somewhere else. I can't even imagine all the walking that they had to do back in the day since not everyone had a horse and wagon in order to get from one place to another but had to rely on their feet to get them to their destination. I admire them. I don't think I could do it now. I get tired just walking a few blocks wanting my journey to be over as fast as possible. 

Found another Jane Arden in my collection for the 20th of November. This one from 1938. This one was printed with and without color. I was fortunate to find a color version of this one on Ebay though the photo isn't all that good you can get some idea of what colors her outfits are. I intend to do a black and white one and a easy-to-print color one. When they are done I will post them. 

11 20 1938

Til' next time................                                     ALOHA!!!

JANE ARDEN PAPER DOLL: JANE IN SICILY FROM NOV 19TH 1933

Here is a paper doll of Jane Arden from 1933. They did a whole series featuring her in different native costumes. I don't think I have the entire series though. I do, however, have Jane in France. That one appeared on the following Sunday which was the 26th. I will be posting it in 7 days, just as they did back then. So be patient, I promise I WILL post it then. 

11 19 1933

In The Hunter our trio has taken on the English that were following them but have become separated. When last we saw Kenneth he had to finish off three of the soldier while Ewen went after Lady Janet. Janet herself had to confront one of the soldiers and had wounded the bloke with her knife when Ewen came upon them and killed the bugger. The are now near the village of 

http://gd.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuingealach

Cuingealach where Ewen is hoping to get a horse so they can continue their trek to the coast, in order to catch a waiting ship to Dunstaffnage where the King is holding court.  When I first tired to look up the village I wasn't sure I had the write spelling since how things are spelled does change over the centuries. However, upon seeing a map of Scotland I do have the spelling right and the place still exists.  Looks to be pretty small and probably the same size it would have been back in the 13th Century. It also looks to be a very beautiful place to live, not to mention remote. 

In continuing with the Sleeping Beauty set, here are the covers and inside pocket for the dolls. I love the artwork on the inside of the cover. given modern technology, conceivably you could make the dolls into KISS ones using the inside cover for a backdrop. I don't know how to do it but I'm sure someone out there does. :)

Back

Inside front cover

Inside middle

Inside doll pocket

Inside back cover

As you have probably gathered the inside front and back covers are to store the clothes while the extra "balcony" pocket is to store the dolls. I absolutely love this set for the extra detail that went into it. Out of all the Disney films, I think, artistic wise, they broke the mold when they created the beautiful scenes and characters for it. I have yet to see a Disney animated film that compares to this one. All Disney films are wonderfully done, but Sleeping Beauty surpasses them all in my humble opinion.  I will be finishing up the final pages of the costumes for this set in my next posting. I still have to resize the other pages but I wanted to have something to post from the set this time around so, since the covers were already at the right size, I posted them instead. 

Til next time.......                                          ALOHA!!

SLEEPING BEAUTY CONTINUED

More costumes from the 1959 Sleeping Beauty set. 

I don't think medieval ladies would wear such a short dress. :)

This is one of my favorites out of the costumes in this set. I'd love to see this created in real life. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowther_Hills

In the novel The Hunter it's picked up pace a bit. Ewen and Kenneth Sutherland are on the run with Janet being pursued by English soldiers.  They've confronted the soldiers near the hills of Lowther while Janet took off running into the nearby forest.  I always like to look up the places mentioned in historical novels to get some idea of what the place looks like or may have looked like back in the day. In this case the Lowther Hills. According to the book it was covered by forest, which I have no doubt it once was and the battle between the two Highland Guardsmen and the English soldiers took place in a pass though the name of the pass wasn't mentioned. I did look up the Lowther hills and apparently the area is used for skiing during the winter months. It looks like a beautiful but desolate area. The region was probably quite impressive when covered in forest. 

Todays paper doll is another Boots from 1946 and again from the Mostly Paper Dolls Blogspot website. She really has quite an impressive collection of paper dolls from the newspaper. Last evening, after my modem went down (couldn't connect to anything that had video like Netflix or Youtube not even  Facebook would load) I took the time to organize some of my digitized paper doll collection. I can't believe how much I have on disk! Most of the paper doll sets I have were shared via e-mail and came from the collection of Bobe Green. Others were from Origami Bears, who also has an extensive collection. I just wish I'd made folders of where I got all the digitized paper dolls from so I can give each one credit when I eventually post them in this blog. 

11 18 1946

I really enjoy the movement in the Boots paper dolls. In my opinion it makes them very unique since most paper dolls are in a posed position while Boots is actually going somewhere. :) What I'd like to do with these paper dolls, as well as with the Katy Keenes that I have, is put together a set that features one doll and ALL the costumes that go with that particular figure. A herculean task in my opinion since there were quite a few costumes made over several years and compiling them all together to go with just the one pose is rather taunting. I'm attempting it though with my Katy Keene collection since I did have pretty much all (but one) of the old Katy Keene comics. Thank goodness for Photoshop though having so many layers makes the file HUGE but at least I can organize the outfits easier that way. 

Til' next time...........                                     ALOHA!!

SLEEPING BEAUTY CONTINUED...

Here are more clothes from the Sleeping Beauty set. 

I'm about half way through The Hunter by Monica McCarty. Ewen has, on the command of The Bruce, gone to retrieve Lady Janet from where she is hold up at Rutherford Priory after she'd been questioned by a Bishop in Berwick. One of the things I like about McCarty is that not only does she bring the medieval time period alive, but she uses real places and events, taking the reader back in time and dumping them in the thick of things. Life back then, even for a lady of quality, must've been very difficult. Yes, they had it better than the peasants, but they were at the whim of the men. They had to marry for political reasons and pretty much were under the command of either their Father or their Husband. Even widows, who had some freedom after their husbands were killed, still had to do as their monarch bid or suffer the consequences. I wish that Hollywood would read some of these books and bring them to life on screen. They do it with books like Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hobbit, why not books like the Highland Guard series? 

I found a Boots paper doll that mirrors today's date from 1946. I'm always looking for the color versions of the ones I have only in black and white. This one also came from the Mostly Paperdolls website. http://mostlypaperdolls.blogspot.com/

11 17 1946

Til' next time.....                                        ALOHA!!

MORE SLEEPING BEAUTY....

I was supposed to post more of these yesterday but with on thing or another didn't get around to it. So without further ado here are more clothes from the 1959 Sleeping Beauty paper doll set. 

I have to apologize for so many pages but in order to resize these I have to "cut them up" to make them easier to resize on the dolls in Photoshop.  I love the design of the clothes in this version of the set. My one objection is the blue floral gown, it is more renaissance than medieval. Very pretty to be sure but not in keeping with the medieval feel of the rest of the costumes. 

The Hunter is getting more interesting. Ewen has met Janet, or Sister Genna as he first knows her and isn't to happy when he finds out that she lied to him about being a nun. But it is war time and she's, for all intents and purposes a spy. And she doesn't know him that well. He finds out about her deception when he sees Janet's sister at a banquet. He's of the old school thinking that women belong in the "kitchen" so to speak and although that is pretty much the attitude in medieval times I would not be surprised if there were women who wanted to be free of men and their attitude toward them as delicate little flowers. At least in the nobility they were considered that way. The peasant class however was a totally different kettle of fish. Most women I'm sure were working along side their menfolk. They didn't have much choice really.  

I'm at the part of the novel where Ewen Lamont has gone in search of Janet after a friar, who was an informant, has been found dead and The Bruce has asked him to "bring her home". Ewen is not pleased to find out that Janet broke her promise to him not to not carry missives for The Bruce any more. 

Today's matching newspaper paper doll is a Boots from 1947. This one, however, was found on a webpage: http://mostlypaperdolls.blogspot.com/  I am on the lookout for the color version of this one. 

11 16 1947

Recently I thought I'd lost my folder of scanned and downloaded paper dolls but found, much to my delight, I'd moved them into another folder. Felt like such a dummy because it had upset me. I have a lot of paper dolls in that folder and to think I'd accidently deleted it was devastating. It's quite a collection from various sources, from e-mail, the web and my own collection and I'd accumulated quite an impressive collection of newspaper paper dolls for almost every month and day over several years which I'd intended to use in this blog.  When I couldn't find the folder I pretty much gave them up for "dead". Then, while looking for something to post a couple of days ago, I ran across the folder inside another folder. Talk about relief!! So now that I've found the folder you just might see more postings from me. :o)

Til' next time....                                           ALOHA!!

MALEFICENT

From the website Hero Complex

I recently saw Maleficent. And to be honest, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. It wasn't a bad film, far from it, it was very well made and I did like how they told the "true" story of the "evil fairy". I guess it is just that I've always had a soft spot for Disney's original Sleeping Beauty and their original Maleficent. And while this one is the backstory as to why Maleficent cursed Aurora I just couldn't get into it. Jolie made a lovely Maleficent and I did feel for her when Stephan betrayed her. I guess, for me though, the original Stephan just wasn't like the one portrayed in this film. He wasn't malicious and would even betray his friend in order to become King. In Disney's original version Stephan was to jovial. In this new imagining he's very dark and hell bent on destroying his former "love". And in the end their new imaging of true love's first kiss harkens to Frozen's version. Rather than that between a man and woman it is between a mother and daughter. Because that is what the film implies that

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Maleficent-(2014)-52.jpg

Maleficent ends up being Aurora's foster mother since the three good fairies are totally inept at looking after the child. I did like how they gave a nod to the original version when Phillip meets Aurora in the forest.  Also, part of my problem with the film, Maleficent knew where the princess was at all times. She became her "fairy godmother" watching over her and even meeting her when Aurora turned 15.  There was no searching for the Princess and no real "sleeping" in this version. She does fall asleep but briefly. And it's Maleficent who breaks her own curse. An interesting twist to the original story and in a way one that I did like. After all it isn't Aurora's fault what happened to her and it gives one perspective as to why Maleficent was "evil".  I would be extremely angry too if I was betrayed by someone I loved. In the end Maleficent, instead of being killed by Prince Phillip, is redeemed. Like I said, it wasn't a bad film and if I weren't so familiar with the original version of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, I would probably like it so much more than I did. Jolie did a WONDERFUL job as Maleficent.  I could almost picture her as the original Maleficent. My only objection in her performance was when she cursed Aurora with: "...In a sleep like death", rather than "She will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die!" For me the new line just doesn't carry as much weight as a curse like the former one does. I think they should have left the original curse in. But then in this age of political correctness and not offending any one perhaps it is better that they changed it. Oh yes, and one last thing, the good fairies, they changed their name from Flora, Fauna and Merryweather to Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistlewit and I wonder why they didn't just go with the original names? 

http://disney.wikia.com/

http://disney.wikia.com/

Although I do believe the newer version of the three good fairies are even more inept than the original three.  And another objection to the new version: when Maleficent curses Aurora; instead of one of the fairies stating that the curse would be broken by love's first kiss, it is Maleficent who states it. It just didn't seem right that Maleficent told how the curse could be broken, but then I suppose it is understandable since in the new reimagining of the fairy tale she isn't really evil but hurting from the betrayal of her friend. There is a difference. 
On to other news...I've finished The Recruit and am just starting on The Hunter about Ewen

Seton and Janet of Mar (Mary of Mars, from The Recruit, sister).  I just began the book where the reader is being introduced to Seton. Ewen is at a feast watching his drunken father making a fool of himself so not much is happening at this stage of the novel. 

I was able to find a paper doll for todays date in my collection. Another one that is from a photo but feel it came out decent enough to print. It's a Jane Arden from November 14th, 1937.  I am working on a black and white version and a recolored version of this one. What I'd like to do is try to get all the Jane Ardens with the same pose together with all the clothes that go with that particular doll but it's such a huge endeavor and taunting task that I've been shying away from attempting it. 

In keeping with todays topic of Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty, I thought

From imgarcade.com

I'd share one of my Sleeping Beauty paper doll sets.  I will probably not be able to post the entire set today so will continue posting tomorrow.  I haven't decided whether or not to sell my vintage Sleeping Beauty sets. As it is one of my FAVORITE Disney films I'm reluctant to part with any of the sets. This set was printed in 1959 and is one of my favorite sets.  The artwork on this set is simply stunning. Although Phillip doesn't look like the Phillip from the film I think he's one very handsome doll. :)  And Aurora really doesn't look like the Aurora that eventually appeared on celluloid so I suspect this set was created BEFORE the film was released. 

There are quite a few outfits in this set so I will continue with posting them over the next few days. For some reason when I originally scanned these I have the size of the clothes all off so I have to resize them so they'll fit the dolls.  I had thought about rescanning them but I wanted to post this today as I had the Jane Arden paper doll all ready to upload. I will post the beautiful tri-folder at the very end. 

'Til next time................................................ALOHA!!