collections: disney pins

One week from today I'll be in Disney World! So I thought it would be fitting to make my Disney pins the next installment in my collections series :)

I only started collecting pins during my 2011 trip and only started trading last year so I'm still getting the hang of that. My brother has been collecting and trading since we went in 2002, but he's more into getting rare collectibles whereas I choose my pins purely for sentimental reasons.



My favorite Disney movie is 101 Dalmatians, so that's what I love collecting the most! I'm so torn about getting the Cruella pins, though. She's technically part of my favorite Disney film but at the same time I really hate her character. I mean, she wants to skin cute little puppies to make fur coats, for goodness sake! Can a villain get any worse than that?!

My favorite pin here is the one in the bottom right corner. I have a similar Christmas ornament too (I think it was released in 2011) and I just think it's so pretty! I love the one with Roger as well. Roger and Anita are sorely neglected when it comes to Disneyana, in my opinion.



I won't bring these to Disney World, but I also have a little collectible pin set that my mom got me for Christmas last year. I love the tin that they came in!



Beauty and the Beast would be my second favorite Disney animation so I had to have this 20th anniversary pin! Has anyone been to the Be Our Guest restaurant? I went last year and if you're a fan of Beauty and the Beast, you have to go! It's so magical!!

Mary Poppins is another movie that needs more representation -- I was so excited when I saw this pin! I also found a Mary Poppins stuffed animal (stuffed person?) at the Disney store in New York last winter but I'm thinking that was probably more for the Broadway show. I'm just going to pretend it's for the movie though.

Mulan is my fourth favorite Disney animation (I know I left out my third, I keep forgetting to get a Little Mermaid pin, but that will be rectified next week ;) Does anyone else get goosebumps when she climbs to the top of the pole during training and sends the arrow down? It gets me every time. And don't get me started on the scene when everyone bows to her! *shivers down spine* Love that movie!



I also love getting pins that represent my favorite places in the parks. My favorite attraction is Philharmagic. It's a 3D show that makes you feel like you're in movies like Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. You literally feel like you're flying over London and swimming under the sea, it's fantastic! And they have special effects too, like in the Fantasia scene when the mops walk in with buckets of water you can feel yourself getting splashed, and when Lumiere is singing "Be Our Guest" you can actually smell apple pie.

I also adore It's a Small World! It's such a happy ride, and the design is so fantastic. I think it's the ride I miss the most after my vacations are over, since it really represents how being in Disney World makes me feel. Just very, very happy.

And my favorite place to eat in Disney is Cosmic Ray's, so when I found this vinylmation pin version of the out-of-this-world nightclub singer Sonny Eclipse I HAD to get it.



Both of the times I've visited Disney World since I started pin collecting I've been there for the Christmas celebrations, so I bought pins to commemorate it :) This time I won't be visiting during any holidays but I like the idea of having one special pin for each trip, so I'll probably get one that says 2013.



And these were my first trades! I didn't end up finding any really special pins when I traded last year (none of my favorite films, characters or attractions) but now these are special to me just because they remind me of that particular vacation, and how fun it was to start trading!

collections: brooches

I thought it would be fun to share some of my collections here once in a while. Partially because, like I said in this post, I want to post more about my various interests, and partially because I just really, really like collections. I like having them, photographing them, lining them up, looking at them.. thinking about them.

I can remember in third grade we did some sort of project where we had to tell the class about something we collect, and I couldn't decide between my Disney VHS tapes, my pillows (I've always had a lot of pillows and apparently I used to consider them worthy of show-and-tell. Actually I still do. My pillows will probably be featured in a future installment of this series) or my Barbie dolls.

Now that I'm all grown up with no parental veto power over my desire to excessively collect a bunch of stupid things, I've acquired quite a few collections. One of my favorites is my brooch collection.



I started collecting brooches a year or two ago. I love being able to accessorize but I've never been a huge fan of necklaces or bracelets since I always feel the need to fuss with them. A brooch is a nice little non-invasive way of adding something special to an outfit. I used to have them tossed in a few containers on my dresser, but last week I found this dessert tray at Target (only $10! yay!) and knew it would be perfect to display my pins! I love that I can see them all at a glance and the chances of pricking my finger on one that mysteriously popped open is much slimmer now.

Here are some of my favorites!



The unicorn stick-pin was a gift from Solanah. The carousel is from modcloth. For Christmas I got one for me and one for my grandmom since we always used to ride the merry-go-round together when I was a kid :) I like to get her one carousel themed gift each year if I can.  The "Math is as Easy as Pi" pin is from amazon. That's my Pi Day pin! The Carl Sagan brooch is from The Science Boutique. I also have a glow-in-the-dark Marie Curie and a Nikola Tesla from them as well. The rainbow sweater clips and the dinosaur are both from my Sweet and Lovely shop. I'm so tempted to keep one of everything for myself ;) The constellation brooch is from Under the Shade of a Bonsai Tree (I'm a scorpio!) and lastly the cute little heart is a vintage find. I'm planning on wearing that one on Valentines Day (obviously.)



The I love Cats pin is from modcloth (although I think the amount of cat hair I have on all of my clothing advertises this fact without me having to spell it out lol) The kitty cats were a birthday present from Casey. The corn brooch was something I picked up when I had a pesky ear infection that wouldn't go away last summer. I was visiting the doctor so often I thought it would be a funny joke but nobody noticed. Oh well, I still thought it was funny :) The enamel flowers were lucky flea market finds (I love these so much but can't justify spending the $20+ people ask on etsy. I got mine for $1 each. woo!) The mod girl is one that I made from these wood cut-outs. I love this shop so much! I bought a couple other sets that I've turned into brooches too! And lastly the hot air balloon eraser brooch was a DIY on the blog last year! :)

Guest post: vintage book collecting by Andi B Goode

Hello readers of the wonderful Kate Gabrielle's blog! My name is Andi (of Andi B. Goode) and today I'd like to share part of one of my (many) collections with you...



I'm a collector of many things and I feel like I'm always finding something new (to me) to collect. One of my collections is vintage books. I've always loved the illustrations for book covers from the 1940s and 1950s but my collection started when my dad's stepfather passed away and I spent a night at his house – one of the things I loved was his small number of vintage hardback books with great dust jackets. So my dad let me take a few and I started scouring op-shops and other places for them. My interest has dwindled somewhat but I still love the collection that I have so I've taken some photos to share some of my favourites with you, today.



I don't always know a lot about the books or the authors (I admit I've not read most of these!) and it's just struck me that I ought to do some research.



I love the pretty pink colour of this dust jacket as well as the spindly sketchy style of the illustration.



As a lover of vintage fashion I also find them appealing for their depictions of the fashions of the era in which the books were published.




The cover for The Melody Lingers is definitely one of my favourites! I love the vibrant colours and that great hat. I also just love the way the spines of these books look against one another.




But as much as I love the dust jackets for the hardcover books, I am most definitely a paperback girl through and through (for new or secondhand books) – I love their size and there is something just as appealing about a cracked spine as there is a pristine novel.



One of my favourite things about collecting is being able to share my collections, so hopefully you've all enjoyed seeing part of my vintage book collection. And this post may just start me off on another book buying binge...

Day 15 - a collection

Day 01 — Your favorite song
Day 02 — Your favorite movie
Day 03 — Your favorite television program
Day 04 — Your favorite book
Day 05 — Your favorite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fiction book
Day 15 — A fanfic A collection
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy


I had no idea what to do for fanfic, so I changed it to a collection :)

When I was little I wanted to have glasses so desperately that I used to lie during my eye exams and say different letters than the ones that were being displayed on the chart. I guess the doctors always caught on or something, because I never got glasses. As recently as a few years ago I'd hope so badly when I showed up at the eye doctors that they'd tell me I was just a little less than 20/20 and could finally get some specs.

Thankfully fake glasses caught on during the last year or so, and I've been stocking up like mad. They're bound to go out of style soon, so I need to hoard them while I can. It's one accessory that I absolutely adore, and despite my earnest attempts at cheating for cheaters, I'm kind of glad that I can finally wear them AND still have 20/20. Very win-win.